Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Predicting the weather is an uncertain and risky business. Like the projections of earlier models : that the hurricane season of 2018 might be disappointing.

So it was in the halcyon days of late August when it almost seemed at long last the Summer of Storms had finally abated. Yet as the saga continues; we celebrated the final holiday of the summer season while two named tropical storms / hurricanes—Gordon & Florence were about to gear up to visit a lot of mayhem on the coastal regions of the Southland and spread epic rainfall into our region.

9/4/18: 03:05 AM

Labor Day came and went well. Somewhat anyway.

Broiled a pack of hot dogs in the oven and that was our cookout in C’ville. Then I took a shower and walked to the corner store to get milk and discovered it was roped off and shut down. Possibly for good because according to one of the neighbors they had a fire. So much for the convenience of having a place to get milk just a short walk away when I’m in a pinch and don’t want to drive out of my way to one of the local Walmarts. It really bad also for the owner as well as the misfortune plebes who work there who are temporarily or permanently out of a job. I’m guessing it will reopen eventually because it did not look at all damaged and it’s a good location.

Got off to work without any issues and made it on time despite a convoy of 6 who were also going my way and I was stuck with them all the way to the stoplight at the crossing of the highway going my way. At least the evening was pretty easy for a holiday—though holidays are often like that. Either people have better things to do than than come to the hospital or we sucked up the majority of the sick people last couple weeks when it was booming and they’re either still in the system or we fixed them—for a while at least! After last week I’m not going to feel guilty about having a slow day. Nor when I hear the horror stories of what it was like the next three days I’m off. My guess that’s when the people who can’t put it off any longer or get sick from overindulging start coming in.

Not going to feel guilty about that either.

Decided to stay overnight at my place again so I can get a head start on feeding and maybe something else in the cool of the morning. Supposed to hit 90 next two days and I also want to work on some mitigation efforts with a clear head in the morning.

9/4/18 : 09:15 AM

Ahhh morning!

It is so nice to sleep here in my own bed with the windows open to let in the cool of the night. Thankfully the nights are cool and fall like despite the ongoing heatwave that would otherwise make for rough sleeping without AC. In C’ville there is a wall mounted AC unit in the bedroom where I sleep and another in The living room. The latter is rarely on because Uncle Budd likes it warm as in reptile room temperatures (sure it has a lot to do with the Warfarin he’s on) and in the winter I actually have to run the AC and sometimes open windows to make the room bearable for sleeping! Last winter I kept the two baby CBTs , the baby Gulfs and striped mud in there with me until the house went back on the hot side and I had to move the newts to the basement out of dire necessity.

It was not long after that everyone was able to go home and outside for the season. Soon it will be time for them to come back in—mostly to hibernation facilities.

I was up around 7ish to feed the Dollar Suns I had moved recently to the patio tubs. They were somewhat skittish from the trauma of the disruption yesterday when l lifted out the lily and other plants from the tub they were in and used my clandestine coat hanger net to scoop them out and sort out the smaller ones to go to the other tub. I almost lost one of those which I discovered gasping for life on the rubber tiles beside the lily planter which he must have ridden along with when I pulled it out! So traumatic the experience that the fish regurgitated its meal of frozen brine shrimp when put back in the water. But it recovered and went into the new tub with the three other runts of that cohort.

They were all alive and well this morning and did come out to take the thawed bloodworms offered. I may be good on those species but I might take more in case you have a lot of surplus. But mainly what I’ll be after now are Bantams. Im hoping both Ray and Zimmerman's Fish remain productive of those. At some point I am going to have to reciprocate to Ray with some fish of my own as opposed to just plants—but I think I will be able to serve him as a reserve source of Blackbandeds by the end of next season as my current 6 ought to produce a bumper crop like the brood they came from in 2016. And I will definitely be able to provide Redbreasts (not sure of this year since I probably lost most of the YOY in the major disruption of the breakdown of that tub to check on the status of the young Bullheads). And the Bullheads I’m hoping I get a decent amount of young from the older cohort that will be large enough to raise easily in a tank when I harvest the pond in a month or so. I only saw that one wriggling through the plants in the shallows one morning about a month ago. I’m wondering if the behavior of the young of this population is different than the local examples of this species as I never saw any swarming in. Baseball sized clumps like the ones from Greenlick Lake that bred in my pond in the 1980s. I actually acquired the original stock by scooping up such a swarm in the lake with a bucket !

When the marbled ones I currently have spawned the first time it is was in a cavity scoured out of the soil in the lily planter and the young were aggregated in the cavity but dispersed shortly thereafter and just swam about randomly on the bottom of the tub. I hope they are surviving at large in the pond this time—and growing!

9/5/18: 03:43 AM

Ray was complaining about his favorite pet peeve yesterday. Dogs. As in the "Bark & Poop machines" to put it mildly. For me dogs barking are more useful than annoying since if I had them they would be my sentinels and early warning system for raccoons. And maybe even keep them away. But then if they bark ; I have to go out and investigate in the middle of the night.

Right now my best deterrent is the radio in my living room tuned to NPR to scare raccoons away from my tubs on the patio. I gave those more attention this evening while I was there dipping out water for a partial change which I used to water plants and refilled after dark when I was done mowing.

Tomorrow was supposed to be the start of another overnighter late in the day but Uncle Budd is having issues so that looks uncertain and I don't know yet what I'll be doing with the day. If I'm lucky I'll make it out home later to feed and check on things.

9/5/19: 10:05 PM

Spent the day in the ER with Uncle Budd. I took him in to have his hip checked and he has a hairline fracture that was not detected on X-ray but they found it with a CT. I'm glad they did the CT and glad I didn't take him to Med Express because it would probably get missed and he'd end up going home and it would have gotten worse. For a while it looked like he'd be going to surgery but it was deemed non surgical because the break is not the whole way through so it can be fixed with a couple weeks of rehab. He was walking on it for about a week since the issue began.

So I get a couple weeks to catch up. For a while I was wondering how I was going to manage this but it looks like he may pull through this and be good to go after a couple of weeks for healing and rehab. I was thinking about moving my stuff that's down there back home but if its only going to be two weeks there is no point—but I should move the baby turts for the time being and maybe the frogs—once the heat wave abates because the plan is to move them anyways now that the natural photoperiod is going close to 12 hours of daylight and the nights will be getting cooler which will hopefully stimulate breeding.

Tomorrow I'll have to catch up on stuff that was left go today. Earlier I stopped by my place briefly so I could open the storm pane on the east end of the greenhouse and I fed the fish and cats. Not sure how I'm going to do it—torn between going back to C'ville for the night to get a few things but I'll probably just stop at the store on the way home and run down there sometime tomorrow after I get done visiting Uncle.

9/7/18

My day yesterday was one of the most productive in a long time. Amazing what you can do when you don't have to rush off to be somewhere else. Feeding turts still went slower than desired but I'm getting better at it. Everyone has great appetites because of the heat but that will soon change. Still a shift to milder wetter conditions will be ideal for bulking them up more as they won't burn it off as fast which helps getting them ready for winter. Only a month left—maybe until the middle of October if it stays warm like it did last year.

Discovered a new use of the large round pond baskets—as temporary corrals for isolating the adult striped muds during feeding in their own habitat pool—which turns out more convenient and efficient than small buckets or tubs. And they stow easily away. I also have been taking care of back burner issues and gathering up and repurposing more things. While I was attending the mud turtle enclosure I noticed the three seed capsules on the yellow rain lilies split wide open and ready to disperse. Got them sown in three square pots. Found homes for some loose rock pool watering dishes that were laying around the house in the greenhouse enclosure for the CBTs and the quarantine enclosure for the male Florida Box. I even took him out and played with him at the end of the day and I'm going to attempt a photo session at some point and a art twi to my recent article but not sure if it will be this weekend despite the windfall of free time.

Tied a few other loose ends up—I finally got around to planting the bunch of milfoil and Cabomba that has been living for a while in the tub where I moved the smaller Dollars a few days before. The milfoil which is pinnatum went into a 4 inch basket with just pea sized brown flint gravel from the frog setup that I replaced with the expanded clay spheres. It's been outside in a tub leaching for months and is now a useful resource if this experiment works out—which I think it will. The Cabomba I'm doing in a small fab pot with sand. I'm thinking it may better since they often thrive loose in the pond rather than in soil and the porous medium also helps provide biofiltration.

Other back burner project at the end of the day was the filter I'm building from a kitty litter bucket for the male striped mud. Got around to cutting out the hole for the bulkhead with a box cutter. Had already scored a pattern days before for a hole saw but the cutter was less trouble. I have some bio balls leftover from other projects and will probably have to get another bag plus sponge material to cover the upper level. And go shopping for some fittings and tubing and I might have a power head I can use to run it.

In all it was a good and productive day. Too bad today is not so much. I'm in the process of drying some laundry I left the other day when we went to the hospital. And I emptied smaller trash cans in the main one in the kitchen and emptied his pee containers and left those to soak a few days with soapy water in them and getting ready to move the baby turts and the frogs back home along with some of the perishable stuff in the fridge which I will use up. Maybe I should try freezing the two loaves of white bread because I don't care much for it and it will mold by time my uncle gets home. Saw the doc yesterday and he thinks it will take about two weeks in a skilled nursing facility to get him healed. It is a very minor break and he could probably go home now but the pain and risk of injuring it more makes this the safer option.

Have only a few hours left before work. Luckily I have another 3 to 11 tomorrow and Sunday I'm off again for a few more days. I should be able to get a lot done in just that time alone. And maybe take a trip while I can. Mileage is an issue but it will be offset by less frequent travel to C'ville.

9/8/18—10:49 AM
Saturday morning.

It's a conflict between writing part two of my last article or getting something worthwhile done. Part of the problem seems to be that I wait until Saturday to put things together and it becomes a conflict of writing vs outdoors. I'm afraid I'll be favoring the latter as I try to get going from Uncle Budd's place where I stayed overnight after returning to look for his POLST form. That's the pink paper that tells the hospital or nursing home staff to not do CPR if he stops beating or breathing. Cannot find it so they will have to make a new one. I don't think they ever gave it to us when he got out the last time.

So it's a matter now of not letting today be a repeat of yesterday in which I got hardly anything done other than watering the greenhouse and replacing the handle on my old poachers spade. I had started off feeding fish and then gathered up some Superworms for the turts. I was long to offer the CBTs some first but they appeared so content basking that I assumed they were quite full from eating nightcrawlers the previous evening that I decided to let them go for the day. When they are truly hungry all I have to do is just open up the pen and before long they'll all come out and converge on the side where I am sitting.

Fed a few worms to the light colored female JPT and then the Florida Boxies which were interested. And that was it for feeding that afternoon. I then turned my attention to the spade which has been on the back burner for some time since the umpteenth wooden handle dry rotted and snapped off. I had this thing since I was a teenager—I found it in an abandoned shack atop the bluffs at the lake and it was my plant collecting spade for years but I use it now only at home because it would be a shame if I got caught and it got con-fist-ticated as the Great Roscoe P. Coltraine would put it. Not that I collect much anymore—mostly seed or pinching a piece off of something interesting.

Anyway I had been noticing lately this old mini garden fork with bent tines laying around up by the greenhouse and thought if I cut off the business end I could use the handle for my spade. Used a hacksaw and it worked! Another back burner issue solved like the bulkhead instal in the kitty litter bucket bio filter which I'm going to have to see if I can get fittings for today.

Addendum

The move went well for the critters yesterday. Fed the frogs last night on my stopover. Will have to see if I can get the hatching gulfs started on Reptomin and pellets. And maybe get something else done before work. Weather has turned wet. Maybe I can get some decent water flow in the catch basin again to keep the pond topped off and be able to run the watercourse for that perfect day I'm seeking.

Maybe soon.

9/9/18—10:57 AM

Ray's chilly weather is now here.

I could feel it coming yesterday when I stopped back home to feed the turts. The Chinese Box Turtles could feel it too as they were already digging in making their typical box turtle forms in the earth to hunker down in. Yang even took the trouble to make her dugout through the river rock mulch at the base of a sedge clump!

Still everyone was in the mood to feed. It was soaked pellets this time and a good choice and good timing because I knew then that it might be a while before they will want to feed again.

Stopped by Lowe’s to get a few things on the way to work. A couple pipe fittings for the bulkhead on the new home made biofilter and some shorter extension cords to shorten the run between the greenhouse and the turtle pen. Also got a short hose to run from the tap in under the mock rock to the CBT pen but I probably won’t be messing with any of that stuff today because of the rain. It started last evening while I was at work and is still going. A slow steady rain that we need to quench the soil and recharge the spring flow. It may keep on going all day tomorrow as well—though tomorrow looks like it will get warmer again—back into the 70s and 80 by Wednesday. It just might be cool enough to ship the newts this week without worry.

I forgot to note yesterday that I gave the two at Uncle Budd’s another feeding of nightcrawler chunks to hold them over for a few days until I get back down there. And then some pellets. Looks like I have gotten them well established and about as care free as the Japanese Firebelly Newts I’ve had in the past. Hope the new ones will be the same. Those are said to be on pellets already so that is encouraging.

Was a totally miserable day outside and a reminder of what is to come. House is down to 62 degrees and I’ve got a small electric heater going in my bedroom blowing right at me in bed. Thought about firing up the furnace but rather not do that until later this evening to save fuel. I did test it briefly a few weeks ago and it worked. So far so good on that. Going to have to get more oil soon which is always a juggling act with school taxes and other expenses. Was nice to get the Lowe’s card paid down. That gave me more wiggle room. Once I pay off Chase I’ll be way more solvent and better able to flex with unexpected expenses like medical bills or car repairs.

