Throwback Thursday

Me, Cousin Jimmy, baby sister Mary in Olcott, NY

I miss my pond.

Goliath has returned!

     I am enjoying the new look on my blog.  Several people have told me that they like it too. 

     I have two frogs in my pond.  Yes, the pond is still there since we haven’t a clue as to how we’re going to fill it in yet. 

     I was outside talking to my next door neighbor when he told me he heard my frog earlier.  I told him I accidentally discovered that I have two frogs. 

     I thought we only had the one until I was pulling aggressively growing mint from the little river between the waterfall and the pond.  I startled a familiar looking large bullfrog, and he was not the one I knew we had who  I could see sitting on a nearby rock.

     I am enjoying the frog songs.

     You all have a good one!

Goliath the bullfrog

More changes

 

 

 

 

      Sometime in the late 1980’s,  The Curmudgeon dug the hole for our pond.  He used a pick and shovel to do it. 

     It was summer, so my mother was visiting us.   She would sit outside, watch him work, and cheer him on.

     When we bought the liner, pumps, filters, and our lovely Pan fountain, Mother insisted on buying the waterfall.  She so looked forward to seeing the finished pond.

     We worked all summer to get it finished and before she left to go back to Texas, we had it done.  For years afterwards she loved to sit out by the pond and watch the fish.

     My baby sister loved to sit by the pond too.  When she visited we would spend as much time in the yard as we could.

     With the change of the water feature in our yard the memories of them enjoying my pond will not fade.  We’ll be creating new memories.

     You all have a good one!

 

Puttered in the garden…

     Yesterday I had a chance to putter about in the garden.  We had sun and it was warm enough that I didn’t need a jacket.  YES! 

     I was working on the pond, back washing the filters, and skimming crud from the river.  The Curmudgeon decided to join me.  He must have felt fairly good because he knelt beside the pond and with much groaning and moaning hauled Pan out and managed to fix the hose.  We now have a working fountain again. 

     I managed to clean the filters and clean out several of my pots.  I would love to have enough nice days to Spring clean all the gardens. 

     Once I get that done, I’ll be able to map out what I’d like to do for hard-scape and raised flower beds.  Keep your fingers crossed that we have several warm and dry days.

     You all have a good one!

 

My pond is already shaping up

     Does this mean that I shouldn’t think about filling it in and finding homes for my Koi yet?   I do know that last year I wasn’t able to keep up with the plants we had in there.  The one was over-growing everything both inside and outside the pond.  Do not get lizard tail plants unless you have a lot of room.

     We tore the lizard tail out and pulled the pot it was in out of the pond.  I’m hoping that’s the last I see of that plant.  It was while trimming it back in August when I had my heart attack.

     My Koi look happy and healthy.  The little black one is fast catching up in size to the others.  They are mooching food already the finny pigs.  This mild winter we had has them fully ready for warm weather food. 

     You all have a good one. 

Another peek into my garden

 

     It’s amazing how a dozen tadpoles can so cleverly disappear into the pond.  They hide so well it’s a rare thing for us to spot one.  I did spy one hiding in the river tonight.  I can’t wait for them to become frogs.  It’ll be a real treat to have green frogs living here instead of the bullfrogs we’ve had so often.

     G has a bullfrog in her pond.  He’s been there several years, probably because he’s not as dumb as ours were.  Ours went walk about and several were run over by cars in the alley between our house and the cemetery hunting grounds.  Hers stays in their yard, catches starlings, and completely grosses her out by leaving the dead birds floating in the pond.  He seems to enjoy the EEK factor with her.

     Our new Koi seems to be settling in well.  It’s going to take some time before he is as big as the six girls he swims with now.  I keep saying he because I am desperately hoping this one is a male.

     I still have a bunch of plants to get into the ground even though I have planted some every day so far.

They MADE me do it

 

     The expression heard often yesterday by my dear friends was, “Why did I let you drag me here?”   G, her husband, and I went off on a money-spending spree (for me, not for them).  They took me to a bulk goods store they love to go to and I went over board–there was so much there I wanted to bring home.  The spices alone (cheap!) made me go hog-wild.

     If that wasn’t bad enough we then stopped at our favorite garden shop where, once again, I managed to spend like a drunken sailor on shore leave.   As I piled more flowers on my cart, I said once again, “Why did you drag me here?”  As if, I went along with them kicking and screaming.  Yeah, sure I did.  They had to hog tie me to take me along.  Now about that swampland in Florida you wanted….

