Somebody told me there were only 22 more days until Spring. I’d like to be-lieve them but just can’t bring myself to. Oklahoma weather is just to unpredictable normally and especially this year.
I know you are all just as ready to go to work on your pond for the season as we are. So much we can see that needs to be done, too cold and wet to do anything about it. Our first class is Saturday, March 2nd which kicks off our sea-son. Then on to Tulsa for the Home and Garden show there and back in OKC March 22-24. Catch details on our Facebook page.
If you’ve been keeping up with these newsletters, you saw last month that we were in the midst of prepping for our big wholesale event here for Pondliner.com Wholesale, our sister division. I’m pleased it went off with only minor hitches which anyone who does events knows is the status quo, there will always be things that crop up at the last minute and you just go to plan b and drive on. Here are a few pictures. One of the highlights of the week for me was the re-vealing of the Cancer Quilt. Two years ago at the 2017 event a groundswell movement called ’Living the Pond Life’ was begun as a way to show support for one of our members who was battling cancer at the time. She is in remission and has continued the fight by asking pond builders from around the coun-try to provide her with a t-shirt showing their company logo to be made into a quilt. Seventy responded and the quilt made from those shirts was raffled off for a little over $2000 dollars. Another $1000 was raised by the audience bidding to be able to shave the year-long beard of her husband. Something she’s been trying to get him to do for a year. A total of $3000 was raised for the American Cancer Society. The cool thing was the contractor who won the quilt donated it back to be raffled off again next year!
While there was a lot of laughing, handshakes, hugs and sharing of ideas, there was also a lot of serious learning taking place in the seminars and at the trade show. We had contractors and vendors from 25 states, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. Over 200 in all. They came to make themselves better at performing their magic for you.
Always be humble and kind
~~~Mike
TIPS and TRICKS
It is not time to start feeding yet, water temperatures must be above 50 degrees consist-ently before you really need to begin. Even then, you should feed a special cool weather food to help your fish begin to activate their digestive systems which have been pretty much dormant for the winter. This food is higher in fat and lower in protein and is easily digested.
Classes SPRING/SUMMER 2019 SCHEDULE
Check the schedule for start times. All classes are free and open to the public. No advance registration required. More classes added each month. One Pond Dollar awarded for each class. Attendees receive a 10% discount on all purchases that day. We train rain or shine in the only indoor pond training facility in the U.S.
March 02, 2019
10:00 am
Spring StartupFor those of you with a pond, are you aware of what needs to happen in the Spring to get it ready for the season? If not, come to class.
March 16, 2019
10:00 am
Pond FiltrationIf the pump is the heart of the pond system,; the filter is the liver or kidney. A good filter will take out solids and remove fines while provid-ing for the bacteria to convert harmful chemi-cals into harmless ones. We’ll go over some of the more popular filters and explain how they work.
April 06, 2019
10:00 am
Pond BuildThe first build of the season. We’ll walk you through each step and discuss why and what is happening. You’ll be able to ask questions and see how a pond is built during the two hour class.
There is no advanced registration required and we do not charge for our classes. We will have 12 classes each year, 4 pond builds, 4 pondless waterfall classes and 4 that are general in nature and cover everything from startup to shut down, plants fish and algae, your worst enemy, next to a blue heron.
