#i say that because the plastic plants look like lillies lol

[blubushie]

NEW MAGGIE PICS DROPPED

(my mom bought flowers and she just made herself comfortable)

OH BEBBY OH...

[standardquip]

Big "pond" Update

Previous update here.

Summary of last update: I had to disassemble my huge pond into 3 kiddie pools and 3 mixing bins to save the plants. That didn't stop wildlife from moving in.

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My water lillies are in dire need of being split. So I bought a LARGE kiddie pool (that is also deeper), and a bunch of fabric pots, and I started trying to split my lillies last week.

The problem I noticed early was that I had waited so long to split my lillies that most of them were splitting into 3-4 plants (sometimes even 5 or 6) instead of 2.

Unsurprisingly, I ran out of fabric pots and I also had to run out and buy ANOTHER big kiddie pool to house all the extra lillies.

I'd only managed to empty 2 of the 3 mixing tubs so far. I still had the 3 small kiddie pools and that last mixing tub to deal with.

(the third kiddie pool is off-camera.)

Here's where I'm at with the 2 additional big kiddie pools: the top one is already completely full and the bottom one is about half full of lillies already.

I THINK I can fit the rest of the lillies (once they're split) into this large pool and then ONE of the smaller pools, but these large pools are only $18 at walmart so I may just buy a third one because....

Now I have fish [maybe].

Somehow.

I've only had a real, in-ground pond for like 4 years. But no, the fish show up this year. In a god damned kiddie pool.

It's been a while since I've seen frog tadpoles (the toad tadpoles took over years ago) but I don't know, guys. These look suspiciously very fish-like to me!!! What say you???

So I guess what I thought were frog eggs were actually fish eggs. How did they get there?? I have no freaking idea. And why now? IN A KIDDIE POOL. REALLY???? So if they manage to survive til Autumn, I guess I'll start an aquarium after all!

[edit: I'm now questioning myself. These could still be frog tadpoles!]

But wait, there's more!

I had a red slider turtle stop by last year in my big pond. Every year there's always a turtle that comes by, but they never stayed for long. Until last year. Last year, that turtle stayed ALL YEAR.

The turtle that passes through is very young. It's not that big. But today, a slider showed up that was adult-sized. I assume it's the same one from last year. It must be hella confused lol. I picked it up and moved it to one of the large kiddie pools. I didn't get a photo, sorry.

Who knows if it will stay, but hey, updates.

Additionally, I have these new things in most of the kiddie pools as well:

These little clusters of green/yellow things. They look a bit like mini corn on the cobs. I have never seen them before, but I'm pretty sure they're eggs of some kind. From what? I dunno. I'm not interested in looking it up currently. But if you recognize them, feel free to tell me in the comments/reblogs.

[edit: I caved and looked it up. They appear to be caterpillar poop! 😂 Probably dropped into the pools from the trees above them.]

I am surprised, amazed, and baffled by all of this happening this year. I don't know if this will force me to try to build the replacement pond earlier or not. I don't even know if my lillies will survive the winter in these flimsy plastic pools (though they probably will considering they've survived this long already).

(Will the POOLS survive the winter though? I guess that's another argument entirely) Anyway, The fabric pots are arriving next week, so we'll see if I can ever finish splitting these lillies and if all these eggs hatched by then.