This morning, I undertook a task that I've been putting off for too long. I knew weeks ago that the !@#$% voles were mucking about around my water feature on the patio. I have a large, cobalt-blue ginger jar urn that sits atop a basin holding a pump - this becomes a small fountain, very pleasant to sit and listen to while enjoying a glass of wine. The pump has never been what you'd call energetic, and this spring when I set things up, it was positively anemic. So I purchased a new pump, and this morning I began to dismantle the whole set-up.
Now, I knew going into it that I'd undoubtedly have to clean out the basin, because when the voles muck about, they literally muck about - there would be mud and small stones in the water. Oh, and they also seem to use it as a toilet. It's tons of fun. Anyway, I got the pavers out from around the edge, only to find a very flat, ossified vole. It had been dead for a bit. OK, fine. Then, I took the cover off the basin and started bailing out the bilge. When I was down to about 2 inches of water, what did I find? A bloated, dead baby vole floating around. Lovely. I quickly disposed of the corpses, finished cleaning out the basin, covered it up to try to keep the water clean, and then (amazingly) came in to eat lunch.
Now that lunch is over, I am preparing to go out and put everything back in place, with the sincere hope that the new pump will A) work and B) pump vigorously. I take this opportunity to announce that if neither of these hopes are realized, I will be officially honked off. That is all.
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