Happy Ponds - the upside of Ponding #2

MM -

Neat story -

My husband told me how he and his mother saved a baby rabbit and because it was motherless smuggled it through Customs from Canada to NYS years ago. The things we do.....

This message was edited Aug 31, 2012 10:45 PM

I brought a concrete garden rabbit from Portland, Oregon once. Course I was carrying it in a bag on the plane and they thought I was nuts.

It would be quite a detour Carolyn if I was going to Hawaii. Hawaii, Florida, Alaska. The fish might survive but I doubt I would. Nice thought though. And I love the stories about stuff you all have taken (smuggled) on board planes. Opssss. Homeland Security might be watching. I cannot imagine that they would miss anything like that now.

Lets face it---I'm closest to Merry Mary so little Unique should come here if it needs a new home to avoid hours of travel.

Oberon can you picture a foolish grandma carrying 5 pound puppies (back in the day) in plastic bags in plain site on an airplane. Nuts huh!! Then I had to go and claim a large suitcase and drag it along too. I was younger than and had more energy.

Two weeks ago TSA took a bottle of water away from Charlie at San Antonio airport while I had 5 cigarett lighters in my purse. They can blow up I'm sure they knew. He bought the water after we had gone thru check point cause he figured he couldn't get thru with it. TSA dumped his whole suitcase onto table. I was glad it was a very small bag he was carrying on. We don't usually check bagage cause thats a good way to loose it.

If TSA is supposed to be making it safer to fly I don't see it. Didn't see any of those X-ray machines. Guess they did away with them already. Right?

Bonnie

5# puppies? ROTFL..... and yes, you are right. Little Unique should definitely go to you.

I don't know about where you are, but we have to go through the stupid machines in Anchorage, Seattle, Portland, Hawaii....etc.

We have the TSA machines too. If they are decent about everything that is fine - but if they are miserable, who needs it.

The TSA man we had got huffy cause he had to wait for Charlie to get his belt back on and metal stuff put back into his pockets. He made a couple of snid remarks. Soooo I said would you like to sere everything thats in the case and he said yes so I unzipped all the compartments and dumped it out infront of him on his table. Wasn't going to tell that but what the heck. Blame it on the high BP.
If your going to work with the public you have to be tolerant and always courteous. I speak from my own work life. 30 years running my own bus. and 12 years personal secretary working for state of Fl.
Now I am retired I don't have to take any bull from anybody. FEELS SO GOOD.
Bonnie

I totally agree Bonnie. Too many rude people out there and it doesn't seem to matter if you walk into a store or call on the phone. Customer service seems to be something that is vanishing.

Considering the economy and competion between businesses customer service should be on the upswing instead.
When I answer my phone I still have to think and not say Bonnies Windowear how may I help you.

Anybody notice Tractor Supply answers with a short blurb and then ""WHAT DO YOU WANT TODAY"". I think that stinks and the next time I'm in their store I'm going to make some suggestions for better PR. I was trained that when you answer a phone the person on the other end could hear you smiling. Worked great for me for many years.

OK off the soap box for tonight.
Bonnie

I was raised with tons of proper protocal, both customer service-wise, as well as phone courtesy..... I go CRAZY seeing what basic communication skills have now become! That's why I support many small businesses instead of mass companies....Smaller businesses have invested their own sweat and seem to care if their customers return. They train their empolyees and are thankful to have you as their customers.
Ok, I'm off my soap box now too, but had to throw in my 2 cents worth...
:D

TSA is short for Transportation Safety Administration subsidiary of US Dept. of Homeland Security.
TSA in my interpretaion is short for Terrible Search before you get can on any Airplanes.


This message was edited Sep 5, 2012 8:14 PM

My grand daughter came to visit, so we let her try to catch the fish by hand. As you can see the plants are taking over the small pond. The plant roots dangling in the water and our hillbilly filter in the 5 gallon bucket have made the water clear again.

John

was she able to catch any by hand? They are pretty quick. ^_^

What I really like about your photo is with your Granddaughter in the photo, I have a better idea as to the size of your water garden. Looks so very nice - thank you for sharing.

That's amazing. It is crystal clear. Hillybilly or no, it sure works.

That pond is just so fascinating. There is something like at at the Phipps Conservatory. They have a long stream/waterfall that runs down 3 stories to a pond at the bottom and there is a glass wall on one side of the pond. They have large tropical fish in the pond.

That would be amazing to see.

I do have some nice pictures but they are in the back up system and not organized. Our Lap-top crashed a few weeks ago so I don't have organized pictures at my finger tips any more.

John have you ever given any thought to tiling your concrete edges? We tiled a small area around our pond and it made a huge difference in the look. We used old tiles some from a hot tub and some from our bathroom. I will post a few before and after pics when I pull up the old pictures.

I would love to do that but the liner runs up the sides and I doubt you could make tile adhere to it. Would sure look awesome. Great idea.

Oberon,
There is a spray can with Rock-N-Foam in it which sticks rocks to EPDM liner under water so maybe that would work for tile also. It's not cheap. If I remember right it was $18. per can. Contractors use it when making waterfalls to control flow of water. Maybe you could ask a tile specialist for suggestions. If its not going to be underwater maybe plain old tile grout would hold it. Sure would make a beautiful edge finish.
Bonnie

I agree. I have seen the foam they used to build the falls and fix the final large flat rock in place. I just wonder how it would work trying to hold an horizontal piece of materials with no support to the liner. Suspect it wouldn't but will ask. Yes, it would be awesome.... Thanks for the idea.

