Last Updated: 3/28/22

1. On 3/5/22, I heard my first wood frog of the year! I have started to feed the fish as it is finally warming up.

2. It was warm and windy on 3/6/22. At 1:34 pm, the air temperature was 73 degrees F! The 1800 gallon pond was at 58 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 50 degrees F. The wood frogs were hanging out in the 153 gallon pond. I got in the big pond and took out the filter floss around the pump and cleaned it off. I tried to clear some hair algae off of the waterfall and divert the water where I wanted it. I found a dead 4" green frog (maybe male) alongside the filter basket. A male wood frog was amplexing a green frog against his will, and I separated them. No force was required; the horny frog let go when I grabbed them.

I cleaned out the 20 gallon pond. I found two Melantho snails which I tossed in the 153 gallon pond, and one small sprig of hornwort but nothing else (unless you count three bricks). When I was done, I moved some anacharis from the 153 gallon pond to the 20 gallon pond. I plan to use the pond to hold some wood frog eggs when they are laid before I can get the other ponds cleaned.

I wanted to clean out the 50 gallon pond but had two problems - not enough time, and I can't lift out the huge mass of yellow flag iris! I will see if my brother will help me one day. Otherwise, I could only try to suck water out and hand pull what debris I could reach but I wouldn't be able to clean the pond.

3. Spring was annhilated on 3/12/22 when a "bomb cyclone" came through dumping a few inches of snow with 50 mph winds, and the temperature was down to 18 degrees F by the next morning. The crocus and snow iris were encased in ice but luckily most flowers had yet to open.

4. At 12:57 pm on 3/13/22, it was 32 degrees F, 40 degrees lower than a week before! The 1800 gallon pond was at 44 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 45 degrees F. I was not getting in the pond today! I just put in some additives, and that was about it! There is so much to do but I can't do it when everything is frozen over. I did put two masses of wood frog eggs in a mesh bag but kept them in the 153 gallon pond because the only cleaned pond (the 20 gallon) was iced over. Once it warms up, I will move them over. And, then once I get the 153 gallon pond, I'll put them back in there. I expect they'll be hatched by then (hence the move).

5. It was 70 degrees F on 3/19/22 when I had to do my indoor animal chores. On 3/20/22, it was 52 degrees F at 2:34 pm which wouldn't have been so bad except for the constant 20-30 mph winds! It was horrible. My brother was there for a moment to help me pull the yellow flag iris out of the 50 gallon tub pond, and then he left. The 1800 gallon pond was at 58 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 54 degrees F.

I removed the two de-icers in the 153 and 1800 gallon ponds. I removed the lighted Rudulph by the big pond. I put child-proof caps on the three outlets that were made empty by doing so in order to try to deter the ants. I took the green Rubbermaid tub lid off the top of the 1800 gallon pond's biofilter. I got in the big pond to pull out the filter floss which was caked in debris because the goldfish spawned the day before when the weather was nice. The waterfall was barely flowing before I cleaned the floss. I squirted off the bioballs. I saw one green frog (who I put down the falls), one pickerel frog (who was in the bottom, and one salamander (two-lined salamanders breed in my pond this time of the year) in the biofilter. I put additives and water in the ponds. I moved the two golden club plants from the medium-depth area to the shallow area. One was blooming. The water hawthorne continues to bloom, and it smells so good!

I moved two more blobs of wood frog eggs from the 153 gallon pond to the mesh bag in the 20 gallon tub pond.

I then worked on the 50 gallon tub pond. My brother had cut the yellow flag iris in half with a shovel. I pulled the smaller half down the hill to sit. I used the pond vacuum to suck water out of the 50 gallon tub pond. I found about 7 green frogs who I put in the 153 gallon pond and 7 green frog tadpoles who I returned to the 50 gallon tub pond when done. I saved a few sprigs of hornwort and a few Melantho snails but there was little of either. I put three bricks in the 50 gallon pond and plopped the massive yellow flag iris back on top, filled up the pond, and put the hornwort and tadpoles back. I was done pond and regular animal chores by 5:25 pm.

6. On 3/21/22, I moved the bag of wood frog eggs to the 50 gallon tub pond to spread around the hatching tadpoles. Once I get the 153 gallon pond cleaned, it will go in there. I also grabbed some wads of anacharis from the 153 gallon pond and moved them to the 50 gallon pond to provide cover and food for the tadpoles.

7. I was supposed to clean my 153 gallon pond on 3/28/22 but the weather was expected to be 23-35 degrees during the time I would have been cleaning it with sustained 23 mph winds. My job was nice enough to let me take off 3/25/22 instead to clean the pond. See here for the full run down of what happened that day.

8. On 3/27/22, I did pond chores, and it was miserable outside. At 2:45 pm, the air temperature was 40 degrees F, and the winds were probably 20 mph sustained with 30 mph gusts at least. I wore ear plugs under my hat to keep the hell winds from sucking all the heat out of my brain. The 1800 gallon pond was at 48 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 46 degrees F. I got in the big pond so I could squirt off the filter floss around the pump. It was clogged because the fish were spawning earlier in the week. I added additives and water to the ponds.

I pulled the fountain tube off the PondMaster system in the 153 gallon pond after turning it off in preparation for two days of hard freezes in the SPRING! I moved the golden club pots to deeper water after I just raised them up a week ago. I pulled the garden hose up on the porch and drained it in preparation for two days of hard freezes.

E-mail Robyn Copyright © 1997-2024 Robyn Rhudy