End of the Season

End of Our First Season

September 1998: Starting back to work after a wonderful summer of working on my pond proved to be pretty stressful. I quickly discovered that one of the most relaxing things in the world was to strip off my hose and heels and stick my feet in the water. My fish have become quite tame and swim right to me, nibbling at my toes, begging for food, which they will eat right out of my hands! They have tripled in size since we first got them, from a tiny 2"-3" to 7"-9".

My koi swimming around

This is the last picture of my stream this summer. Everything was lush and green, and really starting to look as if it had been there awhile.

December 1998: Hubby and I decided to leave our pump running throughout the winter. We love watching the ice form around the stream, and seeing the winter birds flock to our pond for a fresh drink of water. The other day we had two blue jays, a woodpecker, and several sparrows. It was beautiful! We also had a laugh as the neighbor cat came running across the icey pond to capture a bird and ended up losing it's footing instead! I did hold my breath until he was safe on dry land, since I wasn't sure how strong the ice was, and I really wasn't looking forward to rescuing a cat in that cold water.
We have discovered that there are a couple of disadvantages to running the pump during winter. One is that with ice covering the pond, it is more difficult to monitor the water level, and we don't want to run our pump dry (just in case we do develop a leak somewhere). Not a problem so far, but something we have to keep an eye on. The other problem is that when we had our first round of REALLY cold weather, the stream iced up. The water kept running easily underneath the ice, but the ice kept spreading, and spreading. It spread outside the stream at least 3 feet on either side. We lost about 2" in our water level. Again, nothing to worry about, just another reminder that maintaining a pond properly is a year round chore.

Would I do it all over again? In a heartbeat! It continues to be a constant source of delight. I still look out the kitchen window as soon as I wake up. When the weather is decent, I am outside inspecting for changes. Of course, with 2" of ice covering my pond, my fish are but a fond memory, and I worry about whether they will survive this winter. But spring is coming, and I am already planning additions to my landscaping. Hubby is going to build me a mini-log cabin to hide my pump. (A waterwheel would look pretty funny, since the pump is just a tad too far from the water!) Hopefully, we can install a privacy fence. Maybe another pond. Hmmmmm......

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