Dave Pictures

[Jackie Ramo]

Sorry for the mix up and delay. Looking Good Dave

http://jackieramo.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/First%20Anniversary%20II.jpg.jpeg
http://jackieramo.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/First%20anniversary.jpg.jpeg

[Cinnamon]

Thanks for posting them Jackie! Dave wow! It looks awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dave in Innisfil]

Thanks, Jackie......again...LOL

Thanks, Cin......again...LOL

It's a good news, bad news kinda day for the pond.

Bad news is I'm back to being unemployed, so such extravagances as upper pond liner, air pump, more floating plants and fish, all will have to wait.

Good news is with all this extra time on my hands I will be able to fit the remaining flagstone and get rid of the unsightly security fence around the ponds. We were going to order another skid, but that will have to wait too. I'm also figuring that some of the plants will need to be moved, but I'm going to ask advice on that in another thread.

I had refrained from taking water tests for fear of discovering something I couldn't deal with time or moneywise. The fish, frogs and foliage seem to be thriving, so it can't be too bad. Because of the water loss between the ponds, evaporation, consumption from 3 large dogs, Tina's plant watering, and the settling of the outer flagstone ring, I've been adding considerable fresh water from our well every couple of days. I removed one of the offending evergreen tree's from in front of the pond, so I'm hoping to only have half the needles dropping into the pond and screwing up the pH level. My recent change to a fiberglass filter material is doing an excellant job in my DIY skimmer. Yesterday's rain (funnel cloud less than a mile from home) was our first test for the designated overflow area, and we were pleased that the excess drained as desired into the flower garden on the left side by the weeping mulberry. Previous to this, it used to overflow and drown the pond barn and surrounding area. Controlled flooding is much more convenient.

Tina and I dragged up the pictures we took a year ago, as we have survived our first year. It's really satisfying to compare, see the many improvements and changes, with few if any notable regrets about our efforts. In retrospect, we can't even imagine how we considered filling in the bottom pond.

Although I've been directly involved in three large (2 acres plus) trout and bass ponds, I love the intimacy of our two little holes in the ground. No attachment to the little goldies, but I'm having fun training all the fish to eat from a feeding ring....Even Roy's getting in on the act. Once one fish starts in the ring, it isn't long before the water boils with colour. Roy and his shubs like the larger floating pellets, but the goldies devour the smaller food. It isn't anywhere near the display of fish colour we had last year, but it's a start. And a start is certainly a lot better than The End.

[Jackie Ramo]

Well I am glad you are enjoying the fruits of your labours. You've had some hardtimes with this pond but have been a real trouper in getting the job done. Too bad about the extra time without money but hey, its summer!! enjoy

[Merlin]

Bad news on the loss of the job :( , no fun being unemployed . Top marks on the pond though it looks fantastic. :)

[Dave in Innisfil]

Because of our pondmare, I got the opportunity to make numerous positive changes to our landscape and pond design. The bad side was the financial cost, the emotional disposing of over a hundred fish, and of course the ceaseless labour that went into getting the ponds to where they are today.

Because of this short-term work experience, I've learned more of what to ensure before I commit myself to a new employer. Same with my ponds. Now, before I do anything drastic, I at least have a forumn to ask questions and receive honest answers without fear of someone's desires to reach into my wallet. I now shudder at the money and time spent trying to save fish that were "the swimming dead" as was originally told to me. After I got my ammonia reading, I was told that I would probably lose all the fish, but my stubborness refused to accept it. In retrospect, I should have saved the money I spent on chemicals to visit Terri and buy more fish once I had established a healthier living environment. I think I'm almost there now, and hope that re-employment provides me with a standard of living that will allow me both to properly populate our ponds as well as allowing me time to enjoy them. My recent employer provided neither, and I'm really not upset at disassociating myself from their organization and their products.

