Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Brrrrrrrr - looks like fall is over

The local weather folks are saying we will experience about a 50-60 degrees temperature deference in the next 12 hours, glad I spent the weekend buttoning up the place. Looks like it's just wind and cold temps, no moisture and we need it in a bad way.

We are hoping for some rain tonight and tomorrow. Only 50% chance. We sure could use it here as well. Been turning the well pump towards the pond 1 day a week to maintain a decent level. Temps dropping. They say next week highs in low 20s and lows 10 to 12. What the heck month is this anyway? January!

High temps on 10 day is 36. Big arctic front blew in on me at the pond today scrambling to get minnows IDed, nets stored, etc. Started blowing pretty hard, think gusts up to 50 today! I am pretty sure we'll be on the hard water by Thanksgiving, which would be the earliest I can ever remember. Bring it on!

Bite your tongue on hard water by TG!

I got your back TJ.....

Hey TJ,

Is the Corn Husker Hotel still there? I used to come to Lincoln years back all the time for work. I remember fondly sitting out a blizzard there and watching the snow out the window of the bar. It was just me and the bartender. Great guy!

The hotel is still there, and I think it's still called the Cornhusker. It's a nice place. I once watched 27" of snow fall in central park with the tender at the Benjamin Hotel - probably 8 years ago now. Was snowed in for two days, and flights cancelled for another day and a half. Nebraskans in Manhattan are somewhat of a novelty - I didn't pay for many cocktails during my stay. I love NYers...way more friendly than folks would imagine - at least to their novelty midwestern bumpkins.

And these are some of the reasons I sleep fairly well...thanks T. We'll be out there soon!

The cold hasn't hit here yet. I have one more day to get my seining done. I have a few anxious taxidermy customers that were a higher prority.

15.8 here this morning.

It's come to a screeching halt and hit a brick wall here. I have to drive up to my place today and winterize the trailer house and well. When I left there Sunday, the NWS was forecasting a low of 30 for the next week. No sweat. Now, they are showing quite a few lows in the mid to lower 20's. That will bust pipes and the cast iron housing on the pump. 70 miles each way to do something that would have taken 20 minutes.

As Sonny Corleone said "Shtoopid, just shtoopid".

Temp is at 54.7°F here at 10:00 a.m.

The snow is supposed to go North of us, but the cold will roll in later today.

19 degrees here this morning with a light dusting of snow on the ground.

Be careful what I ask for...the 20% chance of snow hit, and covered all my firewood in the backyard I haven't had a chance to stack and cover yet. It's abundantly clear I simply will never learn.

TJ, Mother Nature doesn't care a whit about our schedule or plans. That's why I really pay attention to the weather, and weather rules what I do outside. Farmers have to do the same - guys were combining corn fields here all night long and even this morning before the rain hit because they knew they wouldn't be able to harvest for a few days.

In the past 2 hrs the temp has dropped from 55.8°F to 42.6°F and it's still falling, with 20 mph winds and rain.

Not all weather forcasters are right, so I look at a multitude of them to see who's closest to agreeing with each other. I feel that its my best chance of getting a correct prediction of what the next few days will be like.

I'll use (in no particular order):

www.scoutlookweather.com (mostly for wind direction and predicted winds/temp on an hourly basis)

accuweather

Weather Underground

www.intellicast.com

Oh yeah amigo, enjoy what's coming...from Nebraska with love!

We're far enough east that most of that weather will track north of us. No significant snow or the cold temps like you are seeing. Highs the next week are supposed to be in the 30's.

Seining didn't go too well today. The weather was the least of my worries. I pumped in 75 gallons of pond water, via a sump pump and garden hose, through a basement window into a tank I have, that has an agitator mounted in the center. Problem was the pump sprang an oil leak and the tank reeked of oil. Not something I was going to put the fish in.

The pond water is 48 F. and I need to obviously aclimate them to the water in the ras tank that is 75. So I usually place them in the same water of the same temp from the pond and the water slowly warms up enough in the basement to move them to the ras tank. I add salt at 0.5 percent and Amquel Plus to eliminate possible ammonia issues as the water warms up.

So anyway I had to drain this tank and bring in water from the pond via 5 gallon buckets. About 8 trips with two buckets of about 80 lbs. No fun and I took some Ibuprofen as a prophylactic treatment for my back!

Had a lot on interuptions and finally got to the seining and ran out of daylight. Only removed about a hundred or so due to the incredible amount of filamentatious algae. Going to have to do some raking before I seine again!

Thank God! Cecil, I thought I was the only guy left with a bad back and worse luck! Hang in there man! The effort will be worth it and at the end of the day you will feel like you accomplished something!

Thanks Bill. Sorry to hear you have back issues. I just got over mine but it could be back tomorrow.

Going to have to be another day on the seining. Just hope the pond doesn't freeze over first! It's quite shallow now as I let it go down a few feet before seining. I can put four or five inches on these bluegills in the basement over the winter vs. zip in the pond.

This in for Grand Haven...

...Winter Weather Advisory in effect from 1 am Thursday to 4 PM EST Friday...

The National Weather Service in Grand Rapids has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for snow...which is in effect from 1 am Thursday to 4 PM EST Friday.

Hazardous weather...

* snow showers will become widespread after 1 am Thursday and continue into the early afternoon hours of Friday.

* Snowfall amounts of 5 to 9 inches area expected between 1 am Thursday and 4 PM Friday.

Impacts...

* being the first storm of the season drivers may be caught off guard slippery roads.

* Roads will become slippery due to snow and ice.

5 to 9 inches is just a dusting for you folks up North. Or so I hear, talking 2 or 3" for this weekend for us and we will be grateful if it happens. Is it just me or does it seem a tad early even for you Northern folks to be getting that much snow?

It's early but one of the strongest typoons on record in the Pacific, pushed north, became extratropical and subsequently forced down a large mass of arctic air. Kind of an anomaly actually.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/07/us/severe-weather/

Sure glad I didn't have a lot of bluegill in the aclimating tank in the basement or they would all have been belly up. My agitator overheated and stopped running at some point before I checked on them early this morning. I was able to clamp my 12VDC aerator on the tank as back up. Water temp is up to 59 F. from the original 48 F. I may put in an aquarium heater to speed things up a little before the battery goes flat. Or take one off my ras power back up inverter.

Had a back up agitator but I fried it last year by being stupid. Didn't mount it securely enough in the tank and it fell in sometime during the night (outside) and actually melted the cord. Strangely the fish in the tank were fine! Must have been the GFI on the outlet.

There is some algae wrapped around the paddle inside the screen that may have made the present agitator work too hard. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the bolts off that secure the screen to get at the paddle as they are too corroded. There are no stainless steel bolts on this thing! When I get them off you can bet they will be replaced with stainless steel!