After the driest, hottest summer for many years, there’s a lot to report. We had around 3 months with almost no rain at all, combined with unprecedented temperatures. The pond was more like a puddle.
The trees and shrubs were failing, as was the strength of the few volunteers who were valiantly lugging buckets of water around in ridiculous temperatures.
Something drastic was needed and thankfully Duxford Parish Council agreed to fund a borehole on the site. Careful negotiation and super quick service from Anglian Pumping Services meant that just 2 weeks after the decision, we had water on tap – it was nothing short of miraculous! We bought a generator (to work the underground pump) and 100m of hosepipe, and now we can water whenever we wish – what a difference 2 weeks made. For those that are interested, they hit water at 9m and drilled down to 20m.
Thanks to Russell Smith Farms, who once again topped up the pond for us (we have a limit on the amount of water we can draw without an abstraction licence).
Most of the goldfish have been caught and re-homed, but some remain and the goldfish lobby is fighting back, putting up signs that caused much hilarity – as well as a little hysteria – on social media!
Our orchard has produced some lovely fruit and hopefully next year the trees will be strong enough that we won’t need to remove so much of it.
The recent rain has helped us enormously and now we are fully prepared for the next dry season!