Little Guppies, Big dreams.

My female guppy finally had her babies, and I have learned baby guppies have no survival instinct whats so ever. They there all float right out in the open, looking at the bigger fish with absolutely no fear at all, when they could be hiding in the naja grass or the tons of willow moss.

My aquarium lights haven't come on yet, but I will be surprised if there are any left when I go to check later today. They are cute though, strange little sets of eyes with a spine just floating about in the highest current part of the tank.

In other news, the second round of baby plecos is doing just as great as the first, and it looks like my smaller female "Gwen" is actually just a super late bloomer and will have to be called "Glen" now, as his bristles are starting to show up.

I bought 3 of the 6 tubs to make my fish tubs out of, This coming weekend I plan on cleaning up the corner of the yard next to the garage so I can build my little scaffolding for them there (too many raccoons to just hope free standing and uncovered at night will work) so I can get the air pump hooked up and get some plants at least growing in there.

I am thinking, I would like to have parrot feather, water hyacinth and maybe pond primrose for top plants.  The nice thing about he buckets is that even though I will still check on them every day, the fish will have constant natural food and if they get green the fish never mind. Algae control is such a human concept. Although I doubt with 50 baby plecos there will be any problem at all with algae *laugh*

I am also planning on selling some of my fish when I am sorting out for buckets. I only want to keep the best to raise up the next generation. Which I suppose is normal.  I really want to get into fancier guppies and different strains of bn plecos. I will always love my platies too, but I like too much, which is why I always want more, more, more.

I still am stuck on the idea of color coded tanks (as silly as that is) so it will be fun trying to accomplish those.  I know there will be some that wont work out but I'll try. I also think I am going to move my tanks to the basement so I have more room and have to worry less about spilling on the floor. Also in the basement I can store shipping supplies and have a bagging station, which will be a tremendous help. I can also set up a couple quarantine tanks, for new fish coming in or for fish getting ready to go out.

Enough about my fishy friends. Nothing else is really going on here. still waiting for some thing to fall into place. I can't get my tanks moved tot eh basement until I get the fish out in their tubs, so that I am stuck. I am drawing out room designs and trying to decide what I need in my room and what I need to get rid of.  I have so much stuff.

My ebay auctions are not doing so well. In fact, not one person has looked at them even. *laugh* I'm not getting discouraged, I just think I need to maybe find a better way to sell stuff.

I was thinking about my perfect jobs, my top 5 are:

1. Pet photographer
2. Dog walker
3. Plant nursery/ Pond maintenance
4. Fish Monger
5. Dog Sitter

All of which seem so attainable,  I already sell fish, I think though once I get my camera, I might try the pet photography thing and the maybe the dog walking thing.  I don't know.  I am not sure Clinton, IA is the best place to start a dog walking business. I guess I'll never know unless I try though.

Right now I make $200 a week, (that is a good week by the way.) So it would just have to make equal to that. Which I would much rather make out side with insanely happy walkin' puppies then toiling away inside a dingy video store that I am not appreciated at. So I just need to get my but in gear I guess. Ok enough babbling, time to take my happy doggies for their walk and to do water changes and clean my room as much as I can!

Vegetables and New Tanks!

I want vegetables, more over I want vegetarian sushi or fancy onigiri. I have a craving and I think I may have to make it a reality tomorrow. I need to go grocery shopping any way. I have all these vegetarian/ vegan food recipes I want to make up and try, but between my bad tooth and the severe lack of time I have accomplished absolutely nothing. I wish I had some one to just cook me delicious healthy food. Oh it would be so yummy. I think tomorrow morning before I have to work I will go get groceries and make up kale chips, cauliflower poppers, veggie sushi and beef stew... maybe some stir fry.  Can you all tell I'm hungry?

Speaking of sushi and fish, I have one of the new tanks all set up. I need to drag the other one in and get it and the stand set up some place so my other tank can spread out a bit, all the baby plecos, guppies and platies need growing space. I am still very excited to get my outdoor tubs  up and going, but I am trying to not jump the gun and I have made a promise to myself to wait until the first of May to take any one outside.  I will be selling off quite a few fish too hopefully before I move the perfect specimens out to the tubs. I am really excited about getting the spotty wags, snow whites, and black velvets to all breed true. Also very excited about baby plecos growing up and being happy and chubby. I need more holding tanks.

Other then that nothing is really new. I have a broken tooth that is killing me, the cats all have spring fever, I need to spring clean like crazy, need to sort through storage unit and try to sell some stuff on ebay and craigslist.  Also have to get the 3 bloggers I have reworked and all fancy. See ya all later!

Spring is in the air!

Today was pretty fantastic (well aside from the hurricane force winds!) I was finally able to get out to visit my moms farm today and fraternize with my ducks and thousands of goldfish!

I do mean thousands by the way, I really need to make sure I get some sold this fall, as the pond is way over stocked. The ducks help a bit with keeping the population down, but each goldfish can lay 50 or more eggs, so 5 ducks don't make a dent really.

Speaking of ducks, there are 2 drakes now, so I am hoping that there will be far more baby ducks this year... I really love cute fuzzy baby ducklings, more then almost anything I can think of, except for maybe baby bunnies.

As I type I am eating a delicious salad of young dandelion greens, violet greens, baby spinach, baby red spotted romaine, one of the first tomatoes from the greenhouse, and green grapes that were on sale. It is beyond delicious.

Things will be back in full swing again around here soon, and hopefully a new job will be as well so I can procure a new camera for more gorgeous photos of snouts and sprouts!

My aquariums also are in full swing, including adorable baby bristle nose plecos and several new colors/ patterns of platies. Happily growing in front of my aquariums are also two new happy little plants I rescued that I believe are in the haworthia family (maybe Haworthia cuspidata and H. magnifica var. acuminata) They seem to be doing much better now that they have been liberated from their 2.5", very root bound pots and are now stretching out in their new shallow dish containers. I'm very excited this year about trying to get all my plants repotted in proper succulent friendly planters and letting them live out doors for as long as possible.

The "heart" of the problem

I leave my heart on the farm every time I have to leave. I truly feel the most at home in the country and any time some one asks me if I had a million dollars and I could do anything, I always respond, "I would have a farm with a massive garden and lots of birds and fish... OH and lots of pumpkins!"

 Mama Mathusala kitty (actually her name is Madusa) and the magical Cour di Bou tomato. She is ancient for one of my moms farm cats at 9 years old. She is super sweet and loves to just be cuddled.  I wish I could take all the kitties at my Mom's inside, I usually end up trying to find all the kittens homes with varying degrees of success. 

 Mortimor, one of the latest kittens.

 Schnerd, Mort's little brother.

 I am told roasemary posted at your door means it's the home of a good woman, I put some by the door of my roommates house, but mine isn't flourishing as well as my moms, maybe I am not as "good" as she is yet. Practice makes perfect I guess.

 Possum the worlds most needy and ill behaved cat. She is a darlin', I really need to try to find her and her sister Ming an inside home.

 The harvest. The garden grew pretty well this year, although I think next year we will be using mostly grow bags and raised beds. It's just too hard otherwise, not to mention, I don't mind weeding but its so much easier if you don't have to as much.

Cappy is truly the happiest dog on the planet I think!

I really, really do want to have my own farm. I don't think it could ever be my full time career, but I would love to be able to grow most if not all of my own food and jack o lanterns, honestly I don't think one can ever have too many pumpkins or  too many turkeys.  I will keep working toward my goal. I just need to find the perfect catalyst to get me there. Dog grooming? Cat toys? Canine psychology?