Last Updated: 4/1/26

1. On 3/2/26, it was cold again, and we got about half an inch of snow on the cold surfaces. It is going to warm up, a lot, in a couple of days.

2. Yep, it warmed up a lot! Who needs spring? Let's go winter to summer! At 12:41 pm on 3/8/26, it was 68 degrees F! The 1800 gallon pond was up to 52 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 46 degrees F.

I moved the two golden club pots to the shallows. I sprinkled some watercress seeds in the waterfall and stream areas. I haven't been able to find watercress for sale for years at the grocery store so I bought seed. So, on 3/7/26, at the grocery store, they had watercress! It likely wouldn't have been viable because it was mostly rotted though. Yet, they were still selling it at discount. I grew some watercress in my Aerogrow with the seed, and it tastes pretty good!

I squirted the filter floss around the main pump. I jerry-rigged up connections from the auxiliary pump to the waterfall and from the pump to the Biosteps filter. I needed to get all the filtration up and running a few weeks early because the fish are going to start spawning due to the heat in the 70's and 80's this week!

I removed two dead pickerel frogs. One was about an inch long, and the other was two inches. That's six dead frogs (all pickerels) so far this year. The extreme cold likely caused more deaths. I put water and additives in the ponds. I put Bt liquid in the three small ponds that have no fish because the mosquitoes will be awake soon too.

3. I had to lower the two golden clubs back to deeper water and turn off the Biosteps filter because the temperature went below freezing. I am not sure which day that was. On 3/11/26, a horrible storm came through so it was probably that day as temperatures fell afterwards.

4. I did pond chores on 3/15/26. At 1:01 pm, it was 50 degrees F outside. The 1800 gallon pond was at 46 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 45 degrees F. I squirted all the filter materials, added water, and added additives.

5. I did pond work on 3/22/26 at 1:26 pm. The air temperature was a nice 75 degrees F! The 1800 gallon pond was at 58 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 56 degrees F. I squirted all the filter materials, put in water and additives. The groundhog has been digging a lot of dirt from under my front and back cement porches. I collected it with the wheel barrow and shovel and put the dirt in pots on the back porch to use for repotting plants. The ground is very hard to dig, and the dirt from the groundhog is very dry and very fine. It is also low in nutrients having been under the porch for almost 50 years! Being low in nutrients is not good for the pond plants but I do add fertilizer. I'm getting too old and weak to dig dirt.

6. More pond work was had on 3/29/26 at 1:13 pm The air temperature was only 58 degrees F. The 1800 gallon pond was at 50 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 52 degrees F. I removed the full net from the pond. I decided not to put on the half net as I can't remember when I last had a great blue heron visit. I squirted all the filter materials. I repotted the smaller of the two golden clubs into a 2 gallon pot and used the groundhog dirt. The larger golden club was stuck in the pot which is full of holes so that will have to wait. All the plants in pots need repotting and some have grown into the rocks and could puncture the liner but I can't pull them out! I put in additives and topped the ponds off with water.

7. I had off 3/30/26 to clean the 153 gallon pond. I also cleaned the 20 gallon tub pond and the 30 gallon back liner pond. The story will go on this page.. Late in the day, I caught a doe standing the overflow of my big pond! I guess that is what I get for removing the net and also not putting up the ropes that I used to put up to keep deer out. If they keep doing it, I will have to put the ropes back on.

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