Now that spring is chugging along – in fits and starts; we had a little snow on Thursday and 62° on Saturday – we’ve started focusing on yard work. Pulling weeds, laying down bark chips, and one Really Big Project: cleaning the pond.
But wait! you might be thinking. What did you do with all the koi? Yeah…about that…
(Side note: I was browsing local house listings just for fun and came across this one. I wanted to scream):
Anyway. You may recall we had a couple dozen koi in our pond. They were very low maintenance and survived our first two winters here just fine, even beneath a thick layer of ice. Well. We didn’t get much snow this past winter, but it was a lot colder than the previous years. Unfortunately, our pond froze solid all the way through, and we lost every single fish, not to mention a whole flock of frogs. 😦
We should have kept the water circulating to prevent it from freezing. Pretty basic, but they’d done just fine up until then, so we didn’t bother. Sad lesson learned. If there’s a silver lining (fish popsicles!…J/K), we had planned on doing a deep cleaning of the pond anyway. Now we were able to drain it without worrying about what to do with the koi. It was a very dirty and smelly job; years’ worth of leafy debris had left a 6″ layer of decomposing muck covering the bottom, and Dick had added several buckets of reeds that were completely out of control, their roots spreading and tangling together. We still need to scrub the sides before refilling it, but once I hook up the pump and filter, that baby’s going to sparkle.
And yes, we will add more coy koi.
The other big project was all Tara. She built a shelving system for the detached garage custom measured to hold all our plastic storage bins. I was super impressed with how it turned out! My wife knows her way around a chop saw, which is pretty sexy if you ask me.
The bins slide out of their cubbyholes for easy access and each one is labeled. Before, they were just stacked in piles, which made combing through them a real chore. Hats off to Tara for this ingenious solution! Decorating for the holidays is going to be so much simpler now. (Yes, those are all Halloween and Christmas bins. I told you I had a problem.)
It hasn’t been all work and no play. I told ya I was taking last Friday off for a fun PTO day. Mission accomplished. I wanted to check out Lion’s Den Gorge Nature Preserve, a 73-acre park on the shore of Lake Michigan 25 minutes north of Milwaukee. It features 100′ clay bluffs, wooded forests, wetlands, bridges, and a staircase to the beach. I was not disappointed.
I’m officially adding “catch a sunrise from Lion’s Den Gorge” to my bucket list. A winter sunrise though, ’cause it’s a 90-minute drive, so I’d have to be out the door by 3:30 a.m. in the summertime.
On my way back to the car, I was looking at a map of the area in one of the park kiosks and noticed “Port Washington lighthouses” 10 minutes to the north. Now, Port (as the locals call it, much like Fort Atkinson is Fort) wasn’t even on my radar, but the day was early and ripe for adventure, so I made the trek. And discovered a charming little town with a picturesque harbor and historic main street.
It was conveniently lunchtime, so I stopped into a pub with an upper deck that featured floor to ceiling windows that looked out on the marina. Enjoyed a very tasty fried grouper sandwich and, of course, a Bloody Mary.
After chowing and slurping it all down, I checked out both lighthouses, one dating to 1860 and the other, 1935.
Here are three fun facts about Port Washington:
- Leland Stanford had a law practice in Port Washington in the early 1850s before moving to California, where he later served as a U.S. Senator and Governor of California, and used his wealth to found Stanford University.
- The television sitcom Step By Step was set in Port Washington.
- The city’s artificial harbor at the mouth of Sauk Creek was dredged in the 1870s and was a commercial harbor until the early 2000s. Today it’s a popular recreational harbor.
I spent so much time in Port, I ended up driving through Milwaukee during the Friday afternoon rush hour, which was a pain thanks to an accident on the interstate. But that was a small price to pay for what turned out to be a great day.
Next time, I’m bringing Tara. She deserves a little fun too!
Mark My Words 
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