I have posted pictures before of the water feature in my back yard. It’s probably one of the neatest things about this place. This week, along with other yard work, I’ve spent some time cleaning it up. The base is full of rocks that surround and cover a bucket or well that holds water feature parts. Probably the pump. The bucket is covered by a grate which is covered with rocks. It was rusty and falling apart. 

I started pulling out rocks and vegetable matter until I could lift out the grate. 

I pulled out the old grate and put in a new one and replaced the rocks minus a lot of the detritus that comes from the surrounding stuff in the yard.

The poor thing is covered in algae, so I’ve ordered some algaecide that is supposedly safe for birds/pets and will pray that it doesn’t hurt the bees that like to come and drink from the fountain. I also scraped out a lot of the algae by hand.  So nasty.  If this were a pond, I’d just throw in some algae eaters.

Yes, I washed the rocks before dumping them back in.  I didn’t get out nearly as much of the leaves and pine needles that I wanted but it does look a lot better.

Chynna and Stefan have been rock stars in mowing, edging, and pulling out the 10,000 dandelions that are trying to cover the yard. I did a lot of sweeping around the air conditioners, grill, and porch. I wanted to get as much of this done as possible before David gets back from his trip so that he and the kids will only have light upkeep to do this weekend.  I am so sore, it feels like I’ve been going to the gym for hours three days straight.

I should have stretched. Thank goodness for jetted tubs and muscle relaxants.