But the Muck Vac I got for the pool doesn’t work. Serious disappointment. I don’t know if I can get them to take it back but it’s a POS. It’s like trying to clean a beach with a toothbrush, re the power that thing doesn’t have.
We skated for a while—then took out to Costco to get food and needful stuff, weedcloth, printer ink, cat litter, tp and paper towels…the usual stuff. NW Seed didn’t have the pond filter material I need: in on Thursday they think; and last years filters are so clogged they won’t draw more than 30 minutes without clogging and dropping the water level in the skimmer a foot to the base of the pump—not good. So I’ve been cleaning it as much as twice a day.
Our stuff in our micro greenhouse is desperate to be set out and we’re taking the chance, based on that one 70 degree day forecast for the end of the week: I’m hoping it’s the future.
The koi are up and hungry; the pond is producing green algae hand over fist, so I put in the UV light, which will kill algae spores. We’re very anxious to get the water hyacinth started up this year, and to see the lilies start to grow: they’ll suck up some of the nutrient the algae is using.
And I’m tired: I’ve set out my strawberries in one of those topsyturvy strawberry bags—which now weighs about 40 lbs. I’m hoping the fence can hold it. That’s futzy to plant: layers of dirt and water-holding medium and fertilizer, while punching rootbound strawberry plants through the openings and trying to get them stablized. But I think I did a good job. I set out the ranunculus (one). Jane says I put it in the wrong place. I watered her bonsai’s, which involves dropping them into a deep pot of water. THey were needing water badly despite the rains. Mine is still waiting, but it’s going to rain and that will help. I cleaned up after the potting mess; hosed down the patio, got soaked. Pulled the 2 heaters for the season: they’ll get white-vinegared and stored (white vinegar will remove calcium encrustation from anything, if left to soak overnight). I’ve got Betrayer on to print for Betsy—I promised it for last week, but got distracted by taxes. Jane’s got her taxes to get in.
I’ve hauled hose and electrical wires, wrestled with that cursed pond vac, which doesn’t work, and I am now wet, tired, and trying to think of what on earth to cook for dinner—after all that, we get home without really anything for supper. My jeans are all over with pond muck, and I mostly want a bath, but Jane’s come out to work after doing something involving her taxes, and she may need a second pair of hands out there. So I’m afraid to go for the bath.
Still, a day without icy wind was pretty nice, and not hot, either. The poppy is blooming, so are the johnny jump-ups and the grape hyacinth, and the tulips are putting on buds. It’s beginning to be a garden again.
FYI: You may want to try a Drinkwell 360 fountain for your cats. I’d been using the Big Dog fountain (and cursing it every time I had to clean it) until the day that the pump absolutely refused to come out to clean. It’s in a terrible location, hard to grasp, hard to turn, hard to pull on. So I decided to go with the 360. It acts much like all the other fountains, but you can pick how many outlets there are (from 1 to 5), and cleaning it is much easier than any of the other Drinkwells. There’s no corners that are hard to reach, a minimal number of parts… I think an all around better plan. The big complaints on line are that it uses custom filters, the pump is under-powered so the flow drops off fast (although one thinks that it would be easy to replace the pump on this one), and that the stainless steel version rusts. But the majority of buyers like it.
http://www.vetventures.com/products-fountains-360.asp
Yes, we have one of those: Ysabel prefers a still waterbowl; Efanor loves the fountain. 😉 Go figure. But either will use the other.
I did have 8 aquariums at one time fresh and salt. The filter material gets expensive when you use a lot. I needed a lot of Polyester fiberfill, I found out it was the same stuff that was sold in a fabric store to stuff pillows, but was much cheaper. I thought mabye it might be the same stuff you use in your pond filter??? just a suggestion, I really enjoyed my fish.
I discovered that when looking for something for a pond pot-filter—I use it in the summer when the temperature rises and the algae goes crazy. Alas, my skimmer filter is coarse, stiff mesh in a frame, about 18×22 inches and an inch and a half thick. Normally you can wash them clean, but when they really clog with debris like hemlock needles, they’re done. They want to charge me 25.00 each for these things: ha! I get it in 4′ by however-long-you-want-it and use the kitchen shears to cut it to size. Same stuff, waaaaay different price scale. The skimmer uses one pad, the waterfall filter uses another: the skimmer pads will go about 3 months if you scrub them out. The waterfall goes about a season before its pad needs replacement.
