Prayers for Joe

There is very little to be said today. I received a phone call this morning from my neighbor, John, who is the brother of Joe, the architect of the landscaping in my yard. Joe has become my trusted friend, as well as my advisor with regard to anything that takes place out there. He is in the hospital in the ICU, with serious cardiac issues. At this time, I have few details and couldn't share them if I did, but I do have a request. Anyone reading this who is comfortable with prayer, please pray for Joe. Pray also for his dear wife, Kathy, who is not in the best of health herself.

Eddie came today, and the yard looks a lot better. However, he let his helper do much of the work, which is fine, but if that helper doesn't wake up and wise up, I'm going to pound knobs on his head. He doesn't seem to understand that a lawnmower can be pushed this way, or that way. It discharges clippings from one side only, and it shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that when mowing around a fishpond, one should point the discharge vent away from the pond, not toward it. After he left, I spent half an hour out there with a net, skimming clippings from the surface, trying to remove them before they sank to the bottom, where they would only add to my woes with the filters. I hate to be a tattletale, but I do intend to mention this to Eddie next week. He'll handle it.

Speaking of the pond, I'm beginning to wonder where I might find an outlet for an excess of fish. Most of the big fish out there now were little 12-cent feeder fish, purchased from Petsmart. They were less than two inches long, and one is now eight inches long, and there are about three others at six or seven inches. They're fat, brightly colored beauties, and they're still growing. One is a striking, glowing orange, another is a pale color with orange and black speckles. Others are in varying shades of orange, gold, white and pink.

Now here's the fun part. While I haven't bought a tiny fish in at least six months, there are at this moment at least a dozen little-bitty fellows out there, little fish which I'm very sure I didn't buy. Apparently someone has been busy. Incidentally, one of the larger fish is looking suspiciously rotund, so I imagine there will be more little fish before long.

This is all a bit surprising, since goldfish are not livebearers. They lay eggs, which they will then eat if they see them, and will also eat the fry after they hatch, if they can catch them. I knew that, so I've put in a lot of plants to provide cover for the fry, and apparently there's enough litter on the bottom of the pond to hide at least some of the eggs. Something is working right, because there surely are a lot of babies out there.

This may become a problem in the future, because the pond is not tremendously large, at right around 900 gallons, and there's a limit to the number of fish it will support. I'm going to have to find someone with a much larger pond who would like some free fish!

Well, as I said, there wasn't much to tell tonight. Joe is heavy on my mind and heart, and I do ask for your prayers for his recovery. He's a good and kind man, and a lot of people like him.