Hi from Katy, Texas!

Hi everybody! Just recently joined DG and now wonder what took me so long! So many forums, so much information, so many forum buddies to meet, I don't know where to start! I'm addicted to composting, my butterfly/hummingbird garden, hosting purple martins, and enjoying our 1000 gallon koi pond.

I hope to hear from many of you and learn about your interests too.

Pat

GO ASTROS!

Hi Pat welcome.. yes lots here.. welcome..

Twyla

howdy pat, i live in richmond and do all my gallivanting either in Katy or Sugarland, as there is not much in richmond. be sure and ck out the tx forum, well ck them all, they're ALL good!

Thanks for the welcome hope43 and vossner! Thanks for pointing out the TX forum. I have it plus 38 other forums listed on my DG homepage! Not enough time to keep up with all of these! You're right, they are all good!

I'll probably be coming down to Sugar Land this weekend to check out a used chipper/shredder. I put a post in the Garden Shed asking for advice on purchasing one, but I guess no one has seen my post yet. Guess I'll just have to wing it! LOL

Pat

A big ol 'hearty' welcome to DG to ya, PatInTexas !!

- Magpye

hello from upstate new york. you will enjoy this site without a doubt but i'm afrain there is some doubt about your astros.

Thanks to everyone for the welcome to DG!

Herbie43...As a former neighbor of yours (PA), I absolutely agree with you that our Astros didn't play a good series, but we're still very proud of them for at least making it to the Series! :)

Pat

Hi Pat,
Would love to see a picture of your koi pond, we have a 4000 gallon pond with 70 koi in it, wanna share pics.
And welcome!

This message was edited Oct 27, 2005 9:49 AM

weegy12... I'll try to remember to put post a couple pond pictures tonight when I get home. I don't have any here at the office. Our pond is only 1000 gallons and we only have 3 koi, but a bunch of other smaller fish. The pond butts up to our patio and we get SO much enjoyment out of it! We'll be putting up the hoop frame covered with 4 mil. plastic over the pond this weekend since our leaves have started falling. And yes, I'd love to see some pics of yours as well!

Pat

That will be great, ours backs up to our patio also and that's where we spend most of our time. We have a cover over ours, out of the same material they put around tennis courts to keep the algae off the water. It doesn't get much sun needless to say but there is no algae on the water like before we covered it. I'll try to include a picture of the cover. I can't grow water lilies in as they need sun and also the darned fish eat the roots. I'll take a couple of pictures and post later this evening also. Can't wait to see yours.

By the way, the Astros put up a heck of a fight!

Edited to add.....I still wish the Angels would have won!

This message was edited Oct 27, 2005 1:24 PM

Hi again weegy12... I'm not sure if I should be posting the pictures of my pond here of not, but here goes. We've had a pond of some sort for four years now and I still find it so hard to get a good picture without getting a glare reflection on the water, but I think you'll be able to get a feel of what our pond is like. We just put in the stock tank veggie filter and we're thrilled with the crystal clear water we have now. I'm going to go get yet MORE rocks to hide the tank. You can see the patio in the forefront of the picture and the picture was taken from INSIDE the house. :)

Here's another view of the pond.

Your pond is very similar to ours...let me see if I can get a good picture of it right now and I'll post it if so.............

........wouldn't you know...dead batteries, I'll charge them and get a pic posted here. I'm sure it's ok to post your pond here.

as least they got there is right. still waiting for my METS. a few more years i think.

I hope so Herbie.

Hi Pat,
Welcome to DG from Houston. I am orginally from South Jersey, and a big Phillies and Astros fan too.
Take care.
Patti

This message was edited Oct 28, 2005 1:44 PM

Here's ours Pat....

...and another view...

and yet another..you can see where we spend all of our time!

woops, forgot to send this one!

Notice how the koi follow me where ever I go!?

Oh weegy!! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your pond!! Hubby isn't going to like me when I go home tonight and tell him I have yet another great idea for our pond! LOL!! Seriously, the shade cover over your pond would eliminate us having to put up the hoop frame every year, plus it would keep our pond water from getting up to 92 degrees in the summer. :( I see more trips to the "rock store" for me in the near future! :)

Yes, I did notice the fish following you, but didn't think too much about it since we both know good and well why they do that! :) (guilty as charged!)

Vossner, I made the trip down to Sugar Land last evening and ended up buying that chipper/shredder/vaccuum that I found on Ebay and it works GREAT! I can't wait to play with it this weekend.

Pat

weegy...guess who's going to Lowe's or Home Depot this morning for lumber? Yep, hubby was all for putting up the shade cloth cover over our pond. He said he actually had been thinking of something similar!! How cool is that!!! Thanks again for posting your pond pictures.

