Rec.ponds Roll Call?

My name is Susan, I'm 42 and I'm a PORG. *grin*

I live in Durham, NC with my s.o. Ron, our four (indoor only) furballs I
mean cats, two guinea pigs, two hamsters, 55 gallon aquarium, and
outdoor pond piggies. Our pond is about 800 gallons and my
father-in-law and I put it in last summer. This is my second pond as I
had one in my previous home which I put in by myself. I couldn't ahve
put this one on myself as the location turned out to be a big slab of
sandstone lurking about five inches below the surface. However with the
aid of one hastily rented electric jackhammer, my f-i-l and I had the
basin carved out about four hours later. Already planning my next pond
as we bought this house as a temporary stopgap until the s.o. was
finished with school. Next house will have *more* property and as such,
a *much* bigger pond.

I have a 19 y.o. son who lives in southern CA with his dad. Despite
what I think, he thinks Rancho Santa Margeurita and southern "Cali" is a
lot more exciting place to live than Durham. Still working on luring
him back to the right coast. *smile*

In addition to ponding, I also do needlework (projects gotta take 200
hours or more for me to be happy - I think being a PORG has affected me
in more ways than I thought), love to cook, garden, read, and do small
fix up type stuff in my house (installing new lights, ceiling fans,
moderate types of electrical work, painting, etc).

I'm an avid reader and some would even dare to venture the word addicted
in my presence. Also, I am a black hole when it comes to books - books
come in but they never go out again. Everything I am interested in
(ponds, needlework, cooking, gardening) is reflected in my books. In
addition I also read science fiction, fantasy, horror, biographies, true
crime, just about anything but romance. In addition, I have also been
involved with science fiction conventions for over ten years, primarily
running charity auctions. I have a lot of fun, have gotten to meet and
chat with most of my favourite authors (including Ray Bradbury YAH!),
and raise money for a lot of good causes. *smile*

The s.o. is currently a full time student doing rotations to earn his
physician's assistant certification. Since I like my projects and like
to actually do them (put in the pond last year while he was in London,
with his knowledge of course), he doesn't mind what I do. *grin* OTOH,
the neighbors have had a few things to say. *laugh* The women say I'm
setting a bad example while the men say that I'm adding more to their
honey do lists. Not my problem, I say. *evil grin*

Susan
shsimko[@]duke[.]edu

On Fri, 18 Jun 2004 16:24:05 -0500, (matrix j) wrote:

Just wondering if rec.ponds ever does a roll call every now and then?

Just to see where everyone is from and what other interests and hobbies
they may have?

Will be 50 years next March and been a ponder for 8-9 years. Started with a 50
gallon pond at the last house which spawned :- two aquariums in the house.
Moved 5 years ago and graduated to a 1,200 gallon pond (still have the 2
aquariums).

Current known pond inhabitants: 2 adult koi (bought for $8 at the market) with 4
offspring. Couple of Sarassa comets and several assorted fantail goldfish (39
cent PetSmart specials). Each spring I donate 5 small fish to my
neighbour/friend which I take back and board for the winter. They have my old 50
gallon pond. The sarassa's were originally from them.

Married to the same woman for 21 years this past March. Met her at University
and it stuck. No kids (human ones anyway). Two black kittens (Pepper & Chloe).
Dog is on the list but can't seem to find the time.

Hobbies: gardening (moved 9 of 12 yards of mulch this weekend), playing with our
two cats, wine (400+ bottle wine cellar) and traveling. Spend time transplanting
critters that try to take over my garden (so far this year 4 ground hogs, 2
rabbits and 2 star nosed moles).

Oh yeah, I live in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Spend a lot of time lurking in this group (nice to see so many friendly folks).

(matrix j) wrote in message ...
Just to see where everyone is from and what other interests and hobbies
they may have?

Hi, I'm Sue Walsh age 59, wife, mother of 3 girls, grandmother of 4 (2
boys, 2 girls). The girls and their families live in NY, 1200 miles
away. My Daughter Laura got me started with ponds 4 years ago by
sending me a barrel garden for my birthday. I now have a 1600-gallon
pond with lilies and gold fish.

Husband Dave & I live in Brooksville, FL zone 9b, just north of Tampa,
on the West Coast of Florida. Generally hot (90's) & humid all summer
& fall. We get frost 3-4 times each winter, so all my plants die
back. Basically our growing season is March to January.

I am the director of the Nature Coast Botanical Gardens in Spring
Hill, Florida, which consists of 3½ acres of potential gardens. In
the past 3 years we have created 8 of the 16 gardens we hope to
eventually have there.

I also am a Master Gardener in Hernando County and Butterfly Gardener
both at home and at the Botanical Gardens where I designed our
Butterfly Garden. I am on the board of Directors of our local garden
club. I have written a book on Butterfly Gardening in Hernando
County, which I hope to have published soon.

I love cats, birds, butterflies, dragonflies, and now my goldfish and
frogs in the pond. I have always been a ‘Tree Hugger' for as long as
I can remember. All of the above keep me quite busy in my retirement
and I enjoy it all. I was a florist by trade in my working days.

You can see my pond "Rippling Waters" at the ‘I Love My Pond' site.
However, I must admit it no longer has the stream because in the
Florida heat it was just one big patch of string algae. We did away
with the stream and put a new waterfall right at the pond. I will
have to post new pictures to update it.

Sue W
Brooksville, FL

Just wondering if rec.ponds ever does a roll
call every now and then?

I'm a 47 year old divorced male living in Dallas, Texas. I have a BS
in petroleum geology and work in the oil and gas industry. In addition
to a 19 year old daughter and a 14 year old son, I have a Golden
Retriever and 2 cats.

