pond scum

Today was the day for cleaning out the pond in the back yard. The bottom of it was covered with several inches of decomposing plant matter and fish crap, basically it was slime ... muck ... sludge ... goo ... other icky things that I can't think of. The fish, especially the new baby ones, could hide in the slime. It was disgusting.

Before we could clean it out, we had to catch all the fish. It took all three of us (Mom, Dad, and I) to catch the fish and put them in a smaller pool so we could empty the pond and clean it. I got to touch almost all of the fish. I like touching fish. They feel cool.

me, touching a fish

The part I'm trying to forget about is the slime. First, we would be trying to scoop out fish and scoop out slime instead. Sometimes we would actually scoop the fish up, but we couldn't tell at first because there was so much slime in the net. Then we started cleaning the slime out of the pond - Dad would suck it into the shop vac or shovel it into a bucket and Mom and I would haul it to dump it in different corners of the yard, of course getting plenty of slime on ourselves. We weren't as bad as Dad, though, he was actually standing in it.

a baby fish covered in slime

Dad's slimy sock feet

I couldn't wait to take a shower. Now, I feel good. I feel great. I feel clean and slime-free!

the cleaned pond, filling with water again