fish

Good news on the house we're trying to buy - our loan has been approved!  We knew we were pre-qualified, but you never know what they might come back with, so very good news!  The appraisal has been ordered so right now everything just rides on that and the inspection.  So fingers crossed for everything to continue to go well.  I'm guessing if it all does go well we'll be looking to move sometime between the middle to end of June, though depending on how fast the sellers get their new place and moved it could be sooner, or even later, than that.  We'll know more once we get a closing date set. 

I do dread all the work ahead of us.  We've already started a lot of it and I donated about 10 leaf trashbag sized bags full of give-away items, so at least I'm getting some deep decluttering done.  I've been packing up all the items in the house that aren't necessary - things like photo frames, candles, unused dishes, books, etc.  The entire craft room has been packed and took about 20 boxes just for that room alone.  Yikes!  

We've really knocked out the house repair list and there isn't a horrible amount of stuff left to do.  The hard part will be filling in the Koi pond.  Since we're keeping the house and renting it once we move we have to fill it in.  Otherwise it's a huge liability risk that we're not willing to chance.  The Koi will go with us and have a new pond built, hopefully shortly after we get moved.  Until then we have to find something temporary for them to stay in and we haven't quite figured out that part.  Any suggestions are appreciated! 

With any luck by Fourth of July weekend this will be my new view from the back porch!  *swoon*

Project 365: 100/365

We've been working on the backyard pond all weekend.  It was a disaster after the winter and we re-landscaped the entire perimeter and built up the back wall a bit more.  Now it's looking good - just gotta wait for some of the plants to bloom!

A few of the fish in our backyard pond.  The gold and white ones are butterfly koi and the orange speckled one is a shubunkin goldfish. The hawks or herons, or maybe both, have obviously been fishing in the pond.  We're down quite a few fish from what we started with.  But we're looking to add a few more koi soon.

I was playing with the kenko extension tubes again and Poe was a willing subject.  Actually he kept challenging me and bumping the glass...I don't think he wanted his picture taken.

...or rather bows because of Mother Nature!

We got a couple inches of very heavy, wet snow last night and the bamboo around the pond just couldn't handle it.  I'm guessing it's pretty resilient foliage, but we'll see how it fares come spring.  Fishes are under there somewhere, hovering in their winter state and waiting until the spring thaw.

This is Poe, my red betta fish.  He was chilling in his bowl and my monitor behind him was giving a great back light for a silhouette.  Poe is my office bud.

Earlier this week Jason dug and built a new fish pond in the backyard, upgrading us from a 150 gallon pond to a 2000 gallon pond!  It's gonna be awesome once we get the landscaping around it, some pond plants and the fish transferred over.  He even bought a rockin' color changing fountain that is anchored in the middle - oooh pretty!  Once it's complete I'll post up some photos of it.

So with the new setup and the pretty colors I tried my hand at some long exposure photography for the first time.  Not bad results for my first go.  I have some ideas for the next attempt and want to wait until the fish are in the pond for one of the things I have in mind.

So here's a partial view of the new pond, with the purple lights on the fountain at a 15 second shutter.

This is Poe. He sits beside me on my desk and keeps me company on the evenings and weekends while I work. He's my left-hand man, my stress relief, and sometimes my distraction. He's much happier now that he's out of his 1 cup of water from the pet store and into a gallon and a half bowl. He's a handsome fella.