Roy and I just love water. We love it so much that we contemplated living on a boat for a while. Plans and dreams that change with practical decisions, like what would I do with all my stuff? I love to sit on the beach and just let all my fears and worries go away with the tide. Listening to the water hit the shore is so soothing to me.  It’s where I feel one with Spirit.

Our homestead has a beautiful pond. When we moved here in March 2016, it was over flowing. The ground was so wet you had to wear your rubbers down there, Roy couldn’t mow either. The mud was thick and deep. We knew we had fish in the pond but we didn’t know how many or what kind. We also have added turtles to the pond. As we would be driving around there would be turtles crossing the road, so we would pick them up and bring them here. Most of the folks around here, just run them over. They do not take into consideration to how long it took that turtle to get that big. They think of them as pests that eat the fish.  Like they could have caught that fish anyway.

Every night at 6:30 we go down and feed the fish and turtles. By June we had about 20 large catfish and some blue gill.  We had about 10 turtles coming for dinner every night.  We add the blue stuff to color the pond and the clear to help eat all the dead vegetation.

In July we went to Ireland for 3 weeks and most of the turtles up and left us. We have maybe 3 left. But we still had all the catfish and they always made feeding time fun.  Bubba our big turtle stayed and he would fight the catfish for the food. 129 (I found him on HWY 129) left for better feeding grounds or maybe a girl.

In August we were getting really bad algae, so we put in some algaecide to help the situation. We lost all but 1 catfish and we acquired 2 Florida leatherback turtles. They are so ugly. They look like alligators in the water with their beady eyes. The blue gills are thriving and all our babies are doing well and there are lots of those. Bubba made it through the low oxygen.  He still comes for dinner at 6:30.

Our pond is really, really low. We have needed rain for months. We have lost about 3 feet due to evaporation. We have had two hurricanes we were hoping would help with the water situation but to no avail.

We also have some wetland on the north and eastside of the homestead. There is still water in there but I worry about it because we have a beaver living in there and Roy saw an otter also.  We have never seen the beaver but the trees keep getting cut down and they have beaver teeth marks. We also had a beaver dam that Roy kept knocking down everyday and they would build it every night. Roy finally gave in and said ok stay, I support your efforts. The county when they were making sure the ditches were ready for the hurricane accidentally closed the water pipe that goes under the road to drain the beaver wetlands. So the beaver has got it made this year, no dam building.  I want to see him but when I go down there, there is no sight of him. I have heard a “sploosh” when I have gotten near that part of the homestead.

We love our pond and wetlands. Roy says it’s our little experiment and work in progress.  We have the rest of our lives to figure out what works best for our animals, fish and reptiles.  We are a sanctuary for most living creatures. Snakes, mice and moles are not welcome. We also do not want any bark beatles or tree destroying bugs.

I would love to see deer on our property, especially since deer season is approaching. They are always welcome to hide here at Close Quarters.

I hope everyone had a great week and that the weekend is beautiful whereever you are.

Kelly