3 weeks ago (at least), I saw an ad running in Craigslist for free Koi. This person was shutting down their pond and they wanted to give them away (my kind of price). I responded to that ad immediately but never heard back from anyone. I brushed it off and out of my mind, no biggies, I have enough fish - but - these were smaller ones. I have enough big fishies - up to almost 20 inches, I need smaller fishies.
Well, today I am going through my email and was done, actually, with it. I refreshed it to find a new one. This was that person, who had never responded to me, telling me she had shut down her pond today, she had spent all morning catching the fish, they were in a plastic bin, please come get them.
Just like that. I write her back, okay, I'll come and get them! She writes back with her phone number and awayyyyy we goooooooo! It was a fairly good drive out into the east valley. She said they live off of a very small, dirt road. So, I'm looking around for the address, there are only a few houses on this road. At the end of the road is what I would consider to be a mini castle. I didn't figure it was that place, but I was wrong. This house was HUGE!! The main house - at least 5,000 square feet and the guest house the size of my house - 2,000 square feet anyway. It had 2, huge horse pastures, a swimming pool the likes I have never seen before, a horse barn/hotel - also huge - another area to run horses, and of course, a pond. For the size of everything else around there, it was interesting to see this rather small pond. She had all but completely drained it in order to catch the fish.
I saw the Koi: QUITE the haul. I know what these suckers cost both on Craigslist and at Petsmart - I ended up with around $250 worth of Koi ranging in size from 2 inches to about 6 inches.
That wasn't all. She asked me if I wanted her plants. I thought, not really, I have a lot of them already. But, she had some different plants that I don't have. Well, they're free plus a HUGE water lily - that thing has huge leaves on it. Couldn't say no to that, especially considering the fact that I just scored a 400 gallon horse trough that is going to serve as my above ground pond. My above ground pond that I have now is working - but it really isn't made to be above ground. I have to figure out how to get that trough from work to home, but when I do, I'm going to test it - make sure it doesn't leak - and then fill it with water. I will transfer everything from the plastic pond over to the trough.
That may take a bit of time, of course, with everything that has to be done to make that happen, but I already have everything I need. I bought the trough from the City of Mesa - they sell surplus at a facility where I also happen to go somewhat frequently making deliveries. That trough had been sitting out there a while, no-one rushing to buy it, so I offered almost half of what they were asking for it. I will sell my above ground one for the same that I bought the trough - try to anyway - and recoup the "loss". I have 2 other ponds that I am going to sell as well. Those 2 I decided I don't really need and don't want 5 ponds running on my property, 3 is enough.
I'm considering selling a couple of the larger Koi - only because they don't seem to have enough room even though it's in the "bigger" pond. However, I am going to wait and see if they might do okay in the 400 gallon horse trough which will give them a lot more room to move around in.
The only downside to today's affair? Getting those plants out of that pond. I had no idea I was going to score plants and had to wash my shoes, plus my pants are covered with bottom-of-pond-muck stuff. In other words, I would have dressed for the occasion, including old boots if I had known.
My excitement for the day, lol.
ben
3 comments:
Monday
My son has stopped playing Playstation 3. I'm guessing a lot of kids/adolescents and even adults have stopped playing it considering the internet access is gone and the ability to talk to your friends through the internet while playing the game via headsets is gone with it.
I'm guessing their biggest competitor - X-Box 360 is probably getting some extra added sales because of it - X-box 360 also links to the internet and yes, you can talk to your friends via headset while playing the game.
The lack of use of the game has forwarded it to me: it plays DVD's including Blu Ray and I watched 2 movies on it yesterday provided by one of my tenants. There is some movie with Rock in it where he gets out of prison and immediately goes on a killing rampage to avenge the killing of his brother. If you like gore, death and action, great movie. If you like anything with an actual plot and a bit of thought in it, probably not so great. He kills everyone that was involved excepting a pastor that pleaded with him to not kill him and then got down on his knees and started singing something while praying at the same time.
I other movie was a waste of time. Takers, I think it was, another bank robbing movie. Boring, I actually fell asleep half way through it.
2 of my fish died from the haul I got on Saturday. They looked like they were dying before I even got them home, but, only one of them was found floating. The other? He jumped out of the pond. Not a smart move, there isn't any more water out there!
Oh well, they were free and I still have all the rest of them. I am only taking small fish at this point, if someone is giving away large fish I don't get them. Though, those people giving away Koi could, actually, sell them. I guess these people would rather not have to deal with it. I haven't been able to find a pic of one of the plants I got - the lady that gave them to me stated that they were very expensive at the store where she bought them. I will continue to search. As with all of those plants, they will probably reproduce and grow at a extremely rapid pace.
As for today - nothing in the truck routing system excepting a small pickup of materials from our main branch. This will be the 3rd consecutive day of no deliveries. Funny part is: there are a LOT of orders just waiting to be released in our territory. As with all construction, waiting on permits and such from municipalities before work can be begin and material brought to any site.
And even greater potential problem, as has occured many times in the past: a bunch of those projects all being released at the same time and suddenly, we can't keep up with the work. That's the way it goes, too, there's either more work than we can handle or there is nothing or almost nothing.
Crazy stuff there. Some interesting things in the news, but nothing I have time to go into now nor really worth that much commenting on, excepting the idea that people in some part of southern Arizona want to split away from the rest of the state and form their own state. Yeah, that's probably not going to actually happen, though they are trying to collect the 40,000 signatures it will take to get it on the ballot. Ummmm, just an observation: for a move THAT drastic, I would think it would take a bit more than 40,000 signatures. But, they said it would then have to be approved by the state's legislature (highly unlikely) and then by Congress (highly unlikely times 100).
Well, that's it. Overcast today, nice outside, going to open up the windows at work and let some fresh air in.
G'day.
ben
Luckily for me, I am pretty well insulated from the utter rubbish that passes for entertainment these days, but when I DO get peeks like you just gave of the total garbage that kids watch and listene to, it is no wonder so many of them are effed up in the brain. Basically a brain-dead generation. Comes from having two working parents and NO supervision.
fin
I don't disagree, most new "movies" coming out are pretty worthless. There are no classics coming out and I doubt many will ever surface in the next coming years. There is a mindset in Hollywood that mindless killing without any real plot to it is what everyone wants to see. The comedies I find for the most part less than humorous, unless you want to watch some punk @$$ kid standing there mouthing out profanities and "rapping" or whatever. I'm wondering how the next generations are even going to make it in life. Perhaps my question is answered by the "kid" living with me: they aren't.
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