Saturday 2 August 2014

Extremely Handsome Son George Digs A Dew Pond.

I shall tell you what a dew pond is, just in case you don't know. A dew pond is a rather large depression dug out of the ground which magically fills with water, in places where there is no natural source. What it does is, it collects dew and fog and if it is high enough up a hill it even collects clouds.

The usual place to find a dew pond is high up a hill near to the coast where there is lots of morning dew, but there are dew ponds on lower ground too. Dew ponds, according to the articles my Extremely Handsome Son George and I have been reading, also work in areas where there are plenty of trees providing a sheltered spot.

I could go on a bit about dew ponds and their magical ability to collect water where there is apparently none, but if you are interested in knowing more, you could read about them on the world wide web where knowledgeable persons expound knowledgeably on the subject.
Starting Off.
Anyway, Extremely Handsome Son George has decided to make a dew pond, and when he decides to do something he does it with great enthusiasm. The following pictures show about eight days work so far. I am astonished! All dug by hand, all by himself. I am not allowed to help. Not that I'm complaining. I estimate he has dug out twenty or thirty tons of clay and soil.

I did offer to hire in an excavator, but he was having none of it! This pleased me because I can't afford to go hiring excavators, but don't tell him that.

We don't actually need to be collecting dew. EHS George is making this one to provide a home for wildlife, specifically frogs and toads, whose habitats are disappearing around here at a rather alarming rate of knots, due to the greed of land grabbing developers and the need to house all the immigrants we welcome in such vast numbers to our small island. Hang on though! Maybe we will need to collect water? But I won't go into that. This is a happy blog post.
Mum comes to have a look.
The photo's showing EHS George's remarkable work are not necessarily in the correct order, but if I try to sort them out I shall probably lose the lot.

He still has a bit to go before the project is finished. I shall keep you updated on this.

I really hope after all the hard work that this dew pond works. However if it doesn't we can always put a liner in. It will work though.

















 Mia the German Shepherd loves having George home for the summer.






7 comments:


  1. I've never heard of a dew pond. It's fascinating, but it does indeed look like an enormous amount of work. I doubt if a dew pond would be successful here in West Texas, since all we have is dirt, dust, and drought. No moisture in sight - - except the sweat on my ravaged body.

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  2. It seems that Mia is all the assistance that EHS George needs. It is a big undertaking but he seems to have it in hand. I was just wondering how he was doing and here is a post about him.

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  3. What a super thing for him to be doing! I remember the dewponds on the Sussex downs when we were there on holiday when I was a girl and never thought to see one recreated.

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  4. Sounds like a magic trick- although it's really like a solar still in a way. I'm really interested in this project

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  5. We have a few dew ponds up on the downs. I think EHS is wonderful making this one, how many young men would even want to make one. You must have done something right bringing him up.
    Look forward to following the progress and hopefully some frogs etc.
    Good to get a post from you.
    Briony
    x

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  6. I am in central California and had never heard of a dew pond, but at this stage of drought we are ready to wring moisture from rocks and could use such good ideas as your Extremely Handsome (and handsomely named} Son has set his energies to. Surely, in our mad topography, there must be some regions where this method would work.!

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  7. That sure is a lot of digging that EHS has done for the dew pond. Hope he gets some wild life visitors.

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