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.
0 Comments
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.
|