Rainy weather makes frog happy, I spotted this Leopard frog today in my fish pond, just hanging out.

Continued from Wat Lao Buddhavong July 4th, 2009 the 30 Year Anniversary Celebration

As I’ve mentioned in my Lotus or Water Lily at Biltmore post that in Buddhism, the lotus is one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols and one of the most poignant representations of Buddhist teaching, so not surprised to see it here at Wat Lao Buddhavong. In Buddhist teaching, the roots of a lotus are in the mud, the stem grows up through the water, and the heavily scented flower lies pristinely above the water, basking in the sunlight. This pattern of growth signifies the progress of the soul from the primeval mud of materialism, through the waters of experience, and into the bright sunshine of enlightenment (source).

Continued at:  Wat Lao Buddhavong July 4th, 2009 the 30 Year Anniversary Celebration Slideshow

Seems like I’ve been lazy as the name of the post, but I’m actually on vacation this week and have a chance to visit Lazy 5 Ranch again.

It’s a privately owned  exotic animal drive thru park that offers a 3.5 mile safari through the gently sloping pasturelands of Piedmont, North Carolina. There are over 750 animals from six different continents. We can see these animals from the safety of our own car or ride on their horse drawn wagons, luckily we didn’t make a reservation and they were able to arrange some spaces for us on a wagon ride, this is my best view thus far.

One of my favorite animals are the Asian water buffaloes, I didn’t get to see one this close when I visited Laos last year, so this is a real treat for me.

Some animals you can feed them off from the bucket, but as for the bucket stealer like the water buffalo, you’ve to feed them from your hand, and it could be very slimy at times.

A peacock is sitting on her eggs, I’m not sure if the strawberry patch is made especially for her.

A huge Tortoise.

A heart shape pond.

I believed the name of the place came from the 5 sons that they have, but lazy or not, I’m not certain.  I think the lazy might be referring to touring the place on a lazy day, like us on this day.  This place opens 365 days per year, so there is no holiday.  They feed the animals twice a day and what we feed them is only a midday snack, it’s definitely a nice treat, for us and the animals.

My small garden is coming together nicely, I finally have everything planted last weekend, and finally have time to sit and relax.

I try to keep my garden simple this year, I’m thinking about doing a year round garden, growing vegetables in the fall and winter as well, but I still have to do some reading on this.  The closest raised bed is the flower garden, I planted strawberry, African marigold, celosia, and Jr. sunflower.

In my herb garden I have mint, chives, sweet basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary, lemon grass, and kefir lime that is in a pot sitting next to the herb garden.

My dad gave me the kefir lime plant along with the banana tree, I’m hoping to be able to prepare a spicy Thai curry soup and pick the herbs from my own garden this summer.

Next to the herb garden is my Asian garden, I wanted to grow lettuce, but it’s too late to grow it now, I might have to wait till late summer, or when it gets cooler again in the fall.  In this raised bed I have chili peppers, Thai eggplants, cherry tomatoes, and underneath the A Frame are snow peas.

The Peach tree that my friend gave us is doing real good, not bad for its first year.

The milk paint treatment on the A-Frame is not doing too bad, but I expect the water and rain to wash out some.  I think this type of paint might be better used indoor than outdoor.  I planted pickling cucumbers this year, they’re still very small and I can’t wait to see the cucumber vines climbing up the A Frame.

There are many fish in my fish pond.  I have several large Koi fish and many baby fish, but they’re too young to tell if they are Koi or Comet babies.

When we visited the Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh NC, we also purchased Paeonia ‘Krinkled White’, it’s in bloom today, and has a real nice aroma.

Next I have to update my sisters on my dad’s garden, he is doing something different this year.

I’m happy to say that I’m almost complete with my garden but I can’t say that my neighbor feel the same way.  They’re an older couple and don’t like to do much to their backyard (you can see their backyard from the second photo below), and I’m afraid that I’ve too much going on back there.  I recalled when I was digging my fishpond 2 years ago, they wanted to know what I was doing, I guess she thought I was burying someone back there.

When I first have my trellis up, the wife was sitting at her deck staring at it, I could see the expression on her face, “What the heck is that thing?!”  I thought that was funny, but I continued leveling my raised beds as if I didn’t see her.  This past Saturday, I borrowed my second sister’s truck to go get some top soil.  When we got back, the husband came out to pull weeds, gosh how he loves his grass, but the grass is greener on his side.

When I said almost complete, the planting beds are still empty.  Since I live in the foothill, we’re expecting another round of frost coming our way, so it should be nice and warm by next weekend.  My original plan calls for a swing, but since my GI Joe sister gave me a bench, I thought that I could use that instead, but I didn’t communicate well with my dad.  He went out and bought some wood to make the legs, by then I was almost maxed out on my budget, I only have enough to buy a small tiller.  It was a hard choice to make, as you can see that I bought the swing instead, and all I can say is that it was a backbreaking work to get this done.  This is the before picture.

