Our garden pond was covered with at least two feet of snow this winter. Every spring we wonder if our goldfish and koi survived the winter. The previous winter we were slow plugging in the pond heater and lost all of our big fish. Only the small fish survived. This year we made sure the pond heater was plugged in before the first big freeze in December. In early April, Doug peeled away the last bit of snow and found a layer of ice around the pond heater. To our dismay, someone whom we won’t mention, had tripped over the extension cord where it was  plugged in, inside the garage. Fortunately, it must have gotten unplugged near the end of winter. We only lost one bigger goldfish. All the rest of the fish survived!