Tuesday, June 22

Victims of our own oil catastrophe


Fish pond overgrown w/English ivy



Two days later, I'm really tired by now




It killed me to take out the coreopsis & milkweed





But I think the results are much better!

If you have been checking to see what we have been doing, I apologize for being a little tardy in posting. Last week was a very busy one that started with basketball camp on Monday. Mr. Bichler took his 8th grade team to the Cedarville University Team Camp. They took a bus down on Monday and played 9 games and a "Crunch" tournament on the last day, Wednesday. This year he only had 5 eighth graders that went so two 7th graders moved up to play with them. The competition included some freshman teams so his girls struggled in the beginning. Monday was very long and by the time he played his 9 pm game he was both physically and mentally exhausted and trust me, it wasn't pretty. However, after a good nights rest in his dorm room and a good breakfast the next morning in the dining hall, he was ready to coach his team to their first victory. The girls played very hard and improved each game. On Wednesday, the girls won both of their morning games and ended their camp experience on a high note.


We had planned to have a yard sale on Saturday which was a moderate success if only because it forced me to clean out some things and organize some others. The rainy early morning seemed to keep people away but we did manage to unload a few items.


The worst part of our week was trying to get the oil or residue from our newly blacktopped driveway out of our fish pond. We think it was all the heavy rains that we have had and the fact that the berm wasn't replaced around the ponds. All I could think of the entire time I was trying to power wash the oil from the ponds was how much worse the oil must be in Louisiana from the BP oil spill. We lost a total of six of our koi (Japanese carp). Three of them were 12-14 years old, 16" long and estimated to be worth $200 each. The three babies from last year would be $70 each to replace. Mr. B felt really bad about losing them because they had been Father's Day gifts from the girls when they were still at home. I think I'm going to have to replace the one liner because I can't seem to get rid of the oil and I don't want to get new fish until I'm confident that the liner is oil-free. Oh, and did I mention all the run away English ivy that I have been pulling up all week? This week I'm going to try to take it easy!