dang it....I had a really well though out response all done, and my internet explorer crashed. So I'll try again...lol!! First...a few comments regarding how koi ponds compare to aquariums. Normally, aquariums are lightly stocked with small fish. It's really easy to keep the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate cycle operating perfectly in a correctly stocked environment. Same as a rock bottom pond...lightly stocked and properly maintanied it can work. In a pond's bio filter, ammonia is converted to nitrite and then to nitrate. Nitrate is most easily removed froma koi pond by way of regular water changes. Ever try to keep an aquarium with goldfish? Many goldie keepers I know keep no gravel in the tank at all, because of maintenance. That gravel gets really filthy very fast. I had a lovely goldie tank once....and gave it up. the maintenance was a nightmare! I'd rather deal with a huge koi pond any day of the week. Some people are reporting sucess with rock bottom ponds and no maintenance. Again...it is directly related to stocking levels. I hope these ponds continue to perform well for years to come, but for the vast majority of people, they will not. Most watergardeners install their ponds (and rocks) and then run out and buy a bunch of adorable little 5" long koi. The koi grow.....fast. They produce mountains of fish waste, which all gets trapped in the rocks. But because the pond looks clean, the owner is lulled into a false sense of security and does not think that there is a thing wrong, until the fish start dying or the fins start rotting off. Then they do one of two thing....they learn where they went wrong and correct their mistakes, or they just buy new fish (which is unfortunatly what most people do). Matt...you are on the right track with your new pond. You certainly can install your bottom drain now and add the rest of the system later. But instead of using a pipe cap, install a 4" ball valve on the end of the line. The water can't be permitted to sit stagnant in the unused drain line for too long or it will start developing the dreaded hydrogen sulphide gas. Opening that valve every couple of weeks and allowing the water to flow out for a couple of minutes will prevent the problems. I am attaching a link to the Atlanta Koi Club's web site. They have an excellent pdf that explains a lot about how a koi pond works, water quality, stocking levels, how much biofiltration is needed and many other wonderful facts. Cindy

Ilene, Well, from being married to a professional law enforcement officer for 27 years now and having a son who is a professional firefighter, I can tell you that there are many reasons different people resort to arson. Sometimes it is truly criminal--to cover up another crime like a theft, burglary or murder. Sometimes it is all about power and control--the arsonist likes creating havoc. Sometimes it is revenge against somebody for something real or imagined. Sometimes it is (and this sickens me) firefighters, volunteer or professional, who like to set fires so they and/or their departments can rush in, put out the fire, be heroes and 'save the day'. One estimate is that up to 45% of arsonists are affiliated (past or present) with some sort of firefighting organization. Finally, there is a (hopefully small) percentage of the population that gets a sexual high from starting fires although I cannot imagine how or why this occurs. As landowners/homeowners who lives in a very dry county where a high percentage of the acreage is grassland, we must always be vigilant about keeping tall grass and brush cut short in fire years. I practice some firewise landscaping practices, but not as strictly as I would if I lived somewhere like the dry parts of California. Strangely, I worry more about my veggie garden burning than about the house and outbuildings burning. My veggie garden has a lot of material that would burn--the wooden edging around all the raised beds, the cedar entrance arbor, the back gate, and the mulch which is a combination of chipped wood, old hay/grass clippings and shredded leaves. If the house burns, it and everything in it are insured for "replacement cost". If the garden burns, it is back to square one and starting all over again from scratch. And, of course, the garden is more likely to burn because it is surrounded by grassland, whereas the house and outbuildings have a rye grass envelope around them that is mostly green (hard to keep it looking good in this dry weather) and they have the gravel driveway and parking areas that would help slow down fire too. As far as I know, there's only been one fire dept. in our county paged out to fight a fire since the 4 alleged arsonists were arrested....and that fire was in the Lone Grove area in Carter County, not in Love County, so the dept. in question went to provide mutual aid. As for arsonists, they exist everywhere but I do think there often are more of them in smallish towns and sparsely populated areas. It boggles my mind that people resort to arson and, I have to tell you, the 4 young men arrested over the weekend are lucky it was the police who got their hands on them first. More than one volunteer firefighter from our county (and not just the young, hot-headed ones either) had plans to beat some sense into the arsonist or arsonists if they caught them setting a fire. Now that it is quieter here, and I am not spending all those hours in the kitchen cooking and baking so I can feed the firefighters, maybe I can get my Christmas stuff done and get back out to the garden a little more. Dawn

After getting irritated that your neighbor did not tell you about the dye before hand, you boast that you did not tell him about dye you ordered? Wouldn't want to be the neighbor of either of you! You may want to ask your lawyer how your planned action differs from your neighbor's.

We have a house in the family we are considering that has the same weird front door on the side arrangement and garage door in front (city lot, no other place for a garage) and our plan if we redo the house is a garage door that blends with the house and then spruce up the front and the walkway to the front as much as possible. (We are wondering even about putting some kind of porch over the front door so that there is some front-facing structure that can say ‘hello, front door here!’ but we haven’t quite decided what form that would take yet.) Otherwise people see the garage door and get confused about a lack of front door.