Rewilding My Lot

On July 5, 2025, the day after devastating floods in Kerr County, Seguin had its own flash flood event. I recorded 8.64 inches of rain in just four hours, which was a lot more water than my land could hold.

In addition to standing water that was present for a few hours, for the first time I witnessed the pond overflow.

In effect the pond was flushed with run-off water. Immediately after the flood event, the water was clearer than it had been before — since spring there has been significant algae in the pond, but this was temporarily reduced for a couple of weeks. Also, for several days there was a significant amount of foam on the water surface (foam seems to be an indicator of disturbance in my pond, e.g., after a rainfall or after topping up the water level with a hose). I had never seen this much foam on the pond.

Before the flood there had been a thriving (breeding) population of Western Mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis). However, after the flood, the few fish that I saw were dead. My conclusion is that fish were either flushed out of the pond, or that the major and sudden change in water chemistry killed them.

A month later I bought another 15 mosquitofish. I floated their bag in the skimmer area for 15 minutes to equilibrate their temperature, and then released them into the pond. They were still swimming around the next morning, so that was a good sign!

While I had the skimmer area uncovered I found this little toad hanging out. I may not have observed toad tadpoles reaching maturity myself, but apparently some of them have. I have seen a few other young ones in damp dark places in the garden, as well.