Last Updated: 5/11/23

1. At 2:32 pm on 3/5/23, the air temperature was a warm 58 degrees F. The 1800 gallon pond was at 50 degrees F as was the 153 gallon pond. I moved two more wood frog egg masses from the 153 gallon pond to the 20 gallon tub pond. None of the eggs in there have hatched yet. It has neither been overly cold nor overly warm. I did not have time to clean out the 50 gallon tub pond and am not sure if I can lift out the clump of yellow flag iris that fills it.

I squirted off all the filter material around the main pump, put the air stone back on again (which lasted about a day before it came off again), put in additives, and topped the ponds off with water.

A week ago, I had put a ~2" pickerel frog into a two gallon pot. I had found him/her on the bottom upside down but thought I saw him/her move. The frog was still upside down in the same place a week later but the tongue was out which tells me 100% the little one did not make it.

There are lots of flowers blooming but I don't feel like I can enjoy them. The gardens are a disaster.

2. Spring had come but now it's gone. At 1:43 pm on 3/12/23, the air temperature was 41 degrees F. The 1800 gallon pond was at 44 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 41 degrees F. I got in the big pond to take out the filter floss to squirt them off. I put in additives and water. I reattached the air stone yet again in the big pond. The wood frog eggs that were the oldest in the 20 gallon tub pond finally hatched. It's been so cold that I don't have to feed them. There is anacharis and algae in there on which they can nibble for now.

3. On 3/14/23, when I went to look at the pond before leaving, there was a great blue heron standing on the net! He/she flew off. At least I have most of the pond netted for this reason.

4. There was so much pond work to do on 3/19/23 but I didn't do it because the weather was miserable. The air temperature at 1:39 pm was only 35 degrees F, and the winds were brutal! The garden hose was frozen solid. So, I decided not to get in the big pond. I recorded temperatures. The 1800 gallon pond was at 45 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 46 degrees F. I was also supposed to squirt out the bioballs but I didn't. I put in additives. I had to haul out my short dead-of-winter hose to add water to the big pond because the hose I'd left outside was full of ice.

There's a new bunch of wood frog eggs in the 153 gallon pond but I left them there because I am due to clean that pond out in a week, and the eggs certainly won't hatch before then. I sure hope the weather isn't horrible! As of now, it's supposed to be warm enough but pouring rain. I may switch my Sunday and Monday pond cleaning chores if Sunday is better.

5. I took off of work on 3/27/23 in order to clean my 153 gallon pond but the news said that the weather would be better on Sunday than Monday. So, I did pond work all day on 3/26/23 instead. It turned out that 3/27/23 was warmer with less wind but it did have a tiny bit of rain showers. The wind was not my friend during the pond work. It kept ripping my hair out of my ponytail and stuffing it in my eyes and mouth. I went in every hour to brush it back into place. After I did the 153 gallon pond cleaning, I did regular Sunday pond chores. It was too much for me. Due to bailing water and getting up off the ground probably 50 times, I pulled or overused every muscle I had and was on pain killers for days.

To read about the cleanings of the 153 gallon pond as well as the 50 gallon tub pond and the back 30 gallon liner pond, go to my 3/26/23 153 gallon pond cleaning page.

At 4:39 pm on 3/26/23, the air temperature was 64 degrees F. The 1800 gallon pond was at 56 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond (with new water) was at 60 degrees F (water also had been out in the sun). I squirted all the filter flosses and the lava rock and bioballs. I put the filter flosses around the main pump in a new white laundry basket as the old pot was in bad shape. I set up the Biosteps filter. I tied out the feeding ring. I moved the two golden club pots to the shallow area. There were three baby pickerel frogs in the biofilter. I put in 4 pounds of pond salt in the big pond because I had forgotten to add that throughout the spring. The other additives went in the big pond, and all the ponds were topped off.

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