They are moving Uncle Budd to a nursing home today at noon. I’ll probably stop by the Hospital where he is on the way just to make sure because ambulances I know are notorious for getting delayed or diverted by more urgent calls when it comes to routine non emergent transfers.

Windy wet and raw outside. Might as well get breakfast and get moving. I got coffee on already. The lights flickered and failed briefly a few minutes ago and I turned off the electric heater but think it was from the grid. Luckily; it the power does go out it’s not frigid outside and I’ll be able to tough it out a day or two this tons of year like during Ivan or the October Surprise snowstorm in 05!

I really need to think about a new generator.

9/9/18—1:46 PM

Update

Still lingering at home after breakfast. Kind of hard to get motivated in this weather. Still steady rain and projected to last through tomorrow—maybe all day. But the prediction is for warmer rain and that should be ideal for turts with it back in the 70s. This looks like the theme for the follow up to the Summer of Storms: Quenching of the Dry Belt. I am going to move on and turn this current thread into an article before doing part 2 of the recent Nihon Ishigame. Today will be a good one for working on that so I won't have to do so much when the weather improves and there is a lot to do outside.

In a holding pattern with the filter project and replacing the extension cords to the filter in the Gulf Coast plex. Not a good idea to be messing with electricity in the rain—though I just got a smashing idea as I’m writing—that I could unplug inside the greenhouse and then connect the end of the extension to the filter before plugging the other end in inside. Think I will try that.

The filter needs more bio balls and I couldn’t find those at Lowe’s—I think they only have them as included in the little barrel filter kits that have now gone up in price to about $85 so I’m glad I’m going this route with the kitty litter bucket. Could be the model for future projects since the buckets are free from Bruce. Looks a little tacky but I can wrap them in ROR to blend with the environment or in the case of utilitarian indoor setups it doesn’t matter that much. I want to put this one in the striped mud corner but need to move the giant calla. Probably put that back outside by the rain barrel until freezing weather. Then I’ll have to figure out where it should go after that. Maybe the best approach will be to bare root it and grow as a pond plant like you do. I need to do something with the other clone—Swartzburg Giant with the unspotted leaves. It is currently languishing in a 6” Nursery container.

Will get some pics of that stuff and the newly refurbished spade on my other device and send them whenever I get access to public WiFi or Uncle Budd’s network.

Might be a good time to do something about my phone too. Get some photos off and into outside storage and hard copy form to free up space.

Just plugged the incubator back in for the benefit of the sole surviving Euro Pond egg. The thermometer inside is currently at 20 C which is 70ish I think. No problem since the critical phase that determines gender is well past and they often get cooler during incubation outside in the ground. But I’d like to get this show on the road so the egg which still looks viable will hatch sooner rather than later. Which will happen quicker at a toasty 31.0 C which is a little above 86F.

Hospital called. Uncle Budd is still there. He’s on hold until tomorrow. I might have to reconsider his destination because yesterday they couldn’t take him because of staffing issues—and today they couldn’t take him after 1 PM for whatever reason and the nurse who called to inform said she’d never heard of such—and as expected the ambulance pickup was delayed because the crew was diverted to deal with an emergency—which is as certain as death and taxes in EMS. I don’t know—maybe this is a red flag that he ought to go somewhere else.

Staffing issues? Wonder if it’s because they can’t find enough qualified candidates who can pass a drug test and will show up for work consistently. That’s what someone said where I work in regard to our being short staffed a year or two ago. We are still short—I got lucky last night that it slowed down after I moved from the window to the front station where there was no clerk for 4 hours. We are also fortunate that we can often get techs from the float pool to fill in who seem like really decent young people. Some maybe the cream of the Millennial Generation like Jordie and the other newer nurses. Thankfully they are not all brainless deadbeats and dirtbags like the grungy dregs of AntiFa and the Occupy protests. No more than all Baby Boomers are dope smoking hippies or Generation X is a generation of low achieving whiners.

9/10/18—05:59 AM

Certainly was fall like yesterday and the deluge continues.

Rain almost non stop with about 3 1/2 inches I measured in a bucket this afternoon. And more for sure since. My biggest accomplishment was in the greenhouse. I decided to go ahead with the cord replacement swapping out the 100 foot cord to the turtle pen with a shorter one repurposed from the one running the C-Fogger. The combination of the 15 and 8 foot cords from Lowe’s was not long enough to reach so I took the longer cord—probably a 15 footer—from the fogger machine and switched it with the shorter one I had just bought and it worked out better for both as it cuts down the length for both appliances and reduces the load on the fuse box. I learned that from Bruce’s brother who is an electrician when I had a major electrical problem involving both the greenhouse and the outside furnace. They are on the same circuit and one day I blew fuses in the main box plus shorted out the furnace during Crunch Time a few falls ago when I was running a sump pump on a 100 foot extension to transfer water from either the ditch or the inside pond. That was a simple correction but I ended up using the long cord to run the filter in the baby water turtle tub for lack of a shorter one. Wanted to correct this before winter when it is more likely I’d have more stuff running.

After that I sprayed down the greenhouse plants I lifted the giant calla out and carried it down to the house and set it in a large feed tub in front of the rain barrels. Planning on one day sinking a tub into the ground at that spot to drop the plant in every spring. Thinking seriously about growing it hydroponically which will make it easier to move at season’s end. A plastic crate or large pond basket might be the trick. If I used the expanded clay pebbles like the ones that make up the drainage layer in the frog tanks—that would give something to root into yet be light enough to move the plant without too much trouble.

Reason for moving the calla was to make room for the filter box. That project was complicated by a mishap as I slipped and fell coming down the steps off my front porch. The algae biofilm that I scrubbed off has returned and my feet went out from in front of me and luckily I didn’t land hard enough to seriously hurt much other than my pride. And some pretty damning words came came from my lips during the fall and while picking up the loose bio balls that got scattered at the bottom and under the steps. I figured out a place to position the filter and that was about it. A little afterwards I made a round of the other site to make sure all was well and then gave the steps another scrubbing with physan solution to eliminate the hazard so I didn’t slip again later.

There was a break in the rain when I arrived at the hospital to see Uncle Budd. But is remained quite dark and gloomy that late afternoon looked more like dusk and I remarked that it looked like the end of the world to a passer by at the main entrance on the way in. I stayed til about 7P and got news that they will be transferring him around 9A on Monday. I’m going to go with the current arrangements for now but if they cancel or delay again I’ll reconsider an alternate destination. Got the news on the weather event which is the result of tropical storm Gordon that came up from the Gulf dragging with it lots of moisture that is quenching the Dry Belt for sure. Lots of flooding in the region which is starting to look more and more like the situation with Hurricane Ivan in 05.

Was thinking about stopping at the hardware store on the way back but forgot that it was Sunday until I saw that it was closed on the way through Summit Ridge plaza so I just continued home and put in for the evening. Noticed that the winds were picking up again so it was probably that we were now getting the back end of the storm. Went to the greenhouse to check on things and fetch a can of tea from the stash on top of the radiators that I’m trying to use up before the end of the season. Glad I did that because I was able to remember the Polydactyl fern and a couple bromeliads left to soak in the rain barrel earlier and wound probably have been forgotten in light of what was to come later that evening.

Lost power sometime shortly after midnight. We had a brief interruption early in the day when the lights failed for a few seconds and then again while cooking dinner which prompted me to get the show on the road with warming up the George Foreman to get the steak done before I lost power for good as we were continuing to have brief outages through the evening. That made for a frustrating affair as I had to remember to keep resetting the oven every time it went out so the fries and shrimp wound get done. I also decided to break out a couple of the emergency candles and get them lit so I’d have an alternate light source going before the grid failed.

It was Surf & Turf with the last NY Strip Steak and a half dozen butterfly shrimp, corn on the cob and last of the Famous Fries I wanted to get rid of in place of baked potato. Not bad for scratching up dinner in a pinch. As for the power situation the lights failed sometime after midnight and that’s when I started this entry into what is becoming the summer edition of the Diaries. Thank goodness for battery powered cellphones which give access to the internet even during a power failure. A far cry from what I had toughing it out during Ivan when the power was out for the entire weekend and shortly thereafter with the October Surprise snow that interrupted it for 3 days and it was running kerosene heaters and reading my latest Thomas Sowell and other works from Laissez Faire Books by candlelight! Luckily now like then it is not severely cold outside so there are no worries about freezing to death or loosing the greenhouse or damage to the plumbing. I realky have to get a working generator and a plan to fall back on because it’s only a matter of time.

Monday’s going to be a busy day. I’m probably going to swing by C’ville to check on things and see if they still have power and I’ll plan on moving some perishable goods there if they do and it looks like the grid is going to be down for a while.

And to recharge my phone which is getting low on battery. Hope I can get this out before it runs out.

9/10/18—3:29 PM

Update

They finally moved Uncle Budd to the facility which is just around the corner and across the creek from my hospital. I got here late morning / early afternoon after a rather grueling morning getting out of home.

That started around 8 or 9 when I finally got up and the power was still out. I extinguished the E candle in my bedroom and the one in the kitchen to conserve them in case they are needed another night. Only breakfast option was cold cereal with blueberries and a cookie. Then I had to get ready and go.

First hurdle was a desperate search for one of the Chinese Boxies—Yang was dug in so well that I could not find her until I went back to the house and changed into swimming trunks and an old shirt because it was raining steady again and I didn’t want to go in soaked to the bone. So much for a quick check to do a head count and assess storm damage. Got my old screwdriver used mostly at that site for prying out dandelions to probe the soil and I found the missing one dug in near where the male had dug in at the base of a sedge clump. Despite my worries that someone might get stuck and drown in their own forms in the earth I moved all 5 to the greenhouse for peace of mind. They’ll probably go back tomorrow.

Next hurdle was getting out of there. I was seeing and hearing trucks running about so there is hope the power will soon be restored or else I’ll have to consider moving milk and other perishables back to C’ville—that is if Uncle Budd’s place has power! Thought it would be neat to turn around at the cemetery and go in the direction I saw the last truck going. But figured it not a very good idea for obvious reasons even if it makes a good picture for my article.

(Downed tree)

Well going down the other way I encountered the roadblock in the opposite direction from where I thought it would be ; the old walnut tree at the end of my neighbor’s property had finally toppled. That was not the cause of the power outage and the crane truck that came up the hill obviously went down and turned back as I did by backing into the neighbor’s driveway. Going up over the hill I encountered no downed trees or crews clearing debris or repairing lines. The break in the circuit is probably somewhere far from there. I talked to the social worker on the phone when I got to the parking lot at Frick and she said power was out at her place on the other end of town—so it’s probably multiple breaks in the lines all over the place. Uncle Budd says the power on my road comes from up the road and ends at the neighbor’s place and the source is either by way of C’ville or Scottdale. I hope it’s on when I get home later. You don’t really appreciate electricity until you loose it!

Just talked to the admissions director and it looks like they have a good program here. I was a little torn at first because of the staffing issue yet Jordie’s recommendation was that it was a good place—good enough for her grandmother. I am happy to hear that the staffing issues are related to personal crisis. Everyone is dealing with flooding basements and other issues caused by the storm. They’re even evacuating parts of Derry because of concerns over a potential dam failure. I will definitely steer clear of there!

Other bit of news—the newts have shipped and will be here Wednesday which was the latest fallback plan. Was tempted to call and ask to wait another week as I’m behind on preparations and the recent crisis with Uncle Budd and the power outage has set me back. I’m tempted to get another critter tank on the way home but I think I’ll just use the Exoterra for a stopgap since I’d rather put off buying anything new until after payday this Thursday and I’ll be staying mostly at home anyway for the next few weeks. That will let me take my time with the new setup which I’ll start at Uncle Budd’s place in the basement. Going to keep the new cohort separate for a while for quarantine and size differences as the two older newts will eat the smaller ones.

Hoping the storm will abate soon—or at least they get power restored or I may be going to C’ville to stay the night.

9/10/18

Got home late in the day after stopping off at the pet shop to get a pipe cleaner brush and some fish feed and cricket quencher and to price the critter tank. Then to McDonalds for a quick fix and possibly the only hot meal of the day in the event the power was still not back on. Then Lowe's to get two elbows and two plastic gutter blocks for the experiment I've been wanting to do for some time aimed at correcting the wet basement issue.

(Still impassable)

McDonalds turned out to be a good call because when I came in from below—the downed tree was still there and the power was still out.

(Downed light pole)

The light pole at the park entrance across from the cemetery was also down and according to the young lady who was getting ready to walk into the park with her daughter—the power was shut off. That was second hand from someone else who had been there shortly before—township crew perhaps. Well that not only proves me wrong on thinking the problem was somewhere on the opposite end—it also meant that my plan to clean out my fridge and freezer and move the perishables to Uncle Budd's was going to have to be put into action.

And there was not going to be much time for anything else as its fall now and not much daylight left and with the heavy overcast it's even worse and lack of artificial light makes it difficult to get anything done indoors. Made sure I gathered up the clothes I wanted to take with me and loaded them in the car and grabbed some cardboard boxes for the food stuffs to have it ready to go as soon as I was ready to leave. Then tacked my one major project of the day : the downspouts which I wanted to divert away from the foundation drainage system and out onto the lawn to see if that stops the water that is getting into my basement. The process was relatively easy thought it did make me curse a few times. I sawed off the downspouts above the points where they go into the ceramic pipes and had to crimp them a little to get them into the elbows. That turned out easier than imagined and like many similar projects I wonder why I waited that long. Like income taxes. If only I had the money to outsource home improvements like I do my tax returns to H&R Block! This will be a stopgap to see what happens. I'm guessing the drainage crocks around the foundation have clogged or broken and the water from the gutters is seeping through the basement walls. In the coming years as time and resources allow I'm thinking of a more thorough solution like drain pipes to take the water over to the wood line at the edge of the property and create a storm garden to retain and absorb the water so it doesn't cause problems for the neighbors. For now I just want to see if the gutters are the problem before investing in material and the digging involved in the next phase. Wish I had done this before the storm but I might still see some results as the rain which is still ongoing will not end until almost morning—so that should make some difference.

