Life in the Secret Garden

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 02:08:15 GMT

Yesterday or Thursday, I went down the street to a house that has elder growing in its front yard. I went to ask if I could harvest their berries. Although a car was in the carport, no one answered the door. The yard is trimmed and the house looks maintained, but it has a slightly run-down, un-lived-in look about it.

I went back today and knocked again. The car had not moved. I knocked on every door, even the garage apartment, to see if I could find someone... nothing. I took a closer look at the house and saw that while the lawn is trimmed and the drive and porch are swept, there is rust on the screen door and algae growing on the sides of the house. It looks like a place an elderly person lives. I can even picture the carpet and furniture inside. I looked at the car in the port and saw that its two rear tires are very low. Not quite flat, but almost.

I suspect that someone's elderly parent lived there and either died or went to assisted living, and now the heirs are figuring out what to do with the house.

So I am going to leave a note on the door asking if I can harvest their elderberries. I'll leave my address and phone number. I also saw a fig tree in the back yard; maybe they will let me pick from it too!

Here's my confession: as I was leaving I stopped to take a close look at their elders and several bunches of large, juicy berries were there. Much larger than the berries in my yard! So I snapped off the bunches that I could reach. I couldn't help myself.

R often says that I am a plant klepto, because I snatch cuttings from plants in public places. Now I'm a fruit klepto too.

The Ethics of Releasing Captive-Bred Turtle Hatchlings

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 09:07:49 GMT

I do not approve of (non-professionals) releasing adult or even juvenile captive-bred turtles.

I do not approve of releasing adult turtles that have spent their lives in captivity, regardless of whether they were originally captive-bred or wild-caught. A turtle that has spent its life in captivity is no longer wild.

But here's something I wonder about: what are the ethics of breeding hatchlings to then release into the wild?

It has long been the conventional wisdom that one should not release captive turtles into the wild, because they may harbor bacteria to which wild populations have no immunity. In my area, however, stupid people have apparently been releasing captive turtles into the wild for years now, so I have to wonder if our wild turtles still have no immunity to the pathogens that affect our captive turtles. (Of course, I suspect that many of those released turtles died soon after their releases, unless they had the luck to approach and be picked up by a kind and intelligent human, so it's possible that only a few of them encountered wild turtles.)

I would like to get a companion for Rex. I would prefer a male, so that I don't have to deal with eggs and babies at all. But there's also the possibility of a female, and in fact only females are available at the local rescues. If I do get a female, babies are inevitable. I could destroy any eggs I found, but there's always the chance I would miss a few. And I confess, that with box turtles so threatened in the wild, I would feel very bad about destroying eggs.

That leaves me the option of releasing hatchlings. It would have to be done as soon as they emerged from the nest, to prevent them from imprinting on humans or receiving nourishment from me. I could release them on the Katy Prairie, where Rex's species does live in the wild. It might, over years, help to rebuild the wild population of Ornate Box Turtles.

The number one thing keeping me from planning this is the fear of what might happen to them. Although it is now illegal to collect wild turtles in Texas, that doesn't mean no one is doing it. And wild turtles face great dangers, sometimes from other predators, but mostly from humans.

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 21:42:44 GMT

After Opal eats her meals these days, she gets deliriously happy. Sometimes she runs all around the house, sometimes she just sits in one spot stomping her feet. It's adorable.

Yay raw diet!

Fall, Again

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 02:08:13 GMT

Well, it's been a long time since I posted here. Most of my posts have been in 00goddess, my main journal. However, it's time to get things going in the garden again, and I will be posting most of those entries here.

It wasn't a great summer in the garden. We had record amounts of rain; the tomatoes would split before ripening, and when they ripened, be almost flavorless. The snail population surged in response to the rain, which also was detrimental to the garden. Cabbage worms were also numerous, destroying some crops.

The rain has finally slacked off for awhile, and fall is upon us, so it was time to start planting. A few weeks ago I planted some eggplant, chard, and broccoli seeds, but while I was on vacation, it didn't rain at all (of course) and so the seedlings died.

This summer I found a good price on a knee cushion, so I went ahead and bought one. I used it tonight and it made a big difference in my comfort level while gardening. I always viewed something like that as an indulgence that I could not afford, but at such a low price I felt okay about buying it.

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Tonight I ripped out the Black tomato plant and the Yellow Pear tomato plant. I planted a parsley plant, and two pepper plants: one California Wonder bell pepper, and one Jalapeño TAM. I watered all these in with fish emulsion.

