Construction of our turtle's dream pond

Warning - picture-heavy -

If you are reading this right now, you might be wondering why in the Picasso's world do we have a blog post here regarding turtles?? 

I haven't mentioned this before on our blog profiles or any posts for that matter, that art wasn't just our only passion which burns for. You do know that everyone surely has some extra passion/hobbies so they won't merely be stuck with one thing for their entire lives; be it playing golf or strolling and even raising exotic snakes to the extreme.

Okay, focusing back on our main purpose of this post, I wanted to stress from the beginning that constructing our first-ever-outdoor-pond had some designing elements during its whole conception.(Draft, layout, scaling, etc.) That's why I had in mind to bring this up to our blog and share about its progress, even if it means touching on our turtles' personal lives :) .

Ooh wowee, just look at the glitter of excitement dashing across their faces!

These foursome bunch are Skater ♀, Ben ♂, Peepy ♂, and Marty ♂.who deserve to be given a better home-scape after living in a stock tank (big storage box) for 4 years straight. Now, getting a new comfortable home for them is right on our to-do's list. 


Initially, we started with what most pond guides showed us to construct a pond : setting up the desired size and shape of your pond with a garden hose or any marking tools for that matter. In our set up, we used raffia string to lay in the shape we wanted it to be, with stones to hold it onto place so it wouldn't be blown away or easily moved, and the digging process went right after that.


We had set a specific amount of area to be as a docking ground which is going to be filled with sand. These aquatic terrapins love to get some dry-time on the land at least once in a while. Then, we went through our plans and get the measurements, setting the path for establishing the required size of the pond's foundation which is the pond liner.

We've always wanted to build this when we were small but it always seemed that digging takes forever, but now we have took our chances at the loads of time without having to worry about our studies ever since graduating from school. 


So, we started out with 5ft in length and 3 ft across, simple as that. We never really put a lot of "design-conscious" into our pond shape so it remained to be like a egg-oval-like shape. 


With an enormous library of information just by googling, we managed to got by just fine. Google has got to be your friend, and we really want to acknowledge the contributions from people on the web for sharing their experiences as well :). By the time it was completed, we were quite satisfied with the result, all done by our own bare hands and sweat. Budget was also a concern as it made a great impact on our move of buying things for the pond, so we had to keep that in mind.


After what has seemed like days of digging, we've finally made a pit. Along the way, we had encountered roots from an old tree we had chopped down long before and other plants, and removing them was the only way to clear the pit.

Take note that the pit has to be smooth and free from any sharp or rough objects lest the liner will be damaged as you place it in the pit. When that was done, we went back to our budget list to prepare a few needed things and equipment. As with that, we went around town (Subang Jaya) to check on prices in many of the aquarium shops, but there wasn't a wide range of things on sale. So instead we headed further down (LDP) and to SS2 / Seapark area and Taman Megah, where there were a few good aquarium shops we've been to before.


We went ahead to buy the plastic cover sheet (PE Tarpaulin) you would normally see in construction sites to shield our pit from rain and falling debris while it was being left untouched for days (while we had other things to do). You can easily get it from hardware retailers like ACE hardware, and at a reasonable price of RM 10 for a 2-meter long sheet. 


We then created a small channel that is lower than the rest of the level of the ground to act as an overflow system in case of a rain might over-fill the pond. We bought a 2.5" dia. pipe that went along the channel as well to guide the excess water out.

"Sides of the pit"

Most of the time, we had to go through several revisions, digging and re-digging, smoothing after smoothing, it was never really right. Again, although the pit has been made, it had to be at least in that ideal size and height so that there would not be further problems as we construct and manage the pond in the future. It took us almost 3-weeks just to do the advanced digging since our schedule was pretty load up with our part-time jobs and other works.


The cover sheet would then be used as our underlay for the pond. Most guides told us to use a specific material, but we went for this as a cheaper alternative, although it isn't sustainable nor safe in the long run.*Tarpaulin is extremely not recommended as it is toxic to your aquatic pets, read them up on the net if necessary* So, if your budget is high, I recommend DIY pond-builders to actually buy a better underlay as specified by guides online. 


