The weather radar showed a whole lot of rain headed straight this way in the evening and over night.  After dark and 40 degree weather raining  I took the tractor and pump down below the pond and hooked it up to the intake and discharge piping.  The heavy rain didn't materialize by 10 pm so I left the equipment in place and went home.  The next morning the radar showed another heavy broad patch of rain headed this way.  Waited all morning as all the rain passed just to the south.  Wasted effort...unhooked the pump and tractor and brought it home.  Pond is down over 2 feet. 

It's a shame that living in the city exposes our farm to theft of anything that isn't bolted down or poured in concrete.  Can't leave anything out or it will be gone in no time.  Last fall I left the pump (PTO on wheels) hooked up down at the pond for overhead watering of the new plants.  One morning I walked around the pond and saw the craziest thing...The 4 inch irrigation pipe leaving the pump had been crushed flat in 2 places...about the width of truck tracks.  Someone had driven across the dam and around the far side of the pond and tried to make off with my pump.  They backed over the pipe, crushing it, then couldn't get across the creek/ditch between them and the pump, so left emptyhanded.  As if growing strawberries does not enough challenges with weather, disease, and all the huge expenses, now I have to worry about equipment getting stolen at night!