Last night, at 4am, or I guess I should say,
this morning, at 4am, I turned on the furnace.
Too cold to sleep. Yesterday it rained and
youngest son reported it was cold in the
classroom.
DH tackled the garage. Pond is still on the
list. I'm going to move one of the deck pond
plants into the frog bog. It is a grassy plant
with tiny, yellow starlike flowers that bloom
for a day. A good ponder would know the name.
I did report it somewhere back last spring...
The chrysanthemums are blooming on the
deck. I like the rust and plum coloured varieties.

k :-)
http://tinyurl.com/6bguh ~ new pond keeper info
http://tinyurl.com/yp64db ~ slide show of pond

k wrote:
Last night, at 4am, or I guess I should say,
this morning, at 4am, I turned on the furnace.
Too cold to sleep. Yesterday it rained and
youngest son reported it was cold in the
classroom.
DH tackled the garage. Pond is still on the
list. I'm going to move one of the deck pond
plants into the frog bog. It is a grassy plant
with tiny, yellow starlike flowers that bloom
for a day. A good ponder would know the name.
I did report it somewhere back last spring...
The chrysanthemums are blooming on the
deck. I like the rust and plum coloured varieties.

k :-)
http://tinyurl.com/6bguh ~ new pond keeper info
http://tinyurl.com/yp64db ~ slide show of pond


We've had our heating on since Thursday (and probably needed it a day or
two sooner apart from my stubborn attitude of the heating does not go on
until at least October - a few sleepless nights convinced me).....quite
depressing as we haven't had a summer in the UK yet.... :-( Although
looking at the forecast it looks like I might be able to get outside
sometime next week to finish off the pond edgings and tidy the garden
and get the plants in for the spring.....(wall flowers, daffs, tulips
etc).....Pleased to say that some of the plants I bought for the pond
are doing quite well at the moment - especially the pepper grass some of
which is placed in the deepest part of the pond but is now reaching
almost to the surface (2ft6) - of course I know that it will have some
die off over winter but I'm hoping that it will survive.....Actually,
without wanting to wish my life away, I can't wait until spring when I
can get the pond planted out properly and start adding fish - such a
bummer it took so long to dig it and I couldn't finish it in time this year.

We bought some solar powered lights disguised as rocks for round the
edges of the pond as an experiment, not expecting much especially with
the amount of cloud etc. but it is now 1am and they are still going
since coming on at dusk.....I think we will get some more at some
point......


Gill

"k" wrote in message
oups.com...
Last night, at 4am, or I guess I should say,
this morning, at 4am, I turned on the furnace.
Too cold to sleep. Yesterday it rained and
youngest son reported it was cold in the
classroom.
DH tackled the garage. Pond is still on the
list. I'm going to move one of the deck pond
plants into the frog bog. It is a grassy plant
with tiny, yellow starlike flowers that bloom
for a day. A good ponder would know the name.
I did report it somewhere back last spring...
The chrysanthemums are blooming on the
deck. I like the rust and plum coloured varieties.

k :-)
http://tinyurl.com/6bguh ~ new pond keeper info
http://tinyurl.com/yp64db ~ slide show of pond


It's staying fairly warm here, the Hibiscus hasn't come in for the winter
yet. It doesn't like consistent temps below 50°.

Poured the cement for the bottom drain today, hopefully the no niche skimmer
gets plumbed tomorrow. I might get the liner in next week, but I doubt it.
The hole still needs some leveling and I have to build the filters yet.

Evenings down to 45 here, days still around 70+

Great weather to enjoy th yard, and catch up on chopping firewood for
winter.. I did our entire winter supply this last week, installed a
workbench, and mounted a chainsaw sharpener because I was dulling them so
fast.

Imagine 20 feet x 5feet high stakes of firewood.. in a week or so.

Needless to say, my arm's sore now.. LOL!

Still getting some water lilly flowers, and the pickerel is still blooming.
The wife also read that pickerel is edible.. anyone ever have any?

--
Gareee
(Gary Tabar Jr.)

Great to hear of the progress. Pics?

Jim

Our fall is just starting. Nights hitting the upper 50's. The plants
are still doing well, although the lilies have slowed flowering.

