We FINALLY got some warm(er) weather here. The snow has melted back considerably, but still is well over boot tops in most of the yard. I thought I would trek back to the back and check things out:
This was the first surprize. Taken at the small overhead cover for the fire pit. The snow here is about 12 inches deep still. The shock was the water. The ground here (and over most of the rear yard as it turns out) has roughly 4 inches of water standing on it (under the snow).
This all goes into the pond of course. This is the highest the water has ever been in the pond in the 20 years we have lived here. At the time this photo was taken, the water level was about 4 inches below the maximum possible. So thats 4 inches less than the rear retaining earth bank that sepparates the yard from the creek behind us.
This is our smelting area. Looking closely around the block retaining wall, you can see the level of the normal work platform. In this image its at least 4 inches BELOW water level - even deeper at the side that normally stands up above the pond.Last year at this time the water level was at least 10 inches lower than this.
Now just after I took the images above, I shoveled off the roughly three feet of melting snow that was piled on our upper decks. Of course the gods take this as a sign that I'm weak and presumptuous, and almost always wham me with more snow. (The reason the image is blurred is snow in the air!). More importantly, all that water in the yard has continued to drain towards the pond. The last image was taken roughly 5 hours after the first. Latter in the afternoon the pond was closer to 2 inches below possible running over. Add another two inches to the level over the smelting area as well.
I fully expect when I go outside to check (after finishing this) that the pond will have started to wash over the rear bank. Night temperatures dropped here (its -6 C as I write at 8:20 AM) which may have slowed things. In past years, we have had the water table come to within 4 inches of the SURFACE. Already the water level below my raised wooden forge floor is at that height (and the ground is still pretty much frozen still) My main concern is that if the pond actually runs over the rear earth berm, the run off will cut into and erode that bank. The fast solution would be to install a length of drain pipe to channel the water off (I have some 4 inch plastic pipe). But of course the ground is frozen solid still...
Happy Spring
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