Country Escape's 2nd pond - Goldfish only

[j.w]

Thanks for posting those CE and yep I see that cat could be knocking rocks around but gee usually cats are such soft walkers so don't know if they are the reason or not.

Pups are growing and do they always sleep? Guess they need to eat and grow and in a couple weeks they will be really wild and crazy and drive you to move them out to the barn,lol!

Isn't Millet what they use in bird seed.............if so I see many more of those plants in your future!

I'm still waiting for my cat tails to get tops on them. Yours are in the bog tho and mine are only stuck in the rocks around the edge w/ their roots in water and no soil so maybe that makes a dif.

 

[CountryEscape]

I put mine bare root in the bog this year, JW. Last year I bought one big plant and this year I separated them into about 8 or so smaller plant, and left a couple of them with maybe 6-8 shoots on them. This "flower" is on one of the larger plants. I figured maybe next year the others will have cattails on them, too. May get a couple more this year, too, since I have at least 3 sets that I left pretty large.
The pups sleep ALL of the time right now. No eyes open yet, they are 8 days old today. The do nothing but eat, potty and sleep. Mom is keeping them very clean and content. And, I plan to get their outside pen figured out this weekend and all set up so will be able to put them out there by the following weekend, when my daughter is home from UT. My mom is coming the following weekend, and by then they will be loud and barking and messy, so won't keep them inside forever. If it gets hot, I have a fan out there inside the shed. If it gets cold, I could put the heat pad under them again. Have a large welping box to put them in, so they won't be able to get out of that for a while yet. And, stepping outside will mean going down some steps which I will make out of the ceramic blocks from the neighbor's shed that got blown down. They said I can have as many as I'd like from the ditch, where they dumped them. Will make steps and put them on the bottom edge so no one can dig out.
Denali is very relaxed with the other dogs again, too. No more growling, only on Days 2-5, then she figured they weren't going to hurt her babes and quit worrying.
Yes, I believe millet is a bird seed. I want to try to save some of the seeds and grow some next year. They are really neat looking plants for next to the pond.

 

[CountryEscape]

Puppies are really growing ... getting fat anyhow. All Denali does is feed them. LOL If they squeak, she run to them. They hardly ever make a sound, though, as she lays with them 95% of the time. She whines to go outside, then wants to come right back in. What a good Mama she is.

 

[j.w]

Your cattails are prolly liking it better in your bog then mine do right in the water of the pond but I'll let them stay where they are as maybe they will just be slower to grow and not take over too fast this way. I don't have a lot of room around my pond rocks for too many more plants anyways.
Your pups are so cute. Do they have their eyes open yet? Mama is going to freak out when you find new homes for them or maybe by then she will be tired of them. Yukon looks a bit put out w/ not having his buddy to play with all the time now :sad:

 

[CountryEscape]

Usually, by the time puppies are ready to be weaned and sold, the mom is more than ready for them to go. No remorse or anything or at least I've never noticed it before, and I've raised tons of rat terriers, few litters of German Shepherds and Boxers, and about 5 litters of Golden Retrievers. I love puppies, can you tell?!
Yukon was shocked when she growled at him after she had her puppies. Actually, the first day she was fine with anyone around her, but the second day, Watch Out!!! She would just look at him and show her teeth, and he had no desire to come into the house. It was kind of funny. But, now he is allowed inside, and she is no longer worried about him. None of the other animals show any interest in the puppies, but I bet Yukon will have a hay day with them when they start running around and barking! He just seems like the type that will want to play with them and lay with them and let them crawl all over him ... if Denali allows it that is.

 

[mtpond]

Your ponds are beautiful and your plants are doing so good. Can't wait until we start having more sunshine so my plants start growing faster.
Cute puppies.

