today the three fish in the bathtub pond moved into their winter condo… one of the rocks that had been in that pond was also brought in to provide a tunnel for the fish…
the tanks have been filled and running since September 30th, although the biggest one has a lot of algae in it so these fish will be testing whether it is ready for inhabitants…
we will likely wait another week or so before moving the rest of the school…
following along with taking the netting off the pond and the fish being happier, I’ve been working on their winter condo…
rarely do I clean the tanks when they head out to the pond, lol…
so, I’ve been working on emptying tanks, cleaning them and getting them set up for the big move…
this year I decided to move the small tank from the living room to the dining room credenza with the other two tanks…
the plan is to have plants on the ledge where the tank was…
to do that I had to empty the two big tanks so that I could move them along so there would be room to fit the third one in… they also were scrubbed to get most of the algae off them…
and of course the one is the same depth, but about an inch and a half shorter than the others… we found some wood in the garage that brought it up to the perfect height…
we ordered a pump to use to empty them and after waiting for it to arrive, when I used it on Saturday, it worked for about five minutes and then quit, sigh… so I filled a jug and dumped it into the toilet over and over as well as watering some of the planters outside…
I quite like how they look all together…
after nearly completely emptying them and moving them, I filled them with the outside hose… I am so happy that it extends to a hundred feet so it can do things like this…
two of the three pumps started with no problem… unfortunately, the biggest one did not… it had been giving me a bit of trouble last year so I will be heading to Nestor’s to either replace the pump or the whole system… we have had that one for many years…
once it is running, it will likely be three or four weeks to be sure the water is clean and ready, before the fish come in…
on Friday I rearranged the lawn furniture so there was a bit more space on the back deck…
on Saturday, I took the netting off the pond… it was doing a good job of collecting the leaves although the weight of them had it sinking into the water…
the fish weren’t moving around as much as usual, the birds weren’t drinking or bathing and I didn’t like the look of it…
next year when it goes down, I will put some thin boards over the top so that it doesn’t slip into the fishes’ domain…
now, the fish, the birds, and I are much happier, lol…
not too long ago (well, it was mid-April) I watched a crew take down one of elms up the street…
in the Fall they had taken another one down close by…
last week Hydro came and marked gas lines and left yellow flags in front of two houses next to me…
this morning I watched as a number of pieces of equipment came by… the first dug two holes on the boulevard and went away… a little while later another few trucks came and planted a tree in each of the holes… then a protective barrier went around the bottom of each of them…
it will be interesting to see if they will come and water them until they get established…
not quite sure what type of tree they are but very happy that the elms have been replaced;-)…
well, after grocery shopping and packing up what felt like tons of stuff, we set off on our adventure…
we have returned to the superb Airbnb that we spent a week at last year…
it took about two and a half hours from leaving the house to sitting on the deck with tea and a refresher…
didn’t take very long to unpack the groceries and our personal stuff… then we headed to the upper deck to enjoy the scenery and our drinks…
as I sat there I listened to the waves gently lapping the shore, and heard the warblers, vireos, and sparrows singing in the trees nearby… and we’d already watched a couple of ducks working on their afternoon snacks as a pelican fly by…
herbiggirlpants 