The bench is next to the fishpond, it’s actually nice to have a place to sit and watch the fish.

Below is a persimmon tree that I purchased from my local temple last year during Lao New Year.  Purchase is not the correct term to be used with Buddhist temples because Buddhist Temples are not allowed to sell, but we can offer in monetary term such as donation, and Lao people called it Busa. So I Busa the tree from the temple.

Most of the plants and pots I didn’t have to buy, I got them from my sisters.  This one my younger sister calls it Bat Face, but it doesn’t look like Bat Face to me, I need to find out the name, it has a nice fragrant, a perennial, and also drought tolerant.

As for now this is what it looks like, it seems that she could never make up her mind, it was once sitting on her deck, but now it’s in front of her house.  It sort of makes me feel nervous looking at it since it’s so closed to her house.  Fascinating that it has her initial S, I don’t know if that was intentional.

A view from the top pond.

I find this very odd, she bought her fish the same time as mine, but hers have never gotten any bigger, still the same size as when she first got them, and mine are a lot bigger now, must be in the water.  Oxygen in the water that is, I’ve a bigger pump than hers, and also my pond is a lot bigger and fish grow according to the size of your pond.

She has some nice wild flowers in her yard that are in bloom.

I posted about my Water Hyacinth the last time; mozemoua asked if she could have some. There is only so much that I could take inside with me during the winter months, and this water floating plant spread so fast that you only need a couple and it’ll grow overnight.

When I promised her that I’d give, I really didn’t know how I would ship this since we live in different states, but we were able to work out the detail that I’d give this to her with no charge, and she offered to pay for the freight, so UPS ground seems like a perfect solution for us. I choose to ship on a Monday so that it will have plenty of time to get there, I’d hate for it to get stuck somewhere over the weekend. UPS has not updated their tracking yet, but I think it’d take about 1 or 2 days to get there UPS has updated their tracking information, and it is scheduled for delivery on 10/08/2008, so it’ll take 2 days to deliver to her area.

I checked to see if it’s legal to ship Water Hyacinth to her state, and it is, many places in her area actually use it for waste water treatment. I picked out the Water Hyacinth yesterday and mostly young ones so that I can give her more. I put them in my large vase/pond that I used as my water lily and fish pond before I made this bigger pond in my backyard, that way by Monday afternoon, I would have them ready to pack and ship.

I’ve never shipped any living things before, but had seen how they shipped Orchid plant, one of our customers shipped Orchid to one of my co-workers in the past, and it was lots of shredded newspaper and I thought that I would try the same with the Water Hyacinth. I wrapped the roots with wet paper towels, and put it in a sandwich bag to keep it from wetting the box. The Water Hyacinth look comfortable in there, all covered with shredded newspaper, so we’ll see in a couple of days if they made it to their new home okay.

Updated 10/8/2008: mozemoua received the Water Hyacinth yesterday at 2:29 PM delivered to her front door but she didn’t return home until late yesterday, these are photos from her blog posting, I’m very happy that they are in great condition, one even has a flower.

My fish pond or is it water hyacinth pond?

I can’t say that too much of anything is a good thing, I’d never have thought that I would have a problem with the Water Hyacinth, this water floating plant is spreading at a very fast pace, practically taken over my pond. Water hyacinth are free-floating perennial aquatic plants native to tropical South America. One of the fastest growing plants known, water hyacinth reproduces primarily by way of runners or stolons, which eventually form daughter plants. They provide a food source for gold fish when used in man-made ponds, also help to keep water clean, and provide oxygen.

Water Hyacinth

Although I do have to say that the flowers are beautiful but usually last only a day or so, and the leaves are glossy green, the air pockets in the bulbous areas keep the plant afloat. I think the problem is that my pond is too small and this is spreading too fast, I gave some of them to my second sister but hers are not doing well at all, they’re yellowish and her fish apparently ate all the roots. My roots are still intact, and the long thick black roots provide spawning and hiding places for my fish, I now have at least 6 to 7 new baby fish. Of course another benefit is the nutrient absorbing qualities of the plant, they help to control the algae in the water.

Koi fish, gold fish, and baby fish

Baby fish

In some areas, these are used as cattle food and in biogas production. Recently, they have also begun to be used in wastewater treatment due to their fast growth and ability to tolerate high levels of pollution. Parts of the plant are also used in the production of traditional handicrafts in Southeast Asia, some samples of mats, baskets, and sofa below.

Water Hyacinth Mat, this is natural flooring water hyacinth rug / mat / carpet with plaited style. It makes your room warm and nice looking. Made in Vietnam.

Water Hyacinth Basket. Made in Vietnam.

Water Hyacinth Mat. Made in Thailand.

This is a Water Hyacinth sofa, corner unit, selling at $951.00. Made in Thailand.

