new potted pond

[Mmathis]

Trust me, its his pond, not mine. He's topping it off, acclimating fish, learning nitrogen cycle, etc. Though he knows a bit about that already due to his interest in my reef.

Our troop does too much for the boys IMO, and I'm working on changing that a little at a time.

I agree with you. As his Gardening MB counselor, I want him to genuinely learn, and we will keep this updated. he has to keep it for a minimum of 90 days.

He reads your responses, I merely post on his behalf. He doesn't get unsupervised internet. That's his hand in the snail pic.. he was curious about them.

*thumbs up*

We are struggling to turn our troop into a "boy led" troop, but it's hard. It's been in transition, but I'm finally "teaching" the scouts [and their parents] that they -- the scouts -- need to contact me for advancement issues and questions. What a lot of our leaders & parents overlook is that, yes, the boys need to do it themselves, but first, they need guidance and for someone to show & teach them, NOT do it for them! The boys are tired of hearing it, but I'm constantly bringing up EDGE and encouraging them to use it EVERYWHERE, not just in scouting. It will put them in that mind-set of producing young men who can think and do for themselves.

Keep up the good work with your son [It's not easy learning patience, LOL] and with your troop. PM me if you ever want to "talk" scouting. I hate to hi-jack threads.....

 

[snoozer]

From once advancement chair to another TM. It is getting harder and harder to get parents to understand what the boys learn in running the troop. After 20 years in scouting I am getting so frustrated I am thinking of stepping down.

Crow, it soiunds like your son has a good teacher with you guiding him.

 

[Crow]

Things are going well so far. All the fish are still with us. He was feeding them flake each day and much of it was going uneaten, and reading here and there about it, we've temporarily suspended feeding, since they are picking at the plant roots anyway.

We figure some extra nutrients at the beginning probably would be ok for the plants, though algae is starting to pop up on the sides and on the plant roots. Normal for startup right?

One of the water lettuce's leaves was looking a bit yellow yesterday and today appears like it's dying. We read they don't like temps down in the fifties and our temps at night have been about 60, would that be it or would it be a nutrient issue?

 

[Crow]

Hmm. pic didn't load.. trying again..

 

[Crow]

Also, there are a lot of small clusters of leaves that have roots hanging from them. Look like tiny little frogbits to us...

 

[Mmathis]

Duckweed....

 

[Priscilla]

If the fish are nibbling on your roots that will cause the water lettuce to go yellow. I had tons of the water lettuce branch off like in your picture, little tiny ones, but my fish never let them mature. Fish loved the roots.

I'd never had any luck with floating plants in my pond, fish nibbled too much.

I would leave the snails, since its a project for him to learn from. The more critters the better. Keep an eye out for dragonfly larva in the roots of your plants. They are pretty cool.

You'll be amazed at what pops up in a small water garden.

 

[Crow]

Duckweed....

Hmm. Good lesson in invasive species..

 

[Crow]

He has been diligent.

The roots of the hyacinth were floating for quite a while, and are growing algae. Tonight I picked it lowered it back down and for once it seems like they will stay down. That should help with the algae some.

He is down to two fish. One is the ninja dark one, who it turns out is becoming mottled with white. Kind of nice.

The water lettuce is sprouting a new plant and the hyacinth is notably larger.

Our neighbors have a pond that they've drained down (winter killed everything but one Lilly) but there are still a couple of puddles in it that had some tadpoles. With the puddle steadily becoming smaller, we've "rescued" three of them.

That's all for now. here's a pic.

 

[snoozer]

I hope he isn't discouraged losing 2 fish. I think keeping the smaller pond healthy is harder than the bigger one I have now. Enjoy the learning experience and great job on the tadpole rescue.

 

[Crow]

He isn't discouraged. I had warned him that it may happen.

I hope he isn't discouraged losing 2 fish. I think keeping the smaller pond healthy is harder than the bigger one I have now. Enjoy the learning experience and great job on the tadpole rescue.

 

[Crow]

So I had a vacation day today and it was rainy. the kids and I went to Cedar Rapids to a shop that specializes in ponds. that's all they do, and we were in high heaven.

He bought an Imperial Taro and a sensitive plant. you should have seen his face when I said "watch this" and touched the leaves.

We came back and decided that a good pond cleaning was in order since we had to set it up for the taro to be higher. He did almost all the work himself.

 

[Crow]

 

[Mmathis]

Very nice! Did you ever say what rank he is?

 

[Crow]

he's a Scout. he has one more requirement to complete for Tenderfoot, which is to join a patrol. That happens on Monday I believe.