Tomorrow I plan to plant eggplant, chard, and broccoli seeds again.

I am tempted to get another bell pepper plant because I do love bell peppers, and I might try fall tomatoes, but tomatoes were such a disaster this summer that I am not sure I want to try again.

Garden

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 08:26:29 GMT

The garden is looking good.

Two of my tomato plants have set fruit. (This is surprising, as all of the plants appear to have some fungus going on.) I side-dressed all the plants with some Lady Bug fertilizer last weekend, when the fruit first appeared.

The chard and collard greens are all looking good (and it's time for a harvest) but the dreaded cabbage moths have arrived, and their offspring, the loathsome cabbage worms, are eating holes into everyything. This afternoon, I sprayed all the plants with orange oil soap (it killed a few worms but seemed to just annoy the rest) and then hung the trusty mosquito net over the garden. Well, not so trusty, because it tore several times while I was hanging it. Argh. I think I'm going to just buy a new one. It was too close to dark to stand out there sewing it up, and also, it's become very fragile.

Because it's tomato season, I will be taking the net off in the mornings and putting it back on in the evenings. The moths come at night, but the tomatoes must be pollinated during the day. So that will be sort of a pain, until the greens come out and I eat them, bwahahahaha.

The lawn guys came today, but I asked the mower not to trim a patch of irises on the front lawn and miracle of miracles, he didn't trim them! This makes me very happy.

Bugs are also eating my brugmansia, so I think I will just bring it inside for awhile.

I repotted my Easter Lily today. I don't think I've written about it- I really wanted one, but I forgot to get one Easter weekend, so I was sad. Last week we were at Fiesta and they had a bunch of them for $5 a pot. I bought a pot with two tall, robust plants. The blooms have all faded, so I repotted it and added some Lady Bug fertilizer. It probably won't bloom again, but I might get blooms next summer.

My giant Xanthosoma lost all of its leaves when we had a midwinter freeze. So, it is much smaller this Spring than it was last Spring. It has one flower bud already, though, and another soon to appear. I love that plant. It totally goes with us when we move.

The rose bush is covered in blooms. And today I saw the first vine Morning Glory blossom of Spring!

The native irises are in bloom and I just love them. Love them! I am going to go to the baseball field down the street and dig up the ones on the side of the road there, before they are mowed down.

My tree morning glories were getting gangly, so a few weeks ago I took cuttings. I stuck them into the Skippy (pond filter) to root, because whenever I bring those plants inside, they get a waxy growth on themselves. One cutting died, but the rest have rooted. All but one, I've planted (back in the same pots with the main plants); the last one needs some more root first. I want to train them into a bushy shape.

The tree over the driveway has proven to be a mulberry tree. Last year it made no fruit so we didn't know. This year it is covered in fruit. I tasted them and they taste kind of like a mildly-flavored plum. I don't especially like the berries alone, so I think I will make jam or something with them. Maybe I will add some other berries for extra flavor.

We will probably not be living here by the time the elderberries have fruit again, so I think I will plant some elderberry cuttings to take with us when it is time.

I have decided not to do any summer squash or eggplant or peppers in the garden this year, because we want to move this summer. I want the SFG to be close to empty when it's time to move, so we disturb/destroy as few plants as possible. I plan to take the SFG with us, you see.

The chives have pretty much stopped blooming, but a green onion is blooming. It has a lovely white flowerhead. No fragrance, though.

The geraniums R gave me for V-day are still blooming like crazy. I love them.

I bought some Crocs today, to use as gardening shoes. They are very comfortable. I have needed gardening shoes for awhile- shoes that I could quickly and easily slip on when I am going outside, and that would be easy to clean, and also had good arch support. Crocs fit the bill. I still think Crocs are ass-ugly, but that's ok. I do like some of their sandals, though. And if these crocs work out I might get a second pair to wear as house shoes, to support my arches.

And that's what's happening.

Greenhouse

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 00:17:04 GMT

The greenhouse came late last night. I just spent an hour or so wrestling with it to get it up. As many others have commented, the instructions are not very clear. The biggest problem was the the instructions do not say that the tension poles have to be bowed in order to get them into their slots and that they will stay bowed once the greenhouse is actually set up.