     Then we went to the pond shop.  (No, no, don’t make me go in there!)  Damn it, he had two black Koi…now he has one and so do I….  I found green frog tadpoles for the pond and yep, brought home a dozen of them.

     Next time they invite me to go along on a jaunt, DH should handcuff me to the desk.

I wonder, do Koi get the sniffles?

 

     It seems that pond heaters, when used hard in very cold weather, have a two-year lifespan.  I have to replace ours this winter.  It isn’t heating well.  Without a heater in the pond, our lovely Koi won’t last through the winter.  I was glad to find them on Amazon and ordered two so I had a spare just in case.

     So far, we’ve been lucky with the old heater managing to limp along.  The pond hasn’t frozen over completely yet.  Sunday we’re supposed to have a day in the fifties with rain.  However, the temperatures will take another dive after that.  I hope the old heater survives until the new ones arrive.

     I also hope the Koi stay healthy in the meantime.

There are no leaves in the yard

 

     AJ of AJ Wildflowers cleaned our yard today.  She did an outstanding job and I highly recommend her.  The pups had to go out twice while she worked and she was very sweet to them.  After a good butt and ear scratching from AJ, Patty has decided AJ is a friend for life and even showed off her stick ‘em up trick multiple times without a cookie reward.  Gavin too has nominated her for good friend award.  He enjoyed having his neck scratched and back rubbed.

     With all the leaves are gone I can pull the netting off the pond, clean the filters, and get it ready for winter.  The Koi will be pleased.

     I can’t tell you what a relief it is to see the yard cleared.  With all that is going on here, I didn’t have the heart or energy to do it this year.

     The next time the pups will see AJ is when there’s snow to clear from the walks.  We’ve already hired her for both our walks and the MIL’s.

Life is a laundry list of clichés

 

     A dear friend told me, “The writing will wait.”  Yes, it will but I do wish it didn’t have to.  However, now I am overwhelmed.

     The expression ‘time and tide wait for no man’ (or in my case, woman) comes to mind this week.  Hospital runs for his mother, doctor appointments for him, and a run to the vet for allergy meds for Gavin one day this week.  I feel as though I’ll never catch my breath.

     I look out in the yard and almost feel like crying over the amount of work that needs doing before winter hits us.  I am doing none of it this week.  The leaves are getting deeper.

     As of last night, we hired AJ to get rid of the ton o leaves.  (She’s the peach who cleans our walks in the winter.)  After that, maybe I can get to the pond to clean it and the filters and then to the garden plants that need digging up and taking in for the winter. 

     I thought I was going to be able to keep up with things this year as I did last year but luck has never been one of our strong suits.

Welcome to robin central

 

     As the robins prepare for their migration south, my yard has become robin central.  Every day there are literally hundreds of robins in our three trees, on the ground, in the birdbath, and at the pond all vying for their turn to drink and bathe. 

     The other day I somehow managed to stretch the netting over the pond on my own.  The idea was to keep more leaves from getting into the pond.  Mother Nature had other ideas.

     Fifteen minutes after I had the netting in place, a robin flapped around on the pond trapped under the netting.  I freed it by showing him an opening and with some coaxing.  He wasn’t thrilled with me.  I had visions of things to come.

     When I crawled out of bed today, DH told me, “I had to set five robins free this morning.”

     It took a minute or two for that to register in my coffee deprived brain.  “From where?”

     “The pond, they were under the netting.  I lifted the edges in a few places so they can get out on their own next time.”

     “Oh, crap.  I thought I had enough openings for the idiot birds.  If we still had bullfrogs the birds wouldn’t swarm all over the pond.”

     Oh, yeah we’re getting more tadpoles in the spring.

On leaky pond

 

 

     How does one find a leak in a pond?  I know we are losing water somewhere but I have no idea where.  It could be around the hose connected to the waterfall, the waterfall itself, or maybe in the liner.  Yikes! 

     We need to find it before winter.  This is going to be one of those (not) fun projects.  What I wouldn’t give to have a strong-backed weak-minded helper.  Nope, don’t have one of those—DH doesn’t count.  His back is weak, his balance sucks, and he’s sharp as a tack.

     It wouldn’t be so bad if the pond were spring fed but mine is hose fed and I have to pay the water bill.  Yikes!  Therefore, while we sit beside our lovely pond and enjoy its serene atmosphere I wonder how much water I’ll have to add by the end of each week.

     We have a month or two left to locate and fix the leak.  This means muscling big rocks and lifting a heavy pond liner always mindful of the fish, moving a cement and fiberglass waterfall to look beneath it, checking hoses…any volunteers?  I didn’t think so.