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#1
17-08-2003, 04:42 PM
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found it Phil Geusz (was anybody remember?)
"Here I sit in a tent next to a lake with my hands shaking and the coffee
helping my nerves. What has this got to do with building a water garden you ask? Well, sit back and let me share the story of my "little water garden" that started a few months back. Boy, these ponds sure look like a lot of fun to build and our neighbor fred up the street said it was easy to install yourself. So I started to dig a hole and everything was going great until I hit "the Rock", which would later prove to be my demise. I thought I could dig around this rock by hand so I dug and dug and well you get the picture. I went through two wooden handled shovels trying to leverage the rock out so I ordered a steel shaft shovel from biggertools.com on the internet. Of course I paid the extra for the overnight delivery(I didn’t want to slow my progress). It was delivered the next day by 8:30 AM. By 9:30 AM I was rushed to the doctor’s office by ambulance…….why you ask? Well the steel shafted shovel weighed in at 90 lbs. After digging for about an hour I felt a snap in my back which caused me in turn to drop the shovel on my big toe which would have been fine had I been wearing boots…unfortunately I was wearing sandals which do not have steel reinforced straps!!! After a few stitches to my toe, corrective shoes and 2 weeks of therapy for my back and I was as good as well, well a forty year old. Back to the rock….Well, I called explosives-r-us and they assured me they could handle this rock. Everything was going well until they pushed the button. The good news is my pond is going to be much bigger than originally thought. The bad news is it blew out all of my neighbors windows. I told him, look you will get much better ventilation this summer that way. He found no humor in the moment…..my insurance company assured me I was covered under the "idiot clause" in my insurance, of course less my deductible. I hopped into my escort and sped off to the local pond store to get my 30 ‘x40’ liner. With the help of the employees we dropped the liner into the trunk off by sliding it off of the forklift. I didn’t think the noise from my bumper dragging was all that bad..I just turned the 8 track up louder and I didn’t notice the sparks from the bumper starting the prairie fire in the lot next to my house. I pulled into the drive and my wife and I pulled the liner out after using several successful words I learned from my dad as a kid that always helped in situations like this. It was after I got the liner out that I noticed the smoke coming from the back yard….remember the sparks from my bumper? With a little help from the local volunteer fire dept. we had the fire out in a couple of hours. Man that smoke really does burn your eyes and the looks from my wife were pretty painful also. The good news is the fire killed all the grass around my pond and now landscaping will be much easier I pointed out to my wife. The rest of the pond construction was pretty uneventful except for the new electrical panel we had to install to handle the 25,000 gph pump I had to have and the fact that the city tracked the lowering of the local reservoir by two feet to me filling up our new pond. I was able to stock my water garden with some great Koi…the bad news is my mother-in-law found out I had hocked some of her jewelry to fund this purchase. She has decided not to press charges now and the police said the ink will wear off of my fingertips in a few weeks. Which brings me back to the tent and the coffee. My wife said I can move back in as soon as I pay her mother back for the fish and I can find someone to get this Koi tattoo(don’t ask) off of my body. I have had to take two other jobs to pay off the pond related expenses as follows 2 wooden shovels @ $20.00 ea. $40.00 1 Steel shafted shovel @ $40.00 $40.00 1 Overnight delivery $60.00 Doctor’s Office Visit $100.00 Physical Therapy $375.00 Explosives-R-Us $950.00 Insurance deductible $500.00 Pond Equipment & liner $1250.00 Repair Escort Bumper* $150.00 Have Ford Dealer repair bumper correctly $649.00 Donation to volunteer fire dept. $500.00 New Electrical panel $700.00 City Fine for lowering reservoir $275.00 Cruise to pay off mother in law $3700.00 Tatoo(From Vinnys Tatoo & Garage) $245.00 Second Honeymoon with wife to Save marriage $5000.00 Camping Gear $875.00 I am now back with my wife and the pond was worth every penny……the lesson, do lots of research, read books, magazines, go on tours and then dig in! Ponding is really very easy and will provide you with a lifetime of enjoyment. Phil Geusz "I got a copy of the Daphnian (the bulletin of the Boston Aquarium Society) in the mail a couple weeks back, and have been forgetting almost daily to post my thanks here to whoever reprinted my silly little article there. (I carefully kept the name of my beneficiary on file, but a hard-drive crash scrambled it for me.) I also want to thank the list as a whole- if it had not been for the friendly atmosphere here I never would have posted something so frivolous. And yet it resulted in something very important to me- the first time I have ever seen real print. And in the prime inside-cover spot, too... I bought everyone at work a soda the day that publication arrived. I can't do that for everyone here, but I would if I could. And my fish are fine. The house, car, and retaining wall, well, work progresses.... Phil" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List http://puregold.aquaria.net/ www.drsolo.com Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the endorsements or recommendations I make. |
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#2
17-08-2003, 05:02 PM
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found it Phil Geusz (was anybody remember?)
chortle!! Thanks for digging that up for us. the first time I have ever seen real print. I wrote up a piece about constructing our pond and it was also my first printed article and paycheck. The pond has more than paid for itself! k30a and the watergardening labradors http://www.geocities.com/watergarden...dors/home.html |
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#4
17-08-2003, 06:12 PM
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found it Phil Geusz (was anybody remember?)