But, I got the thing up and over the pond. I staked it down, but I didn't put the tie-downs on yet because I am not sure how they are supposed to work. I organized the cables coming out of the greenhouse, too. I was worried about them just laying on the ground between the greenhouse and the outlet, because of the lawn guys, but then I got an idea to thread them through a short piece of PVC pipe that we had in the backyard. So they are protected. The excess cord, I coiled loosely inside the greenhouse, so it is safe and out of the way.

I put the thermofilter back into the pond set on 78', and it is my hope that tonight the water will warm up decently, and then tomorrow the greenhouse will warm the whole pond, and between the water heater and the greenhouse, things will stay warm.

It is quite small, and the pond barely fits inside, but it fits. I set it a bit on the diagonal and also skewed so that there is a few feet of room on the west side of the pond, and not much at all on the east side. That way I can get in to do maintenance with out much difficulty, I think. It has doors at both ends; one door is to the North-northwest, facing toward our back door, and the other door is toward the east-southeast. The position of the far door will help me to access the filter and etc.

I can see that bugs are going to be a problem in there. I'll have to work on that.

While I was out there I also did some other thing- I coiled up and hosed off our large, 100-foot outdoor extension cord. I left it outside to dry and will bring it inside tomorrow. The sort, 50-foot cord I coiled up and tucked inside the greenhouse, in a little space between the pond and the wall. I used it to connect the thermofilter to the outlet, uncoiling one end of the cord and guiding it through the cord-entry and the PVC pipe. Things look much nicer without those cords laying around. I also dumped some old potting soil into a place near the pond that needs to be graded up. I smoothed it somewhat with the shovel, but I think that it needs more topsoil. We can take care of that when R gets home.

I also dragged my dragon-wing begonia indoors, because it wasn't doing so hot out there.

And that's about it. Both turtles got to spend a little bit of time outdoors, but not much.

Skippy Cleaning

Sun, 24 Dec 2006 08:43:14 GMT

Most animal entries have been in 00goddess lately, but this one I'm putting here.

R and i cleaned the skippy on Saturday. I intended to only flush out the settling chamber, but in the process I found that the filter media was surrounded with what appeared to be dead algae. It was really packed in there, and seems to be the reason for the channeling i've noticed recently. There were handfuls and handfuls of it, filling every space between the media chunks and also in the surfaces of the chunks. So, I ended up taking out all the media and cleaning it. I swished each piece in a bucket of pond water. It took several buckets to get the entire thing clean.

Since I had removed all the media, i could look into the settling chamber and found that, even with the drain working, a lot of stuff was still clumped up in there. So I scooped that out in my hands. I think I need to drain the chamber more often in order to get it to drain as I want.

The cleaning process was much less messy than I expected it to be. I did find that the water pennywort had sent stems all the way down into the settling chamber. I pulled them all out, swished them off with the media, and then laid them in the top of the skippy under the grate.

Here's something interesting: the media has reduced in volume. When I originally packed it into the skippy, I packed it in tightly. I put in as much as i could- it was right up under the top grate. Today I packed it in tightly again- but now it's about three inches below the grate. That's a bit disturbing. I really hope it's just that the fibers are compressing, and not that tiny bits of them are coming off.

The skippy has needed cleaning for a few months now and I am glad we got it done. I think it will function a lot better now. The slurry and etc went into the compost heap.

Then I ripped off all the extra roots that have come out of the top planter recently, and set it back on top of the skippy. Because of the settling issue, I might add more media soon. One box should be enough.

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 06:35:56 GMT

Yikes, we just brought the turtles in. I had a hard time finding Rex and Al didn't want to come to the surface. I finally got Rex to move a bit so I could find him, and then I had to reach into the pond to get Al. Almost froze my hand off.

Then we covered the garden with blankets.

Greenhouse

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 04:56:05 GMT

I went outside and found the pond in the low 60s. The heating pump just can't keep up with the weather. I checked the forecast and today's high is supposed to be 69- way too cold! So I dug out the greenhouse plastic to cover half the pond.

I was pleased to find that I have enough to cover half the pond and cover half of Rex's pen. So, both turtles can be somewhat greenhoused this winter. For Rex, I will cover half the pen and uncover the other half; he can move back and forth between the covered and uncovered portions. I wish I could make some kind of frame so that I could completely enclose one half of his pen, but I think this will be good enough unless things get super-cold, in which case we will bring him inside.

I will wait til R gets up to help me cut the plastic, and then both turts will be greenhoused. Right now the plastic is draped over half the pond and secured with rocks.

