What Have You Learned In Over Half A Century?

Unbelievably, I became three quarters of a century old today! I do not think of myself as 'old,' but it becomes apparent when I try to do things I used to do. Even looking in the mirror is not the same as it once was. However, I still try to do. You would think that with this much age there would naturally be some intelligence come along with it. I am not certain I am any smarter, but I have learned several things. I saw a web site recently which prompted me to do likewise. My children and grand children are much the same as I was when I was their age, I wouldn't listen to my mom and dad, but I hung on every word of others thinking they were the smartest people on earth even tho' I had heard the same words from mom and dad.

I've learned...

that you can do something in an instant that will give you a heartache for life.

I've learned...
that you should always leave loved ones with loving words.
It may be the last time you see them.

I've learned...
that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

I've learned

that the Canadian side of Mt. Rushmore

may not be as inspiring as the American side.

I've learned...
that either you control your attitude or it controls you.

I've learned...
that heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.

I've learned...
that my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have

the best time. We have many times!

I've learned...
that sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you're down will be the ones to help you get back up and vice versa.

I've learned...
that true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance.

I've learned...
that just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.
I've learned...
that maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how man

y birthdays you've celebrated.

I've learned...
that no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

I've learned...

that it isn't always enough to be forgiven by others, Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.

I've learned...
that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.

I've learned...
that just because two people argue, it doesn't mean they don't love each other. And just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean they do.

I've learned...
that we don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change.

I've learned...
that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.

I've learned...
that even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you, you will find the strength to help.

I've learned...
that credentials on the wall do not

make you a decent human being.

I've learned...
that the people you care about most in life are taken from you too soon.
I've learned...
that family and friends are what make us who we are today, and without them we would never be complete.

I've learned...

that even

if you bend over backwards you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is stalk them and hope they panic and give in.

I've learned...

that it is true, you only get one chance to make a good first impression.

I've learned...

there is more to fishing with people you love than catching fish.

Some of the things I have learned in my 75 years of age and over 50 years of marriage to the same lady, are from my own experience and some are from watching others. God is good!

Cause Joy!

Proper Care For Your Fish And Pond Fishing

People have different reasons for putting a pond in their backyard. For most individuals, ponds serve an aesthetic purpose because it adds beauty and perhaps sound to the landscape. But for some others, fish ponds serve as their primary fishing place. In the latter, owners usually put fish in the ponds that can immediately grow and multiply. It's hard to monitor how many fishes have grown in the pond and you must also remember that the fishes are very sensitive to the abnormal activities on water and land. This type of information can usually be gotten from the fish farm where you buy the baby fish. The fishes can easily feel vibrations in and out of the water. Like any other livestock you need to treat the fish right and show them care.
Fishing in the river is very much different from pond fishing. If pond fishing is your primary reason why you installed a pond in the backyard, you have to ensure that you put fishes which are suited for this type of enclosure. Fishing in your backyard can provide relaxation and excitement depending on the type of fish you seed your pond with. Fishing from the bank of a pond provides a very special time to bond with the kids or wife. "There is much more to fishing than catching fish."

At this point I have to say that if I was going to put in place a pond big enough for fishing and raising everything that looks like a fish then I would employ a professional pond builder and architect to guard against unexpected unpleasantness like a dam breakage and spill over, leaks, government ordinances, building permits, etc. There can many surprises and unhappiness that can come from a pond which tries to go into business for itself. Your neighbors may have something to say about how the water seems to be accumulating on their property and it just doesn't drain the way it used to before the pond was put in. However, if you are determined to make this a do-it-yourself project, before anything else, you must give close attention to the layout of your pond.

IMO, the first order of business is to determine the source of the water. The water will naturally dissipate or evaporate in the sun; the water can also become stagnant and smell bad as well as draw mosquitoes and other pests. To keep your pond full and fresh and eliminate most of the insect type pests, you need a constant water source such as a stream or creek or even a fresh water spring which can flow into the pond site.

You will need a dam or a spillway to allow the excess water to flow out for obvious reasons. This spillway can be gravity fed, manually operated or electrically set into motion. Naturally, you will need to determine the inflow amount of water from the creek or spring in order to maintain the desired level of the pond water.

Your pond must be situated in a low area of the yard to prevent flooding during rainy days. The pond should also be placed far from the trees and bigger plants. That way, you don't have to remove tree debris everyday. You should also put water plants in your pond. Fish do not have eyelids so the sun hurts and blinds them. Be sure and put some lilly pads in the pond so they may find some shade. This discourages the formation of numerous algae. Extreme attention should also be given to the edges of your pond. Well, depending on the size of the pond, the sides should perhaps be lined with plastic or concrete so that the surrounding soil will not come into contact with the pond water; the pond will also be cleaner if you line the sides. Fertilizer or other lawn food leaching from the soil may be harmful to your fish and will encourage unwanted growth in the pond.

Another very important thing is to line the bank with rocks. If the edges of the pond are made up of rocks, very little dirt will fall into the pond. Fishing will be from the edges of the pond and so you shouldn't forget about this very important factor. The pond can be small or big and it will depend on your yard space and on how much time you're willing to spend on it. Bigger pond means more fishes to grow and catch as compared to a smaller one. You think?

Proper care should be exercised with fish ponds. You must remember that the fishes are contained in the pond. You have to clean the pond regularly to get rid of algae and other debris on the water. That way, you can prevent pollution. You should also note the date when you dropped the fishes so you can at least determine the right time to start fishing. Again, the fish farm where you got the species of fish will be able to give you this vital information.

