- A SPECIAL THANKS TO GREG FOR THE NETS! THEY WORKED GREAT!
When we bought our house one of the things we were excited about was the pond that came fully stocked with huge Koi fish and for a few years there we enjoyed feeding the fish and seeing them multiply. Then Maggie came along and the pond took on a whole new light and we decided to fill it in, rather than constantly be worrying about the dangers of Maggie falling in.
- Maggie’s face when we told her our plan to fill the pond in!
What we failed to really think about was the size of the pond and how we were going to catch those dang fish. Sky Nursery was willing to take the fish off our hands, but we just needed to deliver them safe and sound. Easier said than done, people!! Turns out our pond is easily 5 feet deep and those fish had survived in the pond for so long not because they’re dumb or slow. So we started the process of draining the pond Tuesday morning and finally unplugged the pump Wednesday evening. Ugh.
Once the pond was low enough to get the fish out Barry was the most magnificent fish wrangler I’ve ever seen. He was graceful, patient and all things I wasn’t. If a fish ended up in my net, I started shrieking and cussing. I think that’s why we make such a good team: Barry is steady as a rock and I’m…..I’m wobbly like Beyonce.
- SERIOUSLY THINKING THIS WAS A BAAAAAD IDEA…EXCEPT IT WAS my IDEA
Suffice to say, it was a much larger task than I ever thought to drain the pond and say ‘adios’ to the fish. In total we emptied 7 huge Koi and at least 15 teeny ones out. Thanks to Cora (not Chaya) for coming by and catching some of the tiny baby fish. Where there was a pond now is a huge, gaping hole with disgusting sludge in the bottom. Hopefully we’ll find the time over these next days to start filling it in because falling into a sludge filled hole isn’t much different than falling into a pond, right?
- SPECIAL THANKS TO GRAMMY FIDGET AND SPARKY FOR COMING AND HELPING ENTERTAIN THE MORSELS. COME BACK SOON!
So there you have it. The consolidated first part of this whole pond debacle. I fully wish that we were able blink and the whole project would be done. If only we were so lucky. If you’ve got some things you’d like to throw in the hole, I’m considering making it a huge time capsule, so write yourself a letter and we can toss it in together! When Maggie is a teenager we’re going to reinstall the pond.
Just kidding.
In all honesty, if you’ve got any fill dirt or ideas about this process we’d love to hear from you…..but really if you’ve got some dirt for us, let us know!
Looking forward to the next part of this project?
Me too.
I’d like to say that I held Maggie during previously mentioned “fishing”… some might say I even saved her from the sludge. You know Grandma would be thankful for that.
Love picture #4 so Hannah !
Somebody told me that they didn’t think we were funny with this whole Sludge-Face thing.
I think we’re funny.
Have I ever told you about the Hell Hole we had in high school? It was right where Bed Bath and Beyond now sits and we threw stuff in it for a few years (including at least one math book that somehow “disappeared”.) I think you have a great opportunity for a Hell Hole situation. Maybe there are some contributors out there…