My goldfish pond

[Becky]

Yep you're right, I'm sure there will be other options

The Cusco airport actually has a bowl of coca leaves to chew on to make you feel better.

Crikey! Isn't that what cocaine is derived from?

 

[CometKeith]

Yes, but to make cocaine you need to add kerosene. This is a nice mild pick me up that takes away some of the symptoms of altitude sickness and is totally legal and non habit forming. We had quite a bit of it in the form of tea wherever we went. It better to take that for altitude symptoms than to suffer with nausea, headaches, stomach cramps etc. Also something that you wouldn't think of, but quinoa is in almost every dish from salads, soups, stir fry, lasagna, etc. because it is locally grown and readily available.

 

[CometKeith]

Update on my pond. Almost disaster and the two baby koi are dead.

Well I had left my pump running but the pond froze over and maybe 25% of my water ended up running off to my neighbor's yard...think skating rink, because my pump kept pumping water onto a frozen top. The pump eventually stopped and i was able to remove it because we had temps into the 40's and even 60's for one day. I guess some of the bricks from our property I used to hold down the liner dissintigrated and made the water very alkaline. The two baby Koi I didn't really want that were given to me both died probably from the high ph. Everything else is back to normal now and the rest of the 50 or so odd fish I have seem to be doing fine. I had one smaller pump running without a filter and that is still going and keeping a hole in the ice. I should have removed the biofilter in the first place from the other pump and have no idea why I left that outside. I'm pretty sure the pump and filter i removed will be okay. Too much stuff going on with the construction and everything I guess.
Not to make excuses it's a little hard maintaning a pond that's not finished when you are not around it much other than a few minutes in the middle of the day during the week when you are supposed to be working and barely on weekends. When i go over there if I even look at it for 30 seconds one of the construction workers yells down to me from the roof or elsewhere about it and I prefer for them not to worry about the pond and concentrate on their work. Even my plumber texted me a picture of the dead baby Koi and was worried the pond didn't have enough water. He didn't know that even though the water was a foot down I still had 3 ft of water left. It did look wierd because the water was a foot down from the ice shell on top and you could see it through a few holes in the ice.
Well we are ready for drywall soon so hopefully we will be moving in by March, no...April. My wife still needs to order the kitchen cabinets and tile which will take two months to get....

 

[addy1]

I feel you pain, in the last 2.5 months, we have totally redone two kitchens, one in Florida one here, that is cabinets flooring walls etc..................
Also total rehab three bathrooms, two in Florida one here, painted 15 gallons of paint, between Florida and here. The kitchen in Florida was a surprise hit, the old guy living there for 12 years never told us it was falling apart and he had no bathroom sink. We had not stopped by for around 3 years it was a surprise, we could not leave it that way.

This has been one of the worse rental repair hits we have ever had, we worked on all five in Florida and one here. The one here we have been refreshing since we got back from Florida, 2 weeks now, almost done, total new kitchen, new bath, gallons of paint, trims, outside work, etc etc. 56 miles one way to get there, DC traffic. Darn ready for a break.

We are having trouble remembering what day it is.

Glad your pond survived and you only lost two fish.

 

[Lisak1]

You need to look up "retired" in the dictionary @addy1 !

Sorry about your struggles @CometKeith - hope the construction is soon over so you can focus on the pond!

 

[Tula]

Sorry about the baby koi, but glad you didn't lose more. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to try and juggle all that you're doing!

Spring is just around the corner

 

[addy1]

You need to look up "retired" in the dictionary @addy1 !

Sorry about your struggles @CometKeith - hope the construction is soon over so you can focus on the pond!

I am glad I shut mine down to the point I can totally ignore it. No flowing water worries for 5-6 months, dependent on travel and weather.

This to will pass CK, you will look back and laugh, if you can remember what you did

 

[j.w]

Sorry @CometKeith and glad you still have all the other fish. Are koi more sensitive to water changes?

 

[herzausstahl]

At least now you don't have to worry about interbreeding & you just lost the ones you didn't order. Guess it's good & bad the workers care about your pond. Your trip looked AMAZING! I would love to go there! It's funny you mention the person who "rediscovered " it shall we say because when the show Myth Hunters from the History channel was still on Netflix one of the episodes covered him. If I'm not mistaken he was looking for a different Incan city, their last capital I think? Wasn't Machu Picchu the rulers summer palace?

