Friday's Freehold

[Tom Sawyer]

I just heard this sound like something large throwing itself against the side of my house.  I assumed it was my cat Ezme, who has been known to do that when she sees a moth through the glass.  Then I saw that both cats were nowhere near the wall from whence this sound came. The three of us alternately stared at each other, stared at the wall, and stared at each other, expressing the universal trans-cultural WTF?!?!?!

So then I tried to turn on the outside light, and it just sputtered and immediately died.  So I can't see anything outside.  Of course, I could GO OUT THERE AND CHECK IT OUT. "Don't worry, I'll be right back!"

This is straight out of a horror movie.  I'm going to make some popcorn now; someone please come and clean up my gutted carcass in the morning.   

Wow, what was it?  Gosh, that must have been scary! 

Giant spider! 

[Friday]

Wow, what was it?  Gosh, that must have been scary! 

I don't know!!  I filled a bird feeder on the deck on Sunday and spilled some suet; maybe something was out there eating the scraps and then walked into the wall.  If it was Freddy Krueger, Jason, Mike Myers, or the boys from Scream, I didn't let them in.  I did, however, proceed to watch a horror movie on cable.   

[Raineyrocks]

Wow, what was it?  Gosh, that must have been scary! 

I don't know!!  I filled a bird feeder on the deck on Sunday and spilled some suet; maybe something was out there eating the scraps and then walked into the wall.  If it was Freddy Krueger, Jason, Mike Myers, or the boys from Scream, I didn't let them in.  I did, however, proceed to watch a horror movie on cable.   

Ah, ha!  Bird feeders are notorious for attracting bears!  My mechanic told me about that and said he knew of someone that had a bear come up on their deck to eat the stuff in a bird feeder.

   We heard a stange noise outside last night, like a fox, coyote, raccoon, or Freddy, Mike, who knows.   I wasn't going out there either!  Rick shined a flashlight out of the window and saw "something" run up the hill.

[cathleeninnh]

Most every night we hear the coyotes howl. They are close enough that my neighbor goes hunting for them. He has a young child. I told him "Go for it".

[Pat K]

[Raineyrocks]

 



Rick somehow located the noise that the animal made outside that night and it was a red fox.  He said they make that noise when they are claiming their territory.  Rick thinks it had to do with my extremely loud call for Zach downstairs and that the fox was saying, "Hey, this is my turf, not yours."
I say, if the damn fox wants the house and mortgage he can have it! 

[Friday]

I just noticed one of my ponds has goldfish in it!     I can't believe they've survived this long, not getting eaten or anything.  I wonder if they'll make it through the winter.

Also, I noticed I've got a full-size (20'?  30'?) flagpole.  Maybe I should requisition an original flag design for the Freehold. Perhaps something featuring the universal sign of peace, prosperity and saturated fat? 

[lildog]

I just noticed one of my ponds has goldfish in it!     I can't believe they've survived this long, not getting eaten or anything.  I wonder if they'll make it through the winter.

Couple people I know who have goldfish ponds bring them in for the winter.  They get a kiddy pool and keep them in the basement until spring.

[Kat Kanning]

How do fish in the lakes survive the winter here?

[lildog]

How do fish in the lakes survive the winter here?

Lakes, being much deeper then ponds, typically do not freeze solid so the deeper water is still fluid for the fish to swim around in and eat.

I found a couple sites talking about winterizing goldfish ponds, here's a good link with some tips:

http://ky-dan.com/winterize.html

http://www.petplace.com/fish/winterizing-your-koi-or-goldfish-pond/page1.aspx

The two main issues a pond owner needs to consider during the winter months are temperature and oxygen. In general, koi and goldfish deal extremely well with cold-water temperatures. Obviously, temperature does become an issue if your pond freezes completely. A surface layer of ice on your pond by itself will not cause problems for your fish. As a result of this surface layer, however, oxygen exchange between the atmosphere and the water is curtailed. This lack of oxygen exchange could result in dangerously low oxygen levels in the water as the fish continue to respire. For this reason our main focus will be on preventing the occurrence of freezing and the resulting low oxygen levels.

The first option would be to essentially do nothing. Depending on the climate of your area and the size of your pond this may be a viable choice. In warmer areas where the temperature rarely dips below freezing for periods longer than a few hours, and little more than a thin sheet of ice forms around the edge of your pond, additional measures are not usually necessary. In colder areas this method could work for you given the right situation, such as if you have a deep pond with a small amount of biomass. The reason for this is that when the water temperature drops, fish, being poikilotherms (cold blooded), have a reduced metabolic rate. This decreased metabolic rate means they use less oxygen. In addition, cold water holds more oxygen then warm water. These two factors combined allow the fish to survive under a total layer of ice. This is why wild fish survive freezing of ponds and lakes.

The second option would be to prevent the formation of the ice on the surface of the water. This can be achieved in two ways; first by heating the water and secondly by agitating the water. There are several ways of heating the water to prevent the formation of surface ice. Large-scale in-line heaters are available for virtually any sized home pond and are capable of maintaining pond temperatures above freezing even in the most severe conditions. They are available in different styles and use different sources of energy, from electricity to propane.

[Friday]

Thanks!  I may be able to prevent total freezing by just stirring a stick around in there (it's a pond no bigger than a kiddie pool).

[cathleeninnh]

You are going to stir your pond throughout the winter???

[Lloyd Danforth]

[Friday]

You are going to stir your pond throughout the winter???

Umm, well... yes?  Is that not feasible? I'm sure not going to install a heater for the benefit of a couple of goldfish I didn't even know were there until today.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Do your cats swim?