The Pond Project

In the midst of this drought, as Mike and I have been carefully conserving what little water is left in our rainwater-catchment barrels, we have been thinking about how we are going to integrate water into our homestead in the future. Somehow, this didn't really factor into our everyday thinking before now: water was just what came out when you turned on a faucet! But our land lies farther down our gravel road than that municipal water lines run, and we aren't entirely sure we want to pay the expense of ripping up the road, laying pipe and extending it to our house site. A 5,000 gallon cistern catching rainwater off of our roof seems like it would provide us with enough water for our household needs. However. We have watched (and helped) as our friends have kept wilty vegetables and vulnerable small trees alive this month with hoses and buckets, using thousands of gallons of water, and wondered where such back-up reserves would come from on our land. At the same time, our neighbors just finished having a pond dug, and as we got to talking to them about it, Mike came up with the idea of digging a pond on our land. It would be uphill from our envisioned orchard/ food forest site, and uphill from our main garden site, so that we could even gravity-feed water by underground pipe to those parts of the land. Though we hadn't budgeted this year for a pond, it makes sense to do it this summer, so that by next summer, it will be full enough to begin to use when we start planting trees!
       So, with the predicament of funding such a pond excavation on our minds, we consulted some friends who just created a crown-funding website for permaculture projects. They just launched the website, and were hopeful for more campaigns to have a strong start... and so we agreed to give it a go. If you have ever heard of Kickstarter, it is very similar idea-- you launch a campaign, you send out pleas for contributions, and if you make your goal then your project is a success! I never ever thought I would be actually launching such a campaign myself (being somewhat camera shy), but here I am, just having spent 12 hours putting together video and a proposal... asking you... to check it out and see what you think. The best part of the campaign to me is that as a thank you for different contribution levels, we send out gifts! And to a hand-made gift enthusiast such as myself, I would thoroughly enjoy making prints of my art, handmade spoons and frames and such and sending them out in gratitude for your support. So, if for no other reason than to see our land and Mike and I on camera... please check it out, like us on Facebook and pass on the word... www.wethetrees.com

Could this be our future pond? With a wing and a prayer...