Hey there, Brenda. Lots of research does make things easier and total immersion in the topic, just like learning a new language, helps you catch on to the things that are important. This forum has a lot of info being talked about by lots of people, some of whom get pretty technical. There are plenty of others who keep it simple. Now I am going to be mean. Sometimes the limitations we cannot change make us give up some things we really want. A list of each can help see the realities. After I looked at the pond you like and read what you wanted, I realized you can't have all of it. I don't want to discourage you. You can still have a lovely and totally satisfying pond/water garden. The pond you like is a rigid preform. It is probably 72"x48" and 18" deep. It holds 125 gallons and will take 3-4 3" fish. Those dimensions are for Maccourt ponds which seems to be the most common preform. There are some new ones that are foldable made of virgin vinyl but that doesn't seem to be what you are looking at. There are also some pond kits that include plastic liners and EPDM rubber liners are very versatile. The volume of water in any of these ponds would prevent you from having koi. Koi grow to very large proportions and soon your fishies wouldn't have room to turn around, literally. I have a 1000 gallon pond and some of my 6" koi are now 12-14" after only one season. One that is 3 years old is now even larger than that. In addition I have a population of comets, sarrasa and other related fishies and they started breeding last year. Many of them started as 1" feeder fish. All of them need room to move! Fast! I'm getting nervous. There are many colorful fish other than koi that you would enjoy but you would need to control the numbers and figure out a way to keep them over winter. I put my gourami and guppies in the pond for the summer and put them back in aquariums in the winter. The cold would kill them. In your zone, it is possible for an 18 inch pond to freeze solid but more likely it would only have ice to 4-6 inches. I would wait through a full winter to see just how deep the ice goes before investing in fish other than goldfish. Gases that accumulate in the water could kill larger fish with only that much free water. An EPDM or plastic lined pond could give you the depth you need but the volume still would limit the number and type of fish. Don't despair! No one ever got it right the first time they were designing a home and you are designing a home for fish... and plants. Now that I have managed to scotch some of your dreams, (sorry, sorry, sorry) the necessary hardware can be put up for discussion. Sandy Here is a link that might be useful: preform ponds

I've posted this one many times before but it sticks in my memory because it was offered at a dinner party by a very busy lady, head of a university department, who came home after work to prepare this dish for her guests. We were all so impressed that she managed to make something tasting so good without working at it all day. She had made mimeographed copies of the recipe beforehand as she said everyone asked for it when she served this dish. This was before the days of photocopiers ! LOL. This was a simple but prize winning recipe in a cross country cooking contest sponsored by a Canadian womens' magazine in the 1960s. Tastes better if made one day ahead. 1 kilo of veal shoulder steak, cut into small bite-size pieces 2 medium onions, sliced 1 cup water 1/2 cup ketchup or tomato sauce 3 cloves garlic, chopped 1 teasp salt 1/2 teasp pepper 1 1/2 cups cashews (rinse if they are salted) 2 TBS butter Worcestershire sauce 1). Grind garlic, salt and pepper together in mortar and pestle. 2). Roll veal pieces in this mixture in the mortar and then on a clean plate, being sure pieces are well coated. 3). Brown veal in butter in a saucepan. When brown, add onions, water, tomato sauce and cashews. 4). Simmer slowly until meat and nuts are both tender. About 40 minutes. It may need a bit of water added. 5). Thicken with a bit of flour and a few drops of Worcestershire sauce. 6). Best served the next day. Goes well with rice and a crisp green salad. SharonCb

Lemon chiffon pudding Categories: Desserts Yield: 6 Servings 1 cup Sugar 3 tablespoon Butter 4 tablespoon Flour ¼ teaspoon Salt ¼ cup Lemon juice ½ Lemon grated rind of 1 cup Milk 3 Eggs, separated Servings: 6 DIRECTIONS: Combine sugar, flour, salt and butter. Add lemon juice and rind and beaten egg yolks. Beat until ingredients are thoroughly blended. Add milk and blend into mixture. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Pour into a greased baking dish and set in a pan of hot water. Bake at 350-F for 45 minutes. Serve warm. Mrs. C. D. Kauffman, Hesston, Ks. Source: Mennonite Community Cookbook, by Mary Emma Showalter, 1957. Recipes from old Mennonite cookbooks, brought up to date with standard measures and directions

When using agar as a dairy-free pudding base, 2 TBSPNS of agar, melted slowly over a small non-reactive saucepan containing a mixture of 1 8-10 oz. jar of all fruit sweetened organic jam and 2 jam jars of spring water over medium heat until completely dissolved, cooled, refrigerated, set. The mixture can be served chunky or blended until smooth. Health note: Naturopathic Physician, Peter D'Adamo in his book Live Right For Your Type recommends that people with non-secretor B blood subtype avoid agar. Naturopathic Doctors Joseph Pizzorno and Michael Murray write in their Textbook of Natural Medicine (p. 510) that Agar, kosher gelatin, Alginic acid, and carageenan are polysaccharide seaweed derivatives used extensively as thickening agents by the food and health and beauty industries. They point out that alginate, like other gel-forming fibers, has been shown to inhibit heavy metal intake in the gut. Unlike other plant polysaccharides, carageenan, (a common thickening ingredient in toothpaste, cottage cheese, milk chocolate, ice cream and even some non-dairy confections, cream soups and dairy-alternative rice and almond milks) adversely affects the intestinal mucosa. In rat studies, it induced ulcer formation in the cecum and increased risks of cancer and birth defects, among others. At page 1339, in a chapter entitled Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis) Drs. Murray and Pizzorno note studies showing that carageenan can serve as a hospitable environment for the growth of Bacteriodes vulgatus, a bacterial strain found in much higher fecal concentrations in people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Until more is known, Drs. Pizzorno and Murray recommend strict avoidance of carrageenan for those looking to live well with IBS.