This is an interesting read by morungexpress, August 26, 2008: Water hyacinth turns into exotic handicrafts

Entrepreneurs producing handicrafts from water hyacinth at a training programme organised by NEDFi

Of course, this is one way of controlling the Water Hyacinth, and I do have to say that it’s a very creative way of doing it by turning them into handicrafts. Another way is to Bamboo stakes placed to control water hyacinth at Lake Tempe.

Photo taken by Rhett A. Butler

These bamboo tripods form bungkas, large man-made circles of floating vegetation. These serve as fish traps, attracting fish during the rainy seaons. As water levels drop towards the dry season, a fine bamboo fence is built around the bungka, trapping the fish.

This post is for my oldest sister. It has been raining a lot lately, but mostly passing storms that bring welcoming rain to Dad’s garden, see his garden now in comparison to my last post. One of the reasons that Dad’s garden is looking very good is because his land used to be a horse farm. The owner of this farm sold part of the plot, and now it’s a subdivision, but part of the horse farm is still there, right in front of Dad’s house. I’m very fortunate today to see the horses outside; one walked right up to me and strikes a post.

My water plants look real healthy, and other vegetables are coming along, I grew my a bit late.

My younger sister redone her fish pond, and their garden is looking real good.

This post is for my oldest sister. This is my last post before you’ll finally get to see Dad’s garden next week; everything is looking very good, as always. I think dad takes good care of his garden, everything is blooming or bearing fruits comparing to 10 days ago.

My second sister has 2 water lilies in bloom, one in pink, which she has not seen this one herself because it only blooms at noontime, and she was at work.

I also have one in my pond that is real pretty.

The rest of Dad’s garden,

Crabapples

This post is for my oldest sister. Dad’s garden is looking very good, comparing to last week, this week many of his vegetables are in bloom, and some even bear fruits or should it be called vegetables.

Second sister child proof her fishpond, in preparing for the little nieces coming for July 4th week.

Little niece, she loves posing for photos, we put her to work, she picked sunflower seeds for grandpa.

Today is a special day, father’s day, so we had a get together, as always there was plenty of food.

Dad asked me to make spring roll this time.

It was real nice, but I kind of miss mom for not being here, one of dad’s neighbors’ tree, the Mimosa tree made me think of her, she loved this tree because it reminded her of ‘Tun Ga Tin’.

Mimosa Tree Flower photo by Jim AR at Flickr

Gazebo, fish pond by SpecFin

I used to think that if I have a gazebo next to my fishpond, then this little spot of mine would be perfect. I often imagine myself being out there, reading books on the weekend, or in the evening watching my fish swimming, and hearing the sounds of the water flowing, birds chirping is very relaxing.

Of course, in reality, it’s not as easy, gazebo cost quiet a bit, even if I do it myself, I’m looking close to $1,000. As I was out there this morning cleaning the bridge, there were lots of bird poops, and the white stains stood out against the red bridge and brown wooden floor. I don’t mind doing this because it’s nice and sunny outside, and the cool breeze is refreshing, then all of a sudden it hits me, I see something that I’ve never seen before. The bridge itself is better than any gazebo, it is above the water, great view of the fish, the woods, and plenty of room for me to sit and relax, and I’m wondering why I’ve never seen this before.

I guess I’m like most people, often wanting more things than I really need. I have the bridge that serves its function, but it definitely can serve more purposes, it’s just a matter of viewing it from a different angle.

As of today, I do have to say that I no longer need that gazebo, I’m happy with my bridge; thinking back to the day when I told my dad that I needed his help in building a bridge, I showed him the picture that I drew, I colored it with a red magic marker, and within a minute, he said, “yes, we can do this,” and in less than 2 weeks, we finished building the bridge, and amazingly, it looks just like the picture.

This post is for my oldest sister. Things are a lot bigger since the last time I posted photos of Dad’s Small Garden, and second sister’s fish pond is doing really well, her water lilies look healthy, and the leaves are big, unlike mine that barely made it to the top, I’m thinking that it’s because my pond is a lot deeper than hers.

This is her fishpond.

This is mine.

Dad’s garden,

There is not a lot going on in my garden, there’s more vegetables, but I’m too embarrassed to show off.

My younger sister’s garden, not all the vegetables are hers. I spotted a bird’s nest, the mother is nesting at the moment.

This post is for my oldest sister. In case you’re wondering, this is what they’ve been doing…busy in the garden, but first let me show you my second sister’s water lilies, she called me last night to tell me if I get there by noontime, they should be in full bloom.

Updated photos on 5/18/2008: The weather is nice and his vegetables seem a bit bigger today, so I decided to update new photos instead of writing a new post, here is Dad’s garden. The water lily below is from my pond, it blooms today.

This post is for my oldest sister in NYC, I finally had a chance to clean my fish pond, the water is a lot clearer now as you can see, having fish pond is a lot of work but the rewards are ten-fold.

Also, my second sister’s fish are a lot bigger, her pond is smaller than mine and not as deep, but she sure does have lots of fish.