Water is one of the single most important things in my mantra. You can’t live without water. As you might be aware from our previous videos, our magnificent pond had a leak as well as other major problems. In this video, Lynette chats with Lenny from “Kona Land and Water Escapes” and we will show you how he and his team repaired and renovated our pond.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Lenny from Kona Land and Water Escapes
1:01 Update on Our Leaking Pond
3:09 Floating Islands and Koi Fish
6:42 Water Conservation Tips
10:00 Connecting to Nature
TRANSCRIPT FROM VIDEO:
Lynette Zang (00:00):
I’m Lynette Zang, Chief Market Analyst at ITM Trading, but also a very proud prepper. And you guys know that water is one of the single most important things. I mean, you can’t live without water. You also know that I have this magnificent pond, which we’d been able to film in front of many times, and that it had a leak and a problem. So I’d like to introduce you to Lenny, would you say the name of your company? I warned you.
Lenny (00:29):
The name of our company is Kona Land and Water Escapes.
Lynette Zang (00:34):
And so he’s been helping us redo the pond, we had to redo the whole pond.
New Speaker (00:41):
Do you think that the world is headed in a direction that makes you a bit concerned for the future and you’d like to be as self-sufficient and independent as possible? Then you’ve come to the right place. My name is Lynette Zang. Now it’s time to go Beyond Gold and Silver.
Lynette Zang (00:56):
What do we have going on here?
Lenny (01:04):
Well, this right in here is we had to go through the deck and it’s about six inches worth of concrete and it’s old concrete, so it takes a long time to go through it. And we’re putting two drains in the wall of the pool because there has to be a section for this extra pump that we put in.
Lynette Zang (01:23):
Okay.
Lenny (01:24):
And the main drain that we could have used was stopped up somehow, so we couldn’t use that drain.
Lynette Zang (01:30):
So what did you find as the leak? I mean, is was it like, were there a lot of little cracks? I mean this pool was originally put in, in the forties, so it’s a really old pool anyway.
Lenny (01:42):
They don’t build them like that anymore. No. <Laugh>. No,
Lynette Zang (01:45):
No they don’t
Lenny (01:45):
I think what what we found was there was cracks throughout the pool shell itself, and it looks to me like the plants that you had in the water had the roots had gone through the liner. Oh. Which was in here. So now you have a hole in the liner. And because there was cracks underneath the liner that the liner was trying to make watertight, then of course then you were losing water and you also had some cracks in your pipes over here.
Lynette Zang (02:14):
Okay. Well so that’s gonna create a lot of leaks. Right. But what you’ve done now, should it better solve the problem? But you know, I mean, everybody looks at when something is all finished and they think, Wow, they didn’t have any problems with it. I’m having all these problems. So that’s why I think it’s important to show that, you know, we’re all on the same boat and we all have issues that come up, but it’s really important to find the right people that can help us. That’s part of the community. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So is there anything else that you wanna say? I mean, you can see all this gorgeous rock work that Lenny and his crew have redone and it looks beautiful. So I’m excited to see it all put back together again and get it done.
Lenny (03:02):
All you need is water and fish now and plants.
Lynette Zang (03:05):
Well, where are they?
Lenny (03:05):
They are over here in the shade
Lynette Zang (03:06):
Let’s go take a look. All right. <Laugh>. So you can see the plants and then here are most of the fish.
Lenny (03:16):
There’s about a hundred koi in that pond. And of course we’re using a pump here to airate the water. And because there’s so many fish in this small area, we have to change 25% of the water out every day. So the ammonia from the fish waste doesn’t, you know, make the water toxic. So we have to do that every day. They’re doing pretty good in there.
Lynette Zang (03:41):
Do you think the plants will be able to revive?
Lenny (03:44):
Yeah.
Lynette Zang (03:44):
And no problem using the floating islands?
Lenny (03:48):
No, I think like that, That’s a really good idea. I don’t know who came up with that idea years ago, but it’s a great idea that way you can move your landscape around. Most of these plants over here are taro and water cans and you’ve got some umbrella grass and some other water plants that are used to oxidate the water and also to make the pond beautiful.
