My Uncle Hans (May 25, 1921 - September 8, 2006)

I'll have to put something better on our website later on, but until then, let this be my tribute to an incredible man with a great sense of humor.

Published in the San Diego Union-Tribune on 9/17/2006:

NEYNDORFF, HANS

On Friday, September 8, 2006, we lost our beloved father and husband after a brief illness. Hans Neyndorff was born on May 25, 1921 in Surabaya, Indonesia. In 1942 he was taken prisoner by the invading Japanese and put to work on the Burma-Siam Railroad. In 1948 he was appointed controller of East Java. He was appointed military prosecutor in the Royal Dutch Army in 1949. After Indonesia won its independence, he emigrated to the Netherlands with is family, where he studied law and economics at the University of Leden and graduated with a doctorate degree in 1952. From 1954 to 1957 he served as Public Relations Officer and Economic Researcher for the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. Sponsored by Trinity Presbyterian Church of Spring Valley, he and his family left the Netherlands and arrived in San Diego on February 19, 1957. He served on the faculty at San Diego State University from 1962 to 1983 as Research Librarian and as Professor of Economics and Western Civilization. He is survived by his wife Hertha of 60 years, sons Mark and Luke, daughter Charmaine and grandson Tim. Memorial Services will be held on Saturday, September 23rd, at 1 p.m. at the La Mesa First United Methodist Church, 4690 Palm Avenue, La Mesa, California. Please sign the guest book at obituaries.uniontrib.com

We Hope This Works

We bought this ScareCrow contraption and set it up to protect our ponds at night. It shoots out water at high-pressure whenever something moves within range of the pond. Surprisingly, we got it for much less at Green Thumb Nursery - the place that normally costs much more than any other place! Hopefully, our three new koi and the goldfish in the lower pond will be safer now.
(If you click on the pictures, you can see the fish in a bigger format.)

Raccoon Rage?

Having caught one fish, with the smaller goldfish escaping the previous assault, one or more raccoons returned the next night and tried again!It/They must have been frustrated since our poor Avocado Gargoyle (a foam rubber statue that has been sitting under our avocado tree for years) was viciously attacked!They/It even tore our other yard decoration, the papier-mache triceratops' "face" off!It was definitely time for us to do something!

Raccoons on a Rampage

One day last week, we noticed that a raccoon had been in the yard and on the driveway and we were glad that our ponds seemed to be okay.
The next night, before we went to bed, we saw these prints near the back porch.

Unfortunately, we found all our ponds ransacked and water drained from all of them the next morning.



Looks like one went on reconnaissance and brought his buddies back!

Fish Eye Views (And I don't mean the special camera lens!)

Dateline: August 26, 2006 - Ventura, California.
Human Looks at World From Fishy Perspective . . .

Taking advantage a freshly cleaned and dried pond, I climbed in and got to see what fish see from the pond. No wonder they hide when someone comes to feed them - we are so BIG!

Here are some fish-eye-views of the backyard:
Disclaimer: The garbage-can-turned-pond is actually only four feet deep, buried so that one foot is above the ground. I had to crouch down to see what fish see; this is me standing up in the pond.