Koi My Last Trip?

  

My Last Trip?

About three years ago my wife and I received a present from our children and grand children that was meant to offer us more entertainment choices. As we cut back on our satellite TV programming to reduce expenses. They gave us a ROKU unit. It opened a whole new world to me. It did not take long and I was hooked on YouTube. My wife doesn’t care for YouTube, but I can spend hours watching how to programs.

I have always loved to travel, Three of my children were born overseas while I was in the Army. Two in Germany and one in Panama, When I left the Army I drove a truck, which I learned how to drive OJT in Vietnam. For twenty years I was and over the road trucker and drove all the continental U.S. and most of Canada. I was hooked on travel by my father. We went to Colorado when I was fifteen and drove to Alaska in 1964. Later in life he actually tried to go to Alaska by boat. He was a Navy veteran and was at the D-Day invasion. and ended the war in Tokyo harbor tied up close enough to the USS Missouri to watch the surrender ceremony. He spent much spare time taking classes on boating, but seems to have missed the class on tides. Fortunately I had joined the Army by then.

Having been forced to retire at fifty-seven in 2004 I sort of missed traveling. My love of travel was satisfied by the videos I watched. One in particular was a program on raising and buying Koi fish in Japan. I started watching a channel on how to build ponds. It became an obsession with the idea of having a pond for raising Koi. It even started influencing my travel decisions. I took a vacation to North Carolina and visited Koi Farms and bamboo farms. I like bamboo as it is useful in making crafts that I like to do. My vacation ended at the Atlanta Koi Show over Labor Day weekend.

Most of the trip was based on visiting sites I had found on YouTube. Thanks to getting my Agent Orange compensation in 2013 I could afford to travel again. My goal for several years was to go out west to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.

After canceling three years in a row because of forest fires. I finally in 2017 went east instead and up thru Canada via Niagara Falls. Then across Canada reentering the U.S. into Maine. From there I went to North Carolina via New York City and Washington, D.C. to watch a skydiving competition for jumpers over sixty, While I don’t jump any more I did during my thirteen years in the Army and figured I might meet some old friends. From there I found my way home through the Smokey Mountains

In 2019 I made a trip to North Carolina and the Smokies. It was a very laid back and leisurely trip. I slept in my van and dined mostly at Waffle Houses along my route. The first night out I spent with my son-in-law in Cincinnati which allowed me to tour the awesome place he works as a design engineer, which got me the bonus of a free breakfast. That evening I stopped at the rest area on the West Virginia Turnpike. As I could not make up my mind what the healthy choice was I allowed a truck driver to go before me. He paid for my meal and we had a very nice visit.

My first stop had been intended to be Beni Hanna Koi in Carney’s Point, NJ but to save time I shortened the trip when the lady who answered the phone and told me they were going to be at the Atlanta Koi Show. I had not heard of the show, but I altered my travel plans and spent the weekend in Atlanta. I ended up meeting Mat McCann in Atlanta and getting a wealth of knowledge about Koi

The first place I went in North Carolina was not open. So I altered my plans accordingly. After seeing several ponds first hand I started getting a better idea of what I wanted to do. Several of the ponds I visited were home based business’s run buy people who were and are dedicated to promoting Koi fish.

As I am not a very organized planner, most of the places I visited by just calling as I got in their area. The first place I visited was East Coast Koi, in New Hill, NC the owner Bobby Wang is a Taiwanese native who moved to America in 1977 and has a pretzel business which is how he makes his lively hood. Koi are his hobby, but it is a very serious hobby. He raises and breeds Koi on his home property which is a very impressive and well laid out operation. He is very kind and was very helpful in sharing and answering the questions I asked of him. He had several ponds in his barn and several above ground swimming pools that he used for holding his fish. He also has a several acre pond. That is how I found out about him. YouTube had a video of the harvesting operation at his pond. I wanted to go back a month later for that event but my resources did not allow for it.

