moving day.

on friday we took on the dreaded task of cleaning out our big backyard fishpond.
in all the years we have had it (13) we have never had to clean out the entire thing.
and i hope i never have to again.
since last summer it had gotten so cloudy, that you couldn't even see the fish anymore...which is the whole point.

we had to empty all the water into giant stock tanks.
we borrowed most of them from friends.  (thanks joan & alden, and van!)
we also ended up buying one with another friend who also has to clean out his fish pond.

sorry if you lived in our neighborhood and smelled that nasty stench on friday...
pumping all that water out smelled disgusting!

we then transferred the fish one by one into the stock tanks while we dug out all the muck and silt from the bottom.

once it was all scrubbed, shop vac'd and hosed down, it looked much better.

my neighbor kids, sophie and lawson came to see what it looked like.
they even touched the fish that were in the tanks.

craig told lawson he may not let him out since he was wearing a KU shirt.  ...i think for a minute, lawson believed him.

we let all the muck from the tank water settle to the bottom and them pumped off the top stuff to put back in the pond, mixed in with some city water.
you have to have around 3/4 of the original water, or the fish can't survive.  it contains good bacteria that they need.
the guy helping is our friend ...my surrogate teenagers dad.
he has two giant fish ponds too, which means we get to help him when he does the same thing.

once the water got high enough, we were ready to put the fish back in.
sophie and lawson wanted to come back to watch, and amy was nice enough to take pictures for me since i was catching fish and was covered in muck.  THANKS AMY!!

i should probably warn you that these aren't just little gold fish.  they are obnoxiously huge koi with a few large goldfish.
a lot of people always ask if we know how big they are, so while we were moving them back, we took the time to measure them. 
i wouldn't let them weigh them though...i didn't want to hurt them. (yes corey, i am aware they are tough!)
no one else seemed to be brave enough to hop in with them, so i go the job.

yes, i am standing in a 6 ft tank with 18 huge fish swimming into my legs. 
i really tried not to think about it.
i would corral them over to the boys with the net and then they would measure them.

some of them didn't even care.
this picture was taken right after one of them decided he didn't want to have anything to do with being caught.

he splashed that filthy water right up into our faces...into my mouth.  NASTY!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 lawson thought it was great, but gretchen wasn't too impressed.

i love the kids' faces in the background of this pic. :)

most of the fish measured between 20 and 24 inches.  some were a little more than that.
the biggest one, which we call beluga, measured in at 31 inches long and 9 inches wide.  CRAZY!!!

 

 are you creeped out that i am holding those fish.  amy j was. :)

the fish busted a couple of the nets, because they were so heavy.
you had to carry them from the bottom.

it pretty much took all day to get it done.
i 'm glad it's over...i think the fish are too.

now, you can finally see all the fish, and all the way to the bottom.
it looks so much better.
and so did i after a much needed shower.

miley thanked lawson for his help with kisses.

later that evening when the fish pond was all back together, i checked on momma birdie and her 3 eggs.
they had  all hatched!

have a awesome memorial day!