Finished. For today, anyway.

All the surviving fish are in the inside wooden pond. The four small turtles in there look overwhelmed. 

I have to put the lights for the basking areas down a bit because it's not warm enough on the platforms. The little ones are basking anyway, which is cute. 

In the works is a charcoal filter system for the fish pond, but ... later. I am so very tired. This week has been exhausting and full of panic and rush. 

Pictures to show my work: 

My reed fencing came in. I think it sets off the garage corner nicely. 

You can see just a bit through it, and it gives the turtles extra security and privacy.

Here you can actually see one of the little turtles basking.

The space behind the wooden pond allows the kids and me to watch the turtles up close, and to feed them.

 I got some dandelion greens on special at the store and I propped them up like real plants on the basking area. As you can see, the small turtles have already torn at them and pulled some out.

The big turtles eat what's hanging in the water.

And my kid, doing a turtle puzzle. He loves his turtles.

Project For Later

Apparently you can build your own floating turtle dock with styrofoam, expanding foam sealant, and cement.

I'll have to look into this further.

Super Huge Update

Things that have happened in the last two weeks:
1. We got a new turtle. Her name is Betty and she is the biggest turtle in the pond.
2. We've decided to winter the turtles indoors (garage) and redo the pond while they're all out.
3. I took lots of pictures.

1. So about Betty... She came to us from someone on Craigslist who was moving and couldn't bring her to where she was going. She was very well cared for and the person giving her away made sure we had the right environment for her before she even told us where she lived. Betty was found crossing a road as an adult and was taken home to a pond where she's been for five or so years. She is hand-friendly and not nearly as skittish as the other turtles in the pond.





2. I cleaned out the garage and made room for both a car and a turtle habitat. We plan to get a couple of tubs or tanks for the turtles to swim in, but also to have an "outdoor" area with grass and plants and places for them to crawl around on. To have the appropriate amount of water for all the turtles, though, we're going to have to have two areas with tubs. I'm thinking the small kiddie pool for the little turtles and a larger, sturdier stock tank for the big ones. The whole area will be fenced off with two foot tall fencing; since Betty has a nine-inch shell, we have to make the fence over 18 inches, so I figure two feet is a good measurement so we won't have to re-make everything when she's full grown (12 inches). There will be heaters in the water and lights for basking, and I really hope they like it in there since they'll be there for a few months.

3. More pictures. I love watching these guys bask so happily and I can see 'em all from my bedroom window without startling them.



4. Bonus video:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/1UW9abFx5WGHvr4UjAWTTEGiZnxpabpekDmw0TBMsWs?feat=directlink

Great Success!!

A lot this week

A lot has happened this week.

I took the pump back and got a smaller one, a filter box, and a fountain attachment for less money than I had spent on the super huge pump.

After grabbing some large branches from my mom's yard, I made a new turtle basking area. It's a shelf, braced with large landscaping bricks, with the wood on top all locked together. I hope they start using it soon because it's within the view of my bedroom window so we all can watch the turtles being awesome turtles. I also put their little houses underneath it and braced those with other bricks.

We set up the pump, the filter box, and the fountain attachment in the pond this morning. We set it to the three-tiered setting and it's making a lovely noise out there right now. Very relaxing. I'm going to check the filter tomorrow morning to see how it's doing. I wrapped the cord around the top of the filter to try and keep the lid on in case of turtle accidents and then I put the cord under the brick the box is mounted on.

And, on the inside of the house, we have new additions to Baby Timmy's tank. I was at $petstore last night and saw that some fish were on sale. Some SPOTTED fish were on sale. Dalmatian Mollies - and, of course, every fire truck has to have a Dalmatian, right? So I bought two for $1 each, a boy and a girl, because of the fire truck that the boys bought for Baby Timmy. We have enough tank room for the two of them and the itty bitty turtle, so it works out. I also bought a cave for the tank and the first thing Timmy did was swim inside and stick his head out the window. I wish I had had my camera ready for that because it was so funny. The fish are named "Spotty Fish" and "Spotty Fish."

Pictures:

 Happy basking turtle.

Dragonfly! Baby Timmy's new friends.

I found the turtle like this when I walked out. I wasn't even noticed in the first picture, and right after the second picture, there was a turtle hidden in a basket.

 BABY TIMMY














Hi there.

This is my new wooden basking area. It's all sturdy and has enough room for multiple turtles. 

 Meet Mork and Mindy, two new rescues. The husband doesn't know about these yet so hey, honey, if you read this, we have two new ones I got while you were sick.

This is a turtle in my reeds. Kind of hard to see but if you look closely, you can see a shell.
















And these are my smashed reeds. 