 

[CountryEscape]

Thanks, MT. BTW, has this been an unusually cool spring for your area, or is this normal? It has been unusually warm here very early, then got really cold (couple of hard frosts, not just "frosts", then bouncing between 70's and 90's for highs the last month or so. Wish it would stay in the 70's for a while anyhow. Perfect weather, to me .... 75 or so for high during the day (with sunshine of course LOL) and mid 50's for lows. But, then I don't remember being given any authority to choose my weather, so will have to go with the flow. Hope your weather warms up soon!

 

[CountryEscape]

At the Botanical Gardens in St. Louis this past weekend, I saw some new irises that I'm just going to HAVE to try to find a source for! I think that some local places have them, maybe I can get some on sale, since they are past blooming time soon. They are called Japanese Iris, if I remember correctly, and the flower is very unique, much different than regular irises. Here are a few of the pics, these were growing on a floating platform next to a walkway out on the water where the koi were.

And, this grass carp (in the first pic, he's on the left, koi on right) was HUGE, well over 3', and the koi were at least 2.5-3' as well.

Lots of Chagoi and Soragoi (brown and gray), and they sure were friendly! Was funny, as people were trying to toss the food to the red and white and pretty colored koi, but the others usually got the food first. And OMG, those koi would open their mouth and expect you to drop the food right in there. LOL. Having trouble downloading pics at the moment, so will add them later of the koi and day lilies.

 

[fishin4cars]

oh i would love to find out where to get that second iris, that is so fine. i really like the daylily as well. i have one very similar but it doesn't have the edging around the edges of the pedals.

 

[CountryEscape]

Yep, those Japanese Irises are so unique, very different than what I call "normal" irises. I'm hoping to find some locally on sale, as my friend said she got her 2 at the local landscape place. Otherwise, google Japanese Iris, and there are tons on there, and it seems like they may be on sale already at many places.

 

[CountryEscape]

OK, downloading working again. Here are the other two daylilies that I thought were exceptionally beautiful. Hard to pick from the hundreds of varieties, and all of them marked! Wish the Japanese irises had tags so we would know the varieties.

And a pic of the koi, these guys are at least 2.5' long, probably closer to 3' The grass carp were larger, easily over 3' for several of them. I had no idea grass carp had no whiskers, and their heads are shaped really different than the koi, eyes set wider, mouth is smaller, more round, and seemed to be scaleless, too.
Oh, how I would love to have a patch of lotus like this!

 

[CountryEscape]

This morning Aris the turtle was scouring the bottom of the pond, didn't even come up for food. Wondering if he's eating the toad taddies that are down there? Still tons of them that I can see. Have yet to see a toad baby, though, but now that I've seen the pic from Addy, I'll be focusing MUCH smaller size! Was probably thinking they would be easy to see, but evidently 1/4" is large for the babies! Yikes!!!

 

[j.w]

Just beautiful photo's of those Iris and Day Lilies CE! What a neat place to visit!

Aris has to eat too and even if he is.........which he prolly is he can't eat them all!

 

[CountryEscape]

Yep, I figure free food for Aris, and there are still tons of them down on the bottom and on the sides when the sun is shining. Not worried he will eat them all. Have not seen the second turtle since that once day, so I guess it moved on, or is hiding really well.
I caved in a bought/saved some fantail calico goldies from Wal-Mart today. They had a new shipment in yesterday, and had some really beauties, but I had to hurry home for the horse shoer last night (he didn't show up, though, he forgot!) so waited until today, and either a bunch died, or they got sold, but there were still quite a few really pretty ones, just not as many with the longer tails. Got 3 larger sized ones (only maybe 3" long with tails) and 4 smaller sized ones (about 1.5-2"). Put them in my 30 gal aquarium for quarantine period, as I had only about 4 fish in there after taking out the little goldies and putting them in the pond. At first they all looked unhappy, but when I came back in from outside, they are all swimming around and I was pretty sure I heard a "Woohoo" come from that tank. LOL They look VERY happy now. I'm not sure which is worse, my addiction for plants and flowers or fish! At least with the fish, when/if I get overpopulated, I can sell or give away the excess.

 

[pondlover]

Such beautiful flowers. I live the purple iris.