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Double check Cecil. They may have combos with AFCI's (Arc Fault Circuit Interrupters) Some electric motors will nuisance trip them.

Last edited by JKB; 09/22/13 08:11 AM.
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Okay, I have been very busy and had little time to write, but I have finally have a few minutes.

Georgetopia is doing great!! The solar powered aerator is a great addition. The O2 levels remain high even during the Texas drought. Last week, we got rain, a lot of rain!! We got over 8 inches and Georgetopia came up over 18 inches. We got so much rain the Feeder got a bit of water on its feet!!






The CNBG and Tilapia are doing great. I have transferred over ten coolers of fish from Georgetopia to the big pond, and I plan to transfer as many as possible to the big pond in the coming weeks. I plan on keeping the best of the best as my brood stock in Georgetopia. Further, I may try to over winter some Tilapia just to see if I can do it.


And here you can see the beach that we cleaned up this spring. The rain brought up the water level about 13 inches, not as much as I would like, but I'll take it. (Side note: the bucket in the lower right was sitting on dry land before this rain)




And here is how the big pond is maturing. I like how it is doing!! (Georgetopia is in the upper left corner of this picture)




One other thing I am focused on is the feral hog problem, I have set up my deer feeder and some hog panels. There is an opening that will be set up as a circle 6 pen the next time I am out there. With any luck, I should be set for BACON!! for a long time.



All in all, the the farm is doing great. Gergetopia was a great addition to our farm. I now have a really nice seine, and hunting season looks bright.


Brian

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Looks great Brian. Love all the pics.


Fishing has never been about the fish....

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You have done a great job! The big lake really looks "fishy"...


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Brian, seriously happy you got all that rise. We got 4" of rain, and the puddle came up 4".

I like the hog feeder too!


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So awesome to see that additional water! The lake looks great!


"Forget pounds and ounces, I'm figuring displacement!"

If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1)
And we surmise that: BG(>)HBG(F1) while GSF(<)HBG(F1)
Would it hold true that: HBG(F1)(+)AM500(x)q.d.(=)1.5lbGRWT?
PB answer: It depends.
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Nice job on the farm/lakes. You must be good at doing the rain dance also.
















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All,
Thanks for the kind words. The real test is when we seine Georgetopia and see how we did. I expect that we are going to be happy with the results. Remember, we have already taken lots of fish out of Georgetopia over the summer and now as the water cools, it is time to transfer all but the ones we will retain as brood stock in Georgetopia. The extra Tilapia should be great with a little lemon juice!!

Eric, I can not take credit for the rain dance, but I love the results!!

BTW, here is a few pics I took from a storm at the end of Aug (sorry for the late post). This storm took down hundreds of trees in the area. We lost the tops of a bunch of the trees in the shallow end of the pond during this storm. Also, we lost power for quite a long time. But we did get an inch or two of rain while in town, they only got wind and dust.

Also, these pictures were taken after the big part of the storm passed and I felt safe enough to step outside long enough to take them!!






Brian

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White-caps on Lake HighFlyer!


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I remember that storm well. That was the one highflyer had while we were getting our hay baled. We are 20 miles southwest of him and the sun was shining at our place as he was getting this.


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Well tomorrow is a big day at lake Georgetopia.

Allen and I are going to bring George out to the farm and show him how Georgetopia has done. Remember, the spring was cold and wet off and on so we really never got a good start to the season. Right after that, it got hot and dry, very dry. It was so bad that even in June, my springs could not keep up with the losses. My LMB spawn was iffy at best. I have a lot of pictures and video of Bass on nests, but so far I have not seen much recruitment. I am afraid the weather just did not support a good spawn. On the other hand, I have seen some smaller catfish and a lot of smaller BG in the big pond. The catfish were delicious!! The BG that I do catch are fat and full of life. I was able to take video and pictures of their spawns and I have seen a lot of little BG swimming around.

So with all of that, how is Georgetopia doing? I will admit I spent a lot more time working on Georgetopia than the rest of the property this summer, but there was a method to my madness. I added the solar powered aerator because I needed to have a safety valve and it work very well. I was also able to add just the right amount of fertilizer to get a good bloom. Allen help me get rid of some turbidity with our alum experiment. But with the eight inch rain we had a couple weeks ago, a lot of that returned. It will be interesting to see if Georgetopia clears any now that it has had some time to settle. If not, I will add another learning point to the list.

