Opening Day

Today we officially opened. It was a beautiful day and it really brought out the people. We were extremely busy and the customer flow was almost non-stop. I love days like that. Matt and Nicole worked hard, and we got a lot of things done. We started an email mailing list. I'm surprised how many people want to be on it. Many are excited about our live web cams. I hope people enjoy viewing them, as I have had working on them. Tomorrow is another day...........

Final Preparations

Final preparations are under way. I finished up my last construction projects, and can now focus on the store. Today I have drive to Baltimore to pick up some inventory. The store is basically ready, just a few last minutes things to do. Both Matt, my son, and Nicole will be with me tomorrow to help get things off the ground. Ryan, my other son, will be going out with Larry, my pond cleaner, to clean a pond in Harrisburg tomorrow. I also need to pick new business cards today. Everything is coming together perfectly. I'm always very excited to get things off the ground every Spring. I really enjoy my job.

Temporary opening day.

It has been such a nice string of days, that I have decided to open the store tomorrow. I will still open officially on the 27th. Many customers have come in while I'm getting things ready. They are anxious. It's nice to make sales when we aren't even officially open. Let the wonderful weather continue!!!!!

12 days and closing

I have less than two weeks to get the store open. Most everything is priced, stocked and ready to go. I have to get the fish system up and running, and the quarantine system as well. We've had four days of rain, and I'm quite tired of it. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get some things finished. The fish started to feed the other day, and you can see how they have become active on my web cams. The water is a little cloudy, due to the rain, and things generally getting stirred up. This issue will clear up hopefully in a few days.

Not far off now!

The water temperature is starting to warm up. One can tell because today is the first day the fish are starting to swim around the whole pond. It's great to see them moving around after a long winter. The snow is melting, the ground is sloppy, and I'm happy to see all of this. I even had a customer call today to meet me for a purchase. Sweet!

It's nice to walk through the greenhouses and see all the life coming up through the water. The frogs jump from the tops of the pots, back into the water. I love that. There are three very large bull frogs in one of the pond skimmers. I will be taking them out and putting them in the greenhouses. They will be happy to know that Spring is just around the corner. I can't wait for Spring, it's one of my favorite seasons. My busy season is just upon me.

Spring time clean up continues

Today I finished fixing the shed, almost like new (at least as good as it's going to get). What a pain. The lower grounds are nothing but a swamp right now because of all the melting snow. I'm glad it is melting away. It will soon be time to start trapping cats again. My next repair project because of the snow: repair the fish system shelter that almost fell over. It's currently being held up with ropes, a tree, and a come-a-long. Matt, get the concrete!

Shed Raising

Today I spent about an hour trying to rebuild my structure that collapsed from the weight of 3' of snow. I was able to get it up again, but it will need some further work. At least I can now put my tractor back in it.

The turtles, in the big tank inside the store, are glad the store temperature is warming up. They are starting to feed again, as well as the Koi that are in there. Only a few more weeks until opening day. Hurry up Spring!!!