Last Updated: 5/5/19

1. I took the day off 4/1/19 to clean out the 153 gallon pond and the back liner pond. See this page for details. The surprise of the day was there was a huge spotted salamander and four of her egg balls in there! This was a first!

2. I did the spring transition for the pond on 4/7/19. The air temperature was 72 degrees F around 1 pm with a breeze so pretty nice! The 1800 gallon pond was at 59 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 58 degrees F. I did the usual chores - putting in additives, squirting off the main floss, adding water, removing leaves, etc. I put in a bit more additives which included in various ponds on this day - pond salt, koi clay, KoiZyme, BZT, liquid Bt, baking soda, and barley straw. Except for the Bt in the three smaller ponds and BZT in both the 153 and 1800 gallon ponds, all of those additives were for the big pond only.

I set up the Biosteps filter and the extra pump for the waterfall so the water is really moving now! I removed the full net and put on the half net. I put up the ropes on the side to deter deer and herons from walking in to the pond. I removed one two gallon pot where the plant had died but there are a bunch more. I need to replant the pond but have not had any time to even make an order! I dug out the dirt in the 153 gallon pond overflow to help amphibians get in and out more easily. The salamanders have probably hatched. I wanted to order them some live blackworms but my co-worker kept saying she was going to pick some up for me but she never has. I moved the two two gallon pots of golden club from the medium depth area to the shallow marginal area. I removed a bunch of dead pickerel frogs from the 1800 gallon pond - two 1", one 2", three 4", and one that was in pieces so who knows what he/she was.

3. I did pond work on 4/14/19. The 1800 gallon pond was at 64 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 62 degrees F. I squirted off all the filter materials, topped off the ponds with water, and put in additives. I had gotten a red hardy waterlily which I needed to pot. There are four five gallon pots of lilies in the 1800 gallon pond. A few of them are barely alive. I pulled out one where the tuber was rotted and put this new lily in there. I fertilized it, put in small pea gravel, and then put in huge river stones to try to keep the koi from rooting in it.

4. My chicken, Perky, was sitting on six eggs. All of the babies survived! You can read about them on this page. Their names are Georgia, Dusty, Dulcinea, Iris, Ariel, and Hope.

5. On 4/21/19, it was Easter and a nice day. The 1800 gallon pond was at 66 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 64 degrees F. I changed the main filter floss. I squirted off the bioballs. I changed the bag of Ammocarb and the bag of oyster shell. I had to go to Easter dinner so that is all that I did with the pond. Over the next few days, I could really smell that the goldfish had been spawning. If you've had a pond, you know what I'm talking about!

6. I did pond chores on 4/27/19. It was only in the 50's and very windy. The thermometers in both ponds read 60 degrees F. I cleaned off all the filters. The ones in the big pond were all very dirty because the fish had spawned this week.

7. On 4/30/19, the great blue heron was standing the marginal area of the 1800 gallon pond! I was surprised as I hadn't seen one in a while. That bird is huge! The goldfish were spawning so he probably ate a few.

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