We got some solar lights too. My youngest son, working for the
governor for a semester instead of his 3rd year semester at Stanfod
law, has begun adding solar lights around the pond. They look great.
He mounted some strings of lights under the benches that I had bought
but not installed. They look great!

Now I have some multi-LED lights for in the pond and the water falls.
They are very bright! The pond ones show the junk in the water! Have
to think about how to deal with that.

Our ponnd will be a night show case when Tim gets done.

Jim

where did you get the LEDs? our light in the pond shows the junk a bit too, I look
thru it to the fish. but I did used to have a string of lights shining down on the
water, was very nice too. Ingrid

On Sun, 30 Sep 2007 07:41:25 CST, Phyllis and Jim wrote:
Now I have some multi-LED lights for in the pond and the water falls.
They are very bright! The pond ones show the junk in the water! Have
to think about how to deal with that.

Phyllis and Jim wrote:

We got some solar lights too. My youngest son, working for the
governor for a semester instead of his 3rd year semester at Stanfod
law, has begun adding solar lights around the pond. They look great.
He mounted some strings of lights under the benches that I had bought
but not installed. They look great!

I've certainly been impressed with them so far. I bought some solar
powered lights around 8 years ago to try and light the old pond and the
garden but they were a great disappointment - solar powered lighting has
certainly advanced. I think that by next summer I'll start looking into
how to get lighting into all of the garden by this means - we've always
wanted to do it but have been put off to a certain degree by the thought
of running mains cables all over the garden - if the solar work it is a
good, cheap, environmentally friendly way of doing it - shame they don't
come with an off switch but I guess more expensive solar light systems
might.



Now I have some multi-LED lights for in the pond and the water falls.
They are very bright! The pond ones show the junk in the water! Have
to think about how to deal with that.

Now, I've wondered about doing this....my worry has been that it might
freak the fish but yep, junk in the water would also be an issue and
spoil the overall effect. Are your LEDs solar powered or mains?

Gill





Our ponnd will be a night show case when Tim gets done.

Jim

I got the lights from Fountain Mountain for $25 a set. They are NOT
solar. But the power to the water is low because of the transformer.
Protecting the transformer is being thought about very carefully. I
will try to get a pic once Tim gets them installed.

Jim

I've always wondered if underwater lights
would mess with a fish's sleep schedule,
or day and night schedule or whatever.
Can you set them to turn off after evening
viewing hours?

k :-)

I am setting them up with a switch. The solar lights are low enough
in power to be no problem for the fish.

Jim

"Phyllis and Jim" wrote in message
ps.com...
Great to hear of the progress. Pics?

Jim


Yeah, I should take some before I cover the cement. I probably should have
taken some before the drain got covered.

I ran into a snag plumbing the skimmer, I didn't have the piece to join the
bulkead to the elbow. I'm not really crazy about having the bulhead
protruding into the pond (nut in pond), but I don't see much choice based on
the fittings available. I want to be able to unscrew the skimmer in winter,
so I don't want to go the pipe boot route.

Hi Bill - I don't know if I'm missing something here, but the bulkheads I
use are threaded all the way through - can't you use a male connection on
the "pond" side so the nut and rest of bulkhead is "outside" the pond?
Just a thought - Gale :~)
I ran into a snag plumbing the skimmer, I didn't have the piece to join
the bulkead to the elbow. I'm not really crazy about having the bulhead
protruding into the pond (nut in pond), but I don't see much choice based
on the fittings available. I want to be able to unscrew the skimmer in
winter, so I don't want to go the pipe boot route.

On Sun, 30 Sep 2007 20:09:26 CST, "Bill Stock" wrote:

I ran into a snag plumbing the skimmer, I didn't have the piece to join the
bulkead to the elbow. I'm not really crazy about having the bulhead
protruding into the pond (nut in pond), but I don't see much choice based on
the fittings available. I want to be able to unscrew the skimmer in winter,
so I don't want to go the pipe boot route.

We unscrew it at the base of the skimmer pot. a fitting attached to the
pipe that comes thru the liner. ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

mine are set on a timer to go off 3 hours after dark. Ingrid

On Sun, 30 Sep 2007 16:26:18 CST, k wrote:

I've always wondered if underwater lights
would mess with a fish's sleep schedule,
or day and night schedule or whatever.
Can you set them to turn off after evening
viewing hours?

k :-)