The local pond club, W.S.C.A.P.E.S., is gearing up for their annual Parade of Ponds tour scheduled for July 9-10, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. Tickets are $8 per person, with a portion of the proceeds once again benefiting S.M.I.L.E.S. This years event, held in conjunction with the national Parade of Ponds, will be bigger then ever featureing 30 water gardens in the area. You may purchase tickets the day of the event from any pond host, or in advance at The Lily Pad. Other locations for advanced purchase will be announced soon. Please visit www.pondprofessors.com/wscapes for more information, including details about the drawings for free prizes.

The Lily Pad will be a stop on the tour again this year, featuring our indoor and outdoor ponds as well as our new pondless waterfall. We'll be serving refreshments, and WCLO/WJVL will be broadcasting July 9th, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

S.M.I.L.E.S. (Special Methods In Learning Equine Skills) is a non-profit group based in Darien, WI. They offer therapeutic and recreational horsemanship to children and adults with physical, cognitive or emotional disabilities. Founded in 1984, thousands have taken part in this interactive therapy. For more information about the organization or volunteer opportunities, please call (262) 882-3470 or visit their website at www.smiles.nu.

If you'll be at Disney's Epcot Center this Spring, be sure to check out Scott's work there. For the second conseccutive year, he was selected to be one of only 13 contractors world wide to work with Aquascape Designs to build on innovative water feature and display for the annual Innternational Flower and Garden Festival running April 15 through June 5, 2005, in Orlando, Florida.

Working three long nights, from 11 p.m. until 8 a.m. so as not to disturb Epcot visitors, Story and the Aquascape Designs team transformed a sunken concrete seating area into a 25x30 foot pond complete with a six-foot water fall, a babbling brook, lush vegetation and colorful koi. Their 2000-gallon masterpiece will be admired by the nearly two million visitors that attend the International Flower and Garden Festival each year.

This is the third year Aquascape was asked to create a breathtaking display at Disney. Aquascape invited only their top certified contractors to participate, including Scott Story. “The builders we select to help us on this annual project are hand-picked. They are the contractors that are doing very well, and are the most highly motivated to learn and take their training one step further. They are the best of the best...it’s the all-star team of pond construction.” Explains Ed Beaulieu, Aquascape Designs Vice President of Construction and Research and Development.

“This is a great honor,” says Scott. “It’s quite an amazing experience to work with such a talented group of builders and I was so pleased to be included once again this year.” Aquascape Designs is the premier direct-to-contractor provider of water features training, certification and building systems.

All additives are based on volume of water, so it is important to know how many gallons are in your pond. The most accurate way is to take readings on your water mater before and after filling the pond. Spring is a good time; since we recommend doing a 100% water change at the beginning of the season. When taking the reading, be sure not to run water elsewhere in the house. We found that the calculator used by Aquascapes Designs overestimates the volume in a pond because it calculates for a straight sided box. As you know, most ponds are irregular in shape with varying depths.

For a more accurate calculation, find the circumference (length + width, divided by 2, multiplied by 3.14), multiply that figure by the average depth, then mulitply the total by 7.48. For examples, the indoor pond at The Lily Pad is 8'x11'x2', so 19/2=9.5 x 3.14=29.83 x 1.5 (avg depth)=44.75x7.48(vol per cubic ft) = 335 gallons. The 10' stream (avg depth .25) cnotains 37 gallons, and the BioFalls and skimmer box hold about 21 gallons for an esimated 393 gallons. The actual metter reading was 420 gallons. According to traditional methods, it would be 1024 gallons, so you can see which calculator is more accurate.