If its not the fish its the garden or the boiler or something

Well the fish pond project was finished very quickly and we purchased 10 baby koi...little did I realise how much there was to this fishkeeping lark. For some reason Jason seems to have a view that pond + fish = success. In reality the pond went very murky after about 2 weeks so we now have a fountain, pump, filter, uv light gizmo to kill algae plus about 4 different types of koi food and various koi related pond treatments for water quality, biofilter activation and first aid.

Once we got the pump and filter and the water cleared we realised that two fish were gone! The mussels (of which there are two) seem to be quite plump so I'm wondering if they somehow liquified and digested the two fish. Another fish was spotted in distress...did anyone tell me...not until it was too late..so we were down to 7 baby koi. Now I can see the contents of the pond it is obvious that 5 koi are getting bigger and two aren't so now the two smaller ones are in quarantine in the old goldfish tank in the kitchen....requiring more special treatment and food that is broken up into little bits.

So much for the pop them in the pond and let them get on with it approach. Oh and there have been visits to the local garden centres in search of pond plants, so we also have water hyacinths, water soldiers and other green stuff floating around in there...oh and the water quality test kits - this is not a cheap venture by any means.

And then there was the boiler. 3 weeks without one so far, but hopefully only 4 more days to the new boiler and I'm planning a seriously long bath. Thankfully I found an old milk churn on Ebay so we've been using that to cart boiling water from the kitchen to the bathroom to have a 3 inch deep bath. After one episode of carrying boiling water using saucepans I decided there had to be a better way. Have you tried avoiding two children ('why are you carrying that saucepan mum?') the dog ('am I going out now')and three cats ('is it dinner time') whilst opening and closing three doors and navigating steps out of the kitchen and into the bathroom, all with that lovely sloshy boiling water? I don't recommend it.

Personally I'd be happier if the whole house got put back into Victorian mode and then I wouldn't need a boiler and I could be complaining about the range and the back boiler instead. I know this house must have had both of these things as we found some of the pipework. It is rather ridiculous that we get so stuck because one gadget breaks (ie the boiler) in the past houses were far more self reliant. I went to Beamish Museum last weekend and that just proved the point. Ideally I'd have a hybrid house with just enough of the old technology to keep going if all the new stuff failed.

And then there is the garden. I got two bags of seed potato this year and they are taking over. I ran out of space in the vegetable patch so popped them into the flower beds as well. The whole garden is now a giant potato patch. Should be fun when it comes to harvest time.