Pond In and I'm a Happy Bunny

We have installed the pond and the new filter system created specially for us by Cougar Coatings Waste Water Division. After much deliberation and heartache we found this company and they responded to my plea to let us have a solution to our duck pond.   They normally deal with industrial sized sewage plants but were very happy to answer any questions- however lame - I had about how to solve my problem. Now ducks are very messy creatures, they can turn perfectly clean fresh water into chocolate coloured muck in the space of 10 minutes. Its not their fault, its just that they dig in the soil and then they have to rinse their beaks and sinuses out and consequently all this muck ends up in the water.  They shake their beaks in the water and this flicks all around the water containers and turns the surrounds into a mud bath. Great for ducks, bad for chickens. Our pond was first installed with an Oase filtral 5000, a filter/pump which comes with a clear water guarantee. Doesnt work for ducks, nice clean koi yes maybe, but ducks, definitely no. Our pond is 470 litres and this pump is capable of 5000 litres per hour. Complete rubbish. We then purchased another external filter to filter the filter. Another complete waste of money. The filters were gummed up with feathers and duck grease in a week. Dirty water continued. Most of these fancy filter systems are all designed for Koi and Koi bear no resemblance to the problems caused by ducks. We have installed our new "mini" sewage treatment plant designed by Cougar utilising a Bio-Blok and nothing more exotic than an air pump and our dirty pond is clearing in 9 days. We can nearly see to the bottom of the pond, despite the ducks dabbling in it for the whole 9 days. We added a UVC to the outflow to kill the microbes and nasties that might still exist and hey presto. Healthy water and we haven't had to clean a stinking filter out yet.  If you have a pond problem and need a brilliant filter, you wont go far wrong by speaking to Cougar.  I have to say to Andy Gostling and Dave Ward at Cougar, that you are my heroes. A huge thank you.

Just Been Told Off

Naughty me, husband Keith has just read my blog and he has just picked holes in the fact that it seems to be me doing all the work.  He is at pains to point out that he actually does the bogtrotting morning run and not me. I am too busy getting myself off to work. There we go I have put the record straight and he is actually the sainted man I live with.

Ponds Made In Heaven

Following on from our rain saga.  The two holes mentioned below are now just one hole.  We filled in the old one (for the old pond) and we have now discovered that the new pond hole is brim full of water. It took us a while to think it through....why did we have this much water in a hole when the garden was only 6 inches underwater, surely we hadn't had 3 feet of water in a day or so. Hmmm. It then dawned on us that the new pond was in fact acting as a soakaway for all the surrounding gardens. We had done them all a favour and drained all their lawns nicely. Ours was still a bog and sucking water out of the surroundings like there was no tomorrow. However ducks will be ducks and they love it. A natural pond. There are some unmentionable floating bits in there, but hey ducks will be ducks and they will try to eat anything that floats, grows, moves - anything. The strange thing is that although they are splashing about in a chocolate coloured "pond" they are coming out lovely and clean. Not understanding the logic there because it is definitely not happening to me! The only thing we need now is an outbreak of Cholera in the back garden to put the tin hat on it. We have the landscape that resembles a third world flood disaster. Praying for some rain free days.

Rain Rain Go Away

Yet another gloriously wet, squalley, windy grim day. We have just bought a run for my garden girls from Gardenlife.biz which is excellent, but the garden is so wet we can't get into it to do some work. The duckies are having a ball though. There are no chickens around to bother them and the worms are turning our boggy garden ground into a duck banquet. Once the rain stops...if it ever does...we can clear the ground and put some sleepers down to act as a base for the run. It will also stop the soil that the chickens fling up when they dig from going onto my paving areas. These are not done yet so I am still doing the bogtrotting run in the morning, running round all the coops letting the girls out. The run has a full cover which can be rolled back so they can get some sun if indeed we do live on a planet which can take advantage of such a rarity. The cover will stop the rain turning their run into a quagmire on those days when they dont want to go out and get wet. Don't you think quagmire is a brilliant word? It fits what we have here at the moment perfectly.

Of Ponds and Puddles

I thought I would share a little of my misery with you all today.  The weather is still fowl. We now have two massive holes in the garden.  One from the old pond and one where the new pond is going. As the rain is still pouring down the garden now resembles one of those mud wrestling arena's (I would imagine). Walking past the new pond to get to the gate requires the sort of sure footedness of a mountain goat to get past it.  Of course we have put the soil out of the hole into a mound beside it, but in this weather it offers no grip whatsoever.  If you slip on the man-made land-slip, you end up in the large grave-like hole which beckons for the unwary. Mostly me. I am not happy. What I wouldn't give for a drought up north just at the moment.  Just long enough to be able to put the garden back together.....

If you want to make any comments to cheer me up click on the comments link below.

Slip Sliding Away

Today the weather was fowl....excuse the pun.  Really nice weather for ducks.  Talking of which, we have decided that the chickens need a run which is covered by the weather.  We have been plagued by mud for most of the winter and yet the poor chickens still don't seem to mind it.  Our current run is just about big enough for them to shelter from the rain but when it is muddy outside we like to keep them off the mud, but what do we do? We need to get a bigger run which is covered, that we can walk into without having to bend double and stop ourselves getting lynched by the various useful hooks screwed into the roof supports. Its bad enough most times but when you suddenly get cramp in your legs, there is definitely no getting out in a hurry unless you leave clumps of hair wrapped round these useful hooks and catch the middle of your back on the door. No more mud is our aim.  The bigger run ends just by the pond so this means we have to move the pond, or find some way of nimbly shimmying our way past it without falling in.  This is turning into a big job.  Today we decided that the next phase after shuffling the old run out of the way was to move the pond. Trying to dig a hole when the mud is sucking onto your wellies and the rain is seeping through your coat is no fun at all.  We got thoroughly wet through and hours later I am still cold.  The ducks loved the rain, no chickens to get in their way, and free access to all the worms that have foolishly tried to pop their heads above the soil.  Tomorrow there should be a hole big enough for the pond or maybe the husband.  Who knows?

Sons and Daughters of Blue



I have spent the last half an hour trying to cram 40 eggs into a 20 egg incubator.  These are to be the last vestiges of Blue our dear departed cockerel.  He is not actually RIP but off to sunny Widnes to enjoy life with his new harem of lovely hens. As I could not find any female Australorps anywhere to join with him, he has had to make-do with a choice of 20 or so exotic ladies in our garden.  He has mated with anything that moves actually and we have eggs from crosses of Australorp with Light Sussex, Brown Burford, Cotswold Legbar, Indian Game, and Welsh Black.  I have gotten together all my best egg layers of the bunch and put them in a bursting incubator which is using the equivalent of the national grid in electricity trying to keep the temperature and humidity stable.  This RCOM King Suro is definitely the dogs danglys.  There is never a broody hen when you need one!! I am looking forward to seeing what comes out. I shall call them Legalorps, Burfalorps amongst many other silly made-up names but a little bit of Blue will certainly live on in our garden.  I dont have the space that Jane does at Heswall Hills but I do love my hens.