15 Thursday Feb 2024
Posted in health, life, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
algae, big girl pants, blessed, fish, glass, goldfish, moments, nature, pump, scrubbed, tank, widow
spent some quality time with the fish over the last few days;-)…
pumps were scrubbed out and tank glass was cleaned…
I have started to feed them every other day to see if they might eat some of the algae on the rocks…
not sure if they are mad at me or not, lol…
22 Sunday Oct 2023
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, blower, feeder, garden, grandson, irrigation, leaves, moments, nature, prep, pump, put to bed, stacked, time, weather, widow
spent the morning in the garden…
we blew out the irrigation system, and put the caps in a clear bag on the side of the fridge so I can see them and remember where they are come spring, lol…
we stacked lawn furniture and got it ready for the tarp which will go over it in the next week or so…
we used the leaf blower to move many of the elm leaves into the flower beds so bugs and other things have a place to over-winter…
we moved flower pots under the deck and into the shed… and took apart the hammock stand to go in there as well…
two umbrellas came down, but because it had rained not long before we started our work, they went into the garage open to dry before making their way to the shelves…
we hooked up one of the bird feeders so I can get to it from the deck once the snow starts…
the pump came out of the bathtub pond and made it into the house, was cleaned and is ready for storage…
phew…
27 Wednesday Sep 2023
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cleaning, condo, crowded, fish, fish tank, garden, moments, nature, pond, pump, ready, tank, water, wetvac, widow
for the last few weeks I’ve been working on getting the condos (fish tanks), ready for the move from garden to house…
when the fish moved outdoors in the spring, I didn’t clean up the tanks, sigh…
so, it started with cleaning the tank that held the plants last winter… I’ve decided to use it for fish, as the fish were getting a bit crowded in the two tanks…
got it cleaned and then a few days went by before I faced the two big tanks…
had to use the wetvac to remove all the water from the big tanks and dump it down the toilet in small batches… that took quite a bit of time and effort…
next I had to scrub them both down… then I brought in the hose and filled all three tanks up… another slow process…
I had to purchase a pump for the newest tank… as I hooked them up, the biggest pump would not work…
finally, after numerous attempts, it started working and now all three tanks are running and cleaning the water…
it will be weeks before the fish move in, but the tanks will be ready for them…
the funniest thing is realizing how much noise they make, after being silent all summer…
whew;-)…
22 Monday May 2023
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, bridge, clean, fish, garden, goldfish, happy, moments, nature, pond, pump, water, widow
happy that the fish have finally decided to come out from under the bridge during the day;-)…
climbed into the pond as the pump that went into it last week was barely running…
after taking all the bits out, washed them in a pail, and then went back into the pond to return them…
when I turned it back on, it burbled just like when it first went in…
always careful when I go into the pond, but it also makes me happy;-)…
20 Saturday May 2023
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
bathtub, bathtub pond, big girl pants, blessed, cushions, garden, hammock chair, happy, moments, perfect, pump, screws, umbrella, weather, widow, working
Friday was a beautiful semi-warm and sunny day…
I spent some time reading on the upper deck and when it warmed up a bit I found the screws for the hammock, removed the umbrella, laid the whole thing down, and attached all four legs tightly… put everything back together and then added a couple of cushions to the hammock chair and it is now perfect;-)… I may have had a short nap in it while taking a break from reading…
I am very happy as the shape of this chair is much more comfortable than the previous one… I think it will get more use, but we shall see…
a little later, I used the fishnet in the bathtub pond to clean out all the dead water hyacinths from last year… then I brought out the wet-vac and sucked out the dead leaves and water… next I put together the pieces for the new pump and set it into the pond… after filling it up, turned on the pump and it worked… yay…
now it is burbling nicely…
feels like I got quite a bit done;-)…
03 Wednesday May 2023
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
begun, big girl pants, blessed, garden, happy, moments, nature, photos, pond, pump, reading, Spring, sunshine, tarp, tarpaulin, water, wet-vac, widow
spent Tuesday in the garden… the first part on the deck reading in the sunshine…
there was no wind, so I was able to flatten out and fold up the tarpaulin…
then I moved to the back deck and did a bit of reading before starting to remove the last of the leaves and water from the pond with the wet vac… it took a number of trips to get it done… but, I did it, yay…
next, I found the hose, hooked it up and started the water running… finally I hooked up the pump and finished filling it…
so happy when the waterfall started up… worth all the work…
what a treat to sit, watch and listen to the sound;-)…
garden season has begun…
02 Tuesday May 2023
Posted in garden, life, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, garden, leaves, moments, nature, pond, popped, pump, reading, sunshine, tarp, water, weather, widow
had a great day in the garden on Sunday…
spent most of it on the deck, reading in the sunshine…
I also spent time working at the pond… we tried to take off the tarp a few days ago but it was too heavy as it still had a lot of water and a ton of soggy leaves in it… the plan was to wait for another person to help us…
I put the pump in the pond again… the other day when I tried this the hose popped off and gave me a pond-water shower;-(… this time I got rid of most of the water… then I put it into the tarp and got a fair bit of water out of it…
after that I was able to drag it out of the pond and bag the leaves… they filled half of a garbage can, lol…
then the tarp was spread out in the grass, hopefully drying, so it can be folded up and put away…
maybe in the next few days I will vacuum the bottom of the pond and fill it with water…
29 Saturday Apr 2023
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, empty, fill, garden, grandson, hot tub, improvement, Krevco, lid, moments, move, pump, repairs, Spring, water, widow
on Friday we emptied, moved and cleaned the hot tub, put it back and refilled it… this time I used a larger hose that I have and it emptied the tub in fifteen minutes… usually it can take hours, so this was a great improvement…
I am always happy when the jets start up after the refill, because sometimes it takes a few tries to get them working… happily, they started right away…
unfortunately we could not replace the arms as the screw for one of them would not come out…
we also left the seal for them to look at, and hopefully repair or replace…
so I have a call in to Krevco to see about having a technician come out and see what they can do…
11 Saturday Mar 2023
Posted in business, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cleaning, fish, moments, murkiness, nature, pump, rain, stress, tank, water, widow, winter condo, yucky
well, that was a process;-(…
cleaning the pumps is not one of my favourite jobs, but I have gotten pretty good with it now that I have no choice, lol…
both tanks were getting murky which is the sign that the entire pump needs to be cleaned… that means the tube and the three different filters in each pump…
yucky, but necessary to get done… small one went fine… I don’t even make a face when I am rinsing them by hand whereas before I wouldn’t even consider touching them…
those big girl pants…
when I dealt with the big pump it was cleaned and put back without any issues…
but, when I plugged it back in nothing happened, sigh…
tried plugging it into a few other outlets, but no luck… brought it back into the kitchen, dumped the water out of it and removed the actual pump, which is quite tiny…
then I took the two pieces apart, used a Q-tip to clean both and rinsed it out without getting the outside of it wet…
got it back together, plugged it in and it worked, phew… when the pumps stop working it is rather worrisome because there is the concern about the stress on the fish in the tank…
now to see how long it takes to clear up the water and get rid of the murkiness…
02 Sunday Oct 2022
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, flowers, garden, hibiscus, moments, nature, plants, prepping, pump, stacked, weather, widow
spent time in the garden doing cleanup…
emptied soil from pots and stacked them in the shed…
repotted some pansies to bring inside, brought the butterfly bush into the basement and the hibiscus into the dining room…
after closing up the shed, I undid the bathtub pond pump and brought it inside to clean and put in the basement…
herbiggirlpants 