Do it yourself

After watching the video, I decided it really belongs in Do it yourself..

To those in the 'burbs, mea culpa. I thought everything about your lifestyle was stupid. I was wrong.

Hows your wing treating you? Selling any fish from the fish farm?

Quote: petroglyph

Hows your wing treating you? Selling any fish from the fish farm?

As good as it's gonna get, for now. I tweak it awful now and again, and when untweaked it's completely useless out and back, but otherwise I don't notice it. 12 more days and I'll be laid up for a solid spell.

Speaking of tweaking, I just did so Weds. Jumped down from a car on trailer with that arm holding the car for balance. Forgot my arm can't go up so didn't think to let go and said arm got wrenched up when I jumped. Nothing serious, but a pain that required a short spell of near fetal position; think salah minus the arm extension. Just had to curl up a minute, ya know? Would you know my s#$%-a$$ dog came running over, squirm shoved his way under me. Not play and scratch and lick, just jammed between me and the ground.

Dogs are weird.

And to finish off this portion of the thread...

Quote: Face

I got this, a wheeler to assemble from scratch, and a boat to put together all before surgery. 50 day countdown starts tomorrow.

It's day 38. Boat's in the driveway, all put together and just needs a break in run to adjust timing and whatnot. Wheeler is assembled and in the shop for final adjustment. And the pond's been sitting full for... however long since I last posted. A month? Near it, anyway.

That final tote leak proved a fearsome bitch. I ended up cutting nearly all of it completely out after a whole day of faffing, and that proved the best option of all. The skimmer design is positively packed, and though the pond is always in some state of surface clutter due to everything blooming and shedding now, it all eventually gets skimmed before it can soak and sink. Works better than I could've ever hoped.

I did end up having issues with my haste. Everything stressed too much and coupled with my water ignorance I got an outbreak of ich. The youngest of the adult pumpkins died within days, this one without obvious cause. Was as bright and whole as you'd want a fish, it was just dead. Then the ich hit. Every single fish save Leonard (the smallie) got some severity of it, and Leonard became more and more aggressive as it spread, stressing them even more. Then, due to my chinz and not wanting to pay to fill the pond, the water was low enough that the fish basking in the mud trying to get the ich off became fodder for the dog park. That damn beagle will put her whole face underwater if one gets her attention and is close enough. Blowing bubbles the whole time, she doesn't even freak out.

So as nature is wont to due, everything just kinda sorted itself out. Gus (largemouth) fought his off and has but a light scrim left on his dome. Leonard never caught it. A bluegill and a pumpkin fuzzed on the tail but have since kicked it, and the green sunfish, who caught it last but ended up with very worrisome fields of it along his back and beginning on his face, has since appeared to have purged the parasite and has begun healing. All others too infirmed or too persistent in their basking were culled and eaten.

As it sits now, it's just hitting second gear. The cattails have exploded, their roots plumping up and sending out an island mat. It's fully 3 times bigger than the clump I started with, and my burlap pouch of swamp muck somehow still has integrity. Algae has begun to bloom, but appears to be mirroring the progress of the local cricks. Gives me hope that I got the water sorted straight away. I've dumped literal hundreds of juvenile goldfish already; save for the few that may have found their way into the filter field, all are gone. The 5 remaining fish are all back to normal.

It's a little early yet for the hyacinth; some tester buds I tossed in are struggling. And I still have to acquire lilies, and, of course, hit the lake and start stocking this thing with interesting stuff. Not to mention the seemingly never-ending joy of humping even more rocks up from the crick, as the 3 whole trips I've made so far STILL aren't enough. But it's pretty much there. I even got 14-2 run along the soffit, down the support pole, underground, and to an exterior plug where all wire and the air pump/hoses are hidden. Every bit of all electric and pneumatic wire and hosery is buried or contained in a plastic tote the size of a shoe box. Find a way to decorate over it and it is done. It is on time. And it is awesome.

Quote: Face

Would you know my s#$%-a$$ dog came running over, squirm shoved his way under me. Not play and scratch and lick, just jammed between me and the ground.

Aw, he was saving your life. That's all he knew how to do, as he's a dog.