Now it's October and I need to start to put Georgetopia into its winter mode. I will try my best to ease Georgetopia into that mode by removing most of the fish this week. This is going to be a two pronged attack. First off, George is going to try to teach me a little about fly fishing on Georgetopia, and when he get frustrated with my incompetence (I bet less than five minutes, Allen gives me ten), Allen and I will seine Georgetopia. We will select the best of the best to remain in Georgetopia for the winter and the rest, as Allen says, get to go swim in the public pool. George gets to be the photographer. I hope its a fun day, the forecast could not be better. Everything should be ready and it is time to get Georgetopia into its winter gears.

There is going to be a winter experiment/learning opportunity this year in Georgetopia. I have ordered 1000 feet of half inch black drip tubing. I plan to set it up around the rim of Georgetopia and run water through it during the day seeing if I can add enough heat to Georgetopia to raise its temp and expand the warm season at all. The goal is to never see less than 60 degrees in Georgetopia all winter. Of course I will use the solar system to power the project and I will use the same pumps I used for the sprinkler system the last two years. All in all, I am in this experiment for $87 in poly tubing. And if I see some progress, but not enough, I'll add another 1000 feet to see how that does!!

To think,Georgetopia started out as a tribute to George only after I was more than half the way through the beach clean up. I added it to try my hand at growing some CNBG to improve the genetics in our big pond because of where it had started, I never imagined that I would do so much with it and learn what I have in such a short time. It may not look like it, but I have a better understanding of what George was trying to tell me last year now that I have a thimble full of experience this year.

Pictures of the events of tomorrow to follow; Wish us well!!!


Brian

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Good luck and please keep up the info exchange. There is no teacher like personal experience. It was a fun first year and productive.
















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Brian, I waved at you when I went near Memphis today. I guess you didn't see it. wink I'm about half way to Georgetopia, spending the night right outside of Little Rock, AR.

With the black tubing, you might want to get it up off the ground, or at least insulated from the ground so the ground doesn't suck out the heat. Maybe get some of that thin foil faced insulation, cut it into whatever width you need to place it under the tubing?

Good luck tomorrow! Say HI to George and Al for me.


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Use the foil/insulator that has a black face to absorb heat to be transferred to the tubing. Or put tar paper/roof wrap on top of the insulator next to the tubing.

Last edited by ewest; 10/09/13 05:40 AM.















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The black tubing was delivered today, and it's a big roll!! I am now working on the best value way to set it up to capture and retain the sun's heat wit as small a foot print as possible.

Eric and Scott, thanks for the ideas. Now that I see how big the roll is, I can start to put the plan into action.

As some might have read, I did not make it back to Texas today due to an Aux Pitot tube heater. Allen and George had a great day at their places, so our place will be the focus the next time we get out in a few days. Pictures and the report from Georgetopia will have to wait until later this week or early next week. I missed a great day in Texas.... But that comes with the job.


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Couldn't you have put a lighter to it to heat it up? grin


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Such is life ! There will be another day.
















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Scott, there are no, I repeat no 500 mile an hour lighters available!! But we did look just to make sure!!

Saturday is the reschedule day, I hope we don't get too much rain before we finish seining Georgetopia.

Agreed Eric.


Brian

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Okay, it's Saturday!! We got to get out to the farm and see how Georgetopia did this year. It started out as a fun day. I brought my son and picked up george on the way out to the farm. Santa Allen caught up to us just a few minutes after things were set up.

Allen and my son got started setting up the seine. George was in charge of photography, so you know how this is going to go!!




Next Santa and I got ready to get going. The seine is 55 feet long and eight feet tall.



During the first seining, we caught a bunch of fish including these fish.








We figured we had pulled the seine way to fast on the first pull, so we decided to try it again and slow down. We found that slower was much better.







All in all, we pulled the seine three times, each time we pulled slower than the previous time and we got better results each time.

After all three pulls, we sorted all of the CNBG's saved to select the best ones to be returned to Georgetopia. George got to toss back the first fish!!




I was second fiddle for the repatriation of Georgetopia.....




I also saved some of the tilapia to also be set free in Georgetopia for the winter. I am going to try to add a solar powered water heater to Georgetopia in an attempt to overwinter some tilapia in georgetopia.






All in all, Santa, George and I had a great day out on our farm. While my son did most of the work, we took most of the credit!!





I'll post more after the solar powered heater is installed and I'll post how well it is working.


Brian

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Fantastic post , pics and results. Those CNBG look in great condition.

Those CNBG look like George's babies.

Any guess on the #s and weight of total fish moved ?
















