I have to admit, when I created my blog last year I thought I would be able to update it (with more or less useful entries) every other week or so. Well, I guess I was wrong. So what happened? It can be explained in one sentence: It's all about Andy now...

Meet Andy!

Most of my relatives and close friends in "Old Europe" are somewhat familiar with my secret past, but my more recent friends in the "New World" don't have a clue that at one point in my life, it was all about dogs…

At a time when Global Warming was still something to look forward to (at least in rainy Hamburg), my parents decided it would be nice to add a dog to our family. The decision came down to either a Boxer or a German shepherd. Knowing that Boxers slobber a lot, I successfully lobbied for the alternative. So it all started with Anka, my dad's first German shepherd. Since you can't just lock a German shepherd in your house all day (unless you want it demolished), my dad got involved with a German shepherd club nearby and eventually became one of the founding members of one of Germany's first Red Cross rescue dog teams (DRK Rettungshundestaffel Hamburg). At that point, I was not too involved with my dads dog, but I guess if you expose a teenager to all this doggie stuff every day for years, you either get someone that is eager to follow the same path ( = me), or someone who will probably never get dog at all ( = my brother). At the age of seventeen, I got my first dog. Having worked a lot of dogs over the years, "Wolf" certainly was not an easy dog for a rookie, but a perfect one for teaching a clueless dog handler that even simple training mistakes won't be forgiven.

I spent the following ten (+) years with dogs. Every spare minute that was not occupied with studying or some of the other "important" things youngsters do was focused around dog stuff… They say it's the taking part that counts. I did not think so. The news clipping below might help to illustrate that.

I started with "Schutzhund" training, ultimately competing in a myriad of trials and tournaments where especially my second dog "Sam" did very well. I also joined the rescue dog team that my father co-founded and I trained my dogs in trailing, area search and disaster search. Eventually, me and my dogs were deployed in countless search and rescue missions ranging from missing person searches in the wilderness to urban disaster searches (i.e. after gas explosions). We were also twice selected to serve in international Red Cross rapid response missions after the major earth quakes in Armenia (former USSR) and eastern Turkey. I was eventually awarded the "DKR Leistungsspange in Silber" (Silver achievement brooch), one of the highest awards conferred by the German Red Cross for outstanding mission achievements.

Over the years, my career got more demanding and I ended up with (a lot) less time and (a lot) more travel. My work with dogs had to take a backseat. When I left Germany in 1997 and moved to the United States, my second dog "Sam" went into his well deserved retirement with my parents. Did I miss my dogs? Absolutely, but I also knew it would not be fair to a dog if you don't have enough time and/or space for it. I did not want to get anything other than a German shepherd, and boy do they need lots of time, space and exercise. Now, more than 10 years after I left Germany, I call California my home and I finally have more time, space and flexibility (thanks to my amazing wife Sandra and the benefits of entrepreneurship).

That brings me back to Andy. One morning in January during one of my regular video-conference sessions with my parents in Hamburg, I mentioned to them that Sandra and I had decided to get a dog. We were thinking about getting a German shepherd puppy later this year and I was interested to learn what it would take to import one from a strong working-dog blood line directly from a German breeder. Since an old friend of mine is a German shepherd breeder, I asked my dad to consult with him about what kennels I should look at later in the year. The next morning when I checked my email, I was flooded with a dozen of puppy pictures. At first, I thought "gee! my parents are taking their information gathering job seriously and it is nice of them to send me pictures of my friends' current litter... But then, my mom said something unexpected: "Did you see the picture with your father holding your dog? His name is Andy…" My dog? Andy? I still did not quite understand what was going on when the boiler room sales pitch started. "He is the perfect puppy, Maineiche blood line, we watched all siblings and he shows very strong, you need to make a decision NOW or the opportunity is gone!" Holy moly! This was not a penny stock trader pitching there, these were my parents and they were serious. I told my dad that I had to deal with some critical business at the office for the next 6 weeks, but as soon as I said this, he responded that he would bring the dog to me and all I needed to do is pick him up at the airport. Well, Sandra and I were kind of taken by surprise, but what would life be without surprises?  So we decided to get Andy.

Here comes Andy von Tajö (his registered name).

