The seasonal-transition thunderstorms are coming fast and heavy now, with summer right around the corner. We’ve had small hail up to about nickle-sized twice in the past two weeks. The first forsythia pic was taken about three weeks ago before the leaves budded out. That is one of the only house pictures where you can actually see the solar panels on the roof. The last three pics were taken over a month later on June 11th, with everything in the front flower bed blooming nicely and the Roses of Texas still very “not” yellow. The rest were just this week. There are two new rose bushes under Phoebe’s window and 2 new upright yews along the north fence in back.
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The pond is running well with some new plumbing and the liner almost where it needs to be. The fountain has two pumps in tandem now to maximize flow when in use. A 3-way valve before the 2nd pump allows it to be turned off, maintaining internal circulation with just the one bottom pump. The bottom and filter pumps now both run 24/7, giving the entire habitat great circulation and maximum aeration with the fountain running.
We are close to making it a year-round feature at this point. As long as it can be cleaned out reasonably well, one small circulation pump running over the winter should keep it well maintained 365 days/yr. The design allows everything to settle into the low center spot, so cleaning should be just a matter of running a sump pump in there for a few minutes to clear out the sediment. It will take another annual cycle of liner treatment and testing the cleaning procedure before attempting a winter with dormant fish living in it.
Re-finishing the deck and fabricating a new railing for it is the only planned big project remaining for the year.