Pond Management sounds like a “dry “topic, doesn’t it? A seminar you might be asked to attend if you worked for the conservation department, right? I was invited to teach that class this spring when the Buchheit family offered a free seminar to its customers.
I was happily surprised at all the research and protocols that were a part of proper pond management. As I studied to get up to speed on the mountain of materials I had to digest, I became grateful for the opportunity to share on this subject. I understood why it was important for Buchheit to invest their time and funds into offering a seminar that would help pond and lake owners make the best management decisions for the life of not only their ponds but for all the fish and fauna within them.
Today I am going to reminisce a bit. The people alone are worth the long drive to reach the secluded location. Behind locked gates, lies an oasis of summertime pleasure. The kids will get out the paddle boat and the canoes and jump off the dock into the ice cold water. Later, when they are finally done swimming, everyone will sit and fish off the banks and barges of the five acre lake. The wise old couple that has owned this piece of paradise has been amazing in their ability to look towards the next generations that will enjoy this treasure.
I don’t intend to discuss pond management. What I want to focus on is the lasting results that happen when you use good management practices on the farm and homestead. Many good plans cannot be accomplished overnight or even in a single year. Not all of us are visionaries who can look into the future and see how a project or a management decision will affect the big picture. It can sometimes pay off to find an advisor who can help if you lack those skills.
A wise proverb states, “There is wisdom in a multiple of counselors.” Sometimes it helps to ask for another opinion before you start a renovation or before you fire up the bulldozer to take out that line of trees. Other times we need to just get going and tackle that project that seems to never end, like our new homestead that is now in the second year of work. Never have we taken so long on a house but it is a labor of love and I know that all the foundational projects will pay off in lasting dividends.
Jim is standing by some of the porch posts that he took the time to restore after hand-pouring new concrete upon which the posts now rest. Each post was hand sanded and filled with special wood putty we found at Buchheit along with an excellent exterior primer that will help these original posts last another 100 years. You can barely see the old-fashioned tuck-pointing around the bricks and concrete but he did an amazing job with that soon-to-be-lost-art also.
It all goes back to homestead and farming management skills. Jim is a visionary who will save this old house for the next generations just as our dear neighbors have kept their lake-grounds for future generations. Good management is priceless and a charge we are called to if we are to be good stewards of our properties. So the next time you are in that tree-stand or pulling a bass out of a farm pond, please be thankful for someone’s gift of good management. How can you improve this skill set? Go find a successful retired farmer and get him talking then listen. Be blessed! I have to get to the new homestead; I am taking my boys lunch! Anne May