Snails and Plants

Got some large plastic pots to upgrade my planting. I put my three small clay pots with my watermint cuttings into the long shallow pot and sank it into the pool with rocks. The water doesn't cover the plants but it reaches just far enough into the clay pots to wet the roots of the plants. It seems to be ok at that level.

With one of the large pots, I un-potted one of my big watermint plants and put that into it with some rocks. It should take over the whole pot that way, and I hope it will pretty fast. I love those plants and they are crammed into the six inch pots, which isn't great for them, so I hope they expand to fill all the room they want in these new big ones. I'll wait a week and see how this watermint is doing in the large pot and then I'll probably transplant the other one too.

There were snail eggs slathered all over the bottom of the original watermint pot. I saved a few of the blops in a jar so the kids could see the process, but I put the pot back where it was as well so some of them will hatch in the nursery water. Snail eggs do look kinda gross. Like snot with dots.

In other news, I talked to someone who used to build ponds for people and he says I definitely need a pump to keep the water moving. He says it keeps the fish healthier and the plants will grow better. I'll work on that next.

Firetruck for Baby Timmy

Well, the boys really, really, REALLY wanted to get something for Baby Timmy, so, when we went to Petsmart to use up my $3 off coupon, the boys chose this for him: 

It was the highlight of their day to give it to Baby Timmy. Now both boys and the turtle can play firetruck.

Turtle Island

We have Timmy (of course), Chewy (the light colored one), and we have a male and female that need to be named. Any ideas?

I am so tired. I love my pond so much but the last two days I've had a sick kid so I haven't gotten out there as much. My pennywort came in today and my hardy lilies came in two days ago. I want to plant the lilies but I lack pots and stuff to hold them; I think I want to just sink them into the pool with gravel and mesh pots or ... something. The pennywort will grow just about anywhere, so I was thinking of putting them over the sides of the turtle islands.

OH, I forgot to update about the islands.

I'm making 3x3 wooden platforms (sanded), floated on PVC pipe (capped), with two ramps each. Eventually I hope to have pots on the tops for leafy plants and mesh pots hanging off the sides for those plants (like pennywort and watermint) that can be grown in up to a foot of water. This would eliminate the need for soil and pots inside the pond. I could also, in the same vein, connect the mesh pots with the water lilies to the anchor point of the islands OR I could hang them (weighted) underneath the island itself. I'm not sure of those yet.

One of these days one of the islands might have a sandy pit in it for the eggs, but I don't have to worry about that for many, many months at this point. At the other end of the pool where the shade cover is right now I was thinking of doing a 10x10 or an 8x8 island and taking the shade out. The island itself would provide plenty of shade and it would look a lot better. And it would be fun and easy to maintain since ... well, it would hold more plants and would be something else to fiddle with. Basking, shade, plants, and a hideaway for the fish and turtles underneath - what more could they ask for?

I just need to make sure I'm using the right wood before I end up making islands I can't use. I also have to figure a good way of attaching the ramp; I was thinking tie rope through holes on the ramp but I don't want the turtles gnawing at them.

Babies Everywhere!

All three of my water mint cuttings have roots now, just within the last couple of days. This means I will be making more cuttings and moving these three to their new soil-less pot.

And I have multiple instances of mosquito fish babies! Some in the spa and a lot in the pond. They look like tadpoles and I was really confused when I first saw them because of that. I wondered what kind of creature had spawned in my pond! So cute. Now I'm just waiting for the goldfish to spawn, but since mosquito fish have live birth and goldfish lay eggs, I think the goldfish will have a harder time of it.

I built a basking platform in the middle of the pool but I haven't seen anyone use it yet. I may try to redo it and make it more stable later, when it stops being rainy at night.

I kind of want to just create an island.

Change of Plans

The car had other ideas for today, none of which included going across town to rescue a turtle.

What it did manage to do, however, is make it home after going to pick up three turtles from a couple who had been raising turtles for 18 years. I learned a lot about feeding, wintering, and hatching, and I got to take home three new pond-mates for Timmy.

One is named Chewy, because, when he was a very small turtle, a dog used him as a chew toy. His shell is a little wonky and he's a little bit of a different color (lighter around the edges), but that'll just help me distinguish him from the others.

The other two (whose names I forgot to get but I'll add those in later) are a male and laying female. They both look enough different from Timmy so I'm not worried about forgetting who is who. I am going to have to build a basking dock with access to sand or dirt, too, which coincides with my garden ideas. I have some planning to do!

Friends for Timmy! So far everyone is fine but I will be obsessively checking on them throughout the day and night. Also, I need to go pick up some oranges.

Floating Success

Saw Timmy perched on his floating dock I tied out there. It was the one that was in his tank that he used as a sunning area and, since it floats and has an end that sits down in the water, I stuck it to one of the shade tent poles with a bungee cord. And he was on it today! Yay!