Showing the Bubbling Urn. This is the highest the water has ever reached. The wires in the picture are to deter my Heron friend who has a habit of landing on the Bubbler.

After putting it off for a couple of days, I bit the bullet and went about fixing the Bubbling Urn in the big pond. I was reluctant to have to get in the water but I realized that it is only going to get colder so why put it off any longer. I had another job to do in this pond as well as repair the bubbler and that was to cut back the very large Thalia plant that has been there for several years. The worms got at it and stripped it of all of its leaves and as they don’t grow back again, there is nothing for it but to cut the entire plant back.

So, I donned my waders and put on my water shoes after making sure that everything that I might need was close at hand. This included all of the necessary tools for the repair, cutters for the Thalia and finally, the skimming net that I use to clean up the dead leaves that are always dropping into the pond. Actually into all of the ponds.

The water wasn’t too cold and I quickly got used to it as I went about my business. It had been many years since I had actually worked on the Bubbler other than to re-connect it not very long ago and I had forgotten just how I had hooked it up the first time around. I had a length of one inch corrugated rubber pipe to which I connected a reduced piece of the same material all the way down to half inch as the Bubbler has a half inch connection on it. I don’t like re-using this material if it has been in the water for too long as it gets brittle and loses any of its elasticity and in fact will snap completely in half with very little pressure but I opted to use this particular two foot piece as it was already set up on both ends. I had to struggle to get the Bubbler back up on the concrete blocks that it currently stands on and of course, managed to get wet in the process. I forgot to mention that the Urn is almost totally filled up with solid sediment that it has gathered over the years making it very heavy to manipulate. I eventually achieved it and laid it on its side while I reconnected the half inch coupling which I already had connected to the one inch pipe, the end of which was on dry land.

I then had to struggle the urn to an upright position taking great pains not to break the half inch pipe and level it up before turning my attention to the piece of pipe on the side of the pond. This was just  a simple connection to the 1200 gph motor which I then put inside a screen bag and back into the water. I turned it on by plugging it back in and the water jetted up from the Bubbler for about a foot. Very impressive.

With that out of the way, I turned off the pump again as I will not get in any of the ponds with any of the pumps running…just in case and turned my attention to trimming the Thalia. This was a simple enough job as even though the stalks are thick, they are comparatively soft and cut easily. Next job was to dredge as many of the dead leaves off the bottom. I hate doing this as it stirs up the dirt and releases Nitrogen into the water but it is better that leaving them in to really contaminate it. While I was at it, I trimmed the large umbrella plant and the canes that grows on the side.

The fish seem to be used to me as they just move quietly out of the way without any panic except for the one that I inadvertently picked up with the dredge net. Now it did panic and also made me jump with memories of the dead fish I uncovered the last time in the water.

Satisfied with my work, I clambered out of that pond and turned on all of the pumps and everything was working just fine. A couple of hours later, the new Aquadine filtering system was already cleaning up the water which prior to my stirring it up, had been crystal clear to where I could see the bottom of the pond plus everything in it.

I cleaned up my mess dumping the cut Thalia onto the compost, put away my tools, patted Richie on the head for a job well done and drove to Starbucks to claim my reward. Now when I go on the next hike, I won’t feel guilty about taking time off from the ponds.

Showing the cut back Thalia in the foreground.