My next stop was Marsha & Lou’s Koi in Mocksville, NC. It is another home run operation. My only regret is the pictures I took inside her shop did not come out for some reason. I bought a beautiful shirt from her when the only one she had happened to be my size which is 3X. Yep I are a fluffy fellow. I have lost fifty pounds over the last year and a half though. Marsha was awesomely helpful and her and Bobbies inside ponds inspired me to figure out how to make my own.

My last stop in North Carolina was at the Haiku Bamboo Farm near Hendersonville, North Carolina. They raise and sell bamboo products. The store is worth a side trip, call and go to the store though. The farm is on top of a mountain and if you don’t have a four wheel drive you may not want to visit it. The road into it is one lane and a couple miles long. When I finally got to the gate I had to back up almost a quarter mile to find a place to turn around. When I finally got off the mountain I had to drive several miles before I finally had phone service and found out I had passed the store on my way in. He has lots of really neat hand made bamboo items for sale.

Finally I went to the Atlanta Koi Show and stayed there for two days and met tons of really neat people and harvested a ton of information on growing Koi. The vendors were all very helpful and overwhelmed me with things I had never considered.

While there I found out about My Front Yard Koi Farm in Sellersburg, Indiana only two hours from my house. I stopped by there on my way home. It was a very nice facility. They had several ponds out front and a very well stocked store with all kinds of supplies and ornaments.

Upon my return home I started watching pond building shows with a new understanding of what I needed to know. At some point I found out about an organization located in St.Charles, Illinois. Much to my pleasant surprise I found out they offered classes in how to build ponds, In January I signed up for me and my grandson to go to the 16^th and 17^th March class. The Friday before the class everything got canceled because of the Corona Virus.

With nothing else to do. I decided to go ahead and visit Aquascapes headquarters. It was a very worthwhile visit as I picked up the items I needed to build my own pond. They gave me the grand tour. It is one awesome facility. You can tell pride and craftsmanship went into every detail of their operation. With the impending shutdown of everything in Indiana at least now I know what I will be doing. I will be attempting to build my pond and get my greenhouse up and running.

As a person who has had several bouts of pneumonia, COPD, and Agent Orange my lungs only operate at thirty to forty percent capacity. At seventy-three getting the virus would be a death sentence for me. As long as I have others to do my shopping for me I can stay on my property out in the woods and hope and pray nobody brings the virus my way.

I just checked and this post was started on March 24^th of this year. The delay has provided several details I did not have when I started which is a Blessing as I was trying to figure out how to end this tale. I already know that I will be writing at least five more stories about my trip if I live long enough. One on each place I visited, but this weekend made me wonder if I will have time.

In June of 2015 I wrote a post called Coming Full Circle. Over this Memorial Day weekend I had an experience that made me wonder if I am right. Around Easter I always get the feeling the Rapture is near. With this Corona Virus my life has definitely changed. My wife and I take care of our twin, eight year old Great Grand Daughters. Their Mom brings them at 3AM five days a week and we keep them till she gets off at 1PM. With school being out our schedule has changed a lot. I have definitely gotten a lot of time off. We started taking care of them five years ago because I got convicted by the verse in 1 Timothy 5:8 which says that one who does not take care of their own is worse than an infidel. Taking care of the girls allowed their Mom to get a job and get our of government housing.

Getting back on track, we went to my grandson’s wife’s grandparents house for dinner and a visit. Over the course of the event her grandfather Kenny and I found out we had the same job in the military. Not only that but in 1965/1966 we had been stationed in the same unit at Ft. Campbell, KY. While we were not friends our paths definitely crossed. There were 240 people in our unit. Her grandmother was just getting over a case of the Covid virus. My Grandson’s wife is in the Air National Guard, where she is learning to be a nurse, she had just returned from a month long commitment working with a Covid testing unit. So in spite of my hiding from the virus for several months I was exposed indirectly to the virus, which made me realize how easy it is for people to get the virus. I ended up spending the night at my Daughter’s house in Corydon, IN.

