This is the pond jerk that has made me so angry.
Coco and Freya being pals.
Freya and my niece on the fort...yes this thing is so big we are using a hijacked trailer truck unloading ramp as a means of getting on it.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Truncated photo gallery
Here are a few pictures of Freya and me and other things. And the pond, and the fort.
This is the pond jerk that has made me so angry.
Coco and Freya being pals.
Freya and my niece on the fort...yes this thing is so big we are using a hijacked trailer truck unloading ramp as a means of getting on it.
This is the pond jerk that has made me so angry.
Coco and Freya being pals.
Freya and my niece on the fort...yes this thing is so big we are using a hijacked trailer truck unloading ramp as a means of getting on it.
Time elapsed: In real time: An abbreviation.
Life with Freya has been an adventure. She is daddy's spoiled little girl. But I couldn't say why...I don't suppose I spoil her, but my lord you'd think I gave her everything she ever asked for (and yes she asks, folks, Freya knows four languages aside from K-9). I guess I could be more strict, but I don't care if she sleeps in the bed...However I do care if she eats human foo, so no scraps. I Who knows, maybe I'm just the world's greatest owner and I don't realize it. But probably not, otherwise she wouldn't eat all of the belongings! Pulling garbage bags (sans garbage) out of a garbage can, only to leave garbage (sans garbage bag) in the can...crafty. She eats tissues and toilet paper and diaper that have been used. She rarely uses the bathroom inside though, maybe a forced accident, and even then she has A spot so we always know.
She does love to play on this giant fort we are building....yes a fort, pictures forthcoming, naturally. She loves to live on the edge and fall into the stupid useless jerk ponds. She love eating honey bees, even if the do leave stingers in he chin like a poorly shaved middle aged comic book store owner. She will bark without cause or concern of people, surroundings, or logic when she hears a person coming to the door. But she is loyal as a dog should be. We share the couch while watching TV, or reading, writing, or just sitting.
She no longer tries to beat Conner and he no longer tries to care.
She loves our newly converted outdoor to indoor cat Coco and there will be a picture of them sharing food and water.
She loves kids but is over eager with them.
She is terribly allergic to fleas.
And she is the worlds greatest dog.
She does love to play on this giant fort we are building....yes a fort, pictures forthcoming, naturally. She loves to live on the edge and fall into the stupid useless jerk ponds. She love eating honey bees, even if the do leave stingers in he chin like a poorly shaved middle aged comic book store owner. She will bark without cause or concern of people, surroundings, or logic when she hears a person coming to the door. But she is loyal as a dog should be. We share the couch while watching TV, or reading, writing, or just sitting.
She no longer tries to beat Conner and he no longer tries to care.
She loves our newly converted outdoor to indoor cat Coco and there will be a picture of them sharing food and water.
She loves kids but is over eager with them.
She is terribly allergic to fleas.
And she is the worlds greatest dog.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Hmm....sad days.
Ok...this pond has become an uber-fiasco...over the past year of not blogging about it, I have had to drain and redo it countless times. We have bought a plethora of fish that have all died, all the while my babies have lived peaceably. Until we added on to the new section...then Pam died after being trapped and starving...then I thing a massive bull frog ate Jim....then the other day I found my favorite, my wonderful Dwight floating...so here I am, 15 fish, myriad pond attempts, and some angry days later giving you guys the heads up...my boys and girl are gone. I will post all sorts of things over the coming weeks to show progress, regress, and whatever else I have.
If one thing comes from this that is cool...when they died they dried like seashells, so I have let them sit and dry in the sun then applied lacquer to them for posterity...
If one thing comes from this that is cool...when they died they dried like seashells, so I have let them sit and dry in the sun then applied lacquer to them for posterity...
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Take that Algae!
We have been in discussions about how to better take care of the side of our pond, the rocks that fill it, and the new porous shells we dropped in for the frogs to hide. We were worried about the addition of a big fish like a Koi or an Oscar as these can occasionally become aggressive towards outward species, IE, frogs. And getting rid of mosquitoes is great and all, but they would also rid the pond of the frogs, which is a terrible crime.
Then we ran into the problem of Connor. What would he do to the fish? I mean this is a duck who is so territorial that he will beat birds to death then rip them apart in some gruesome manner. Not rarely, or occasionally, but normally, and on a semi regular basis. So tossing some fish into this pond that hang out near the surface is asking for trouble. Now I'm not saying he'd eat them, but I full expect there would be some beaten fish floating belly up by the time he finished.
