Post your winter ponds pics

[oldmarine]

Use driveway motion sensors. They'll drive you nuts for awhile, but everytime a coon gets near your pond they should see a crazy person runnig at them screaming with baseball bat. It works for me. Now they wont even enter my yard. Of course I have the alarm near a window so they can hear it too. They're not stupid.

 

[DrDave]

I have one mounted on a tree and aimed at my ponds. If a coon visits at night it goes off and I make sure it goes away.

 

[oldmarine]

Hey, it works well for me, but you have to be consistant. I have two sensors and two alarms. One of the alarms is at a partically opened window on the front porch where the racoon's come over the fence. They seem to have a regular trapline that they run for food at night. I have them conditioned so when they here the front alarm, they know what's next. The barking dog, and the screaming old man with the baseball bat. Mr. Button's and I have only really had to do that drill about a dozen times since last spring. Now it's just a matter of letting the dog out to run & bark.

 

[sissy]

I love looking at everyones winter pics they are great .I moved to VA from NJ to retire 6 years ago and I thought maybe I got away from some of the snow and my best friend the snow shovel .Well wrong the last 2 years we have been hit by snow storms here and my snow shovel is no longer lonely .I built my first pond 5 years ago and found out after I bought 2 koi that they grow fast and 2 years ago I built a larger one and built a bridge over it and I now have baby fish too .I live near the North Carolina border and it has been very cold and now we are getting temps in the high 40's .retired and shoveling LOL

 

[sissy]

winter pond at Splendors Gate

 

[sissy]

I used to use all the pvc pipes to plumb and stuff but have changed to the abs black pipe ,because it is stronger and less prone to cracking splitting or just breaking in colder weather .I'm not sure this will help anyone ,but after my neighbors pvc pipes froze and cracked and water ran out of pond I changed because I spoke to a plumber friend and he said abs is stronger in colder weather and is slightly stiffer and thicker .It seems to be the same to work with and to glue up and I changed all mine 3 years ago .No problems yet .I cleaned them well before using them and my friend said there should be nothing in the pipe to harm the fish .

 

[kirscp]

Here is a non-winter picture from two years ago:

Here is now:

Here are some of the koi: The smaller ones are the babies from two years ago.

And here's the hole I fell through a few weeks ago, that pond deicer works great, especially when there is a snow cover. Temps here have been in the -10's F, that's -23 for you Canadians. Sad thing, I fell through again last night, happens every year. At least its only a leg that gets wet. I need to check the light bulbs and check on fish. Last winter I had to pull half a dozen koi out, as they were sick. Saved all but one. Last thing I want is a dead fish killing off all the others. I don't remember what I have for bulbs in the deicer, I believe its two 40 watt and one 60 watt bulb. I'd check, but I'd end up falling through again!

 

[digginponds]

kirscp- I fell through meself last week,and the week before.......It must be contagious LOL

 

[sissy]

took new pic today 46 here ice melting ponds a mess redoing parts of it pulling air lines hands are frozen my nose is cold my toes are cold too .Thought since it was nice out I maybe could some pond stuff done

 

[kirscp]

kirscp- I fell through meself last week,and the week before.......It must be contagious LOL

Glad I'm not the only one! I can just hear my koi laughing at me every time it happens.

 

[DrCase]

:lol: Ive Been there before

 

[sissy]

geeze can't wait for spring here spring here spring this way no this way .Never listens we got rain thunder lightening sleet hail snow what next .all in 1 day glad I got some work done yesterday and now supposed to be in the 50's this weekend glad this is the last of january gotta get through febuary then march .This weather sucks big time .Got everything together to work on pond this week end hopefully the weather will cooperate

 

[addy1]

Well our first "big" storm this winter. 12 inches fell last night, these pictures are taken at 4 am. One of those wet snows that stuck to everything. The pond is the flat area! lol You can see the stream looking for dips in the snow heading down the hill.

Going out this am to use my tractor to plow our drive all 200 feet of it, and get some neat snow covered shots.

 

[addy1]

This fat little guy enjoyed the snow and eating.

View attachment 4479

View attachment 4480

 

[j.w]

Looks really pretty and I'm jealous. We have sun hear and maybe in the 50's later on :lol: