Wednesday is watering day and it is a treat to wander around feeding the various plants… currently they all reside on the main floor in different rooms…
I enjoy taking the time to remove dead leaves, watch for new flower buds, turn them as needed, and move them around as they (and I) need…
and, of course, chatting with them the whole time, lol…
many people start their New Year’s Day with a cold plunge;-)…
I like to start with a hot tub… it was beautiful out, the sun was shining, there wasn’t much wind, and the chickadees were busy at the feeders…
a lovely way to begin the year…
I took out the fancy selfie stick and set it up to get a photo of me in the tub, even though Google told me it felt like -20° Celsius… which it didn’t, lol…
I did look at the plunge tub for a hot second as I walked past it, lol… if my housemate had been home I might have gone in…
Saturday, late in the afternoon, after breaking the ice on the pond, we caught twenty-one of the goldfish…
the pond water was filled with leaves and was rather brown and murky…
it was quite the job as, at one point, my grandson went into it barefoot with his pants rolled up to cut down the water lilies and grasses (I think it was about -12°C in the air)…
but that really helped catch a bunch of them that had been hiding under the lily leaves… they were moving slower in the cold, but still snuck out of the net… also, some of the catching was in the dark, lol…
then they sat in pails in the house for hours before getting moved into the three tanks…
we were careful to be sure to keep size and numbers similar in the tanks so that there is sufficient space for all of them…
we thought we had them all, but on Sunday we discovered five more, woohoo…
now, the pumps have been removed from the pond, and it is apparently going into the winter with water in it, lol…
when we were in the garden on Sunday, we removed a ton of leaves from the pond… always makes me think of the lovely neighbours we have had over the years, being as how the tree that sheds those leaves is located in their yard, lol…
there were still numerous ones left, but we were able to dig down past them and catch three fish to bring into the house…
I wanted to do a bit of a test in the biggest tank to be sure that the water was safe for them…
after they acclimatized to the house temperature they made it into their condo…
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…
brought out the pothos vine from the dining room… it had overgrown its container and really needed to be repotted…
pulled out one of the purple pots that I bought from the Dollar store months ago and filled it with compost and soil…
before setting the plant in, I loosened the roots which were circling the rootball… centred it in the new pot and filled it up with soil… gave it a good water and wound the vines around the pot…
and finally, moved it back to its spot on the shelf;-)…
I think it will look better in a few weeks when the leaves turn to the light…
went for a drive to Selkirk with a friend and found the eavestrough extension that I’ve been looking for…
once at home we extended it, drilled holes in the bottom, and laid it out along the back of the pond garden…
a few twist ties and the trough portion came down straight along the sun’s rays and then was hooked into the extension…
we might straighten it out a bit more once everything dies back in the garden, but by next spring it won’t be visible at all and will put rainwater all along the garden;-)…