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When I splashed about with the little fish net I had bought (the biggest I could find at the pet store) the fish just took on a Crocodile Dundee attitude.

“Net?  That’s not a net!?”

Anyway, I couldn’t fold them enough to get them into the pitiful excuse for a net I had bought at the pet store (their biggest model) and I guess that fish aren’t really built for origami  practice.

So I dug up a real fish net (the kind you take when you go fishing) and now I was Crocodile Dundeeish.

“Now THIS – this is what I call  a net!!!” I shouted as I pulled out the bigger fish.

And that left me the smaller ones, which would fit into the pet store net, but were way out of reach.  I tried duct taping the small net to the handle of a rake.  All that got me was a sharp thunk in the back of my head with the business end of the rake when I lunged to snag the fish.  Not good.  And kinda stupid.

I tried the big fish net for the smaller ones, but they just fell through, and mocked my feeble attempts at capturing them.  One held up a sign with a score of  “3″ on it.

Improvise, I thought.

I borrowed some fabric from a neighbour, and tied it to and inside the real fish net with twist ties.  And that worked – kinda, sorta – but the fish mostly just giggled at my new pink net as they effortlessly avoided it.  I ignored my first instinct to try the duct tape and rake innovation again when my still aching head throbbed,  “No, no, you idiot!  What makes you think that will work this time?”

With only a couple of the fish left, I was saved by my neighbour (who laughed at the pink net, even though I had got the material from his wife).  He had just been to the dollar store, and found a huge butterfly net, with a long bamboo handle.

It worked perfectly.

This isn’t a photo of the babies, of course.  The newborn are about the size of a baby guppy, maybe even smaller.   I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them all this fall if even a few survive.  There must be a hundred or so of the little critters in the pond, ranging in size from newborn to an inch long (about three or four weeks)

My new fish pond makes catching the fish a little tricky. The fish have lots of room to get away, and if you reach too far, you will fall in. (No, I didn’t – but close)

First of all, I didn’t have a net big enough. And the only pet store in town was closed. I made my own out of some netting, a wire clothes hanger, a broom handle and some duct tape. It actually worked, though I admit it was kinda crude looking.

There was also the babies I wanted to save. There was only about six survivors. They’re only about a half inch long, and hard to find, and even harder to catch. As soon as you get positioned so that you can catch one, they hide under something, scoot off to the other end of the pond, or simply vanish.

I had to set up two tanks because I was afraid the babies would become fish food.

In any event, they all are inside, and of course, I got some pictures to share.

For anyone interested, the first photo is a koi, the second is a shubunkin, the third one is a butterfly koi, and the last one is a comet. I think the shubunkin is one of the parents (probably the mother) of the babies.

And naturally, a baby photo:

Well, in a couple of weeks I hope to actually have the back yard done, so there’s always the possibility that a bucket of common sense will splash on me, and the inside work (where you actually live and eat and sleep) that should be done will be done.

In the meantime, here’s some of what I’ve done in the yard.

• built a bridge
• dug a fish pond
• built a waterfall and stream to the pond
• underground sprinkling system in the back yard
• cut out pathways through the lawn
• moved the sod from the pathways to the south side of the house
• roto-tilled the driveway to get rid of the weeds
• removed all of the plants, weeds, junk from the north side of the house, and replaced it with gravel
• hauled away three wheel-barrows full of cat poo from the front of the house by the varanda
• moved a million or so iris plants to the pond
• cut down all of the bushes, trees, and other miscellaneous stuff from the south side of the house
• planted a new tree (a Russian Olive) beside the fish pond
• roto-tilled the driveway again

If you take a look at the photos here, you can see there’s a lot left to do. Digging a pond 4.5 meters X 2.5 meters (about 15 ft X 8 ft, for the unmetricized) leaves a lot of dirt. You can probably see it in the pictures. On the “to do” list is

