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One thing that the new pond was lacking was bullrushes. Those great tall reeds with the exploding brown heads are a favourite of Andrea’s. It was mid-Spring and if there was any chance of getting some bullrushes established this year then she needed to be planting them quickly.
She asked around the neighbouring farms if anyone had a pond with a surplus of bullrushes; she was told of a small overgrown pond that was apparently full of young plants, each protruding from the mud by about 12 inches. These would be perfect to transplant to her new pond.
Having walked to the pond to determine how she could get her quad bike and trailer there, she saw that it had minimal water in it, but poking with a long stick revealed that it was at least a meter deep in mud. The mud varied in consistency from thick and sticky to very runny and sloppy. This was clearly going to be a very messy job, very messy indeed.
So, she put on a set of Lycra base-layers in woodland camo effect, with a woodland camo hoodie over the top and a pair of very expensive Holland Cooper waterproof riding trousers over the bottoms. And then, over all of this, she put on her Ilse Jacobsen one-piece waterproof suit and a pair of leChameau neoprene-lined thigh waders. She put a pair of shoulder-length gauntlets in the basket on the front of the quad, hitched the trailer, and set off for the donor pond. She was ready for the fun to begin!
Stepping onto crust of the mud, the whole surface of the pond wobbled and it took less than two minutes of tugging at bullrushes before her feet broke through the crust and she plunged crotch-deep into the wet mud. There was simply no concept of staying clean and dry, and so she made no effort to do so. She crawled and clawed her way around the pond, crotch deep, hip deep, waist deep, chest deep, up to her shoulders… Within 15 minutes she was completely covered in mud and wet through to the skin.
Tearing out the young bullrushes was utterly exhausting but two hours or so later, she had a trailer full, and so she emptied some of the slop from her waders and got back on the quad to take them home. She was just too tired to contemplate planting the bullrushes there and then, so that would have to wait until tomorrow. To keep them alive she threw them loosely into the shallow end of her pond, and put the empty buckets back in the quad trailer.
Without any hesitation, she then took a running jump off the jetty into the cold pond water, landing with a large splash and turning the water muddy-brown from all of the slop that was covering her suit and filling her waders.
Cleaning up was great fun, with the cold water slowly working its way into her waterproof suit and riding trousers. She stripped off to her base-layers and swam about with her waders on, and then she squelched her way back to the quad and rode home for a nice long warm shower.