Lynette Zang (04:11):
Right. And also to clean it, because the roots will clean it. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, I didn’t think about the roots going through the liner.
Lenny (04:18):
Right.
Lynette Zang (04:18):
Okay. But and you do a lot of other things. So we’ll be doing more projects. So I’m sure you’re gonna see Lenny again. But would you talk more about your company and how you are inside of community? Cause you’re also, you also work a lot in Hawaii right?
Lenny (04:34):
Right. our company was founded in 1970. I was going to school and thought I wanted to be a doctor and one day it occurred to me that I really hated to be inside. So I thought, now what do I do? And so I went back to school and studied Japanese and Chinese business relations.
Lynette Zang (04:57):
Interesting.
Lenny (04:57):
So I had an opportunity to go to Japan and study landscape gardening and architecture over there on three or four various trips that we took to Japan. And so I was able to learn those Japanese principles. And also the fact that I could speak somewhat of the language helped me also because it wasn’t in English there. So so that really helped a lot. And I decided that I wanted to build some type of an environment here that was more lush and tropical. And this area can grow very easily. Tropical plants. Yeah. A lot of people don’t realize that they just have to change the soil a little bit. And you can have this tropical environment without a lot of water use. You can conserve water and still have tropical plants, which in fact cooled the area down and clean the air.
Lynette Zang (05:52):
So is there anything that you wanna say about what you, you had to do or what people should do? Cause a lot of people now, I mean, I’ll tell you the truth, one of the big reasons besides the beauty, one of the big reasons why I converted my pool into a pond was because water, when you’re going through reset transitions economically like we are water is a huge issue. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, it’s Food, Water, Energy, Security, Barterability, Wealth Preservation, Community and Shelter. So these are the things that I focus on and I and with the Berkey water filter, I can drink the pond water if I need to drink pond water mm-hmm.
Lenny (06:34):
<Affirmative> right? You can. Plus it’s beautiful. You’ve got nature in your own backyard. You have beautiful plants that can float in the water and they look nice.
Lynette Zang (06:42):
Is there some little quick and easy tip that you can share with our viewers and what they can do to conserve water?
Lenny (06:51):
I think the best thing that people can do to conserve water is if you have some type of an irrigation system for those of us that still have a lawn at home, a natural lawn mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, make sure that your sprinklers are working properly, that the water’s not running down the street, that you’re not watering the street and you’re not watering the sidewalk. You can use low pressure heads now that save 50% of the water right off the bat.
Lynette Zang (07:20):
Oh wow. That’s great.
Lenny (07:21):
And so that it doesn’t, it doesn’t arc way up in the air so you don’t lose the evaporation. It’s closer to the ground. And you don’t have to water every single day. You’re actually better off with lawns if you don’t water every day. But there’s ways to water and there’s times of the day to water. I don’t necessarily agree with people that tell you to water at night. And the reason for that, it makes sense because of the heat. But on the other thing, what they’re not telling you is it’s so hot in Arizona that things mildew. And so you get a lot of fungus, you get a lot of fungus on your plants, you get fungus in your yard. So I think the best time to water is really early in the morning you know, before everybody’s taking their showers and all that stuff. And not water at night when you can. The nights don’t cool down here. So the the ground has a chance to get fungus and that causes all kinds of problems, whether you’re growing a garden or whether you’re just having ornamental plants. So that can be an issue.
Lynette Zang (08:19):
Yeah. I mean, it makes a lot of sense. When I go out, like this morning I went out for my walk about 5:30, so there was some light and you could see where, you know, the water was just running down the road. And that kills me because it’s just a waste.
Lenny (08:34):
Right.
Lynette Zang (08:36):
So I’d say, you know, have your, I mean, not just ask your, whoever’s maintaining your lawn to check that, but you check and make sure that they actually did it.
