Yesterday two bobcats descended on the cattail clogged pond at the Holy Vajrasana Temple. The pond had been dry since earlier in the year when we no longer received any runoff from the Sierras. This year we only got two fills. My kind and resourceful neighbors made sure we got as much water as was possible for the last one, as this pond helps maintain our water table, upon which all our wells depend. However, the pond could not hold that much water because of all the vegetation moving in. I was afraid that another season would see almost no capacity at all. Everything is so flat in most of Fresno County that you need water retention basins to hold excessive rainfall and sometimes those basins are maintained as ponds. The pond was beautiful when I arrived here in 2009. We had many beautiful koi who once gave a dance for the Buddha Master. I never saw them do this, but I am told they performed this way some time after the Buddha’s visit. We lost all of them with the big drought a few years ago. The pond never recovered. We used to have fish release here, which I am hoping to be able to have again next year.
The bobcat work was at an ideal time. The pond had received a light rain the day or so before and the soil was still moist. I watched the contractor and his son-in-law choreograph the operation. At times it was like ballet; at other times more of a jazz number, but it was very delightful to see such coordination and skill and how fast they worked. They still need to come back next week to clean up, maybe refine the shoreline so I can plant some shade trees and move it back from the road; relocate my road to the backyard; and create a place where we can build a model Hermit Meditation Cave, which, because of current building codes, can only be used for storage.
Add comment