The Old Folks Home

[Latestarter]

I'm sorry Wisher

I MEANT to check into Alabama... My sister was just here from GA and I got that stuck in my head.... As far as having a football team... Umm what team is that? There are a bunch of school kid teams... I don't follow college ball... sorry. Not that it would matter since I've been a fan of my team for over 40 years, no matter where I've lived (all over the place) and I don't see that changing any time soon. Matter of fact, they just beat the Chiefs to advance to the AFC Championship game next weekend and I expect them to be a repeat Super Bowl contender!

State sales taxes are average at 4% statewide. But the true rate is nearly 9%, when city/county taxes are added. Also Al doesn't exempt food from sales taxes (I like food) They also imposes 3% on food & 4% on drinks that come from vending machines (Not that I spend much in vending machines). You guys DO exempt prescription drugs & insulin-related items from taxation. Public pensions are exempt from income taxes for the most part, but private pensions ARE taxed. I did notice one BIG positive though in that seniors over 65 are exempt from all state property taxes. However, some cities assess separate property taxes. I wouldn't be living in a city, so that could be a huge savings.

I "see" AL as a very hot and humid place being west of the Appalachian mnts and east of the Mississippi river. It seems moisture (and heat) just flow north out of the gulf... Maybe that's just in the southern part of the state? How is it up in the northern part? I just did some looking and will include it in my searches. Thanks!

 

[Wisher1000]

I'm sorry Wisher

I just did some looking and will include it in my searches. Thanks!

It is humid here. It is only miserably so in the summer and not ALL the time (but often.) Biting bugs are only a problem in the right circumstances. If there is stagnant water, lots of wind breaks (no breeze) etc. then "skeeters" and "no-see-ums" can be bothersome in the spring and summer. We use a variety of attacks such as Martin gourds, bat houses, repellents, and good container management. You will often see people in the south turn any container that could or would hold rainwater upside down out of habit. Most of us don't even realize we are doing it.

I live where there is a lot of ground water, yet the skeeters are not bad as I have a healthy bat, bird, lizard, spider, frog, and toad population. I also have a lot of wooded area but we have cleared areas where the breeze carries them away from us. The most irritating bugs are the gnats and no-see-ums, and they come and go - bad for a while, gone for a while.

Northern Alabama, the Huntsville area and such, will see a bit of snow from time to time, central and south Alabama will not see any normally, but just every once in a great while. My boys have never seen snow that lasted on the ground more than 24 hours and have only seen one ice storm that closed roads. Of course, if the weathermen say the "s" word, the schools will close, the shelves will empty of bread and milk, and everyone stays home! It is a big joke, but actually the best thing to do because not only do we NOT know how to drive in the snow, but we are not equipped to handle it. We don't have snow chains or plows for roads, or blowers for drives. We only have salt/sand for bridges and over passes. These are usually deployed at the first indication of ice forming so the trucks will not have to get on the road once it gets bad.

Land prices here are pretty good, I think, once you get out of town. We paid $5000 an acre for 23 acres, but there are still plots available for less than that if you buy more acreage.

Y'all come! Oh, and you can still pull for your professional team, but COLLEGE football is what we are obsessed with. Celebrating our 16th National Championship this year! ROLL TIDE!!! Yay, ALABAMA!!!

 

[scottcaddy]

Hi everybody

, thought I would pop in and take alook around.
Wisher, did your dogs come to an agreement on sharing living space?
Scott

 

[vehve]

Heya, Scott, what's shaking?

 

[bamadude]

Hi everybody , thought I would pop in and take alook around.
Wisher, did your dogs come to an agreement on sharing living space?
Scott

Howdy

 

[bamadude]

In my experience... That hurts... Must avoid.

Sooooooooooo... How are those Muscovy eggs? How much longer?

Today is day 11. I havnt candled yet

 

[CanuckBock]

You could always load your pictures up to something like imgur and post a link to an album there

Looks beautiful, I can't imagine having the energy to do all that!
What do you do with the Koi in the winter? Not exactly a "burrow in the mud at the bottom of the pond to make it through winter" type of fish.

Bin a week but I did manage to wander back here from my heavenly abode to the HOME (sweet!) ...I'm old, what can I say, eh? Time out having fun scaring persons and it flies!!

If'n I load up a photo (no matter if on BYC or picturepail or what have you's), that photo is gonna require Bama to download whatever SIZE of photo it is. The source where the piccy is stored is not the issue (tho some album sites are slower than others when uploading I have found, but still it is data which is basically size), the size of the photos is small at around 100-150 kb but the sheer numbers of pics is the issue. Not unusual for me to post a dozen (small post) photos and it is the dozen x 100 kb that is the issue for some persons service providers (we pay for data and they only allow some a certain amount of data before charging astronomical $$ for more). Data requires space, so no matter what place I stick the photos, boils down to the number of 100kb photos that need to be download for the visuals are the issue from some.