Wanted to brush out the tubing for the filter project in the greenhouse but there was no point wasting the dwindling daylight on that without power to test the power head which I did run for a while in a bucket of bleach solution yesterday. Probably would have set it up then were it not for the want of a cleaning brush to snake through the tubing to get the gunk from the previous setup out of it. Can't find the one I had so I got a new one. It can wait til tomorrow when I should at least have natural light outside to work.

From the general feel of everything I'm reconciled to the possibility it could be several days before they get power restored to my neighborhood. Luckily it's happening now rather than during a cold snap in January. Like comparing Ivan or even the unseasonable October snowfall to my worst nightmare scenario of a power outage during frigid weather lasting several days. Ivan was kind of like an adventure despite the inconvenience of being without lights at night or hot meals aside from eating out. The October Snowstorm which I'm sure was the granddaddy of all future Algore global warming snowstorms—was a good bit more miserable and worrisome because we had to burn kerosene heaters to keep the house warm and the greenhouse went without heat for the duration and I'd even rescued some of the tropical plants that got covered with snow just a short while after getting done telling you the original prediction of snow in the higher elevations of the Laurels. The power didn't go out until the morning after during breakfast.

As for the current situation—the misery index felt more like that of the October Surprise scenario than Ivan even though the weather is more like the later. Uncle Budd's place in C'ville turned out to be a Godsend as the power was on when I got here—though it has been interrupted at some point because I had to reset the clock on the stove.

It really is nice to have electricity and lighting and decent warmth. The house which I turned down to 68 is still at 70 degrees. I was able to salvage most of what was worth salvaging from my fridge and freezer including pork chops which I was thawing for today anyway. Also a good opportunity to clean my fridge and get rid of old stuff that I put into the trash. Will gather up the rest of that later in the week.

Was kind of surprised to find gas at BP in Latrobe at 319—up from 313where it has been most of the summer. But equally surprised to see it at 304 at the station in Laurelville where I fueled up before going into home. I figured I might have to backtrack to get in so I didn't want to chance it with the gauge near empty.

(Laurelville)

9/11/18—9:34 AM

It has finally ended.

Now if we can just get rid of the gray skies too—though that has its benefits in the way of keeping it on the milder side of warm while the newts are in transit. They are shipping from of all places ; New Jersey and should be here tomorrow! I'm exited about that and will probably have to get the Critter tank while I'm up in Latrobe today so I can get it set up in time for them. That will depend on the situation with the power back home. I'm hoping it will be restored today but I'm not counting on it.

Yesterday was a helluva day the likes of which I would rather not see in a long time—especially not in the winter. Moving the stuff from my fridge was a great save and the downspout modification I'm hoping will solve the basement issue. And not too late to test it—it's going to rain AGAIN! tomorrow. Probably showers and storms associated with normal frontal activity as opposed to a tropical storm remnant. Gordon was a good one that despite all the trouble he's caused has really done a good job of quenching the dry belt. I'm betting the Gulfs probably loved it. Back in the day I noticed that tropical systems often sparked mating activity in the Fall. It might have but I was too busy to notice. I won't be surprised to see another flush of rain lilies. They're often called "Hurricane lilies " in Florida and the Gulf Coast region because wet weather stimulates them to bloom.

Now I'm in recovery mode as I do some laundry and get ready for breakfast. Probably going to be a short day back home because I have to stop to see Uncle Budd on the way to work but tomorrow I may be there most of the day waiting for the package to arrive. If the power is on—I look forward to running the hurricane pump and the bulkhead in the new filter system for the striped mud enclosure inside the greenhouse. That is if the power is on. If not it will have to wait along with the basement renovation I'm anxious to get started on as I'm really handicapped when it comes to stuff down there without lighting. Very little natural light gets back into that room through a small window on the stairwell wall that separates it from the rest of the cellar.

If I'm lucky I'll manage to squeeze in the Perfect Day before Crunch Time and hopefully before Uncle Budd gets out of rehab. I was thinking of a trip to of all places ; New Jersey but I'm kind of hesitant because of the mileage and concerns over what I might find out there given all the heavy rains—even though lakes and streams of the Pines don't usually flood that much. I could try for Rosyside Dace which are much closer to home but high water actually would be more likely after what just happened regionally. I'll bet most creeks will be swollen and slow to go down.

Maybe I should set traps and see if there are still enough breeders left in the pond. So much or a sense of adventure. Getting older and more financially limited I'm getting more cautious about stuff. Being maybe one more accident or natural disaster away from financial ruin I'm less inclined to take risks like I did in my younger days.

9/12/18 8:45 AM

Update

Astonishingly the power was on when I got home yesterday. It came as a bit of a surprise after I hit the roadblock local authorities put in place at the park entrance by the cemetery.

(Road roped off)

At that point I was resigned to accept that the power might be out for days to come. But after I fed the fish some bloodworms I brought with me I decided to open the fridge and see what I might do with the remaining stuff—some of which would be fit to junk by then—and the light came on. The clocks on the stove were also flashing. However there is no power to some circuits including the one that supplies the tank with the Blackbandeds and the plug for the incubator and light on the frog tank on the floor above and the oil furnace and line to the greenhouse is dead. The power surges from the event that caused the outage probably blew a fuse or two and so I'm going to have to go shopping for some of those.

Didn't get much done at home yesterday beyond feeding some turts before running out of crawlers and time. And I didn't have time to see Uncle Budd on the way either.

Came back to C'ville to put out the trash and ended up staying the night. Now I've got to hightail it back home and see what I can get done while awaiting the arrival of the newts. Those are in town and probably out for delivery so I must hurry now. I'll be bringing back some of the perishables to restock the fridge but not everything because I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket. There might be further interruptions in the power supply and another tropical storm is bearing down on the east coast that could end up here like Gordon!

Update 11:27 AM

Another update

Waiting for the package and waiting for the rain to end. It’s a morning very much like the one the male Florida Box arrived. I brought the round plastic critter bowl with me that stared out as the temporary setup for the first cohort from the Hamburg Show in 16 and as an accommodation for the current pair in C’ville during major breakdowns of their tank. Took it to the greenhouse to clean it out good and used a little of the partially alive Java Moss from the driftwood in the Exoterra that I’m reviving in the inside pond to make the new arrivals somewhat at home while they await a more permanent solution. Either a new critter tank or the Exoterra if I can get it cleaned out and restored this evening. I have the ROR out in the weather getting sanitized.

Finally I start on the long overdue project of clearing out and assessing the basement facility. The two Rubbermaid 50s are out under the apple tree where the rain will wash them out and I can then move them somewhere out of the way until I find some way to repurpose them.

With them out of the way I find there are plenty of cinderblocks in place that can be repositioned to serve as supports for tanks. One less thing I have to buy and transport. I’ve already started experimenting to see what I might be able to do with them.

(Cleanup crew arrives)

I came in from uphill and the tree was still there but also a truck and several more on the other side getting ready to clear the way and clean up the mess of the downed utility pole at the park entrance. I talked to the guy with the truck on my side of the tree a little bit before heading in to take care of business at home. They are now cutting it up as I write—in the pouring rain.

I’m hoping delivery will not be delayed much longer because I’d like to get out of here to see Uncle Budd at a decent hour and shop for some 20 and 30 amp fuses. I better grab a whole bunch of those while I can because they are going the way of incandescent bulbs and I want to put off replacing the box until I get the Chase Card paid down at least.

Waiting for the rain to let up so I can feed turts. Wondering if this is the beginning of the next tropical system? If so—the current forecast on my phone is all wet! Lol.

At least it’s good weather for shipping newts. No heat concerns like the ones that canceled the first two attempts.

7:26 PM

Thank God and Grayhound!

Gordon ; the tropical storm remnant that caused all this local mayhem I just went through has finally departed! The new one incoming is Florence; a full fledged category four (when I last heard)—hurricane aimed at the Carolina Coast. Hope friends down there are ok because this one will do serious damage as it comes inland. If it penetrates deeply inland and continues to dump heavy rains after it weakens down to the tropical storm category ; it could impact here just like Agnes in 72 which hit hard all the way up through Virginia, WVA and even western Pennsylvania. Hard to predict what these things will do—it could be like Hugo which came right up that same track and fizzled by time it got directly over here with just a lot of blustery winds little in the way of rain. Maybe the Dry Belt sucked it dry.

(Newts!)

9/13/18

The newts made it here alive and well. And they were even bigger than expected.
But they look quite different from the two I have from the other source. Actually much prettier with that orange dorsal stripe which makes me wonder if they are a different species or just local variation? They kind of remind me of the Japanese firebellies sourced from Kyushu!

But these are Cynops cyanurus— actually they may have been separated from the Japanese newts into another genus—Hypsolotriton but I like Cynops better. The Asian Newts are closer to the group that inhabits the Pacific Northwest than they are to the Red-Spotted—Broken-Striped—Central and Peninsular Newts—the various subspecies of Notophthalmus viridescens of eastern and Central NA and the Striped Newt of the southern coastal plan. Those are closer in appearance to the newts of Europe. A legacy of the Arcto-Tertiary flora and fauna of ancient Laurasia.

9/14/18—11:41 AM

(Newts in temp accommodation)

Got the new newt cohort in a temporary plastic bowl enclosure with moss and I offered them the pellets that came with them but they didn't seem interested. They may have eaten some overnight but most of them sifted through the slots in the bottom into the peel away soft plastic thing like a coffee can lid that covers the bottom. That's kind of inconvenient though it does make for easy cleaning. Just take it outside and flush with water and put the plastic back on the bottom. This container is made more for hermit crabs and terrestrial herps but serves well enough for a temporary holding and transport container. It could make for a good rearing container for young newts and frogs if I can set up racks and trays with drains and take the plastic thing off the bottom and just flush them on a frequent basis to keep them sanitary. The ones with newts can sit in water on a centralized bio filtration system and be filled with Java moss and those can be lifted out and the bottom put back on for transport to the reptile show. The froglets would have a circle of pond underlayment cut out to fit in the bottom and get moss to grow on it which would make for the perfect minature terrestrial setup to transport and display them in.

This morning I ran out of time to make it to the bank because I had to turn around at the bottom of Greenlick road to go back for my uniform and then it was obvious that the narrow window to do the bank on the way was probably was no longer workable. So I will have to default to tomorrow.
Three to eleven today. If I can get out of Honda before one I might be able to pick up the critter tank and visit Uncle Budd on the way. Sure would be nice to get an opportunity to run and enjoy my waterfalls and test the tap in. Maybe tomorrow morning or Sunday. 11 to 11 those days. Off Monday so it might not be until then.

And I guess the next storm is coming. Last heard Florence was steaming for the Carolina coast bearing down on Wilmington. Hope Moonman is ok. He lives a little more inland that previously but it's pretty flat there so he might have to evacuate.

One silver lining in this for me is that Gordon has already soaked the ground and recharged the spring flow and trees that suck up lots of water are getting ready to gear down for dormancy so refilling the pond after the Crunch Time drawdown should be less problematic this year. Even without power to transfer back from the retention pond I'll be able to use the spring to refill in a day to two. Will probably use both sources.

Now to see if I can work on the next article while I'm waiting. The oil and tire rotation are done but Auto Butler will take a few hours. If I can get it written now then I can tinker with it later tonite and maybe get it out early morning so I can have time free to do something before work.

9/15/18—07:57 AM

Saturday morning and the Norseman's Diaries are going to have to be put on the back burner again because there is just not enough time and too much other stuff to do before heading off to work. I'm in C'ville where I spent the night after stopping in to unload a 20 gallon I got from Walmart after dropping off the critter tank at home. And I fed the newts here which were looking quite well.

I'm hoping the coming week will be a little less hurried so I can really catch up on things. It seems even when I get a break from the routine ; circumstances still conspire to fill up my schedule and suck up time.

9/17/17—09:58 AM

The outer bands of Florence or her remnants reached my place sometime this morning. A very light sporadic sprinkling was already ongoing when I got up about an hour ago. It was not enough to stop me from taking the Troy and cutting the long overdue strip of grass in the center of the lane that is brushing against the underbelly of my car on the way in and out.

I cut a good bit of the yard before having to stop to move a large branch of the long dead ash tree blocking the way. It was then that the rain began to transition to a light shower and I decided that was it for now. Came back in and fed the sunfishes and then put coffee on and a fillet of salmon in the sink to thaw.

After breakfast I’ll feed turts and tend the greenhouse before embarking on some business at the bank and to go see Uncle Budd. There goes another day as far as things outside are concerned but with Florence incoming it would have been a washout anyway. At least the grass is cut and I’ll get the remaining turts fed. I also am going to get into the greenhouse pond and evaluate how I’m going to install a Pro—Line 3000 filter to get that ready for Crunch Time. And when I get back this evening it will be the fish room project and the newts which I want to start giving attention to since I moved them into the Exoterra tank the night before last. I just put the bottom liner back in and some leftover river pebbles to weigh it down so the occupants don’t get under the edges. They were all looking fine when I looked last night. Will start feeding them and fine tuning the setup. It needs the filtration system put back in and a light source of its own—currently it get some light from the LED over the lower 40 B but it can get that light as soon as I break that tank down which may start tonight.

