Cattail Catchers
Bozeman, Montana
2023
Since I posted a photo of gloves yesterday, I thought I might as well post this one too. This rather odd still life features the pair of rubber gloves I use when I’m pulling cattails out of our pond. (A few cattails are a nice feature in the pond but few seems to quickly become too many, so at least an annual culling is necessary.) While the rubber gloves provide a nice grip on the cattails, they quickly fill with water, so necessitate drying once I’m done for the day. A couple of wood scraps stuck in a sunny area did the trick for drying, and also providing this still life photo opp.
With the rains we had this spring the cattails in our creek have grown to up to 10′, creating quite a fire hazard for the fall and winter near our bridge. How much work/time does it take to maintain your pond?
Regular maintenance of our two ponds doesn’t take much time at all, mostly just making sure the water is still running, skimming scum off the surface if/when it occurs etc. Pulling cattails takes longer of course, but that’s a once-a-year thing at most, depending on how aggressive the cutback was the previous time.