Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Good morning and get ready neighbors!


Pretty cool, right?
Okay where to go from here?
The ill effects of accidentally eating pumpkin pie (which contains eggs and condensed milk two foods I'm allergic to) are wearing off. I must be getting healthier, because the last time (as a test from the no dairy no gluten no sugar diet I had been on for a month) when I put milk back in, I had the similar inflammatory reaction, except it lasted two weeks or more. This time it was accidental, and it lasted three days maybe four with mostly a swollen finger. That is good news.

Nell is getting ready for a surgery. She is having the second part of the foot repair she had done ten years ago. That was to fix the Metatarsal bone where it connects to the Cuneiform. She has a plate in there which the new doctor says has healed and looks sturdy, so she can move ahead if Nell wants to! "Hell yes!" I believe was the resounding answer.
Nell and I really like the new podiatrist in Las Vegas. She explained what the first doctor was doing as the first of two parts in the correction of Nell's painful feet.Next and what she'll have done here at Alta Vista Hospital is to move the Phalanges into a position where they will be again act to give her balance and support so she can walk without pain.
We are optimistic and again hopeful for Nell to not only be out of pain, but to be able to walk and put weight on that leg so her frame is balanced again. With a little luck the hip pain will go away as well.
The first surgery the doctor suggests was much more difficult to recover from as the Cuneiform and metatarsal joint takes all the weight of walking where the phalanges are what gives us balance and finesse in walking. The recovery time is much shorter and they gave her a special shoe instead of the boot she had to wear for a month, last time. I know we are seriously optimistic and often naive. Nevertheless the doctor said yesterday that she might be able to put a little weight on the foot in a few days!
Let's see where did I leave you in the last newsletter? I was working in the forest with Austin, right?
Oh that reminds me. I had a crazy dream last night. Parts of it were recurring from a recent dream where I was hobnobbing with some actor I can't recall who, but we were in Santa Fe in some artist colony or something. The recurring part is I was flying again this time using a magic belt. In other dreams I have wings, which seem to give out at inopportune times, of course. You know how those dreams go, right?
I got separated from Nell after a crazy reality adventure together in a long movie set like Sci-Fi setting. We needed to get to the other end for some reason and all sorts of precarious interactions with people we knew or not would pop up providing some plot or drama over and over as we made it through this maze of hallways which appeared to be like an airport corridor. There wasn't any real danger or violence as near as I can recall, maybe a little, we do watch a lot of movies, lol!
This dream started and stopped several times as I woke at 1:00AM and couldn't get back to sleep it seemed like for hours, even after taking two Valerian Root pills.
Meanwhile back in the corridor of drama, we were doing pretty well at making it through each encounter. It seemed like we could see the end of the reality show ride, in the second and then third time I fell back to sleep. At least I don't recall there being any anxiety as we went from dramatic encounter to the next.
After what seemed like a long damn dream I exited the corridor no worse for the wear. However I guess because it was so dramatic I was emotionally drained and tired I could not recall where we parked the pickup truck. For one thing we don't have a pickup truck and that made the confusion greater for me. Luckily I still had my magic flying belt and was able to raise up above the streets much like watching quad-copter video. It wasn't helping I not only couldn't remember where we parked or what this alleged pickup truck looked like, but Nell seemed to get left behind somewhere. It was quite disconcerting.
All of a sudden I notice a woman below me shouting up to me... "You've got astrophobia!" I'm like, "what?" "What the hell is assophopia" Yes Tinnitus haunts my dreams too. I didn't know what the heck she was saying. Still don't really, I even looked up diseases that make you feel like you are rising up in the air, alas, there seems to be no such disease or phobia. It just a silly dream, except somehow very real, too real I think.

This year's Koi pond cover still progressing. I hope I've got all the drafts sealed with sod. The temperature appears to be stabilizing. I haven't measured it today, but I see mosquitoes flying around under the glass so it must be fairly warm in there.

What the hell is Assophobia?

Happy Halloween friends


Brian and Nell

_________________
Brian's AP
I don't understand all I know about this
Specs: 2600 gallon (347.56cf) Masonry fish pond. 44cf GBs. 200 gal (26.7cf) ST. 15 gal (2cf) RFF. 50 gal (6.7cf) biofilter. Brook trout and Comets.

Here a quick little update on the greenhouse this Halloween afternoon.

Halloween-snow-2018-kio-pond-hugelkultur

Halloween-snow-2018-back-yard-Ponderosa-pines

It was raining when I was in bed reading the Permaculture Designers manual last night at 9:00.It must have been raining hard because I heard the sound through a well insulated roof. Immediately all the dogs were at the door scratching to get in.

