New Digs for the Wet Pets

It's been NUTS around here for the last couple of weeks.  We have been having our Koi pond rebuilt, an absolute necessity, not just a cosmetic upgrade.  Add in five dump trucks, giant rocks, an excavator and fella's here, ready to work,  at 7:00 am.

You know what they say about swimming pools...  If it's something that you want, then it has value, but if it's not, then it's a liability.  The same thing goes for Koi ponds. Our pond, which we love and value, had become a monster liability. A good portion of our large yard was a soppy BOG, thanks to the old leaking pond and stream bed.  Mr. T. and I knew that taking on and repairing such a large project was not within the scope of our expertise, so we sprung for the "Bucks Deluxe" upgrade.  We had toyed with the idea of trying to fix the problems on our own, but know now that we could never, EVER, have been able to fix all of the problems that came to light as the crew dug in.  I was lamenting having to lay out some serious "Green", but after seeing how hard our crew worked, we are happy to write that hefty check!

Happy Fish!

With these upgrades we are no longer tethered to the pond, having to be here, Johnny-on-the-spot, to clean the filter every other day.  We can now go a WHOLE WEEK, maybe more,  without having to clean anything.  And, get this!  The waterfall has a remote that allows us to control the water flow in the falls.  We can have a relaxing trickle,... or turn it up to a roaring torrent! Mr. T., otherwise known as the King of the Remote... is in heaven!  He's got yet another remote to control!  Carries it in his pocket...  He calls it the "Bruce Almighty Button"!

Contemplating Spawning Upstream?

The best part is that our Koi pond is now the killer focal point, the go to place of our yard and garden, a very relaxing, Zen sort of a space to just sit and watch the fish, marvel at the sunset, enjoy a glass of wine and/or smile at Rosie-the-Wonder-Dog, happily rolling in the grass.

Sadly, we lost two fish while they were out in the holding tanks. One was our "original", our big and beautiful Yamabuki,
Pau-Pau, who was the only fish in the pond when we bought the place six years ago.  We are so going to miss her...

We still have lots of work in store for us,  We will be adding landscape plants as well as pond plants.  Since it's sort of the end of the season here for the local nurseries, it will continue to be a work in progress, on into next year.  But we are looking forward to customizing our investment.  And maybe adding a few more fish.