Gone Feral In Idaho

The dwarf water lily opened it's first bloom today. There are three more coming up from the depths. They open in the direct sunlight and start to close as soon as the sun moves over the peak of the house in the early afternoon. I love the creamy texture of both the petals and the stamens and pistles. The fish are quite happy in their new home now that the water is warming up. They are still camera shy, but I watched them pig out on some supplemental food so that they don't eat too much of the plants. There is an all black one this year that I hope to capture with the camera.   Sadie likes her fish flavored water trough. 

I finished mucking the pondtainer today. It was warm enough to get it done with out freezing myself and early enough in the year that I hope to maintain some clear water before the warmth really sets in.  Here is what I started with today after draining the big stock tank via siphoning. After bailing  a few inches of mucky water out I was able to tip the whole thing on the side and used the pressure wash setting on our water sprayer.  I blasted out the gravel a bunch and worked a lot of dead organic debris that made the water so black that you couldn't see beyond an inch in depth. During that time I found the last fish, deceased most likely due to lack of oxygen in the thick leaf litter that collected in the bottom. This fall I am putting covers on both to avoid the same amount of mess and to keep the water habitable for a few fish.  I also scrubbed out the sides to get the gunk off, and started refilling which promptly resulted in a ton more organic debris getting ...