March 4 - The day is sunny, but there is still ice on the ponds and the ground is frozen. john is looking out the window wishing for the start of Spring, then returns to the sofa in front of the fire and picks up the 1000 page book he is a couple of hundred pages into called "Cryptonomicon". He just finished reading another 1000 page book: "The Bear and The Dragon". john thinks that if you write a story with 500 pages, you probably only get half the price. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Yesterday, The Arts & Entertainment Channel asked viewers if they had ever been in a major earthquake. john quickly took a page from this site called "earthquake.html", converted it to the first person and posted it on www.aande.com under the "Investigative Reporting Section". Just something to do while waiting for Spring. He forgot to mention that he was also in an earthquake in California a few years back. It was only a 5.5 magnitude for 30 seconds, so john forgot about that one when reporting the Good Friday earthquake (9.2, 7 minutes) yesterday.

Tonka tucka, aka tuckmeister, is curled up next to john on the sofa by the fire. joyce is talking to her sister in Troy, Mi, until the phone lines heat up the entire continent and cause Spring to come pre-maturely.

March 21 - The pond is awake! Small fish are sunning near the top of the ponds. The Mallard ducks have been on the large pond for the last four days. Green shoots can be seen coming through the earth in the gardens. Eddie, john's pond helper, has been calling to see when the de-winterizing can begin! Let the work begin!!!

March 28 - john turned on the large waterfall yesterday. john and his pond helper, Eddie, is digging the foundation for a 2 foot high wall behind the garden on the west side. There will also be a new stone wall on the front of this same garden. This will raise the West Garden to match the height of the top of the large pond and make a stroll down the path between the two much more relaxing and pleasant. It will also make the West Garden easier to see from the deck. The West Garden will probably end up being a sculpture garden. john bought a 50 pound sack of cracked corn to entice the Mallard ducks to stay around more. That is working and the ducks often spend the day at zenpond nesting and swimming ... and eating. It is raining today, so not much work is getting done. john is ordering more gravel for the foundation and to fill the Keystone blocks that will be used on the wall. The Keystone blocks are rather expensive ($7.50 each), but when you realize how easy they are to use and how stable they make a wall, it is worth the cost not to mix concrete, etc. The fish aren't awake yet in the small pond, or they are dead from the leaf overload (mentioned above). john cannot wait to clean out the small pond. He plans to use two pumps for the small pond this year: the normal waterfall pump and the sand pressure pump. john can see the sand pressure filter is effective as long as the leaf overload is removed first. john has built another website that he is maintaining for the Greater Kansas City People to People Chapter, an international friendship organization founded by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956. It is located at: www.gkcptp.com.