Hoping to make our pond more wildlife friendly, we planted wild rice today. The rice seed is very stinky. We rolled it up in mud scooped from one of the streams and dropped it in about one foot of water on the south side of the island and the opposite shore of the pond. These may not be the best sites because the drop off is fairly steep, so the area the rice prefers (6 to 18 inches of water) is pretty narrow. But we are experimenting. We planted one pound of seed, half on each side. The water temperature was about 45F, which we hope is cool enough to prevent sprouting. The weather is expected to turn cold tonight.

While we were paddling around, a fish jumped. So things are moving around in January. Not sure if that’s a good thing.