The underlay's purpose is to act as a protection layer between the ground and the pond liner. After laying and stretching it to fit the desired shape of the pit, we placed rocks around to keep it steady. It looked ready enough to hold some water, but not to house live animals just yet.


Now, the only thing to hold the body of water and a dream home of housing the turtles was the pond liner. At the start, we had problems finding one because it was very rare to find such a thing at any ordinary hardware shops or retailers. Some of the aquarium shop owners would tell us it can cost up to a boiling degree of RM 1,000+. It was a let-down as our budget was just merely peanuts compared to that huge figures. 


We could have went with a pre-fabricated pond liner, but it was still pretty pricey, depending on which seller you went to, retailer or a normal aquarium shophouse you can find along the streets. 


Finally, we got ourselves a good deal after a long search far from town. It is a pet retailer which many of you Malaysians might know, called Pet Safari. It is situated in Mutiara Damansara where The Curve and Ikea are its neighbor, and it is also a mile away from 1Utama too.


They had several black PVC sheets rolled up in the garden & pond section, and they come in variety of pre-determined size...and price. So you can't tell them to cut it to your preferences and say "Boleh bagi murah sikit kah?" *Can you lower the price a little more? - in BM*


We can't say much about their service, but make sure to bring a measuring tape or any instrument in any case so that you can be sure about the size of the liner. The reason is that we had trouble getting them to even open up and see the size. It even depends on certain employees, as once there was a guy who actually opened it up casually, without saying anything like how customer would open up and dirty the thing...so on. -you know', the usual .


The size of our liner was supposed to be 5' by 5', because our budget was limited and that we decided to re-make our pond smaller, but instead when we brought it back home and got our hands on the measuring tape...it was a real surprise. A real deal I supposed, considering it was priced at RM 146.00 with a 5% discount, bringing to a total of RM 138.70. It turned out to be a 7 feet long and 5 feet across sheet, that was why I stressed on bringing a measuring instrument just in case.


It would have cost a whole lot cheaper in the U.S., but since we're Malaysians, we'll have to deal with the Malaysians price tags. Now, laying it was pretty exciting for us. The place was a little messy since we moved the soil around, a lot.

With that done, we can finally... think about the pump. :/ 

It's a chinese-branded pump called RESUN, costing us 130 bucks. The power chord was too short to reach the power outlet so we extended it by seeking assistance to extend it at ACE (or DIY, if possible). You can choose other well-known brands like the German types you see in retailers, as it's up to your choices and budget. 

And what about the filter? Instead of buying one, why not make your own? for under RM 20?*our  own cost* It's unbelievable but believe this web's author, Skippy filter. There are also other ways to construct your own, all you'll need is an empty container and your imagination, and it doesn't have to be "Rubbermaid"-branded.


We used an old yellow plastic container previously used for holding in some trash, and it had to be cleaned, thoroughly. Here, we used PVC tank connectors (from ACE again) to bridge the hose and the container. DIY is still the best way if you're having a cheap and tight budget, so we used a drill to make two holes, one at the bottom of the back of the container and another at the top of the front. 


Make sure your hole is not too low(at the bottom) and not too high(at the top) so that the particular part would not break off, and for water to easily flow in and out.

Drill...hole at the top....hole at the bottom.

Close-up shots of the filter, there's no worry of leakage because there's a rubber seal between the connectors. 

Buying 15 packs of cheap scrub pads (65sens each) and fitting them into the container was easy pie. They are used as alternative filter pads. We later taped the hose together with the connector at the bottom and at the pump head.

As soon as we started the pump, and with a little few minor correction on the connector at the top, there was a little comfort that we sensed. It was almost done, and looked cool. How glad we were able to do it without giving up even with constant rain messing up our pit for the last few weeks of constructing it.

Note : We hadn't found a lid to cover the top of the container before that.

At last, the final few weeks were spent on doing the landscape and putting rocks around the pond. You don't even have to buy rocks, just look for one, it can just be about anywhere lying around your neighborhood. Make sure to clean it though and don't take those from your neighbors if it is nicely placed around an object or plants, it's an act of stealing. Here are a string of pics on the rocks we've obtained along the streets and roads.

Those white smooth rocks belonged on our garden.

