From, who's who to tell us about yourself....

[aquitori]

From, who's who to tell us about yourself....There have been alot of new members that have joined lately....So tell us alittle about yourself.

To all, I am Aquitori aka Tony. I have been in the hobby for awhile...Enjoy it because there's nothing better when it comes to animal hobbys.

[maryland_ponder]

As you can see by my nic I live in Maryland near Washington DC. My name is Bob. My entrance into this hobby was sort of accidental. I had a problem with errosion in my yard & decided to design "something" to fix the problem. It evolved into retaining walls that surrounded the area. In the center of the area became my pond. From there I made a lot of stupid mistakes & blunders until i was educated enough to get things stabilized. I am an Engineer for Verizon (NOT WIRELESS) & no I cant hear you now!!!! My other hobbies are competing in firearms competitions & working on an old 1968 Mercury Cougar.

[kingkong]

Have visited Japan once for garden tour mostly. Enjoy the total Oriental pond landscape package the most, trees, water, koi, rocks, structures in that order. Hope to someday have a pond as nice as Dr. Tsai's.
Photo courtesy of 'gentle' JR

[PapaBear]

I'm an accidental koinut. My new wife decided she wanted a goldfish pond (which she had done before in a previous life ) so we went to digging. (She didn't know it until after we were married, but I already had the pond mapped out and wanted Koi all along ). When we got finished digging a friend with Koi was looking for a new home for some of his overcrowded fish and POOF, her goldfish pond was instantly stocked with Koi instead .
As to our backgrounds, here 'tis.
My wife was in the USAF for 15 years serving all over the place including 5 years at Ramstein and now teaches leadership and business ethics. Loves anything outdoors, especially if it involves playing in the dirt or the water. (I can't keep her out of the pond )
I was in the Oil/Gas business for nearly 30 years (Sunoco, Duke, Independent Consultant), mostly in field ops, measurement, lab tech. Took a package a few years back and am now in business for myself. Home remodeling (which used to ba a hobby) and custom cabinetry and doors for local contractors. My water knowledge comes from my youth by osmosis from my father. He's been the Supt. of the local utility district where I grew up for 40 yrs so I not only grew up around water treatment I have easy access to an expert

[111whalen]

I'm I at an AA meeting? Sorta. I started by accident-bought a house with a 500 gallon pond. Tore it out, built a 1500 pond and then felt it was to small. In the mean time I got active in ZNA Orange County and finally became editor of KOI USA. Then the fun began-bought a new house and built a real pond-13,500 gallons. There's more to the story but you get the drift- KA anyone?

[Seefdro Tvneik]

I have been involved with ponds and landscaping for 10 years now. I began my journey with koi keeping about the same time. Like most of you I learned threw trial and error. In the past three year I have started to build ponds for other people here in southeast Michigan. This work is a pleasure for me and is also a nice break from teaching middle school kids. I am a sucker for koi, all types with no particular preference for variety. The addiction for me is truly rewarding and is great therapy for mind and spirit. In the future I would like to take my "koi kichi" to the next level and go to some of these to national and international shows. As an artist/art teacher I consider koi living forms of art. Their colors and patterns have been an inspiration for my paintings and sculptures. Koi for me mimic my everchanging artistic journey.

I would like to acknowledge Mitten here since he is a regular contributor to the forum. Mitten here in Southeast Michigan is perhaps the most knowledgable guy we have around. Mitten is truly a man who lives for the koi and I expect his skills only blossom to highest degree. I like to think of him as the "Jerry Garcia of Koi keeping". Mitten is man who understands the ying yang of koi keeping.

This forum is great. There are some great contributors and a wealth of information in the search engine. To all Koi peolpe, KEEP DREAMING of endless possiblities!!!!!!

[mitten]

Well, I was drivin a bus with these chicks...and then I had koi.

My effort now is to get myself to Florida and its more freindly climate/ business climate. I have freinds there and near there who are encouraging me. Koi keeping feels like the reward I worked so hard for in all of that blank time I left out, the whole middle of my life.

Mickey the windowman