December 2009

After several days of lows hitting 11 degrees the pond is masked by a heavy layer of ice. I tried to check the thickness of the ice yesterday, but couldn't get a good reading. Since the water remained flowing through it the edges of the ice where the water was moving are tappered. The best I could get was about three inches, but I have a feeling in the center it is much thicker. In the preformed ponds in front of the house where there was no water flowing I can see that the ice goes all the way to the shelf, 6 to 8 inches deep.

The water in the main pond continued to flow quite nicely durning this cold snap. The waterfall gathered some ice on the sides, but kept the upper pond open where it went in, and also where it flows out into the stream.


I did worry some about the stream getting clogged with ice and running over, but the water continued to flow under the sheet of ice. That movement kept the lower pond open where the water entered it.



The fish hudled at one end of the pond and seemed to be suspended as their metabolism has slowed. I easily managed to count 26 fish in this one spot at the foot of the pond.