Edit: I ran off and didn't post this. We're going to cut the plastic tomorrow. Tonight the turtles are coming inside because it's really cold outside.

Pond warmth

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 08:28:24 GMT

I did a partial water change on the pond today. The WH has been dying and I did the change in an attempt to save it.

It went quickly and easy and the fish took it okay. They got really excited while I was draining out the water, though, and the biggest one was swimming so fast that it ran right into the side of the tank with a loud "thunk." Fucking hilarious!

Here's what was weird: I did the water change and then I noticed that the thermofilter was not pumping. It had power, it was not clogged, and it was heating, but no water was flowing through. I pulled it out and messed with it a bit but could not get any flow. So I decided to open it up to see if anything was wrong with the impeller. I popped the top off, and pulled the impeller out. The impeller was shaking in my hand and pulling back toward the thermofilter so i knew the other magnet was active. As soon as i popped it back in, it started spinning and water started to flow. Isn't that weird?

I tried replacing the flow capacity switch while the impeller was running, but it seemed to be causing some flow trouble, so in the end i just left the switch off; I want the thing to flow at full capacity in any case. (The switch is just a baffle on a wheel; turning the wheel adjusts the baffle, so taking it off entirely leaves the flow wide open.) I checked it later today and it was flowing just fine. Maybe now it will start actually heating the freaking pond.

I don't know why it wasn't flowing- I couldn't find any obstruction. I'm just glad it's working now. If it doesn't start keeping the pond warm, though, I will have to find a way to get a secondary pond heater.

Hibernation

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 09:27:20 GMT

I find myself having the same anxiety this time of year that I had last time of year: should I or should I not hibernate Rex?

My own vet is opposed to hibernation. He thinks it's too risky (some turtles don't live through hibernation) and that it is better to keep the turtle warm during the winter. Some other people (I've never heard a vet say this, but that doesn't mean no vets think it) think that hibernation is important for turtles' long term health. I know of at least one vet who says he has seen box turtles live long, healthy lives with what he calls the "endless summer" approach and have no ill effects.

Especially in our region, hibernation is iffy: it does not stay cold all winter, so turtles sometimes go into an in-between state that can be fatal. All the more reason to NOT hibernate Rex. I do not want to take a chance on losing him.

But I still agonize: what if the naysayers are right and hibernation is important for a turtle's health? I won't know until it's too late to correct.

Right now it's not quite cold enough for me to start taking precautions to warm Rex, but it's getting there. I plan to greenhouse him this winter if necessary; last winter was really mild and so it wasn't necessary to greenhouse him; we just brought him inside on cold nights/days instead. I am not sure how I am going to greenhouse Al this year. I need to buy new greenhouse plastic if i am going to greenhouse both turtles this year, because the lawn guys threw mine away.

I am thinking that I might cover just the north end of the pond- the bits north of the skippy. That way it won't get too hot, like it did in the past, but it can retain some heat.

I wish I could build a heated house for Rex, like this one. That would be really neat.

Sat, 21 Oct 2006 01:38:07 GMT

The pond was cold today, and the day itself was not very warm. I don't mind if the water is cold, as long as the weather is sunny so Al can warm up. But today the pond was about 70, not too cold for one day, but too cold for several days. I checked the forecast and it's going to be cool for days, so I put the heater into the pond. I set it for 78, which in retrospect is a little high, so tomorrow I will adjust it.

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 21:33:05 GMT

I just went outside for a few minutes and it's beautiful. The unusual standing water has drained away. There is a mist over the houses, and a new moon glowing through it.

The rain has made my recovered tomato plant grow quite a bit; I think it's put on 6 inches in the last four days. Time to get that tomato cage from Toth. The rain also made the snap pea stems sort of flexible so I wound them around the stakes and they stayed for the first time. If they fall off again I will just have to get some string.

Last week I broke a branch off of the basil, so I stuck it in the ground and figured if it rooted, Michael would have a basil plant, if not, no worries. I didn't use hormone or anything. It has been looking droopy and sad but tonight it looks bright and sturdy! So I suspect that the rain helped it to root and that now it will be fine.

The basil plants are up to my hips and it's time to make pesto again. I'm out of olive oil though, so it will have to wait until I get some. I am planning to sauté some spinach and tomatoes this week, so I think I will toss in some basil leaves as well.

