Merry Christmas, everyone!

December already, man where does time go? I've been running around trying to do a little Christmas shopping. Even turned on some Christmas music for the first time today. The outside pond is totally froze over, now. Except for my small hole that is. Suppose to get below zero for the first time this weekend also. I hate this time of the year outside in the ponds. Again, the fish are under the ice. Away for their long winter nap. I know its not the most ideal situation to leave fish outside, but until I figure out a way to limit my compulsions for too many fish, the inside pond will only hold so many. We brought in fish in late October, so almost been 2 full months already for the inside fish. I was already having some ulcer issues late last fall, which made me bring in more fish than my inside pond should be holding. Since October, I have treated with Proform C and Prazi on all the inside fish. Trying to make sure they are clean. I've feed medicated food for about a month but now on regular food. I am also presently treating with Nitrofuracin Green. Its an antibacterial, antifungus water treatment. I still have several fish with ulcers that are not healing. A few have minor fin and mouth sores also. Since I use a flow through or constant water drip, I've been pretty much able to maintain water quality. Only low levels of both ammonia and nitrites. But still, probably enough to keep a little stress on the fish. Water temps in the pond are probably my biggest problem. Even being inside, 70 is about as high as I can get the water temp. And, that is probably 5-10 degrees too cold. And, probably why the ulcers won't clear. I have lost 3 fish since bringing them in. Which didn't surprise me, but makes me sad and angry both. I still have at least 4 months to go! It's going to be a long and hard winter. I don't know what else now to do. There is just no where else to put the fish. I know they are overcrowded, but got to work with what I have. So am just praying everything I do is enough. To be continued.... Have a merry Christmas everybody. Hope to see you soon.

Brrr....

Brrr. All life in the garden has been snuffed out, including the nasturtium, which truly redeemed itself by clinging on to the better end. Apart from a couple of roses and a late blooming black eyed susan, it was the only thing left in the garden with a bloom on it. I have spent the last two weekends cutting, digging and pulling out dead plants. I know you are suppose to let some of them stay for "winter interest", but over the years I've learnt that that only leads to more work in the spring, which I never have time for. So I now cut out as much as weather will permit. I haul it to the roadside and make giant heaps of dead plants. I'm sure I'm the main contributor to our city yard waste pile as Harry hauls dead plants, weeds, and overgrown plants there constantly for me. I've been picking up bulbs again at Menards. Every fall I'll at least throw a few in at the end of the season. The squirrels will dig up all my tulip bulbs, so I tend to stick with daffodils and other spring bloomers.
The outside fish are stacking up like cord wood along the west end of the pond. Not eating and barely moving already. Water temps are at about 47 degrees already. They looked up at me as if to say "What the heck is going on? " "It's COLD down here!!" It just seems too soon to just quit feeding and start to ignore them for the winter. No ice on the water yet as the weather continues be be slightly above normal. The later the better.. I tried to tell them it was hurting me as much as them, but they only looked away in disbelief. I felt like a traitor.

