Sandstone of the Appalachian Mountains

This back yard koi pond and court yard was Built over a period of about 10 years.

 The materials are sandstone of the Appalachian mountains and 2″ flagstone that primarily came off our farm. The flagstone on the steps are all one solid slab pieces. 

The Koi pond is approx.  22′ x 40 and holds 13,000 gallons of water. 

The wall behind the Koi pond is over 100 foot long and measures  5 1/2 foot tall. 

The waterfall is 4’wide with a 20′ drop that is recirculated by 2 super falls pumps.  The outlet at the top of the waterfall is 4″ and the rock has a perfect natural 4″ outlet  made into the rock itself.  All the rocks in the waterfall are natural and are a product of nature and the Appalachian mountain range.

All the rocks involved in this project were hand selected and hand laid. 

The project is near completion but still has a few details to complete.

Frozen cow pies can be deadly

 

 One of the great memories I have as a child is of putting on all the warm winter gear, dad building bonfires,  Mom fixing hot chocolate  and us kids going sleigh riding as proud mom and pop clapped and beamed from the sideline.

We’d zip down these ole mountains on anything we could find.  It wasn’t unusual to be sliding down on tires, trash can lids, car hoods, you name it we probably tuned it into a super sonic sled.

As I’m sure you’re probably thinking,  Yes,  it is amazing we all lived through that unscathed.

I figure that when you’re 40-50 pounds you’re so light that even if you do have a little crash,  you just don’t have the impact force that an adult has. I’m assuming that’s why mom and dad just observed and never joined in on the fun.

You know,  there are times I wonder, just how I missed some of the very important lessons in life that my parents tried so hard to teach me. 

Several years ago,  around this time of year,  my brother Joe and I were reminiscing about great times we had as a child. 

Ahhh,  wouldn’t it be great to go sleigh riding!

We are still young.  Forty’s are young, aren’t they?

Off we go,  we were going sleigh riding. 

  I had a couple of those plastic dome shaped disks they sell at Wal-mart for “kids” to use for sleigh riding.  

Very cool looking sleds,  wondering  if we should wax the bottom so we can gain some super sonic speeds,  like old times.

We grab our thin plastic  little sleds and race to the top.   Racing to the top of the hay field was harder than I remembered.  After catching our breath we were  able to communicate in complete sentences instead of spitting out short little words so it wouldn’t appear to each other that we were totally gasping for air.   The plan,  we would have a race to the bottom on our little round plastic disk sleds.   First one to the bottom wins and off we go! 

As I laid at the bottom of the mountain,  with snow crammed down the back of my pants,  starring up at the sky and wondering if I was still alive, wondering where Joe was or was he dead too!

I truly had a pain in the ass for I think I broke my tailbone. 

I rolled over and found Joe and asked, “WTF happened,  did we hit something?”

Joe was laying on his back too.   Unable to move, moaned, “Man,  I think we hit some cow pies”

All I can remember thinking was what my obituary was going to say. 

Poor sue,  passed today, frozen and covered in shit. 

I learned some very important lessons that day.   Live for today.  Trying to relive yesterday can sometimes stink and  Never, ever, go sleigh riding in a cow pasture because  frozen cow pies can be deadly!

HANDBOOK FOR 2010

Health:
1.       Drink plenty of water.
2.       Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3.       Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants..
4.       Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy
5.       Make time to pray.
6.       Play more games
7.       Read more books than you did in 2009 .
8.       Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day
9.       Sleep for 7 hours.
10.    Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.
11.  Do more Zumba!!

Personality:
11.    Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12.    Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13.    Don’t over do. Keep your limits.
14.    Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
15.    Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip.
16.    Dream more while you are awake
17.    Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need..
18.    Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with His/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19.    Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don’t hate others.
20.    Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
21.    No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22.    Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn.  Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23.    Smile and laugh more.
24.    You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree…

Society:
25.    Call your family often.
26.    Each day give something good to others.
27.    Forgive everyone for everything..
28.    Spend time w/ people over the age of 70 & under the age of  6.
29.    Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30.    What other people think of you is none of your business.
31.    Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:
32.    Do the right thing!
33.    Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
34.    GOD heals everything.
35.    However good or bad a situation is, it will change..
36.    No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37.    The best is yet to come..
38.    When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
39.    Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

I got this from a friend on another site but just loved it and wanted to share.

Be careful what you wish for

This year I had the Christmas Spirit. I normally don’t. I seldom even decorate or put up a tree. It’s not that I don’t like Christmas. Basically, it comes and goes before I realize what happened.

Being an on-line retailer, it’s a busy time of year and as you know, when things are really busy time goes by fast.

This year my web-site was down during the holidays. I had to rework the site so It was down from right before Thanksgiving till the first of the year.

With this extra time It gave me the opportunity to really enjoy the holidays. I can’t remember enjoying the holidays this much in years. I slowed way down and just absorbed it all.

Sitting back and living the spirit of Christmas. I thought,  wouldn’t some snow be so nice for the holidays this year. We don’t normally have a lot of snow in December, so it is rare to have a white Christmas here.

My little wish was answered on Friday December 20th, about 1:00 in the afternoon. By 2:00 pm it had snowed 2″. It was basically a blizzard that totalled 18 inches by the following morning.

It really made for a magical Holiday season.

Here lies the problem. It hasn’t stopped snowing yet. Enough already! We have been knee deep in snow for going on 3 weeks now.

I’m no longer feeling all warm and snugly. Reality is starting to set in now. It’s cold. It’s wet. It’s miserable.

I hereby make my new years resolution. In 2010, I will not wish for snow. As a matter of fact, I may never wish for snow ever again.

Now I understand the term “be careful what you wish for, you may recieve it”