Getting back on track again, but on the other rail of this post I went to the My Front Yard Koi Shop on my way home and picked some butterfly Koi fish for my aquarium. Something I got into since returning from my trip. While there I met a Koi Event judge because of the T-shirt I was wearing, from the Atlanta Koi show. We had a nice visit and he connected me with a local Koi owner. Yesterday I went to see his pond. It is pretty awesome.

So I traveled across half of America to find what I was looking for right where I started. I was an over the road trucker for twenty years. There are about fifteen houses on the road I live on. About nine of us are truckers. I don’t really know any of my neighbors even after living here since 1987. The irony is that the three I do know I met on the road by making small talk on the CB radio in other states. I guess that is the way life is.

Sunday is Pentecost this year. If the rapture does not happen, or the Lord does not call me home I will be writing stories about the different parts of my trip. It is too much to put in one post. I have a post called When God Answers that explains why I think we may be neat the end, but that may come from reading the Bible too much. Either way I want to thank each and every one who has taken time to read my posts over the years.

Guess I will have to add the rest of the pictures later as I can't seem to get them from my phone to my computer.

Koi Aquariums Upgrade? Homemade in tank filter.

      Tired of a tank that looks like the second picture, my homemade design cures the problem and makes it fun to have a tank, with "In-Tank" Filters. No more spills. Plenty of how to pics in this post.

After and before pictures

        In February I bought a new aquarium. I bought it by accident. I had a ten gallon aquarium and updated to a thirty seven gallon aquarium. The only problem I had with it was I did not have a big enough table for it. As my wife was in Texas I went looking for a new chair. Mine was getting pretty ragged. I found the one I wanted, in a local store. It was kind of expensive as it stands you up which makes it a lot easier on you. My youngest daughter Glenda passed away in August of 2010 and she had one, loaned to her by the local fire department. She had a brain tumor and fought it for seven years. The chair really helped her mobility.  As I am now seventy three it seemed like a good choice for me. When I picked it out I had to find a recliner rocker that matched. 

    I found one and as I sat in it testing it out I started looking at the table in front of it and thought it would be perfect for my aquarium. The salesman said he had a hundred twenty gallon tank and that he no longer used it. He would sell it to me for $150 and it came with a stand. The filters were $60 extra. In mid April when doing a water change I screwed up. I came  back to my room to find 60 gallons of water on the floor. That made me  realize I wanted in tank filters and not external ones. 

    It became almost an obsession studying YouTube and other sights. After a month I found one that would work for me with a small modification. Some people may not like the look of it, but you could paint it or put a cover on it.  For me it is just fine. it really sucks out the dirt. It is super easy to clean and super easy to make. I probably have about $50 dollars in the whole thing. Seventeen dollars is the price of the power head pump. I had to have two pipe caps for four inch pipe, which were about $7.50 each. Then I needed a sponge to filter, the brand I used was $10.50, some medium to absorb and hold the dirt. Hopefully the pictures I used make it clear how I made the filter.

As you can see the water was very cloudy from an algae problem. The filter I made took care of the problem.

This  is what the water looked like after adding my homemade filter. I am not exactly the best photographer.

This is  one of the filters that came with the tank. I have them for sale cheap. You can have both for $50 plus shipping and handling. They may need impeller rebuild kits which are $39, The filter tanks are about $175 new.

     Going from right to left is the bottom cap which has lots of holes.  I made the the first one with 3/16 inch holes, the second one I put in 3/8 inch holes and it really helped clean the water better. the white stuff is medium for filtering dirt out of the water.  I used a regular filter sponge in a 12 inch long piece of 4 inch pipe. The black bag holds activated carbon, I buy it at Walmart.. between the bag and the cap I have several layers of scrubbies as a final filter. the top cap and finally the pump.                                                                                                                                 

The power head sucks water into the tube and thru the filter media and then recirculatess it back into the tank minus the fish poop and debris. Notise the holes are in the bottom cap. The last picture shows a minor change I made that really helped. Going from 3/16 inch holes to 3/8 inch holes seemed to really help the cleaning process also.

The final assembly looks like this. I use the imagitarium  power head which I get from Petco.. It is rated for 40 to 75 gallon aquariums. I use two of them; one in each end of the tank. 

