the Edgewood Ledger/Loon Star Gazette

Winter came early here this year. It was beautiful and terrible, and it stayed late
It started with ice which was soon caked with a plastic snow which hung under the eves
The weight of ice and snow broke manly pine tops which had become overgrown in recent summers of too much sun.
Dragged down point first by the weight of ice, the top of one pine went point first through the bottom of our garden pond, more or less like a trident. By the time I looked into it that day, the pond was just a hole, pumped dry through a disrupted hose. Good by eight or ten living generations of fat-head minnows, good by the the sun fish which Tarka, at my request, caught on a fly from among the small fry in the Loon Island Boat house at least six years ago, good by for now, the new frogs who had come to sing in the city.

I have at least dragged the big branches away, but I know enough about medicine that I will not wrench the still embeded points from the pond until I can actually operate on it.

It has been extremely cold since then.

Maybe I could gather up some frozen fish and frogs and put them in the freeezer until we get this thing back to life.

I remember as a kid removing bullheads from the fridge the morning after they had been caught, taking them down to the boat house to clean, and having one slip into the water and swim away.

The oldest of the iced fish in my pond is a pumpkinseed sunfish older than Deerdra our dog.

If you take our advice, you will avoid Bridge House It is my step brother William's operation and we can take no responsibility for his productions
The Loon Star, Lost Island Journal.
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