I was just thinking along the top edge and maybe around the front window not where the liner is. It is such a beautiful pond. Haven't had luck finding the picture from Phillps Conservatory the back up isn't user friendly, I can only pull up one picture at a time and they are in no order. What a mess, I have thousands of pictures in there. Only good thing is that I have the pictures backed up only lost what was taken in the last year.
So here is a picture of the tile work we did on the BirdBath Pond.
It isn't quite finished we are waiting a few more weeks to tile around the back where plants are in the way and then we will do the grouting.

Beautiful tile work.

We had talked about doing it for years and even had free tile. Can't get over the difference it made. Just got done cleaning the algae off of it for the tour tomorrow.
Here is a very old picture that shows what it looked like before the tile.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=4833948
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=4849086

What a difference! And I love your frogs. I love frogs as long as they aren't Cuban frogs. Although all we have up here are tree frogs. Little bitty guys. Yup that tile thing is a great idea.

Holly,
You all did a beautiful job beautifying you birdbath pond. What a difference a little ingenuity can make.
I love all your frogs especially large one sitting on side with legs hanging down.

Sure wish I didn't have all these Cuban frogs.
Bonnie

Luckly we don't have the Cuban Frogs here but I have heard of the major issues they are creating in the south.
We have tree frogs, too. They are so cute and pretty friendly. Even with all the pond features we have a group that prefer the pool. The Grands have so much fun playing with them.

Thanks for the tile idea. Sounds like a better idea than paint. We have lots of tile left-over from the original construction. 3 inch long Cuban tree frogs are here, and after midnight I wake up to croak-croak-croak, so I hunt them down with a flash light. One secret I learned is to turn-off the fountain at night so they are not attracted to the trickle trickle sound. Also we have some small half-inch long frogs hanging around. They are cute so I hope they won't grow any larger.

We had our Garden Tour here on Saturday, It was a great success. Got so many nice comments on the water features and those pretty TWL's did their job and bloomed that day. LOL

Holly

Don't you love it when it all comes together like that? We were on a pond tour a couple of years ago. There were so many really nice people. But then aren't ponding people the best?

Here here!!! They are certainly so in my experience.

I completely agree! :)

I'll third that notion.
Had to come in for a break. Pulling huge tobs of high grass to clean up back vegie garden, The Kubota is a huge help. I keep saying to myself, "taste that fresh broccoli" and it keeps me going.
It's only about 25 by 50 feet but I usually get quite a bit out of it.
OK back to work.
Happy ponding all.

That's one heck of a garden. I attended a permaculture workshop at the home of one of the Anchorage Botanical Gardener's. What an eyepopper. Stuff everywhere all mixed together. Granted it is now getting late in the year and mostly it was just vegetation as she doesn't have many decorative items that last this long, but she still had fava beans, all sorts of herbs, potatoes, and in her greenhouse loads of tomatoes and Japanese pole beans. A veritable jungle. Course I also noticed that one of her neighbors had built a 10' high fence. I guess they don't appreciate the view and perhaps her two dogs that barked the whole time we were there. But she was all bubbly and obviously loved her gardens. Nothing tidy about them but very productive. Some of the stuff she didn't even know what it was. What a hoot. I just can't go that direction but would like to have some eatibles amongst my flowers.

Bonnie has tons of property....I was raised in Ohio on 100 acres....and all the properties around us were also that large or larger, so we just saw miles and miles of green. We grew everything we ate! What a culture shock to move to Orlando, and in to a subdivision with close to zero lot lines... However, I manage to stick in a fruit tree here or there...or herbs...lemon tree, etc.... That's why I salivate when I see Bonnie's tangerine tree! I have to get there fast, because it's either me or the cows! :D

I adore tangerines! At Christmas they bring up the small tangerines in boxes and I could eat a whole box by myself. I did have an apple tree planted in my yard this year, but the others were a two white lilacs and one red crab. I have seeds to plant in my raised beds this fall to try winter sowing as described in some books that extends the growing season. They will actually sprout very early next spring under plastic and floating row covers.

I wish I had more land - funny thing, when we moved into this house, I wanted to be out in the country with enough acreage that I didn't have to think about neighbors and could feed the wildlife. I was voted down, by my kids and my husband. Now the kids are on their own and hubby wishes we didn't live in town. Nobody ever listens! The next place will have enough land for me to grow everything, feed the wildlife and be able to take a walk in the woods by myself if I would like.

I'm completely convinced that that's why I like my pond and koi so much. It's my pretend way of being on acres of land with ponds with fish. My little tropical place is my own resort with it's own wildlife! I'll be a pretty penny, most of you on the Water forums were also the little kids who tried to feed baby birds that fell out of their nests! :)

I understandtaking care of the "things" that came our way.....I don't really talk a lot about what my husband and I have done for careers throughout the years, but it involved a company that involves a whale, followed by a company who had a mouse, that leads the world for it's conservation efforts (although most people don't know that) ;)

MM

Conservation is so important......

I have to tell you, I was in a meeting quite some time ago at work. I work for a chemical company and apparently there had been a release of over 100 pounds of tungsten metal powder that had been accidentally released into the river. The DEC was all over the company about it. I was upset about the spill, not from the standpoint of the loss of the metal powder or the fines the DEC had levied on us as a company, but I was upset about release into the river. There is so much wildlife that depends on the river, not to mention that farmers here irrigate their fields with the water from the river. Those fields in turn grow the corn for the cows and we eat the cows. So essentially, in my mind we are hurting the wildlife and ourselves by this action. I was treated like some of faint of heart idiot in that meeting afterwards. But push comes to shove, if we don't take care of what we have, there won't be anything left and then we will really have a problem. We are supposed to be the caretakers of the earth, not just takers.....