JustPlainOrchids Blog

Last weekend I drained, vac'd and refilled the pond.  Over the past couple of days I've seen a real improvement in water clarity.  I don't think it's been this clear since I filled it up.  It's looking really good.  With fall and the leaves turning, it means I'm constantly netting leaves to get them out of the pond before they sink.  The koi are officially on spring/fall koi food since the water is staying below 60 deg. F.  I'm cutting back on feeding too.  That part is difficult as I've been feeding them 2 or 3 times a day out of habit.

The plants in the greenhouse are still not looking great.  I saw a major change in how the roots looked in August and September when I was keeping the relative humidity way too high.  I need to keep it a bit warmer and less humid in there in an effort to keep the plants happier & healthier.

I mentioned getting hit by a car on my bike about a month ago.  I had to get a new rear wheel and the bike shop said they couldn't get a replacement wheel that matched the old one (Bontrager Select) that was on my Trek 7700 FX Hybrid.   I did some looking around online and found them, but they were running around $200+ for a rear wheel.   I was on eBay and found the exact wheel I needed.  I hesitated and missed the auction, but it got relisted at a lower price.  UPS should get it here on Monday (tomorrow).   I'm hoping it will be an easy addition of a SRAM PG-980 9 speed cassette (11-32) to the Bontrager Select wheel.  Here's a photo of a Trek 7700 FX (2003) like I have.   No one wants a nice bike like this where the front wheel and back wheel don't match.  Notice the spoke pattern on the wheels.  It's unique and pretty darn cool.

I also plan on replacing the old tires.  LOL, they are so old I'm embarrassed to tell how old the tires are!  At any rate the new tires are Continental Gatorskins.  I may or may not put in some slime tires.  I'm thinking why not go ahead and try for just a little more protection from flats.  Even in good weather I am not fast at fixing a flat, but  when it's cold and wet I get even slower.  So I like the idea of a little anti-flat tire insurance.

I finally got the replacement  3 TB hard drive for my NAS.  I added the drive and expanded the RAID so it is now 13+ TB (one drive can fail without data loss).   Expanding the RAID onto the 6th drive took about 24 hours.   I've seen no change in speed since adding the 6^th drive.   To be honest I wasn't expecting any change in performance.