Halloween-snow-2018-greenhouse-trout-are-hungry
I've got myself into a bit of a jam with the trout. We bought 100 18 month old fingerlings in September of 2017. As they grew out over 2018 it put a massive strain on my filtration and media beds. As I was planning, I harvested around 30 plate size trout this Summer.
That took a big load off the aquaponics system, but it was still a lot of adult fish for the amount of filtration and media beds I have. This was a rough year for me as well. I'm finally getting a handle on random inflammation of joints which has been wrecking havoc on my body for the last four years. But, damn this was still a hard year on me, as well as my wife and all the creatures I take care of here on the ranch.
We lost our two honeybee hives at the same time, in the Winter of 2017-18. This may have had something to do with a freak storm that broke a ten inch thick branch off the 60 foot tall Ponderosa Pine tree above the hives. One got opened to the freezing rain for maybe five hours before I saw it the next morning. We've been getting most of our yearly rainfall in one storm over the last two years. Last year we had three storms that dropped more than five inches each, with numerous out of season storms dropping a few inches each.
These deluges of rain have tested all of the structures I have built for a normally semi-arid near high-country zone. The one that hurt the most was the greenhouse roof leaked into the pond. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, except the roof that runs off over the greenhouse roof in galvanized tin. After extensive research I learned that trout are especially sensitive to zinc exposure. I mean they are really sensitive to zinc even in trace amounts.
We raise Brook trout. I had left some three year old trout in the pond to see if I could get them to spawn so I might not need to travel the great distance to buy more fingerlings. Like I said it's has been a year of hell, I made a lot of mistakes. The Brook trout got horrible skin lesions and looked like zombies. I was scrambling to figure out what the heck happened.
I fixed the greenhouse roof which is acrylic channel panel plastic. It seems the wonderfully strong New Mexico winds which inspired me to learn how to build an axial flux wind turbine had loosened and wallowed out the pre-drilled holes the roofing screws are in. Doh!
I filled those screws with a good quality silicone sealant and that seemed to take care of that issue. It seems I missed one, because this year's rain has mad its way into the pond again.
So much for the short version. Sorry about that. Anyhow, I need to harvest all the trout now and I let the fish feed run out twice already trying to get all the things done that my newly restored body can muster.
This is why you'll see images of the maul split and stacked firewood.

I need to take care of the survival stuff first and hearing about this storm I decided to split wood yesterday.
The trout still look fine, but I don't want to wait to see what can happen to the poor things. Plus I'm about out of fish food again. Today I will net as many as I can. I believe there are still 25 to 30 in there. Today I will clean and soak the trout I catch. I will fire up the smoker tomorrow. freezer space is limited as we have been freezing and canning vegetables and fruit this Fall. I would like to try the jerky function of the Bradly smoker we bought this Summer to see if I can store some dried. the last 50 pound sack of fish feed wasn't the best, and I think the fish are extra oily because of that and it took several hours just to get them cooked in the smoker last time.

Last trout season in the aquaponics greenhouse I had a worm bin using kitchen compost as feed for the worms, which I also fed to the trout. This year and much of last we don't have access to those worms as I combined the worm bin with one of the four massive dirt tanks in the greenhouse. Sadly now I can't get the worms out without disturbing the plants growing there. Another whoops!

Halloween-snow-2018-greenhouse-moved-Finnex-24-7-from-aquarium-now-I-need-three-more-lol
Nell and I are spending most of our retirement income on Naturopathic remedies which is getting me out of the woods but the budget is gone for things like greenhouse lights for Winter growth. Lately our motto is shop at home first. Anther stupid thing I did this year was buy stuff to make it possible for me to learn about growing submersed plants for my 50 gallon aquarium in the living-room. As soon as I put this fancy high intensity LED aquarium light on the aquarium I created an algae bloom from hell. Dammit. So I was thinking why now use the silly feature of the Finnex 24/7 demo mode to change the light duration in the greenhouse during Winter. I then put the old LED aquarium light back on the 50 gallon aquarium. Hoping to make lemonade from lemons is why this move was made. So far it looks like a winner. Plus I'm totally sold on permaculture now and have lost interest in the planted portion of the aquarium.
I'm seriously sore and tired from splitting firewood yesterday which is why I'm here writing instead of doing my writing in the early morning hours.
I hope this is as educational for you as it is for me.
thanks kindly for reading.
Best regards,
Brian Rodgers

_________________
Brian's AP
I don't understand all I know about this
Specs: 2600 gallon (347.56cf) Masonry fish pond. 44cf GBs. 200 gal (26.7cf) ST. 15 gal (2cf) RFF. 50 gal (6.7cf) biofilter. Brook trout and Comets.