It seemed really long for a blog post, but I'll just end it here with pictures and montages. I hope you readers will enjoy it :). We're still constantly adding new things to the pond, so it still isn't exactly done yet.
A new home for our loving turts, finally!

A pond, finally!

Before : living in a stock tank.

Gah! A huge root!

Jolly now?

Looking for something?

Beijing! Our other turtle ( Reeve's/ Chinese Pond Turtle)

On mah' foot?

Extension outlet.

Wow, fountain!

Cheap scrub pads - RM 0.69

I'm on land!!!

Hehe, I can see you.

woah?!

This is beautiful...

Credits goes to:
http://www.pondlinersonline.co.uk/pond-planning
http://www.ponddoc.com/WhatsUpDoc/Design/PondPlan.html

http://www.turtleforum.com/forum/upload/index.php?s=24c2eac91241d2a3f615ce8e3ba23242&showforum=7

http://www.turtletimes.com/forums/forum/19-outdoor-ponds-and-other-enclosures/
and more that I haven't mentioned.

by
Luke & Zach Yong
(Friday, 9th of March 2012)

Trip Down the Memory Lane~

One of our latest entry at DA. Dino-FUN!

The last few weeks I spent in January was the first time I ever got to be free from the reigns of school for a long period of time (exactly 2 months +, which I never had that long break before). Well, my brother and I have practically graduated from school since last year, so it would make obvious sense that we are having a break now.

The whole month of January was quite a handful for us, especially when we had to clean up our room and prepare the necessities for the next phase after high school for us juveniles - college; or universities for some people. Driver's license to be obtained, getting ourselves registered into college, getting in touch with old friends, spending more time with family & much more...all tightly packed within January. :O

While we were doing that, we did take up some part-time job to fill up our remaining free time and pocket money; since school isn't anymore the reason to give to our parents in exchange for some cash, but we weren't planning to drag our parents' pockets anyway. ;) 

But more than that, the whole month we had our time on was actually spent reflecting on ourselves and our goals, as well as our past records. A trip down the memory lane, as the saying goes.

Dino Bros - Trip down the memory lane

We always had this knack of keeping our old stuff (basically toys or drawings from our junior school or even kindergarten!) and make it into archives so that when we need to refer or at least longed for that old times, we would have it in our hands by then. It is a nostalgic place to be when you get to touch and see your favorite old things of the past, and you might even tear up if you're sentimental about it. Oh, how I love that feeling.

We've never mentioned our personal drawings and stuff from our past on this blog before, so this would be our first. Readers, I hope you're reading this. 

Well, I can't exactly remember how we did our first drawings but of course, I bet many people might still have their kindergarten or preschool drawings (or crafts for that matter) with them. I managed to dig up kindergarten drawings of 'stickman' representatives of  our family members, and it gave me much good fond memories of those times. Certain people often do that to keep their emotional and mental state afloat and as a source of comfort. It's just plain deep core values of sentimental sparks I could only describe it as.

Moreover, drawings from our year 6 in junior school were one of the best reference I got, to say the least. My brother and I had been keeping them like precious treasures as they mean so much to us as our first comic - the two dinosaur brothers. Reading them just gives me the chills and goosebumps, and it's really that core deep. Well, I think it's time I should show some of these and put up on this blog. 

Our DINOSAUR comic book - 2006 

One of our 2007 Comic titled "Rainy, Rain, Rain" (part 1)

There are several stories and comics we have made over the last few years since year 6. And we're keeping and constantly expanding them, as our favorite thing to do is to make stories. We have a few stories that we are planning to draw out as comics, which are still in the works. So, keep an eye on our progress on that by checking our Deviantart page. I am just as excited to show our comics and stories for new readers beyond our circle of friends.

Now really, the last month was one of a kind, although busy, my brother and I had such great time to get back at things of the past and friends. I personally recommend as it is a good time for high school graduates to re-affirm and re-evaluate themselves before getting to college, as it definitely toughens your stand and goals as a young individual.

Learning never stops as we look at our past & the mistakes we did, as we renew our goals and hopes from there and move on to become a better person in life. 

Ultimately, that's one big thing my brother and I have learned from these few passing times. I hope you readers enjoy reading this, thank you!

