Yes, we have a pond!  The heavy rains and snow melt followed the trench we had dug two weeks ago and we now have a pond.  The water has held this exact level for three days now with a constant small flow of water still entering via the ditch from the tile area that we opened up.  It was really neat yesterday when I was taking pictures two wood ducks circled in the trees until they realized that it had already frozen.  I think if we put tile in the ditch to direct the water we will have a constant source of water to maintain the level. With a shallow surface ditch to catch the run off when we have heavy rains and the water that enters from Hwy 50, we may be able to keep the pond open all year. 

A week after installing the new Boardwalk, we have two ponds.  On is still dry and the other is already wet.  Art Kitchen, with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, is working with us on a grant that he wrote for us. He had a contractor come out last week and they cleared and scraped the area east of the viewing tower.  This area hopefully will fill in with water with the spring rains and snow melt.  Last year there was a beautiful pond there complete with wood ducks. However, a six inch tile that we discovered emptied it as the south prairie dried up in late June. 

Another part of the grant was to push in the berm by the north wetland that had been dug as part of the tile work, perhaps 75 years ago.  While working in this area they went a bit further and pushed over all the buckthorn and we ended up with a beautiful wet pond.  As these areas fill and we find where the water is going to collect and run, we will install boardwalk sections in this area. 

Please come out as you can to assist with the work and keep telling your friends about participating financially as we will have lots of chains to buy and keep sharp as well as gas to buy for the chain saws. 

View photos of the pond work.