Hi From Colorado!

[keikoasmom]

Lets see, mother of 4, love gardening...........

My middle son and I had an aquarium business (custom salt-water) for 9 years.
I had a small pond, 8' diameter, and he helped me add another level, and make it deeper.

We had many mishaps and lots of fun figuring proper filtration, flow, and all that can go wrong.

In 2003, we were hit from behind (a texter) and both suffered whiplash injuries. We lost 50% of clients in 2 months, unable to do the work, and
ended the company in 2006. I almost lost my pond that year, could not monitor the water or clean the pond properly, and lost 75% of my
fish.

The next year, after finding an amazing chiropractor, we decided to "move the pond"!! Marc helped design a new, 3-level pond with a higher
waterfall and deeper ponds, and we started working on it. Thereapeutic!
The old pond was too close to the house (altjhough nice for monitoring during winter) and the new one is more of a focal point.

We even got my husband interested, and it is now gorgous and healthy!
Youngest sonmade a beautiful curved bridge~

There are 30 Koi and Goldfish, with one of the "old guys" left, probably 26" long, and a black Koi, my grandson's Calico Goldfish,
now 8 years old (DGS is 17) and they are all just gorgeous! Gold, White and every variation.

We have Water Thistle, Water Celery, Mint, Vinca, a beautiful white Water Hibiscus and other pond plants and pink and white water lillies.

Marc is back at school, 3rd year of college at 40, and I am retired, and loving my pond.....

Pictures in a few~

 

[j.w]

keikoasmom
Sounds like now that you are feeling better you are having a wonderful life and enjoying retirement. Looking forward to seeing your pond pix :goldfish:

 

[buckry]

Welcome! Sounds like it all came around to a good place. Can't wait to see the pictures.

 

[sissy]

welcome and glad your are loving you retirement .I know what you mean about accidents, I was waiting to pull in my driveway on halloween night and guy was drunk driving company van and hit me going a 100+ miles an hour and left over a 100 feet of skid marks and he took out 150 feet of chain link fence and landed on the metro lines train tracks and tied up train traffic for 4 hours from NYC and drove my car up my drive way through my garage door and into the concrete block wall on both my garage and the back wall of the garage behind my house .Crushed the top of my car and only thing that saved me was the seat broke and so did my seat belt and i ended up crunched under the steering wheel ,lucky i'm short .Once you have lived through it and get back on your feet you think about every car and truck

 

[keikoasmom]

OMG Sissy! Yes, we were hit, sitting at a red light.
Son Marc was driving, and a split second before impact, he looked in the side mirror and said, "Watch Out".
We turned to each other, and Bam! The guy hit us doing 50 or more.
Our Chevy truck hit the car in front of us, and a neurologist later explained that it was a double closed brain injury in addition to whiplash.
We had seatbelts on, but it was impact enough that we had 4 compressed discs each. I still have a bit of neck trouble sometimes, but after 3 years of doctors, the chiropractor our client recommended did wonders.

Sissy, that was horrible, just horrible. I can hardly imagine, although, you are right, I cringed at every loud noise while driving for about 3 years afterward.
I have been in accidents before, when I was young, so I know what tearing metal and crashing autos sound like. Terrible.

Thank you all, yes, we ended up in a good place, and I love the summer! I am probably spending too much on water (hiding the bills from DH)
but the pond and the yard are my therapy and my fun!

I have even taught my hubby to clean the skimmer, feed the fish, and how to spot m ost emergencies!! I am so proud of him! He is really a non-fish guy, lol!

these are early spring, I need batteries for my camera~Big guy is about 25" long~

Hard to believe its the same yard, it looks like a jun gle now!

Some of the edges are sparse for rocks, the new dog knocks them in. She seems to have a problem with spawning behavior!

I ran out of daylight today, lol! Pictures tomorrow, hopefully!

 

[don't ask]

nice, pretty long run of stream and ponds... how long is it? depth?

 

[sissy]

wow that is some long pond and love the shade you have and just wishing my trees would grow faster here .When I bought the property it had been forrested and stripped bare and I have put back over 30 trees and at least that in shrubs .That happened back in 1984 and to this day I look all around and with people these days you need too ,texting and talking .I saw him coming but no where to go it was a 4 lane road and a neighbor 2 houses down was waiting to pull in her driveway .I was lucky a cop coming up the road saw the whole thing .What was worse was the car was only a month old still had the temporary plates on it .My first very brand new car .Wish my pond was bigger at times but then glad it is easy to take care of .

 

[pondlover]

You have a beautiful pond. So glad that you are all okay after your car accidents. Life is very fragile.

 

[j.w]

Very nice looking pond photo's!

 

[Becky]

Welcome to the forums! That's a beautiful looking pond, I particularly like the bridge

 

[addy1]

to the group

Very nice pond, looks like it has been there forever. Nice bridge too, did you build it?