Hello again, everybody.
Yep, still kicking, may even get my divorce finished soon. my soon to be ex stbe:) wants me indebted to her forever, I'm hoping for a real short prison term --none at all, preferably, I feel like I already done my time. I had a little money from my mom dying, and paying lawyers 1k$ at a time is no fun. I've been scrounging used materials all my life, anything for a buck, so this just blows my mind.
Of course the land here is protected from her (I think), so with a little luck I will continue my life in paradise, but it would be a bummer if i ended up having to go back out to work.
My koi ponds and biofilters are working pretty good--finally, water actually clear enough to see the fish, and plants grew like crazy during the season-- been thinking more about wasabi growing, and with luck will get something going next spring. My first attempt was pretty half assed, and I've seen some recent utube content that may help. of course it may be just a little too cold for having the wasabi as a perennial outside--time will tell, it has been getting warmer.
I have been thinking about biting the bullet and buying real store bought lumber for a greenhouse. Ideally I would make it bigger and attempt a design I had worked out years ago that would use a solar stack, underground heat storage, and a rocket stove setup that would keep up temps year round, but likely this will just be 12'x16', have a small pond and wetland/biofilter) and maybe a table and chairs with other plants for occasional outings in the winter --sunny days in winter can really be pleasant in a greenhouse. This will have regular house type walls with insulation on three sides, and glass on the south--roof will be solar panels. but will likely wait to see how rich I feel after this divorce is final.
Anyway, I was still setting up the biofilters this spring when the koi were spawning, and the bigger koi were desperate trying to find some shallow water to lay their eggs, so the one pond got fresh reeds planted in the shallows, and the upper pond got lots of shallow edges added, reeds etc installed, so with luck, next spring the adults will have better accommodations for makin whoopie and the kids will have good places to hide. Oh, I did kill about three fish eating water snakes that invaded, a male, female, and baby. I generally don't like to interfere, but i did notice all or almost all of the 80 or 90 goldfish in the wild pond disappeared, I'm guessing those snakes were responsible, of course most likely there will be some little gold fish hiding out that will replenish the population, but it's such a drag when mother nature sends in free loaders to help themselves to my fish.
The butterfly koi added about 5 to their numbers, and I thought I saw one small one up with the big koi but so far the only obvious ones are the same 6- time will tell though. The butterfly pond hides the babies well, and it seems like there are actually two or three generations represented in the few extra fish, some almost appear to be carry overs from last year, hardly seems like a 6 inch fish could come from this years spawn, but hey, I'm not complaining--actually pretty glad they can hide so well, less danger from predators.
Planted a bunch of trees last spring, red buds around the catfish pond--they theoretically attract caterpillars that will help feed the fish. also some plums and persimmons--nothing fancy, just the native varieties. The paw paws I planted the previous year mostly survived, and the biggest issue was just manicuring their spaces so there is easy access for watering, and the weeds don't get too crazy-- I tried planting a few tomatoes around in between some of the seedlings, but the deer really are a problem, and the general soil is clay and rock, so cultivating a garden will also foster enriching the soil. So i really didn't expect much this year anyway (and I wasn't disappointed:)
The open pit gold mining that was a possible threat last year seems to have petered out, and with democrats in house and senate in va, we probably will have a better try at getting some good regulations, although the republican governor may block any active environmental protections. Still, the original hype about the rich veins of gold seems to have been a sales promotion for aston bay trying to profit, and local talent says it would be too expensive to exploit the veins with tunnels and the open pit idea is equally problematic because of the pattern of the veins..
So for the time being at least this land may be spared. Think a good thought.
Anyway, that's all for now, and remember
If you're not having fun, you've got the design wrong.
bob