Favorite Spaces / Fun Times

So the Koi Fish Need Names โค๏ธ ๐Ÿ  ๐Ÿ’œ

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Life has been so dull lately, I had to resurrect the naming of the fish story!! Sad times!!

When we bought our house three summers ago, we fell in love with the backyard. Itโ€™s our own personal oasis and camping pad in the burbs of Boulder, Colorado. It’s full of trees, bushes, flowers, grasses, an awesome fire pit, and it also has a very TINY fish pond with four Koi fish. When the previous owners asked if we wanted them, we immediately said “Yes!” They are so stinking cool and are a new kind of pet for us – 2 are orange and 2 white. Theyโ€™re pretty low-maintenance and very, very sweet. Nothing like sitting in front of the fire pit with the sound of water in the background. Especially after a stressful workday.

The Four Amigos/Amigas
The Fire Pit ๐Ÿ™‚

To me, they are precious beings, so it didn’t seem reasonable for them NOT to have names. We spent an entire Friday night sitting around the fire pit taking ideas from memories that have brought us a tremendous amount of joy.

After a few glasses of wine, the 4 amigos/amigas were named!

Big and white – Ricky Bobby – named after the main character in Talladega Nights – played by one of our favorite comedians – Will Farrell. We spend many evenings quoting the kids in that movie. They had the best lines of the bunch.

“If you ain’t first you’re last”

Big and orange – Peggy – named after the customer support commercials from Discover card. OMG…this video makes me laugh EVERY time.

Small and white – Jimmy McGill – also known as Saul Goodman from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul – 2 of our all-time favorite shows EVER. We are anxiously awaiting Season 6.

Photo Credit: AMC

Small and orange – Roxanne – named after one of the best Police tunes from the 80’s. I have this great memory of seeing them perform this song in Dallas, Texas – I think everyone lost their voices that night. SO.MUCH.FUN.

This Spring we had a giant snowstorm that dumped a good foot when we were out of town. When we got home, we immediately checked the pond. There was so much snow, the electrical outlet went out and the pump stopped working. I put my hand in the near frozen water and it felt like slush to the bottom. Grief struck….ugh, we weren’t home to save these babies! Sean grabbed the pond heater and extension cord…after a few days, we finally saw life. All four of them made it somehow. Phew.

We love all of our pets regardless of color, size, age, sex or species!

Cheers,

….i choose this….

Pam

52 comments

  1. OMG! I kept koi for about ten years, at my last place. (Note the past tense.) The pond was quite extensive, with the koi section between an upper plant-filter tank and aeration waterfall, and lower sacrificial goldfish skimming pond. The koi pond was deep enough for the fish to simply go into winter torpor at the bottom when the surface froze, though I needed to occasionally hack a hole in the ice to allow some gas exchange. No winter heater or pumps necessary.

    One thing I learned was never to name any fish that I liked. Named fish seemed to attract the attentions of racoons or herons… or Heaven forbid, bears. In the spring, when the spawning urges were going, some fish with a name would inevitably get cocky and show-off by leaping out of the pond… and into the rocks or a walkway around an edge. Or it would find its way into the shallow skim pond and get too much sun, or too little oxygen, or pick up some horrid fish disease from the riff-raff. In short, naming a koi simply provided something to put on the marker in the garden planter.
    (โ€ฒ๏ธฟโ€ต๏ฝก)

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    1. HaHa! I love the stories! We had friends tell us the same thing. โ€œDont do it, youโ€™ll regret itโ€ So far so good ๐Ÿคž I do stress about their wellbeing when we travel…and honestly not sure how they managed to stay away from raccoons. Trees in the summer hopefully provide enough air cover, that they arenโ€™t seen. They sure are cool fish!!! I hope you are doing well! Iโ€™ve been away from the blog working too much. Boo.

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  2. At the start of your post, I was wondering how the fish didn’t freeze solid during the winter months. Glad they pulled through. Thickening, icy water was probably a pretty surreal (and miserable) experience for them.

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  3. Also, I recently read that Will Farrell is a bit of a prima donna a-hole on the set. I don’t really have much history with him, but Elf is by far my favorite Christmas movie. It always bums me out when I hear a great actor might have a terrible personality.

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    2. What fun!!! I have not explored too much of Zion, but hear the Narrows are a given. I think you absolutely need to look into the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab! We didn’t get to make it, but wish we would have. Kanab is not too much further than Zion. If you feel like driving a little further past the animal sanctuary, Buckskin Gulch is an amazing slot canyon hike. You can do an out and back, else its 30(?) miles point to point. The Wave is near Buckskin, you can see if you get lucky and snag a permit. Bryce is also not too far from Zion – its awesome and so is the North Rim of the Grand Canyon (somehow I feel you have done some of that already). I did run a marathon in St George once and that was pretty, but that was nearly 20 years ago so not what’s changed there. If Antelope Canyon is open, it would be worth a drive. COVID had them completely shut down. I am sooo jealous right now!!! I hope you post about the entire adventure. BTW, we may be targeting a move to Oregon next May!!

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  5. Hey look at this, you are posting again. YAY! And just because it’s you and this post reminded me, I’ll tell you the names of my goldfish, the ones I had when I was 4 years old. They were Orange Juice, Snowball, and Thunder Cloud. Can you guess which colors they each were?

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  11. Like many others here, I missed reading you around ! ๐Ÿ˜‰ But, what with lockdowns and restrictions, we might have a bit less cool things to share (I haven’t written in my blog for 2 months already either…)…

    That Koi fish story was pretty cool to read and I love how you chose the names ; not having pets myself, I always wonder how my friends get inspired to name theirs. I was quite afraid at the end of your story but I’m so glad everyone is safe and that you could give them a great place to live !

    Happy days to you, my dear friend !
    xoxoxo

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    1. Thanks sista! It was a fun evening….many glasses of wine were had to juice the creativity. lol. Yes, I was sooooo worried about the potential outcome. This afternoon, I fed them for the first time this season – they are getting BIG. The only one I worry about is Jimmy McGill. He is the smallest of the bunch, and I don’t think he sees very well. I try to throw all the food in his direction, hoping he gets a morsel or two. The others just mow him over!! We might be due for a springtime ZOOM!!

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  15. Glad to see you back, Pam, it’s been a while. Your backyard looks amazing and I love that firepit – perfect for creating an al fresco lounge space where you can relax – thereโ€™s no excuse that itโ€™s too cold when you can sit next to those flames in the still of the night. Cheers and have a good day. I hope all is well. Aiva ๐Ÿ™‚ xxx

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    1. Aiva! I sure hope everything is alright in your neck of the woods. Are you all able to get out and about at all yet?? And you are right, you can use it all year round…we are kind of whimpy in the winter. lol

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  16. This is a great ‘comeback’ story Pam! Of course they had to get names … and no better place than to decide on that around your GORGEOUS fire pit – I want one just like that!!
    Even though life is a bit dull at the moment, you’ve just brighten mine up with your story ๐Ÿ˜Š.

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  17. I love hearing the backstories on name choices! How fun!! There’s a koi pond on the rooftop of a building downtown. I can see how it would be a relaxing feature in your backyard. ๐Ÿ™‚

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      1. This is actually one of the reasons I don’t have pets: we tried to rear fish with the kids but I was so traumatised every time one died.

        And having to take my dogs (well, my Mom’s dogs) to the vet for that dreaded end used to leave me shattered.

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