Deer pond

Today's post is devoted entirely to my adventure of cleaning the deer pond. In Perkins, we have three deer, Artemis, Ginny, and Baby. Along with them is a wild turkey, Jake. The deer are currently shedding their winter coats which means the ground has a thin layer of hair. Part of the daily chores is to pick up all of the poop, leftover food and give them fresh veggies/fruits. Today however we decided to clean out the deer pond. The pond is at the front of the exhibit,separating the visitors from reaching in and touching the deer. The water should be clear, however it was actually a dark greenish brown color. So it was time to drain, scrub, and refill. Once we got rid of all the water, we mucked out all of the smelly debris that was on the bottom. The second part of the job was to bucket out water from the three water filters. This is by far the worst job because of the awful smell. However everyone survived and it as time to refill. It turns out our hose had a lot of little holes so it took awhile for it to refill, but once it was finished the water was a nice clear color. And on a side note, the whole time we were cleaning, Artemis chilled in the empty pond with us, licking a dirty pipe clean. He even stayed in as we filled the pond back up to his belly. What a hot and exhausting day.