The Snow is Gone

Except for the massive piles made by the plow, the snow is all gone. The ice on the pond is over half melted. Alas, one of our koi was found dead. The fate of the others is not yet known for they remain under what's left of the ice. The yard has been deformed by the series of freezes and thaws this winter, and I don't know if it will revert to its previous state once the temperature settles above freezing. If not, I'll have to fill in some of the depressions with my new abundant supply of silt in the pond.

My efforts to shore up the pond by the weir paid off, but the excess water found other unapproved outlets. The damage is much less than in years past, but more rocks will have to be mined from the mountainside and installed at the water's edge.

Mrs Vache Folle and I removed 7 grocery sacks of dog feces from the yard this weekend. Ordinarily, we keep the yard clear of fecal matter in a weekly "treasure hunt", but snow on snow on snow concealed the treasure until the recent thaw.

The yard is a soggy mess, so Jasper and Jesse have been tracking in mud. We can't seem to impress on them the importance of wiping their paws.

I see that there is a lot of cleaning up to be done what with leaves and sticks and other detritus all over the place. The deer ate a few of our plants, most notably the rhodies, but we are hopeful that they will grow new leaves. We tried to distract them with corn, but there's only so much corn you can put out. The pond overflow damage cost us a couple of perennials.

My scheme to terrace the back of the pond worked fairly well, and erosion from the mountainside was limited.

I aim to drag the deck furniture out of the shed this weekend. This action will insure that there will be at least one more snowstorm.