Our very first pond

25.08.2004

Here is the very first pond we had, my husband and his friend Dave settled into its new home one fine day.

On a personal note. I will never, ever forget this day, because I got a message from a new friend who had taken a severe overdose.

I was a moderator on an internet site for Eating Disorders, and I manned it for the most part, day and night.

At that particular time, I was the only person this young woman would talk to, and I was a million miles away from her. After an hour or so, I convinced her to give me her home address, and details, then her doctors phone number. Eventually I also managed to convince them that this wasn’t a fake call. That day I saved a life.

πŸ™‚

This was the small pond after first installing.

And almost finished…

We never realized that a plastic molded liner would then float in heavy rainfall, so it was re-designed a couple of months later, and finally ended up looking like this. πŸ™‚

For the fish, we sort of started off with too many, got a couple of small koi and sturgeon. Knowing nothing about fish at all. The sturgeon didn’t make it, so we never got anymore, think it jumped out and a cat got it, because we never found it. 😦
The koi are still happily swimming around now, fromΒ  50 gallons to 5000 gallons.

Awesome.

I am loving digging out all these old pictures. So much more to come.

Any comments welcome, I will return them. Where ever you are from.

Thanks for the visit.

Dawn

:) a niche in this blogging sphere…

I’ve had chance today after the ‘project’ this morning to catch up and read through some of the blogs on this site. I have to admit, that there isn’t a great deal posted on Koi, I find this a shame. So, perhaps I do have a little niche that I can write about. And gain traffic to my blog with.
I’ll have to take a look back and see where I was and what I was blogging about at the time we started our pond build, but I can re-visit it for sure, we’re a million pictures of the whole event. It started on my husbands Birthday and lasted far too long…
Now, let me go get some pictures and see where I was in 2008, well apart from in a pretty bad place. Recovering from an Eating disorder wasn’t an easy task. That year was one of the toughest in my life. But I can say that I am grateful to have had the help I needed at the right time. Thanks.
So, let me interject some of the good things going on in my life into that era. Pictures and commentary to come. πŸ™‚

Hope you keep coming back to read some more, and it will keep my brain ticking over and getting into gear for writing again. Nanowrimo isn’t too far ahead. November, yikes.

D

Today’s project. :)

Well today we should have been going to Cuttlebrook koi farm for their winter harvest. But with all the flooding this week, and many a potential problem with both ponds, pipework etc, we had to put it off.

I am pretty gutted about this because I wanted to see two of the new friends I’ve made this year. Mark and Claire who are just lovely πŸ™‚ and Stuart and his wife, although wasn’t sure if his wife was going today… hey ho, it is what it is, and although we don’t struggle for cash, we can’t afford to spend everything we have on a trip away, when we need to spend it on other things. Winter is coming and the ponds need to be covered, secured and well maintained.

So, today’s little project was to make a small cover for our Nexus bunker. This always, always, floods. And although rain going in or around it won’t make much difference to it flooding. At least it will keep a little bit more heat in there and keep the filter bugs that little bit happier.

Here is what it looks like…

 

 

So a busy morning for us. Now to settle down and have some dinner and then catch up with some writing. πŸ™‚

 

Speak later.

Contemplation and Script writing.

Today has been a day of contemplation.

We went out early to get some pipework for the ponds. But came away empty handed as one part alone was almost Β£50. We’ve re-designed how we’re going to do it now, due to cost.

I’ve had some of my baby koi for sale on Ebay, and only had a few interests, this is the wrong time of year really, so I’m pulling them off till next year.

————————————–

As I said writing wise, due to a computer malfunction and being just plain exhausted, I’ve had a bit of a break. I need to get back into it. So, blogging helps. Frees the mind and allows me to start to think and process things once more.

I’ve finally had my feed-back from Script-Pipeline, mis-understanding and crossed wires there I think. But I have something to work on.

Jaime has been doing a fantastic job as Animator with The Secret King, so we’ll hopefully move forward a little more. With the goal for next year to enter into some comps.

I should be excited, but I’ve felt so lost with things this last few months that I haven’t been allowing myself the time to be excited. Well, contemplation over and time to move on.

New plan of action… Stick with the Animation Pilot, get that as nailed as we can.

Even typing these words, I feel more and more excitement. Need to get the adrenalin going more though… πŸ™‚

What I plan on doing as we build TSK up, is to post some concept work. To really get people interested in the story, the characters and the way the world works.

If you’ll allow me some time. We can build and work on this world together. And maybe if I can create enough ‘fans’ we will have something solid to take to the animation fest’s πŸ™‚

Will keep you posted…

Dawn

Friday :)

I have to admit I am very thankful that this week is over.

It has been one of the hardest weeks at work, due to the awful weather, but also at home.

Hubby and his friends son began digging up the pipework for the waste water from our pond on Sat, they worked really hard. And so did I.

Little did they know on Sunday night the heavens would open and it wouldn’t stop raining for a week.

Monday had a months rain in one day. The roads were flooded out, the garden had more rain water in it than the pond had, and the trench, 100ft long, 2ft deep, was now also flooded.

(At the time of writing this, it is till pouring down with rain. I’ve never known anything like it in my life)

So for the most part, the hard work they did, has been un-done. Nightmare… the sides of the trench have collapsed and the main pond bunker has had that much water in it, its almost been as high as the pond level.

It isn’t doing anyone of us any favours.

I’ve also had to try and work out what my main pond needs Bicarb wise. It hasn’t had a swing in it, due to the massive amount of rain, and I did think at one point we were heading for a PH crash. Thankfully it didn’t.

So, this week really has been a wash out.

I won’t mention the ‘W’ word, fed up on that front at present. Lots to talk about, just don’t want too. In case I get myself into trouble….

Writing wise, just hasn’t been good.

My laptop is in a friends, being fixed. (I hope) and I am on a borrowed one. Not good. This was my old one, and it crashes too often. I have far too much stuff running for one processor, and this one can’t cope.

So writing wise, I’ve not been able to do much. Hence why the blog sort of stalled too. Although I know I should keep it up, as it really helps to work things out.

As for most of everything else, well I am tired. That is the only way I can describe how I feel. Tired and worn out. I think some of it started when the baby fish were sick, hence why I was getting raging headaches, and a very sore back.

For the most part, my back and head are sorted, just the odd rough day. But, the fish are so much better.

I was under tremendous pressure those 6 weeks. And it seemed that no matter what I did, my babies were dying. I’ve never thought much about putting an animal to sleep. But I didn’t have a choice on a couple of occasions. IT was the best thing to do, and they didn’t suffer. 😦 although I did.

(Now the sun is back out, this weather is just freaky)

Looking forward to a weekend of doing next to nothing, bar chilling out. πŸ™‚

I will post some more soon.

Thanks for stopping by,

Dawn