I tend to reuse the filter media after rinsing it. I got the strainer at Walmart for just a couple of dollars. I use the tote to move the filter to the sink without making a mess and as a place to put the disassembled parts for cleaing.

This is a pretty good photo of how much my filter pulls out of the water in just ten days. I generally clean the sponges and inside parts and then I am back in business for another couple of weeks, I usually do my filters on Saturdays. I have the two hand made filters with power heads and six sponge filters. I usually clean them when I change water in the tank.  The whole process takes less than an hour normally.

   

As you can see from the pictures the bottom of the filter tube sets on the bottom of the tank. To make it more efficent I glued a 2 inch pipe cap on the bottom which improves the water flow in the filter.

I have had several questions about my moving media bottle 

in my aquarium. It lasts 3 to 4 months and then needs cleaned of 

replaced. It helps hold good bacteria and gets rid of the algae  

in my tank.  Not very fancy but I am enclosing 

a how-to picture.

This is the diagram

This is what a used bottle looks like, you can see the algae 

build up in the bottle.

This bottle is really simple, I use a powerhead, a two 

liter bottle with the bottom cut out and a powerhead 

that sucks water in the bottom of the bottle 

and thru the fiber fill which removes the 

fish poo from the water. I have to  change the

fiber fill about every other day. I simply drilled

 a 5/8th in hole in cap and it slides right on

 to the neck of the powerhead.

This is what the fiber fill looks like after about 48 

hours.  Really clears the water up, even if it 

isn't that pretty it works good.

My room and aquariums

Took me a year to figure out how to get it like this

with only intank filters, after a 60 gallon spill I

decided under tank filters did not get it.

Avoiding A Depression, It Can Be Done, Will it?

Corona Virus, Avoiding A Depression, It Can Be Done, Will It

       Corona Virus versus The Founding Fathers

      As America completely alters its state of being under the impact of the Corona Virus, one has to wonder if will we survive. Will we ever get back to normal, or is this the new normal. America has survived having our capitol burnt, a civil war, two World Wars and numerous other disasters. Just over a hundred years ago we survived the Spanish Flu which killed millions of people world wide and over 600,000 Americans.

     In my opinion America will survive and it may come out of this as a better nation. The Virus has revealed many inequities and short comings in America. One question is will it push us into another Great Depression. That will depend totally on how our leadership reacts or fails to react to the crisis.

     In the Great Depression the market lost 89% of its value. It took three years from the crash to hit bottom. It lasted almost ten years. Only World War II ended it. When Obama took office the Dow was at 7949 due to large losses in the 2008 Crash. The market recovered and was up two and one half that amount by the time Trump took office. The market rose one and a half times its value under Trump. It was at 19,732 when he took office and rose steadily to just over 29,551 at one point. It has since lost 21 % of its value. To match the Great Depression it would have to fall to a bottom of 3251.

     Could that happen I hope and pray it doesn't. However it could if the present leadership continues to follow in the footsteps of Hoover. Hoover did not want to get involved and said it was a business thing. Recently Trump said the same thing. When Hoover did finally react, when things were much like they are right now, farmers destroying the products, it was too little, too late.

      Since that time the government has changed a lot and created a variety of programs to try and prevent the past from repeating itself. The Virus is a whole different ballgame and will require America to completely alter its way of thinking. The government will have to get involved and on a very large scale.

    It will take a completely new view of Abraham Lincoln's famous quote, "we are a nation of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." America as we understand it and many other nations could perish from the face of the earth. America could fall into Anarchy as people start to starve, not because there is a lack of food, but a lack of understanding that all the government does, is for the people. and it is done by the people, by actions of the people.

   When Lincoln made that comment he was facing one of the greatest challenges our country has ever faced. The last part of that quote is hardly ever quoted. Today as a nation we are facing a challenge, of equal or possibly greater threat to our being as a nation.

