Pond Cleaners

 Good morning,

Each Spring for Mother's Day, one of my gifts from Catherine is the cleaning out of our gold fish pond.

 The cleaning doesn't generally happen ON Mother's Day.  This time, I didn't realize Catherine had started the project until the pond was nearly empty and she was getting way too much help from Elsa and Lily.

They managed to get the fish out to safety (OK, Cath got them to safety without any help from the pups), then drained the rest of the pond before refilling it.

The pond is self sustaining except for the annual cleaning to remove excess debris and leaves that have accumulated in the bottom throughout the year.  It's good to leave a little of it in there because the decomposition of the dead leaves provides warmth.  In winter months we have a tank deicer in the pond that prevents it from freezing.  In the summer we have a floating solar fountain that isn't very big, but is pretty.  This year Lily managed to "catch" the fountain so we'll probably have to start all over again with that....

So much help and so much fun....

Lois