Spring has finally sprung. The septic has finally thawed, after 2 1/2 months of being only partly functional.

The winter was pretty harsh this year. We had a long, very cold, cold snap with no snow. Thats what froze the septic system. I heard the frost went 7' deep in some places.

Last summer the otters wiped out my mature fish in the ponds so all that remained were the fingerlings. Previously the fish had wintered over in my ponds for the last 8-9 years but not this year apparently. So far I havn't seen any young'uns but I have seen a few dead frogs at the bottom of the pond so things aren't too hopeful in that regard. I might have to restock.

There are two ponds. The main pond, the one that had the fish in it is approximately quanset shaped, approx 150' on the long side, and maybe 125' wide. Thats the back yard.

There is a driveway that seperates the main pond from the north pond. The main pond is landlocked and the overflow from the north pond feeds a tiny creek that flows across the road and feeds a larger creek, which in turn flows into the Wisconsin river about 3/4 mile away. I suspect the otters found my pond by following the main creek and discovered the tiny creek that flows from the north pond.

The other day I was on the driveway that seperates the two ponds and noticed some activity in the north pond. Upon closer inspection I saw it was two muskrats. They'd swim a little ways then the male would hump his mate on the run. They'd continue on and he'd mount her again, all the while swimming. They actually were swimming toward the car, then they ducked into what I take is a hole under the bank. Maybe they'll stick around. I hope they do.

Today the wood ducks stopped in for a spell. Thats an annual event. They stick around for a week or two before they move on.

Big surprise today, I was sitting in my chair, next to the window and I heard some Canadian gees making a racket. I looked out the window just in time to see them land in the main pond. They hung out on the island for quite a while. I'm hoping they were inspecting it as a nesting site.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2003

Answers

Wow what a picture you paint! Where do you live again John?

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2003

Bet he lives within 20 miles north or south of Wausau.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2003

Yer right Jay. I'm guessing you figured that out by the isp or from a previous post.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2003

Wasn't "hump on the run" a song by Willie Nelson? Maybe I was thinking of "muscrat love". Hmmmm.....

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2003

Just from this post. You said you got the Wisconsin lapping at your door , the geese nest in the river backwaters there and I am aware that the pcpros is now srictly a wausau lata isp from my cousins hookup.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2003

How deep are your ponds, John? Aren't they part of an old quarry system?

We have Canada Geese nesting back on the lake near us; they fly over to feed in the field across the road. It's really neat to watch them, as they fly over very low; just barely clearing the shed roof.

Pop always said that muskrats would ruin a dam by tunneling into it; but I don't know if that's fact or fiction. I do know that we don't see them very often around here; they've been trapped pretty near out of existance.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2003

When the water is high the ponds are maybe 7' deep in the deepest holes. They are part of an old, small, rotten granite quary. When we got the land the terrain looked like a moonscape, with the main pond being not much more than a big springfed shallow puddle.

I spent one summer on an excavator to enlarge and deepen the ponds but the excavator was kind of a beater with the bucket being pretty sloppy and the teeth pretty worn and dull, thus reducing its effectiveness with the granite.

Note I said rotten granite. This is mined differently than hard rock which usually requires blasting etc. They are usually quite deep but thats not the case with mine. Someday when I have some extra $$$ I hope to get a good excavator in here to deepen the ponds.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2003

Ahh, that's what confused me! I'm used to our rock quarries around here; they seem darn near bottomless. They told me that around here I would have to make one of those outdoor ponds at least 30" deep if I wanted fish to survive in it during the winter - I just looked at them - "Yeah, right; 30", that ought to do it." NOT. What are you, zone 3 up there? Seven feet of frost - Brrr!

What all do you run into your septic? Do you have zoning that requires certain things? We have a drain field here that isn't working as well as I'd like - water on top of the ground when the soil is damp already, like it is now, from rain. I guess I'm going to have to plant some reeds; cattails and the like, or maybe some daylillies, over the drain field. I'd like to re-plumb this place so that only the toilet water goes into our septic; and make a series of a bog and a couple of greywater ponds for the rest of the water - I can hear Pop yelling at the thought of it; he's just certain he's going to get West Nile virus from the rain barrel - and this with a little creek just back of the house, and the seep from the septic. Sheesh! I don't know how well a grey water system like that would work in the winter time tho; the one I'd like to base it on is described in Gaia's Garden, by Toby Hemenway; and is located in CA, so I'm not sure it would be transferable to a harsher climate. It doesn't use a holding tank; the water comes right from the drains into the bog and filters from there into the pond. I saw a greywater bog when I was over in KY last year that didn't look that difficult to build; but it was for a one person home and that person was very frugal with water; unlike us. Sigh.

BTW; What do they use rotten granite for? I don't think I'd ever heard of it before you were describing your place one time. Is it pretty common up where you are?

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2003

Rotten granite is widely used in Wisconsin, especially in the central and northern areas. No doubt because that is where it is easily obtainable. Probably least expensive up there too. It is a reddish- orangish color. It's used mainly for unpaved driveways, with a little for landscaping. Oh, I guess I should say that it's a kind of gravel, that probably makes it clearer. It does "lock" together fairly well and makes a pretty good gravel road.

