New Tree! Happy Anniversary! September 7, 2006
Posted by David in Business, Garden/Pond, Nature, Personal.1 comment so far
Today, the city sent someone over to plant the tree that we requested for in front of our house. We were shocked. They just started digging. Within fifteen minutes, we had a new Pistachio tree. It looks great.
Now, our next step is to break out two squares of bricks to either side of the tree to plant some other plants. I’m not sure if it will be bushes or a couple dwarf trees. I have to make sure that they don’t grow too near the yellow fire hydrant that you see in the photo. That’s why dwarf trees might work better. I’m also going to remove the plant growing around the tree since it’s ugly and not really so healthy.
Now for some updates. I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. Sorry, guys. Them’s the breaks. I’ve been so busy and I’ve been spending 14+ hours a day on the computer. So, I didn’t have time to post. Every moment I was on the computer, I was working.
I figured out some ways to make some money online, tried them out and they’ll probably turn some profit, but I’m not sure how much I like the work. So, I’ll be taking a step back from what I’ve been doing and try some other things that I can see myself doing for the long term. No, I won’t tell you all what I’ve been doing, yet. I’m a secretive guy, what can I say? Plus, it’s just a difficult thing to express without demonstrating and blogs don’t lend themselves to that without adding video. I’m not going to put work into doing that.
Well, tonight Talli and I are heading to the Bahamas for 5 days. It’s going to be great. I need the time to rest, read, meditate, relax and maybe work on the tan a little. Hopefully, it won’t rain much. There are some thunderstorms in the forecast.
Talli and I will be celebrating our fifth anniversary! We’ve had lots of good times and good fortune over the last five years, so it will be great to reflect on that while we’re there. I can hardly wait. Happy annniversary Talli. I love you very much! Here’s to the next five exciting years! I’m looking forward to it. When we get back, we’ll be off to Monterey for three months since Talli got a job there with a corporate apartment. Another in a string of adventures. Life is great!
Mutant Orange Cross Section & Podcast Updates August 19, 2006
Posted by David in Business, Garden/Pond, Nature, Podcasts.add a comment
As promised, here’s the cross section of the mutant orange we picked from our yard. It doesn’t look too bad here in this picture. I sampled the orange and the first section tasted alright if a bit tangy, but the other bits weren’t so good and went right into our yard waste.
Time for the iTunes update for our podcasts. Both shows have been doing great lately and now Talli’s Being Healthy podcast is heating up as well. Here are our current rankings.
Millionaire or Bust:
Personal Finance ranking: 3
Business Ranking: 3
All Podcasts Ranking: 66
Being Healthy with Talli:
Fitness & Nurition: 25
Health: 88
Things are cranking along. We appreciate all the support from our loyal fans and we’ll be taking it up another notch. Thanks everyone and enjoy!
Mutant Orange August 16, 2006
Posted by David in Business, Garden/Pond, Nature.add a comment
Here’s a picture of a mutant orange fresh from our tree. At least it was fresh when this picture was taken. I found it on the day of my birthday party over a week ago. I still haven’t taken the time to cut it open yet though. I guess I get busy and just forget. Now it’s a little late and I’d rather blog than cut. I will cut it open soon and taste it if it looks edible. Then, I’ll post a blog with the pics and the review.
On a non garden front, everything has been pretty busy lately. I’m kicking around one business idea right now. It sounds fairly promising. It’s not a huge money maker, but sufficient and it affords me a lot of flexibility. Plus, it won’t cost much to get into it or require expensive marketing. Right now I’m crunching the numbers. If it works out, you’ll all here about it later.
Good night, everyone.
Shubunkin Release #3 August 8, 2006
Posted by David in Garden/Pond, Personal.add a comment
Yes, this is the third time we’ve released shubunkin into our pond. This is the second release since restarting the pond. This post was delayed from the release date, which was actually last Friday.
So, for everyone who was over here on Sunday for the party, the fish were already in the pond. You’ve already seen them in person.
I will give you an update on the pond though. The fish that we have in the pond now are the best fish we’ve had to date. Not because they’re the biggest or the highest quality or the most expensive. No, they’re the best because they are the bravest and most friendly. They’ll actually swim where they can be seen, they don’t hide much and they eat at the top of the pond. We love it.
Tomorrow is my birthday so, I’m off to enjoy my last day of my twenties. Talk to you all…later!
Fish Release #? August 2, 2006
Posted by David in Garden/Pond, Nature.add a comment
Ok, I’m not sure which fish release this was, but that’s not the important thing. So, what if I’m too lazy to do a quick search on my own blog? If you guys want to know…do a search for fish release. It won’t take very long. I need to finish this post. You can catch up after you figure it out.
Yesterday, we released three new shubunkin into the pond that we captured in the wilds of the PetSmart aquariums. We decided to go with the small ones for several reasons. One, they won’t stress the new system. Two, they’ll have ample space for years. Three, we’re cheap. Hey after what happened the last time, we want to keep the investment a little lower. Less to possibly lose.
We have two more shubunkin in our aquarium that are 2-3 times larger than the new ones. We’ll be releasing them into the pond later this week. Around that time, we’ll buy one more little goldfish to keep the one left in the aquarium company. So, we’ll have two goldfish in the aquarium and five shubunkin in the pond for my birthday party.
