What are you doing today?

[GaryE]

No video games for me. I've been peering into dark tanks looking for tetra larvae. I mean, the weekend is coming so who wouldn't be doing that?

It's a catch 22 - the tetras I'm trying to breed are probably light sensitive, and when I just bred Pristella to learn their timing, it was 10 days before they were able to stay in light. But you want to know if they hatched, when they hatched - so you sneak glances. It's like being in love when you're 13.

 

[MattW]

No video games for me. I've been peering into dark tanks looking for tetra larvae. I mean, the weekend is coming so who wouldn't be doing that?

There are some fish-related video games If you ever wanted to try. For a measly 14.99 you can get Behind Glass: Aquarium Simulator

 

[Oldspartan]

Tick was removed by Doctor ... Linda was sent home with a script for an antibiotic, ten-day supply.

After a discussion I guessed the source was a bedraggled flower bed in the area where the septic system was rebuilt two years ago. It was out of sight and sort of forgotten. I took a small white sheet and dragged it several times slowly across the bed and there they were, half dozen of ticks on the sheet. Immediately treated with permethrin. Today I checked a couple of random areas for the pests and found none. I do know the wooded areas that border the house, and buildings have ticks. We have a 4 to f foot mulch or stone barrier between the areas we use and the woods. It helps but is not foolproof. We also pack paper rollers with a concoction of chemical loaded cotton and spread them outside the barrier each spring and fall. each spring and fall. The rodents pick at the cotton for bedding and any ticks they carry are affected.

Ticks are an unfortunate part of living here and seem to get worse each year. In the past few years an additional tick born plague, Anaplasmosis, has been getting more common. It is worse than Lymes I am told.

Our two dogs get checked for Lymes annually and also receive Lyme vaccinations. Never figured out why one has not been developed for people.

For anybody interested the concoction recipe is as follows:

twelve ounces of Pyrethrins
Gallon of Bug Be Gone

Mix well and spray on cotton. Add the cotton to TP roll cores. Wear gloves and a mask!!!

VERY EFFECTIVE PREVENTION

 

[Alice B]

the fields around me have a few ticks, most years I put sulfur at the base of the fence but this year I forgot. 3 of my dogs take Bravecto, works pretty well on fleas and ticks. Today I bought rock for this weekend's build. Got surplus cobble, fixed the under house sumpline, and covered it in my dry stream. Can't be too careful. Rarely rains but when it does 3 to 9 inches

 

[GaryE]

Deer all over the meadow behind the house are cute. Their parasites aren't. We have a tick problem too, as creatures from the south keep rapidly moving north. I've only had one bad bite, but it wasn't Lyme. It itched for months though.

I'm happy coexisting with wildlife, but I watch closely to see what the deer like, and try to keep it away from the house. They prefer longer grass to lawns. So as much as I hate cutting grass, I keep a perimeter out back, and they seem to only cut across in transit. I can see where they hang around being cool deer, and avoid those areas. Since they have choices around here, they tend to prefer the better spots from their point of view, and those are serious tick zones.

It's been a while since I looked up in the fishroom to find deer staring in the window. That may happen again when it's colder, as they may gaze dreamily at the houseplants in the windows. But for, the human and dog presence keeps them back - in sight but not up close and personal.

My beef (my venison?) isn't with the deer, but with the ticks they carry.

Video games. I could see myself getting into them. There are so many options, and I'm sure there are many perfectly designed for a mind like mine. They aren't second nature though, as I'm a few years too old to be targeted. It's not something I reach for and I haven't played any games for many years. I have friends who design games for major actors in the business, and friends who are at all levels from casual to addicted. They are mostly also aquarist friends, and the two ways of thinking intersect.

Older aquarists bemoan the fact that as tech has advanced, hobbies like fishkeeping have gone into serious decline. I think there's a "solitaire" level of fishkeeping, but once you get beyond it into games with plots, twists and narratives involving developed characters, isn't that just like fishkeeping? We have plans and aquascapes, unexpected developments with how life reacts to what we want, fascinating species that surprise us... it's not unlike a slow motion game. Ideally, there are no explosions, murders or anything like that in a fishtank, but I think we old geezers with multiple aquariums, moving from tank to tank with project after project aren't unlike people playing complex games.

 

[Oldspartan]

The only video game I actually play is Civilization. I have pretty much all of them.Do not play the game often but when I do Linda will not see me for several hours.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Got a water change done on the 55g, and put a new pump in the waterfall. Not really happy with how the waterfall is looking.