There is even a little town in Wisconsin called Red Granite. And I've seen stretches of asphalt paving that looks rather red -- I don't know it for a fact, but I always figured that meant that the aggregate used was rotten granite.

Joy, also from Wisconsin ;-)

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2003

Joy pretty well described rotten granite. This area is supposedly one of the few places in the world where red granite is found. I've got several boulders around the pond that I pulled out while digging it and you can see why the term "rotten granite" is used. Each year you can peel a little more off the boulders, sometimes as much as a 1/2". Rotten granite packs real well. Thats why its often used as road bed material around here.

7' of frost is unusual. More typically its 3-4' deep, zone #4, about 30 miles south of zone #3, but this was an unusual winter because of the extended cold snap with no snow cover.

As this spring goes on it sure looks like the froggers took a big hit this winter. Hardly a one to be heard, not even peepers, tho there are some tadpoles in the ponds already.

Funny how things work out sometimes. I figured the frogs would get a chance to recover some of their territory because the bigger bass, who would eat the frogs that would dare to use the big pond, were munched by the otters, but no such luck I guess. I was out on the deck last night and heard only one frog. Dunno what kind he is actually. I call them the chucklers because thats what their call sounds like. Not even the toads which are in abundance normally. Last year parts of the pond bottom was literally covered with toad tads and so far this year not even one batch of eggs that I can see.

Wisconsin is a very regulated state as far as septic systems etc go. Ours is a conventional system, consisting of a septic tank and a drain field. As far as I know grey water systems are not permitted.

At the old place I started using one of those biological treatments. It was too little, too late for that particular system but when I opened the septic tank for the first time in over 30 years you could see that the stuff was working really well. A strong largish colony of bacteria had formed and had eaten thru a semi-solid layer of scum that was at least 1 1/2' thick. It had turned it into liquid. It just needed more time. Have you tried any of that stuff in your system? There are several brands and they all work as far as I know.

One of the biggest enemies of septic systems is grease and harsh chemicals like bleach. The grease will plug the drain fields up and the chemicals will kill off the beneficial bacteria that eat the grease.

I've seen a large grey water system several years ago. When I was a kid I lived in a trailer park for several years. There was a large pond behind the park and thats where the grey water went. The pond was loaded with life---cattails, numerous birds and game.

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2003

My sister-in-law had a drainfield all clogged up with lint. She is a maniac for washing clothes, and apparently they aren't committed to all natural fiber either. I don't think polyester fiber would ever "go away". At a former home, I had to discharge my washing machine waste water directly into a sink, so I would fit those lint catchers over the end of the discharge hose. Boy, did that fill up with lint. I wear mostly natural fibers, but I still don't think that I would like to have all that lint in my drainfield (on sewer here)!

I have also read that liquid laundry detergent is better than powder for septic tank/drainfield systems. Apparently all the powder detergents have some sort of filler in them to make them "granular" -- and this also adds to the clogging problem. Don't know that from experience though. Come to think of it, probably my sister-in-law was using powders too.

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2003

Wow, lint? Who woulda thought? My guess would be the bigger part of her problem would be with the laundry soap fillers. I never heard of the lint problem before but the fillers I have.

I had an amway presentation years ago and their claim to fame for SA- 8, their super duper laundry detergent, was that it was concentrated, without fillers. The fillers, they claimed were some kinda clay.

Maybe the lint made a a nice screen for the clay to collect to. It would work well for collecting grease too.

That would not be a good thing since the clay is more or less impermeable and the lint by itself would not be. Bacteria can eat the grease but not clay or the synthetic fibers.

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2003

We have the standard double chambered septic tank with leach field. The washer doesn't drain in to the septic, instead draining into the same tile that takes water from the the downspouts to the gully. Or used to take the water from the downspouts, until I unhooked them all and put rain barrels or diverters under/on them. I use only liquid detergents because powders won't dissolve in our water; even tho it's softened (which I also don't like!) Toilets, tub/showers and sinks go in to the septic. I'd like to move the tub/shower drains to a grey water system.

Our main problem is heavy clay soil; it just doesn't drain well; thus the standing water. The water doesn't look, or smell bad, but it's there. We probably shouldn't have had a leach field in the first place, but I didn't like the alternative septic any better, as it required chlorine tabs on a regular basis, plus used a fan to aerate the poo.

I know that I use too many chemicals - no bleach, but dishwasher detergent, plus some pretty harsh stuff (The Works) to get the iron algae stains off my fixtures. Wish I could find naturals that work with our lousy water, since we just hit year #10 since we signed up for "city water" and it ain't here yet. Wish even more that I could talk Hubs into investing in a cistern. Oh well. He is working on hooking the big tank I got from Neighbor Mike to the shed downspouts so that we can do laundry out in the shed with rainwater (and that grey water will be used on the perennial beds and the gardens). Maybe he'll see the difference. Maybe not. All I know is that the next house I build WILL have a cistern! And a grey water system. And composting toilets. And a root cellar. And....oh wait, this was about water, wasn't it? No, muskrats, that was what it was about!!

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2003