Every few months, the kids get in the pond to clean it out. The pond is right underneath a very large oak tree so no matter how hard we try, it is always full of leaves. In the warmer months, they love this job. And they usually find all kinds of treasures. Interestingly, we found tadpoles which is a little unusual this time of year.
One of our favorite neighbors moved to VA and we inherited many things from him; one was a pond liner. So we added a new pond and have begun planting life around it and filling it with red-bellied minnows. We have a bait shop across the street and we try to support them as much as we can. The kids walk over on processing day for ice and they walked over to purchase the minnows.
In addition to sitting next to the pond in Spring and Fall for school, the dogs also enjoy taking a daily splash in the pond to cool off. The cats drink water out of the pond and it provides a habitat for the frogs and toads every Spring. It is also the habitat for Herbert, our homestead water snake.