That most wonderful time of year has come. No not Christmas but that is a wonderful time too. No pond season is upon us once spring has sprung.
The pond in the summer of 23′ was a blank slate. It has passed all the tests of the fall and winter of 22′ and it was emerging into this year with new plant life but what it really needed was fish life. We had up until this point not been fully on board with fish. Do we want them? Do we need them? Can we live without them? Should we live without them? The answer we arrived at was we wanted, needed and should have some fish. Now, what kind?
I had already ruled out piranhas. They were never on the list. Imagine if they had been. That is one for-sure way to not have a toady mess pond. Don’t fall in there kids! I was thinking more in the neighborhood of some descent and kind gold fish and maybe a Koi or two.
I started out with a dozen small gold fish. The cheaper the better. I started the search online and came across the Fort Knox pricey fish. Who on earth wants to drop all that cabbage on an old stinky fish. Someone apparently but not this guy.
PetSmart is fine with me. I wanted a hardy, sturdy, solid cheap fish. Goldfish it is. The first dozen were lonely. I didn’t see even a single one after I released them from their plastic prison. Two weeks later, I figured I had already successfully annihilated the first round and so we decided we had better try a new round. Maybe some bigger, hardier, sturdier and cheaper fish. We I couldn’t get cheaper so I had to go with the spendier variety. Splurging on the 25 cent, “big spender” variety I had 1 dozen more.
The boss help me arrive at the need for a few Koi. We saw these beauties in the tank and saw their less beautiful price but comparatively, after seeing what I saw on line for Koi, I thought we were stealing these Koi. $50 bucks later we had a new dozen golds and two new Koi all packed up and ready for transport to paradise.
If you haven’t already, take a look at the album for this stage of the pond. It’s summer time in these pics and I’ll be talking about many of the new additions to the pond to include our watchful owl.
View the album: fishin’ it
A miracle was about to happen this July day when one dozen hardy, sturdy, solid, less cheap gold fish and two moderately costly Koi were plopped into the pond. It would be the miracle of the re-appearing fish. For whatever reason, fish nerves or the like, the new fish championed on the scared and vanishing fish from a few weeks ago. We ended up with 2 dozen goldfish and 2 Koi. All participants in pond life were very happy, both inside and outside the pond.
It was only a few days into Koi ownership that we noticed one of our $25 beauties was AWOL. We have suspicions that there was an abduction by an alien craft but no hard evidence. The corn field nearby didn’t have a crop circle in it but we did have a missing fish. To this day it is a mystery as to what happened to this fish. No one was talking in the pond.
Enough with the fish, already. I know but they are great fun and especially when we feed them their special fish Cheetos. They really flock to the feast. So much so, we saw great growth from them all throughout the year, doubling in size from mid July through October.
The pond had new plants, new fountains, new algae. All of these introduced at roughly the same time as the fish. It was quite the shock to the pond’s system. I had an algae explosion! I had to resort to an algaecide to keep it at bay. I hope to achieve a better equilibrium this year. This year 24′ will be the first spring for all this new stuff to emerge out of winter.
I hope it does well. Let’s face it, I can’t help mother nature do better than God has already instructed her to do. It will be fine. It always is. If you want a real mess get government involved. I’ve kept the government out of my pond so it should be good to go.
Our watchful owl, “who” remains nameless doesn’t disturb the birds in the slightest. The blue and purple must give it away that he is no threat to anyone. He had a slight tumble in one Pueblo West wind storm and so now he has some heavy rocks to help keep him upright. I thought he was a goner when I found him face down in the water.
You can see in a couple of the videos that we received some real gulley washers this year. Both of these were about a week apart. A wet spring and early summer made for thriving plants. It would be fantastic to get these spread out over the year but it seems we get too much and then hardly anything the rest of the year. I’m sure the government is involved in this somehow but don’t know precisely how. It’s just messed up and so they have to be involved in some way. They’re always going on and on about cow farts and ozone so I’m certain they have messed with something.
Before I let you go I’ll note the sunflowers that are at the base of the pond. I have these all over the yard. Probably 25, big and tall, sunflowers. This next year I will likely double that. The hummers, bees and birds really love them and they are really great for the soil. The soil is a real challenge in Pueblo West and other places I’m sure. I have spent countless hours learning about dirt and how to make it better. Its a fantastic topic and I’m considering a new blog series on just this, dirt.
If that is something you’d like to read about let me know. I am constantly amazed at the design God put into everything in creation and dirt is one of those topics that is definitely more than meets the eye. I hope this series was helpful, entertaining and inspiring. If a pond is a project you are interested in, let me know. YouTube has a lot of fantastic resources and I can tell you we achieved what we set out to accomplish. We don’t have a toady mess pond; we have a delightfully pleasant place of peace and quiet and I look forward to the years of maturing it still has to do.
Until next time, enjoy nature, spring is on its way.
Leave a Reply