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September 2 - john and joyce are preparing for the "Over The River and Through The Woods" Garden Party. The final architectural feature to zenpond is the garden behind the large waterfall. Most party-goers will not see this area, but john and his pond helper, Eddie, have been building a curving 144 Pavestone wall back there. It is covered with red mulch and many plantings. john is continuing to add nightlighting to zenpond. The weather has been absolutely beautiful, and john and joyce hope it continues for the party.
john and joyce are enjoying the many butterflies and hummingbirds visiting zenpond during this period.
September 12 - The New Theatre Guild Garden Party was held at zenpond last night. All 56 people had a great time. john and joyce received a terrific surprise this afternoon, when a dozen yellow/orange roses were delivered to them. The card read: "Thank You For Having All Of Us Over To Your Beautiful Home and Garden Last Night. From Dennis and Richard." (Dennis Hennessy and Richard Carrothers are the owners of the New Theatre. It is one of the best dinner theatres in the United States!) What a very nice thing for them to do! Here is a close-up of one of the flowers:
In addition, Carolyn Hanson presented john and joyce with a picture of them and Marion Ross and Paul Michael at last night's garden party. As you can tell, Marion and Paul are such delightful people!
September 13 - Marion Ross and Paul Michael were on NBC's "Kansas City Live" yesterday morning. Right at the beginning of the program, Paul mentioned that they had been to a wonderful party last night at the home of John and Joyce Cessna's. He said: "They call it Zenpond! It was wonderful! The pond was full of Koi and ducks kept flying in! The proceeds from the party go to The New Theatre Guild for scholarships for theatre students!"
September 14 - While joyce was teaching water aerobics this evening, john got into the spa with a glass of wine. He observed the same seven ducks circling zenpond over and over. They fly by doing a recon on zenpond. When they are satisfied the pond is clear, they come into zenpond straight down, splashing hard. john isn't quite sure how they keep from injuring themselves.
September 19 - john and joyce just received a new email from Basso in Benin, West Africa:
"Good morning Joyce, John and Tucky,
On this side of the world life is going its way and everybody is all right.
USA Armed Forces came in Benin through the Health Department, for 12 days
and they gave care and medecines to the populations of many villages.
Our populations were happy and proud of them. It was an US program called
MED FLAG.
A new US Ambassador joined Benin. It is a woman whose name is Mrs. BROWN.
Benin’s relations with USA are very tied and friendly. But it is
not the same wth some countries such as Cuba, Syria, Iran, and several
Arab countries.
I think that US interventions in the World, by strength, should be the
main reason of that “hate”. Your country should try to undergo
another kind of intervention, even no intervention at all. I know it would
be very tough to it, but something need to be done. Maybe diplomatic matters.
One occasion was the last time when US Embassy in Damascus was assaulted
by terrorists and some Syrian guards suceeded in repelling them. US foreign
Department should have sent a congratulation message to those guards,
and why not to Syrian people and their President. When an US ennemy does
something good, USA can intervene by congratulating. It is not yet being
weak.
One President who seems to being weak is the french one. As Al Quida’s
number 2 thratened them to send some Algerian terrorists to trouble them
he went on saying that in the Iran nuclear affairs International Community
need to hide the matter of sanctions and, and... He should not being proud
for saying so. I don’t want war against Iran, but we need to be
firm. I only how would the world be without soviet communism, chinese
communism, cuban socialism, north korean communism, islamic threat and
other terrorism. The money spent fighting them would be used to the world
a bit more. Unfortunately they are still there and we are suffering in
Africa.
O.K. I am not going to becoming a politician, but I am crying the misery
of the world.
Take care and bye bye."
September 20 - john realized yesterday that zenpond still has a problem. It really is just a continuation of a long time problem. zenpond is too big to prevent leaves from falling into it in the fall. john cannot cover it and, even if he could, the winter view would be ruined. The leaves falling into the pond, settle to the bottom and decompose. john thought buying a filtration system would completely solve the problem. It cannot. The filtration system becomes overloaded and cannot handle the sludge. The pond is slowly becoming more and more overloaded each fall. The filtration system is slowly becoming less effective.
john talked to Steve at Waldo Pets yesterday. Steve is one of the founding fathers of the Kansas City Water Garden Society. They went over several possible solutions. One led john to wake up this morning with a novel solution.
What john is thinking of doing is building a wall across the middle of zenpond two feet high on the bottom of the pond. (To build the wall initially is admittedly difficult).
Every other year, or thereabouts, john would lower the water while standing on one side of the wall. The fish would swim to the other side. john would continue to lower the water, thus entrapping the fish on the other side. john would continue to lower the water until the pump would no longer pump the sludge from the bottom. john would then shovel out the sludge and completely clean one half the pond. He would then begin refilling the empty side with clean water, adding tap water conditioner (or waiting 3 - 4 days for the water to become "fish friendly". john would continue then to raise the water level to one foot above the wall. At that point, john would switch sides with the fish and lower and clean out the second side.
September 22 - There are now photos of the Garden Party on The New Theatre Guild website. You can see these by clicking on the following link, then click on Photos, and then on Cessna Garden Party: