Belly Acres - Home of Dennis, Donna and the Girls

About Belly Acres

"Belly Acres" is what my wife Donna and I call our little piece of property in the country where we live with our three dogs, Kiki, Leah and Dixie. When we first moved out here we had Lacey (she's the one in the basket in the top left photo above). We had to put her down in January of 2002 after 14 years due to seizures. After two weeks of coming home to an empty house, we adopted Kiki and Leah (sisters) as pups from the Shawano County Humane Society. They are German Shepherd/Austrailian Shepherd mix. Leah is the big white one on the right in the center photo above, that looks more like a German Shepherd. Kiki is the multi-colored brown one on the left in the photo above, that looks more like the Austrailian Shepherd. It wasn't long after we had the two sisters, that my wife missed having a small lap dog like Lacey. She found Keeli. Keeli is the one in the middle between Kiki and Leah. She was a 11 year old Bichon Frise that we adopted from the Brown County Humane Society. We didn't have her long before we had to put her down. She was apparently older than we had been led to believe and developed kidney problems. We really miss Lacey and Keeli. Now we have the latest addition, Dixie, a 4 year old cockapoo. She's the one on the far right. She was also adopted from a private rescue organization. She is very skiddish with loud noises and men in cover-alls. She gives the two big ones (they are 60-70 lbs. now) a run for their money.

Above is a partial aerial view of Belly Acres in 2002. This was one half of a 20 acre parcel. We purchased 10 acres in 2000 which had been used for soybean crops. Today, in 2005, over 600 pine, maple, ash, cedar and other varieties of trees have been planted from seeds, bare root seedlings or rescued transplants by my wife Donna and myself. We have nearly 4 acres of grass to mow, 3 acres are currently under plow for feed crops. We loaned to our neighbor across the highway so we wouldn't have to mow or maintain it. The rest (about two acres) is swamp, woods and a creek where the deer, turkeys and pheasant like to hide and play.

The pond which was dug for fill to make the 450' driveway from the highway is a little over a quarter of an acre hole in the ground 15' deep in the middle that filled with water. Over the last few years it took on a life of its own (with a little help). In 2001, I built a man made 6' high water fall powered by a sump pump. I added a 75 watt solar panel to power a large 12 volt aerator pump with two large air stones running out to the middle of the larger pond. I built a small dock to sit out on and enjoy the view. Later we had the pond enlarged using the dirt for a 10 foot high 150 foot long berm on the east side of the property and I built a foot bridge nearly 40 feet long for a path to the water falls. You can see the footing for the bridge in the photo above. I accidentally threw out a dozen small Koi and a couple varieties of goldfish from our fish tank and a couple of 150 gallon plastic outdoor ponds we originally started with one day because we had such a problem with algae and cleaning them almost weekly during the summer. They actually survived that winter in the big pond and the following spring they had bred and multiplied a hundred fold. Every year since we have a new batch of beautiful multi-colored baby fish. Currently estimating over 500 ornamental domestic Koi, several varieties of goldfish, Fan Tails, some Shibumkins, Red Comets and a very large snapping turtle.

It's quite a sight to watch the water boil and churn when we go down and feed them just before sunset. Every year though, we loose some to the local coons, hawks, cats and other wildlife in the area. It helps keep the population in check. Unfortunately, the birds like to sit on the solar panel and feast which tends to make a real mess (fish parts and all) and it cuts down on the panels output efficiency until I can get out there and clean it.

The Belly Acres Photo Gallery

Lacey's Photo Gallery

Dog's Photo Gallery

House Photo Gallery

Hobby Photo Gallery

My Radio Control Boats Photo Gallery

Family Photo Gallery

Gramp's (Sailor Jack) Photo Gallery

Misc. Photo Gallery

New Photo's (2001)

Belly Acres X10

In 2003 I setup 6 XCam2 wireless color remote control cameras and several X10 FloodCam wireless color camera and dual floodlights with motion sensors and other X10 security components around the property. Click on the link below to read more about the X10 setup and see the live video feeds from the cameras.

Belly Acres Web Cams

My Radio Controlled Boats

In late 2005 I began working on a 1:96 scale model of the Edmund Fitzgerald completely built from scratch. The finish model will be over 8 feet long and will be radio controlled with working lights, RADAR, ballast tank cargo hold running lights and much more detail. Below is the link to my RC Boats site where you can see some of the other boats I've built and follow the progress on the 'Fitz'.

RC Boat Collection

Belly Acres Weather Station

In 2005 I setup a Lacrosse WS2310 Weather Station to collect weather data from our location in the country. Below are links to my weather sites where the data is published along with a link to our weather cam.