Then we remembered back, there was the perfect fish we could get, a bottom feeding algae eater. A pleco.
We used these a lot when we had our 75 gallon fish tank. They never got really big because of the amount of other fish to food ration, but one thing they did do, was get fat off the algae produced. And they did a marvelous job, are durable fish, and kept to themselves and most importantly on the bottom.
So I bought three of them. Two mediums, who I named Jim and Pam, and a large one who I named Dwight. Dwight is about 8 or 9 inches and Jim and Pam are about 4, currently. But given that the pond is clocking in at over 500 gallons, they should have plenty of room for growth, and hopefully expansion (assuming they are boy and girl).
Here the new kids are.
This is Dwight, he is all of the images but one, which is Jim.
This is Jim, he looks huge because I was rocking the zoom, but he and Pam are only about 4 inches in length.
As you will notice Dwight is rather long. Which is good, I didn't want a ton of tiny suckers in there so I forked over the 30.00 and bought Dwight. There was a larger one, but he was 40.00, and in all honestly he was only darker in color and a little fatter. He wasn't 10.00 larger by any stretch. (And if you are wondering Jim and Pam were 9.00 apiece.)
You will notice Pam is not in any of the images. This is because she immediately took off around the pond like lightning, then hid in the stacked mass of rocks in the middle. Kudos to you Pam, you camera shy scamp.
As of this morning none were out and about, but I attribute this to them being twilight fish.
Then we ran into the problem of Connor. What would he do to the fish? I mean this is a duck who is so territorial that he will beat birds to death then rip them apart in some gruesome manner. Not rarely, or occasionally, but normally, and on a semi regular basis. So tossing some fish into this pond that hang out near the surface is asking for trouble. Now I'm not saying he'd eat them, but I full expect there would be some beaten fish floating belly up by the time he finished.
Then we remembered back, there was the perfect fish we could get, a bottom feeding algae eater. A pleco.
We used these a lot when we had our 75 gallon fish tank. They never got really big because of the amount of other fish to food ration, but one thing they did do, was get fat off the algae produced. And they did a marvelous job, are durable fish, and kept to themselves and most importantly on the bottom.
So I bought three of them. Two mediums, who I named Jim and Pam, and a large one who I named Dwight. Dwight is about 8 or 9 inches and Jim and Pam are about 4, currently. But given that the pond is clocking in at over 500 gallons, they should have plenty of room for growth, and hopefully expansion (assuming they are boy and girl).
Here the new kids are.
This is Dwight, he is all of the images but one, which is Jim.
This is Jim, he looks huge because I was rocking the zoom, but he and Pam are only about 4 inches in length.
As you will notice Dwight is rather long. Which is good, I didn't want a ton of tiny suckers in there so I forked over the 30.00 and bought Dwight. There was a larger one, but he was 40.00, and in all honestly he was only darker in color and a little fatter. He wasn't 10.00 larger by any stretch. (And if you are wondering Jim and Pam were 9.00 apiece.)
You will notice Pam is not in any of the images. This is because she immediately took off around the pond like lightning, then hid in the stacked mass of rocks in the middle. Kudos to you Pam, you camera shy scamp.
As of this morning none were out and about, but I attribute this to them being twilight fish.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Hide and Seek
Late at night, usually when Freya needs to go out because she is certain I need no sleep and that he bladder is the size of a dime, I will take the time to play hide and seek with nature. I creep up to the pond and red light the animals, then I will walk around the gazebo because the frogs like to take little dry ground trips. And finally, usually to very little end, I will look for the croaking. The wonderful little frog who sits content in a tree and teases me with his talking. Until a couple of night ago I had never been able to find him. But that all changed. Armed with my headlamp, camera phone, and a dream, I searched, pulling back prickly limb after prickly limb. Then I found him.
There he was, hiding near the top of the short holly tree. I always croaks and sound like he is on the running, flowering vines behind the holly on the fence. I guess that is his own little art of deception. Well not last night. Last night was my night for victory. When I saw him I inched in close because I didn't want to startle him. You know how frogs can be. And as I snapped photos of him another revelation came! There were two of them! Probably having a good laugh at me, no doubt. Well jokes on them, because the Midnight Creeper, Nature's Paparazzi has plastered your faces all over the internet!
