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Aquaponics bug keeps spreading
About 8 months ago I started to realize that maybe other's felt like I did. I got on the forums, especially the Aquaponics Gardening Community and it was much more apparent that many others were afflicted. When I got Sylvia's book, I felt better knowing that I was under it's control, the aquaponics bug has taken hold of a pretty large chunk of population.
Saturday I was at a community rummage sale and ran into some old high school classmates. Having talked to them a few times over the last year about my aquaponics obsession, I think they just expect to hear the latest developments on my fish and plants.
On this day, one of them told me they had talked to another classmate and that he had just discovered aquaponics.
Well today I went to the business he runs and on driving up, my aquaponics scrounging alerts went of and I NOTICED HE HAD BLUE BARRELS AND CEMENT BLOCKS in a storage area. Telltale signs of an aquaponically inflicted person.
I walked in and he was munching some fruit for lunch, not the usual plate lunches, another sign.
I asked him about the barrels and blocks. He replied "Why you need some? I told him that I heard he was interested in aquaponics. He smiled and lifted the book he had been reading. A brand new copy of Sylvia's Aquaponic Gardening.
He said he was so excited on getting it the other day and then bummed out one day that he forgot to bring it with him.
Like most of us inflicted with the aquaponics bug, he had already built a system and now he was reading the book and figuring out what he did or did not do.
We talked for nearly 2 hours about our new found "hobbies" and how, like many others I have talked to or heard about, we have been known to be up into the night and weekends working on our systems, refining and often re-inventing the wheel as Dr. Lennard Wilson puts it.
I finally left and let him close shop, although we could have gone on into even more aspects of aquaponics and farming.
Knowing we are just a part of a growing community of inflicted aquapons helps us. I don't know if it changes spouse, family and friends opinions of us, but it helps to know we are not alone.
Walking out the door, I urged him to get on this forum, sign up for the Aquaponics Source online course and to call me so we can visit each other's obsession.
In the meantime, I am writing this sitting outside with the sound of my airlift pump gurgling, the occasional sound of my tilapia splashing the water as they leap up to nibble at the over hanging taro and preparing to hit the 50% point on my Aquaponics Source online course.
Saturday I was at a community rummage sale and ran into some old high school classmates. Having talked to them a few times over the last year about my aquaponics obsession, I think they just expect to hear the latest developments on my fish and plants.
On this day, one of them told me they had talked to another classmate and that he had just discovered aquaponics.
Well today I went to the business he runs and on driving up, my aquaponics scrounging alerts went of and I NOTICED HE HAD BLUE BARRELS AND CEMENT BLOCKS in a storage area. Telltale signs of an aquaponically inflicted person.
I walked in and he was munching some fruit for lunch, not the usual plate lunches, another sign.
I asked him about the barrels and blocks. He replied "Why you need some? I told him that I heard he was interested in aquaponics. He smiled and lifted the book he had been reading. A brand new copy of Sylvia's Aquaponic Gardening.
He said he was so excited on getting it the other day and then bummed out one day that he forgot to bring it with him.
Like most of us inflicted with the aquaponics bug, he had already built a system and now he was reading the book and figuring out what he did or did not do.
We talked for nearly 2 hours about our new found "hobbies" and how, like many others I have talked to or heard about, we have been known to be up into the night and weekends working on our systems, refining and often re-inventing the wheel as Dr. Lennard Wilson puts it.
I finally left and let him close shop, although we could have gone on into even more aspects of aquaponics and farming.
Knowing we are just a part of a growing community of inflicted aquapons helps us. I don't know if it changes spouse, family and friends opinions of us, but it helps to know we are not alone.
Walking out the door, I urged him to get on this forum, sign up for the Aquaponics Source online course and to call me so we can visit each other's obsession.
In the meantime, I am writing this sitting outside with the sound of my airlift pump gurgling, the occasional sound of my tilapia splashing the water as they leap up to nibble at the over hanging taro and preparing to hit the 50% point on my Aquaponics Source online course.
Comment
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Comment by Sylvia Bernstein on August 21, 2012 at 7:22am
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Thanks so much for writing this wonderful story, Jim! I love hearing personal stories behind the people who read my book and take my online course! Much appreciated.
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