Retired and Just Starting Out

[MoonShadows]

@Mmathis Heck, I'll sell you my rocks cheap! I have thought of renting an excavator for a day or two...watch out rocks; here I come!

 

[j.w]

 

[peter hillman]

Welcome! How are going to dig? Shovel, backhoe, dynamite?

 

[MoonShadows]

Welcome! How are going to dig? Shovel, backhoe, dynamite?

@peter hillman I'm not sure yet. When I take all factors into consideration, I am leaning towards the raised pond right now, something along the lines of the images I posted above.

 

[MoonShadows]

And, a raised pond it is!

Well, after the desire to have a pond for many years and talking about it for so long, we sat down last night and finally decided to purchase an above ground pond kit, one of which we have been looking at for some time. Just a few minutes ago, we made the purchase of a 425 gallon above ground redwood pond kit from Coastal Pond Solutions in British Columbia. (http://coastalpondsolutions.com) a.k.a. Kim's Ponds. Cost: $1675 including shipping, taxes, brokerage and duties.

The pond kit assembled is 82" x 72" x 30" and consists of:
Interlocking Western Red Cedar Frame and 3 benches
Preformed Firestone EPDM Pondgard Liner with ground pad
Quiet One Model 4000 pump with mechanical & biological filtration and ultraviolet sterilization (991 gph)

 

[addy1]

Very nice looking!

 

[sissy]

Thing is never make it to big to handle .I am retired also ,so congrats on your retirement .Just remember nothing gets easier with age .I have wished over and over again that I went pondless

 

[MoonShadows]

@sissy Oh, I know that...nothing gets easier with age. Last year in our home business we sold over 2500 cases of food, each weighing over 20 lbs. We figure we picked up each case at least 8x from start to boxing to labeling to loading to delivery, etc. That's over 400,000 lbs we lifted last year....just the 2 of us....and we are both over 60 years old. And, I wonder why my back bothers me all the time! But, I am not complaining; I love being "retired" with our own home business. There is a saying that "youth is wasted on the young", and it is so true. Life just keeps getting better the older we get; it's just our bodies that don't. LOL

 

[peter hillman]

That solves the digging issue! I like it. It's possible to have a low maintenance pond and it looks like you picked a great candidate for it. I've got probably 5-6hrs of total maintenance time over last summers pond season. I did have the electrical issue last weekend but even I can run an extension cord.

 

[MoonShadows]

That's another reason why I picked it...looked like low maintenance...

 

[sissy]

I was born in PA and Raised in NJ and retired to VA .I did not want to retire back to really cold weather .I wanted something midway between warm and cold and picked VA .Cheaper here also .I also wanted a little land but not a lot of land .This house just over 3 acres and other house almost 12 acres .Other house was cheaper less than 30 thousand .I still have family in PA but have not been back there since 1986 .My sister used to own 1 of those A frame homes they built in the Pocono's back in the 70's and we sold it after she died in 1985

 

[MoonShadows]

I have often thought of moving to VA, but I doubt it will happen now. My father was from Culpeper, VA, and I used to love to visit my grandparents on the farm as a kid. In fact, those were some of the happiest times of my life. I grew up just outside of NYC and have lived in MA, FL and NJ. I was living in Bergen County, NJ when we bought our house here in the Pocono Mountains; we wound up here because we could get such a good deal on a house, and I hated living in the tri-state area by then. We bought this farmhouse built in 1860 and 9 acres for $125,000 in 1995...wouldn't have been able to touch anything like this in the tri-state area.

 

[sissy]

I paid 89 for this one and land and it is a modular home I had built in Tennessee and figure if it can do 60 mph on the highway it can stand up to most things .Houses can go cheap here ,no jobs but they are building new businesses here .Took 2 huge cranes to place it on the basement ..I love NJ but to expensive to retire there after the ford plant closed it hurt the area..The other house I bought is for the horses and for friends .I have friends that have moved here .One bought a fixer upper house for 49 thousand and put their dream modular home on it and it has 15 acres and total cost with new house is 150 thousand and they are fixing up the other house to have for company to come and have a place to stay .They even have better views than my house does .The house is slightly smaller at 2100 sq. ft .My cousin is coming next week to look at houses for her retirement .My 2 sisters live here also