[Terri]

Dave I think you Tina and the friends who gave a helping hand did a terrific job :-)
In retrospect, I should have saved the money I spent on chemicals to visit Terri and buy more fish once I had established a healthier living environment. You're determination not to give up saved those you have left. I admire you and Tina for all the sweat and heart you've put into this over these past weeks.

Good luck with the job hunting, I'm sure you will land where you want to be :grin:

[Jojopotato]

Gorgeous Pond... You did a great job on it all.. Its absolutely gorgeous..

[BonnieIN]

It's beautiful Dave!

[Jackie Ramo]

Dave here are the other pics. I'm sure the hours you spend beside the pond will eventually repay all your efforts. It really looks great!!

[marla]

Wow Dave, for all the problems you had from day 1, it sure looks fantabulous, love the flagstone patio area. You should be very proud of the outcome, and I bet all those surviving fish are loving it!

[Dave in Innisfil]

After all the hard work to re-fit the two waterfalls, and add a third, I couldn't stand not being able to see them from my "throne" one day longer. So, armed with Jackie's advice about keeping similar depths, I moved the iris away from the front of the waterfalls, dropped the lilies off their milk crate perches and carefully untangled the stems. Now we have a large open area in the centre for the floating plants (no more fish floaters allowed... LOL), and the lilies can stretch to their potential. The fish seemed to like having me in the pond, and were constantly "kissing" me. They also seemed quite thrilled with the salvinia that escaped from the upper pond.

In trying to avoid the pump plumbing, I found the deep centre trough of the pond........oops. My dog just sorta cocked his head sideways and I'm sure he was questioning the double standard about swimming in the pond. Handling plants in that depth proved awkward, so I pumped off a few thousand gallons. The DIY skimmer has been removed for retro-fitting, and with the poplar trees now in full bloom, shall be missed greatly.

Tina came home with news of a tornado less than 15 miles away, so I hastened my in-pond efforts. The pond refilled quickly with the combination of well water and the heavy downpour that followed. The pond has been very "cloudy" lately, but at least we haven't had the algae blooms like other local ponds I've seen. It's my Father's Day weekend with my five year old son, so my ponding will go back burner for a while. Unless someone took the hint I want one of those remote controlled boats to chase the waterbugs around the lilies....... :lol:

[Wulff]

Absolutely fantastic Dave, thats quite a turn around.

[Jackie Ramo]

Dave somewhere I saw remote koi, that would be fun!!! Glad the tornado missed you. Been exciting weather the past two days!!

[Dave in Innisfil]

I've been looking and asking about remote control koi, and wish I could capture the expressions on sales person's faces when I ask for them.

Today I pick up Sonny for his 10-day summer holiday with me. At 5, he's always interested in the ponds, and I'm having a hard time keeping him from wanting to play with his beach, boat and tub toys in them. I've tried to make fish food the ONLY thing he throws in the pond. More than once I've caught him baiting the fish with food, and trying to catch them with his frog net. I've warned him the next time I catch him, he'll have to wear his water wings whenever he's in the backyard. Problem is my dogs think something is attaching his arm, and I've two sets of punctured water wings already. I had to take away his remote control trucks 'cause he asked if they float. My guess is that he already knows the answer to that one after taking a toy inventory......LOL Be interesting to see what he's already contributed when I do my fall clean up of the dark deep centre. When I drained our pond this spring, my dogs were overjoyed at the return of their kongs and lacross balls. Doubt I'll get the same response for the retreival of a mucky submerged Tonka or Hot Wheel.

[Jackie Ramo]

Do a google, I know some folks in the States that have them.

[Dave in Innisfil]

Just happened to be on the roof cleaning the spruce needles outta the gutters. You can see my skimmer filter in the bottom right corner, full one day after cleaning the filter materials.

Someone told me to remove the water lettuce from constant sunlight exposure, as I had them gathering at the overflow from the top pond. Their outer leaves were all yellowing and dropping off, so I took their advice. In doing so, I was rapidly losing visability in the bottom pond, heightening my desire for filtration. It's amazing, but after 3 days of replacing them with water hyacynth, the water in the bottom pond has returned to 3' visability.

