Digging out...

Well, temps are in the teens today and it feels a whole lot better. Not like anything is thawing out or anything but at least the wind is not cutting through you like a knife. Harry was kind enough to go out and shovel off the pond on Saturday. It was only around 0 out, but he claimed it was "nice out." He slipped on his jacket and fingerless gloves and was almost completely done, by the time I got out there with my 20 layers of clothing! I waddled out to the pond through the snow and dropped a dose of my bi-monthly bug juice into one of 3 teeny tiny holes still open in the ice. I also took out a thermometer to drop down to the bottom to get a temperature read. In the time it took me to walk to the pond it already read the ambient air as around 0. I dropped it to the bottom and patiently waited for it to react. I brought it up from a depth of about 2 1/2-3 feet, which was the bottom of the stream were my fish have been sitting under the inner tube light. It read right at 32 degrees. Harry said, "Well we know water freezes at 32 so the thermometer has to be off." I know that is true (unless there is salt present in the water) Salt in a winter pond will actually allow the water to get colder before it freezes. I keep no salt in my winter pond. So, I'm hoping he's right, cause again my KHA teaching say Koi can only tolerate temps to 35 before they begin to be really stressed. The warmest, denses water (39 degrees) should be on the bottom and the heat from the ground should hold it there. Again, I run on kind of a blind faith, hoping all will be OK. The aerator hole is down to a tiny 3 inch hole, but the ice around that area is softer and I broke through as I stepped off the ice just in time. The cord attached to the thermometer instantly froze so I could wave the thermometer out in front of me like some sort of weather vane. It was funny to look at, and made me crack a smile. (It's hard to find something to laugh about in this cold weather, we're all starting to get a little house bugging from staying inside too much.) I checked my plumbing pipes inside the unheated pump house and all was dry. I've had reports of broken pond pipes already with the extended cold. What a night mare that can be.