Last night my hubby called me outside to see the tadpoles in the pond. Now, I hate, hate, HATE, frogs. My boy LOVES them and catches them all the time in his net then brings them over to me proudly to showcase, at which point I go off running and screaming. So I was a little freaked out when he pointed them out to me in our pond...fifteen feet from our home. But it didn't stop there. There were thousands of them in the pond. These two have been busy and clearly are still at it. Because obviously there just isn't enough tadpoles in my pond (heavy sarcasm). I really don't need anymore thank you. There is plenty enough for my boy to enjoy. Seriously, these two couldn't even have a little privacy. Oye, I'm having horrible visions of my property being overwhelmed with frogs like the plague in the bible. However, I have heard they feed on algae and bacteria and help rid of bugs which my pond is swarming with right now putting a damper on our enjoyment sitting around it. Besides, goldfish apparently love to eat tadpoles. We have about 50 koi in our pond. So I think I'll just let nature do it's thing and the critters do theirs and hopefully I'll have a nice clean pond to enjoy, my boy will have plenty of frogs to play with, my koi will have fully bellies and I get to save on fish food. But if not, out comes the chlorine
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Today was an absolutely gorgeous day. We reached a high of 20 degrees. The morning hadn't started off as well but by the lunch hour the thermometer began to rise quickly. Speaking of thermometers, this was the temperature inside the greenhouse. Today wasn't probably the best day to work inside the greenhouse, but with my workload, I've found that it is easier on me if I spread the work throughout the day rather than concentrate in one section. In the morning I raked and then burned brush. In the afternoon I tackled the greenhouse. Of course, that was when the temperature became unbearable in there. I had to prop the door open or sufficate to death. Anyway, the new growth that I had noticed a couple months back had really gotten big. I'm pretty certain most of that is just weeds, but I did find some discoveries in there. Odette will be thrilled. There are these two vine-like plants that look pretty much dead to me but hubby said to hold off a bit longer before tearing them down in case they come back to life. But I don't think they will. While I toiled away in the greenhouse, my boy played just outside on the deck in his underwear. Yes, his underwear. I love living in the country!! Anyway, he was hot as it was so warm outside and had also gotten wet trying to catch fish in the pond. It made me consider transforming the pond into a swimming pool so that the boy could really enjoy it. As the rest of the family. However, hubby put up a stink as he likes the koi and doesn't want to get rid of the pond. Oh well. I went back to cleaning out the greenhouse and finally cleared the last plant (with the exception of the dead climbers). Looks much better now and maybe tomorrow I can start planting. Here's hoping. I've just heard of this lifestyle called "homesteading" and it has my interest piqued. I love the idea of living a self-sufficient life off the land and animals. Might just give it a try. Of course, I'll have to ease into it slowly. Don't think I can give up my Dr. Pepper or Good and Plenty just yet.
Our pond had frozen over again after it had completely thawed in mid-March. Since then, it has thawed and frozen back and forth. However, last night the koi in the pond suddenly decided they had enough and started swimming about. A few had made an appearance during the initial thaw, but last night the pond was swarming with big ones and little ones. Perhaps they sense the return of spring? Let's hope so.
A lovely start to the day when greeted by dear Emma in the window. Not so lovely...the pond is no longer thawed.
The pond finally completely thawed yesterday needless of the fact is was a rather chilly day. The forecast had called for warm temperatures but the sun was a no-show. Still it was warm enough to melt the rest of the ice in the pond. We have yet to find out where the filter and pump are but think the filter is under ground and another cord was found lying next to the pond but when we followed it it disappeared under ground as well, but we wren't sure where it went to after that. We'll probably have to dig it up because everytime we plugged it in to the outlet, it caused it to short circuit. But we did get the lights in the greenhouse working and the fountain in the pond as well. Can't wait for the flowers to grow in and I think we're going to add some lighting to the pond and some water lilies as well. I had wanted to do more yardwork but it was too cold and wet so headed for the barn to start on the rabbit's hutch. She is temporarily housed in a dog crate at the moment so really needs something bigger. We found an old wooden cart that was used as shelter for the stray cats but we dragged it to the barn for the rabbit so that she had a place to hide if she felt she needed it. When the hutch is complete, I'll post photos.