This time we’ll keep the load on the pond very small. I think 5-7 goldfish is a very light load for an 800 gallon pond. We’ll stick to that. They’ll grow and I’d rather have less fish because it means less maintenance and less chances for fish diseases.
Today I spent a good deal of time catching up on some yard work that I fell behind on during the recent heatwave. The yard grew really fast during that time, so I had a lot of weeding, clipping and tomato plant maintenance to do.
David over and out.
Pond Set Up July 29, 2006
Posted by David in Garden/Pond, Nature.add a comment
Well, I finally set the pond up again. I’d been too busy to set it up after the disaster that happened a few weeks ago where all the fish perished. I just hadn’t wanted to spend the last few hours of time working on cleaning the crates and the plants and prepping them for the pond. Yesterday, I finally buckled down and did it though. It’s great to have that done. Now, I just have to treat the water that I added yesterday and add fish. As for when we’ll add the fish, I’m not sure. Sometime during the next few days, depending on how Talli and I feel and our schedule. I’m looking forward to having the fish again. It’s nice to eat lunch by the pond while the fish swim by…
Pond Cleaning Completed July 16, 2006
Posted by David in Garden/Pond.add a comment
I know that everyone has been wondering what has kept me too busy to post. Don’t worry, I’ve just spent two days cleaning out our pond after the death of all our fish. When I was almost done, I found out where the missing fish was. He was dead, hidden in a corner fold of the liner.
So, that’s done. Now I’m just going to wait for the pond to finish drying. That will be done by the end of today. I have all the plants in water filled tubs. The only thing left to do is finish scrubbing the milk crates I used to hold the plants.
So, I’ll get around to that later this week. I have a lot of things I need to get finished first. It will be better for the pond if I wait, since it will give time for whatever bacteria might be left to die off. We’ll be starting fresh. Nothing like a clean start!
Police Action July 11, 2006
Posted by David in Family/Friends, Garden/Pond, Nature, Podcasts.add a comment
Yesterday, I didn’t have a chance to post. I was just too busy watching the rest of the fish in our pond die. I think the melafix actually sped up their deaths. I can’t prove it, but it definitely seemed to make things worse rather quickly. Now we’ll just be cleaning up the pond and treating the pump and filters to kill off anything that might be infesting them. Then, we’ll dry it out. A week or so later, we’ll refill it and put the plants back in. Then a few days later, we’ll introduce a couple small goldfish. I think we’ll be avoiding koi for now, at least for this pond.
Today, we were treated to some police action in our neighborhood. Talli heard some screaming, so she called me over to the front window. There were two police cars parked in front of our neighbors house. They had a woman in a white SUV pulled over. They gave her a ticket and the lady was cursing them out and screaming at them. The officer actually warned her against something that she said she would do and told her to stop before she ended up in jail. After a while it quieted down and they let her drive off. The one policeman told the other that the incident had been one of the most satisfying ones he’d had in a while. I wish I could have heard more of what was said. I’m sure that was a very interesting exchange.
So, I’ve covered yesterday and today. Now for tomorrow. I have to finish a few things for the RSS feed of Talli’s podcast, Being Healthy with Talli. Talli did some nice things with the look of her podcast’s website, so my piece is the last thing before her podcast goes up tomorrow. So, tune on in and learn a few things about health.
R.I.P. July 9, 2006
Posted by David in Family/Friends, Garden/Pond, Nature.add a comment
Here’s the update on the pond situation. As you can guess, we’ve had some fatalities. We lost Butterfly, Alexander, Ghost, Tiny, Blue, and two of the orange goldfish which have changed appearance so much lately that I can’t be sure which they were. So, we’ve lost seven of the sixteen that we still had. I fished five of them out this morning. Then we went to the farmer’s market. I came home and fished out one more that had been near death when we left. Then Talli and I did a 10% water change. A few minutes ago I fished out Ghost, who was our latest fatality. Most of the dead were feeder fish that we had rescued, so at least they had longer, happier lives than they might have had otherwise. Of course, two of my Japanese koi were also victims. 
It’s been a sad day. I know they’re just fish, but Talli and I enjoyed eating lunch by the pond so much. Now it’s just a dying ground. Well, I’m going to soldier on with my treatment regimen. We’re going to medicate the pond and do a 10% water change every day for a week or until all the fish are dead. There’s not too much more we can do. I know at least a couple more will die. Hopefully, some will survive. Oh well, if all else fails, I’ll empty the pond, scrub it down really well, let it sit for a while and then try again with less fish. I just hope it doesn’t come to that.
Medicated Pond July 8, 2006
Posted by David in Family/Friends, Garden/Pond, Health, Nature.add a comment
Well, Talli and I went to Petsmart today and picked up some melafix for the pond. I’m hoping that using that daily for a week, in conjunction with the extra salt I’ve added, will get the fish moving back towards health. After a week, I’ll clean the pond again. I hope that will help to improve the water quality and keep the immune systems of the fish from being overtaxed.
The current temperature of the pond is 66 degrees. I’m sure that will rise a little during the week. Itt will definitely drop again when I clean the pond. Hopefully, it won’t be too much of a rollercoaster for the fish in their weakened state.
Yesterday was my cousin Paul’s 23rd birthday. Happy belated birthday Paul! Tomorrow, Talli and I are heading to his house for his birthday party. It’ll be a good time, just like it always is when I see my cousins. Of course, the party might stop me from blogging tomorrow. So, don’t be surprised if I don’t post. Talk to you all later.
