Home And Family USA

If you work or live in a large commercial warehouse, there is nothing more crucial to your safety than proper fire precautions. Believe me - I found out the hard way. As an artist and crafts person, I was pleased as pie that I could find a space to do my work for very cheap in a warehouse in downtown Oakland. But, unfortunately, the lack of expense was for a reason, and one that I should have seen before I moved in and it was too late.

Not only was it in a dangerous area, but it was dangerous itself. The building was not up to fire code, and there were inadequate fire sprinklers and containment walls. But that is not the worst part of it. The worst part is that the automatic fire sprinklers were messed up. They did not work or could not be triggered properly. Some of the automatic fire sprinklers were not even hooked up to the water source. And of all of the automatic fire sprinklers in the building, at least one half of them were blocked by the false ceiling panels above the wall dividers.

One night, tragedy finally struck and many of us were very lucky not to be killed for ignoring proper safety. There was a fire effects show, with flame swallowers and great pyrotechnic displays. The people putting it on were all locals who lived or worked in the warehouse, so there was just a fabulous turn out to watch them all doing their thing. But something went wrong. I do not know what happened. Maybe something got kicked over, or one of the flames went a little bit too high. Before you knew it, the building was burning. The automatic fire sprinklers did almost nothing. A few dripped down or sprinkled a little bit of water, but the fire hardly seemed to notice. There was only one exit to the room and the fire was building faster than the automatic fire sprinklers could fight it. It looked like some of us might find ourselves trapped or trampled in the building.

Fortunately, one of the old pipes feeding the automatic fire sprinklers burst, sending out a huge flood of water. This slowed down the fire enough to allow us to get out. By the time the firemen got in, it was easy to contain. But the lack of working automatic fire sprinklers almost cost us our lives.

My husband loves outdoor fish ponds. I love the idea of a Japanese garden. When we decided to build our own pond in our backyard, we considered several options. I suggested a Japanese garden and my husband was less than excited about it. I drew up a sketch of the oriental landscape with a pond full of Koi fish. He reluctantly agreed to the design and we got to work.

The first task was to dig a ditch for the pond for our Japanese garden. After we weeded the area and made a good sized ditch, we visited to our local home and garden store and purchased a plastic pond mold. These are black in color and aid in protecting the fish from being subjected to the soil and cement materials that are often used. We took our pond mold home and began to dig out the shape of the mold in our ditch. We completed the dig and inserted the pond mold. We were well on our way to having a fishpond with a Japanese garden theme. I began to gather the desired plants to give an oriental style.

I was able to find several types of reeds and short filler plants for the Japanese garden. I chose stones that were a brownish-orange in color for the landscaping project. We went down to a stream in our yard and gathered several flat rocks. We placed the flat rock around the rim of the pond and took care that we had them hang over the pond mold.

The task of decorating the Japanese garden came next. I noticed that with an actual Japanese garden, less is more. I decided to limit myself to one more plant and two statues. I chose a small Dojo house and an oriental statue that symbolizes tranquility. I found these online. I made sure to leave a lot of space between the various decorative elements.

After looking over our efforts I felt there was something missing. I needed a bonsai tree, but I knew that one would never thrive in my climate. I found a fake bonsai tree that was remarkably realistic. The bonsai tree was the perfect addition to the scene and it really tied everything together. We filled the pond with water and let it set up for a week. We finally added a few small Koi fish. The fish pond made an absolutely beautiful Japanese garden.