There’s a stream that runs through our property and into Wildcat Creek, close to where our bridge resides. Though the stream is officially nameless, we’ve always called it Phillips Creek, because it ran through the Phillip’s place; Belle’s Creek, because our neighbor’s dog loved to play in it; and Penn Creek, so named by the ODFW who showed up (without notice) to count fish one day. Whatever the name, the stream tended to cause flooding in the pasture in winter, so we put in a pond. How that was done is a blog for another day.
At first the pond dried out in summer, but once the beavers noticed it, they routed more of Phillips Creek so that it flowed into the pond year-round. We installed a bigger culvert along with a fence to keep the beavers from clogging it up, and had ourselves a nice pond we called Buddy’s Lake, after our beloved Swamp Puppy, Buddy.
We had seen pond turtles in various wetland areas on our property, but were amazed at how fast they discovered Buddy’s Lake. They first appeared on a log that we’d left out, sunning themselves in the spring chill. When that log began to sink, as logs are often prone to do, we decide to make turtle sofas.
Previously we milled up a few logs for various projects and had kept the sides for benches or whatever. So why not a turtle sofa? And to keep our sofas from sinking, we screwed on strips of rigid insulation we also had left over after building our house. The material isn’t toxic for the watershed.
After launching the first sofa, we noticed that it tended to hang out close to the shore where a turtle might feel vulnerable to land animals, especially the two-legged variety.
This turtle is game to try anything new!
So we tied an anchor to a rope attached to the sofa and tossed it out so the log would float more in the middle. We also roped the sofa to a tree on shore so we could haul it back in if need be. And, we added measuring sticks as a fun way to see how big the turtles were. A full grown pond turtle gets to be 6-7 inches long.
Jeep, Buddy’s predecessor, wonders why we threw such a big stick for him to fetch.
We added windjammers to a couple of sofas to help stabilize them. Probably not necessary unless you have beavers who like to knock them over and use for their dam.
This is a turtle favorite, probably because of the moss that has grown on it. Without the foam underneath, this old log would have sunk by now.
Six is not a crowd!
We’ve seen up to nine pond turtles at once on Buddy’s Lake. We’re happy that our turtle sofas are a preferred place for them to hang out. Or do whatever it is turtles do.
Wildcat Man 