    The Constitution in Article 1, Section 8 gives the Congress three duties. The power to create and collect taxes for the management of our government, the duty to raise and provide for a military. The third article is to provide for the welfare of the nation. I do not believe that was meant in the way most Americans see it today, to pay it out in food stamps. It was meant to provide all the needs of our nation, all the infrastructure and the funds to administer to the needs of the people and the nation. We need to understand that welfare is fully equal with raising funds and armies, without the third part, the first two parts can not function.

    It also gave the government the power to borrow money on credit. Today they create it out of thin air. If Congress has done nothing else they have mastered the art of spending money they do not have.

   My next statement will rub many the wrong way, but in view of Lincoln's statement I think it is the right understanding. Even the people are part of the infrastructure. You can not build infrastructure without people, and that requires healthy people, regardless of race, religion, and even sex. This crisis is making clear America has come up short in providing for all Americans equally. Health care workers are deemed essential to our well being, but so are those who provide food, transportation, safety and services our communities depend on to function as a social body.

    The President saying all the people who work in the meat plants must go back to work is one thing, but it is his and our governments duty to meet the needs and provide the equipment necessary to safely perform that task. It is well known he has little respect for minorities who make up the bulk of the labor force in those industries. When the Virus hits the field workers who pick the crops America will have to make some major adjustments. I have already planned to double the size of my garden this year and to start raising chickens and rabbits as they quickly provide a meat supply. Those living in major cities do not have that option.

   It is not my intention to intimidate, but to share the possibility we may be facing. Revelation 9:15 makes clear there will be an event in the end time that will wipe out a third part of mankind. From what I have seen so far this Virus is fully capable of accomplishing that task.

    How and if we survive this crisis is in the hands, of the people, It will be managed by them and if it comes up short, it will be the failure of the people to come together. So far I have been impressed by my country, but the eventual outcome may be a ways down the road. Can the America of today rise to the challenges they faced during the Great Depression. I think so, but our government will take some major restructuring to make it happen.

    People will have to realize they are not black, white or any other color, they are not Democrats or Republicans, We are all Americans first and foremost, and that survival will depend on everyone pulling together. The link I shared is from my other blog. It has many ideas on how we need to change our government. Including creating a third party, that is for Americans, and in which you are American first and foremost.

     So how does the government save us in this situation. They need to step up to the plate and create the logistics to provide safe work environments and protective equipment for all Americans working in essential skills. Yes food production is an essential skill. Wars are won by logistics. Not having the proper equipment at the proper time  will cause you to lose the battle.

     There is more than enough supplies of the necessities in America. Getting them to the food banks and the places they need to be requires logistics.  I spent over thirty-five years of my life in logistics. Thirteen years in the Army dropping supplies by parachute to our troops. During Tet of 1968 in Vietnam that was the only way our troops were getting supplies. Another twenty plus years I spent in the trucking industry.

     What we need to win this battle we have. What we don't have is leadership that is willimg to step up to the plate. Leadership can still be pushed from behind in this country. If you care about this country you need to share this post and make sure those you know share it and that they encourage their leadership in Congress to act now. By November we  may be so far into a depression we can't get out of it. The only reason we will lose this battle is through indifference to what is before us.

     We have all seen pictures of the soup kitchens during the great depression. We are headed their again if the government create a logistal program to get the products that are being wasted to the food banks and programs that need them. 
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    It is one thing to lose a battle because you do not have what you need. It is entirely another to have the items to end the suffering and keep us going till victory and doing nothing.  When I see all the food bank workers and people making mask to help their fellow Americans, I know victory is within our grasp. Yet when our fearless leader tells people to go to work, but does not provide the equipment or testing they need to do it safely, he is criminally incompetent.

    T-Rump as I call him likes to look at himself as a leader. Well he needs to get off of that rump and provide the leadership we need. It could turn him from a loser to a winner over night. He has had a borderline business history, and it is easy to see that many of his business failures happened because of a lack of understanding of logistics and overstretching what he had to work with.  I think if he gets enough mail telling him to be in charge, and not just claim to  be. He might actually wake up to the opportunity to actually be the leader he claims to be.