Regards,

Zach Yong.
(Thursday) Feb 9, 2012  -

Fun at TOA's Holiday ART CAMP 2011

(Majority of the following events are genuine and pictures drawn by the writer are his artistic perspectives.)

19~20.Dec.2011(this event took place for 2 days)

Once, there was an ounce of glimmering awe as I gazed at once a place in Sunway, called The One Academy, looking at its sound glorious golden aura bouncing off the campus...

*Cough*

Okay, besides the exaggeration of intro, first there was no glorious aura, and second thing is I reached there early than expected that my bro and I ate noodles nearby until students started to gather in the college. Worst still, I didn't take any pictures during the camp at all! No photos of fond memories, activities, favorite lecturers, food....and almost everything! 

But don't worry folks, I got my own natural built-in camera that I always carry......ME. Okay, it's like saying nice stuff about myself but do not underestimate the power of the human brain, everyone have them. I have a memory cache of a computer so don't worry about short term memory loss, I'm perfectly 88.9% sure of it that even if it was false...... I can't guarantee it's true.

I began my day as I waited for the whole tedious line with people queuing up. Getting to the counter took almost like 10 minutes, unfortunately for me, it felt so far.

After many perilous journey (just walking), I got to the counter and gotten my name registered. After that, I went up to the auditorium where everyone is were told gather there at the 3rd floor. Well, I looked around and after seeing many people showed up for this camp convinced me that this must be the right choice to come here.




The Marketing Director, introduced himself and thanked everybody for coming to the camp. He said that Now, could you ever think more than 90 people came to this camp because it's full house? neh.

Here, I met Tun Jie and Eric as I was sitting next to them all the whole time. We introduced each other when the icebreaking session began. But I was not sure of the girl (Yen Yong) one table away from me. The icebreaking ended pretty fast and moving on to the best lecture of the whole camp. Coincidentally, our row here were all group B, wow.

So we got the same group, same row. Sweat.





(Don't mind the picture, you can always google to get the real one. This IS Eric Leong, and it doesn't clash with any celebrity you recognize.)

An awesome man, whose baldness shows true boldness - Eric Leong, is a one of a kind. Unfortunately, he was the only one there bald. Suprisingly he likes it because he's different and unique. (so true!) So for those artist wanting to become an Interior Designer, they should really mimic him. (not his hairstyle though, his character!) For the past three hours, he was spontaneously joking about his career and his past experience in his job. Lecture or talk, he gave us insights on colour theory and how an artist can be successful depending on his/her character. The whole time, the room was just filled with laughter, building up our motivation and making it more livelier that the Monday blues just faded away. He gave everyone a clue on every year's colour distinction and even next year's (2012 is some vintage red colour) but told us not to put his name on the internet.(WELL it is here now...) He gave questions so everyone that can answer it, could get prizes from him. At the end of it, I got a small pink book given to me by Eric Leong HIMSELF.

After that, we had lunch. Oh, that's where I met Yen Yong when we're eating in the auditorium. That time, we also introduced each other while walking to the multimedia lab. We sat in our own respective tables and watch as the flash animation workshop began. There were two lecturers, one is Kok Jia Wern and the other Kenix Ho. They instructed us on how to use Adobe Flash cs5.1 and did animation, GREAT! ( My whole life I wanted to do one and now I get to do a real completed one!)

They did show some interesting examples of flash animation did by other alumni and professionals. Here's the link to the websites:
~Get The Glass
~Ecadazoo
~Cooking Mama : Mama Kills Animals (beware of it's mature content, it's not for the faint of heart)
~Heavenly sword
~Radaratorium

Motion Tween? Onion skin? Inbetween? Well much of these are part of an animation process that an animator needs to understand. It's handy to know that I know some of these stuff beforehand. xD
After that we did our own flash animation step by step with a paper instruction to guide us too. We also have to do a flash e-card with the given objects and sound effects in the computer. The place was filled with firecracker noise and music all over the place.

We ended our day and I felt much of it was quite bland a little though but I was still excited for the next day.
Tomorrow? A new day to begin again.