Andy arrived in the United States on January 22, 2008 - My dad took him by train from Hamburg to Frankfurt and then checked him on a direct flight to San Francisco to minimize the time this poor little thing had to be locked in its crate. Look at these paws! He is going to be *really* big.

The past few months, I have been spending a lot of time with Andy. I even got a bunch of training related books since there has been a lot of talk that training methods evolved quite a bit over the years. And they did… In the end, having Andy around is great fun and you can watch his energy level grow day by day. I am back in my element, I am taking Andy tracking 3-4 times per week, he has learned a great amount of self discipline and is eager to work (=play). I might join a rescue dog team again, but then again, I don't think that I have that much spare time…

More pictures are here

 

Last fall, we remodeled our entire backyard. Okay, it is probably more accurate if I say that we flattened everything and then built a new backyard. When we put the finishing touches on this fairly substantial project, I decided to add a small pond next to our patio. I like the soothing sound of water fountains and our patio area seemed like a perfect spot for this.

Before	After

The water in our pond turned pretty green after just a couple of weeks, but that did not bother me at all. Then, on a pleasant Sunday afternoon just a few months ago, Sandra came home with something unexpected: a small plastic bag - filled with water and three tiny little goldfish…

When I released the three goldfish into the pond, they instantly disappeared in what can only be described as a dense green soup. Over the next week, I tried to check on the fish each morning before I had to go to work, but I was not able to see anything other than green water. I started to worry that the green algae infested water would be a horrible environment for those tiny little fish, and I wasn't even sure if they are still alive after one week in this.

Our Pond

All worried about those little swimming creatures, I threw a sum pump into the pond and started to empty it while looking for any signs of survivors. The pond must have been almost empty when I saw one of them trying to dive away in the muddy water at the bottom of the pond. I stopped the pump and got a large swimming pool leaf net out of my pool box… it was large enough to catch all 3 goldfish at once. Once I had all three goldfish safely transferred into a small bucket, I emptied the rest of the pond and scrubbed it top-down. I realized that I needed to do something about algae growth or I would face the same problem in a couple of weeks again. With that in mind, I went to The Home Depot and purchased one of those Beckett submersible pump and filter combinations as well as liquid pond start-up bacteria, algae killer and chlorine remover. I refilled the pond, added the filter, pump and chemicals and then waited for another day before I let the goldfish back into their sparkling new pond. It was nice to actually see the fish in there and not only green soup all around.

The next morning when I checked on the pond, I noticed that the water lily container in the shallow corner of the pond had been knocked over. I thought this must have been some bird or so, and I put it back where it belongs.

Well, during the following weeks picking up the water lily container turned into a new morning routine and it became pretty clear that there was something else. I regularly chase my neighbors' cats out of my backyard so they stop using it as a toilet, but having them pray on my fish in addition to that is just too much for me. I went back to The Home Depot and to get a can of Critter Ridder. I sprinkled almost half of that can around my pond - and the next morning, my water lily was still in the place it belongs. Excellent! This could have been the start into a great day if only the water would not seem to turn green again despite of the constant influx of algae-killing chemicals.

I needed expert advice so I called my mom in Germany

My mom told me that I need more plant life in my pond and I went straight to the nursery to buy a decent sized Umbrella Palm that was added to the pond right away. A few days later when I went outside to feed my goldfish, my pond looked like some middle eastern town after a huge explosion. The container with the water lily was at the bottom of the pond, the Umbrella Palm was torn into 30 pieces which were cluttered all over the pond.

So much for the reliability of Critter Ridder. That was it for me, my pond was well on its way to turn into a green soup again and my newly added Umbrella Palm looked like it just crash-landed in the mountains. I declared war on whoever did that, and the first thing needed was intelligence. I went online and spent hours googling everything from pond predators to pond water filtration. After evaluating several options, I decided to replace the underperforming "toyisch" Home Depot filtration system with something (a lot) more powerful. I bought a 2000 Gallon Fish Mate Pressurized UV+Bio Filter and a 600 gallon Fish Mate pump from Petsolutions.com to get rid of my green water once and for all.

At Farmsupplystore.com I found what I hoped would finally bring peace to my pond: A 2.5kV electric fence kit specially designed for ponds. Since I made sure that I have plenty of electrical outlets when we re-designed our backyard, I got the PG5K version that plugs directly into an 110V outlet.