Funny pond story

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 02:48:45 GMT

R told me a funny story: he was worried about how full the pond was so he went outside and started bailing the pond with a cup. As he was doing so, the goldfish and Al all clustered round him, and suddenly the smallest goldie jumped into the cup that R was using to bail. He freaked out and because afraid that he had accidentally tossed out a mosquitofish without noticing, so he stopped bailing. Heh.

Rosemary and Eggplant

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 07:44:21 GMT

Tabby gave me a beautiful bonsai rosemary today. (Well, it came in the mail to us today- it was delivered to my neighbor yesterday.) It is a memorial tree for Princess. I am so touched. When Princess's ashes come I will feed the tree a bit of them.

This is the healthiest rosemary plant I've ever seen! It is super-green colored, with plump leaves. And it even has a few flowers on it, which is super-cool. It's just gorgeous. I am sure Princess would have approved. She would have sniffed and sniffed at it (she was a great sniffer and when she encountered a very interesting smell she would huff at it, her nose working, for a minute or two to take it all in.)

I have always wanted to grow rosemary but never had successful cuttings. I just looked up care info on this plant and apparently it will do very well outdoors here during the winter. It might be too hot for it come summer but when that happens I might bring it inside or move it into the shade.

I noticed last week that some of my recent eggplant fruits have brown marks on them, but a tiny little fruit was mostly brown mark. Today I took it into Buchanan's to see what was wrong. They said that my plant was getting old and was done producing good fruits for the season. So I will cook the remaining fruits and make eggplant parmesan. Then later this week I will tear the plant out and replace it. I am not sure what I will put in its place- maybe some spinach?

Gardening

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 07:56:21 GMT

More trying to distract myself today. I came home from school and worked in the garden a little bit.

- I harvested some eggplants and cut the plant back a little bit.

-I staked up the snow peas with the stakes that tothwolf loaned me. I need to add some more pea plants, a few of the seedlings did not make it. Same with the spinach.

- a branch broke off the basil so I stuck it in the ground. If it roots Michael will have a basil plant.

-I planted my new parsley plant. It should be yummy!

-I potted the nasturtiums that I got the other day. I put one in the hanging planter that Tabby gave me, and the other in a small planter. I gave them some fertilizer while I was at it.

- I repotted my dragon wing begonia. It has been looking bad for a few weeks and some people told me that perhaps I had burned the roots with the composted manure. So I pulled it out the other day and it has been sitting without a pot. Today it rained and when I went outside I saw that the empty planter was holding water- the drainage holes I had made in the bottom of the pot were clogged with debris. So I enlarged and smoothed them with a utility knife. I hope it will drain better now. I repotted it in the same planter with a mixture of its old soil and the new potting soil I got with my gift cert, as well as some spent charcoal from the pond. The new soil is pretty lame- it is very basic, basically black dirt and a bit of sand. So I will not buy it again; it was free so whatever. I really hope that this helps my begonia.

- I potted the angel wing begonia cuttings that survived.

- I dug up some purple tradescantia and blue dayflower from the front yard and planted them in Rex's pen. I saw that the seeds I sowed in there the other day are sprouting. I hope it gets nicely grown up. I think he will like having plants to hide in. He ran over to check out the dayflower as soon as I was done with the planting. Once the nasturtiums have established themselves, I will put some cuttings into his pen.

- I took some cuttings from my morning glory trees; some of the branches are leafless but still alive, so I clipped a few short bits off and stuck them into the bog to root.

I can't remember what else I did.

While I was out there working it started to rain on me. I stayed out and kept working. The rain suited how sad I felt. I was trying to hard to find some peace in the garden. Just to pretend that life is okay. But I was sad and gray on the inside and standing out in the rain was right.

I wonder if the pond pH is too low for the WH. They are looking brown and yucky, aside from fish eating at them.

Ironically, the fish chose today to become tame and let me pet them. They even ate the food I gave them. If I had a bigger pond I might keep them, but as it is I think they are too much. I will keep the tiny lemon-colored guy and get him a SINGLE friend. And when they get too big, they will go elsewhere. The pond smells like a fish tank, which I don't like, and then there's that BITING thing that Al is doing.

The big elephant ear by the front door has its THIRD bloom in a row opening up. And it looks like a fourth bloom is coming! In the Spring it only bloomed twice. Man I love that plant.

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 04:25:48 GMT

The ants are driving me crazy.

