It is amazing to see what nature can do. You can create an entirely new ecosystem just by adding water. My son-in-law, Jacob, brought home an old swimming pool cover and laid it out in a natural recess on their property. He filled it up with the hose and left it. The rains came and filled it more and sometimes it laps over the edges of the trees he transplanted around it. Toads sing and hop around, antelope come softly at dawn to drink from the water, and birds swirl around their land and gardens, eating up insects. My daughter, Shyanne, showed me yesterday how lilies are popping up in and around the pond. Baby cottonwoods and a poplar are beginning to set their roots into the sand. They live on the dry prairie, so how did the trees and lilies get there and set themselves by the water? I’m sure Mother Nature uses all types of ways to rebuild, birds and wind, and with the help of a few humans and a tarp, will create a lush ecoscape in the middle of the high desert.

We are planning out our permaculture-style homestead, slowly implementing the design. We are planning a small pond, but in the meantime, we bought a small, oval livestock waterer. We put in a flat cement block and some stones to prevent drownings. I filled it with water and set up my wildlife camera near it.

I have been greatly increasing the bird population here just by putting out feeders. We have a small bird bath, but once we put out the mini-pond, something amazing happened. Hundreds of finches have gathered in our yard, scooping up the epic number of grasshoppers and filling the little homestead with song. Hummingbirds and honeybees are pollinating the late crops, and wildlife visit every evening and throughout the night. Imagine what a pond will do!

We are restoring our land and creating a lush oasis without ANY chemicals and an important part of that goal is to add water. Watching three baby raccoons treat it like it’s a swimming pool? Even better!