Progress

Oh, my aching back.  After siphoning this putrid swill down my throat, you'll remember, I drained the goldfish pond at the city house.

To this.  I was shocked how much the gopher dug from the ground and deposited in my pond.

Ta daa.  I filled up three blue storage containers with the slimy, stinky muck and mud.  I thought I was going to have a heart attack.  Can't wait to get it cleaned out and another siphon then the filter and fish.  Yay!  I wasn't shouting yay while doing all the work though.

Sometimes You're The Windshield

Sometimes you're the bug.

Be still my beating heart.  It's spring!  My favorite time of year.  I've been holding back at the nurseries.  Only planting perennials and bulbs and nothing that will freeze.  

I've shown you the photo of the goldfish pond where gophers dumped their tunnel detritus.  Their tunnels are all under the rocks so I can't lay traps properly.  I can't even move some of the rocks.  Now, big rats have taken over the tunnels.  I caught one, but cookies, peanut butter, gummy bears and cheese don't tempt them. And yes, those rat traps hurt. The bird feeders have all been moved to the edge of the lake.

So, I went to the hardware store and bought clear tubing, so I could see when the water was coming near my guzzle. Who knew siphoning came so fast?  And, you have to suck hard. Yes, you guessed it.  The bacterial, amoebic fecal filled filthy swill went down my throat several times.  I wish I had a picture of me holding the tubing down in the water and over the 8 foot drop trying to drain it.  I got air in it several times and I had to start all over.

To my horror, those little menaces dumped a load of dirt that nearly fills half the goldfish pond.  It would fill a wheelbarrow, which I don't have at the city house.  Aye yay yay.  And those cute little rats watched me the whole time.  This time, I'm the bug.

Haiku Duck

This is what I woke to at the city house last week.  They were all splashing and diving in my little goldfish pond.  I loved the moment.  In the next, the weenies barked and the mother flew over the edge and onto the lower lawn, quacking loudly to her brood to follow her. It is an eight foot drop and I thought, oh no, there wasn't any way, but all nine babies hopped onto the rocks and leapt over the edge in free fall.

If you remember, her eggs were snatched by something in the spirea bush.  Another mother lost her entire brood in one day.  Like the travails of Jemima Puddle-Duck, nature and farm life can be cruel sometimes, a fact Beatrix Potter herself observed.  This mallard mother is a good one and seems to be caring for them.  She brings them back many times a day.  So, I've named her Haiku.  Why? I don't know.

I don't really understand haiku poetry, but do appreciate the ability to be succinct; say what needs to be said in as few words as possible.  

Here are a couple of haikus for you.

In the sharing 

of simple pleasures

we become closer still.

Sitting by the lake

watching the ducks swim about

comfort in nature.

Puttering Around

Or a fine fall morning; just enough cool and lots of sunshine.  Found a few last tomatoes that the deer haven't eaten.  Love them.

The acorns are in abundance this year and the deer are coming right up to the house eating them.  They are also crunching underfoot on all the patios and walkways.  Slightly annoying.

The pomegranates are just about ripe for the picking.  In fact, I don't even know how to tell if they are ripe or not.

After nearly losing my entire greenhouse full of citrus last winter due to the propane tank running out, a few are fruiting.  Here is a Buddha's Hand citron, the oldest known citrus going back thousands of years.

Here are the turmeric and ginger plants I started in early summer.  The turmeric is nearly three feet tall.  I don't like the taste of turmeric, though I take it in capsule form daily.  My daughter will get those.  I am interested to see how many tubers have formed in both.

There are so many frogs and toads this year.  From the size of your pinkie fingernail to bull frog size, these little guys have taken over my goldfish pond.  They hide under the lily pads or sun themselves on top.

They are actually very stealthy - cat like in the way they stalk their prey.  Horseflies and insects buzz around for a sip of water.  The frogs sit and wait, but sometimes they move like a cat then leap.  A wasp landed on me and I slapped it and it landed in the water.  It began to swim when a toad ate it.  No reaction from the toad.  Didn't blink an eye nor move its mouth.  I guess the wasp didn't sting it or else the toad is immune to its sting.  

I think these tree frogs are my favorite.  Not quite two inches in length, they camouflage themselves to what they rest upon.  

Well, there you have it.  Not even a cute toad limerick.  Just a beautiful morning.

New Deer Delicacy

Not long ago I lamented the fact I'd have to get in my goldfish pond to clean it out.  It has been raining nonstop for so long, I haven't been able to.

Be that as it may, look what the deer cleaned out of the gold fish pond for me.  I caught them red handed.  They have never done it before.  Tulips and flowers, yes, but never the water lilies.  

Just wish they had gotten in and chopped up the lily roots for me so I wouldn't have to.  Where are the clothespins for my nose?  Oh well, at least it's a sunny, warm day.

And, my beautiful old Japanese Maple did die, but I replanted it with a blue atlas cedar on the right.  I love those too.

I want to tell you that I almost always comment on your blogs, but I usually get an email stating  message failure to send.  Something like that anyway.  I don't have a clue what it is about, but just wanted you to know I am reading and enjoying all of your posts even if my comments aren't getting through.  Let me know if this has ever happened to you.

Goldfish Love

Here are a few of the goldfish that inhabit my goldfish pond. I have been cleaning it out as of late. The cottonmouth water moccasins haven't come out from their hibernation yet, so I have been dredging the bottom for leaves and oxygenators, et al. I even had to get in the pond. Luckily, the water was so cold my legs became numb. Anyway, these goldfish are too cute. They come to the edge of the pond when I walk up to it, wiggling their tails; just swarm around the edge. I would swear they know me, wait for me, but for the fact that I feed them fish flakes.