02:02 PM

Update

Running behind—story of my life. Have yet to get on the road but I did finish and put the kitty litter bucket filter in place in the striped mud corner and gave it a test run. It functions perfectly except that the powerhead has too much power and I had to shut it off to prevent overflow. Could go to a bigger bulkhead drain to accommodate the high flow but a better opting may be to swap the powerhead with the pump in the Waterland setup because mud turtles don’t need or care for a lot of turbulence anyways. And it would probably enhance the performance and appearance of the Waterland—and JPTs are from higher gradient steam habitats.

While watering down the greenhouse I was thinking about another option of using a couple of those tub filters with a spillway instead of a Waterfall filter embedded in the back shoreline which would probably work just as well and solve an additional problem if I put the elephant ears and calla lilies in them to serve as a vegetation filter and free up space in the pond. Will also keep the elephant ears which run ; contained.

Breaking for lunch and will take care of a few more odds and ends before moving out.

9/19/18—11:23 AM

Slowly recovering. At least Florence wasn't an issue. After lingering at 2 miles per hour between Wilmington and Myrtle the storm which downgraded to a tropical depression tracked off quickly on an arc through Appalachia right up through PA and off to the northeast in little more than a day and is a distant memory. Got some light rain earlier in the day but by time I was at the nursing home that evening it was somewhat clear and pleasant and yesterday was not bad though I worked.

It was a long day but I got through it despite an insomniac night before. Not sure if I mentioned but I've discovered a new issue—what appears to be another leak in the back bedroom. The gypsum board was getting badly degraded over time with paint peeling and flaking but now it's getting wet and starting to buckle and crumble.

(Bad ceiling)

Until now I assumed it might be from sweating but I'm guessing there is a leak like the ones in the attic above my bedroom that talked about previously. Going to have to make a hole so I can look up inside and try to see where it's coming from. Hoping I can either plug it or install a better ridge vent cap to defect the flow. Otherwise I may have to tarp it for the winter and do major repairs next season. Always something.

On a better note I got the new batch of newts feeding readily on chunks of nightcrawler when I stopped over last night. That is a good sign since the previous cohorts were always problematic to get started and had a high mortality. It looks like they may do well in the Exoterra which I plan to start upgrading by adding filtration and a few more accents—though it might do well to keep it simple like the setup here in C'ville—as it is now with just river pebbles and tufts of Java moss. I'm going to move the frog setup back home today and put it on the table next to the one in my bedroom and give the shop light back to the Exo Terra.

While I was at home last night I was eyeballing the fish room and contemplating placement of tanks and stuff. I'm thinking seriously of reincorporating the old turtle table and a Rubbermaid 50 and have a green area like before with grow lights which will also keep the room warm in the winter. I'd put the 55 back on the stand above the Exo Terra and set it up for the Marsupial Frogs like I had it for Red-Eye Tree Frogs back in the day. I might not even have to reseal it since it will be a terrestrial setup. I might cycle the frogs between there and their tank in the bedroom to breed them and to also give the moss and plants a rest.

I could also use legs instead of blocks to elevate the turtle table and raise it to the level of the 55 and use the space below for live food cultures. That will more justify the space for the table which will be for when I get back into Rhinoclemmys and that will be their winter setup. Their tub will be ideal for green swordtails like before. If I do platies in another setup it will be on the far end if the room where jumping and genetic mixing will not be a problem.

9/20/18—1:33 PM

My day could have been better.

Indeed it was really no different from most of my days before Uncle Budd went into the hospital. As have been most of the other ones since. I slept late—and I definitely needed to after not getting much rest the previous night. Astonishingly I got through my day on Tuesday without any issues of drowsiness on the job or the drive home. Only after getting into C’ville. Which was why my previous reply came late morning instead of in the middle of the night. I also watched some critter related videos and I still can’t get the beat from the spring episode of the Japan Herping Channel out of my head ( you probably remember that one from last winter with the guy going out on a bicycle and filming Firebelly Newts, frogs and tadpoles) I stumbled across that one again in a search for info about the Yunnan Newts. I fed the two in the basement before or after breakfast—I’m not sure anymore—if it even matters. Then I cut the grass and showered and went to my bro’s house to drop off the mail. It was a pretty quick exchange and I felt kind of shitty about it and was thinking of messaging or calling to apologize but he tried calling me first on the way after my pit stop for gas and I returned his call after getting home.

We discussed the options and talked a good deal about other stuff that I won’t go into detail about. Mostly family history and such. Then I started upon the task of moving some more of my stuff—the 20L Critter tank that the frogs were in during their sojourns down there and the cement tub enclosure that the CBTs started out in and various husbandry supplies—the feeding forceps and misting bottle, a metal bucket etc. The two newts will probably be next once I get a spot cleared for them here. Then the fish and their tanks. I’m holding off on those a little.

Anyway I loaded that stuff up and talked to the father of the young fellow who lives in the house across the alleyway. Keep forgetting his name but a really nice fellow in his 60s. He has been cutting the grass on the outside strip between the fence and sidewalk including around the front and he said he’d keep an eye out for suspicious activities on the property. The brain freeze on the name is driving me crazy. Maybe I’ll remember in the morning when my head is clearer again.

Did not roll into my place until 4PM. Unloaded and got the stuff I brought home including more stuff from the freezer and fridge which will help tide me over this spartan pay period. Then I fed turts and I won’t get into too much detail there for time sake. Did not get up onto the roof as planned. Mainly because I’m afraid to go up there by myself and if I do I’d rather do it earlier in the day when I’m not overloaded and rushed. As if that’s going to happen anyway! So it was off to the nursing home to see Uncle Budd.

The visit went pretty good but I’m still not ready to tell him yet. It's about the prospect of having him placed in a personal care facility. I just can’t bring myself to drop such a bomb right now. I’m thinking it’s going to have to be in a meeting with my bro also present. From what uncle said tonight I can tell he’s aware of the issues of my nearing the breaking point and that the social worker has probably talked to him about it. One of the options—which I think they told him about is for him to go home and get home health services coming in on a regular basis—which my bro is also in favor of. I’m torn on that one between the issue of safety and the thought of him having to leave his home. I’d hate to take him back and let him get hurt which could force the issue and taking him away from his home and all his possessions. Part of me still wants him to be able to go back and live in his own place a little while longer. That’s going to be a real tough one to do.

And here I am back home thinking things over some more after doing a little redding up and a late dinner. I started cleaning up my bedroom getting rid of old magazines and papers. Also fed the frogs and tended the roach colony.

I’m also weighing a few options for tackling the roof problem. I may be able to spray a sealant under the shingles or put in a new ridge vent. Will have to detail those ideas later because I’m running out of steam. Maybe a good sign because I’ll sleep before and be fresh I. The window to get it done is very narrow as after tomorrow the rains are moving back in this weekend.

9/21/18—10:49 AM

Never made it up onto the roof yesterday. Waited for it to warm up so the shingles would not be brittle before I got up there taking care of routine stuff, some overdue laundry and more redding up. But as the clock ticked down to the wire I finally scrounged up a couple ladders and tried to climb up.

To the overhang at the back porch I can touch the gutter where I stand but the prospect was too intimidating even though I have been up there before. I just couldn’t do it. And taking care of a patient that fell off a ladder yesterday after going in for work doesn’t help matters much either! He wasn’t hurt really bad and walked in and out when discharged but it could have been worse.

As for my problem I noted some sticks—either dead weeds or tree seedlings in the gutter on the perpendicular roof that runs above the peak that is leaving and the water spots are more toward that end of the room so it might be worth starting with the gutter and making sure it’s not clogged—which I’m hoping might be the source of the problem. That would be an easy fix. If I could get the ladder stabilized better I might not be so afraid to climb on and once on the roof I’d be able to get up to the peak and at least be able to look in the gutter and see what’s going on there in addition to inspecting the peak vent and shingles. If there is a clogged downspout and I can get it cleared I will be able to see it that solves the problem as there is rain in the forecast tonight.

I’ve been exploring other options for a temporary fix. There are products out there that can be sprayed or painted on to stop leaks or seal and prolong the life of roof shingles but there is a lot of confusing commentary whether it is effective or counterproductive—doing more harm than good and arguments that that the counterproductive ones are just from the building contractors and unions who don’t want a quick and easy fix that would diminish the jobs available for them to do.

I may need new shingles but I hope I can prolong the life of what I have a little longer—at least until I can get the chase card paid down like I did Lowe’s.

70 degrees in the house this morning. It’s kind of regrettable that what I’ve pretty much taken for granted will not be much longer. There is some chilly weather in the near term forecast—what you have is coming my way too and there is also the seasonal cooling trend that is also setting in with 80 degree days disappearing and replaced by 70 degree ones as the new above norm. Turts are not going to be feeding much longer. The female Euro Pond may have already went off feed which may be normal because I looked at the forecast for northern Greece and it’s starting to get chilly there.

Yesterday I fed everyone at the pond site except the Euros ave CBTs. The latter were not very active despite it being warm and pleasant. They were still hunkered down and probably would eat if I dragged them out but they had fed heavily the day before and time was running out so I let them go for the day.

Finally got to hook up the new 15 foot hose to the tap in on the line from the Hurricane and give it a test. Surprisingly there was not enough pressure to make the sprayer work very effectively so it remains more practical to dip buckets out of the pond to flush the CBT pools. However it still works fine for topping off the DD which was the main reason I got the fittings and the Mock Rock to cover it and the short length of hose coils up and stows neatly under the “rock” so it’s hooked up and ready to go. All I need is to bring in another hose to bridge the gap that’s easier to store than the big corrugated tubing. I’m moving away from that because it’s bulky even though it’s light weight and prone to getting pinholes. Most of the short pieces I use to siphon between rain barrels are now useless and the plan is to start replacing those with bulkhead fittings and short pieces of poly or vinyl tubing. That will leave just the roll I use to transfer water between ponds and I may even dispense with much of that by laying a length of poly pipe to the retention pond so I can just hook up a shorter length of tubing to that.

Newt tank project. Hooked up the drop in filter and the makeshift Tupperware biofilter and will slowly continue to upgrade. A little unnerved that the newts seem uninterested in the pellets that came with them. Much like the previous cohorts. I will try some of the other store brand ones that the two in C’ville are eating. They are red in color and show up better.

I’m thinking I might combine the two cohorts when I bring the pair home and forgo any farther acquisitions for this year and see how this works out. I may have all I need—7 specimens age two of them from a different source may be all I need to get started and the other tanks will be useful for pairing specific individuals and rearing offspring. I’m going to do that with the frogs too— I now have a second tank that is a well established bioactive vivarium perfect to raise young frogs without fear of them drying out since that one has a mini rock pool and a deeper substrate with a drainage layer that is frequently watered and misted. The little bowl enclosures will still be useful for transport and display at the reptile show. I may do those with a layer of that white sponge rock and a thin substrate with moss and plants and keep those going in the greenhouse where I can frequently spray them and bring down the ones I need to take the frogs to the show.

Today may be the last day of summer the way the forecast hoes so I better see if my turts will eat and then maybe crack at getting up on the roof to check things out. That is if I’m brave enough. Wish me luck.

9/22/18—08:49 AM

Was a pretty nice day yesterday. Possibly the last day of summer that ended with a derecho that barreled though late evening after sunset. Very warm and the turts were ravenously hungry. Could be the last meal of the season for some of them. Some of the CBTs are turning their noses up at pellets. When it warms up again I'll shift to worms and bugs. And I'll eventually move them to the greenhouse.

It's now it's Saturday morning and I'm torn again after spending the night in C'ville. I stopped down to get a few more things and stayed the night because I didn't want to drive back after a long day between home and another busy 3 to 11 shift. Would be a good opportunity to write the article but that's at the expense of maybe a good day. It's starting out brighter than expected and might top the forecasted 60 something high if the sun stays out. That and the warmth still in the ground after all this hot weather.

I'm going to have to start harvest soon too. Beginning with the swordtails since they are tropical and more cold sensitive than natives. Where they go depends on what happens with Uncle Budd. If he insists on coming home—the tanks may stay down here another winter. And I'll probably stay too. If he can get some help to come in through the week I might be able spend more of my time at home and just come down a few times a week and do shopping and cleaning and things like Sunday dinner—more like in the days before I moved down here. If he gets some kind of home health aides to stop by and make him get up in the morning and bath on a regular basis and meals on wheels brings him lunch—then he's not laying around all day which is probably the major source of his problems.

I stopped by to see him briefly on the way to work yesterday and will be going in for dinner this evening and use my visitors meal pass I got with the admissions paperwork that I finally filled out and turned in. I did my part of it.

Now for the decision on writing. I'm barely able to do this message because my inner conflict—mostly over time is sapping my creativity. I don't really want to spend all morning and afternoon on the diaries. One of these days I'll do the wise thing and just start keeping it like a real diary so I don't have put it together from scratch mining emails for the content.

3:32 PM

As expected today is turning out better than the original prediction from the weather forecasts. Only about 60 but feels warmer with the peeks of sun and lingering ground warmth. And it’s about ten degrees warmer indoors.

