Hi Brian, I'm glad you went with the bigger pump. That's what I have on my pond, and it's functional. The frogs will come, even in the midst of downtown LA. There are about a billion gajillion of them in the LA river. I live in the center of suburban Simi Valley, which has no natural streams, no ponds or lakes, and Pacific tree frogs mysteriously appear out of nowhere. I think this may be part of the origin of the raining frogs myth. It's strange. You can also collect Pacific Tree frog tadpoles within the next three months and add them to your pond once it gets going and you have some algae for them to eat. I once collected some from a truck rut filled with water at a local plant nursery. I suggest you go to a koi site to see how much of a committment they are. Goldfish are really spectacular, and they do not need great water quality. They will beg for food from you, swim across the pond to greet you, and follow along as you walk along the edge of your pond. They are great pets. You should not change the water in your pond if your filtration and circulation are adequate, at least not for a long time. When you get your first algae bloom this summer and the pond turns into pea soup RESIST the urge to change the water. The algae will use up all of the nutrients, then it will die, leaving your pond clear. If you change the water you have to start all over again. To start off, you can treat your water with de-chlorinator, after a few days add your plants, and wait a few more days to add your goldfish. You can buy cheap small fish; they grow fast. Finally, plant your hardy water lilies in a nice, large container so they can grow. Don't worry about the dirt in the bottom of the pond unless there's a really measurable amount, like 1/8 inch across the whole bottom. Here's a link explaining the Sunset Zones. Have fun with your new pond, and post photos when it's done! Renee Here is a link that might be useful: Sunset Garden Zones

Let's clear the air a bit if possible. equinoxequinox, feel free to use my name. I'm not sure why you chose not to. Maybe for fear of censorship. I think you hit the nail on the head with the commercial nature of this website. For what it's worth, neither of my other forums derive financial support from advertising. And THAT is neither advertising "for" those sites, nor an attempt to get people "here" to go "there". Simply comment. Since it was one of my posts that was deleted, I suppose I could be offended, but I'm not really. This site, like many others, is a COMMERCIAL site. They do not offer this site in order to "make a better world" nor to be "friendly". They operate this site to MAKE MONEY. I understand that. ANY activity that they PERCEIVE will diminish their revenue stream will be "dealt with accordingly". As I said, I understand. One should not expect a koala to behave like a snake and vice versa. About the only things that I would like to see changed here at Garden Web is the addition of 1) A better editor that allows the use of more editing options so that the only option for emphasis is NOT capital letters, 2) "Stickies" - a means of permanently placing significant threads at a location where they can be easily found and referenced. This site - Garden Web - especially for a commercial site, is the most "primitive" site I know of on the web. It would be easy to say "It's all about the money", but it isn't. It's about having the business acumen to recognize what increases "flow" in a revenue "stream". Being "primitive" does not increase "flow", and in fact can actually impede the "flow". Garden Web is an interesting place. I've met some nice people here, as I do on every website I venture on to. There are a few sites in which the thugs that run the site have actually succeeded in driving me away permanently, but those are very few. Garden Web appears to have enough internet savvy to choose their words carefully when admonishing those that they perceive are threatening "harmony" AND thereby the revenue stream. Their actions in this particular matter seemed neither necessary nor "wise", but they weren't particularly heavy-handed other than the deletes. So here's my take on the WHOLE matter: 1) Garden Web has NOT bent MY nose out of shape by deleting my post. 2) I hold no "grudges" against ANYONE here at the vermicomposting site. Based on first-hand experience, I strongly suspect that there isn't a poster on this site with whom I wouldn't enjoy spending an evening. Let's move on to new and better WORMY stuff. Paul This post was edited by pskvorc on Sat, Aug 23, 14 at 11:19

Carmelita got a bow in her hair this time when I took her to the groomer for a little trim. She left it in all day. Amazing.

After reading some of these posts, I'm curious what you would do "if something happened" Great point Cynic. I love reading your posts whether I agree with them or not. (I mostly agree). It's nice to have someone on here who has a pragmatic viewpoint rather than an emotional one. This is a bit off topic but my DS once asked me to drop him off at the hospital a distance from where I live while he had knee surgery. I did and then hung out in town while I waited to pick him up. He said he's call me once he was either in recovery or have a nurse call me. You wouldn't believe how many people were just flabbergasted that I wasn't in the waiting room the whole time. What if something happened? What if they had complications. What if God forbid he died under the knife? How could I just go on like nothing was happening? The implication was that if I was a good mom I would be holding vigil. of course my DH and DD should have taken off work to keep vigil too. We're a cold-hearted family ,we are. Well duh. I'm not a surgeon. I'm not a nurse. I'm not anyone other than someone who would be in the way. But being in the way wouldn't be an issue because I wouldn't be told anything until after the fact. Yeah Like I'm sure they would come running out of the ER to get me if something went bad. "Go get the mom, we're losing him!" "Clear" Riiiggght. Sure that's the way it works. Sometimes you just have to let things go and hope for the best. It's not always in your hands. Parents never stop worrying about their kids. Not even when the kids get to the age where they start to worry about us. But you can't let the fears and worry take hold to the point where the child isn't allowed to grow.