…trying to seal the moon gate against weathering—trying to replace the two canopy struts from Jane’s swing that were bent when windstorms threw the swing over: the gate job is only half done: I’m sensitive to the weatherproofing, and I’ve bought a spray can of stuff that doesn’t require such lingering contact. The struts are in place, painted, and ready for the canopy. Jane planted stuff. It hit 70 for the first time this year, and green algae is now growing in the pond. Glug.
Eushu is going 90 per, and has richly deserved getting swatted by Ysabel, but she’s been very forgiving.
And after a couple of days of very injudicious eating, we are back on the diet, and hoping to feel better: I swear I am done with potatoes for the rest of my life. I ate one potato and I am so incredibly sore I can’t move. I wonder how many people of European descent who complain of arthritis could help themselves considerably by swearing off potatoes and tomatoes.
They’re doing some maintenance at the rink, so it’s been really chancy ice, not worth the bother of kitting up, so we skipped ice on Monday to get the plants planted. We’re beginning to see the front yard taking shape, as in, we now have an idea where things will be put…sort of.
The fish are about ready to switch from wheat-germ food to regular fish food, as the water warms. The water lilies are starting up with new leaves. Our fruit trees are leafing without blooming, the weather has been so weird—I think the flower buds were frozen off.
But I think we are now officially in spring.
Yeah, I had to put away the winter flannel pjs. I guess that means its spring.
Ah spring. I’m envious! Here in Sydney we’ve had the coldest start to May in years – we’re unpacking our PJs & doonas. Activity in our frog pond has quietened & I’m hoping the water lily does OK, we planted it only recently, so hopefully it’ll get through winter. Thankfully winters aren’t that cold here, no snow or iced up ponds 🙂
We got advisement from our pond place that planting the lily on the bottom with a covering of small rock will do nicely, and our lilies are coming up like gangbusters this year…leaves hitting the surface on the first day of 70 degree weather.
Cool, sounds like we did the right thing then. Ours is in a shallow pot with pebbles holding down the coarse potting mix. The pond’s quite shady, so it may not be sunny enough for flowers, but here’s hoping… Even if it doesn’t, the lily pads look great. I’d love one day to spot a frog sitting on one. These are the frogs who are resident: http://www.frogsaustralia.net.au/frogs/display.cfm?frog_id=40
I don’t think we are going to have much of a wild blueberry season this year due to strange weather. We have days in the 70’s followed by days in the low 40’s. However, if it stops the cold drizzling rain, we hope to get pump and filter into the fish pond. I think we are just going to have cheap goldfish until we figure out what to use to keep the wildlife out. We also are getting green scum which I *think* is due to lack of oxygen. 8)
Interesting thoughts about potatoes and tomatoes; perhaps they will have to become special treat food. I find that high sodium canned foods give me many problems. Thus I have taken to precooking beans, chick peas etc. If stop cooking them when they are still undercooked they freeze quite nicely.
Try a uv filter and barley extract. Plus do some 10% water changes so that minerals won’t build up due to evaporation. What fuels algae is excess phosphate, which comes in via tapwater. In a pond of mega-gallons, a phosphate removing filter isn’t practical (or economical) but the water changes help keep it down. Just pump it out to your plants and do a refill.
Thanks for the suggestions. I wonder if other mineral build up could be a problem. We are on a well, so I am not sure about phosphate. Going to visit my local pond guy tomorrow. Once I get it balanced it should be fine. I know once I get the swimming pool balanced in the spring all I have to do it keep the chlorine level right. I *love* messing around in water so this should be fun. Once we get the water balanced…plants……I want a lotus! 😉
BTW love the preview feature. I get to delete all the Helper Cat typing!
Don’t forget to swear off peppers and eggplant also. And it’s not just folks of European descent who can have problems dealing with solanine.
Well, I’m safe from eggplant, because Jane detests it; peppers—bell pepper in particular gives us troubles, but jalapenos you eat in less quantity, so they don’t seem to cause much trouble. Another problem, particularly for Jane, is paprika.
You and Jane are allergic to Old World onions, and New World nightshades (I forget — are tomatoes a problem?) Is there no relief?
arthritis & nightshades – The ND I consulted (Bastyr grad) said that nightshades tend to INCREASE inflammation, not CAUSE it. So, if you are continuing to eat those foods that increase/promote inflammation + nightshades, your inflammation will be worse than if you didn’t eat nightshades. She said that in the absence of other inflammatory factors, nightshades typically do not CAUSE inflammation on their own. I don’t know what your C reactive protein levels are but that’s a useful measure to follow if you are trying to minimize inflammation. Mine went from 21 to 1.3 following an anti-inflammatory diet. Now I’m gradually adding cooked tomatoes. (I never really eat potatoes or eggplant and don’t much like peppers either except for red bell peppers).
