Gee, it's a month later and the new pond still is not finished. At first it was competing with Turkey hunting season, then mushroom season... but now, Harry has been working all day on this for me. It's near finished but now comes a 3 day Memorial weekend and another halt in work. Can't really figure out why this is taking so long. Perhaps because there is no real plans. Everything is figure out as you go, so that means fifty trips to the store for materials. It has rained all day today, forcing Harry back into the garage, which is ok, cause now he'll spend a day putting together the filter pad cubes. An indoor job that we've been putting off for a rain day. Monday we put in 3 small sacrificial koi to check the water quality, as much of the water in the pond is the original water put in after the new liner was installed. I have not done a full water change on it. Anyway, Tuesday morning as I went out to work, I found 2 of the koi in the dirt along side of the pond! Both were still breathing! I quickly picked them up and washed them off a little and put them back into the pond. The only thing I can think of is in a black pond, maybe with the first daylight they wanted to swim towards the light. Fortunately for them, I was up going to work and they must of just tried their get away or they would be dried up toast on the ground. Today, they are still alive and haven't tried that trick again. But, I did buy a net, which I will be putting over the pond after I add the rest of the fish. With the water level a mere 3 inches below the edge it's a subject that has come up before in conversation. I'm hopeful they will stay put in the pond and we don't have any trapeze artist in the group.
The temps have still been pretty cool. Water temps were an all time high of 68 degrees last weekend. Fish have shown no sign of spawning. There were done, this time last year. Toads have been procreating, though. Hundreds of them! I netted out at least 30 pair a couple weeks ago, simply because I didn't want that many eggs in the pond. I have a lot of hostas and plants, though, so I like the toads. I welcome their kinship, just not in my pond.
We've been so busy trying to finish the pond that I haven't even taken the time to enjoy the other flowers in my gardens. The weeds have. They are enjoying themselves everywhere I look. Just finally got my tomatoes and peppers in. I still have flowers I bought sitting on the deck waiting to be planted. Still have tropicals in the basement with the fish that need brought out and planted. And, it's almost June!!! Going to be a short Summer. Feeling overwhelmed just writing this. I need a week off work, just to get caught up with my normal gardening. Got a long weekend coming, but are we going to stay home and get caught up? Nooo way! We're headed to southern Iowa to go fishing and camping all weekend. It's a family tradition. So, again, everything is on hold. Fish will wait till after the weekend to go into the pond as I want to be around to keep an eye on them when we do. In the mean time, we'll keep picking at it. We are close, so very, very close.
