So, last Sunday was a beautiful winter day. One of those sunny, crisp, cold days that are just gorgeous, and while intensely brisk, also make you start to anticipate spring and all its possibilities. Mike and I started the day with some planning for how we can expand the chicken run and get them more space, plus access to grass.
Then, after we got a solid plan together for that work, to be done next weekend, it was time to start draining the pond. When we first viewed this house, one of the cool features was its pond and waterfall, in the backyard, right next to the deck. Well, during the course of inspections, it came to light that the entire septic tank needed replacing. This tank was directly under the deck, and next to the pond.
In the process of replacing the tank, about half the deck was removed and the ponds waterfall was shut off. The tank was replaced, new gravel brought in, and then we finally closed on the house and moved in. But with a hole in my deck and a broken pond. We couldn’t put the deck back until the gravel settled, otherwise it would sink. And no one fixed the waterfall before they moved out.
Well, last spring/summer, we finally rebuilt the deck, and got it all back together. It’s beautiful. But in the meantime, frogs had made their way to the pond, laid eggs, hatched, become tadpoles and eventually little bitty frogs again. And since fixing the pond requires draining it, we couldn’t very well do it when it was full of tadpoles.
We also discovered at this time, that leeches had moved into the pond. And they were the blood-sucking kind! At this point, I was ready to nuke the whole pond and start over, but cooler heads (Mike) prevailed and suggested we wait until winter to clean it out.
So today, we drained the pond. And pruned the shrubs around it. As we were doing this, I found a wayward salamander. I’ve found a few now in the yard, and I know now that they are mole salamanders. So I took this one to a safe place where he could go back underground.
We finished draining our swamp, and headed in, as its getting really cold tonight and they are threatening snow in the forecast again. As I took Mia out to potty again, I noticed it was down to 33 degrees outside. And there on our deck, frozen to it, was a little tree frog! Mia and I came back in and I told Mike about the frog and that I was going to go unstick it.
So I took some warm water and poured it over the little guy until I could work him loose from the deck and move him down onto the ground underneath. To be honest, I’m not sure he lived, but at least he won’t get squished on the deck. Of course if it snows tonight, those poor frogs are going to be so confused. They think its spring already!
Now, only 4 days later, with all the rain we’ve had, the pond is totally full again. I felt so horrible when I told Mike about it today. So we’ll be back to square one on Sunday, when the rain lets up. But we’ll drain the swamp again and get it cleaned up, get the pump fixed and get that waterfall running before the rain starts again. And before those frogs start using my pond as their babymaking-love-pad again!
Farm Fresh Adventures 