All in a Garden Green

Gardens, fish... both met their end yesterday. RIP Tsume. Dammit. You were with me for such a short time. RIP also 4 tetras, over the course of 3 days. I don't know how to help my fish when they get sick. I wish I knew what was off about the 5 gallon tank. The water tests fine. No weird levels of nitrates, ammonia, etc. Hoping the water itself hasn't changed, with whatever the PWD does. Sigh. Eros is looking too fat for his own good at the moment, too. Bloaty. Nothing the internet has suggested has worked yet. Gah.

Took the garden apart yesterday. It was time. Woke up yesterday morning to actual, scrape-able frost on the car. Apparently it snowed big goopy flakes on Sunday night, which I missed completely. As far as I'm concerned, it hasn't snowed yet.

Yanked marigolds, cucumber plants, lettuce, and peas. Managed to munch the last couple peapods, very tasty. The lettuce might have been able to stay, but as I do not have row covers or a greenhouse, there wasn't much point... Carrots will stay till I'm ready to eat them. Cold won't hurt 'em a bit, and I did get one little purple one (tasty!) by accident when I turned the soil over.

Planted the thyme that had been living in a pot all summer; my other plant did next to nothing this year, but the lemon thyme was lovely. Dug and will split the 'Persian Market' daylily. Planted about 1/4 of the original plant, will share the rest with those that want it. Cut back chives, garlic chives, lemon balm. Pulled out a whole bunch of forget-me-not seedlings; though I love them, let's not go crazy next year, hmm? Strawberries are fine, and the 3 Saffron Crocus bulbs (that wouldn't fit in the pot, so I planted them in the corner nearest the steps) have sprouted! Probably won't bloom this year... If they make it through the winter (Zone 6?) I'll be impressed. After all that, dug and turned the soil, added about 1.5 CF of peat moss, mixed in. Compost top dressing will be added in a few weeks when I sink the peonies and lavender. Before things freeze too hard.

Still cutting back and dividing perennials at work. Dug up the beautiful white & yellow peony to make more; replanted a good chunk, still got 8 pots for retail, and one itty bitty slip that just wouldn't grow to any good size that came home with me... Going to be lovely in a few years. :) Also hoping I didn't completely murder the 'Fireball' Hibiscus. This thing was huge. Got lots of divisions, which I hope and pray will make it through the winter. They should... I hope... so paranoid about this one. There's a big chunk back in the ground, which will be fine, but things act funny when you put them in pots, sometimes...

...I knew I had to create a basic website from scratch today for our little Independent Garden Center Group. Finished that early evening, will be some tweaking once everybody else gets a look at it, which is fine. I got $25/hour to do so. Good money, cash, I'll take it, for what my limited webby skills could bring to this little endeavour. What I hadn't planned on was a panicky phone call from my boss at 11:00 this morning that threw off the rhythm of my entire day, made me really, really grumpy, and necessitated my going into work for a half hour. ( Something about the logo not showing up right on the commercial... )

In other news... I've filled out my tetra school(s) now, all fishies are accounted for and happy. Had to bring one of the neons back that I bought today; the poor li'l guy did nothing but gasp for air when I put him in the tank with the others, while his purchasemate was fine... he's been replaced, the pet store probably put him out of his misery rather than try to save him, but I have two more healthy fishies now. 4 neon tetras and 3 black, with the 2 catfish makes a happy tank. Hopefully the littler of my two original neons won't be picked on quite as much with the additional two new fish to chase around.