Every single day is a blessing here and every single second, there's things to be doing. Luv that and not a day goes by in Pear-A-Dice that something does not get completed, something memorable happens, something to be cherished occurs plus more goes on the TO DO before I push them daisies, eh. Life is for living and we push the limits to the extreme. I quit updating My Coop on BYC (got over 30+ outbuilding me Hero has made us) because just posting the small bit of words and photos of the builds had me sapped for energy and time. LMBO

Too busy living to stop and talk about it. Hee hee...oh have mercy, too much FUN!


What do we do with the Koi in winter...well you are correct, but it is even more extreme than burying any bodies in the mud on the bottom of the pond when we can get lower than -50C. Think that's round about -60F for you Yanks. No worries, we get like +40C/104F in summer, no moderation...boiling or freezing...I like room temperature but we never get enough of those temps...sigh!

This is our first stock tank...she is now replaced by the boo one but will be repurposed as a sole water plant pond in our new orchard
Jest gotta get me friends all together and fool them into thinking I got me a mess of bodies that need burying...

Then the hole will be dug and we can put that culvert in and place the tank on it--voila, more water to mess with.
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No mud... the Pond is a 450 gallon stock tank and they make AWESOME fishy ponds but you do have to take further precautions up here than where the water does not freeze 10 to 15 feet deep over a winter. There be a GREEN season (construction) and there be a WHITE season here and don't blink when it changes or you get the poo scared outta yah...bring on the DEPENDS (nfi).

June 14, 2011 - often the dogs are photographed in front of the fish pond and the flowering DOlGo crabapple​

See I wanted a pond and fishies outdoors (we have a 90 gallon aquarium in the house but not as natural as outside in a pond!)...so convinced Rick to put in a pond but he went further...he decided the fish pond need a waterfall, so that's how the meandering 18 foot long waterfall became to exist. The waterfall trickles on down thru like a broken heart. I put a few heat liking plants it there and some rock rodent statues...silly but pretty...all about silly, eh.

Rick hauled home the special rock for it and I unloaded and got about making the perimeter and waterfall. Joint effort. Rick cannot curse me because the son and him, the very first day the pond was completed with a water feature bubbling away...I found the two of them snoring pond side in the lawn chairs (sleeping men are content men)...the sounds just zoned them out and sleeping like babes! LMBO Woke them up for coffees and cookies and got me the stinky eye for the bother.

2006​

See me Chocolate Calls on pond...that like never happened again. The duck goo, it goes into the pond and well, uh, 250 gallons of water changed out stresses the fish. Rick was not pleased and I concur with him...no ducks on this particular pond--lotsa ducks on other ponds but not the fish one!

2008​

Changes, been a few to this feature...as you can see above the first stock tank was green...and then the flood of 150 years (Ha! that's a joke) came upon us (wet spring, then six days of 5-6 inches of rain and the water just bubbled up from the very ground) and flooded the pond but all the fish save one were saved (not feeder fish that Rick put in to see how the pond would do and those feeder fish rarely die...but this had a gimped mouth from the start)...found the next day as we battled getting beings to higher ground...all fish swimming on our lawn...hilarious...Rick shouted at me, "bring the fish net and a five gallon pail!" and he scooped them all up swimming ON the lawn! Yee haw...for we have fish here that live to be over 20 years of age...

This bugger that bumps the gator is 20 years young in this shot--like a dang parrot, you inherit them, eh!
We brought this fish along when we moved here--bothersome endeavour but do able if you want it enough ​

So after the flood, the area around the pond was damaged from the flowing waters, the sand and liner we had installed was compromised and we decided we better pull the tub, bought a new one cause we were made to do something about it all, got down to the biz of fixing it back up to make it BETTER than original--if it gotta be RE-done, gonna make it even nicer...Rick decided he would put in a metal culvert around the pond to hold it up and that be that. He purchased two complete metal culverts brand new and while we did not like the cost ($600 for the two), we no longer give the cave ins from the once in 150 year flood (HA!) a thought...bring it on, we got it beat before it happens AGAIN. Work once to put it in, made to do it again...better be for something more than what was there before. Grrr....

​

So changed out the tank, put in culvert, snugged up a ring of patio blocks around the edge for the tank edge to nestle on...

​

Later on I decide one summer afternoon to change the colour scheme in the bricks by adding another round and some terra cotta coloured red ones...yeh, brute for "why not?"

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One spring, Rick was given two large Koi that had lived their days inside a tank in a house...jumpers is what they became and were way too large for the aquarium...the person told us we would have to secure the pond top and Rick did that. This is the contraption he put together and it worked. The two fish have now passed on and we no longer have to net the pond. Note the inclusion of red bricks in the above pic.