[Jackie Ramo]

Great view Dave, made me dizzy!! pond sure looks great after all your hard work. Must make you feel good to see it.

Water lettuce and hyacinths are two of the best filtering plants around. Yellow flag is another that pulls a lot of nutrients but not as much of the fines as the roots are not as fine as the floaters. I'm surprised that some one said to take the lettuce out of the full sun, I always thought they liked that... The bottom leaves can yellow and drop off, same with most plants the older leaves are replaced with new.

[Dave in Innisfil]

My lettuce seemed to stop yellowing days after giving them some periodic shade. I've learned to trim off the dying leaves from them, and the black rotting bulbs on the hyacynth. I hope I'm doing right by removing the spent iris bloom stalks, and those broken and dying leafs on them and the rushes as well. Retreiving the spent lily blooms made more of a tangled mess than it was worth, so I've stopped.

Is there much point adding yellow flag at this time of year ?

[Jackie Ramo]

Clean up of leaves etc by hand means less in the bottom of the pond to rot... adding yellow flag now is fine, You won't get blooms until next year but the roots will still pull nutrients and store it in the tuber for next year's blooms

[Dave in Innisfil]

As a separated parent, I rely on my memories and pictures to keep me going between visits with my son every third weekend. My fur-kids and fin-kids are great distractions during his absenses, and once in a while we all have special moments together.

Lia, our 1 yr old rescue from Memphis, Tenn., is growing fast, and learning her guarding duties from Ben, our 5 year old local rescue. The pic of them swimming in Minden doesn't hold half the laughter we had when Sonny swam underwater and the pups went frantic looking for him... LOL. Ridge, our other foster/rescue, has now been successfully placed in his new "forever" home.

Pondside, I set the flagstone so we could safely sit, dip our feet and feed the fish. Sonny tries valiently to help with the aid of my lure retriever that doubles as a lily stalk untangler. He has his own "fish feeding" cup of pellets, and am sure his visits have contributed significanty to the growth of our fish.

[Jackie Ramo]

Quite the handsome helper you have there. :grin: We had the hubbies family here over the weekend so lots of kids from 2 - 10. They all loved to feed the fish and pet GG.

[Dave in Innisfil]

Sonny can hand feed the fish. Our dogs come nose to nose with them, no problem. But the fish won't respond to me, except to nibble on my legs when I'm chest deep in the pond. I guess they see me as that creature with the net that keeps removing their buddies from the pond as I now cull anything that looks sick or injured before it becomes a floater.

[Jackie Ramo]

Funny GG doesn't like me to pet her either but she let all the kids touch her...

[Merlin]

Dave I had to take a second look at the last photo, thought your pond had grown in size !wow! :lol: . Great looking boy, by the look of your photos the time you spend with him , allthough short is quality time and that counts for a lot. :)

[Dave in Innisfil]

No, Merlin. I didn't enlarge our pond....LOL.....I added another one. Those pics were taken at Minden Rotary Park, in what we refer to as "cottage country" two hours north of Toronto. We break up the drive back to his mum's by stopping at different playgrounds, parks and beaches along the way. Gives Daddy Dave some extra memories to tide him thru until his next access with his son.

Sonny has inherited my love of water. At 5, he swims like a fish, and spends much of our time together around water, either pondside, riverside or in Lake Simcoe. He'll be pissed when he finds out I drained his inflatable pool to make room for my new quarantine pond. But I'll let him name the new fish and that'll make him happy. No road trip would be complete without a stop somewhere for him and the pups to enjoy a swim. I spoiled him to real fishing by teaching him on our stocked bass pond. Now, after a few minutes of unrewarded fishing, his attention turns to scantally-clad boaters and beachgoers.