Finished cleaning up Romeo, my elk skull, which is now all nice and white and doesn't smell like death. Going to have to hang it in the garage until we can get a taller house. And speaking of dreams, found exactly the jeep I want on Autotrader.com. Just have to come up with $23,000. Anybody want to buy some pond snails? $500 each should about get me there.

Feeling kind of cruddy and headachy today. If I can get myself feeling decent, might head up to the Granite Mountain area and try to find an antelope. But it wouldn't be any fun the way I feel right now.

 

[Rocky998]

Got a water change done on the 55g, and put a new pump in the waterfall. Not really happy with how the waterfall is looking.

Finished cleaning up Romeo, my elk skull, which is now all nice and white and doesn't smell like death. Going to have to hang it in the garage until we can get a taller house. And speaking of dreams, found exactly the jeep I want on Autotrader.com. Just have to come up with $23,000. Anybody want to buy some pond snails? $500 each should about get me there.

Feeling kind of cruddy and headachy today. If I can get myself feeling decent, might head up to the Granite Mountain area and try to find an antelope. But it wouldn't be any fun the way I feel right now.

If I could sell each of my pond snails for only a dollar, I could cover you 2x over

 

[Alice B]

did a pond rebuild, pics after we finish tomorrow. Major rat defense on this one, rodents chewed their old liner up

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Ended up staying around the house today, finishing up a knife handle, I've been working on, doing tank maintenance, taking a good long nap. Might get out and try to find a speed goat tomorrow after church. The season ends Thursday, so not much time for dilly-dally. With a freezer full of elk meat, the pressure is off...but I sure would like some jerky and andouille. Antelope makes GREAT andouille. And I need a hide to make stuff out of, since I ruined my elk hide*.

*technically, microbes ruined it, assisted by unseasonably warm temperatures. But I feel somewhat responsible.

 

[connorlindeman]

Leaving in a few minutes to go kyack fishing for maybe the last time this year. Its getting pretty cold at night and the fish are going deeper.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Leaving in a few minutes to go kyack fishing for maybe the last time this year. Its getting pretty cold at night and the fish are going deeper.

I've never had any luck fishing from a kayak. Might be because I use a fly rod, or a bow, and my kayak is inflatable so I'm always worried about poking a hole in it.

 

[connorlindeman]

I've never had any luck fishing from a kayak. Might be because I use a fly rod, or a bow, and my kayak is inflatable so I'm always worried about poking a hole in it.

Last year was better fishing then this year for me. Caught nothing today. Might go to the local pond later. I want one more before the end of the season.
Fly fishing from a kayak would be rough I'm sure. Do you do any bass fishing, or do you stick to trout?

I did see a black bear today. First time seeing one in the wild, so that made the trip worth it. Couldn't get a picture.

 

[GaryE]

I've never fished from a kayak - but if I were to try it today, the cold would come though the hull. It's above freezing out there, but not by a lot. It's one of the first days where the leaves are largely stripped from the trees, the sun is shining in a cloudless sky, and the wind is making a point about what it can do when it wants to.
By mid winter, this'll be a t-shirt and shorts day, but it ain't mid winter yet.
The whole region has a mini-plague of Asian lady beetles going. This cold will stop them, but we had massive numbers smacking into us as we walked dogs, or just went out. I've gotten them out of the house, but there's a tennis ball sized clump up in the corner of the fishroom. I think I'll leave them as while they apparently taste noxious and wouldn't be good fish food, they eat thrips, scale and aphids, and in the winter the houseplants out there sometimes get attacked. We'll see -it may be too warm for them.
I'm stripping the paint off two old 25 gallon tank backs. They have picked up scratches along the way, but if I can flip them around, I may have something. Out in the garage, they'd be good for raising young fish. I am having fewer failures than I expected, and will need space. A few 2x4 and some screws will let me put them to work again. I have an used stand I can cannibalize for that.
And that is a good use of a Sunday. Once you retire, Sundays and Mondays became very similar. They aren't unlike wednesdays.

 

[lottabubbles]

my wife and I only fish out of our kayaks for a while now. one big advantage is we can do that in shallower water levels than other boats and both fit in the back of the truck. just launching from the boat ramp keeps us clear of any ticks. two years ago I brought mine into the house to mount my Garmin Striker 4 sonar and Anchor Wizards front and back. it was entirely too cold in the garage to do that. wife didn't complain too much. the sit in kayaks are much more stable than the sit on models and retrieving the fish can be done without having to use a long handle net.
I had to go up one weight size line on the fly rod to wf-9 because of setting so low in the kayak.