I enjoy travel, fine dining, the arts, the outdoors (mountains,
beaches), movies, sports (hockey, football), and doing things with my
kids. I also enjoy trying new things, as long as they don't put me in
jail or in a hospital....

I started with fish in the early 70s (aquariums). The hobby grew to a
point where I was breeding African Cichlids and Discus for sale to
local aquarium shops. At one point I had over 900 gallons of fresh
water tanks and a 200 gallon reef tank. In 1994 I decided to take a
break from fish and sold everything. A few years ago I was in the
process of landscaping my yard and trying to figure out what to do
with an area I couldn't get grass to grow. After some thought (and
encouragement from a friend), I decided to build an in-ground pond. I
added an above-ground veggie filter the next year. Current capacity
is approximately 2,250 gallons with 9 koi (8'-14") and 4 goldfish.

I've followed this newsgroup for several years and now lurk more than
post. I feel this is the best resource for pond-related info on the
net and appreciate those of you who take the time to answer questions.

Note: I attended the North Texas Water Garden Society Pond Tour this
past weekend and will post photos to my site soon (link below).

Jim
Zone 8a - Dallas, Texas
Pond, Veggie Filter, Pond Maintenance & Pond Tour Pics:
http://community.webshots.com/user/dallas75248

Born in Hamburg, Germany in 1954. In 1958 my parents emigrated to Canada
(Saskatchewan specifically). They had the option of going to a really warm
place like Australia, but nooooooooooo.

Moved to California in 1983. The weather here in San Diego is just plain
awesome, but the people quantity is getting a tad out of hand.

I'm a computer guy (UCSD 1989) that consults. I do database management, web
sites and generally advise (those that can, do, those that can't, consult)
My significant other and I have been together for about 5 years and figure
one of these days we'll get married. I have one daughter, 25, who is
thinking about moving back to Canada, perhaps to Vancouver.

We built our pond a couple of years ago. 4,000-5,000 gallons and couldn't be
happier with it. We installed a UV when we built it, but it hasn't been on
since last August. We keep gold fish, a red-eared slider we rescued from a
swimming pool named Colombo and an Oscar we got to eat the mosquito fish,
but who, instead, eats fish pellets. We bring him inside for the winter.

We garden like crazy, love to cook and have parties. Photography is a hobby
as well and this year I finally broke down and went digital. I also like
football and baseball, although with our local teams it is trying.

Joe Boldt & Barbara Rolando



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Actually, the turtle's name is Colombo. I don't know what they named the
pool.


snip
We keep gold fish, a red-eared slider we rescued from a
swimming pool named Colombo and...



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Retired from auto industry after 35 yrs - DCX - have a small pond business
selling pumps, food, liner and filters out of my garage, mostly to locals.
Both sons grown and moved out, just my wife and I and 2 cats as well as a 10
yr old ~1000 gal pond with 2 koi and assorted GF, about 40 all told. We are
located in Tilbury, Ont, 35 mi east of Detroit Mi

Toronto, Canada

Moved in to my girlfriend's house spring '03 and started digging
within weeks. Previously lived in a highrise where I got my fix with a
35 gallon aquarium and rec.aquaria.freshwater.plants
I have further augmented her yard with a Portuguese Water Dog and a
Weber Smokey Mountain cooker (see alt.food.barbecue).
I was sitting in the yard with Sue last night enjoying a beverage,
looking at my 500 gallon pond, watching the 3 Sarasa comets play in
the current from the VF while I played fetch with my dog. Life is
good.

Cam

Hi Everyone!

We're new to the group but not exactly new to ponding (one under our
belts). We're James and Misty and live across the Puget Sound from
Seattle, Washington, USA, Earth.

We just bought 3.5 acres and have plans for 3 ponds:
-A Smaller, but deep koi pond near our deck.

-a large (35 x 45) pond with 15' watercourse and 25' 'creek' to the
pond

-and a very large, 100% natural pond (clay-lined) back in the woods.


Since James is a sculptor, the ULTIMATE goal is to turn the entire
property into a sculpture park for many artists to display their work,
so appearance and displaying art is going to be a primary goal.

Big plans, little Budget. :-)

James, Seattle

I guess I'll put myself in here even though I've ignored this "roll call"
so far. I'm Robyn Rhudy in Zone 6/7 in Central Maryland. I started with
rec.ponds in 1996, and the people then were invaluable in helping me. I
have 8 ponds right now of 1800, 153, 50, 20, 20, 20, 18, and 2 gallons. I
also have 4 aquariums, 4 cats, 1 dog, 2 rabbits, 2 guinea pigs, 2
hedgehogs, 1 sailfin lizard, and 4 chickens. I had my 1800 gallon pond
built in 1997. As a result, I set up a small web site on my pond and the
animals I had at the time. I do all the HTML code myself from
scratch and put in all the details I can think of. Well, it's snowballed.
My site is now called fishpondinfo.com and is the largest non-commercial
pond web site that I know of. I get over 3000 daily hits and the site
now costs me close to $50 a month from my own pocket for the 17 GB
monthly bandwidth. Now, people pester me for the answers to all their
questions!

I'm 31-years-old and have lives with my parents on 5 acres since 1997. I
got a Masters in analytical chemistry in 1996 and now test foods on HPLC
equipment for half what my younger brother makes as a computer
programmer (he helps with my site). As a teenager, I was a professional
magician. I was voted smartest female in my graduating high school
class. I was mostly a straight-A student. I watch 3 soap operas daily -
my only "social life." I spend 35+ hours on the animals each week. I
never take a vacation; I can't. The last time I didn't sleep in my bed
was May, 1996. I'm still waiting to be asked on my first date. Any more
information, and I'll make you sick so bye and happy ponding!


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