The pond dig has begun!

[CountryEscape]

OK, since I've had several people mention hail, and since we had that really bad storm while I was at work on 8/16, I got to thinking maybe the damage WAS hail! But, I looked back on pics prior to the storm (and the week just before the storm I was in UT) and found these pics. I don't see many slits in the leaves, but do see a "bite" out of the leaf the frog is on, and seeing those claws up close on the baby, I can sure see how they are doing the damage when they climb onto the leaves, even if the damage doesn't show up for several days. They may be "scoring" the pad surface, and the damage takes a day or two to show up.

So, now I have the wonder if the bulk of the damage may be from the storm, if we had hail here (I know other places reported quarter sized hail, and I was not home, so didn't think about it!).
But, just in case the turtles are munching on the leaves, I'll be making sure they get fed more than usual, although I usually feed them all they will eat every morning, to fill them up and keep them from munching on my lily pads, if that's what they are doing.

 

[sissy]

My lily leaves have holes in them too but found the snails were eating them from under .

 

[CountryEscape]

Are they tiny snails, Sissy? Again, I would think the fish would eat any snails off that arrived. The snails in my pond from the farm pond hang out in the waterfall. If they get dislodged and go over the waterfall, they are food. I've looked at so many lily leaf undersides it's not funny, trying to see if I can see anything that would be causing the damage. I'm at a loss, except for the turtles munching on them every now and then, and their claws doing damage to the new leaves before they even reach the surface. I may try to remove all leaves that have damage, but that would leave me with very few leaves, and at this point, if I remove the yellowing leaves, the rest look healthy, just have slits in them. If I got a confirmation that it was something that removing all the damaged leaves would cure it, I would do that, though. So far, just getting guesses, and I can't confirm any of them except the turtle presence.

 

[sissy]

It is the little snails

like this. I have some of my lilies in the stock tank and that has no fish .i was fertilizing them in there with the lotus ,but they seem to not like the lotus leaves because they are fine .I get up in the morning and sometimes see the snails on top of the leaves

 

[CountryEscape]

Frogs and lilies .... lilies and frogs. Seems that's about all I take pics of lately in my pond ... oh and the turtles! Thought this was cute, as the little guy almost looks like he/she is riding piggyback on the big bullfrog. And, fact that 4 of the lilies were open in the same pic made it fun as well. Then, camera battery absolutely refused to take just one more pic of the peach colored lilies I got from Addy ... 4 of them in full bloom this afternoon, too!

 

[CountryEscape]

Found new batteries for the camera. Woohoo!!! Here are the peach lilies that are open this afternoon. Got them from Addy. Still my favorite lilies in the ponds ... but I got one of those King of Siam tropicals, so once it blooms, it may bump for preference! These all look to be page pink, but I swear they are more peach colored. Oh well, guess it's the lighting and the camera ....

 

[addy1]

I think that is the colorado, blooms constantly, usually has 5-6 blooms up at one time.

 

[CountryEscape]

Yes, and the blooms stand on stems above the water. It's my best bloomer, not as good as in your pond, I'm sure, but it does bloom a lot. Now that I have found the correct fertilizer, I'm hoping to keep the lilies blooming a little while longer.

 

[CountryEscape]

While I was driving my tractor and moving manure, I noticed a great blue heron coming in for a landing on my farm pond. Watched him while I worked, but he circled around and left. Glad he's checking out the farm pond, not so glad he was in the area, but I always figured they would come to the farm pond as it's shallow and easy pickings for fish, frogs, turtle meals.

 

[CountryEscape]

Watching my 4 koi babies, I can now tell them apart, and noticed that one of the yellow headed ones (there are 2) has butterfly fins! The blackest one has orange fins and little orange on it's head, and the one with orange head has black and white kind of stripey looking blotches on it's side. Really getting pretty, and they come to eat with the koi now. These pics are taking with my older camera, not as good of clarity, since have to crop to zoom, but you can see the babies.
Here's the blackest baby at the bottom of the pic, next to what could be his dad ...

Then, the two baby koi with yellow on their heads got captured on the same photo, they are in the top left of the pic. The big orange koi is the female I saw spawning.

And then the koi baby with mostly orange head, and black/white/stripey/blotchey sides is in this pic, right next to who could be it's dad!

Found out today that Olympus is telling me I dropped my camera, so warranty is not going to cover the white screen. It sure looks like I dropped it on something sharp, too, but I know for a fact I did not. But, my word means nothing. Going to cost $90 to get it repaired. :-(

 

[j.w]

Nice photos of your koi CE and babies are growing up pretty too.

Sorry you got ripped off w/ your camera. Might not have dropped it but maybe got bumped real hard,who knows. What can ya do if they say no.........not much, they win, you lose. At least it's fixable.

 

[CountryEscape]

Yeah, and I need to just tell them to go ahead and repair it. Never know, I probably did bump it against something, but not after the last pic was taken and the screen did that. I'm positive of that, as it was only an hour in between and I would have remembered. But, like you said, they win, I lose, suck it up and pay the price. :-(
Oh, and I'm not planning to eat any mushrooms I find in my yard! They are beautiful in their own way, but not something I want to take the chance and eat.

 

[CountryEscape]

OK, I'm a bug freak, shoot me! Love all the Praying Mantises on and around my house this year!

And, I had no idea that the sweet potato vines blooomed! I found about 12 blooms, most of which were pretty much underneath. And, realized that they are open in the a.m., closed by evening, like the morning glories.

I have 2 "vines" in a planter on the edge of my waterfall. Won't do anything that gets this tall next year, though. Really wanted it to vine over the edge of the waterfall, between it and the bog, but instead it grew tall and full! Can't see the top of the waterfall very well now, but the plant sure is pretty.

 

[j.w]

Love that bug too CE and that plant has a pretty bloom and foliage too. Does it die over the winter or will you have to dig it up and replant it somewhere else?

 

[sissy]

yep the light colored sweet potato vines get a pink flower that fades to white as time goes on .I forgot to get some this year .