20-Dec-2011
This time, I just happened to meet Eric at the queuing up line.We talked  much about our interest. After confirmation of our attendance at the counter, we went upstairs to wait for our workshop to begin. Interested, I asked him to draw his drawing in my sketchbook to look at his manga skill. There I saw Yen Yong sitting, waiting. We saw and waved at each other. Later, Eric, Yen Yong and me chat together and started to get to know more of each other.

When the workshop started, we went into the workshop as if it was something exclusive for first timers. We were first introduced with a video about Beatrice's manga works.Then, there we saw Beatrice Tan, a.k.a. Kid Chan. We had to produce our own comic about Snow White, the evil Witch and the poison apple. So practically, everyone have to pitch their own ideas and create the story in any how on their own preference, all in only one page. Eric did a fairly simple yet manga-ish style comic which I awed some few times looking at it. Yen Yong on the other hand, she adopted a realistic and aesthetic to her comic, the fact it's so awesome that I don't even know what it is anymore. Mine was a cartoony one but sadly it wasn't finished.
 :-(  Eric and Yen Yong had no experience using a tablet eventhough Yen Yong had used it once, yet they did so much faster than me, lol. ( I had 3 years experience of using a tablet and managed to produced that  slow work.)


After 12 noon, we came out and had our lunch break. Soon, Tun Jie joined us. Then, we chat most of our time about comic fiesta, manga, cartoons, and animations.
Okay time for T-shirt designing...Everyone was given a choice to use templates to make the pattern on each of their own shirt provided by the lecturers or make your own pattern. We use special paint for painting clothes, a silk screen and plastic stencils. The process is fairly simple, the plastic is cut from the middle with the desired shape/pattern that act as a stencil and then the silk screen is put on top of it. Paint is applied onto the silk screen and a brush or flat cardboard is used to spread the paint on the silk screen over the stencil.

Yen Yong took a bunny template but with  some of her add-on modification, a ribbon and a pair of wings. She scored a picture with the instructors and other students there, outstanding! For Tun Jie, he created a few and erased.  He took some time before he finalize with the idea of a guy punching a shark and scoring 1000 points. Well who knows what happens next? Eric on the other hand, he did a silhouette head of a Gundam, cool choice! I saw some did an assassin creed's emblem, some made typography and some with a silhouette of a chibi dog. Well for me, to make things easy I decided to use a kitten silhouette and modified it by my own. HAHA, who's that orange character you see down here? A quick look will give you an idea that it's probably an iconic character that doesn't ryhme if he is without his boots - Puss in Boots.

Well, our design ended pretty early, so we have to wait for almost more than an hour. We had fun, laughing with the instructors because people had drawn all over his gundam picture that was pasted on the white board. It had SpongeBob too. LOL. We drew a bit while relaxing, I asked Yen Yong to show her skills by drawing in my sketchbook, again my eyes bulged out by the awesome drawing. 

my shirt design- puss in boots

After the workshop is over, all the participants had to gather back at the auditorium for prize ceremony. We watched some interesting videos while waiting for the results to be finalize. When it came out, they announce winners that have the best artwork from all three workshops. Firstly for the manga comic workshop, A few people was called out. Little did I suspect that Yen Yong won a prize for the manga comic and Tun Jie too won the prize for t-shirt design! I was not expecting myself to win a prize for t-shirt design, until now I'm still don't know why mine was selected as one of the winners in t-shirt design..As for Eric, that guy didn't win anything but he was okay with it. I could only say this but he's the winner from the start because he tried his best and was the best pal there i could ever asked. So does Tun Jie and Yen Yong.  :-)

By the end of the camp, I eagerly urge everybody to take a picture for the final day. I told Eric to stay for the photo shoot. Yen Yong resisted at first but eventually decided to give it a shot. Tun Jie was no where to be found, but luckily he came down a little late than us. So we asked someone to take a shot for us. The final outcome. *note: we all wore glasses*

Here You Go, I did told ya I have real pics, right?

From left: Me(Luke), Eric Low, TJ (Yun Jie), Yen Yong

THANKS GUYS, I HAD A GREAT TIME AT The One Academy . I'LL REMEMBER IT! :D

Regards,

Luke

(Friday, 23 December 2011)

Keychained and Gun-damned on Birthday week

It was a real head-start of a good long holiday season...with lots of dreams and aspirations in our heads, we were almost close to doing the things we want to do.