Fed the newts some worm chunks and pellets—the pet shop ones—not the ones that the new cohort were raised on. I’m not even sure if the latter are even eating those because I have no way to tell if they are actually consumed or just dissolving in the water. So I brought along the store bought ones to try along with worm bits. The new ones did take the worm meat but the verdict is still out on the pellets. Of course the two from the other source didn’t eat pellets right away either and it was even hard to get them feeding at first so what I have going with the 5 new newts is encouraging. I can load them up with a combination of worm and other live foods and frozen entrees and keep offering pellets and I think they’ll eventually start going for them like the other two. Frankly after the near miss with the bloat issue I would rather feed pellets which are more nutrient dense than natural foods as a supplement than a staple.

I got to testing my courage again with the roof issue but still cannot get up enough to go up there by myself. I tried the longer aluminum ladder at the end of the overhang against the wall of the second story which gives more support so it won’t slip and fall and it would be easier to climb on with the wall right there that gives added security but still cannot do it. My inner gut feeling just says it’s too risky. I’m thinking what I need to do is back up the ladder in crab fashion so I can get on the roof that way and not have to turn around but as you are saying having someone else around is the best strategy. My neighbor was within earshot but I still didn’t want to do it. Better to have another set of hands to steady the ladder—especially if I’m climbing it backwards!

I’m not even sure if the problem in my back bedroom is from a roof leak as it did not get worse again despite the derecho last night. In fact it seems to be drying out which makes me wonder if this is related to sweating from my basement issue. I’m having trouble with drawers and doors sticking and that has been ongoing for some time. If things improve as the basement continues to dry out that may mean humidity from the water coming from the foundation drains is the source of the problem.

After giving that up for now I decided to do an experiment to see if I could devise something to address my gutter problem on the opposite side of the house above the patio. I have a lot of junk in there that is causing overflow so I devised a gutter rake by combining the sawed off head of the bent hand rake—whose handle I repurposed to get my spade back in business with the telescoping handle of the pole pruner that broke several years ago. Won’t go into too much detail but it was a good exercise in repurposing and Jerry rigging!

Theoretically is was a good idea and it did work some but still too awkward from my bedroom window because I can’t see what I’m doing and the support bars obstruct progress. It was mostly a failure though I did get some moss and other junk out and it gives me an idea that maybe a Gutter Vac would be a good investment because I could reach the entire length working from the two upstairs windows without needing the extensions necessary to work from the patio at the first story level reaching over the awning. So I’m going to see what I can get at Lowe’s.

Now the day is slipping away and I’ve got to be at the nursing home by 5 so maybe try a little supplemental feeding of the turts before I head off. Tomorrow will be my day. Will try to get as much done as possible.

Norseman’s Diaries looking doubtful again. Just couldn’t put it together in one day and had to give it up by 11 or I’d have no day at all for anything else.

9/23/18—12:55 PM

The theme for part two of the Norseman’s article. I just spent the morning editing Part One. The basic body is finished and I now have another week to tweak and fine tune it and break it down into separate adds with photos that won’t overwhelm the editor’s system when I send them. And I’m confident it will be among the best ever since it’s not a rush job like it would have been if I tried to squeeze it in ahead of last nights deadline.

I noticed this morning that El Neil said he just finished a novel started in 2002 so I know I’m not alone in dealing with distractions that are stalling some of my Greater works. I do need to get moving with that as I have not worked on my current novel much all summer long and I have others that have been on the back burner far longer than Neil’s new book “Ares”. One since high school!

Too many irons in the fire or do I just need to get better organized? A little of both I’m sure. A lot of the latter for sure!

Today was supposed to be an all day affair working on my place but weather is dampening my enthusiasm. It was originally supposed to return to the 70s today but persistent cloud cover has apparently pushed that back until Tuesday with today looking worse than yesterday where there was at least some sun to push the temps up. I’m hoping for a little that might push the greenhouse up a little so the turts there will be inclined to feed. Otherwise it will probably be until mid week when anyone will be in the mood again.

Yesterday before I headed out ; the new Gulfs and the light female JPT who ended up lingering at the pond site were game for chopped up Dubia Roaches which they ate slowly but they still had an appetite and at least I know my male Gulf Coast is probably just disgusted with night crawlers for some reason rather than a chronically picky eater. He eats soaked pellets and other standard box turtle food items readily and he did eat crawlers at first but I think he had trouble with a worm that got sand on it and that turned him off of those. I’m hoping hibernation will make him forget and get over that hang up because it’s kind of unsettling since earthworms are one of the main natural foods for box turtles. Those are usually the one thing they will always eat when they are not in the mood for anything else.

But I do have some quirky turts when it comes to food preferences. The Florida Boxies like them right after they wake up in the spring but the bigger female often turns her nose up at them later in the season. And the light female JPT is generally hit or miss with those and prefers feed pellets , bugs and berries.

It will not be much longer for the ones that hibernate anyway. They may keep feeding into October if it gets warm again and stays that way but often the last feeding days are in September and it looks like the female Euro Pond is already done. After devouring night crawlers and pellets all summer she was not in the mood last time I fed earlier in the week. Only the male who came up out of nowhere and grabbed the worm I was trying to offer her.

The yuckiness persists so I’m going to have to brave it. Just have to put on more layers. Mid 60s seems awful after hot weather being the rule for so long.

As for the new theme—the Dry Belt has been sufficiently quenched—err—drenched is a more appropriate term. But nothing lasts forever. Maybe next year it will be a dry summer and water will be a very scarce commodity like it more often is going into Fall.

10:21 PM

Update at end of day

Things got a little better late afternoon when I ventured outside.

It warmed up fairly decently and the official high was 68 degrees. Before I went out I ran my furnace a while to get the temp up to the same as the official high of the day which is what I consider my optimal setting to keep the house comfortable in cold weather. At least when I’m occupying it.

It was also a much needed run to test the furnace and make sure it is ready for cold weather. That it is functioning ok is a load off my mind. I’m thinking about getting the guy who serviced it last to come back—depending on how solvent I am in the coming weeks. I’m more or less waiting now for all checks to come in so I know what I have before doing anything big or out of the ordinary. It’s going to be a squeeze to get property taxes and the Honda Payment on time because both are due right after the next pay. I’m hoping tomorrow I’ll know exactly where I stand.

As for going outside it was not bad at 68 degrees. Most of the turts were actually in the mood to feed—except the Euro Ponds of course. For some reason they shut down earlier than the others. The CBTs were really dug in but were in the mood for chopped Dubia Roaches when I exhumed and brought them out.

But the natural prepping for hibernation is coming and it’s time to start getting ready. While warming up the oven for dinner I made ventilation holes in the 4 small tote containers I’ve been getting and stockpiling in the kitchen. Brought the one for the Striped Muds down from the greenhouse for a reference and used the wood burning pen that is my standard tool for making holes in plastic containers. These will take care of the Florida and Chinese Boxies but I’ll need more for the Gulfs unless I used one of the bigger totes for the original pair—that was Olivia and the male that came with her from the Ohio Show in 95. It got repurposed for other things after I learned Gulfs can hibernate in this climate. Now I’m going back to the original strategy and all the terrestrial species will be wintered indoors along with the aquatic ones.

I’m going to hibernate the baby boxies too like last year—and I think I’ll move the 2018 brood outdoors and condition them like I did last year’s and wake them up after the holidays in similar fashion because they don’t seem interested in feeding. It’s better than fighting their natural urge to hibernate and make them burn off fat and waste away. I’ve found hatchling Boxies often pick up and start feeding right away if they get to sleep a while and wake up when the days are getting longer again. I’ve heard this also works for those baby snakes that hatch late season and won’t feed.

So another back burner item done. Somewhat anyway. I need to get it all organized and ready to go for when the Crunch comes. The JPT and Euro Pond containers need cleaned and readied. I’ll move the light colored female JPT to the greenhouse to sleep with the others in the Waterland. When the younger cohort comes of age I’ll probably put the female in the Waterland with the other two and winter the males individuality in tote containers so I can control the pairings. With an even number of each gender I ought to just start breeding them as pairs to maximize genetic diversity. Between the converted Wood Turtle pen, the DD and the Waterland I can keep them separated during mating season.

Guess I didn’t do too bad today. I didn’t get to making the solution to feed ferns and other greenhouse plants but I will try tomorrow. And last I looked it was supposed to rain so that might be a good place to work anyway.

And a good time to start working on the inside pond. A good idea to get it ready for the fish that will be coming in during Crunch Time which is just weeks away. I was looking at some nice Sweetflags in the DD that are starting to overgrow the setup and need to be divided and thinned down. The best bet is to reestablish them on perforated bricks which are easier to anchor zip ties on than rocks and those would be easy to move back and forth from the turtle pens to the greenhouse pond and I can eventually do the same with the ones in the watercourse. The one on the lower end of the DD is an absolute monster that has nearly overspread the shallow water platform in the Behlen tank pool. It might be worth trying to get some of that going in the first JPT pen next season where I’m hard pressed to keep anything green alive. The combination of the deep shade and the trampling by the bigger turts. Only a few sweetflags survive but they are not doing much else. Once I get rid of the two maples by the upper DD that will let in more light. Will do that sometime before spring.

9/25/18—2:05 AM

Surprisingly I got more done today than Sunday. Drew down the vacant 300 that filled up halfway from mostly the rains of Gordon and Florence. Got it moved out of the way and did a long overdue mowing behind the trailer after checking on the 150.

That was a mess with algae and overgrown plants but the young goldfish that hitched a ride from the main pond were alive ave well. Mostly brassy colored but there is a white one with an orange piebald. I never got as far as pumping it out because I figured that time would be better spent on other things like mowing and trimming. In addition to the grass around the trailer I cleaned up the area that Will be the future dump for gravel etc. looks pretty good and that was the end of what I could do because I had other business to deal with.

Got my book straitened out at the bank and all is well or will be come payday. Got enough to do the taxes so I’ll get that off ASAP and take care of the Honda after pay. Hopefully by next pay I’ll be back on track.

Had a fairly decent shift for a change and made it home after shopping to settle in after putting groceries away and thawing some bloodworms to split between the Blackbandeds and the newts. Then fed the frogs who I hope will let me get some sleep tonight.

This is a rush job because I’m barely staying awake. I may have to detail things a little later.

9/26/18—1:17 PM

It's headed our way but of course it will moderate because there are no really unseasonable chills in the immediate forecast.

It rained heavy and steady Tuesday morning. Obvious sign of a warm frontal system passage as it cleared out beautifully by time I was visiting Uncle Budd on the way to work and it was nice all day long of course. And a beautiful drive home where I got to enjoy a walk up to the greenhouse under the light of a full moon with mackerel scale clouds sliding by. Sign of yet another change in the weather. A friend was telling me that there were severe storms in the forecast for Wednesday so we had looked at the hour by hour on the local and it had two rain events going through. One in the morning and one late afternoon.

When I convert this text for the Diaries I'm going to have to make mention of my thoughts last night on the niceness of the warmth and how the days of comfortable shirtsleeve conditions are nearing an end. But I'm a bit pressed for time and running late as usual.

The morning round came through around daybreak. I arrived at Uncle Budd's sometime after midnite and stated after putting the trash out. Doing laundry and redding up my room here and other things in anticipation of his return which will be soon. Probably Sunday or Monday from what the social worker says. I was already working on these things before she called this morning. Just finished drying the first load and filling up the new 20 to test for leaks before committing to putting in the gravel and other furnishings. The plan is to use some of the Turface on hand down here for traction on the deck in winter. To think that is coming soon.

As I said I'm running late and still have to visit my bro for a mail drop and touch base on what's going on. And I haven't visited the newts in the basement yet. As things are looking I'll be getting home late.

It's raining. Had to fetch the stuff drying on the railing outside before it gets too wet to go in the dryer!

Could be a washout as far as the outside is concerned. If we are lucky it will be just showers and nothing heavy or severe. Hard to tell currently because the radar ap on my phone runs too fast and I can't freeze it for a snapshot of a given time. Will be interesting to see what happens with my basement. So far it has been drying out—steadily and quite dramatically since I diverted the downspouts. This seems indicative that the water going into the drainage tiles around the foundation was the source of the problem. If that is so it will be worth the effort next season to dig a couple ditches and lay pipe to take the runoff away from the house to the wood line. There is also the matter of the wet ceiling in the back bedroom that has not gotten wetter again as I expected it would in the last few rains. It's making me wonder if it is related to sweating like I originally speculated since the room has only one window and I'm thinking the space between the ceiling and roof may not be as ventilated as well as it should be? Since the fan in that room was pulling air from the rest of the house in through the doorway and exhausting it out the window I wonder if the combination of high humidity from a wet basement and the heat might be causing the gypsum board ceiling to sweat. Will keep watching and will see what I might be able to do about ventilation issue and check for leaks when I go to replace the center strip of the ceiling.

Might not even be necessary to get up on the roof but I still want to in order to get a close look at the roof vent. Will also be looking into a shop vac and gutter cleaning extension to deal with my gutter issue. The idea of trying to get at it from above is just too scary.

10:16 PM

Took a long time getting out of C’ville.

Was 4ish by time I got home. By the look of the water on the roads and gushing in the ditches it probably rained heavy out my way while I was in the store. Ground saturated and pretty squishy too. First thing I checked the cellar and it is continuing to dry out and ditto for the ceiling in the back room. I’m hoping maybe this means my problems are going to turn out less than previously predicted.

For a while the outdoors was looking doubtful but it brightened up as the line that came through was moving off to the east and we even got peeks of sun. Went up to feed the turts the worms I purchased and fed all the crawlers off to the ones at the pond site. Except the Euros which are behaving as if they are pretty much done for the year. I offered the female one crawler and she rejected it so it went to the pond and one of the goldfish grabbed and carried it off.

