Whats that smell ?

As our first winter passed and everything around us began to thaw out we wondered....                                                     "Whats That Smell"

Our first project was to find out what the smell was in the back yard. For the first few months we figured one of the neighbors septic system must keep backing up. Well one day while down wind from our 5500 gallon Koi pond I realized where the smell was coming from. When we moved into the house, the pond water was green with nothing but frogs swimming around. You couldn't even see the bottom. I was told to put a few fish in and they would actually clean the pond by eating the algea. Not knowing the first thing about a fish pond, I listened to the advise of the person that let the pond get to this point. I went out and bought a dozen koi, each about the size of a quarter. Due to the bad water quality we lost seven fish within two weeks. At this point I decided I better get some better advice. I searched the web and went to a local aquarium and pond store. Loaded with my newfound wealth of knowledge, I purchased a pool pump that circulated 5000 gallons of water an hour, a skimmer that we needed to be mounted mounted outside the six inch thick concrete wall of the pond. I needed to call in a professional concrete person to do the cutting , a skimmer pump that moved almost 3000 gallons of water per hour, PVC pipe for a drain and water flow system, a waterfall filter system and a UV light to sterilize the water as it flows through the filter system. 

    The first step was to get the five fish we had left and put them in a baby pool in the garage. Then we started to draining the water in the pond. The more water that ran down the driveway the more apparent it was what the mystery smell was. The pond is four to five feet deep and the bottom that we could never see was three feet thick of rotting leaves from the four maple trees that hung over the pond. The pond had no filtration system and was never cleaned. I put on my fishing waders grabbed a pitch fork and a wheel barrow and gagged my way through two days of mucking out the bottom of the pond. Next,  I had to put in all the plumbing and filtration systems. When all of the filter and drainage systems were in place,  I had a few tons of river rocks delivered, recruited a few of our younger relatives with strong backs and good knees and we lined the bottom of the pond with the rock. Then we filled the pond, put the fish back in and let nature take its course. Its been three years and our original five fish have reproduced into thirty two fish. We also have the local wildlife raising there young at the edges of our pond and the bird population stops by to get a drink from the waterfall. This was a big investment of time and money for us that we did not expect. But we do enjoy what it brings to our Farmhouse surroundings.