The pond dig has begun!

[CometKeith]

CE, It looks like you found some great deals. The brass kaleidoscope looks really neat. I like watching the tv show "american pickers". They are always finding interesting stuff to buy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Pickers

 

[CountryEscape]

Totally agree with you, Colleen. However, not going to put any heaters in the water. I'm most wanting to keep the Azolla, don't care as much about the hyacinths, that's a test. LOL And, I heard the Azolla will live through ice and winter, just giving the inside stuff some extra TLC. Last year, the hyacinths did great in the garage, died when I took them to basement, so going to see what temp they can live down to. So far it's probably been in the 40's in the garage, and they are as green and full as they were when I put them in there, including the brown frosted leaves! We shall see .... thanks for the info, though!
Love that show, Keith, and watched several espisodes of Pawn Stars, too, although Pawn Stars usually finds out what the item is worth.
That auction had a 1960 Thunderbird, 61,000 miles and running. And, a 1970 or so Harley Davidson. That guy had a LOT of stuff. Tractors, moped (6 of them!), every type of yard landscaping machinery and greenhouse stuff. And, if he had one of something, he probably had 3 at least!

 

[j.w]

CE I've thrown some Azolla in my pond and it has multiplied quite a bit but I'm going to have to watch and see how it does through the winter here. I got it out in a wild pond here so know it is hardy but I think I heard it likes to sink down to the bottom during winter and then pops back up in Spring. Wondering tho if it needs some kind of gunk or soil on the bottom to keep it alive. I have some in a tub that has soil/gunk on the bottom and it comes back each year but w/ the pond it is different..........maybe not enough gunk.

We watch the shows Pickers and Pawn stars which by the way is on "New" tonight! Also like that show Hardcore Pawn.
Ever seen that show called Oddities..............its about a different kind of antique shop for sure!

 

[CountryEscape]

That is one strange antique shop, JW! I don't think I would care for anything he had to offer. LOL
Well, used a rake to help pull the remaining deeper lily pots today, and got them all pulled, pruned, and dropped back onto the upside down shelf units some of them were on. The shelf units (the kind right side up stack on top of each other, used as storage bins) would float once the heavy pot was removed, but held them down with the rake (yes, I was very careful with the rake LOL) until I got the pots placed back on top of them. And, I was pleased to see that some of the pots DID have handles, Colleen, although one ice cream bucket that I used split with the force of the growing lilies. It held together well enough (tons of roots going on there!!!) to put it back in the water, though, since I could not find another pot about the same size to exchange it with. Will have to do that in the spring, when I pull the pots and separate the tubers. Looking like I will have TONS of tubers to give away or toss come spring! And, reminder to self: No more than one tuber per pot! I need to not let them get as crowded as they were this year. Hard to do, when your pond is bare in the spring, but learned my lesson this year!


This King of Siam tropical has had bloom buds present for several weeks, although none came to the surface to open. I fertilized it when I planted it, so maybe that had something to do with the number of buds, and the weather turning pretty cool shortly after placing it in the pond may have, too.

Fished out the skimmer rock with the rake. Again, VERY careful not to snag the liner at the bottom of the pond. Leaving it next to the skimmer for a while, to watch for stray lily leaves and stems to clog it.

Well, pics refusing to download after the first one. Computer is bogged down has been for last 2 days. I have a feeling EVERYONE is on the internet because of the elections, although I may be wrong. Will wait to report slow speeds until after tomorrow, if it doesn't improve. Have reset my wireless again, and still no improvements. Frustratinggggggggggggggggggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[j.w]

Yes me too CE one of these days I will learn and only put one tuber per container. They look so sweet and innocent when you divide them and then whamo they turn into the tuber monster that ate Chicago :FIREdevil:

 

[callingcolleen1]

There is something wrong with my tablet too, keeps crashing, think I got too many pictures and stuff and need to move to a disc or something. Going to get the lady who sold me tablet to show me how to move the stuff to disc soon. I seem to be a picture holic and have some many from this year. Some day I will figure it all out, by then this tablet will be obsolete. :0

 

[addy1]

CE the hardie lilies I groomed are growing new leaves, two have buds ready to pop the surface. The tropicals are still budding and blooming.

