The little pond in my backyard was absolutely, positively full of leaves from the winter. Yuck. I found more than leaves when I cleaned it out Saturday. Surprise one: a mass of water lily roots the size of a small car. Seriously, it completely filled the lower portion of the pond. That root mass provided resort-quality hiding places for the fish, and our long-term resident frog. After using a crane to pull out the lily roots (OK, Stuart and I were the crane, but we could have used a crane for all that weight), I began to drain the water. Usually, the frog makes his presence known, but he was quiet, and I thought perhaps he'd temporarily moved out. The seven goldfish were successfully moved to a bucket of water. Down to the last layer of muck and yuck...and I almost hurt myself when the Big Frog jumped! Big as a cat, he is! While trying to capture him in a very big bucket, he panicked, and managed to claw his way up the slimy sides of the pond. He hopped away, across the lawn towards the creek. I hope he comes back.
Surprise three (keep up here, the Big-as-a-Cat frog was surprise two): a crawfish!
OK, it looks like that photo is not going to load. I'll post it separately.
The cleaning was an all day job, but the pond is clean, the fish and crawfish are all back home, and a smaller portion of lily roots are going to provide shade and hiding for them, and color for me later this summer. Another spring cleaning finished!