Brian I sorry to hear both you and Nell's health issues all not over yet, and hopefully that changes real soon.

You are right about the slightest exposure to any zinc at all being fatal to Trout, I lost a batch through a gal plated bar being splashed with water dropping into the sump.

Would it help your situation to paint the roof? and try and reduce the area of bare galvanised steel the water runs on.

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My System:
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=15600&hilit=joblow%27s+system

My Fish:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtiiZv ... iWEVFANEVQ

I harvested 9 Brook trout last night. Cleaned and soaked them in salt water over night.
Pulled the cover off the smoker and fired it up at 7:30 AM
I hope it warms up properly.





I don't suppose any one likes to kill their fish. I find it quite traumatic and need to chill out for a good while after dealing with imposed death. Why does it take so long for fish to stop flipping around? I had to clean the blood spots off the window above the sink. Yeah not pleasant for them either, I'm guessing. I have a hard time holding onto them to wack them in the head, so I have been sticking the cleaning knife in their brains to kill them, still they flap and flop. I don't know, hitting the brain works for zombies, right? Perhaps their brain isn't where I think it is, I mean the fish.

This soaking in salt water preserves the beautiful color and texture of these magnificent creatures.
Also the salt cuts down on the slime coat which makes handling the fish a lot easier.
I still do't know how many are left in the fish tank. I'll clean the algae off the viewing window and have a look and count them perhaps today. That water is pretty darn cold though and I am not looking forward to putting my hand in the tank especially with hungry full grown trout dashing about.
Yeah, I may put that off, now that I think about it, lol!
Brian

_________________
Brian's AP
I don't understand all I know about this
Specs: 2600 gallon (347.56cf) Masonry fish pond. 44cf GBs. 200 gal (26.7cf) ST. 15 gal (2cf) RFF. 50 gal (6.7cf) biofilter. Brook trout and Comets.

Oh my goodness.
Nell and I ate one of the little ones right away. Yummy


The smoker worked better than ever in the snow. I don't know what that's about, don't care really.
Successful 9 trout harvest. More to follow.
Brian

_________________
Brian's AP
I don't understand all I know about this
Specs: 2600 gallon (347.56cf) Masonry fish pond. 44cf GBs. 200 gal (26.7cf) ST. 15 gal (2cf) RFF. 50 gal (6.7cf) biofilter. Brook trout and Comets.

Looking Good

Boss I drop my fish into a Esky full of ice water with a bit of salt and that slows them down and stops them flapping around while you prepare them.

_________________
My System:
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=15600&hilit=joblow%27s+system

My Fish:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtiiZv ... iWEVFANEVQ

They look very yummi.

Its the fishes nervous system, which makes the flop around, even being dead.

Karp is really nasty about that. A fisher explained to me, it takes some time till they, cell, run out of oxygen and quit working.

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3 Dogs, 2 Pigs and a Bier

Brian it’s great to see your living the dream AP wise, but sorry you two are still struggling a bit with your health, when your in pain it’s a constant battle but you seem to be upbeat which is admirable, Trout look great,iam a bit jealous as that’s one fish I would love to keep.

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dasboot's system
Andreas Garden.
https://www.facebook.com/Andreas-Garden ... 681644511/

Thank you gentlemen.
I can sympathize with my wife as she generally stays in another room as I work with the fish.
Sometimes I think of Ace Ventura's expression as he walks into a hunter's trophy room

Nice and brisk here this morning at 26F (-3.33C)
Everything is crystallized.

Speaking of chilly I watched a documentary about Titan moon landing yesterday. There is some speculation of rivers of liquid propane running down slope much as our rivers of water do.

Image from: http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/missions/solar-system/data-from-huygens-lander-suggest-prebiotic-conditions-on-titan/
Very similar to Earth if you don't mind -200C temperatures while you visit the beach.
Oh yeah and rivers of liquid methane too.


I can't wait for EXXON to head out there to suck up some liquid gasoline. Maybe they'll eventually build a pipeline, eh?
Yup I've got that stupid optimism going on all the time, hehe.

Brian

_________________
Brian's AP
I don't understand all I know about this
Specs: 2600 gallon (347.56cf) Masonry fish pond. 44cf GBs. 200 gal (26.7cf) ST. 15 gal (2cf) RFF. 50 gal (6.7cf) biofilter. Brook trout and Comets.