Whoa! Two of them! What fun we've had tonight!
Speaking of hide and seek, Conner has always been one for hiding himself wherever he thought we wouldn't see him. When he was a wee little duck whose feathers were just changing color...
Even to yesterday while I was taking pictures.
I've noticed he spends a lot of his time in shadowy corners lurking about. Sometimes you catch him looking at you like a foreign spy, other times he is playing coy looking the other way. He is quite good at what he does.
Even Freya likes to get into the act occasionally. (By the way, look at that tongue! Gracious!)
There he was, hiding near the top of the short holly tree. I always croaks and sound like he is on the running, flowering vines behind the holly on the fence. I guess that is his own little art of deception. Well not last night. Last night was my night for victory. When I saw him I inched in close because I didn't want to startle him. You know how frogs can be. And as I snapped photos of him another revelation came! There were two of them! Probably having a good laugh at me, no doubt. Well jokes on them, because the Midnight Creeper, Nature's Paparazzi has plastered your faces all over the internet!
Whoa! Two of them! What fun we've had tonight!
Speaking of hide and seek, Conner has always been one for hiding himself wherever he thought we wouldn't see him. When he was a wee little duck whose feathers were just changing color...
Even to yesterday while I was taking pictures.
I've noticed he spends a lot of his time in shadowy corners lurking about. Sometimes you catch him looking at you like a foreign spy, other times he is playing coy looking the other way. He is quite good at what he does.
Even Freya likes to get into the act occasionally. (By the way, look at that tongue! Gracious!)
Thursday, July 22, 2010
A Litte Help from my Friends.
So over the past few days (when time has permitted) I have been scrounging my picture files. Mostly in order to may things easier to fin so blogging won't be a nine hour event. I ran across some images of various friends of Freya's, and one video, but for some reason it won't open as a file, so either a patch, or a punch will occur at some point. But until then I'd like to introduce you to some of Freya's pals.
Ok, so Freya wants to narrate the montage. In fact she wanted to do an 80's music montage, but I told her that garbage wasn't happening, so here she is to talk.
Hey guys! Oh man oh man, what have we got here!
Ok, this is my dad's twin and his new girl Lucy, which makes me her...cousin, dad says I'm her cousin.
And this guy is Jake! Man he doesn't care for me for some reason. And he has the biggest feet I have ever seen! They look like those tennis racket things Eskimos wear! (Ugh, dad says they are snow shoes, and saying only Eskimos wear them is racially stereotyping, whatever that means.)
This is Jake and Lucy asleep. They look like those doll things, dad says Russian Dolls. (I think dad might be a know-it-all)Look at those feet! Good grief!
This one is of uncle Josh and Brigette, before she died. I never knew her, but look at her face, doesn't she look like fun. Oh, and uncle Josh has since seen a groomer (dad is chiming in again saying people don't go to groomers) and he now looks like a short-haired version of himself.
And this guy, sitting on my bed, is Steve. He also died; he was old. I never knew him, but dad said he was awesome, and loved playing, and really he kind of ruled the house with a furry fist. I say kudos to him!
Ok, these two are of a friend named Rascal, she has a brother named Rufus, he is a Sharpee (Sorry, dad says it is Shar-Pei, apparently a Sharpee is a thing you write with. I'm asking dad to leave, he is really making this difficult.) and she is a Yellow version of me! She didn't used to like me, but now we played some and she tolerates me. Rufus wants to play and has these big puffy cheeks that I like to nibble. He hates that. He is sitting on the couch in the shadows. He looks like a creepy lurker.
This is our pet skunk;-) No, its actually my human cousin Olivia (That's Josh's bipedal kid.)
This is supposed to be a cabbage, but I think it is the monster from that Rick Moranis movie the Little Shop of Horrors.
Hehehe, I sneaked this is while dad wasn't looking. Doesn't he look like the biggest dork! He said this was his "hobo beard" it was fashionable on railway cars, and it carried belongings, so it served a purpose too. I just think he looks ridiculous. Man is he going to get a kick out of that!
Aw man, you know who I don't have pictures of! My besties Chloe and Darla! Holy cow Darla is a Yellow like Rascal up there, and Chloe is a flat-haired black lab, man she is so fun! All we do is chase each other in circles until Darla says we have to quit, but really we just let her leave then do it some more. Hehehehe, ok, I'm going to have dad get pictures of them! They are great! We go swimming together at this big water thing.
