A day of surprises, or that's what friends are for!

Thursday was a day of surprises, beginning with Jean and John from WI, driving 6 hours out of their way when they were at Ames, to come and see us and bring me some warm and comfy lounging clothes that Jean and Shirley purchased on a buying spree for days when things aren't going so well. It was a short and very sweet visit because they had to be back on the road home in the fog and we had a doctor appointment. 

While we were in Cherokee waiting for test results, Rosanne called and asked if we had some hip waders, I said yes, but they do leak a little, wondering what in the heck she wanted some hip waders for. Then she informed me she was headed up to clean out the pond, she could tell I was a bit worried about all the leaves that had fallen in because I never got the netting stretched across it. What a relief! I love my pond but it takes maintenance that I just couldn't do this year. 

When she got here, she had another surprise, one of our garden club ladies, Eva, was bringing food and her boots and gloves to help her. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, all I had to do was point them in the right direction and sit on the garden bench.

Eva cut back all the grasses and plants around the edge.

While Rosanne cut the pond plants and pushed pots over on their side for the winter. She used the rake to get most of the leaves and debris that had sunk to the bottom and filled buckets to be dumped into the gator.

Of course, where the gator is, you will find the dogs, Eva had to carefully throw the debris in the back....

.....and not disturb Mollie's nap.

Rosanne kept raking piles of leaves out of the water, if it didn't get done, the decaying leaves might kill my fish over the winter.

The fish weren't too disturbed by all the work going on but Rosanne did find a frog hiding in some leaves.

While the girls were cleaning the pond and I was sitting on my butt, Lisa, another garden clubber, called and Bruce told her a pond cleaning party was going on so she grabbed her boots and gloves and came to help.

You can't buy friends like this.

Someone who drops everything to come and clean up a stinky backyard pond for winter.

And bring food to feed my hard working husband.

Rosanne had all the pond plants trimmed below the water line and I found the netting I'd used last year so we stretched it over the pond and fastened it down with rocks from the edge. Zoe was fascinated with watching the fish again, she hadn't seen them in a while.

The weather has been gorgeous everyday, the reason for trimming all the pond plants back is so the vegetation doesn't rot over the winter but the plants are getting the last laugh. Today I see the plants have grown about 3 inches, guess they aren't ready to be put to bed yet, Rosanne, we might need those waders again!