Lol—when you get to be my age, when muscle and padding diminishes naturally and joint lubrication declines, inflammation just happens whether you sit still or get out and figure skate. It’s such fun. OTOH, enough hyaluronic acid and MSM can stave that off if you keep taking the stuff. Much nicer than hurting.
Have you considered a daphnia refugium? I’ve been amazed at how quickly these little guys can clean up green water!
Also, emergent & submerged oxygenating plants in the pond really suck up the nitrogenous wastes which are another trigger for algae growth. Or a refugium for azolla or duckweed (if you don’t want it all over your pond)….another nutrient sponge which is hardy. I tried water hyacinth one year….too hard to overwinter and it melts to mush quickly once the temps get outside it’s comfort zone. Same with Pistia and Salvinia althogh those two are much easier to overwinter inside. For me, balancing my ponds is all about using the powers-of-plants plus a low bioload aka the ‘ecosystem approach’. Not chemicals and hardware. But that’s mostly because I do not have access to a power source on that side of the house (grin).
Kind of trying the same approach. A daphnia fuge would be excellent; wondering if I could create one as part of the pond itself that the fish couldn’t reach. Hadn’t thought of them. If I could get them established, they’d be an asset, not to mention fish food.
Daphnia magna is the largest Daphnia I’ve seen available via mail-order…so easier to corral. I use Sachs Systems Aquaculture only because I tried them once…they were fast and reliable and offered things that our local fish club doesn’t grow. I just ordered some teeny stuff in case the blue-eyes I picked up last weekend get happy enough to spawn. Anyway….I’ll have to ask my co-worker (who isn’t in the office today) how he set his refugium up. He has a large pond and I gave him a starter culture of my wild-collected daphnia (not sure what species…I’m NOT a freshwater invert person) which he said he was putting in a refugium.
RE: inflammation – I’m in the same general age category as you (I’ll be 60 this year) and have been trying to minimize pain and avoid taking drugs by following an anti-inflammatory diet and it’s REALLY helped. I have post-surgical issues in knees and wrists after fractures and meniscus snippage and issues as a result of spending too many years working with dead fish on research boats. I was having debilitating pain flares several times per week last year and wondered if I was breaking into some awful auto-immune disorder. Did all the rheumatological tests. Came up with a very high C reactive protein level but nothing else was really useful/diagnostic. The rheumatologist offered a drug that could affect my vision….I decided to approach the problem via diet. And hey, I needed to lose 50 lbs or so. The whole thing was probably stress related. I consulted a naturopath (covered via my health plan) who helped me juggle the data and facilitated an IgG antibody panel test which my health plan wouldn’t cover. But this provided information that was surprising and useful. I never would have guessed that almonds were probably my most dangerous trigger food! So far, I’ve lost 32 lbs and my C reactive protein levels have dropped from 21 to 1.3. Anyway, most people would end up making making substantial changes in what you eat and supplements you take. You are already well down that path.
My co-worker just came in! I asked about his daphnia management scheme. He never got around to building a refugium….just put in the culture I gave him and they built up a good population WITHOUT any protection and cleaned things up. They are building up again after a winter crash, so right now he is dealing with a lag time issue; i.e. he’s got green water until the population increases sufficiently.
So….it appears that they can maintain populations without protection in goldfish/koi ponds. It’s the little fish that’ll probably be more avid predators on something like a daphnia. A big ole koi might not even NOTICE them (grin).
If you were over here in the Seattle area, I’d be happy to share. Our fish club has lots of folks who maintain populations as well. Do you have any local fish/pond clubs in your area? Remember that daphnia are common in local water sources so you could collect your own.
I wondered if that would work. I have medium koi, and they’re into algae and pellet, not microlife. I run a marine tank, and cultivate copepods (others of the ilk) in a fuge connected to the tank, but that’s in a relatively small system. A 4000 gallon pond with a pebble beach and no little cover has plenty of room to support a population large enough to sustain itself. Your suggestion is an excellent one, and I’m going to give it a try. I don’t have green water in the really obnoxious sense, but if they’ll help out with what I do have, they’ll be welcome additions.