Wanted to do more this day but the light runs out fast this time of year. Did some switching around of hoses to exchange the 50 foot black rubber one I had in place with a 25’ length of the same that reached nicely from the end of the new 15’ one from Lowe’s to the DD. The latter rolls up and easily stows under the Mock Rock so it’s out of sight but convenient to stretch out and hook up to with another short hose.

After that I took the 25’ and swapped it with the 50’ which was hooked up to the sump pump in the 150 awaiting the opportunity to do the drawdown. Maybe get that tomorrow.

Dinner went pretty good. Skipped the corn and just had the wings that came out well though they didn’t taste that much like Buffalo despite the flavoring of the crackers. Still it was pretty good—something like what the original recipe would be.

I’m contemplating a plan right now to put the turtle table back in place in the corner where it was in the beginning and raise it up to be even with the bottom of the tank above the Newt tank. That will eventually be a frog tank on the upper level with the 40 going down on the other stand to replace the leaker while it gets fixed or replaced. So the plan is the turtle table and a Rubbermaid 50 in the corner again and the frogs and newts on the south wall and four 40Bs and two 20s on wooden stands between the Rubbermaid—if I can fit them that way and work in a few more tanks around the room and the lighter weight plastic reptile cages on shelves in the upper levels. Right over the turtle table I’m thinking of a couple 300 or 250 watt halide and sodium lights supplemented with LED to create a modest growing area for some plants and generate a little waste heat to benefit the herps and fish and that should keep it 68 to 72 degrees like before without too much expenditure on the electric bill. I probably won’t get to that for another year or so but it’s now my aim. To restore the Florida Room to some semblance of its former glory and incorporate elements of the fish keeping operation that superseded it. I’d like to have that as a wintering quarters for Rhinoclemmys pulcherrima and areolata that would spend the summer outside and transitional weather in the greenhouse.

It’s a funny thing. I just can’t junk the Turtle Table that is aside from the galvanized tub mouse colonies is the only thing I have left from Big Bob. I didn’t care that much for his wooden cages which were heavy, problematic to sanitize and prone to warping and other problems. But the table is still good after all these years in mothballs and I intend to restore it. The plexiglass barriers on the edges broke off long ago but all I have to do is replace just one side because two sides butt against the walls and the remaining that borders the tub is left open with a ramp for the turts descend to a shallow water platform that was a piece of slate on a sawed off plastic crate. That will be replaced with the kind I make now from ROR. And I’ll have a Peace Lily in a net pot of Lava Rock that will help filter the water and a bucket filter with Bio Balls. It will be nostalgia with some modern upgrades!

9/27/18—7:45 PM

7P going on 8 and it feels like midnight.

After a really rotten day off. Started out down as in depressed and tired before I could even get going. Took forever to get moving and balance my checkbook. Another lean pay period of juggling bills with seasonal expenses. But the real bummer was from last night. After thinking I’d solved my wet basement problem—I noticed that the trickle has returned. That was the major source of my malaise. And I guess anxiety over the pending homecoming of Uncle Budd’s and I’m beginning to worry about the outside furnace that I haven’t gotten to yet—that probably should have had the boiler refilled in the spring and rust inhibitor added to the water.

I slowly pulled my morale out of the dive and leveled off late morning as I figured out my checkbook and made out payments for the second install of the property taxes that I knew I still had enough in the account to pay without factoring in last night’s deposit. And made out a check for the Honda Payment. Both are due end of month so it’s now or never.

Was hoping to go pay the taxes in person but busy signal when I called and I didn’t care to run up over the ridge beyond Bruce’s place to Wiltrout Hollow and get skunked like last month. Nice thing about the previous tax collector was he was a farmer who lives right over the hill—his land bordering Uncle Budd’s old place—and he was open on Thursdays which is a good thing when you have to wait for payday right before the deadline. But sending the SASE for the first payment worked out fine so I did it again.

Breakfast helped too. Low blood sugar may have been part of my problem. Then I made a brief visit to the greenhouse to spray stuff down and check on turts. Then I went to the bank to get my direct deposit amount to balance my book which I did when I got to the nursing home. That was my main objective of the day since I let it go yesterday. Kind of glad I did it that way because on top of being gloomy it turned wet while I was in there and most of what I had planned went out the window.

I made it back home about 4ish and about the only things worth doing were in the greenhouse. Decided to feed the Florida Boxies and the pair of JPTs that have been living the last few weeks in the Waterland. Surprisingly these turts are still in the mood for Dubia Roaches. The water in the Waterland felt a good bit warmer than expected. I’m guessing running it through the waterfall filter is helping to pick up heat from the air. I’m thinking if I do something similar with the in ground pond it might make it more hospitable to fish in the summer time. I do have a pump and used to circulate water through a filter but it now sits idle. I decided not to use the Calla Lilies because of possible toxic effects to fish I read about so maybe just a simple waterfall system like the 3,000 version of the one in the Waterland—but I might just go with something I can Jerry rig. Could maybe just sink a small tub into the shoreline and have a pipe come out and go into a small homemade spillway. And I could do a trickle system so I wouldn’t have to dig down into the shore which would be a mess digging throughLots of rocks and pebbles and junk. That’s sort of what I had before.

After I was done with the greenhouse for the day I braved the raw chilly rain to remove the baby Cumberlands and Euro Ponds and all their furnishings—turtle dock and biofilter setup and those are loaded in the car ready to go along with the baby striped muds. Back to their winter quarters in C’ville. Their old tub is waiting for them to move back in. And the two new Cumberlands will soon follow.

Then a quick check on the other site where I never got to the task of drawing down the 150 as originally hoped. Was supposed to be a quick check but like the morning Uncle Budd was transferred I ended up worrying about the CBTs drowning if they chilled—since they are all digging down in their forms in the Earth. If we get a heavy downpour it could happen and last thing right now I want is another tragedy. So I moved them to the greenhouse which was good practice for evacuations and use of the new tote containers for hibernating.

Had dinner afterward and then gave the newts some pellets which I’ll vacuum out tomorrow if there are any left. Then I took to browsing Woodlanders plant list to see what I might get. Maybe a replacement of the Croft Carpet Mtn Laurel for starters. Just one for the baby Gulf Coast pen. And feed a d water it like crazy next summer to get it established. The ones I tried before either died from drought or got trampled to death by the bigger turtles.

Now I got to get moving so I can make it to C’ville before I run out of steam. I’m kind of going there already. Probably won’t do the shopping I was thinking of doing until maybe tomorrow night on the way home. Better that way anyhow. Need to think things over and put together a list for cleaning supplies etc for C’ville.

9/28/18—10:13 AM

Just finished editing the upcoming edition of the Norseman's Diaries—Summer of Storms Part One. Marked it off in sections : Add One / Add Two etc to cut out and paste along with whatever photos I choose to send individually in sequence. Hopefully I won't have problems with my phone since I'll have to work it from there as that's where most of the pics are. Might as well do that today and get it over with since it continues to be lousy outside and I'm holding off on shopping a little longer until I've got all bills for this pay period settled. It's going to be a lean one trying to squeeze what I should have gotten last pay into this one to get caught up.

It remains crappy outside but the rains have let up. According to the forecast it will clear up in time for work later this afternoon—of course! And be fairly decent this weekend. Back to 76 by Sunday which could have been the perfect day if I were not so far behind from all the weather delays running out the clock as the Crunch approaches. Not much time left for that or the grand tour I've been wanting to do before the ponds must be drawn down, cleaned and netted. At least replacing the water shouldn't be a great issue like it often is when we've had a dry summer going into fall. But I hope this wet season soon abates so my basement can dry out. And there is the issue of snow. If this trend continues on into colder weather; it will bury us under snowpocalypse on top of snowpocalypse!

Moving the CBTs last night was a good exercise for future evacuations and gives a good feel for how things will go when it comes time to put them to bed. They are already gearing up for it. I've never seen them dig in like they've been doing this season since the chilling rains on the back side of Gordon. Deep well defined forms worthy of any Eastern Box Turtle this time of year. It may be that they are starting to acclimate to the local climate—or else they sense something really big and bad is coming.

I'm pleased with how well the two JPTs in the Waterland have settled in so well. Thought about moving the other female there too but I might go the other way and have them all out in the summer setup a while longer and switch them back as the weather turns frosty. The Euros will most likely go strait to the garage.

As for the newer acquisitions I'm considering merging them into the existing flocks. With exception of the male striped mud it hasn't been the full 90 days recommended for quarantine but I see no problems and all are eating well and the box turtles are all captive bred and low risk for disease and parasites than wild sourced animals. In the case of the Gulfs it's also a matter of the pen at the greenhouse site being a better situation for them than their current setup. It has more space and a better solar exposure this time of year which is important for maintaining their health as they prep for hibernation. I'm going to review my notes and consider introducing them to Mamma Olivia next week when it warms up again.

The Male Florida I'll probably introduce to his flock but then keep him awake a while longer indoors to make sure he's beefed up before doing a short hibernation. This is also to give me more quality time to personally feed and interact to hopefully tame him better since I've got him in an out of the way setup in which I toss him food and leave him to eat privately.

Moving the baby water turtles last night was a good call. One less thing to do later and they are looking happy as ever back in their old tub in C'ville which is essentially the same as it was outside with the turtle dock and Jerry rigged biofiltration system. The latter is an improvement over what they had before the move outside and that will simplify maintenance since I'll just have to do partial water changes like an aquarium and rinse the filter sponge every few days.

So far the new 20 H is holding up after filling the other day. It's probably good to go. I will work on getting it ready in the coming days as the upcoming warm spell will be ideal for harvesting the Green Swords and moving them back to their winter quarters. Going to have a lot of surplus. I'd like to sell or give away. Have an idea some might become feeders—which is part of why I got into them again. I could ask Zimmerman's if they'd be interested. Green Swordtails are North American fish technically because their natural range in Mexico and Central America is part of North America. And these fish are a wild type not seen so much in the hobby anymore.

Time to get moving. Not that there is much worth doing outside but I do have some important business. And still the Norseman's article to get organized and sent.

9/29/18—12:39 PM

Yesterday turned quite heavenly in the afternoon.

I was forever getting out of C’ville having spent much of the morning on my story and had not much life left for home. Just enough to move the CBTs from the greenhouse back to their pen and the lone female JPT to the greenhouse to rejoin the rest of the trio. And only a brief visit to the nursing home to see Uncle Budd and pick up the menu plan the dietician left in his room.

Then it was a long evening at work. Extended to 3 AM because they had no tech for the back station on nights. In exchange for making today’s 11 to 11 into a 3 to 11. Would have been a good opportunity to do stuff here in addition to what is planned for tomorrow which is also an evening shift. But I spent about an hour last night struggling with my manuscript due to slow loading and connectivity issues and was late getting up this morning. I spent that mostly working out remaining bills and I’m not sure if I want to plunge into anything major at midday with little time left for departure. I’d like to visit Uncle Budd today and spend tomorrow morning here getting as much as possible done plus I’d like a little time before cloak in to organize and send off my manuscript before something happens and I can’t get to it or something gets deleted by a system crash.

My Calla is starting to really perk up since I put it outside and the weather turned cooler and wet. From South Africa it likes a Mediterranean climate and is usually at its peak in the wetter winter months. A perfect plant for Southern California. When I was growing it in the ground I’d do the same strategy as you—letting it frost off and then digging the root for storage. It was always slow to come back and usually peaked in the late fall with a few blooms before dieback. Under my current method it is at its peak and blooms intermittently through the winter.

9/30/18—2:17 AM

My attempt at Part one of the Summer of Storms turned into a horrible cluster. Had a hard time sending the text when I arrived at work in the afternoon and when I checked later I discovered the pictures were not going through. Worked on it a little after clocking out and kind of figured out a way to to make it work but too late fir the upcoming issue but I should have it down by next weekend.

As said earlier was late getting out of C’ville. Mostly took care of the greenhouse watering plants moved some turts. And I’m just about dead and demoralized. Will have to pick this up again. Later.

10/1/18—2:47 AM

Nice weather finally as the Dry Belt gets drenched with sunshine instead of rain! If only I could enjoy it more. I think I left off with the cluster that happed Saturday with the failed attempt at sending in my article. Will save my speculations for later to save time this entry because it’s been a long one and I have to pick up Uncle Budd late morning. And I had to run down to C’ville to get his walker.

Sunday was the nicest day of the weekend—though both were really decent for a 3 to 11 shift. Big project for the day was mixing up the milk / epsom salt solution to dunk mostly ferns and bromeliads and water some of the palms and a few other plants with the same. After that I got into the Swordtail tub and pulled out all the extensive mats of string algae in preparation for harvest. Then I cut the strip by the greenhouse and most of the yard near the house. There was little time left for anything else so I just quickly made a round of the other site to eyeball the turts. Was thinking about the young goldfish in the 150 but decided to let that go a little longer in favor of other things.

Considering moving the new Gulfs but decided to put that on hold another day because I don’t care to throw animals into new setups when I have to rush off. Tomorrow I’ll be Able to check on the way back.

(Turtle & cat)

10/1/18—10:56 AM

Well I did it. Moved the new Gulf Coast pair to join Olivia in the Cadillac duplex at the greenhouse site this morning. A month short of the widely recommended 90 day quarantine period but I’m going by Kenan’s recommendation that captive bred animals are generally low risk and if they are healthy active and eating well they are probably good to go as far as introducing them to the flock is concerned. Did a final assessment of their health just to be sure and both were moving around normally and no wheezing or bubbling or swollen eyes or signs of neurological impairment—and so I carried them to the other site and put them in the pen.

