I suppose that this is really a blog, though I hesitate to call it that. The real bloggers seem so much
more interesting. I cover stuff which I find interesting, and I hope that you will too.
If you really want, you can get an RSS feed of Chateau Gladstone news here:
For more information about what I'm interested in, see the Ponding pages.
Weblog installed
30 May 2001
I finally took the plunge and made PHP work. What a nightmare!
Anyway, I'm now using weblog to maintain the diary.
more...
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Bullfrog eviction
20 May 2001
When we started up the
ponds in 2001, we found a
bullfrog here.
Unfortunately he (or she)
escaped before he could be
transported to a nearby
pond. I don't want him
eating the fish!
We finally found three bullfrogs and managed to evict all of them. Two of them went to local schools (pre-K) for the kids to
look at. One of them was sent to the pond next door.
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Tadpole acquisition
20 May 2001
During this operation we found lots of tadpoles, so we captured 10 and stuck them in our froggy pond where they seem to be doing well. We also captured
a leopard frog and transported him (or her). However, I suspect that he has
hopped off back home. This might have been due to the fact that my daughter
named him 'Toad' thus giving him an identity crisis. This is the only
picture that I have as he hopped into the pond about two seconds after
I took this!
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Final cleanup
29 Nov 2000
We finally got all the plants out and trimmed and sunk to the bottom of the ponds. Four plants are going to overwinter indoors in a large plastic tub by the outside door in the basement. We will see how they survive. We also found eight fish (one gold, the rest black) in the top pond. Either their eggs were pumped up, or the eggs were attached to some plant that got moved during the year. These fish had to be moved to the bottom pond -- which is the only one that gets aerated during the winter. I removed the remaining ice from the bottom pond as it had a fair amount of debris in it (mostly water hyacinth). Unfortunately there was one large dead frog that had become encased in the ice.
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24 Nov 2000
We moved the anemometer onto the roof onto the same mast that has the analog anemometer (the Vigilant from Maximum). I also adjusted the rotor inside the anemometer assembly so that both magnets triggered the reed switch. This should (at least) double the reported wind speed, and bring it into line with reality.
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2 Nov 2000
I finally got around to adding some new pictures to the website.
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28 Oct 2000
We did some more cleanout, and found four fish in the top pond. This is rather mysterious as it is not clear where they came from. We did have two shubunkin in there for a time, and I did move some water hyacinth up there from the bottom pond, so maybe some eggs came up that way. Another path might be through the pump. Anyway there is one gold fish about an inch long, two black fish about the same size, and another black fish about two inches long. The bad news is that the top pond will ice over completely -- I only have a bubbler in the bottom pond. We have to catch these guys (or gals) and transfer them down. I hope that they are big enough now that they won't get eaten. This is very exciting. However, it does mean that the problem of the heron is still with us -- i.e. we have to continue to worry about how to keep it and the fish apart.
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21 Oct 2000
We started to clean out the dead leaves and dying water lettuce today. In the evening a friend commented that we had restocked the pond with fish. Since we had done no such thing, we came over to look. It seems that the fish had been hiding for a month under the plants and now that there is a large open area to see them, they (all?) have returned. We can't quite recall how many we had, but we have a goodly number. This is very exciting. However, it does mean that the problem of the heron is still with us -- i.e. we have to continue to worry about how to keep it and the fish apart.
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3 Oct 2000
We found at least six survivors. We had seen one a couple of times -- though it was moving really quickly! At night we turned on the underwater lights and shone them around the pond, and there were a few fish hiding in amongst the plants. All is not lost!
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12 Sep 2000
A Blue Heron found the pond for the first time yesterday afternoon. I saw a few fish left last night, but this morning it was back for a snack. I have seen no fish since then. The pondcam has not captured sight of a fish since the 13th. Anybody who has a successful recipe for keeping these sushi eaters away from a pond please send me email at the address at the bottom of the page.
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Rolodex
spf-pobox Information about SPF (Sender Permitted From)
cwop The Citizen Weather Observer Program is a loose collection of amateur weather station operators.
ffmpeg Open source audio/video streaming software -- this drives my pondcam
gunnera Neat description of the Gunnera Manicata -- a truly monstrous plant!
jreceiver Open source server for the Rio Receiver -- this is what I use.
docsearls The Doc Searls weblog -- he seems clueful and I read him.
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