What you find under the muck

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From my pond!

From my pond!

Taking advantage of a gorgeous weekend, I cleaned up the pond. It’s not a big deal and I enjoy being outside. It’s downright therapeutic!

Although fish become very sluggish and dormant over the winter, they poop. The eat algae and any submerged plants and they poop.

When I close the pond for the winter, shutting down the waterfall and inserting the bubbler, I left all the submerged plants as is. I wanted to be sure that there was enough food.

All that is now poop.

Pond sludge at the bottom smells like those brackish water places where crabs love to live at the seashore. When I was small I used to think it was stinky. As you come to enjoy crabmeat you get over the fact that they eat poop.

Somehow recycled poop, when done by a crab, is quite tasty. Cleaning up the pond always makes me hungry for crab cakes. Pavlov would be so proud.

One of my frogs, who also is a world-class winter pooper, was hanging vertical from the top of the water. Last time I saw a frog do that, it was dead. When I approached it with my scooper, he took off. Obviously he had visions of having his legs breaded and deep-fried and thought better of it.

Just for the record, we don’t eat frog legs in this house. It would be like eating the cats. Frogs are our friends.

In the middle of this poop cleaning, I decided that the weather was too hot for the long heavy jeans, sock and sweatshirt I had on so I lightened up.

In addition to discovering several inches of sludge in the pond and dangling frogs that look dead, I discovered that my legs are the whitest of whites. They are downright dazzling.

You need sunglasses to gaze upon them. How did they get this white?

Last night I lathered them up with a self-tanner, toasted my frogs (not literally) with a margarita and enjoyed the delightful day. Too bad I didn’t have crab cakes!

25 thoughts on “What you find under the muck”

  1. If it makes you feel any less alone, because of so much sunshine, I wear tons of sunblock…I’m pasty white, too, and living in a land of tan! LOL! We don’t have too many fish in our pond because in winter, the other animals come out to eat them! But with leaves and plants and some of the natural “muck” that seems to accumulate over the winter, we have that same sludge. I would love to have the frogs. I’m amazed they survive the winter! I am glad you have your pond back to enjoy, Kate! Winter is over for good, I hope!

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    • This past week, at least the warmer part, (we are having a little cold snap again) brought out the pasty white body parts in everyone. The young girls go off to the tanning booths or for spray tans. I do use a sunless tanner on my legs because old legs look better tan even if there is a bit of orange to the tan. It hides freckles (I refuse to call them liver marks!) and the odd vein or two popping up. Frogs hibernate for the winter. The hide either in the muck at the bottom or in the plant pots inside the pond.

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  2. White legs? You haven’t seen white legs until I unwrap mine for the summer. And no self-tanner either; any kind of tan looks very unnatural on this redhead. The pond is beautiful though! Brings back memories of catching tadpoles and frogs before I knew I was supposed to be grossed out by them. 🙂

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  3. It was a beautiful day…I actually went sleeveless…didn’t know you had frogs. My mother used to collect them. Not real ones, but every other kind, and I had no idea crabs were such poop eaters. You’re just filled with enlightening info…love that.
    My legs are white too…bet you have lovely soft skin. There’s always an upside.

    Pouring here. Spring seems to have only made a cameo.

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  4. I don’t have a pond but we do have a pool .. and the water on top of the pool cover is filled with tadpoles in spring. I do my best to lower the water before the Mallards create their own “Ducks Unlimited” in my yard .. so when the pool guy pumps off the water with his massive industrial strength pump, I always wonder about those thousands of tadpoles being shot out of their cozy spot in rapid fire. Toodles, I say, and 1 or 2 frogs always end up living on the skimmer – like hanging out next to the buffet, I think. They don’t bother me but the grandkids freak!

    Spring was here on Sunday. It snowed again last night Augh!!

    MJ

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    • Sounds like you do have a pond on top of your pool! I didn’t have any taddies last year but the year before we had about 200 of them hatch. My poor husband thought they would all turn into frogs and he freaked. Only 2 or 3 morphed into frogs. It’s a tough life for taddies. Everything likes to eat them.

      We also get a mallard duck couple that like to court in our small pond. Also freaks out the husband. He envisions duck poop all over. They schmooze for a day or two and then they are gone.

      It’s been warm here although raining today. Tonight is supposed to get cold, hovering around freezing. It’s probably your weather coming east.

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      • the ducks hang out here as long as there is water. When Frankie was alive I used to take him out there with me and, together, we’d “flush” them out — they’d take flight and he’d take credit. Funny pup.

        One year we found an egg on the edge of the pool! I bought a bigger pump the next day … and yes, it snowed and froze Monday night. 🙂 MJ

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  5. Good for you getting out in the sun and enjoying yourself. No ponds or fish poop here. But some people are going to have to shovel pigeon poop off their balconies…and pigeon poop has no redeeming value it is just gross. Luckily, there is none of it on my balcony.

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  6. Right now, I’m glad that I don’t have a fish pond (or horse stall) to muck out. Tigger’s litter box is enough for me.

    Glad you had a nice day for opening the pond!

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    • I did lose some fish either by predator or weather. As long as you keep an area of the water open with either a donut heater or an underwater bubbler (moving water doesn’t freeze) so the gases can exchange, the fish will survive. I have simple goldfish varieties, no koi which are a bit touchier.

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