Mid October

Mid October and no hard frost. The garden is beginning to look a little sad. I spent the entire weekend cutting out spent flowers, picking up some of my garden ornaments, and raking leaves. My aging muscles ached last night before I was done. Pond temps are in the mid 50's. I still haven't dug up any of the bulbs yet and 2 of my elephant ears still seem to be holding on despite the cool nights. Everything else has already been brought inside and put under the lights in the basement. Harry is off bow hunting, so I've begun simply stacking my garden ornaments in one place beside the garage. He hates having to find places for all my "junk" every winter. With only 1 small garage we always have space issues so every fall I have to listen to him "bi**ch" all the while he's up on the ladder and I'm handing him stuff to put up above the cars in the garage. Its a seasonal thing that I endour every year and I just try to keep my mouth shut as I appreciate the help. When he returns on Thursday, we will also drain the upper pond and make the annual fall fish move. Bringing some of the smaller favorites into the house basement pond, while the others will be moved to the lower, larger pond. Again, I'll beg him to leave the water fall running for a little longer and again he'll remind me that I'll be left to try to get the pumps out myself, if we wait too long as he will again leave to go deer hunting. (something I've had to do before during an unexpected deep freeze that almost froze the pumps solid) Not fun.
The walnut tree has finally gave up. All the nuts are down. There are still a few leaves up there along with a million sticks that must fall too. But, the big clean up is done. Thank god!!! What a mess. The gardens, though, are still trying to hang in there. I still have one tomato plant that still has fruit hanging on. The plant looks like a little pathetic Christmas tree. I have 2 zucchinis also. I'm purposely not picking one so I can see how huge it will get before the plant dies. It's already as big as my largest koi. The Virginia Creeper is a brilliant red. They've been sneaky, creeping along, camouflaged in their greenness, but they can't hide now; they've been betrayed in their moment of glory.
Have you noticed how dark it is in the morning? I always feed the fish before I leave for work at 7:00am. This am it was still very dark out. Time to switch to 'one a days" and use the fall blend of food. I also notice that while my water is crystal clear, the string algae is back. It's been gone all summer, but with the cooler water it now has resurfaced covering the whole bottom of my stream area. We also must have 50 or so babies this year. Something we've never had before either. There is no catching them in the big pond, so they'll have to ride out the winter there. Hopefully they'll have enough fat. There's such a big difference in size too. Some are almost 6 inches long already while others are a mere 1 inch! All the problems with the fish in the ponds, seems to have subsided. I continue to use Med-zyme in the water to try to get ahead of the bad bacteria. We'll see. It's not been a good fall for my fish. Seems others are having a few problems too. I've been out on a half dozen fish calls as of late regarding ulcers.
The mums are yelling for attention. The roses are holding on for dear life too. The honking geese fly over every morning as I step out the door. The only thing I haven't seen this year yet is the 2 million Cedar Wax-wings that fly through and eat the berries from my cedar and crap all over every rock and surface in my yard. They come every year, and yet I haven't seen them yet. I got my fingers crossed that maybe they got side tracked or found someone else's pond to crap and bathe in this year. That's a mess I won't miss...just seems odd.... In the mean time I ache all over from the weekend of pruning. More aspirin....wheres my aspirin?

Shushui didn't make it.....

Wow, again its been awhile since I posted. Unfortunately, the shushui in the last post died :(. I even went to the vet and got antibiotics to inject him with. In the mean time while I was doing all that, I noticed yet another of my "favorites" had a huge sore on its tail!!! OMG what is going on??? So since this fish was a 24" girl, I had to now set up the Qt tank and fast. She was too big for any large plastic tub like I had the shushui in. So I netted her out(by myself since Harry was gone) and brought her inside to. Since I had to fill the qtank, I now moved the shushui into the tank with the yamabuki. Figured the companionship would improve the stress of being pulled out of the ponds. I put the yamabuki to sleep and tried to at least clean the wound and get some iodine on it. At least she was still eating, so I began feeding her some medicated food. After just 2 days in bigger tank and after 4 shots of baytril, the shushui began to bloat and developed large pus pockets under every scale she had! So, I finally just pulled her and put her to sleep for good. I felt so bad. The initial sore really never broke into an open ulcer. Kind of weird. But the infection must of went systemic, cause she definitely was getting worse internally. I felt so bad for her. Meanwhile the yamabuki seems to be developing more red spots all over her. Especially on her fins. She continues to eat, so that is a good sign. Out in the ponds I notice my other blue shushui developing a very small spot behind his gill plate. I pulled him out, hit the sore with some iodine and put him now in with the yamabuki. His red spot seems to be clearing and doing better. So, maybe I got that one in time. I keep looking at the large ulcer on the yamabuki and would like to think it is slowly turning 'white" which would be a good thing. Its large and nasty. I did a complete scrape. fin clip, and gill clip on her and found nothing under the microscope. Never the less, that was three fish now with spots, so I'm treated the ponds with Terminex and will now treat with Superverm for flukes. Something is definitely out there. Even if I can't see it.

The ponds, which were turning brown from the millions of walnut leaves falling has now cleared this week. Possibly the cooler temps. I purchased some smaller food to feed the growing babies. There seems to be quite a few black or chagoi type ones out there. I assume their darker colors helps them from being eaten when they are very small. Will be real interesting this fall, when we try to pull some out of there. Really starting to feel like fall out there.