I just found that the ants had established a colony of mealybugs on one of my morning glory trees. Huge, tight clusters of mealybugs that I could see from five feet away. I would have seen them earlier this week, but I've had no time to be out in the garden. SO the buds were in bad shape and had to come off.

As soon as I get some cash I will have to buy some ant killer with conserve.

Sat, 07 Oct 2006 18:55:59 GMT

The pond is low but I don't want to add water to it right now, because I don't want this lovely day to be rained away.

So I will wait at least until it gets dark out.

Garden

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 04:58:59 GMT

The garden is doing okay. The latest round of seeds are sprouting. Peas and spinach are coming up. Broccoli, kale, and chard too.

After a very cool September, we are supposed to have a few weeks of warm weather during October. I hope that the weather gives my garden a boost. Grow grow grow!

The ants are still a problem, but we are too broke to afford any good ant poison. I sprinkle the garden with diatoms every few days to keep them off the seedlings, but more needs to be done.

Tomatoes

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 03:50:07 GMT

So far we have had a really cool September. I am worried about my tomatoes; they are supposed to be a determinate variety, and they are a)not growing very tall and b)have only one unripe tomato between them (although it is growing at a pretty good rate.)

I am going to give them some food and then mulch them with foil tomorrow, in the hope that that will stimulate them a bit.

The diatomaceous earth seems to be keeping the chard and broc seedling safe for now.

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 09:32:11 GMT

I really want to love my goldfish but they are not friendly at all. In fact they kind of suck.

Fishes

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 09:44:16 GMT

There is so much contradiction on the internet as to what goldfish need in a diet. I mean, direct contradiction! I don't know WTF they need; I know they are omnivores and will eat everything in their path.

I tried cooking some carrots for them today and they ate only a tiny little bit.

One thing is for sure: if these goldfish don't start being friendly very soon, they are off to a new home. I am tired of Al trying to bite me all the time- he didn't do that before the goldfish. If I send the adults off to a new home, I will keep the small yellow-ish guy and get him a few small comets as companions. The smallest fish is actually the tamest of the bunch, and apparently the smartest- he has the sense to come near the surface when I start feeding Al. Being a small fish, he takes up less space than the adults and makes less waste, and for some reason Al is not eating him, although I have seen Al chase the little guy a few times.

The mfish have become super-aggressive at feeding time, I think because the goldies are competing with them for food. I caught several small mfish this afternoon to give them to one of the turtle list people. They sure were jumpy! I love my little fishes. I wish we had room to have a little aquarium to keep some in, they are so fun to observe.

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 23:02:00 GMT

Still procrastinating, I went outside to check the mail and then decided to check the roses.

The last bush with no leaves still has no leaves, but the wood is still green, so I will leave it alone.

And one bush has a BUD! How cool is that? I am pretty excited.

Leafcutter ants are eating another bush, so I will have to kill them.

But yay BUD!

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 20:22:23 GMT

I need people to help me out with a project. It won't cost you anything, and will take less than ten minutes of your time. If you are willing to do this, please email me or respond here with your email address.

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 10:16:20 GMT

The goldies have finally begun thinning the plants in the pond- today I saw visibly less plant cover. So I guess I will start feeding them goldfish food. I think a twice a week feeding should be good- after all, they are also eating Al's leftovers and algae, pond plants, etc. I will also start giving them veggies. Most people overfeed their fish and I don't want to make that mistake, but I do want to have some plants remaining in the pond, and of course I want the fish to be healthy.

My little goldie is a different color than the big fish- they are bright orange and he is more yellow. I think that's neat. If I decide to give the big fish away, I will keep the little guy and get him a friend.

The mfish have become really aggressive. When I feed Al they all come up and swarm the food. I wonder, could the goldies be leaving fewer crumbs for the mfish to scavenge? I have a lot of mfish now and I think it's time for more of them to go to new homes.

I fed Al some anacharis today. He prefers the very leafy anacharis from Tabby's pond, to the less leafy anacharis from Noreen. Isn't that weird? He made a mess with the leaf bits, of course, so I hope the goldies ate those.

The pond is still breeding string algae. I had an idea today- I took out the bag of charcoal from the skippy. It's been in there for a few months now and I figured it was no longer working, but I have taken it out to see if it is perhaps absorbing the humic acids from the barley straw, and contributing to the algae problem. I stirred/scraped more string algae out of the skippy. I hope the goldies ate it.

The goldies are so freaking pretty- I hope they become tame soon.