Hello Everyone! First of all I would like to take this opportunity to thank Robyn for giving me this opportunity to try out being the moderator for our Ponds and Winter section of her forum. For all of you that don't know all about me, I would like to share a little about myself and my life in hopes that you all will get to know me better in time. On the geographical side of things, I live in North Eastern British Columbia, Canada. We are a zone 2. Our winters run from October to April, which is very long, but our summers are beautiful, with our daylight hours reaching 21 in the summer peak. Our area is very flat with a lot of Muskeg and farm areas. We have only a few varieties of native trees so it is not the most beautiful place in the world to live. We do however, live in the Peace River valley, on the river bottom, so it is rather picturesque. We are surrounded by large wildlife and have an assortment of deer and moose that frequent our 3.5 acres daily. On the personal side of things, I have been married for 15 years and have 19 and 20 year old daughters that are both out on their own (perfect, more room for more pets) I am also turning the dreaded 40 this year, but still can't figure out how that happened!! Finally.....on to the good stuff......On the pet side of things: I have 2 dogs (we recently lost the other 2 to old age) and one really really rotten 7 month old kitten named Little Dickens. I have a 7 year old parrot named Kirby, and used to breed and raise birds of all kinds, so I have a lot of experience there if anyone ever has a question about birds for me I am sure you could post it in the "other animals" section of this forum and I would be glad to help. Okay on to FISH!!! I have had fish my whole life. I don't think there has ever been a time when I was without one kind of fish or another. I have gone from goldfish varieties and then very heavily into Cichlids, then back again to normal varieties and then back to a full time love of goldfish, with an introduction to Koi two years ago. I think everone knows I have a very large clay pond and a big deep cavernous hole I call my everyday pond, which was finished early last summer and will be completed more esthetically this year. With the addition of a new filter system I am building starting later this week. Oh I guess I should say what fish I have in the pond! Well I THINK I have them in the pond, cause I still haven't seen the fish since October :-( Okay, I have two Koi that are around 24 inches, one that is around 14 inches, a handful of ones around 8 inches. A couple of shubunkins and few different species of goldfish of all shapes, sizes and colours. Well that is me, sorry for being so long winded about it all. Please feel free to ask me any kinds of questions and I will be sure to get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks again for this opportunity! Happy Ponding, Elaine aka KoiKirazy aka KK

Please also feel free to report any posts that you might find offensive in this section to me. I will do my best to keep this section a fun, safe and enjoyable place for all of you to visit. Thanks Again.