Many good ideas. I bought some kind of beach shoes, probably will end up with an entire wardrobe of slippery non-slip footwear. The carpet idea is interesting. Does the backing side or the carpeted side go down? Now I find out the carpet is supposed to be on top of the rubber--make vacuuming a breeze I suppose. I have a big project re-setting my skimmer coming along and will have to be in the slippery goo one way or another. rmpond, I am in far western Pa, Butler, north of Pgh. As you know, nothing is close to anything in this state. But we are quite advanced here. I am working on pictures of my new ponding uniform. My son gave me a new camera but I think I broke it trying to pry it open to put in the film. I told my son and he said, "What's film?" I obviously heard the drinking frog. I do appreciate all the response as you can see I am a person who surely needs help. Mike

Hi Mike, At 2.5 ft of water the pond liner is seeing just over 1 psi of pressure. If you wanted to keep the same pressure the base on the ladder would have to have a 180 sq inches of surface area. A 2 x 4 would have to be 51.5 inches long to do this. This isn't going to happen but you could easily go 20 inches long and give you a pressure of 2.57 psi. which would be the pressure that the liner at the bottom of a pond that is 6 ft deep. I would not be at all concerned about that. If the ladder was constructed with 2 x 4's as rails and you could get a tennis ball to cover and sit flat on the bottom of the 2 x 4 you would have a pressure of 11.25 psi. This would not be a problem for the liner unless you happen to put the ladder right on the point of a sharp rock. Mike

Dale Look at the Cascade Waterproof Rain Parka that Campmor has to offer for $30.00. They still have the Green and Blue in stock. If you could spare a few more bucks. The Cabelas Micro Pack Parks is one tough cookie for the price. Loaded with features and very light weight. I never leave home without at least the jacket. The pants comes seperate. You can choose between the Mossy Oak Break-Up or Advantage Timber patterns. I choose the Advantage Timber for i thought that it matched 90% of the streams inwhich I fish. I had a Stearns Rain suit that I have came from K Mart a few years ago, and to be honest, I wish that I had left it at K Mart. The cuffs just have a snap button the has only two adjustments. They will not close the cuff as tight as I would like.The cuffs also chaf my wrist a little to much. It also seems bulky which is not good for fishing. I gave it away. I know what you mean by the yellow color. Spooks to many fish for my likeing. Give me a good Camo pattern anyday. Here is a link that might be useful: Cabelas Rain Parka

Everything I grow is common as muck. In the ground I think I have some corn poppy seedlings coming up. Apart from that, loads of corydalis lutea, most of which I'm hoeing out. It turned up in the garden of its own accord in a difficult spot but I can see it becoming a real nuisance. Not much else going on except some mystery seedlings I found in a foil-sealed pack which I'd lost the paper packet to. I sowed them in a empty windowbox and they've germinated well. Still haven't a clue what they are but I'll assume it's something OK if it was in a packet. I found some kind of mystery seedling at the back of the border which is weird-looking. Probably a weed, I don't recognise it. I sowed some lettuce, pak choi and mustard spinach in the GH but they have not germinated yet. It's been dead mild here for a few weeks but we had something of a cold snap in the last few days. My chillies and sweetpeas have germinated now - not all of the chillies yet but I'll end up having too many if they all do, anyway.