Hey, there's fish in that there pond

In March of 2008 we built a small pond in our backyard. We had purchased a pond kit at Lowes after Christmas for an incredible price. We knew we wanted a pond, but didn't know what to expect as far as maintenance went. Over the last year Larry and I have learned the joys and trials of pond maintenance. Every six months or so we have to drain the pond and remove the algae and scum that had been building up. We would love to invest in a bio filter, but they can run a couple of hundred dollars, so for now, we do fine with the little filter that came with the kit. We placed the pond to the left of the apricot tree. At the time the apricot was much smaller. Knowing what we know now. Having a pond under a tree that drops fruit . . . is not necessarily the best idea. But again, this is one of the trials we have learned. This year we had LOTS of apricots drop into the pond and after several days the pond water (despite our best efforts of pulling the drowning apricots out) was turning into a algae, apricot, fish water, pond muck. It was quite gross. Larry had a brief window of time off yesterday and decided that the pond needed to be cleaned then, not a week from now like we originally planned. We didn't know if the apricot mess could cause the fish (if there were any left) any harm. Catching fish in pond water you can't see through is a difficult task indeed. Especially when your new puppy eats the fish net and you have yet to replace it. Larry improvised quite well by using our fishing net. We decided that the best temporary home during the pond cleaning would be a LARGE Tupperware Thatsa Bowl (I bleached it when we were done with it, BTW) and to prevent the fish from jumping out of their new shallow home, we placed the base to Cameron's t-ball set on top like a lid. They say, necessity is the mother of all invention! Well after about a half hour of Larry playing "catch and release" we discovered we still had about 20 fish! And one is QUITE large!

The fish in their temporary bowl home


The fountain is working again! Thanks to being scum free!


The clean pond!!