Notes on Infrastructure and Ponds

Notes on Infrastructures

Musings on Bad Decisions, but good Notes on Infrastructures.

I am not entirely sure why I am in a suit and drinking wine here. I must have been getting ready for or coming from an event and checking on the pond. The point is I noticed in the photo some notes on infrastructure and ponds that did not get covered in my systems integration pages.

Document It Or It Didn't Happen

If you look behind me you can see the green tarp that is covering and protecting both the biofilter infrastructure and the fountain for the pond. That is not in place this year. That is what caught my attention in this photo.

Urban Farmer, Gentleman Farmer, Ag scientist, Educator, and not good at detailed notes, but I can rock a suit. I am chagrinned that I missed this detail in my winterizing scheme this year, but there is a silver lining. We are retooling the pond this spring anyway.

Evolution and Disaster In Action

It has been very well documented that the design choices I made when we started building this pond were not optimized for the best aquatic ecology. I wanted a reservoir for water, we modified it to accommodate fish. But I didn't know what I didn't know.

The History of the Pondergeist

A few blogs that highlight the construction, history and collapses of the pond. Of all my ecologies here at Mezzacello Urban Farm, few have been as fraught with failure as the pond. While the livestock come in a close second.

From those failures, I will pivot and reconfigure both the topology, and the supporting infrastructure to create an actual integrated ecosystem, and not a quasi-ecosystem. There will be levels and zones, and specific plants and features that will attract and support tiers of life.

I of course will be documenting the whole affair. The plans are being drafted in CAD now and construction will start after the last frost. It will be muddy, and I will not be in a suit.