An Outdoorsman’s Journal:

Hello friends, This week’s column is dedicated to Michelle Chiaro, who was the queen of my world and passed away on June 15, 2022. In March of 2023, I was sitting at my desk and looking out my window when I noticed that my swimming pool had literally disintegrated. I had a swimming pool for 25 years and knew I would have to get another one.

Within one week of the pool’s demise, I had a brainstorm, and that was to put in a pond with a liner where the pool was and literally 40 feet from my front door. When I made this decision, Michelle, who loved the pool and anything to do with water, had only been gone for nine months and I was in a serious depression that very few people actually knew about. The project that I was about to start would be and still is the most physical challenge and time taker of my life.

First, a good friend dug it out with a skid steer and a backhoe. Next I contacted the good people at Aquatic Biologists out of Fond du Lac and that is where I started my real education. I was told three times to go deeper and bigger, and in the end, I had a 14-foot hole and soon ordered my liner, which is key to keeping water at ground level in sand country. The deeper, bigger theory is key to a healthy pond for oxygen and water quality.

I also learned about the importance of building shelves with a shovel in my hole in the ground, with the first one being near the bottom, two more at about 6 feet and 10 feet, and one on the top. The shelves are both habitat makers and, because I have such a steep pitch, help to keep the 6 inches of sand that I had to hand shovel on the entire pond from sliding down to the bottom.

So, ever since Michelle passed away, there has not been one night where I came into the house and hung out. I get too depressed, plus I am hyper, so what I did for 360 man-hours last summer was slowly fill my pond, build shelves, have a campfire and dream big dreams about fish, frogs, ice skating, etc. and what I would name my pond. I settled on Lake Matilda, with Matilda being Michelle’s nickname I gave her. All of the time spent working on the pond actually helped me to get better.

Last August I had a liner installing party, which took 12 people to literally spread the liner from end to end and is a very critical process. I slowly filled the pond with a hose, but often had to stop so I could keep up with throwing sand and building shelves. Last winter I purchased a new pair of ice skates, put some lights on my “beach,” and started skating again and loved it.

This spring when my sand piles thawed, I started building up my shorelines and putting top soil from what was my yard on the top of the sand and planting both vegetation in and out of the water. I

also used my chainsaw and cut all the bushes in front of my house and placed them about 15 feet apart for habitat for insects, minnows, frogs and fish.

I obtained a permit and stocked 24 pounds of fatheads and several bluegill that literally just finished spawning. When I return home from my annual trip to Canada, I will host the four kids that I helped raise for a picnic and party, as Travis is getting married that week. The following week, Michelle’s daughters Kai and Sophie, who just graduated from high school, are coming to stay with me and they are really excited to see their friends from Necedah, as after Michelle’s passing they moved to California. Lake Matilda, like so many things in my life, gobbles up every spare moment of my time and much of my thought.

Had the pond idea not come along, I would be in a much worse place than I am now!

Sunset

Mark Walters