Canadian Pond Newsletter April 2005 Issue: 5 Vol: 1
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We have been busy with spring's arrival preparing for the pond season and with the addition of our solar aeration systems are seeing more and more interested people speaking to us about their ponds. We are also making some changes to our website to make it easier to navigate. Please send us your comments so we can make the site as easy to get through as possible. With all this action here at the office we've been too busy to put together any meanignful articles for the newsletter so we are happy to have one of our friends and clients agree to share his pond story with us. If you have a pond and would like to write about your pond and have your pictures published in our newsletter please send them to David at dmilligan@canadianpond.ca



OUR POND STORY
by Jean-Guy Hurtubise

From education to cash crops and fish farming...
Upon my retirement from the field of educational administration back in 1996, my wife and I moved from the city to a rural area in Eastern Ontario. We purchased a 50 acre hobby farm where we knew we could exchange the hubbub of the capital, it's noise, traffic and congestion, for nature, open space and peacefulness.

Our 3 year search yielded a property that would permit us to pursue our passions for farming and horticulture. Little did we know at that time that an existing pond, resulting from the original owner's need for backfill and top soil, would provide us with the opportunity to raise fish.





Our first few years "on the farm" were spent refurbishing the house, improving the landscape, clearing and draining some 40 acres of tillable land. Our 2004 crop consisted of a cool 51 tons of soybean. Now that we have mastered some of the fundamentals of growing corn and soybean, we seek new challenges as we try our hand at fish farming. The original pond was approximately 90 feet by 180 feet with an average depth of 10 feet. Year-round overflow flooding of an adjoining field meant it was, in all probability, bottom spring fed. The previously removed topsoil had left gaping holes in the landscape and was an invitation to expand the pond. With a brother-in-law in the excavation business as a further inducement, we decided to double the pond area.




Our layout was somewhat influenced by the existing landscape. We proceeded to dig a separate basin of 80 feet by 120 feet. The two basins were then joined by a 30 feet by 110 feet canal. After some erosion, the excavation depth of 8 feet decreased to 6 feet. I am assuming that the perpendicular clay side walls have softened and the resulting silt has gone to the bottom.




This coming spring, we will be installing a windmill and related paraphernalia to aerate the water and create a healthy environment for a species of fish we have not yet identified due to lack of knowledge in that area. We will be relying on the expertise of people at www.canadianpond.ca and suggestions from anyone who wishes to share them by e-mail at jghur@sprint.ca.