Rain, rain, go away

Man the weather has just sucked this month. We're trying to get this pond thing done, but it wants to rain every other day if not every day. And when it's not raining, its freezing out. I feel so sorry for the fish in the basement. I want so badly to get them outside. The water temps in the big pond were only 54 degrees last night. I have to have another 10-15 degrees yet before I can get the fish outside. As I look at my records, I've had the basement fish outside on May 1st for the last 2 years. Not going to happen this year. I really wanted the tank empty by the time we went to the Koi Acres open house, just in case we bought a fish there that would need qt'd. But, the new pond will certainly not be done by then and at the rate we're going the other outside pond will still be too cold! So we wait for mother nature. Hopefully the April showers that bring May flowers will also leave with the month of April.

Despite their crowded conditions in the basement, the fish seem to be doing a lot better. The single fish I brought in earlier from the outside pond because it was starting to pine cone, seems to be all better. Thank goodness. All the fin and mouth rot is gone also. So, think we're on the mend. (Knock on Wood)The fish outside are already eating daily and seem to love the new Madafu. Between turkey hunting and pond construction Harry is keeping super busy.

Sat/Sun work on new pond

Oh, I'm so sore! Spent all Saturday and Sunday constructing the walls of the new pond. It looks huge for now. This is a picture from inside my kitchen window. It's made from 2x6 treated lumber that weighs a ton. Throw in the fact that most of it is below grade or near ground level and you are constantly bending and crawling around on the ground. This old body doesn't move like it used to. Up and down, up and down. And tiny rocks from the nearby walking path everywhere. On the upside, it was beautiful out. Temps in the 70s to near 80 degrees on Sunday. I actually fed my outdoor fish for the first time this season. They quickly gobbled up the Mandfu and Tomigoi I fed them. Easy does it, though. Their tummy's have been basically empty for 4 months. My largest Bekko was showing some severe signs of pineconning. So first thing Friday night we netted him out and set up a hospital tank in the basement for him. I'm slowly trying to warm him up in a little salted water. The temps in my outside pond still only read 48 degrees. I'm hoping with this weeks temps getting up to 60 every day, that maybe the pond will pickup a few degrees. The Bekko is the largest female I have, and I'd sure hate to loose her. QT is hard on them too, so am hoping the heat and salt will help her feel better. Debating on antibiotics, but need to get her temps up before that can even do her any good. The pineconning doesn't seem as bad today, but she's still very red, which is not good. You should see my basement. I've got one tub full of 20 shubunkins I'm holding for my 4-H fish club members, one 100 gallon tub for the Bekko, and the big pond for wintering over some of my koi. So,it's a regular maze down there. There is barely room to move between all the tanks. Without proper filtration, I'm doing manual water change outs every night to help maintain water quality. It's quite the operation. Just trying to keep everyone alive and well. Sure will be nice when everybody goes outside. Am so looking forward to the new pond. I'm excited. It's not coming along as planned though. After putting up the walls, I've realized there is so much fall between the house and garage, that my gravity fed filtration now has to be elevated. Not good. I'm going to have to have steps to get on top of it. Well, you'll see as it progresses. I thought it would be like maybe 2 foot high, but it's more like 3 foot. Not good at all! I'll keep you posted.

3 stitches already

The work continues. Today I came home and Harry had the rubber pulled out and had begun to shape the new pond by first taking out all the existing plant shelves. Last night we staked out the new dimensions and over the weekend we'll probably finish shaping out the pond edges to square it off. It will be 10 x 16 feet, I think and we're still debating on the depth. It will be at least 4 foot. My head wants to double that, but my good sense says, "no way can you handle that." Harry sustained his first injury, which he basically has shrugged off. 3 stitches he's not very proud of. He actually was using the saw to cut points on some stakes and the saw kicked back and caught him. He said he was just glad he still had a finger. Could have been worse, a lot worse! Looking forward to the weekend and getting a lot done.