IT'S OFFICIALLY SPRING TODAY!

Hey Pals,

Today is the first day of SPRING!  Yesterday our first Daffodils opened up, which is actually early for Iowa.

Our trees and plants are budding and sprouting leaves.  It has been at least 7-8 years since we've had an early Spring so we are excited.  Now we just pray we don't get any bad freezing weather.  It would kill off the flower buds and leaves.

Our pet Koi are now swimming around the ponds begging for food.  Here is one of our large females 'Sugar':

We gave them a few kernals of food.  You must start feeding them only little amounts and not every day until the water gets warmer.  The water must be staying above 50 degrees before you even start feeding the koi.

Sparky and I have started our Koi Guard Duty now.  The Great Blue Heron will be migrating back north  now and will try to nab our pretty koi.

Here is Sparky with the Daffodils:

Now check this one out, the wind was blowing very hard and it blew his moustache and beard and flipped his ears up!  He looks like a silly rabbit!  hehehehehe!

Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,
Katie, Sparky, Ruby, Sylvester, Scuby, Hootie & Zeek

SYLVESTER & ZEEK SNOOZING

Hey Pals,

Our MANCATS Sylvester & Zeek sure like to snooze together on one of Mama's quilts she made:

Guess we should get her to make us dogs a quilt too huh???

Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,
Katie, Sparky, Ruby, Sylvester, Scuby, Hootie & Zeek

SQUIRREL FOR LUNCH??

Hey Pals,

This furry vermin tried sitting on Sparky's koi guard duty rock by our koi pond.  He saw us coming his way and took off!

He's lucky we didn't catch him, hahahahaha!

Just 2 days ago our ponds were still frozen over with ice.

Then the ice started to melt:

(do you see Sparky in the top left corner??)

And melt some more by afternoon:

Our koi fishies are starting to swim around now.  They even swam over to their feeding spot, but the water is way too cold to start feeding them yet.  Probably another 4-6 weeks at least before they get food.

Now we hope it stays above freezing so that ice doesn't form again on the ponds.  When ice forms, thaws, forms, the koi can become trapped in the ice layers and die.  It has happened to some of our koi in past years.  Not good.

Time to go out and brave the strong winds for walkies again.  We've had terrible winds this past week.  We're very lucky we didn't get any of the tornadoes that passed through the Midwest lately.

Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,
Katie, Sparky, Ruby, Sylvester, Scuby, Hootie & Zeek