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***OUR OWN OASIS IN COLD ONTARIO***
For those of you who have not read our page.....please take the time and read on. For those of you who have been here before we welcome you back.
We have another passion.....PONDS.....many ponds, and......ROCKS....lots of those too!!!
If you are interested in fish and water gardens then please indulge us by viewing our water page.
How we got started.......
We started 3 years ago with a small-formed pond, 3 small comets and 2 small shubunkins (multi-colored goldfish). The small-formed pond is now our baby-fish pond. Last year, 2002, our 5, no longer small fish, had babies. Lots of babies.......
The history of the "babies"......
I was away on a business trip and my husband called me and said we had "something funny" in the pond. He said he scooped them out and would leave them in a Tupperware bowl on the kitchen table. He hoped they weren't parasites!!!
When I got home, to my surprise they were "eyes only" sticks. They were very tiny little fry. Our daughter and grandchildren were thrilled and for two solid months they scooped out these fry. I would put them in tubs and as they grew, I would have to buy more tubs because the bigger ones would eat the new tiny ones. Pretty soon I had 9 large rubber totes with filters and pumps and every size baby fish imaginable. All of these totes were on my deck, so there was no entertaining friends that year! All of my free time and everyone else's in the house, was taken up with these little fish.
And then there were 2 ponds.....
I finally decided to read a book about this sort of thing and surprise, surprise......people with lives do not scoop out these baby fish!!! I did not advise my husband of my findings because by this time I had spent approximately $7,000.00 on a huge 4000-gallon pond with a 6-foot high waterfall, a 15-foot stream and a surrounding rock garden, to accomodate our "babies".
In all, that year, we managed to save 50 baby fish. Fish folks have told me, that it is a tremendous accomplishment. Whenever my husband brings up my expenditures on the "big pond".........I remind him of our accomplishment.
Our other little friends.....
In order to attract frogs to your pond, it must be clean and environmentally established. You can't just buy frogs or try and bring them to your pond because they won't stay. At least knowledgeable "frog people" tell us that....
I was thrilled to come out one morning to see a leopard frog sitting by the pond. Each year now we attract many frogs to all of our ponds.
Frogs are not the only things living in our water gardens. We have birds by the hundreds coming to drink and bathe by the stream, toads and a garter snake. I don't have a picture to show you of our snake, who lives under the deck, because I have only seen him once, last year, and I dropped the camera when he startled me coming across the rock garden to get under the deck. He stared at me......and I stared at him.......and neither of us moved for quite some time. Then he very leisurely continued on his way under the deck. He left his skin for us this year, by the baby-fish pond and my husband had the pleasure of seeing him by the large pond. The fish nearly had the pleasure of Joe swimming with them on that occasion.
We have quite a large family of chipmunks, a couple of rabbits and a mole, living under the shed by the big pond. My husband has told me that these creatures are all associated with "rodents"......right. Therefore, he must wear high top "wellies" when he takes the dogs out each morning at 5:00am to do a "walk about". When asked why they have to have steel toes, he mutters something about "not being to careful". I guess you just never know when one of the chipmunks is going to attack!!!
If it lives in our yard, it's our responsibility to make sure each creature is "okay". That's just the way we think around here.
And then there was Franklin.....
On her way home from work one summer, our daughter stopped to pick up a painted turtle that was crossing the road. Judging by the size, he (or she) was about 2 to 3 years old.
Franklin was with us for about 3 years and we thought he would like to move to the "big" pond. We were wrong...and Franklin decided to move out completely...much to our dismay he went missing one morning and has never made it back to us. We can only hope that he has found an even bigger pond to live in and that he is free and happy!!
***FROGS BELONGING TO MY FRIEND, NADEEN***
!!!My friend and fellow poodle breeder, Nadeen, lives in Manitoba and the selfish girl won't ship me her frogs!!! LOL...
***Are they not gorgeous***
***2007 FISH PONDS & GARDENS***
**I've taken several photos of 2nd, 3rd and even 5th generation babies. They are gorgeous. Several are mainly white with deep red splashes. Some have red eyes. They are truly lovely to watch each day. I hope you enjoy the photos.**
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