October 2014​

Rick upgraded the filter system in the pond to one that has a UV light and because the filter costs a grand, we decided because we get some baseball sized hail in the summers, we would place a large tub over the top which then had me undo the back wall of the waterfall and make it taller to accommodate the taller filter and tub over top. Starting to see a theme to this pond and waterfall, are you?

Torn down...



Back up...is there like some hole I find dug and keep filling in this all?​

Pond systems with living things in them...the technology keeps improving. The healthy pond with fish and plants gets green water...sign of a healthy pond but for the viewers, your fish disappear...so they come up with funky things like UV lights that kill the green and the water stays clear enough you can see the fish.

July 6, 2015​

I will warn persons that want ponds, fish and water plants, I doubt one is ever done this endeavour. You always seem to do something...the water feature calfed out after like five years and we changed to a concrete water feature in the middle, unless it topples on us when we install it come spring and remove in winter, should last our lifetimes. But that said, you keep doing things 'cause maybe you sit too long pond side, admiring the view and in pops yet another alternative...and yet, It can be DONE! Almost like the first hit is free and there you go, meandering down the brook, poking at this and thinking about changing that. Oh well, ongoing and ever so rewarding and enjoying the challenge. Always learning. Rick use to raise fish in another lifetime...he set up aquarium upon aquarium and would sit Peeping Tom like and watch the water world unfold. Pleasant pass times. He also use to be in charge of dewatering an open pit copper mine...he's played way too much with pumps and pipes and had his fair share of crotch high waters where you are struggling to collar up an impossible pipe cause the pit is flooding out and threatening to have a 45 foot bank slough in and make havoc. This is water feature in our yard is way tamer than he remembers. I guess we are all brutes for punishment...like rats on the tread mill, we know nothing else when we revisit the "good old dazes."

So the first choice you have to make...winter is approaching with an outdoor fish pond up here. Do you drain the water or let it freeze up to the very bottom? Some say leave the water in but float a chunk of wood so the pressure of the expanding ice pressures up on the wood not the plastic pond. Not sure that was a concern but here is the pond we drained in the fall (found the water left in would smell worse than ever by spring!

)...with melted snows to make iced up water left inside...

April 15, 2014
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So as the weather here warms up...we never plant a veg garden before June 1st...so yeh, winter is the major season here, eh!

April 23, 2013​

Rick gets the pump pumping and moving water causes friction and helps melt the water quicker...he wants to unleash the swimmers...to see them do megga laps in the pond, ducking and diving, swimming as only fish can.

April 23, 2014
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Exact same day APRIL 23 one year later...April 23, 2014...four days later...

April 27, 2014​

So some years, you can get on this earlier, some years later...but with the RIGHT kinda HELPERS...you get the job done so the fish can come out and play in the pond.

April 30, 2014 - Very important dogs inspect the progress--nothing gets done here without dawgs involved in the process - DOG APROVED or it don't happen.



May 10, 2014​

So within a short time span, the water is warm enough for the fish to join the system and then there is the whole spring and summer time to fall to enjoy them enjoying life outside in the great outdoors of the Great White North.

​

So we have tried wintering the stock tank with water in it, tried it without...I believe Rick likes it better drained and wintered and having only to deal with the snow & ice from winter in the tank.


So next question...where are the fish in the winter...

Obviously not HERE outside in the fish pond, eh?
See how nicely the icky ick scum is slowly flaking off DEAD like...
Rick will give this a good scrubbing in the spring and the fish will start up in a pretty clean tank this year
​

In the heated use to be a garage.

​

Rick has installed a horse water tank with a tenplast top. NO hardware cloth top...that leaches uglies into the water.

"Winter, what winter?? We're bopping about in fluid water, no winter in here!"

Rick has a light bulb on a timer to give them light overhead and yeh, the water is filtered and circulated AND he feeds them. They are not in true hibernation and they still mossy about and need to EAT. This method obviously works as our fish end up being decades old. We get people saying they have to hibernate but so far, not been the case in our situation. I guess you go with what is working for your particular circumstances.

So does that answer yer questions in a million words or less plus photos (worth a 1,000 words per pic).

Expecting Bama to be mad now that he can't load up the Old Folks Home page either...

Better get myself back to Pear-A-Dice quick like...where I belong, eh.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[Wisher1000]

Hi everybody

, thought I would pop in and take alook around.
Wisher, did your dogs come to an agreement on sharing living space?
Scott

They get along just like brothers. MOST of the time, they are fine together. I am having to keep them confined during the day as it is hunting season but they can't wait to start playing when I turn them loose just after dark. There are still squabbles, but they are not too bad and rarely cause injury or last more than a few seconds. All good! Thanks for asking!

 

[bamadude]

Lmbo. It loaded just fine

 

[CanuckBock]

Lmbo. It loaded just fine

Good...cause I don't wanna get banned from posting to the OFH!