 

[CountryEscape]

OK, the last few days, computer has been running sooooooo slow, could not download pics, etc. I had a feeling it was because of all the people on computer due to the elections, and I think that was it, cause this morning it's running fast as can be again. Thank goodness! NOT happy about how the elections turned out, but will deal with the same President for the next 4 years. Let's see how much farther in debt he can make this Country .... :sad:
Here are the pics I was trying to post with the post above. Zoom ... downloading fast as can be again.
This pic shows that some of the lily pots DID have handles, I found as I pulled them out. One pot was an ice cream bucket, which split with the force of the tubers growing. But, it held together, so I left the lily in it until spring, then will divide and replace the pot. The other pic shows the upside down shelf they are sitting on.

This is the King of Siam, you can see at least 6 flower buds, but they have been like this for over a month, never coming to the surface to bloom. Maybe because I fertilized them, and they were growing more roots rather than going to the flowers? Hopefully next year they will really take off.

And I used the rake (very carefully, mind you ...) to get the rock that covers the skimmer, out of the bottom of the koi pond. Think I'll leave it to the side for a while, to watch for more junk clogging up the skimmer, since I pruned all the lilies.

 

[Fishylove]

Love your auction finds ce, my husband and I go to auctions at least once a month or so, we enjoy them. I collect Delft too, idk why I started collecting them just kind of happened, have several pieces now.

 

[j.w]

Good CE your computer is zooming again! Glad elections are over............no more phone calls! Not happy either about the results but that's the way it goes, first your money, then your clothes! We can all smoke pot here in this state now to our hearts content...............might need to w/ 4 more yrs of hope and change. Ha, gave that up back in the 70's tho so unless I want some for medical usage someday it's of no use to me. Maybe I can make up some hemp oil now tho and see how it does on some little warts on my fingers :razz:

 

[CountryEscape]

Yeah, not happy with last night results, but we are Americans, and as a Country, we need to join together once again, whether we like it or not, and support our president. I find it VERY hard to call him our President again ... but so it will be for 4 more years. Thank goodness he won't be allowed to run after that. I think Presidents only get to run for two terms, right? At least I hope I'm right with that!
Bad election in my county. The man who won Coroner (I voted for him, now him personally, great man, great father/husband, good person) has been slammed left and right I guess on the loser's Facebook page! How crazy is that? Talk about a sore loser. That's awful to say the least. I cannot imagine an adult doing something as stupid as that! I've seen teenagers slamming people on FB, then 5 minutes later they love them! Give me a break ...but an adult, someone who ran for a political office? She better not ever think of running for any type of office ever again, I would hope her party would not even allow her request!

 

[CometKeith]

CE, I watch Pawn Stars too. They have some really interesting things, but I don't like watching it with my wife because she is always trying to figure out what my stamp/envelope collection is worth so I can sell it. re elections. Our middle daughter interned for Obama when he was a US Senator. Later on she got a job from his replacement and now works in DC for another Senator. We met him a few times and he was always really nice. Before he became president somehow we got seated in a restaurant next to Michelle and one of her girlfriends. At first things were pretty friendly. Then my wife told her that she could never vote for him because she didn't feel he was strong enough on something she really cared about and things got pretty cold after that! I still think he is much better for the environment and that is one of my hot buttons. I don't understand how politicians to this day say there is no such thing as global warming. That's something I don't understand. Three large coal burning plants got shut down in the Chicago area this year and I think that was a step in the right direction. It will be a few million less metric tons of carbon dioxide in our air every year. This is an interesting link for understanding greenhouse gasses. http://www.southwestclimatechange.org/solutions/reducing-emissions/mmtco2-e

 

[CountryEscape]

With the high winds and gusts here all day yesterday, through the night, and still this morning, the pond remains open, no ice, but the water was spraying from the waterfall, up onto the rocks and plants behind the falls, making some pretty ice sculptures!

 

[callingcolleen1]

When things first first start to freeze up water can do strange things, but after the waterfall has formed an ice shell, the water won't spray everywhere. Should be OK, but I don't have a big waterfall, just water ways that form a big ice shell. Temperature here just dropped 25 degrees in the last four hours. Was nice at 4am this morning and just above freezing, now it is down to 5 degrees F.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Very pretty ice pictures!