Blog Wilderness Crystal Homesteading in the Blue Ridge Mountains May 2024 How to build an Aquascape Pond I wanted to have a beautiful garden. I had already achieved filling my Florida backyard with endless amounts of fruit trees, exotic flowers, and a massive Rainbow tree. But I felt convicted that a (bigger) pond would be essential to achieve my goal of having the *most* garden. So, that is exactly what I set out to do. Having already built a small pond, this pond was itty, bitty. It had all the essentials but it lacked professional level equipment and a professional look. I had made the baby pond and experienced multiple errors along the way. This time I wanted to build it with an Aquascape kit and I … read more Apr 2024 How to Make a Koi Pond In 2022, I felt inspired to turn my ordinary backyard into an oasis. So I went into my backyard, grabbed a shovel, and got to work. I did no research and just started digging a hole. In retrospect… this was not the wisest approach, but it certainly was a good way to learn! After starting to dig my hole, I realized this was not going to be a simple project. I didn’t measure anything. I just started shoveling dirt. After I was about 4 hours into digging, I started to google what is a reasonable size for a small pond. My research showed me, that a Koi fish need one square … read more Jan 2024 Moving Our City Dogs Our pups are our entire world. So how would we move our spoiled dogs to Virginia? From our trips to Virginia, we know a lot of people just let their dogs roam without a fence. This would not work for us….. our babies are free spirits. Despite two years worth of weekly training sessions, they are too curious to stay in one spot. So we would have to figure out how to best secure our babies in multiple acres of land. Should we put in a physical fence? Is a deer fence going to hold them in? How do you put in a fence when the land is mainly rock? … read more Jan 2024 U-Haul or PODs? With every move comes challenges. For us, it was figuring out the logistics of moving from one state to another. We had to figure out….. What is the most cost effective way to load up all your items and ship them to another state? Is renting a truck better? Or does getting a POD make more sense? We are currently the owners of four dogs, three tortoises, and multiple Koi fish – So how does one also take into consideration packing up the crew and relocating? (I will tackle that subject in a different post). And – to add complication to the matter – how do you ship your husbands … read more Jan 2024 What is the Best Virginia town? What is the best place to move to in Virginia? What is actually in Virginia? Is the North or South of Virginia better to move? Is it better to be closer to Washington, DC? Is Virginia a safe place to live? Are there jobs available? Are there are lot of homes available? Are there any difficulties finding properties that satisfy all our wants? There were the questions that popped into our heads while trying to find the perfect state to move to. And which led us to check out Virginia. After deciding that Virginia might be a good place to move, we set out to continue our research. We had … read more 12 Next Post
