Snailing, Snailing - And Snail Haiku

This week I managed to convince a few friends that it would be a great idea to go with me to the lake and help collect sufficient snails to keep my garden pond clean. Sometimes we have a fairly mild winter and the snails winter over in the bottom of the pond, among the decayed leaves. Sometimes we have a very harsh winter. The past winter proved to be the latter.

And in case anyone's worried, I checked the Wisconsin DNR website to determine which snails could not be collected. None of the forbidden snails reside in the lakes in our area, so armed with a bucket for snails and fortified with a lunch from a local restaurant, the four of us trekked along to the lake.

Intrepid Snail-Collecting Assistants

At first, it seemed to be pretty slim pickins, but when we ventured to another spot, we found several snails just begging to be noticed. Without soliciting help, we also gained a good number of snails from a group of kids who wondered what on earth we were doing - and then joined in the exciting hunt with us.

'Pick me! Pick me!'

Kate's lovely hand adorned with happy snail

Snails in bucket

along with some sand and a reflection of the  trees overhead

The snaily shoreline

And actually, they were in slightly deeper water this year.

New Home Away From Home

Our garden pond, where the snails will enjoy keeping the algae off the rubber liner

Thank you to my friends for accompanying me to the lake. I don't know about them, but I had a great time - and our pond will be very happy and healthy because of their efforts. A few pond plants and some snails keep our pond clean all summer and fall. 

Now I just need to get a few fish.

P.S. If you're interested in building your own garden pond, here's the post I wrote on the making of our garden pond.

Snail Haiku:

Living in the lake
Woke up in a big bucket
Mom and dad you there?

C'mon, you know  you want to add your own Snail Haiku!  Feel free to put it in a comment below. :-)

(I never claimed to be good at this.)

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The Pond Garden

 Green Rippled Reflections

Before you, you will see three little waterfalls and a rubber duckie at the mouth of the stream. The green and white in the pond are the reflections of clouds and leaves, from the maple and basswood. A person could really enjoy sitting next to the pond...if only the mosquitoes would stay away!

I don't understand why the word 'mosquito' has to have an 'e' when it's made plural. I don't like the way that looks. I suppose it's to make the long vowel sound for the 'o.' But there should be exceptions for words that just look better without the extra vowel. Mosquitos.  Every Bolivian knows how to pronounce that.

 Sunken Treasure

Ferns and Mossy Rocks

I don't know the scientific name for the weed in the upper right of the photo, but it seems to have appeared in this neck of the woods in the past 5-6 years. And now it's everywhere! At least it has very shallow roots and is easy to pull, if one feels so inclined. I wish I had noticed it before I took the photo, and that I had felt so inclined.

 The Odd Ball

This is actually a snail on a rock in the pond. The white is from reflections of the clouds overhead and the white at the top of the photo is from a ripple in the pond. I thought it was such an odd photo, the snail breaking the surface of the water.

 Lloyd, Bridger, Misty

My dad loved my dogs. This photo was taken in June of 2008. My dad died in December of 2010, and I'm always happy when I come across another photo of him. I think he's trying to get the chocolate out of his teeth or something. My dad still makes me laugh.

 Faking it

I don't remember if this little fella's name is 'Adagio' or 'Largo.' I think we had one of each. I do know that for a long time I kept him in the bathroom sink where he fooled a lot of people. Now he lives on a mossy rock at the edge of the pond. He likes it out there. Besides, he doesn't want to get into it with the alligator I keep in the shower. When the water hits the alligator just right, his jaws and tail move, just from the force of the shower stream. Every shower needs an alligator. Every pond needs a turtle. Every blog post needs an end -  this one especially.

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