My pond runs all winter, zone 2/3

[callingcolleen1]

Ponds were defrosting today, large hole opened in the ice and now I can see the fish again! Weather was much nicer today, no wind and sun was bright today at the park. I have to get this kitchen painted and then work on broken drawers and then I am going to install the new counter top. I am going to have a new updated look for kitchen if I can just finish one more thing before bed.... every day after work, I work on my kitchen. Might take a break and go to bed early cause I have to work really early in the morning.

 

[mtpond]

When the cold snap hit, 3/4's of my pond froze over. It is now ice free and all fish are accounted for . Now I wish the snow would go away.

 

[callingcolleen1]

it will go away soon, I can feel he sun getting warmer every day now. Yesterday had a real nice walk in lots of warm sunshine and the big puppies down by the river.
I can also tell sun is getting stronger cause the string algae growing under the ice and so I will need to give those big filters a good cleaning very soon as lots of the loose algae is sucked to big filters now. I have not cleaned those big filters since last September!

 

[sissy]

Figured since it was going to be nice the end of the week I will clean mine .Last time I turned on pump in the filters to clean them was back in July .Not much came out so those grasses are doing there job Colleen ,THANK YOU AND HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO YOU AND HUBBY

 

[j.w]

Gosh hope you wait till the snow goes away before you try cleaning the filters Colleen............or do you just dig in there and do it no matter what?

 

[callingcolleen1]

The ice and snow will be gone soon from that sunny area and my pumps and filters are very easy to reach as they are right by the edge of the middle pond. I will use rubbler gloves and then it will be not so cold on my hand. Will clean them when the ice is all melted off the middle pond, and today the ice is melting pretty fast, the top pond lost half of it's ice overnight.

The deer came last night and the night before, and ate every last crab apple off the cut branches and the ones off the grass too! Now I won't have to rake them up! But they also left little round chocolate covered trail mix on my grass.

 

[addy1]

I watched the deer go up our slope in the dark, looking for food under all that snow. Bet they are enjoying munching on my plants which is fine, they need to eat.

 

[j.w]

Maybe that trail mix is good fertilizer, like giant rabbit pellets. Rabbit pellets make wondrous fert

 

[addy1]

We get tons of trail mix in our yard, I have to watch little one, she loves to snack on them..................

 

[callingcolleen1]

A lot of those mama deer are going to have babies pretty soon, so they need all the food they can find to survive this harsh winter. The plants are pretty tough and can survive a good "hair cut" every now and then. Last year I was happy they never ate my white hydranga and actually had blooms!

Ice mostly all gone now from top two ponds, and weather is getting much nicer in the afternoon now, we were up to almost +5Celsius or 41 Fahrenheit yesterday!

I am on a mission today, spring cleaning and making house tidy, but have to work first again this morning. Had a nice valentine's day, hubby got me Extra nice bottle of red wine, Chocolates, beautiful card with LOTS of LoVe and beautiul flowers, I am soooooo very lucky !!!!

 

[j.w]

Hubby cooked us a nice roasted chicky w/ brown rice stuffing w/ added goodies inside. He wrote me a nice little note asking me to be his Valentine. We are not real big on formalities on holidays in case you didn't know. Today is our 45th anny and we will prolly just relax and chill out here together...................but then who knows

 

[callingcolleen1]

Oh JW I am going to cry!! How sweet you have been together for so long! I hope me and my honey are still healthy and together too after 45 years. So for we have been together for about 23 years now, half way there...

Still painting every day after work, if I just paint and little every day I will get there soon!! The pond ice is now gone from the top and middle ponds, and it should start melting from the bottom pond soon.

View attachment 66109

 

[j.w]

Glad your ice is gone and you can see your fishy's now. Kitchen is looking nicer and nicer w/ all that you do. I like your dragonfly on the wall too. I'm very fond of those critters.
Hope you and your hubby go on together for many, many yrs too. We are both healthy and planning a bicycle ride this Summer to ride either up over the Cascade mountains through Winthrop and down the other side and back over Stephens pass or we might do an Ocean ride over to the Olympic Peninsula. Got my results back from my heart tests, treadmill and photo's of heart all excellent so good to go and w/ this new natural pain meds for joint and muscle pain I will be flyin

 

[callingcolleen1]

Good Job passing those tests JW! Sounds like you and the hubby are going to enjoy your golden years cycling by those beautiful tree covered hills and valleys!

so here is my ponds today, after two weeks of thick ice, Finally I can see the fish nicely!!

 

[addy1]

My pond down south from you warmer zone is still frozen over and covered with snow..................... nice hole in the ice though. Love the colors colleen!
Honey and I will never make 45 years, if we do we will be really really really old! We are just entering our 6th year, in march.