Upon darting our eyes to focus on our calendar schedule hanging on the wall, a scribbled reminder can be seen. It reads, "Gabriel's B'day on 14th and Nigel's on 16th." 




Oh well, we're going to have to get our hands busy on planning to get gifts for our friends' birthday. But wait, there's two! In one week?! We'll just have to burn the midnight oil, I guess.

With that in mind, we set out to create our birthday gift for the '14th of Dec' boy first before the latter. The picture right at the top left is the present we made for our friend here. Since he loves Kingdom Hearts, my brother and I decided to whip up a clay model of the Kingdom Keyblade as a phone-strap. It only took up a few hours to shape it and several minutes to paint it. Chaining it to a strap is as easy as a counting ABC (not true on the doing part).

After giving it and having a great conversation on his birthday, we went on to proceed on making Nigel's gift.

"This one, in particular, was the much more hardcore-gritty one. It was one rough stuff to hand-make indeed."

  At first, when my brother proposed on making a Gundam-related things like gundam-engraved spatula(what?!),because my friend love to collect those models and he's a potential chef, it wasn't the brightest of all ideas. Then, he decided on making a clay model based off Gundam Exia, from Gundam 00.

  Sounded like a real potentially aesthetic gift, only, doing it wasn't as pleasing as it seemed. We went through what we called, our first most hand and eye-straining and toturing moments in our whole 17 years of life.(Not applicable to experienced modellers, it is only an exaggerated citation.) We spent almost 3 gruelling-days working on it, sleeping scarcely with a minimum of 2-3 hours and barely moving out of our place until we did one small part of the body, piece-by-piece.

To start off our modelling process, my brother prepared a few pieces of wooden sticks as skeletons to support the soft yet fragile clay. He made the legs first while I handled the head. It was rough start, considering we do not have much experience in making a such complex and detailed model of a robot!

We were without tools needed for sculpting clay, so we had to improvise by utilizing the wooden carving tools we have in our hands right then. Surely we have to make use of the stuff we have right now, isn't it what we call - gratefulness and satisfaction? Eventually, we were able to deal head-on with the head-spinning details plus the curves and corners of every obstacle on making this model. 

Although not as perfect as it seems, compared to its real plastic counterparts seen in toy stores, it was one of our best models we've ever created. Our friend liked it at      

        the end too :)

We've learned that modelling requires a whole lot of patience and being meticulous in your part in order to make a really neat and detailed piece.

In any way, we hope you enjoyed our pieces submitted in this blog, enjoy all our photos posted here and be sure to keep up to date with our latest artworks!

Regards,
Zach
(Satuday, 17 December 2011)

 

Long time no see~

Well, again, it's been long since I touched this blog. :/
Same reason for my absent, but yet renewed goals and ideas for this blog. So today I'm gonna paint up the blog with a little more artworks of mine. Enjoy :] !

 While daydreaming about crocs, it just pop up in my head about croc that surfs. Hehe, didn't know crocs love the sea though.(ps: most of them are freshwater species) : /

Sometimes, we do not realise it. When we seem to care, it might too late. So do yourself a favor, help and care for those around you. : )

More artworks coming soon in the mid-year, so stay tuned!
By the way, I've added our deviantart slideshow into this blog. It's cool huh? If you want to check out our deviant, here's the link.

Regards,
Luke

Going digital@~!

Phew, it's been time since I've posted something on this blog...

We weren't spared from the drudgery homeworks and projects that has been pouring into our timetable lately, but it didn't stop us from doing our favourite past times...DRAWING!

Recently, my brother and I just attempted another digital drawing again, but this time with more details and efforts that went into it.
Although it's more inclined towards a beginner approach, but we're still on our way in learning the aspects of DIGITAL ART.


Ahh, rapunzel, rapunzel...I haven't watch the movie yet! Oh well..
The hair part on her is especially difficult to do, but luckily there was some useful guides around the net that aided me on it! Deviantart and Google rocks!


Some shading attempt, although it looks abit solid (or maybe that is why he's looking mad!)