 

[CometKeith]

Addy. Sounds like a ton of work with the rentals. Hopefully they will be good for a while now with the new repairs. You know I'm in construction so that is what I do all day long but it's a lot different when it's your own project. The construction hasn't been bad for us just getting everything picked out has been way more work than I expected! It has been a full time job for my wife.
Yes waiting for the day we can move out our temporary digs and enjoy it. Hopefully sooner rather than later. We are starting insulation next Wednesday and putting in the new windows now.

Thanks Lisak. I don't really care as much as I should about hickory floors and walnut cabinets as much as hanging out in the yard by my pond! I can see all my fish under the ice and they look pretty good. It should be fun when the weather warms up and I can see them again!

Thanks Tula. Hmmm.... My job real is a little crazy as I typically have about a dozen projects at once and about the same number of employees that I manage. My own project is taking up about 25% of my day every day so I'll be very glad when it's over

Thanks JW. I'm sure Koi are more sensitive to high ph than goldfish. I have seen that before with my old pond and it is the only possible explanation how I could have some 60 odd goldfish do fine and only two Koi and they both died.

Hey Nathan. You are 100% right. i was so worried about the freebee Koi interbreading but didn't know what to do with them. I didn't wish anything to happen to them but now it is one less worry. I guess these worries should be everyone's biggest problems!

The trip to Cusco and the surrounding Inca ruins was really great. Cusco is a very cool city because it's like everyone there is dressed like they are on some sort of expedition wearing backpacks and parkas and funny hats made from baby alpacas. Both Cusco and Sacred Valley are great bases to start off on the many possible journeys there. We preferred Sacred Valley because of the lower altitude for comfort reasons. There are lots of interesting places to visit besides Machu Picchu but MP is definitely the highlight. It really wasn't very expensive. We spent 65,000 frequent flyer miles each for round trip tickets. Hotels and restaurants were very reasonable. We had a 4 course dinner for $8 each including a free Pisco Sour which is the big cocktail in Peru. Hiram Bingam III was a lecturer at Yale and turned down a more pestigous job so he could travel and explore South America. He had done a ton of research on it and this was his second trip to that area. In those days he had to put together a team of people for the journey and find donors to sponsor it so it wasn't like he just jumped on an airplane to check it out. He had heard of a lost city so from what I understand this is the city he had hoped to find. There are so many rumors and theories about it about what it was used for so it could have been a summer retreat but based on how many buildings were there they said up to 1000 people lived there at one time so it was probably more than that. The cool thing is the Spanish never found it so it was relatively untouched. They have had earthquakes in the region and the old Spanish buildings tumble down because of cracked mortar. The Inca ruins just bounce up and fall back into place because the way the stones were shaped to fit into each other. (hint for pond building!) If you want to read an entertaining and informative book I would recommend to read "Turn Right at Machu Picchu" by Mark Adams. It's basically a dual story of Hiram Bingam III and also a modern day outdoor sports magazine editor that has a mid-life crisis and decides he wants to try to retrace Hiram Bingams steps.

 

[addy1]

Addy. Sounds like a ton of work with the rentals. Hopefully they will be good for a while now with the new repairs. You know I'm in construction so that is what I do all day long but it's a lot different when it's your own project. The construction hasn't been bad for us just getting everything picked out has been way more work than I expected! It has been a full time job for my wife.
Yes waiting for the day we can move out our temporary digs and enjoy it. Hopefully sooner rather than later. We are starting insulation next Wednesday and putting in the new windows now.
.

We keep reminding ourselves we are supposed to be retired...............
This was our last redo, the original cabinets were given to honey from a ex brother in law 12 years ago. Some of the drawers did not work, sort of falling apart. And small kitchen space

Here is how it looked when we "finished" yesterday, tenants moving in tomorrow. I tiled all of the walls where the cabinets are to the ceiling. Creamy white in color, the pictures it looks grayish lol

We are going to take some time off before we tackle the fence that is falling apart. Maybe be smart and hire someone. This little 2/2 house brings in good rent, nice view of Stoney Creek, boat privileges, nice yard. It needed the time we put into it.

 

[Lisak1]

Beautiful! What are yo two doing this summer? My kitchen needs a makeover.

 

[Tula]

@addy1 , That kitchen renovation is beautiful ! I like the new arrangements of the appliances, the new cabinets and counters

 

[sissy]

anything that does not kill you keeps you young .I never let much stop me .I will figure a way to do it by myself

 

[j.w]

Beautiful job @addy1