Fence Energizer

[Side note: I purchase *a lot* of things online, but I was simply amazed how quickly the guys at farmsupplystore.com processed my order. I submitted my order at 8:22AM, got an automated order confirmation at 8:23AM, and an email with a UPS tracking number for my already fulfilled order at 8:46AM. It showed up on time the next day. Wow, try to beat 24 minutes from online order submission to shipment notification…]

First, I installed the pump and filtration system. I decided to mount the filter at the back of our retaining wall behind the pond so it would be easier to clean/maintain. Next in line was the electrical fence. The kit came with everything included, it just turned out to be *a lot* bigger than I thought compared to the pictures I saw on the web. I guess I have to point out that my pond has a capacity of only ~130 gallons. Oh well, bigger is better.

Pond Filter	Pond Pump Connection

The installation was straight forward - and the result was impressive. I touched the hot wire and got a decent shock even though I wore rubber shoes. I am not doing that again.

Pond Secured!	Electric Fence Arm

When I checked on my pond the next morning, I did not believe my eyes. One of the fence arms had snapped and the wire was partially in the water and partially wrapped around another fence arm. It was pretty clear that something must have had a really close encounter with Mr. Volt that night. Since it was Sunday morning, I went right back to work and fixed the broken fence, securing it with extra tensioned strings so it won't give in even if something really heavy steps on it.

Broken Pond Fence Arm

But what the heck was that? I was curious enough to spend more than $100 on a Swan infrared surveillance camera and video converter at Fry's Electronics.

I will keep an eye on you!

 

That night, I connected the camera to my media PC in my living room and installed motion detection software to make sure I don't miss the action. Here is the result:

Neighbors cat? Not so much...

You've got to love your neighborhood wildlife. At least it wasn't a pack of wolves. It was quite funny to watch the full video clip, especially the part that clearly shows the raccoons keeping a respectful distance to the fence. I guess something unpleasant happened there in the past....

I have to admit that my pond now somehow reminds me of Jurassic Park, but my goldfish and plants have not been bothered since. I am still monitoring the pond every night though, and Sandra just asked me if I am also going to install guard towers… This must be a German thing… or I just miss the engineering profession.

When it comes to unsolicited promotional mail, there is a substantial difference between the United States and Germany. In Germany, you just have to put a "no junkmail" label on your mailbox and that fixes the problem. Here in the U.S., not so much... When I pick up my mail, the first stop usually is at the recycling bin. The amount of junkmail that I receive is not the only annoyance - it gets worse when you look at some of those “special offers” for “valued customers” and then inspect the fine print (usually in font size 5 somewhere hidden on the back). I just got one of those from Comcast. Their high-speed internet service is performing great for me - but their Digital Voice offering is simply insulting. Comcast offers their digital voice service to their “valued customers” for an introductory rate of $19.95 per month. Their fine print then tells you that this rate changes to their “standard” rate after 3 months. Their standards rates are typically between $39 to $45 per month... $45 per month for VoIP service? You've got to be kidding. Ever heard of Vonage? or Skype? I am using Vonage and I typically pay around $20 per month for their service - and that includes hardware and quite a few international calls. When I speak with my parents on weekends, I am using Skype's video conferencing feature which works great and does not const me a dime. So, Comcast's great offer for valued customers is VoIP for $45 in addition to the $50 that I already pay for internet access? I guess they really value their customers a lot.

I spent some time going through my vacation pictures the other day. It is amazing how many pictures one can take within just a few years. Here are some of them. I did not care much about photography until digital cameras became small and powerful enough to offer really decent picture quality at a fair price. I thought it was great that you can fit a camera anywhere in your luggage - but I have to admit that as my expectations on picture quality grew, so did the size of my equipment. When I go on a photo shooting trip these days, the amount of gear must make people think I am going to climb Everest…

Slow weekends are great for playing around with a digital camera and photoshop... Initially, I wanted to practice portrait shots, but the only thing that was patient enough to bare with me was a coke can. Well, you've got to work with what you've got!

OK, that seems to work... Now let's link this thing to the newly created public picture gallery on my website. Voila!