After posting this video on Facebook yesterday, I’ve had lots of questions about our pond. My favorite one is “Did you look to buy waterfront property?” 😂 I know what you meant, Carol, but I got such a kick out of this as I’m not sure our little pond qualifies us as waterfront. But don’t tell the taxman.

We got our first ducks – Pekins – in 2011.

By 2012 I was dreaming of a small duck pond. Paul said that’s something we could do – and he has a tractor for excavation. We researched how to install a pond and read about pond liners. Our soil is heavy clay. Given the cost of a pond liner, we decided to excavate and see what happened.

The area behind the duckie pool in the above photo is the wooded area we cleared for the pond.

We marked the area out with flags, and Paul went to work.

After the first day of excavation, the pond was 18″ deep.

Little by little he worked at it moving a lot of dirt.

The first day of rain after excavation gave us a bit of a mud puddle.

The second day of rain made it look more like a pond.

Paul kept working at it, making it deeper.

Just a few weeks after beginning construction, there was enough water to launch the ducks.

Another rainstorm and the pond was almost full.

Each winter the pond freezes.

Sometimes earlier than others.

As a youngster, Hannah worked to keep the pond ice free as long as possible for her ducks.

Ice out in the spring happens between late March and mid-April.

The pond has provided fun in so many different ways.

The first spring after installing the pond, it was clear we’d created a new ecosystem. We’d never before had this much night music.

It’s been 11 years with the duck pond and our duck friends have come and gone.

We’ve had some notable visitors over the years.

Some of my happiest times have been sitting around the pond.

It’s run low during dry years, but has held up over time without a big investment on our part. The pond is such a focal point of our home and it’s brought us lots of joy.