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Originally Posted By: ewest
Fantastic post , pics and results. Those CNBG look in great condition.

Those CNBG look like George's babies.

Any guess on the #s and weight of total fish moved ?

Yesterday was a great day that was a new learning experience for me - observed seining a forage pond!
The most exciting event of the day was watching Brian select OTS CNBG brood stock based on confirmation of color, pattern, and growth characteristics.

Compare Brian’s CNBG photos to the photo of their great grand dad’s photo!





30 September, 2009


Best CNBG genetics in this part of the country IMO!

Good job Brian - thanks for the memories!
George



N.E. Texas 2 acre and 1/4 acre ponds
Original george #173 (22 June 2002)




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Eric, I believe I can defend weights and numbers as followed:

I think we took out between 1000 and 2000 fish this time, and I would estimate the weight removed from Georgetopia and put in the public pool to be close to 35 pounds this time.

I figured this two ways. One, the weight of the fish in each dip net as we cleaned the seine; And two, the pictures we took. The seine passes had about a 25 inch, a just under 30 inch and an over 32 inch ball of fish as we pulled the seine out of the water. A fish count went like this. "Holly crap that's a lot of fish." Then I would count an area and do a little multiplication work and when I figured we were over 1000 fish and I was happy and stopped counting. That happened before we finished with the second pass.

We ended up putting something less than eight pounds of the best of the best CNBG back into Georgetopia as next years brood stock. I also added back five to eight pounds of Tilapia to see if I can over winter them in Georgetopia with a little help from a solar water heater. The water heater will get installed next week. I have all the parts now so this should come together pretty fast. I should be able to gauge the delta T from input to output with a simple thermometer. knowing the rise in temperature and knowing the flow rate should make this simple math to see if I can add enough heat to make a difference.


All in all, we seined Georgetopia three times this summer. I would estimate in total we took out something under 100 pounds of fish which we put into the big pond. Georgetopia started as an after thought, but I am glad we did it. I like the control it affords us and I like the fact that we can select what we would like to put into it as we go. Georgetopia's future looks bright!!


Brian

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I agree. No need to defend as no one has a better count than you guys.

I was trying to formulate a rough guess as to carrying capacity for GT and #s and lbs moved to big lake.

Watch over winter and spring at condition of big lake's LMB to gauge improvement in RW. That is for example 100 lbs of added forage = 5 % improvement in RW condition. Also have to gauge how many of the CNBG stocked into big lake survive to become pert of standing stock in Big Lake.
















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Georgtopia had MORE TOPIA!!

Today my dirt guy came by and got rid of the old burn pile. It took a while to shake out the dirt, but after a while, the burning commenced!!

After that, the real work began. He was there to dig out two new forage ponds. Georgetopia II and III.



Georgetopia II was first, it is roughly the same size and shape as Gerogetopia I. Georgetopia III is a little smaller but that is okay because it is going to be used to work on LMB genetics!!

Georgtopia III is also closer to some pine trees, so I 'll have to see if that effects water quality in a little pond or not.



I took a panoramic of the three ponds in the foreground and of course, the big pond is in the background.



All in all, the ponds turned out pretty cool. I like the way they look and I like how we have them set up.



It was a very busy day, and to top it off, I found signs of a beaver in our pond.

Turns out that there was one. And Eric was right, you only get one shot, but that was all I needed to shut him down. And now according to Santa, I do not need to shave again as now I am a mountain man!!

I have just one question for all the real mountain men out there, Is there an easier way to skin a beaver? (Pun intended!!)



All in all, in looks great, I am going to add water and erosion control matting this weekend!!



I think I'll start with FHM's in both the new ponds and go from there!!


I sure hope this doesn't go to George's head......


Brian

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Good going Brian! So, was it the practice on the 'coon that allowed you to get the beaver? wink

As for skinning, leave them just like that. Cut around the tail and legs right at the fur line. Make a slit from the tail all the way to the chin. Work the skin off from there. They don't let go of their skin easily tho, and then you need to flesh them to get the fat/meat/gristle off. They are dried "in the round". Lay the skin on a piece of plywood fur side down (make sure the fur is dry). One nail at the center of the tail, one at the nose. One in the center of the belly on each side. Now put another nail in every inch or so and pull it so the outside of the skin is round.

With the turbidity problems that you had with Georgetopia I, I'd get ready for an alum treatment of the new ones. Better fish growth that way.

I don't think your boss is going to let you give Al a run for his money in a beard growing contest.....

Looks great!!


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