Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm doing fine! I have a massive purple bruise on my *ahemhem* left chest... my doctor agrees that it was a good thing it hit me on a, er, nicely padded area. The steroids I'm on for my arthritis mean it won't heal very fast, but they're also keeping the pain and swelling down (except when the cat stomps on it in the middle of the night ) so I'm happy with the trade-off.

Hubby was definitely more upset over the whole thing than I was, but he's calming down.

Progress is happening again! Well, it was until the rain started again...

Holy cow! Sorry to hear that stupid... handle broke! Hindsight being pretty worthless I know. That being said, every time that happens to me I try to remember when buying anything with a wooden handle, I need to check the grain in the wood! I eventually forget and buy another tool with cross grain, doh! I hope it heals quickly. I am beginning to learn more abut the side effects of prednisone with my aching feet. I can barely remember these days, we used to say "never trust anyone over thirty," like we'd never get there, and beyond, well beyond in my case.

The really silly thing is that hubby deliberately chose a wooden-handled sledgehammer because he's heard too many stories about fibreglass handles shattering. The new one has a metal-cored handle (there weren't any available the first time).

I've got chronic plantar fasciitis and bone spurs in my feet, plus the arthritis, but thanks to the steroids etc they don't hurt often. Of course, when they do hurt it's flipping impressive! I'd give you a fistbump of sympathy if it wouldn't hurt.

Awesome and amazing hoop house going up. Dynamic energy at it's best. Do you take prednisone every day?

I'm having a lot of fun building it... which is good, because I have to redo a big chunk because some connectors are cracking. I've come up with a slight re-design that will eliminate those connectors and hopefully not run into any more problems!

Yup, I take 10mg prednisolone a day, more if I'm having a flare. (Prednisolone is apparently what prednisone gets processed into by the body, they do essentially the same thing but prednisolone is a bit easier on your liver.) My rheumatologist hopes we can get me onto a more effective main medication to treat my psoriatic arthritis, in which case I might be able to lower my prednisolone dosage or even eliminate it completely, but given that I also have osteoarthritis I'm not so sure.

Cool thanks for the info. I finally got an appointment with a Rheumatologist who takes our insurance and is accepting new clients, except I have to wait until October. I'm anxious to learn something besides guesses about what is happening to me.

I hope that works out well and you're able to find an effective treatment quickly! Even though my main medication isn't as effective as my doctor would like, it's still a heck of a lot better than not having it at all.

Had a bit of an "eek!" moment just now - not to the level of HSM, but could have gotten there!

The power in most of our suburb went out just after 6pm; Hubby decided this was an excellent time to go shopping for some dinner ingredients that he was missing. (Well, it's not like we had much else to do! ) Since his car is in the garage, and we have an electric garage door that wasn't going to be letting him out, I drove him. We got back just before 7, by which time the power was back.

Me (as I'm parking): "Yay! The heating will be back on!"
Hubby: "Will the clock on it need to be reset?"
Me: "Probably. I'll check. Oh, and I'll make sure the pump in the aquaponics came back on all right..."

Guess what's the only thing that died in the power cut? The pump in the aquaponics.

Guess what I don't have a spare of yet? The pump in the aquaponics.

Oh, and the little air pump I have for the teeny test system is solar powered, so that wasn't going to be doing the fishies any good overnight.

Me: "...good thing Bunnings is open until 9, hey?"

That could've been a nasty surprise tomorrow if I hadn't gone out to look! So I have a new pump - a bigger new pump, because I wanted one anyway. I'm going to have a go at disassembling the old one tomorrow, and if I can get it going again I'll keep it as a spare; if not, it's going back for a refund.

Checking regularly on your system is smart- it increases the chances of detecting problems sooner rather than later! Glad you got to yours in time

Battery powered backup air could have saved the day too, even if you didn't check this evening.

Yeah, after I got back with the new pump and installed it I told my husband "See, this is why the air pump in my big system is going to have a battery backup even if I have to build one myself!"

Good things there are plans to build one on here fairly cheaply.

IIIIiiiiiii did indeed have that in mind if I need to go that route.

I am so sore but it's worth it, guys. Look at this! I did that! Me!



This is after I had to take down all the progress I'd made before when the connectors I was using so I could put the hoops up one side at a time cracked.



That was... annoying, to say the least, but the end result is looking pretty good after all so I'm happy. Also, I feel very smug that I was able to work out a way to put 8m pipe hoops up all by myself, without having the full length waving up in the air (and possibly hitting the power line) at any point.