Jacquelyn's Aquaponics project -

Good morning!  I hope this finds you well and doing what you enjoy.  My granddaughter, Jacquelyn, came over this weekend and among other things, we worked on an aquaponics system for a school project.  This project stems from one of our visits to Disney World where we went on the "Behind the Seeds" tour and saw first hand how Disney portrays "Living with the Land".  It is fascinating and I highly recommend it - so very inspiring - especially to young minds.  Anyway - here are a few photos and I uploaded a video of the experiment to my Kelly Bell YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO_3X_VUlxE&feature=player_detailpage

I hope this brings you to it if you would like to see the process we followed.  Our thanks to Vinil Ratnakaran for his video using a 5 gallon water jug.  We decided to go even smaller for a school experiment and use a 2 liter Soda bottle.

Jacquelyn with her functioning system.

Preparing for the video - materials we used listed below.

materials:

2 liter soda bottle - cap and label removed
3 paint stir sticks (free from Home depot and re-used)
zip ties
Crop-a-dile hole punch - a dremel or a drill would work for the stir sticks hole punch is plenty for the bottle
Plastic cap from a bottle of salad dressing - with several holes drilled into it - we made many more holes than the ones shown in the video as the system didn't drain fast enough to prevent overflow - after additional holes it was perfect. (Initially we used a hammer and a nail to make the holes but I found my dremel and it went much smoother - although a hammer and nail work)
Small fountain water pump
aquarium tubing
aquarium gravel - I found out later that the kind we used may raise the PH level and harm plant growth - clay pellets or regular small gravel may be better.
Black spray paint - Jacquelyn explains why in the video
duct tape - can be any color - again - Jacquelyn explains it in the video.
scissors to cut the bottle
Hot glue gun to attach the salad dressing cap inside the bottle top for drainage in the plant area
T-square if you want the holes to be perfect.  (We used it on the first stick - then we used a white charcoal pencil to mark the rest from the first one used as a template.)

I think that was it - if you have questions just ask and we will try to answer them.

Enjoy your day!  K

Mid-May and my eldest daughter's 38th birthday - where does the time go?

Wow - where does time go?  I've been retired about 13 months now and I can attest to the fact that I am not bored - I think the days have gotten shorter by half at least and I have twice as much to do.  I am loving it.  I just need to take the time to sit down and write about it - and do some video.  Life is good.

The first part of today I spent in the vegetable garden.  I am planting the same area that my late husband used to plant.  I'm doing it my way though.  I've created a boundary around the garden that I like a lot using cement blocks and landscape timbers.  I've also put up a makeshift pergola made up of a tarp and some tent poles for now.  Maybe by next year I will have the nerve to scavenge some lumbler and actually make a year round pergola for the garden.  It would be nice to grow peas and beans on while shading lettuce and other leafy greens.

I'm adding some photos that I took after I finished working in the garden.  This is a big blog post - lots of pictures to document some of the areas that I've been working on as well as the vegetable garden.  I have so many plans and ideas.  One of my new projects for this year will be to do some experimenting with Aquaponics and Hydroponics.  I bought some buckets to start out with and just need some PVC and aquarium pumps to get started.  Fun.

Marigolds, basil and seeds for radishes, carrots 

Hot Pepper plants and seeds for beets

View from the vegetable garden back to the house

Nasturtium seeds planted

Tomato plants, cucumber, yellow watermelon, yellow squash
and sunflowers

The undisrupted space to the right is Sunflower seed.
There will be three variety.  5-7 foot, 7 - 9 foot and 12 foot.

 

rock wall garden pink lilac

Peony garden

Iris and peony garden with a view
 back to house,
deck side.

This all takes a lot of time and labor.  I mow it and grow it.

Lily of the valley in front/right side of house

Wisteria in front of house

Birch stand at left side of house view
to vegetable garden.

Front Right of house.  Dwarf
bush, white snowball and lily of
the valley.

View back to field with
Apple Trees.  Red is a pole
barn and black "cannon"
are compost bins.

Another view of the Apple Orchard.

Left side of garage
facing the field.

Birch Stand showing
the shed.

White Lilacs by the Garage.
Rock wall garden with
hostas.

Bleeding hearts.

Another bleeding
heart by the garage.

A cute aside about my compost barrels.  I use the word "cannon" to describe them in the picture because last weekend when my 9 year old grand daughter came for a visit she asked her mother why Nana has cannons in her field? - LOL - (survival of the fittest...)

I bought a small 5'X7' green house to put up.  I am thinking of starting the aquaponics in it.  This is a new adventure for me.  I've enjoyed gardening but it's usually flowers - Ted was always the bulk veg gardener of the family.  We shall see what we shall see.  Thank you for taking the time to look at the objects of my endeavor.  If you have any comments or questions I would love to hear them.

Have a beautiful day and enjoy every nano second.
K