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| Spring on the farm. I never thought I'd see huge round bales on our farm, but there you have it. |
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| This was something Blueberry Girl and Chad did as a Daddy Daughter task (Grampa took pictures). |
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| Grass Carp and catfish. Mmmmm, catfish. |
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| Last winter, winter 2009/2010, we had heavy snow fall and cover and we lost a large amount of whale sized grass carp. Ok, maybe not whale sized, but pretty big. One of the dead fish carcasses was 6 ft long. Yes, carcass. When the dead fish is THAT big it's a carcass. Anyway, losing that many large grass carp was bad for the pond and last summer we saw the affects of the fish kill. This winter we had next to no fish kill at all, but we decided to stock the pond and get a good start. |
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| The dock and the kids used to make me nervous. When we first moved here I fell through one of the boards and was stuck up to my hip, baby on my back, and camera held high. It's had some repair but mostly I think we've just all gotten used to its weaknesses and strengths and navigate its structure more deftly. |
Managing the pond ecology is one of the biggest responsibilities we have to our land and farm, but we get so much enjoyment from having this amazing resource right in our backyard. Yes, this IS our backyard. Wow. Every time I look at it, breathe the fresh country air, I praise God for our many blessings.
You have a totally awesome back yard. But what do you mean when you say managing the fish kill? 6 foot long carp? Guess you don't swim in the pond huh?
ReplyDeleteManaging the fish kill - There was cleanup involved, and losing the grass carp put the whole pond out of whack - too much algae. The grass carp were closer to 4 feet - Danelle is estimating based on pictures I took since dragging around dead fish fell squarely on my to do list instead of hers. We do swim in it (at least the kids do, supervised). There are large snapping turtles and crawfish, but those will be in any pond or lake. We haven't had problems.
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