May 2 - john and Eddie are building the elevated West Garden. About thirty linear feet of the Keystone blocks are in place at the back of the garden. Dirt has been moved in to elevate the garden to match the height of the retaining wall for the large pond (about 30 inches high). Three tons of Colorado Moss Rock arrived yesterday and are being used to build the front wall of the garden. Once done, landscaping can begin. john is thinking of putting in another water feature (bubbling river rocks) under a grafted Wistaria tree or Cherry tree.

joyce was mowing the front yard and noticed some dead leaves behind three evergreen bushes in an elevated planter box. john isn't sure who was more surprised when joyce reached in to remove the leaves, joyce or the mother duck sitting on her nest. john isn't sure how the mother will lead the babies to the ponds in back. He is considering removing a plank from the side fence, so they would have an easier trip to zenpond. Our neighbor reported seeing traffic patiently stopped along busy Metcalf Ave as a mother duck and her ducklings crossed the road all in line several days ago.

Since the small pond is under three Bradford Pear trees and has given john much grief from leaves and blossoms dropping into the pond, john has purchased a "Pondsweep" pond skimmer 701F and is in the process of installing it. This is not a swimming pool skimmer, but is designed specifically for ponds. It is a little pricey at $435, but should keep the pond leaf free and clear. john has struggled with keeping this pond clear for years and expects this skimmer will be the answer. John purchased the pond skimmer from Sturgis Materials in Kansas City. Water's Edge in Lawrence also carries the Pondsweep skimmers. Laguna Koi Ponds (800-966-4Koi) does too. It looks like a great product.

John also added a deep red water lily to the big pond this year called "Attraction". john is planting more lilies in the PJ Memorial Garden and many Shasta Daisies (low height variety) in the garden behind the large water fall.

Last month john put out cracked corn to attract the Mallard ducks. Several pairs of ducks make a "full flap" landing randomly during the day. They come in at a rather steep angle to land. They then waddle over to the corn without concern for john and Eddie working only a few feet away. They wiggle their tails and quack as they enjoy their treat.

john also figured out how to keep the water flowing over the big waterfall. John has, for several years, been taking water from the bottom drains to pump over the falls. The pump might run for three hours or three days before the filter would clog. John finally got smart and just takes water from the top of the pond and the falls run for days nonstop.

No sign of the herons so far this year. Plenty of frogs sitting on the water lilies. Many song birds.

May 4 - The pond skimmer works great! john feels that it is solving the leaf-clogging problem he has experienced for several years with the small pond. Yesterday, after john had cleaned the small pond and had restarted it, Mom & Pop Mallard waddled over for a lunch of cracked corn. Suddenly, they looked up from lunch to see fresh water coming over the falls and into the small pond. They got so excited that, in spite of the fact that john and Eddie were only a few feet away, they ran over to the pond and quacked at it. Mom Mallard start climbing up the side of the falls and stood on top of it looking over into the pond, quacking the whole time. john thought for a minute that she was going to do a "swan" dive into the pond from the top of the falls. john thinks the only reason she didn't was due to the close proximity of himself and Eddie. It was shortly thereafter that a frog found the fresh pond too hard to resist, crocked and dove right in. john wasn't planning to put fish back quite yet, but when the frog went in, he added a little tap water conditioner anyway, in case the frog couldn't handle the chorine.

Today, john had wanted to start re-building the stream beside the small pond, but it is raining hard. That is a good thing as the large pond needed refilling and all the plants john recently planted will get an extra drink. The Koi have removed the dirt in several of the yellow iris pots and they are beginning to float around in the large pond again! john will have to re-pot them again!

Yesterday, he and Eddie removed all the stones and a large amount of silt from the stream bed. john is adding a new liner over the old one to get rid of the leak from last year. john couldn't find where the stream was leaking and thinks it might have simply been from the silt taking up all of the stream bed, thus allowing water to rush over the sides. john won't have the silt build up with the new skimmer system in place, but is building up the side walls just in case. john will use small Colorado boulders and several sizes of Mexican beach pebbles in constructing the new stream. This will be easier to clean than the pea size gravel that lined the bottom before. Actually, it was interesting to john to see how well the pea gravel did such a good job of straining silt from the water.

After the stream is re-built it will be back to work on contructing the stone wall for the West Garden and then, after that, john will finish the pump house while Eddie digs the hole for the 7 feet in diameter x 5 feet deep settling tank that will help clean the water in the large pond. All of this work when john just wanted a serene place for meditation! john is thankful that the journey is meditation too.

May 25 - joyce saw the green heron last Monday evening. The Mallards come at least once a day and are growing tamer and tamer. Here's a new picture of the small pond and waterfall:

May 28 - Today was a busy day at zenpond as far as visitors were concerned. Gary and Jayme Hamilton (see Gary.html) brought their new (5 month old) daughter, Kelli Christina, to visit zenpond. She is a "smiler" for sure and her intelligence shows already in her eyes. This is no surprise as both her parents are quite intelligent.

In addition, Kirill Miniaev and his dad, Slava, visited zenpond. As with Gary, john is mentoring Kirill. Kirill won 2nd place with his 5th grade Science Fair project on Lasers and Index of Refraction at the Barstow School in Kansas City in April. He has been invited to attend the Young Discovery Science Challenge in several days and has asked john to help him with the essay on his project. His parents have difficulty helping Kirill write in English since they have only been in America for about 8 years. They came from Russia where Kirill was born. Kirill speaks both Russian and English and often interprets for his dad. Slava is a violin maker. He told joyce and john that the movie "The Red Violin" was very accurate as far as violin-making is concerned. The one inaccuracy was that a violin painted red with blood would over time turn black, not stay red. In addition, one cannot make a brush from human hair to paint the violin with. It just cannot be done and was just for drama in the movie.

In addition, other visitors today included a male Mallard who visited while Kirill and his dad were here. Mom and Dad Mallard who came for an extended visit and just waddled around the deck, roosting in the small garden next to the small pond for about an hour before getting up and bathing and swimming in the small pond. On several occasions, Mom would walk over to where john and joyce were enjoying the late afternoon at the picnic table reading and would just look at them from about two feet away. She was trying her best to figure out what they were. Finally, john got a piece of bread (the kind that you take a loan out before buying ... good bread ... named "Grains Galore") and gave both of them pieces of bread. They appreciated the high quality treat by wiggling their tails in thanks, walked back over to the yellow pail of cracked corn and ate a second helping before flying away. Finally, joyce and john felt they could get into the spa without distrubing nature.

The next visitor was a female Mallard who came while john and joyce were having salads for dinner. There was no question that she knew about the yellow pail, as she quickly headed straight for it, ate for a while, then fly over and climbed into the big waterfall for a long time before flying away.

The interesting thing about the ducks is how they come in for a landing in zenpond. They land at about a 45 degree angle using "full flaps" and then plop into the water creating quite a splash in the process. There is no question that a duck has arrived!

Needless to say, john and Eddie, john's pond helper, did not work today. john called Eddie, who told him that he had gone to the emergency room last night. Eddie moved from Kansas to Missouri about a month ago and has not been able to get some medicine he desperately needed. However, Eddie finally did get the medicine late last night and, after resting today, will be helping john build the West Garden tomorrow.

Several days ago, joyce and john planted a Star Magnolia in the West Garden, even before the garden is finished. It is a beautiful tree and an early bloomer in the Spring. It should be a nice addition to zenpond. Today, john and joyce bought two Azelea bushes to help hid the pump house. They will be placed under the large redbud tree and will be in the shade they need.

... and john, quoting Ben Johnson, says ... "and so to bed." Good night. This day is done!