These works draw from lived experience — journeys through creativity, craft, and the quiet details of daily life.
From the art of building and rebuilding to reflections on nature, resilience, and design, each book invites readers to pause and see the extraordinary within the ordinary.
Whether you’re tending a pond, tracing family stories, or searching for balance in a chaotic world, these pages offer practical insights woven with honesty and warmth.
How Not To Build A Pond
After nearly a 30-year odyssey of building a koi pond, I’ve learned this much: nature always has the final say.
Laugh along with me and my husband as we survive floods, failures, emergency fish rescues, rebuilds, and the hard lessons water insists on teaching — whether you’re ready or not.
This isn’t a how-to manual. It’s a lived story, told with affection, honesty, and more than a little humility.
My Koi Keeping Book, 2nd Edition
For years, I tracked pond notes on scraps of paper, half-filled notebooks, and whatever was closest during a crisis. I finally needed one place to keep everything — water readings, treatments, observations, and lessons learned.
This is that book.
A practical, well-organized keeper for your pond’s history, with charts, tips, and space to record what actually happens — not just what’s supposed to happen.
Welcome to the World of Ponds
Dear New Pond Keepers
I’m not here to sell you anything, or promote one style over another. This primer will help you understand the fundamental principles of keeping fish in a backyard pond.
Susan Trott
A pond in the backyard is a thing of beauty. It gives us movement, serenity, water, and something to sit beside and enjoy a cup of something hot.
It’s restful, but only if it works properly.
Because if it’s not working, it’s stressful, expensive, and time-consuming.
So how do you build a “maintenance-free pond”?
You don’t. But you can build a pond that basically takes care of itself, with a little help from you.
To do that, you need to understand some fundamental principles:
Meet Peep & Squeak — two mischievous kittens determined to nap on every keyboard.
Their password books are designed to make digital life simpler (and a little cuter).
Available in four formats:
Each book provides ample space for logins, security notes, and hints — because organization should be as charming as it is useful.