Its a tad to chilly for me Brian and can't smoke

_________________
3 Dogs, 2 Pigs and a Bier

Global warming

Good morning
I got a few chores accomplished yesterday in between aiding and abetting my wife's every need as she recovers from a surgery on her foot.
As I was working on two window winterizing projects I noticed the water level in the Koi pond was near the top of the spa and visible nearly at the glass.
Once I got the two windows squared away I had formulated a plan to open the koi pond and see what was going on. I had an idea it was the outflow from the pond to the filtration that might be blocked. That happens fairly often as there are two outflows, one down in the bottom of the pond called a SLO which stands for solids lift outflow. The second is a skimmer. Both are tied together on the lower side of the pond where the filters are now housed in the rotten lumber chamber. If the filter chamber failed in some way those pipes might freeze, but that seemed unlikely as I believe in the plan and practice of the hugelkultur stabilizer and rotting log structure surrounding the koi pond.
A few years ago I surrounded the whole pond with bales of hay to keep the plumbing from freezing and that worked well, but it was nearly impossible to get at the filters to turn on the valves for cleaning.
Sorry I didn't get any pictures of the process as I was doing it. For unknown reasons both my knees were swollen yesterday making it painful to lean over the pond to work on the filters. One of the pluses of the hugel stabilizer is it is very soft to lean against. I'm glad I put the energy into making the hugelkultur mound structural enough to walk up on. The mound isn't finished. When time and weather permit I will keep on adding to it as I understand the concept the bigger the better.

Hugel-Koi-pond-temperature-differential-November-11-2018
I checked the temperatures this morning at 7:15 AM. Outdoors it was 26F while under the glass the surface water temperature was 50F. I'm quite happy about that, I'm certain the koi and catfish are as well.
I can always add another layer of translucent plastic sheeting if I see the El nino winter weather merits more protection for the water. As it is now the glass frames do not precisely meet each other and the is a gap where ambient air can enter the pond. I've got what i believe is the more important areas around the edges closed off from the winds. Although there is still some settling of the mulch around the edges for now it is simple enough to pile the mulch back in place.

Hugel-Koi-pond-cleaning-access-plan-lift-off-glass-yay-November-11-2018
I think it is a good sign that there is condensation under the glass. I have a feeling this Winter is going to be cold like in years past when it gets down as low as twenty below zero Fahrenheit. If that looks like it'll occur I'll cover the top better.

Hugel-Koi-pond-garden-bed-mulched-November-11-2018
I split the compost I had between the Hugel and this our lowest bed.
I'm trying to figure out how I'll get more biomass here. My dump truck project is sitting stalled in the driveway after installing the Pierce Arrow dump bed on my Dodge dually only to learn the diesel fuel injection pump gave out probably from water getting in the old fuel tank. yeah that was a huge let-down to a really cool project. Then I got sick and that was even worse in way of a let down.Oh well. I think I'm out of the woods poor health-wise. I'll start looking into injector pumps again. I need to find something very inexpensive because when this project began I had a job and even then looking at a $900 injection pump was pretty rough on the budget.

Hugel-Koi-pond-cleaning-access-plan-worked-November-11-2018
Welp, that is about all I have time for this morning as I woke up at the totally reasonable time of 5:30AM making for a pleasant way to begin the day.
I broke out the waffle maker this morning and my honey pie looked up gluten free recipes for me. I love you so much.
Que-bye
Brian

_________________
Brian's AP
I don't understand all I know about this
Specs: 2600 gallon (347.56cf) Masonry fish pond. 44cf GBs. 200 gal (26.7cf) ST. 15 gal (2cf) RFF. 50 gal (6.7cf) biofilter. Brook trout and Comets.

We had another nice little snowfall last night. Thought you might get a kick out of seeing this from a distance.

_________________
Brian's AP
I don't understand all I know about this
Specs: 2600 gallon (347.56cf) Masonry fish pond. 44cf GBs. 200 gal (26.7cf) ST. 15 gal (2cf) RFF. 50 gal (6.7cf) biofilter. Brook trout and Comets.

Looks damned cold Brian. I sometimes ask myself why anyone would live a in place that can get to 20 below (I have a cousin who lives in Finland), but looking at your fabulous local photos, I begin to understand why.
"I know we are seriously optimistic and somewhat naive", is true of nearly all of us, but re medical advice, what choice do we have?
BTW, your smoked fish look fantastic and brook trout are a very attractive fish. (We had some escapees in one of our rivers three or four years back, but I don't know if they have managed to breed and I haven't heard of anyone catching one for a couple of years now.
Best wishes to both you and Nell re your recoveries.

Fails in comparison to NM......