Considering what is going on here at Stauffer Avenue, there may be different definitions of warp speed for each of us.
When I awoke this morning and the skies were gray, I really did not feel any urgency to plop my feet on the floor and take off like a herd of turtles. Yesterday was huge for us and it was meant to be that today would be a bit slower pace.
Yesterday the Koi were transported to Boon Lake Township in Renville County. Our Koi are now taking up residency on the family farm with my sister-in-law being the caretaker. Her two huge Koi and our five Koi will have pretty good digs until it is time to enjoy the huge pond next spring that Joann has in her yard.
When Dennis and I prepared to make the 70 mile trip, I took a step back from the preparations. The 100 gallon horse tank was placed in the back of the pickup. I had no idea how much water Dennis would put in the tank for the trip. We let the city water set in the tank overnight to dissipate whatever additives might have been in the water. The Koi would be sloshed around quite a bit and that sloshing would create bubbles that contained self made oxygen. Dennis had cleaned the pump that JoAnn would use over winter complete with the cement block that the pump would set on. It would be a sweet setup for her to just plug in and let the fish swim.
I don’t think Dennis nor I realized how thick the ice was in our pond yesterday morning. The large pump that we had been using all season kept the water right around the pump open. Of course the Koi were not right at that spot to be dipped out. We pounded out ice on each end of the pond. I used a small net to stir the water on my end so the Koi would go the Dennis’ end. Get ready, get set, go! Try and net them before they returned to my end. We did find the mighty five Koi and they had a chance to rest once they were in the tank, in the pickup. We did the tick list; Koi, cement block, pump, net and finally the fish food for JoAnn to use next spring. Down the highway we went.
After all was said and done, the tank is in JoAnn’s adjacent house garage and the pump was doing it’s thing while the Koi could settle down.
We enjoyed sharing lunch at JoAnn’s and catching up as to what our families have been doing. We don’t see each other often, but it is always a good time when we do.
When we got home, I knew Dennis would want to get our old pump out of the pond before it would freeze in. I could not convince him that we did have a few days to get that done, but I backed off. The best place was for me to be in the house and deal with whatever fallout would come. Thankfully, the only fallout was getting him warm and dry clothes and getting the wet shoes next to a furnace register to begin the drying out process.
As yesterday came to a close, Dennis did openly comment over supper that relocating the Koi was meant to be as the large pump with the filter system that he took out of the pond ceased working as he was working on removing it. It had a lot of hours on it, pumping 24/7 over the last 20 years. By the grace of God and Dennis taking care of it every fall that we had gotten such good use out of it. We had priced out replacement parts this summer . . . it would have been pricey to duplicate what we had going. Dennis had also banked on his little sump pump to empty the pond yesterday after we got home. Come to find out, it is now in the garbage as it quit working. Hmm. Some things are meant to be and all that can be done is to take a deep breath and see what the morrow brings. Dennis slept until 8:30 this morning.
We do keep moving, and it is at our own warp speed. Regardless what each day brings for that to happen, any forward speed is forward and that is a good thing. The older ones on Stauffer Avenue are just fine, thank you very much.