The male was the most outgoing and he started walking away after I set them down in the grass. Have to take care to make sure these turts don’t get loose. They might not stay around like Franklin did.

Rest of the morning is rushed. Picking up Uncle Budd and I’m not feeling too great. Coming down with something. Sore throat that started a couple evenings ago.

10/3/18—10:36 PM

I think I’m beating it.

After it hit me really hard yesterday. I actually thought about calling off after I made it out to my place and fed some of the turts and fish. Gave the bigger Gulfs a combination of worms and chow and nuked a bunch of baby roaches for the baby Gulfs and more bigger ones for the CBTs. Then I ran out of stamina. Also was running out of time. I made a quick meal in case I didn’t get to eat at work before heading out.

Luckily I did get to eat again. It was also thankfully slow in comparison to the way things have been lately. The only issue was weather. Hospital issued a Code Yellow watch and I wondered what the hell was going on because the last thing I was expecting was severe weather. It sort of just blew up out of nowhere. A couple thunderstorms moving through the area had rotational action and before long they were issuing tornado warnings. One of them passed along the corridor of the Turnpike in Donegal township which is very close to home. Word was that Geiger was hunkered down in her oil room again!

Mt Pleasant was right on the edge of it. I live a little south of that east of the airport so it was a very close swipe.

(Local Doppler)

Saved by the Dry Belt again!

There were no reports of damage locally and had there been the ER is ground zero for handling the casualties. There was report of a nursing home that got roof damage in northwest PA. So it was a pretty slow shift where I watched over a new float tech who is still a little bit of a greenhorn when it comes to stuff like sterile procedure for one. Can’t be too judgmental because I’ve been there in my younger days too. Correcting someone for making a mistake is a teaching experience that helps most people be more careful and it’s also a lesson in ethics—like the Mother Test—you know—would it be good enough for your mother?

That and the misery of getting through to the end with all the soreness and congestion. I was mulling whether or not to hang around to go to the cafeteria for flu shot and free lunch. Every year they give out this meal ticket that says “Admit One” and has the times and dates and locations at the three hospitals and the various satellite clinics. When she told me that earlier in the shift it clicked: what a great idea—far better than coming back next day which was my original plan. I’d just get my meal in a carry out container and have it for lunch to spare myself the misery of the previous night when we had dinner late and I had a serious case of indigestion on top of a cold.

In the end I decided to put the flu shot off because I was 99.5 which I guess I could incubate chicken eggs! Left on time and went shopping instead. Got the generic equivalent of NyQuil and DayQuil tabs along with some groceries and did a brief stopover to check my place. Everything’s fine. No structural damage or leaks. And the ceiling in the back bedroom has continued to dry out steadily since I dealt with the basement. Even though I had a minor trickle across the floor during a previous rain event the over all situation seems to be improving. I’m wondering if the wet ceiling was from condensation rather than a leak? I guess I’ll have to inspect the roof from inside when I replace the ceiling.

Today—Wednesday—started out rough. For the first time in a good while Uncle Budd was up and moving way before I was. I fixed a late breakfast and hung around to see what the physical therapist had to say. Then pushed myself to cut the grass and showered afterwards. Then did lunch and hung around some more before leaving for home late afternoon. Got here about 4.

Went to the pond site where I spent nearly all the evening until the daylight ran out. Offered the Euro Ponds some superworms. Only the male ate any. The appetites of both diminished in September making me think this may be normal for them so I won’t get alarmed. They did this last year too.

JPTs and CBTs were game for both worms and superworms. The latter have been really digging in lately. I’m going to have to get some pics of the forms they are making in their enclosure.

After feeding everyone at that site I cleaned the filter in the DD and pulled out some of that huge clump of Licorice Sweetflag. It was over a foot tall and well on the way to over growing the shallow water platform in the Behlen tub. Got some really decent divisions that I think I’ll try in other systems and on the shoreline of the greenhouse pond. I should send you some. They’d probably do great if you established them on a rock or brick and bring some of them in like you do the Calla. They really suck the waste out of the water in the turtle systems. I never saw one grow as move as this one.

Did a lot of weeding around the watercourse which I ran after getting the spring glow restored. Going to try to get it looking nice as I can so I can have at least one perfect day and maybe get the tour in before the pond gets cleaned and netted. That will be coming soon.

Feeling much better now afterward which makes me think the cold is abating. I’ll take my generic remedy tonite and that ought to be the beginning of the end for it.

Checked up on the newts and fed then worm chunks. All were willing to feed so it seems this cohort is off to a much better start than the previous ones. I tried the ROR mat from the old 20L that previously held the Chinese Newts and it’s a good fit in the new 20L Zilla critter tank. Which is now loaded in my car and I’ll set it up and sanitize it down in C’ville so I can get it ready for when I have to move the newts down there. I’m contemplating whether I want to combine both groups. I prefer the newer ones which are prettier but there is also the issue of genetic diversity and a little outcrossing may be beneficial since the breeder of my second batch was selecting for a specific trait. Can always go that way again after I mix them a little.

Now chilling at home after a dinner of chicken fried steak , corn and tater tots. It’s relaxing but the nagging conflict of having to go shopping vs strait back is starting up again when I get late into tye evening I hate running around. If only the store was right on the way back.

And I’m waiting for the climate alarmists to start wooing and hooing about the late season tornadoes and unseasonably warm fall weather. They probably are on the WC but I’m not paying much attention. I did hear about some cold Canadian air setting into the upper plains and talk of that four lettered word: SNOW. The sharp contrast between that and the warmth in the east is probably the culprit and not Algore’s Inconvenient Speculation. Which is all the more reason to beware and start laying the groundwork to prevent a repeat of last year’s disaster. Today’s predictions were for an abnormally warm October and that was pretty much like last Fall. And with winter already setting in hard in the northwest; you get the picture.

10/4/18—10:43

Today I concluded there is a downside to Doppler radar and technology in general. It feeds climate alarmism because we are able to see more than we did before—stuff that was always happening but were not aware of. On the flip side at least we have more advance warnings that save lives. There was a time when hurricanes took whole cities by surprise and hundreds of lives were lost. Bad as it was, Katrina would have been absolutely horrendous in the way of death tolls if it happened two decades earlier. That’s in our lifetimes. At least people can get ample time to evacuate. The main problem with Katrina was the city government dropped the ball and they actually had a good plan on the books for using the fleet of city school buses to evacuate people who had no personal vehicles. It was a total cluster. Talk radio lambasted the mayor but I often wonder it it was because the bureaucracy was just so inept that key people were just never informed about the plan and so you ended up with all this mayhem and a bunch of ruined buses that could have been moved out of the flood zone along with the evacuees. That would have been two birds with one stone and a brilliant plan but brilliance is only as good as the will to put it into action.

Though I was getting better yesterday evening ; this morning was was feeling really run down again. It really hit me on the drive to work and I was beginning to wonder if I could survive 12 hours in the ER let alone drive the whole way there. So I called in on my stopover at home and called off. I’ll hang out here and rest for a while, check a few things and then head back to C’ville.

Was almost up the creek without a charger when I discovered my phone was running low. Somehow everything except the charge cord I have for the USB adapter in my car has gone to C’ville by osmosis. Did manage to find something from an older system that is USB and can now get my phone recharged.

Looks gloomy and stormy out but no storms in the forecast until tomorrow.

10/6/18—2:21 AM

Took Uncle Budd to the doctor for his post-discharge follow up checkup. Then shopping and lunch back at his place. I hung around for a few hours and finally made it out to my place late day. Then I flumdiddled in the house a while before going out to feed turts. The CBTs and young JPTs were still in the mood for Superworms—which I figure it good to use up with the season winding down. Pellets are getting low too—which is a good thing since they will get rancid before long. I'll purchase small amounts locally over winter for the baby turts indoors and make another bulk order in the spring.

Also fed the fish the remaining shrimp pellets. Big catfish were incredibly skittish. They would spook even if I talked so they apparently hear very well. The younger ones are more active now in the tub. I think they are eating the shrimp pellets and cichlid pellets that sink. And they look bigger. They are probably going to look impressive in a tank this winter and may be breeding size by spring.

Was eyeballing the clump of sweet flag mounted on the driftwood and gaming how I might reincorporate it back into the upper pool of the DD. it was banished to the bio filter because the turts keep dislodging and turning it upside down. Thinking of some way to anchor it to the lip of the tub by making holes and securing with zip ties. But I left it go for now because daylight was running out.

Too late now for the greenhouse—but I undertook a project to fashion a hook from coat hanger wire for the LED work light so I can move it around rather than have it strapped to the support column. That worked well and I was able to feed two of the JPT trio in the Waterland which I lit up like it was day. The dark female and the male were on land and fed well on pellets and SWs when I put them back in the water. The high colored female as usual was too shy to come out from under the falls so I'll have to get her tomorrow.

Other highlight was the newts. They fed well on worm chunks and then I vacuumed the tank and added fresh water. Later before I left for C'ville I caught daphnia from the Euro Pond pool. That system I's cranking them out again. I put the whole batch in the newt tank but there was not much interest. Either they are not interested because they just had a meal or maybe the pulex are too small to interest them. What I really need is Magna.

Fed the newts here some worm too. They are getting really tame and so are the ones back home. I may be combining them soon once I move the new ones down here.

And that was my day. Feeling really drained. Almost like I did yesterday when I called off but I think it is just natural exhaustion and I'll probably sleep well tonite. Yesterday I believe my problem was the medication I took for my cold. It was the orange pill for daytime which is supposed to be safe for driving and working but for some reason it made me drowsy. I figured it out when I took another orange one this morning and it happened again. I'm guessing the manufacturer made a mistake and put a sedative in the daytime tablets too. I was still sick but had I not been groggy from the meds I probably would have felt up to working.

The Illness was definitely on the wane late day yesterday and was good to go most of today without anymore meds. Thank God and Greyhound it's just about gone!

I wanted to talk about my taco dinner and contemplations of building a wood stand for the 40Bs and thoughts on cutting the turtle table down a little to fit better in the room. And live foods too but I'm running out of steam and do need some rest.

10/7/18—1:43 AM

Today ended rather satisfying despite having no time to do anything on the way going out. But coming back I found that my newts were all moving to the front of the tank apparently expecting o be fed. And the daphnia are mostly gone so I'll probably split a cube of bloodworms between them and the Blackbandeds when I work a shorter shift as well.

I finally took measurements of the stand for the 40Bs so I can figure out what wood and other hardware needed. Pretty simple looking and I might give it a try.

Running out of steam so I'm keeping this short. It of course rained today. Looking forward to tomorrow's TLE. Hoping it publishes. After that I'll be ready to start putting part 2 together.

10/8/18—2:19 PM

Ray deployed his pond netting yesterday.

That's Wisconsin for you. Always a bellwether in regard to the coming weather be it next day's storms or next week or next month's change of seasons. I'm actually thinking of getting my ponds cleaned out and netted and get the fish that are coming inside in soon as well. Not so much to beat the Crunch of colder weather but to beat the possible compounding of the crunch by other problems that have been haunting me lately or more problems with Uncle Budd. So far the ceiling in the back bedroom continues to dry out and there is still an occasional trickle across the basement floor after a heavy rain; but the major wetness down there has for the most part abated.

Plans to do a litte bit back home coming and going sort of fell through on Saturday and Sunday. Both mornings it took me too long to get out of C'ville and Sunday I skipped over my place on the way in because of time issues. Was glad I stayed up late a few days back to get the article done. It came out pretty good too—much better than a good many of them. The snafus and delays actually had a silver lining in giving me more time to edit and polish it. Still fell a little short in the way of missing a few significant events but overall I'm happy with it. I hope to get part two in the works this week. With three days off coming up I just might get it done.

It was long past dark when I got to my place. Nothing much I could do then. Just a quick walk around to make sure things were intact, feed the cats and gather up some stuff I wanted to take back to C'ville. Put some cricket chow and a sliced orange into the Dubia colony to get them loaded for feeding the frogs next day. But my main focus of attention this weekend has been the newts. Gave them worm chunks on Friday eve and last night I gave them bloodworms after feeding the Blackbandeds. I'm starting to get them to tease feed on the bloodworms like the newts I have down here in C'ville. So I'm hoping to get them tamer like the two from my first source. Where they'll tease feed on Salamander pellets. The red ones in the pet trade. I like those better than the salmon chow granules which I don't know if they are eating them or the chow is just dissolving in the water. I have to get a new can of those because the one I have got moldy because I left it in the room in the basement where the humidity is high.

And that was my weekend.

10/9/18—2:51 AM

Regrettably I didn't make it back home until late with very little daylight left. Just enough to check out the Gulf pens. Picked up one of the yearlings to examine and then swapped out the watering pan that is leaking. Put original I swapped out to let the rain cleanse it for a while back in. Plan was to have two to rotate. Will have to get one of the better ones. These things are supposably indestructible but even they wear out sometimes.

Briefly checked the greenhouse and then the pond site where I dipped a couple buckets out of the pond to flush the CBT pools. Did it right through the mesh so I didn't have to open the pen. Fed cats and frogs and mostly hung out and just relaxed until late into the night. So much or my day.

Oh well. At least I did get the lower swordtail tank emptied out and some washed Turface in it before leaving. And I fed the two newts in the basement some soaked Reptomin on a broom straw. That makes for a decent filler until I get more natural foods for them. Going to see eventually if I can get the ones back home to eat it a little too. As for the swords—I need to get them down here in the next two days. Tomorrow I'll aim for getting some Jungle Val for the new tank and next day I try to get the fish. At least all my original breeders and the bigger YOY and a lot of the smaller babies. Maybe have that perfect day too. If I can get out of here after the blood draw is done and he's had something to eat. So probably after lunch but that's much better than getting there at dusk.