With pond fishing, you don't have to get a small boat because the space is just small. You can just position yourself in a good shady spot and that's it; throw the fishing line and wait for the fish. Don't forget about the proper care for your fish pond and you will surely grow more fishes. Spend time, effort, and money and you will have a beautiful pond with happy creatures.

For more detailed information on how to build a pond that you and your family and guests will enjoy, I recommend this book.

Cause Joy!

Is There Profit In Your Lawn Care Business?

There are plenty of good reasons to start your own lawn care company. You might do it for the freedom that being your own boss may give you. You might do it to focus 100% on doing work that you are very good at which is making people's lawns and gardens look great. You take pride in a sense of accomplishment. Or you might do it because you know you can do a better job running a business than the people you work for. But the basic reason to start any business is to become profitable and successful so you can support yourself and your family and see your business grow and succeed.

So is it possible to make a good profit running a lawn care business? Of course it must be otherwise there would not be lawn care companies that stay in business year after year. To make your own business work, there are some basics of building a profitable business that you must keep in mind to apply to your situation as you launch your lawn care business and begin to get customers and generate revenue.

Profitability is not a complicated idea. It is basically making more money than you spend. But it is a mistake to think you can reach profitability simply by controlling costs. Too many businesses have gone under putting all the emphasis on efficiency and cost savings and not enough emphasis on getting new customers and customer retention. You can see profitability when you and your crews are all fully engaged in money generating work every working hour of every day.

This can be a challenge particularly as you grow to where you can need to keep multiple crews going every day. To keep each team on a job site, completing work and then moving to the next job site and juggle the work and the workers each and every day is a test of your management ability. But you learn the art of managing larger and larger teams and larger jobs as your business grows from just you and your small collection of tools to a much larger company.

As a manager, job one is customer retention. Job two is gaining new customers. Job three is cost control and making sure your teams are performing at peak efficiency while delivering top quality work to your customers. The customer focus needed to become profitable must go further than just you, the owner of the business. You must instill it in your employees. It is when you can capture the business of a nice roster of repeat customers that you have the basis for profitability as you take good care of the work these customers give you each week.

As the owner and manager of your lawn care company, you must always be looking for ways to capture more business. This means marketing and advertising sometimes. But it also means making sure the work you do for existing customers is done well. If there was the heart of true profitability for your lawn care business, it is not primarily cost controls although that is a vital part of any successful business. The real heart of profitability is customer satisfaction.

With satisfied customers, you can build a budget of reliable income from the monthly payments of that customer base. Happy customers will give you new work as you expand the kinds of services your lawn care business offers. And happy customers give you referrals as they tell their friends of neighbors about your lawn service they are so happy with. That word of mouth marketing is free to you and it will get you more business than any other type of advertising.

These are all great reasons to take very good care of the customers you have and grow from that base to greater profitability each year. It is much more economical and profitable to retain your customers than to get new ones.

Cause Joy!

As Strong as Your Weakest Link

When you start your own lawn care business, there are a lot of new situations you have to just accept as 'coming with the territory.' Perhaps you did lawn care for years as an independent contractor or you worked for someone else on their payroll. The work of lawn care doesn’t change and if that is what you love to do, you are on the right track starting your own lawn care business. But when it is your business and you are responsible, the world is a very different place.

No doubt the biggest adjustment will be that when you own your own business, you suddenly are confronted with this new creature called an 'employee.' But it is the employees you have on board with you that will make or break your yard care business. That means that one of the most important skills you will develop as a manager and owner of a business will be your ability to pick, hire and retain no less than "good" up to "great" employees. That is because your business will truly be as strong as your weakest link.

If you used contract labor when you got busy before you turned your lawn care into a business, you developed some skills for evaluating who would be a good worker. If you did get that chance, that judgment skill will be invaluable to you as you build your own small army of quality employees. It is quite a balancing act to capture enough business to keep all of your employees busy and then to think about growing your business as well.

If you get a rush of new business, you want to capture it and turn those satisfied customers into long term clients. You must be able to add new employees to take care of all of that business and be able to trust those employees to take care of that business well so the job they do for those new customers is just as high quality as you would do yourself. Perhaps the most important resource you can find is a labor source who can provide you with a consistent supply of workers who do a good job for you. Whether this is a community that you network with to draw workers from or a placement service, you will benefit from having a way to recruit good employees without having to make that your primary job in life.

It seems that the balancing act of the amount of work and the right number of employees is one of the most difficult parts of owning a business. You might have too much business and not enough good employees. Then you find yourself overworking the good employees you have and paying higher wages for their longer hours. You get overworked yourself which cuts down on the time you can spend growing your business. Or, you have too many employees when the business shrinks. Then you have a decision of whether to lay off good employees that you want to have on call when your business expands.

Above all, when you develop a strong staff of good employees, you should bend heaven and earth to take care of them. Morale in your employee ranks can be as much of a determining factor for the growth of your business as good customers or good equipment you need to take care of all those lawns that are the heart of your work. Learn to be a "good boss". If employees you know are good workers develop problems, try to work with them to return them to productivity.

If you can keep a good group of employees working with you and you are always developing new talent, you will have conquered one of the biggest of the many challenges of running your own lawn care business. It will be a skill that will be a key component to long term success. And if you can give your employees a little part of the success you are enjoying, they will become an even more valuable asset which is a loyal crew that will work hard for you because you take good care of them.