Winter frustrations....

[goldenangel]

I hope I am not the only one dealing with this.  Up till about 2 1/2 or 3 weeks ago we had yet to have our first frost/freeze.  Not that I'm complaining but it was about a month late.  Like many, I'm sure, I put off doing most yard work.  Couldn't rake leaves yet because the trees hadn't started to drop them yet.   It was just to warm.  Go figure.  Now of course within the last week most of the trees are now completly bare and the temps have dropped.  We had our first snow on Thanksgiving.  Ok it was just flurries but still a reminder of what is to come.  I still have the leave net on the pond and doing my best to try and keep that clean.  That is a hard job since it has also been very windy.  I'm worried that the pond will freeze over before I am able to take it off.  I still have more pond work to do to get it ready for winter and I need to get all of the deicers out.  Normally I have all of this taken care of by now, but like I said it has been warm and that was not my top priority. 

Good news is that even with my neglect or lack of time, whichever you prefer, all of my fish appear healthy and ready for spring.  I haven't had the time this year like I have in the past to even enjoy my garden or pond.  I am hoping that next year will be better.  I really missed it.

[MIKE M]

I am also in zone 5 in southern Iowa. We mowed the yard on tuesday I saw flowers in bloom and the lillocs  starting new leafs. Then the next day cold and snow.

[croft]

Hi Goldenangel
I am also in zone 5 and we haven't had any snow yet but have had some good freezes. I usually leave my net on all winter because we have oak trees that drop their leaves very late. If I'm lucky I can get them raked up before it snows but some years I can't. I any case there are often many leaves still blowing around most of the winter so I just leave the net on the pond. Still waiting for those leaves to come down this year
Hope you get to spend more time with your pond next year!

[toph2o]

  hey Same here in peoria Il  Net is still on, infact the floats that support the net are now frozen in place. the leaves were late this year. Im still picking up my niebors leaves that have fallen in the yard I did get the winter pump out and running and shut down the bigger pumps  Did you get the inch of wet snow today?

[karen J]

Hi goldenangel, I am in exactly the same boat as you up here in Wauconda. I had an auto-fill turned on, and the freeze froze everything in place. Couldn't even turn the water off at the faucet (yikes)! We've been so spoiled by the good weather that we've not been making good use of it.

Hopefully we'll have some warmer days to work on the pond. Today my hubby drained the filtration system because I was just too darn lazy to do it myself. I am filled with terrible awful guilt. He's such a sweetie.  Repeat: terrible awful guilt! 
There was about an inch of ice over the entire system.

We didn't put the net on (too lazy, great weather), and now there are about 250,00 leaves stuck in that one inch of ice. 

[goldenangel]

Well Glad to know that I am not alone. 

Croft- I thought about just leaving the net on the pond but was concerned that the snow/ice we will eventually get might weight it down a bit.  While I don't think my smallest fish can fit through it, I didn't want to take the chance of one of my fish getting caught in it should it happen to sink.

toph2o - Your ahead of me.  The most that I have done so far besides puting the net on is removing the UV.  Good thing I did.  The pond hasn't had any ice yet, but the dogs water bowls have been freezing over at night.  Still need to get their heated ones out.  I know - Procrastinator.  Nothing like waiting till the last minute.  Maybe I will learn one of these days.   No we didn't get any accumulating snow.  I think that was supposed to say further north.  Thankfully.  Not ready for that yet.  I'm about an hour south of Decatur and Champaign.

[puddleponder]

you are not alone, I haven't dropped my lilies yet, and we are close to our first freeze.  Worst of all, I've been watching the pads thin out & today our pond got heroned.  I don't know how many of our guys are missing.

[toph2o]

I just look, I have a red  lilly that is frozen in bloom

[goldenangel]

Looks like I finished closing the pond just in time. (helped that I had this week off) We are now getting freezing rain this morning.  YUCK!!  I think we are going miss the brunt of the storm.  All of the heavy icing is staying further north.  Can't believe this is supposed to change to rain.  They are still saying we are to be in the 50's Sunday.  Weird. 

Only thing I have left to do is hook up the deicers.  I think I should have a little bit of time.  The pump seems to be keeping the pond ice free so far.

[Jonna]

You have heated dog water bowls??  I didn't even know that such things existed!  It makes sense I guess although are they really outside when it is that cold?  I'm so ignorant about these things.  I've never lived where it snowed. 

[goldenangel]

Not really heated per say.  It is just enough to keep the water from freezing. Around here they can be purchased at all of the pet shops, walmart and farm supply stores to name a few.   I wish I would have had these years ago.  Before I came across these bowls I was out a couple times a day breaking ice and adding fresh water.  No more of that thank goodness.  Yes, the dogs are outside year round.  The only time they get to sleep indoors (heated garage) is when we start getting sub zero temps. We really don't get that cold here anymore.  Our winters have been getting warmer the last 10-15 years or so.  At least compared to what it use to be like when I was growing up. 

[happyoutsidegirl]

Arent those heated bowls just wonderfull? I even had them for the rabbits. Now that my dog is old and spoiled and lives in all winter, I gave hers to the chickens. I have two old hens that sleep in the rafters of the barn and when the snow starts to fly they don't like to come out.