12:11 PM

Update

Visiting lab tech arrived to draw Uncle Budd at about 10 AM. Then I got him in the shower and breakfast is done. I could have been gone from here but it's noon and I'm still lingering to work a little on part 2 of the Summer of Storms article while listening to the WC drama of yet another hurricane—Michael a Cat 3 storm bearing down on the Gulf Coast and it looks like Appalachicola is in the crosshairs! We might even get something out of it but I hope it peeters out before it reaches western PA. I think we are sufficiently drenched already.

So far the only drenching coming our way is in the way of sunshine. Two more 80 degree days before it ends. The last days of another brief extended summer. Time to take a break from the article and make my way home. There will be ample time later and I've made significant headway. Tomorrow is kind of up in the air because no telling when the repairman will be here to fix the washer. I could be tied up all day so I better make this one count !

7:00 PM

I think I made it count!

Hit the ground running with a short run to the pond to throw some coffee grounds around the sole surviving Needle Palm. Need to get rid of that stuff which has been accumulating in the kitchen. My original plan was to go to both sites and turn the watercourse on , then to the greenhouse to prop open both doors , do a quick watering and then just do odd jobs as I move back and forth between both sites. The ideal recipe for maybe the perfect day. However it didn’t turn out that way.

I got absorbed in my preoccupation with one or the other site as I usually do. Today it was destined to be the pond and watercourse with the main project being the extension of the faucet farther away from the splice and elbow it upright like a real faucet ought to be. For some reason that project was nagging me and it was going to require I trip to Baker’s to get a 6” threaded nipple , a 4” threaded nipple and a couple elbow fittings to make it work. Before getting into anything else I took the faucet off the splice and put it in my pocket so I wouldn’t forget it and have it for sizing the appropriate threads for my female fitting.

I ran the two pondmasters a little and tinkered with the watercourse and the bio filter tub at the head of the system. Wanted to do something about the leaves in the tub so I shut down the pumps and lowered the drain hose to let the water flow out by gravity until it was below the level of the gravel so the leaves can be picked off which is easier than fishing them out of the water. Did not take long to do that. But before turning the pumps back on I worked my way down from there to the upper pool picking up the leaves that had accumulated so they would not obstruct or spoil the view of the falls in operation. Probably about a bushel of leaves, sticks , sweet gum pods and other detritus and some muck out of the pool. The falls above the Rosyside Pool were not so bad but I pulled a lot of Stilt Grass and other weeds away to open up the plunge pool at the upper end of the inlet and worked my way around there to clean things up. Too late to stop the seeding but I’ll work on that next season. My more pressing issue in that area is the Rhyming Bamboo that is taking over the bed. I’m feeling the compulsion to do something about it sooner rather than later before it starts growing under the liner and invading the other side of the inlet and possibly threatening the integrity of the liner! Probably will involve a lot of digging to try and get every rhizome and maybe even try inserting the broken ends of rhizomes into jars of Roundup to try killing entire extensions by osmosis that would be less risky than spraying herbicides around the pond. Then I need to attack the entire colony on the perimeter. Probably a combination of salting the ground and smothering with tarps or old carpet. Just need to get rid of it altogether because it will keep on invading if I don’t.

Got things running again and I’m pleased. Still a long way to go but making progress. Want to get moss growing in filter tub again. Way back when I had a nice mat of the thicker willow moss sources from a trip to Virginia when I went searching for Ironcolor Shiners with Mike Thennet. Lost it one winter when the corrugated tubing of the drain hose froze and busted and the tub drained out. Have never been able to get it going again since but had limited success with the smaller type that is more common in the trade but lost it because of smothering by leaves. Would like to get it or Fissidens moss—maybe both—going in there again. And a few clumps of Sweetflag growing hydroponically would make it look pretty decent. The clump on a piece of driftwood from the DD is doing pretty good in there so it’s probably the viable alternative to Stream Sedge which for some reason wont take there even though it’s overrunning elsewhere along the watercourse. I may start replacing more of that with Sweetflag because the later does not look so ratty late in the season and is less inclined to overwhelm other things.

Late afternoon I took a spin to get the parts for my faucet. That involved a stop by Shop & Save to cash in some couch change via the Coinstar machine. People think it’s a ripoff but $3 out of $25 worth of loose change is not bad. Way better than counting it all up and it sure would be awkward to walk into the pipe place and pay for several dollars worth of fittings with nickles dimes and pennies! That guy probably thinks I’m a weirdo to begin with anyway with all my strange projects!

Cost about $8 I think. And it was very simple. Couldn’t wait to get home and get it done!

(Faucet project)

It was fairly simple to get everything threaded together and it works. I spent more time just playing around with placement of the rock cover and as it turns out ; It’s not finished yet. I need another 4” extension because the most aesthetically pleasing positioning of the rock is farther back from the path with less appealing side against the Leucothoe bush. Maybe tomorrow.

(Not finished yet)

Feeding the turts happened late and I didn’t get to everyone. I questioned whether I should even bother but they are still in the mood for feeding. Some of the CBTs were fighting over Asian wiggly worms I tossed into their pen while working on the faucet project. So I went to the house and sorted out the remaining superworms and fed those to the Gulfs and Florida Boxies and that’s the end of those. The ammonia laden Eco Earth bedding they were in became fertilizer for the grass by the Gulf Pen abs I also brought up the remaining coffee grounds to feed the palmettos. The baby Gulfs were dug in so I didn’t bother them but the two half growns and adults except Olivia were game. The new male has pretty much taken over the turf like Franklin did and was hanging out in the pool in similar fashion. He’s also feeding from the forceps. Got some fair pictures of that and other stuff that I’ll have to send later when I get back to C’ville as they are on the iPad.

(Male Gulf Coast in pool)

Used the LED work light to illuminate the Florida Boxie’s enclosure so they could feed. That worked out well but ran out of superworms before I could get to the JPTs or Striped Muds.

Then I tackled one last issue at the pond site. The tulip poplar sapling growing up through the shrubbery along the inlet. Lopped it off with the pruning shears just before the daylight ran out. And that was a pretty good makeup for yesterday and maybe tomorrow if I have to wait around all day for the repair man.

Getting late and I need to make dinner and feed the froggies and newts and get going.

Not bad for a day. Even a less than perfect one.

10/10/18—1:53 PM

Turning out better than expected. The broken washing machine at Uncle Budd's was a pretty simple fix I might have been able to do myself. I was already working on the swordtail project and in the final stage of topping both tanks off when the repairman arrived. Now they are ready to receive fish and I'll be off in a very short while.

I've been waiting for my Bro to leave so I can move the car. He was here to pick up bills and search for the title to Uncle Budd's vehicle and was unsuccessful but at least it saves me a trip to his place which I was thinking about just before he arrived to deliver the bills and the invoice from the repair job along with the good news that it didn't cost an arm and a leg.

Need to stop by the pipe place and get the additional parts needed to finish the faucet project. Before I get into harvesting the swords. Because once I get into that it will be closing time before I finish. In the nick of time too. Last 80 degree day today—70s tomorrow which I'm working and then the bottom drops out.

10/11/18—3:25 AM
O-Dark Thirty—actually coming up on 3 AM

This is going to be a short entry to finish out this long overdue edition of the Diaries.

(Faucet project finished)

(Tub drained)

Got back late because I flumdiddled a good while after getting it done. Both the faucet and the drawdown and harvest of the Swordtail tub—which was a smashing success. Got back my breeders plus countless young of the year (YOY). A few were big enough to go with their elders—most of the remainder are in the lower tank. There are still quite a few tiny babies in the bucket that I’m not sure what to do with. Maybe get a small tank to grow them out a little and move them up to replace their bigger cohorts as I part with those.

(Green swords)

(YOY swords)

I want to send Ray some. They should proliferate in a pond or stock tank over a summer and would make good feeder fish. They are worth having for the sake of having a really cool fish—among the best wild type livebearer if you weigh beauty and interest along with hardiness. Next year I may take a crack at something else. Maybe a Mexican Goodieid like the Xenotoca species I had taken interest in a while back. That one is even a little more cold tolerant than Green Swords and Platies.

And it was the last feeding day for outdoor turts. I got some crawlers on the way between the pipe place and home and fed the adult and half grown Gulfs. The new male finally did eat one. And for sure this will be the last feeding of the season as the first incursion of cold weather will soon be at hand.

Didn’t get to enjoy the almost perfect day like I was hoping for but between the repair of the washing machine and a successful day out home, I'm satisfied and can’t complain.

Saturday night

I’m chilling at my place after a busy afternoon and evening harvesting my tubs and stock tanks—which is a term I picked up from Ray for describing the process of closing or cleaning ponds and bringing in fish for the winter. That after a busy week that was also a vacation week. If you have not guessed by now—this is Crunch Time—which is the time we get things ready for winter.

And it is surely coming since last weekend when the bottom dropped out and those nasty polar vortices came a calling. Last Thursday was probably our last 80 degree day of the year and that Friday may have been the last 70 degree one. The weather really turned and now October weather has been feeling more like November weather ; on vacation week of all things—I sure know how to pick them. It was unseasonably chilly during my spring break too! Was a good week for the greenhouse—I installed a waterfall filter in the 300 gallon in-ground pond during the annual fall maintenance and cleaning to expand the carrying capacity in preparation for bringing in my monster fish—namely the three Marbled Bullhead catfish that are getting bigger—the size you would catch on a hook and line!

I’m also monitoring the adult Gulf Coast Box Turtles which are so far behaving normally in response to the chilly fall weather by digging in on cold nights and emerging to bask on sunny days. But the juveniles do not come out at all. I’m guessing it may be that smaller turts become inactive sooner because of they have less body mass to retain heat?

The Chinese Boxies appear to have dug in for good about a week ago and I covered them over with some mulch until I get some good sunny days to bring them into the greenhouse so they can wake up a little then and empty out their guts in preparation for hibernation which is something like prepping for surgery! They will then go to sleep when the weather turns colder outside and more overcast and the greenhouse starts staying at the set temperature of 50 degrees day and night. Euro Ponds outside quit eating in September. In the greenhouse the Japanese Pond Turtles in the Waterland Tub are still active but the Florida Boxies have already had their last meal for the season—except for the new male who was moved to a heated indoor cage for continued feeding and observation a while longer. And the Striped Muds have come out of the water age dug in on land. Time to get their crates ready.

First frost was yesterday morning. That was also the day for oil delivery. Put aside some money and tapped my hobby account for $300 to get $600 worth of fuel oil that brought me up from a quarter capacity to between half and three quarters. Expensive stuff. Someday I hope to get my outside furnace going again and secure a reliable supply of wood and coal. To get things back to where they were a few years ago when I started this thread. A return to normalcy. That’s what we all want. Hopefully we can get there someday.

Saturday evening I harvested the young Dollar Sunfishes from Ray that I raised this summer in my patio tubs. And then younger Bullhead cohort and the Red-breasted Sunfishes from a 300 gallon Rubbermaid—with a new innovation to save time and reduce the likelihood of shocking the fish by transferring the water they were in directly to the aquariums they are going to. By bucket for the ones on the patio that went to a quartet of ten gallon tanks and cobbling together a series of hoses to siphon water from the Rubbermaid to a 40 B in the basement fish room to accommodate the Bullheads and Redbreasts. And two of the largest sunfishes—the big palomino phase male who was on a productive nest this summer and a normal wild type which were too big for the tank went to the greenhouse to live with the bigger catfishes that will join them as soon as I drain the big pond.

Probably in a week or two. I was planning to do the smaller outside pond today but realized early on that it would be too much. So maybe tomorrow if I feel up to it. The bottom drops out again and they are actually calling for 32 degrees and snow tomorrow night! Gorebull Warming my ass!

You could tell something is coming this evening. A big storm was blowing up while I was in the process of catching fish from the drained stock tank. Lots of gusty winds and light rain started pelting me and there were serious rumbles of thunder going off to the south of me. Almost like a derecho—and fortunately it missed and I didn’t have to stop in the middle of the job and leave buckets of fish waiting for a storm to abate!

It brightened up late evening for a short while and then another wave was coming in. Dark purple on the horizon to the northwest and it hit before I could finish moving plants from the patio tubs to the greenhouse and I had to leave the two big sunfishes in the bucket where they are acclimating until after the storm passed.

It sounded pretty fierce so I started dinner in haste and lit an E candle like I did just before the power failure during Gordon just in case I lost power again. Luckily that didn’t happen and it looks like I may have dodged a bullet again.

I was going to comment more on the people who are beating the drums about the recent hurricane that devastated the Florida panhandle and climate change. But time is running out here for getting this into the upcoming edition. Maybe not global warming but the climate is blowing both hot and cold—and here this week it’s been too much of the latter! November in October like we had March weather in April! Yet a warmer than normal summer. And wetter too. But weather has always been “weird” for as long as I can remember. People have always been complaining and looking to connect it with human activity—either for religious or ideological reasons—mostly by those who are unhappy with the world and looking to blame someone else for it.  Or something—be is sin and decadence, internal combustion engines or rockets to the moon!

My heart goes out to the people down on the Redneck Riviera. Hopefully they will rebuild with not too much hardship. I’m hoping the Seafood Grill on the corner of Main in Apalachicola is still there because I’d like to eat there again next time I visit! It’s quite a place. Have a lot of fond memories from my trips down there to collect fish and herps in the 1990s and early 2000s. I’m sure the people will rebuild.