Have a good weekend,
Pat

Hi Pat,
Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, just got back from a weekend away.
I'm so glad I was able to help you out. Did you get a clear enough picture of the cover over our pond? So, how mad is your hubby at me??!!?!??!
If you ever need any help with your pond or fishies, my DH is an expert! We've learned the hard way, though. We lost 95% of our fish the first year because of not quarantining them when we got them and they got a fatal gill disease. So guarantine, guarantine, guarantine!
And all those rocks....hand picked up by me and a neighbor, we live close to the mountains and got most of these from a creek near there, illegal as heck but we didn't get caught! Shhhhhhhhh!
Have fun!
Louise

Hi again Louise,
No, hubby wasn't mad at all, in fact, he was all for it! We spent the ENTIRE weekend working on the project, but it's done and it looks great! I took some pictures but don't have them on this PC, so I'll post when I'm able. The shade cloth was my biggest headache. Could only find it 6' wide here locally, and I didn't want to wait on an internet order, so we deciced to buy two 6' widths, and then use fishing line to hold it together in the middle. (now wishing we had gone maybe three widths wide instead of two, but oh well!) When going to the sporting goods store for the fishing line, I was in a hurry and "accidentally" did a rolling stop at a stop sign, and wouldn't you know it, I was being watched by "the man". He was a VERY nice guy and let me off with a warning, but this project could have been a whole lot more money than we initially planned! First time I've been pulled over since I moved to Texas 14 years ago! Anyhow, after laying the shade cloth out on the driveway to "stitch the two pieces together, we measured the length, and discovered the guy at Lowe's cut both pieces too short!! Back to Lowe's I go! Man, does any project EVER go smoothly? LOL

Oh, I KNOW all about rocks Louise! Here in the Houston area, we have to buy them, each and every rock and we are at the mercy of the places that sell them. On average, I pay about $.12 per pound, and they add up VERY quickly! I have all of my beds edged with rocks, plus our pond rocks. I don't even want to know what i've spent on rocks, but my standard line when working outdoors is "we need more rocks!" and we usually do! Oh, and by the way, your 5 finger discount rock acquistion story is safe with me! :)

Thanks for the offer to help with any fish problems/questions that I might have and I'm sure you'll understand when I say that I hope I never have to take you up on it. What a shame about losing all those fish! I know I've been a bit too casual at times too when introducing new fish to our ponds. If we ever get any new fish, I'll just think about what happened to you and drag out the Q-tank!

It was actually nice to come to work today. I needed the rest!

Pat

Ok, now I really would have felt bad had you gotten a ticket all because of me! Nice guy you got though, I ran a red light and got a nice picture in the mail of me in the act. Cost me over 300.00 and couldn't do traffic school since I'd gotten a speeding ticket about a year ago. This is not me, I just get to thinking and forget how fast or how red the light is!
Of course no project will go smoothly. That's why we paid someone to put our cover up! The price wasn't too bad and we could just sit there and watch someone else do it!
Well, rest up there at work and I promise not to stick you with anymore projects for the pond. Have fun and enjoy all your hard work.
Enjoy this immensely,
Louise

Yep, I did get a nice guy the other day when I "coasted" at that stop sign instead of stopping, and I think it opened my eyes a bit when I realized that I rarely stop completely at stop signs. Hopefully I've learned my lesson! Houston has just started using the red light cameras too and I'm not thrilled about it either. The "standing John Q. Citizen rule" (not law!) prior to the cameras here seemed to be that after a light turns red, 5 cars can keep going before it's too late and you get hit with oncoming cross traffic! I guess those days on gone too! Man, what's this world coming too!

Hubby and I rarely hire a contractor for projects, we'd rather dive in head first, injure ourselves (like David did this weekend when he fell off the ladder!), work to the point of collapse, and get absolutely nothing else done on our days off! We always keep the Advil and the bandaids handy when we're involved with a "project". LOL We're two old foggies that enjoy the personal satisfaction we get when the project is done and we're sitting back, patting ourselves on the back and saying either "good job" or "man, did we screw up"!

My next project is doing a pathway along both both sides of the pond out to the shed in the back of our yard. I have a path worn in the sod now, but that's not quite the type of pathway I have in mind! :) I still trying to find out the "easiest" way of doing this, keeping in mind that I don't want weeds growing up thru the path, it may be underwater when the heavy rains come, and if I'm barefoot I don't want to suffer ouchies! Other than that, no other real critical issues to address, other than maybe money, which probably should have been the first item on the list! LOL

Great conversation Louise! :)
Pat