always the favorite

How come if you loose a fish or one gets sick, its always your favorite? This past week, I've been trying to nurse my favorite shushui back to health. I have always had trouble keeping shushui. Not sure why, perhaps its because they are scaleless or perhaps they are just a weak breed?? Whatever the reason, I purchased 3 new ones this year. They're not the first I've had. I've owned several and have never been successful at keeping them alive. I figured if I bought 3 of them that are a little bigger, maybe my chances would increase. Well, of the 3, my favorite one has developed an ulcer this past week. Harry noticed a "red spot" on him last Saturday. We were hosting the Northern Iowa Pond and Koi Club that evening for dinner. So, we just left him for Sunday. He's in my smaller upper pond where I have several lilies. That pond of fish has always been spooked. They constantly hide under the lilies, so the fact that we even saw the sore is lucky. Good thing Harry noticed it. So, Sunday we pulled him out to get a closer look and sure enough, he had a raised sore on his side about the size of a silver dollar. Dang it, dang it, dang it!!!! These fish were all treated for parasites earlier in the season, so what's causing this? Of the 3 shushui I bought, he is the one with the nicest zipper. (That row of black scales that run down their back) So, now he's in my basement. I liked this fish so much that I even went to the vet to get some antibiotics. 5 injections of Baytril. I've moved him to the basement where he's in a very small tank of water with an bacterial water conditioner and salt in it. He's not happy, I cleaned the wound and have given him 3 injections to date, unfortunately he's not looking any better. If anything its still growing and getting worse. Looks awful, and the fish looks terribly depressed to be in such a small tank without his buddies. I'm worried for him. Am hoping the antibiotics will kick in soon. If not, I'll be deferring to the vet again for help. Shushui, maybe I'm just not meant to have one????

St. Louis travels...

A month or so back, good friend and fellow ponder Jamie Beyer called to ask if Harry and I would like to accompany him to St. Louis for a day. He was asked to give a talk there for the St. Louis Water Garden Assoc.'s annual banquet. Well, I jumped at the opportunity, with the stipulation that we got to go to the St.L. Botanical gardens, too. We also had the privilege to stay with some of the nicest people you'll ever meet, Pam and Rick Jogerest. After 15 years of visiting ponds all across the US, I'm always amazed when I walk into yet another jewel box of a garden. Talk about eye candy. Their ponds and entire back yard where just utterly beautiful! Being late summer, it was completely engulfed with plant material. 3 separate ponds encompassed the yard too, along with a swimming pool and large deck area. Party central. Pam is the garden designer and plant specialist, while Rick loves the fish and helps to do the endless watering and care. They have featured their ponds many years on the "Pond O Rama" tour and this year selected to be on the prestigious Botanical Gardens Garden Tour. And she still has more plans for a couple places in the far back yard! They recent redid the smallest of the ponds to include an above ground window. You could look into the pond and see the fish below the surface of the water. Way cool! The newest pond is Rick's Japanese pond. 8' deep and home to some very nice koi.

That evening we went with Jamie to the SLWGA annual appreciation dinner. Their club had about 80 members in attendance. It was held at the Jewel Box, which is a huge glass building at one of St.L city parks. The huge ponds out in front are a club project that they maintain. What a super bunch of people also. The meal was great and Jamie gave an excellent talk as normal. Pam was the club's event planner and I could see why they ask her to do it as it was very well done.

We returned to the house and swam in their beautiful swimming pool , sat in their hot tub, and drank margaritas till almost 3 in the morning. What great host!!! The following day, we were up early, went out for breakfast and Pam escorted us to the Botanical Gardens. What a delight. The gardens there are just beautiful, plus Pam was so knowledgeable about everything there. Was so nice to have a personal guide all weekend. I had a blast. Unfortunately, we also had to drive home the same day. So our 2 day whirlwind vacations ended way too soon. Am so hoping I get an invite back someday, or perhaps our club really needs to plan a trip to their "Pond O Rama" If so, I'm there. It was a great mini vacation and we saw some great gardens and ponds. Flowers to die for....

crocheting in the garden

Got up this am to temperatures still in the 70's. It was one of those mornings when everything was still covered with dew. I couldn't help but notice that everything was covered with spider webs! Glorious works of carefully crocheted art everywhere. They were even strung clear across my pond stream. Some 5 feet across. I always wonder how they get from one side to the other! Webs draped across power lines, from tree limb to limb, and on every plant in the garden. Territories carefully marked out; plants shared by spiders of every size. Most seemed void of their owners, but I knew they were not too far off. I sure hope they eliminate some of the mosquitoes out there! They have been just relentless. Possibly the worst I've ever seen them. I hate spraying them, but it has been really impossible to comfortably sit outside. They are blood hungry and come in droves. I've been doing a lot of work on the gardens, cutting out spent flowers and pulling the relentless weeds. I don't even attempt this without first spraying down with bug spray. I'm beginning to feel like a deet sponge. So maybe these natural predators will help me out. A food source of mosquitoes is definitely in large supply out there. Any way it was quite beautiful out there this morning. Enough so that I returned to the house for the camera. So what if I'm a minute late for work or so. If you don't pause once in awhile, some worthwhile things will never catch up to you.