• load the dirt into the truck and haul it away
• finish cutting the paths through the back yard
• haul the gravel for the paths
• haul gravel for the driveway
• finish building the fence
• paint the fence (someone please volunteer for that job )
• stain the bridge
• clean up the flower (weed) garden at the very back of the yard
• tear down the old shed, and build a new one
• plant a couple more trees, ’cause there ain’t none in the back yard

The fish pond already has fish in it. That was a little ahead of schedule. Sherry dumped a couple of fish (big ones) from her house into the pond because they she thought they were mean, nasty fish. I think they were just horny, because they appear to be doing the mating dance marathon now. As well, I decided to put my fish into the pond. The big fish obviously have more important matters on their mind, because they pretty much leave the small ones alone.

I’ll post some more photos when the work is a little more complete.

1. Find a hole in the ground for the bridge to go over. If there are no available holes, dig one. Optionally, consider putting water in the hole if there is not already some there.
2. Find scrap lumber. You will need some pieces that are at least 10 feet long.
3. Lay two or three pieces of the lumber out on ground, and fasten together as best you can.
4. Cut out the parts that don’t look like the side of a bridge. CAUTION: Don’t spend too much time on this step, because it delays the construction of the bridge. Learn to adapt to what you have, and deny that the result is anything but exactly what you intended.
5. Lay out some more lumber, and copy and cut out the parts you decided look like a bridge. (or is it cut out the parts that DON’T look like a bridge? Either way, the result should be the same…)
6. Despite careful planning, the two sides will not be identical. They should be somewhat similar. Decide that they are close enough, and continue with next step.
7. Find more scrap lumber for the “deck” of the bridge. At this point you should cut the lumber to pieces of the same length (or at least reasonably close) You can measure if you feel the need to, but that takes more time.
8. Screw the deck boards onto the TOP of the parts that looked like the side of the bridge (see steps 4,5 and 6 for details)
9. Realize you maybe should have measured before you screwed ALL of the boards on, because everything is a little crooked. Refer to step 6, and decide once again that it is close enough.
10. Move bridge to the location selected in step 1
11. Jump up and down on bridge to make sure it is safe. Wear safety equipment in case something happens.
12. Admire you handiwork for an appropriate amount of time.
13. You have completed the basic bridge. Decide you are not sure how to build handrails and will give it some consideration over night. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Thanks for the help, Sherry and Mick!

I have no idea how to do this. So i looked on the internet for some ideas or plans (free ones, but there aren’t any) and here’s some of them.

This is the best one. I’m not sure it’s actually functional, but it sure is purty.

I can’t build that. I want to. But I can’t. I would need mountain climbing gear to climb it. So I’ll settle for something a little less ornamental and more functional.

This one is really what I had in mind. Any ideas how I bend the lumber to make the railings and/or supports for the bridge? I know I can get some really warped lumber when I actually want straight stuff. I’m not sure I can get some that warped.

The next option is a little simpler to copy, but I think it’s a little too much LegoLand. It looks like they nailed some shipping palettes together to build the bridge.

If anyone wants to surprise me with a prebuilt ornamental bridge, I wouldn’t be offended.

Somewhere in my fish pond live about 12 fish. There are some koi, shubunkins, and common goldfish. Originally there were 14 fish. I guess a couple of them decided to move out.

I seldom get to see them. Goldfish and koi don’t particularly like the sun, so they hide under the floating plants, or inside the pipe I have scattered around the bottom of the pond. As well, the pond naturally develops algae, and it makes the water a little murky.

This morning, they were all out and looking for food, since it was cloudy and a little cooler. I thought I might be able to get a picture of them so I grabbed my camera from the house and returned to the pond.

No fish. Anywhere. All of them had disappeared.

I waited patiently, thinking that I had startled them, and they would return to the surface in a few minutes.

Wrong.

After about 20 minutes, I decided I wasn’t going to get my photos. At least not today. (more on next page)