[marla]

Dave, what wonderful pictures!!! And to think it was not that long ago you franticly came on this board. The rehab has gone great, and it looks like you are all really enjoying the time you have out there. What a happy ending to all your troubles. Hoping that this winter is better, I am not looking forward to it, I am always so anxious for spring and worried about fish I don't need to diet. :wink:

[Dave in Innisfil]

And now we're up to 3 ponds.......and yes, thanks largely to ya'll, my ponds and I have come a long way since this spring. I'm really optomistic that my education and efforts will be rewarded come next spring. We're already discussing plans to replace the liner in the top bog pond, but that's next year. For now, we're quite happy to spend more time enjoying our ponds than working on them.

[Jackie Ramo]

One needs to remember to take the time to enjoy the ponds. They can become obsessions.... :smile:

[BonnieIN]

Great birds eye view Dave!
Beautiful! :smile:

[Dave in Innisfil]

As Tina reminded me, this is only a temporary pond while the new fish are in quarantine. It shows the lengths I've had to go to so far to keep the local fauna out. Something visited the preform last night, and while disturbed, no sign they got in. I'm adding more c-clamps now on each side, just in case.

Here's the first pic of our seven new fin-kids. Just mud-pond-mutts, but we're gonna love 'em and try our best at wintering them.

[Dave in Innisfil]

Bubbles was a gift from one of our pond relining crew. It's been difficult to get a picture of him, and last night had partial success with night pics.

[Dave in Innisfil]

Since I had the camera out to take a pic of my defective air pump anyways............

[Jackie Ramo]

Hey. looks good for so late in the season. I'm enojoying the prolonged summer.

[Dave in Innisfil]

With temps here in the high 20's, I'm trying to squeeze as much enjoyment from our ponds as possible. I'll probably remove the fish from the upper bog pond and give it a good cleaning this weekend. It'll be our standbye QT for next spring. I'm still mulling over just how thorough a cleaning the main pond will get, currently being shy a pond vac and watertight waders. For sure I'll remove the foilage and remaining floating plants, it's just that soft fuzz on the sides and silt on the bottom I'm at a dilema to remove.

[Jackie Ramo]

Do not remove the soft fuzz on the sides!! This is an excellent part of the biofiltration of the pond and something every ponder wishes they had in their ponds. OTOH silt in the bottom where the fish will be all winter is not a good thing at all.

I use the shop vac to vac out the pond.

[Terri]

I concur with Jackie, leave the fuzz!!!!

Pond looks good Dave, well worth all that work this past spring/summer! :grin:

[Busy B]

Hope you stay upright and if you don't...keep your mouth closed :grin:

[Jackie Ramo]

!rofl !rofl at Busy!! I'm always yelling as I go under

[Busy B]

Is that almost a case of..bubble, bubble..no more trouble :eek:

That's why my hubby is always trying to get me to go fishing with him, and why I won't!

[Dave in Innisfil]

OK, sheesh.....I'll leave the fuzz alone....besides it hides the damn writing on the liner....LOL

With unseasonable temps, I've been reluctant to trim out the foliage quite yet. Our next hurtle will be to de-fish the bog, and then hopefully make some better repairs to the PVC liner -to- EPDM liner seam at the waterfalls. At that point I'll either rent or fabricate some kind of vacuum to suck out the bottom silt from both ponds. Right now it's a full time job keeping the leaves off the pond's surface. Almost to the point of re-assembling my DIY skimmer as is. Today's project is to fix them leaky waders......pond temp is 55 and dropping.

[Jackie Ramo]

Yeah these temp drops make me wish I'd cleaned last weekend instead of this one. I wonder if allthose folks at the totem party are available tomorrow for the pond clean party :lol:

[Merlin]

Hi Dave I see the pond is still looking good :) , hows the work front now, any good news. ??. Well judging by the cold nights I recon winter is not to far away over here , so the pond will soon be closing down. :( I guess I will have to start talking to the DW again as I won't be so busy in the garden . :lol: