The obvious solution for my turtle and tortoise pond dilemma was simple: hard plastic kiddie pools. They've been used uncountable times for this and similar situations, and for most people, they're the preferred option.

While they have some immediately obvious, and a few less obvious, problems, I still ended up trying this pond idea in a pen just to see how difficult the issues were to overcome.

Even though it was beyond "pool" weather for the year, I was able to track down some 3-foot round "dog washing pools" at Petco for $10 that were the right size and shape, even if they had a giant bone imprinted on the bottom. I probably seemed a little odd buying 12 of them, but they were almost out for the year and I wanted to be prepared if this was the best choice for all the ponds. If not, they would still be useful as temporary turtle and tortoise pens.

The first, and most obvious issue, is that kiddie pools have steep plastic sides made of hard plastic that would be difficult if not impossible for a box turtle to climb out of on its own. One suggested fix was to use rocks piled up in the pool to provide entrances and exits, and in the end this is what I did.

While finding enough of the right sized rocks for one pond was easy, it took no time at all to determine that I would be buying a truck full of rocks if I had to do this in 96 ponds. And while replacing the rocks with concrete was a solution, again I saw myself having to buy a truckload of concrete, as well as 96 kiddie pools at $10 each, and 96 drain plugs.

The second major issue was that it took four times as long to excavate all the dirt required to seat the pond in the ground, as it was substantially deeper and larger than the first pond. I did this with a shovel and a water hose. Again I used the auger to create a 3-4 gallon sump in the excavation, but as the pool holds 20 gallons of water or more, it takes a while to drain out.

Once in place the Gulf Coast Box Turtles used it, but the steep sides made it difficult for them to enter and exit. Often they had to splash around, frustrated, until they gained footing on the rocks. While I am still testing the kiddie pool as turtle pond, it is likely to get replaced over the winter. While this is a "workable" solution for one or two ponds, it doesn't scale well to my needs.

In part 3, I'll try another solution!