Ingrid wrote were you published before you came to
the group? Nope. I had done a lot of PR writing but that was for my job and I had been home for a number of years with the kidlets before I started my pond writing. k30a and the watergardening labradors http://www.geocities.com/watergarden...dors/home.html |
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#5
18-08-2003, 02:55 AM
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found it Phil Geusz (was anybody remember?)
I remember this!! Thanks, Ingrid for posting.
Nedra http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pines/4836 http://community.webshots.com/user/nedra118 wrote in message ... "Here I sit in a tent next to a lake with my hands shaking and the coffee helping my nerves. What has this got to do with building a water garden you ask? Well, sit back and let me share the story of my "little water garden" that started a few months back. Boy, these ponds sure look like a lot of fun to build and our neighbor fred up the street said it was easy to install yourself. So I started to dig a hole and everything was going great until I hit "the Rock", which would later prove to be my demise. I thought I could dig around this rock by hand so I dug and dug and well you get the picture. I went through two wooden handled shovels trying to leverage the rock out so I ordered a steel shaft shovel from biggertools.com on the internet. Of course I paid the extra for the overnight delivery(I didn't want to slow my progress). It was delivered the next day by 8:30 AM. By 9:30 AM I was rushed to the doctor's office by ambulance...why you ask? Well the steel shafted shovel weighed in at 90 lbs. After digging for about an hour I felt a snap in my back which caused me in turn to drop the shovel on my big toe which would have been fine had I been wearing boots.unfortunately I was wearing sandals which do not have steel reinforced straps!!! After a few stitches to my toe, corrective shoes and 2 weeks of therapy for my back and I was as good as well, well a forty year old. Back to the rock..Well, I called explosives-r-us and they assured me they could handle this rock. Everything was going well until they pushed the button. The good news is my pond is going to be much bigger than originally thought. The bad news is it blew out all of my neighbors windows. I told him, look you will get much better ventilation this summer that way. He found no humor in the moment...my insurance company assured me I was covered under the "idiot clause" in my insurance, of course less my deductible. I hopped into my escort and sped off to the local pond store to get my 30 'x40' liner. With the help of the employees we dropped the liner into the trunk off by sliding it off of the forklift. I didn't think the noise from my bumper dragging was all that bad..I just turned the 8 track up louder and I didn't notice the sparks from the bumper starting the prairie fire in the lot next to my house. I pulled into the drive and my wife and I pulled the liner out after using several successful words I learned from my dad as a kid that always helped in situations like this. It was after I got the liner out that I noticed the smoke coming from the back yard..remember the sparks from my bumper? With a little help from the local volunteer fire dept. we had the fire out in a couple of hours. Man that smoke really does burn your eyes and the looks from my wife were pretty painful also. The good news is the fire killed all the grass around my pond and now landscaping will be much easier I pointed out to my wife. The rest of the pond construction was pretty uneventful except for the new electrical panel we had to install to handle the 25,000 gph pump I had to have and the fact that the city tracked the lowering of the local reservoir by two feet to me filling up our new pond. I was able to stock my water garden with some great Koi.the bad news is my mother-in-law found out I had hocked some of her jewelry to fund this purchase. She has decided not to press charges now and the police said the ink will wear off of my fingertips in a few weeks. Which brings me back to the tent and the coffee. My wife said I can move back in as soon as I pay her mother back for the fish and I can find someone to get this Koi tattoo(don't ask) off of my body. I have had to take two other jobs to pay off the pond related expenses as follows 2 wooden shovels @ $20.00 ea. $40.00 1 Steel shafted shovel @ $40.00 $40.00 1 Overnight delivery $60.00 Doctor's Office Visit $100.00 Physical Therapy $375.00 Explosives-R-Us $950.00 Insurance deductible $500.00 Pond Equipment & liner $1250.00 Repair Escort Bumper* $150.00 Have Ford Dealer repair bumper correctly $649.00 Donation to volunteer fire dept. $500.00 New Electrical panel $700.00 City Fine for lowering reservoir $275.00 Cruise to pay off mother in law $3700.00 Tatoo(From Vinnys Tatoo & Garage) $245.00 Second Honeymoon with wife to Save marriage $5000.00 Camping Gear $875.00 I am now back with my wife and the pond was worth every penny..the lesson, do lots of research, read books, magazines, go on tours and then dig in! Ponding is really very easy and will provide you with a lifetime of enjoyment. Phil Geusz "I got a copy of the Daphnian (the bulletin of the Boston Aquarium Society) in the mail a couple weeks back, and have been forgetting almost daily to post my thanks here to whoever reprinted my silly little article there. (I carefully kept the name of my beneficiary on file, but a hard-drive crash scrambled it for me.) I also want to thank the list as a whole- if it had not been for the friendly atmosphere here I never would have posted something so frivolous. And yet it resulted in something very important to me- the first time I have ever seen real print. And in the prime inside-cover spot, too... I bought everyone at work a soda the day that publication arrived. I can't do that for everyone here, but I would if I could. And my fish are fine. The house, car, and retaining wall, well, work progresses.... Phil" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List http://puregold.aquaria.net/ www.drsolo.com Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the endorsements or recommendations I make. |
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#6
18-08-2003, 03:03 AM
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found it Phil Geusz (was anybody remember?)
