For some time my husband had this idea that he wanted to put a pond in the backyard. The idea did not appeal to me. I just could not understand why he wanted to go through all that trouble. But now that we have the pond, there are some benefits that I have been appreciating.
It took a long time to get the pond completed. My husband first dug the hole, but it set empty for several months. Eventually we purchased a new pond liner on Craigslist for $10. We framed the pond with rocks and then we used a rain catcher to fill the pond with the rainwater. Finally, we bought a filter and a couple of Comet Goldfish.
My husband’s big idea for the pond was to raise our own Tilapia, but I don’t like the idea of eating Tilapia. So for now we have our Comet Goldfish. Our neighbor gave us two more to add to the pond, but one just disappeared one day. We have three that have done well and grown quite a bit.
It has been interesting to see how the pond has attracted so many frogs. I have never really been into frogs, but now that I have them in my backyard, I have learned to appreciate them. They are fun to watch and listening to them is interesting.
We bought a water lily for the pond and it is so beautiful when it blossoms early in the day. I love seeing the frogs hanging out on the lily pad. The pond is a source of water for our many bird visitors too.
The biggest challenge to having our backyard pond is keeping it clean. It takes a bit of effort, but now that the fish and the frogs have become part of my homesteading life, I want to keep them. My morning and evening routine includes feeding those fish. We just need to be better at cleaning the pond.