I’m new here as I just discovered this site. I have been a fan for years though, your Chanur series is one of my top faves. My wife and I are owned by three cats, Coco Siam, our Siamese boy, and our two orange fluff balls, PC and Firewall. I noticed you have cats, how many?
My wife is hoping to get flowers and a garden in this year. We just bought this place, so I can sympathize with the garden chores, even if I don’t do too many of them. Hard to do much gardening when one is tied to a power chair (think motorized wheelchair). Is there any hope of someday seeing a new Chanur novel?
New Chanur stories could happen, sooner. I have to get to the point financially from Closed Circle where I am making enough to dedicate the time to do a whole novel—which can take a while—but never say never.
Two cats, The Black Prince, Efanor; and Her Furry Grace, Ysabel
Allow me to chime in with an “You go, girl!” when it comes to Chanur stories. A creepy one about a knnn intrigue against the kif, for example… :-O
We had one record breaking warm day last week @ 80……. most days now are 50’s and 60’s………. nights high 30’s and low 40’s….. my KIng Alfred daffodils are finished (they are always very early, on the south side of the house, next to the slab.)……… hosta, columbine, day lilly and wild geranium, johnny-jump-up, star of bethleham, all up and doing well…… my oriental lilies were victims of the March Monsoon. 🙁
Opened the pool and installed the filter because I love being able to look out at water instead of a tarp…… water looks great….. next the FISH POND! 🙂 😀 😆 The great blue heron is back at the fish pond in the park in Westerly.
I still have the winter shelter in place to protect the fish from predators, but I’m going over to the Scarecrow water-spitter once that goes off. We have raccoons and great blues: I chased a great blue off back in February, and they really look silly trying to perch on a telephone wire…as he tried to do, to keep his view of that pond. But I spooked him well enough he hasn’t been back—and don’t feel sorry for him: there are plenty of ponds and lake and rivershore he can find around here. He can’t have my koi.
Had a friend here in Florida lose a bowlful of goldfish to a great blue – she put their bowl out on the back patio while she cleaned the living room and she turned around to see it “fishing” the last of the goldfish out, rather smugly.
Good Lord, that’s cheek!
we have mink, and my assistant Sue has lost koi to them … some people have lost all their fish.
A Scarecrow might deter mink: if they’re easily spooked; pond netting might deter them. But you could try for a stage by stage mink coat.
I don’t think mink are always that easily spooked. I had one swim right past me and my sibs when swimming in a river in central Scotland, and we weren’t exactly being quiet or still at the time… Urban raccoons seem pretty un-spookable too. I have chased (erm… escorted?) one out our cat door with a broom, only for it to stand outside the glass door staring in like it was waiting for me to turn on the light so it could come back in to the house. 🙂
Try a scarekif!
My daughter was wakened one night by a raccoon that had entered her kitchen through an open window. She managed to shoo it back outdoors. And felt fortunate that her Rottweiler slept through the whole incident….she was grateful to avoid a dog/raccoon battle in the house….but was left wondering about Ben’s prowess as a guard dog.
It would take a large dog to get the better of a raccoon—15 lbs of cleverness and swimming ability and a fast one to get the better of a mink. But a determined dog might be able to put one out of the back yard. (My plushy Persian tom, at about 15 lbs managed to oust a 6-7 pound possum from our premises: they ran up adjacent trees and scared the daylights out of each other—the possum went comatose and eventually came down, upped stakes from the woodpile and left. But a dog would be my bet, if he doesn’t insist on being in during the hours the marauders are out and about.)
My mom had a pair of doves that she had been given by a friend of hers. She took their cage out on the deck one day so that they could get some sun, opened the door (apparently these birds were trained not to fly away), and the male hopped out and perched on top of the open door. Just that fast, a hawk came in, grabbed the male, and flew off.
Ouch!! 🙁 We have had red tail hawks living on our driveway since 1975. They like to perch over the driveway…I think it’s a good place to find small prey…Prog thinks they are waiting for a small enough car to come by…Shriners and Smart Cars BEWARE!
Back in the early seventies we had a bunch of rescued cats…..we fed them on the porch….possums would often join them…..the theory was that the cats thought they were very homely relatives…..I think I”ve mentioned cats playing with skunks at night! 😉
Well, I have a daffodil, and three tulips. It snowed three inches last weekend. Then it rained. And hailed a bit. And then the sun came out. And then it snowed again. That was Monday, when the high hit 60 – for about five minutes around two pm.
Ah – springtime in northern Nevada! Gotta go with the flow.