On Frozen Pond

The first freeze of the winter. This is at 10:30 and the ice is still there. The Koi are all on the bottom at the deep end. Even the bird bath was iced over!

San Antonio Water Police: Go ahead, officer, take me away!

I received a notice today that I was in violation of the stage 2 water restrictions. I'm thinking to my self, WTF, my grass is completely brown, my xeric scape plants are starting to wilt. What could possibly be causing the violation. My fountain, of course! I have a pump that recirculates the water for the Koi and goldfish. Apparently I have to keep the "fountain" turned off to conserve water. My little pond is almost completely in the shade and does not lose water because of the pond liner. As far as I'm concerned, this is my outdoor aquarium. The Koi do not require that water move but it does keep it looking better. With all of the businesses that water the parking lots and streets, they have to concentrate on very small Koi ponds. How asinine!

Moving at the speed of life!

Summer has to be here because the temperature is staying near 100 and water restrictions are entering stage 2. I had to mow my newly planted grass today. I am pleased at how well it is doing. I hate to see my water bill though. I have been watering every day as the web site recommended for the first two weeks. Now I need to water only once a week. Good thing, I leave to California tomorrow for 5 days and I know nobody here will water it while I'm gone. The Owl House remains empty. I am sad about that but I have read that it can take several years for the owls to find it. We had high winds here several times and it remains steady in the tree. The woodpecker family has moved on as well. The nest is empty and it is all quiet back by the fence. The squirrels have pissed me off and I removed the bird feeder. I need to find a squirrel feeder before I put more food out. That feed has gotten expensive and the squirrels can empty a feeder in a matter of minutes. The humming bird feeder is doing real well on the end of a long coat hanger. The squirrels look at it but can not reach it. I have several hummers that buzz around it and are amazing to watch. The pond is doing great. The lotus is doing real well as you can see from the picture. Still no flower and no flowers on the lilies. The Koi will come over to feed now but are still very skiddish. Christopher got his gituiar and is taking lessong once a week. I hope he sticks with it. If not maybe I will learn how to play. Well, thats about all that's been going on in my neck of the woods.

Plants and fish at last

I went to Iris's house this morning and got my fish. She also had some plants for the pond as well. I don't know the names of all of them but I have some white and yellow lilies. The white ring that is on the right side of the pond is a lotus. What you don't see is the fish that i added. I have 2 koi and about 10 small gold fish. The water is a little cloudy right now because of the plants. It will clear up soon and I will see if I can get some pictures of the fish. I was going to take down the electric fence but I can see where something has been digging around the pond in the soft dirt. It may just be a squirrel or it could be my friendly neighborhood raccoon. The fence is going to stay up for a while longer.

Spring cleaning

For the first time, I drained the small Koi pond and cleaned out all of the "stuff" on the bottom. While the water was out I took the opportunity to adjust the border and make it more stable. There was about five inches of material on the bottom but the water was always clear. I filled the pond up and will let it sit for a couple of weeks. I will be in Houston next weekend but the following weekend I will put some fish in it and hope that the raccoons will leave them alone. The place that I bought water plants from no longer stocks them. I will need to find a new place for plants. I will post pictures when it is all put together.