Cleaning the Pond

"Cleaning out the Pond" is something that has been on my list of Things To Do for about six years. I'm not sure what possessed me this May, but I made a firm decision that this was the summer that it was really going to happen. And then I landed in the hospital, and now day time temps have skyrocketed to the 90s with matching humidity levels--perfect weather to dig out duck shit and leaf rot. This is actually quite far along in the process. I started by dragging out our wet/dry vac and removing the top 12" or so of slimy water. Below that was solid sludge that wouldn't move. So, Simon set to work with a shovel, flinging the sewage willy nilly all around. Here is after two days of such removal:

The process required alternating between shoveling out the solid mass of slime, sticks and various debris and hosing down the sides to soften up the hardened shit mass on the bottom.

By now things are getting exciting.  We removed about 5 bricks, at least 20 large stones (Frederick really did love to fling stones into the pond), a small plastic elephant, a small plastic lion, a small school bus, a very large cement snail (which I only vaguely remember Thomas buying me for a Mother's Day present many years ago, but I may be imagining that), a trampoline spring and several very, very rotten duck eggs.  Still no sign of Simon's missing car keys.

There's hardly any left, now.

This is a small sampling of what we pulled out.  I did spray down the wall of the building next to us, but I think it's stained permanently.

And here they are, with the pond about half full of clean water and here are the ducks enjoying a swim and crapping copiously.

Now the plan is to do this every Spring so that rather than 3' of sludge we will only have to deal with a few inches...or so we hope.