Your pond is looking pretty nifty there. Almost professional, I think. Put it in your resume' if you want to be a pond maker. The tree in the back is decorative -- is it cherry blossoms?

Quote: rxwine

Aw, he was saving your life. That's all he knew how to do, as he's a dog.

He's turning into a real treat. Still got impulse issues, but getting better by the day.

Quote: rxwine

Your pond is looking pretty nifty there. Almost professional, I think. Put it in your resume' if you want to be a pond maker. The tree in the back is decorative -- is it cherry blossoms?

Ay, easy with the pro talk. I've a reputation here ;)

Thanks for the compliment. The life completely changed it. 2-3wks ago I was still kinda "meh" on it. Didn't change nothin', but once cattails started sprouting and the sawgrass peeked out, then all the yard stuff started coming in, it just sort of transformed. Get the grass to poof out and cover the totes, let the vines come back to cover the dirt patch, and we'll really be in business.

And that's a crabapple tree. Idiot thing rarely blooms, as it puts out buds at first peek of the sun and then we always get clobbered with snow again. The buds freeze and nothing ever happens. It's a rare sight to see it in this state.

I really could put this under side gigs as well. Have you used something like Fiverr to buy or sell a skill over the Internet? I was as much interested in the idea of what he was doing as just the art experiment.

Quote: Face

As good as it's gonna get, for now. I tweak it awful now and again, and when untweaked it's completely useless out and back, but otherwise I don't notice it. 12 more days and I'll be laid up for a solid spell.

You back to shoveling duck ponds, or just laying around indulging?

Just now coming back around. Today's milestone is that I can type like normal, apparently. Still hurts but I can get it up there, so we'll be happy for that. Due for a post anyways...

So the pond... it's totally flipped from all the years I've been ponding. This year I smashed the water; every day except the day of a hard rain it's remained vodka clear. I can see the rocks the dogs kicked in 3'+ down in the deep end, and even when it rain and murks a bit, it's still pretty damn clear and goes away in less than 24hr. The hyacinth I kept alive all winter perked right up once outside. They haven't grown and usually don't until deep summer, but they've gone deep green and full with no browning. My cattails exploded; what was a freeze dried hunk of mud with crunchy roots is now a mat of vibrant yellow spurs with tendrils everywhere. The hunk has tripled in size and the main cat is 3' high already. I even managed to get some northern lilies, and it's already sprouted 2 more pads that'll surface by week's end, making 8 already. The faintest bit of hair algae started when the sun began to come out and just disappeared the same week. There's nothing but a nice scrim of fuzz on everything, and has been so the whole time.

But the fish, my god, the fish. It's Thunderdome, man. The season got em and they went into mating mode. Leonard especially beat the dogdirt out of everything that he saw, and would not stop bumping and lifting Gus, apparently not understanding it was a different species. All the stress caused an outbreak of ich that I think I just recently have under control, but I lost nearly everyone. The dogs culled at least 3 bluegill, nabbing them when they'd beach in the cattail mat. I dispatched at least 2 others that got it in their face. Gus got it and kicked it twice before it finally took him, too. Had a proper burial for that one, he's in the vine garden. So for a long while there, the pond itself was awesome. The society, though, was utter chaos and death.

I think it's finally warmed up enough now. Leonard remained healthy throughout and now that the season's over, is seen chilling next to a bunch of different things that I now got in there. I haven't seen him chase anything but food in a couple weeks now. I've a number of large common shiners still kicking, as they're too big to eat. Two have ich where their noses rubbed raw on the trap, but both are kicking it. I ended up snagging a number of smaller green sunfish in that trap, and all appear to have passed the prey stage and are gonna make it. Two maybe 3 of the original bluegill are still in, as is Leonard the smallie. And then recent fishing trips have added a rock bass, a white bass, a couple yellow perch, a tiny largemouth that has so far survived....a host of emerald shiners that are about depleted... oh, even ~8 rainbow fry I oopsed up last time I went on a crick walk (oops). And then I dropped a few thousand toad eggs I found which already are hatching, AND kicked up a couple crays that were loaded with eggs. After 2 months of non stop battle royale, it's all calmed down and is pleasant again, with a lot of stuff happening and worth paying attention to. The fun stage is here =)

Good thing too cuz boat broke again lol.