Lenny (08:46):
Right. And a lot of, a lot of maintenance companies, because we’ve had maintenance companies in our company for years, don’t check irrigation. The reason why they don’t check irrigation is they got 15 people to do that day. And if anything goes wrong, they end up dumping somebody into the next day, which they’re in the wrong side of town on that day. So if you have people that do, do your lawn or your, your landscape at home, check to make sure the irrigation is working, that’s really, that’s, that’s actually the most important thing a person can do for you, is to make sure that they check the irrigation system, whether it’s drip or whether it’s in the lawn. The drip systems today are phenomenal. They’re starting to water a lot of farms with drip irrigation. And I think probably within four or five years you’ll probably see most of our lawns will be, if we have lawns that will be watered with drip per irrigation. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, it’s gonna, gonna drastically save water.
Lynette Zang (09:42):
Yeah. Well, you know, as we know, this is actually happening on a global basis as well, that the rivers and estuaries are starting to dry up. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So water is <laugh> a really big key. Cause we can’t live without water
Lenny (09:57):
Can’t live without
Lynette Zang (09:58):
Water, can live without water. Is there anything else that you would like to tell our audience that, you know, we haven’t talked about or,
Lenny (10:07):
I think one of the things that I try to tell the people that I meet in my profession is if you’re gonna do a landscape, have it something that’s your little sanctuary. Have it something where you can go and share with your family. Or maybe someplace a quiet place that you can go be alone in nature. It’s an area that you can control. You can, when everything’s going to heck around you, you can do something with that. And it doesn’t matter how big or small it is, get your little piece of nature and make sure you take care of it and enjoy it.
Lynette Zang (10:45):
Yeah.
Lenny (10:46):
You know? Yeah. Enjoy it and have it, you know, be in Arizona. Our weather pattern is that we can spend a lot of our time out here outside mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and the weather’s nice. For about eight or nine months of the year. So, you know, a lot of people stay inside all the time. And I mean, outside’s where it’s at, it’s, you know, nature’s going on outside. So it’s a good place to, you know, you can have an outdoor kitchen or a barbecue or you use your swimming pool or spa or just even just plants and you can invite wildlife. The birds will come into your yards and hummingbird and butterflies and all beautiful things. And it’s just a real quiet, serene place that people can enjoy themselves.
Lynette Zang (11:31):
Yeah. I know that’s how I use this a lot because as you guys know, I’m always looking at ugly, nasty economic stuff and mm-hmm. <Affirmative> what the governments are doing, the central banks are doing. And so yeah, my balance is coming out and feeding the fish and just enjoying nature. It’s really important for us all to get back to nature. It’s a really
Lenny (11:54):
Good point, Len. I come home from work and take my shoes off and go outside and I have a little bit of a lawn in my backyard and a real tropical looking backyard around my swimming pool. And I go outside and get my feet in the grass and kind of connect. That’s what I do all day long. But you think I’d want to not do that at home, but I want to get home. I want to do more of it.
Lynette Zang (12:17):
Well, it’s kind of different though.
Lenny (12:19):
Yeah, it is.
Lynette Zang (12:20):
Because when you’re working, you’re managing your crew.
Lenny (12:21):
Right, right. And so when I’m home, I’m not managing anything, I’m just there.
Lynette Zang (12:27):
Which is a great way to do it. And, you know, really, really important for everybody to connect to nature. That’s so important. It helps us balance everything and, you know, ponds and fish and all of the plants. I mean, I know. I love it. And you guys have seen what’s gonna be interesting to see what happens with the pond now because it’s like we’re starting over with a fresh pond.
Lenny (12:51):
Right, Right. Yeah. You shouldn’t have, your plants won’t hurt this surface on this pond. They can just grow and grow. Yeah.
Lynette Zang (13:01):
Well that’s it for today and thank you so much for joining us. I hope you got a lot out of this. And you can see this project and we’ll show you again as we come to conclusion on it.
Lenny (13:12):
Right. Mm-Hmm.
Lynette Zang (13:13):
<Affirmative>. So till next we meet. Please be safe out there. Bye-bye.
SOURCES:
Lenny’s Website: https://www.konalandscape.com/