Ooop, dad is coming, I better scoot, I want this image up before he sees it and takes it off, aufedersein!
Ok, so Freya wants to narrate the montage. In fact she wanted to do an 80's music montage, but I told her that garbage wasn't happening, so here she is to talk.
Hey guys! Oh man oh man, what have we got here!
Ok, this is my dad's twin and his new girl Lucy, which makes me her...cousin, dad says I'm her cousin.
And this guy is Jake! Man he doesn't care for me for some reason. And he has the biggest feet I have ever seen! They look like those tennis racket things Eskimos wear! (Ugh, dad says they are snow shoes, and saying only Eskimos wear them is racially stereotyping, whatever that means.)
This is Jake and Lucy asleep. They look like those doll things, dad says Russian Dolls. (I think dad might be a know-it-all)Look at those feet! Good grief!
This one is of uncle Josh and Brigette, before she died. I never knew her, but look at her face, doesn't she look like fun. Oh, and uncle Josh has since seen a groomer (dad is chiming in again saying people don't go to groomers) and he now looks like a short-haired version of himself.
And this guy, sitting on my bed, is Steve. He also died; he was old. I never knew him, but dad said he was awesome, and loved playing, and really he kind of ruled the house with a furry fist. I say kudos to him!
Ok, these two are of a friend named Rascal, she has a brother named Rufus, he is a Sharpee (Sorry, dad says it is Shar-Pei, apparently a Sharpee is a thing you write with. I'm asking dad to leave, he is really making this difficult.) and she is a Yellow version of me! She didn't used to like me, but now we played some and she tolerates me. Rufus wants to play and has these big puffy cheeks that I like to nibble. He hates that. He is sitting on the couch in the shadows. He looks like a creepy lurker.
This is our pet skunk;-) No, its actually my human cousin Olivia (That's Josh's bipedal kid.)
This is supposed to be a cabbage, but I think it is the monster from that Rick Moranis movie the Little Shop of Horrors.
Hehehe, I sneaked this is while dad wasn't looking. Doesn't he look like the biggest dork! He said this was his "hobo beard" it was fashionable on railway cars, and it carried belongings, so it served a purpose too. I just think he looks ridiculous. Man is he going to get a kick out of that!
Aw man, you know who I don't have pictures of! My besties Chloe and Darla! Holy cow Darla is a Yellow like Rascal up there, and Chloe is a flat-haired black lab, man she is so fun! All we do is chase each other in circles until Darla says we have to quit, but really we just let her leave then do it some more. Hehehehe, ok, I'm going to have dad get pictures of them! They are great! We go swimming together at this big water thing.
Ooop, dad is coming, I better scoot, I want this image up before he sees it and takes it off, aufedersein!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Spotty Speckled Rock Disease: AKA: Tadpoliosis.
I went back out yesterday as the clouds and rain left and went crazy with the camera. I took pictures of everything blog related, sixteen pictures of Conner which will be posted in the next couple of days, nine of Freya, also to be posted, and then nine of these little darlings friends we have found. More during the gallery:
As you can see here with our first image the sun was playing shadowy tricks off the reflection of the water. Darn you beautiful sun and all your shiny happiness. What I will draw attention to is the black liner and the spots. These spots are some of our little swimmers.
Again the sun and its capturing of the terrible shadowy figure playing paparazzi to these tadpole film stars.
These next images are from when I decided to move with some sort of success and snapped several really close, mostly zoomed in, some dangerously reckless leaning over centimeters from the water tactics, and other methods a complete rookie like myself would use to get a shot in. In honesty they came out like I wanted, and they show a lot of the swimming little city I was hoping to get. Its like watching a live action version of the Snorks.
As you can see here with our first image the sun was playing shadowy tricks off the reflection of the water. Darn you beautiful sun and all your shiny happiness. What I will draw attention to is the black liner and the spots. These spots are some of our little swimmers.
Again the sun and its capturing of the terrible shadowy figure playing paparazzi to these tadpole film stars.
These next images are from when I decided to move with some sort of success and snapped several really close, mostly zoomed in, some dangerously reckless leaning over centimeters from the water tactics, and other methods a complete rookie like myself would use to get a shot in. In honesty they came out like I wanted, and they show a lot of the swimming little city I was hoping to get. Its like watching a live action version of the Snorks.
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