Last Thursday, we had the farrier over and he did all the horses feet and today we adminstered deworming to all three as well dusted them for lice. We fear Duke has been suffering badly from them. He had scratched himself so bad on his chest he created a bald spot. We checked for lice but it looked more like extremely dry skin, but for safety took the precaution and dusted him and the rest of the horses. Hopefully, that will do the trick and the horses should be set for a couple more months. The weather was cooler today even though the forecast called for a warm sunny day. There was a thin new layer of ice on the pond, but me and family bundled up and headed outdoors for more yardwork. We tackled a couple more flower beds and then headed to the back porch which desperately needed a good cleanup. There was sheets of plywood littering the cement slab, a couple of garbage cans and lots of pine needles from the HUGE pine tree next to the porch. It's branch's had gotten way too long and were nearly touching the porch so my hubby climbed up onto the ladder with chainsaw in hand and trimmed back the annoying branches. One thing about owning a bigger property also means having alot more yardwork. My back is stiff and sore but we're nowhere near to being closer to done.
Our property has been previously beautifully landscaped. Which I'm eternally grateful because I lack an artistic eye when it comes to landscaping, but I can appreciate a nice one when I see it. The trouble with mine are that they have been sadly neglected. The previous owners had left without bothering to do a fall cleanup. So I got my hands full this spring. Thankfully, my two daughters will be home and between the three of us, we should be able to get the task done. Today I tackled the first bed. This is what I had to deal with. And after I cleared the old growth from the bed. I was also pleased to see our koi swiming happily in the pond. Okay, I'm not sure if they were happy but I like to think all our pets as happy. And I'm adding this photo just because this visitor was so darn cute.
I wake every morning at the break of dawn thanks to the hundreds of birds visiting our property from the forest across the road. I don't mind though, otherwise I'd miss this view out my window. Or this view. This beautiful spring morning was especially loud with the sounds of the forest. I wouldn't want to miss it for the world. My husband also gets up early and as usual, the first thing he does is check on the pond. He's very anxious for it to melt. While still in his jammies, he started breaking the ice hoping to spot the koi. He wasn't disappointed. He spotted some swimming through the broken ice which was a relief because yesterday the only fish we spotted were two dead ones floating at the surface.
One thing we need to keep a watchful eye out for is our golden retrievers. They are natural lovers of water and swim whenever given the chance. Even in below temperature water. Throughout winter, they had walked freely across the frozen pond so didn't think anything of it this morning when Emma wandered out to the pond. And being the merdog that she is, when a huge section broke away and began to sink beneath her, she didn't think anything of it. But we called her off nevertheless. Not a good idea to think it's their very own swimming hole. After she got off, our german shepherd, Dakota, wandered unto the floating ice. However, she is much heavier than Emma and the ice broke beneath her. She slipped off and slid beneath the remaining ice shield over the pond trapping her between two huge chunks of ice. She's not the greatest swimmer as it is and the pond is something like four feet deep, so she began to panic. I began to panic as she was too far out for me. My husband came to the rescue and like a miracle reached far over the ice, grabbed her by the collar and pulled her out. Now you'd think she'd stay clear of the pond after that, but just as soon as she shook herself off, she headed back on the ice, refusing to let it beat her. This winter has been unusually long. Statiscally, I'm not sure if that is true but it sure feels as if spring refuses to arrive and winter refuses to release it's grip on earth. Finally, we received a beautiful warm sunny day today. Still, the remaining snow surrounding our property refused to relent on it's frozen state. So we decided to go out and give it a hand. Me and the kids hit the deck and started shovelling snow away and only then was the sun able to penetrate the thin layer beneath. We cleared a path to the greenhouse and finally slipped inside to see what state it was in. There was new growth but most of it was garbage. We've been waiting for our fish pond to thaw so we can finally see what's beneath. Actually we're curious just to see what's beneath the snow. The pond is full of koi and surrounding it is the hint of a lovely perenial flower bed. But most importantly today, we set our son's trampoline back up. He was eternally grateful. As I was. The long winter has made him squirrly and the trampoline was an excellent source of energy release for a seven year old boy.
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