I remember this!! Thanks, Ingrid for posting.
Nedra http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pines/4836 http://community.webshots.com/user/nedra118 wrote in message ... "Here I sit in a tent next to a lake with my hands shaking and the coffee helping my nerves. What has this got to do with building a water garden you ask? Well, sit back and let me share the story of my "little water garden" that started a few months back. Boy, these ponds sure look like a lot of fun to build and our neighbor fred up the street said it was easy to install yourself. So I started to dig a hole and everything was going great until I hit "the Rock", which would later prove to be my demise. I thought I could dig around this rock by hand so I dug and dug and well you get the picture. I went through two wooden handled shovels trying to leverage the rock out so I ordered a steel shaft shovel from biggertools.com on the internet. Of course I paid the extra for the overnight delivery(I didn't want to slow my progress). It was delivered the next day by 8:30 AM. By 9:30 AM I was rushed to the doctor's office by ambulance...why you ask? Well the steel shafted shovel weighed in at 90 lbs. After digging for about an hour I felt a snap in my back which caused me in turn to drop the shovel on my big toe which would have been fine had I been wearing boots.unfortunately I was wearing sandals which do not have steel reinforced straps!!! After a few stitches to my toe, corrective shoes and 2 weeks of therapy for my back and I was as good as well, well a forty year old. Back to the rock..Well, I called explosives-r-us and they assured me they could handle this rock. Everything was going well until they pushed the button. The good news is my pond is going to be much bigger than originally thought. The bad news is it blew out all of my neighbors windows. I told him, look you will get much better ventilation this summer that way. He found no humor in the moment...my insurance company assured me I was covered under the "idiot clause" in my insurance, of course less my deductible. I hopped into my escort and sped off to the local pond store to get my 30 'x40' liner. With the help of the employees we dropped the liner into the trunk off by sliding it off of the forklift. I didn't think the noise from my bumper dragging was all that bad..I just turned the 8 track up louder and I didn't notice the sparks from the bumper starting the prairie fire in the lot next to my house. I pulled into the drive and my wife and I pulled the liner out after using several successful words I learned from my dad as a kid that always helped in situations like this. It was after I got the liner out that I noticed the smoke coming from the back yard..remember the sparks from my bumper? With a little help from the local volunteer fire dept. we had the fire out in a couple of hours. Man that smoke really does burn your eyes and the looks from my wife were pretty painful also. The good news is the fire killed all the grass around my pond and now landscaping will be much easier I pointed out to my wife. The rest of the pond construction was pretty uneventful except for the new electrical panel we had to install to handle the 25,000 gph pump I had to have and the fact that the city tracked the lowering of the local reservoir by two feet to me filling up our new pond. I was able to stock my water garden with some great Koi.the bad news is my mother-in-law found out I had hocked some of her jewelry to fund this purchase. She has decided not to press charges now and the police said the ink will wear off of my fingertips in a few weeks. Which brings me back to the tent and the coffee. My wife said I can move back in as soon as I pay her mother back for the fish and I can find someone to get this Koi tattoo(don't ask) off of my body. I have had to take two other jobs to pay off the pond related expenses as follows 2 wooden shovels @ $20.00 ea. $40.00 1 Steel shafted shovel @ $40.00 $40.00 1 Overnight delivery $60.00 Doctor's Office Visit $100.00 Physical Therapy $375.00 Explosives-R-Us $950.00 Insurance deductible $500.00 Pond Equipment & liner $1250.00 Repair Escort Bumper* $150.00 Have Ford Dealer repair bumper correctly $649.00 Donation to volunteer fire dept. $500.00 New Electrical panel $700.00 City Fine for lowering reservoir $275.00 Cruise to pay off mother in law $3700.00 Tatoo(From Vinnys Tatoo & Garage) $245.00 Second Honeymoon with wife to Save marriage $5000.00 Camping Gear $875.00 I am now back with my wife and the pond was worth every penny..the lesson, do lots of research, read books, magazines, go on tours and then dig in! Ponding is really very easy and will provide you with a lifetime of enjoyment. Phil Geusz "I got a copy of the Daphnian (the bulletin of the Boston Aquarium Society) in the mail a couple weeks back, and have been forgetting almost daily to post my thanks here to whoever reprinted my silly little article there. (I carefully kept the name of my beneficiary on file, but a hard-drive crash scrambled it for me.) I also want to thank the list as a whole- if it had not been for the friendly atmosphere here I never would have posted something so frivolous. And yet it resulted in something very important to me- the first time I have ever seen real print. And in the prime inside-cover spot, too... I bought everyone at work a soda the day that publication arrived. I can't do that for everyone here, but I would if I could. And my fish are fine. The house, car, and retaining wall, well, work progresses.... Phil" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List http://puregold.aquaria.net/ www.drsolo.com Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the endorsements or recommendations I make. |
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