Garden is slowly coming along; I have 18 little seed plugs of basil growing indoors; most of the seeds I planted came up, which is just wonderful. I love basil... delicious tomato-basil-mozzarella sandwiches are in my future. Planted lettuce seeds, and several rows of both 'Purple Haze' and 'Carnival Blend' carrots. Hopefully I have better luck with both this year. Had not much of either one come up last year. Filled in the spots where the peas did not germinate, and promptly grabbed a handful of the soil where the lettuce seeds were sprinkled to fill in the holes... whoops. I guess I'll have lettuce all over the garden this year. Planted just half the packets of all my seeds, in case we somehow find a new place before garden season is all over, and I can start over... Put in the 'Jewel Mix' nasturtium seeds along the border too; I didn't have any volunteers this year, which is unusual. A few pansies, and a tomato (which I pulled out... the Tomaccio have come in!( Tomaccio! )), but that's about it. Carol (our awesome veggie grower) dropped off some cold crops and herbs today, so I can start the Haus Wanderstamm Mobile Herb Garden tomorrow afternoon! Also: will have Kohlrabi. So excited. :)

It rained last night, for a while. Supposed to do more on Sunday and Monday, which should take care of most of the rest of the snow. Not at all sorry to see it go. Still gray and cloudy this morning, rather cool.

Poked around a bit at the garden yesterday. The top 6" or so of soil is thawed and loose, but still very, very cold. I so want to plant peas... not yet, though. Not time. Still too cold. I don't know if any of the strawberry starts I buried last month have taken, but we'll see in a few weeks. The rain last night will have helped, as the top soil layer was quite dry.

Eros is on at least his third life, if he pulls out of his latest bout with fungus... I am more and more convinced there was something wrong with the water when I changed it a week ago. A second water change perked him back up, but he started having problems again a day later. Yesterday morning, I looked over, and he was covered in what looked like white fuzzy cotton balls (little fish sized...). Fungus. Great. I have stuff to treat it, and it seems to be working so far. One more day in the dark, and hopefully he'll be OK.

Headed out shortly to meet anna_mickel and Max for lunch, then a trip to a bookshop in Exeter. I will not escape empty handed, but that's OK. :) No gold leaf arrival yesterday; should come today. It's delivery-confirmed, so if I make it back here by 4:30 or so, and they've been by, I can make it to the post office before it closes and pick up my little package.

Day 2 with leetle feeshy... still swimmy and happy. Still cute. (I promise, this journal is not going to turn into 'here's 9 zillion photos of my fish! yay!') He's somewhat obsessed with his own reflection on the flat back of the aquarium, which I think I made worse or more mirrored with the addition of a dark background... opposite of intended effect... whoops. He is a beautiful little guy when he's in full display, though. The novelty of his reflection will wear off soon, I think. At least when the lights go out.

Body color is much more white in person; I think the flash probably illuminates his insides a little bit, and does weird reflective things anyway.

Completely unrelated, tonight's dinnertime experiment appears to be going well. J's mom got us a '10 and 12-hour Crockpot Cooking' book for Christmas, and J said to me a few nights ago "let's start with this one". Steak Roulade. Put it together this afternoon when I came home for lunch. Fairly simple; finely chopped celery, onion, and bacon, all rolled up inside thin beef rounds (flank steak was recommended online, but I'd already gone shopping and gotten itty bitty top round slices...), tied, and stuck to cook in a little bit of beef broth in the pot. Much smaller rolls, so I don't think it will take the full 10 hours... 8 should be plenty. Smells done now, which is making me hungry, but taste testing will be after I get back from the Province meeting, and he gets back from motorcycle pickup...

ETA: Post dinner- Was pretty tasty... OK flavor, a bit dry. Will try it again, maybe, with a proper cut of meat. I think it overcooked a bit in the crock pot because they were so small.

So, after only 5 1/2 months, my poor little Levi has gone to the big fishpond in the sky... Swim on, my little denim-blue finny fish. You were a fine kitchen companion while you were here.

gah. I just don't know what to do with fish when they get sick. Medicines don't really seem to work, or I'm not doing something right.

For a while, I figured he was just a fat fish, but over the last several weeks, fat turned into not so healthy... I suspect the cold cold water back in December when we lost power was the beginning of the end. I found him at the bottom of the fishtank this morning. Now to do another water and filter change, to get rid of any lingering ickiness that may still be hanging around. I will pick up a new fishie sometime this week.

In other news... it is snowing, and I don't have to go out. :) It is fencing night, so I will putt my way into Portland for that, but then I get to come home, and enjoy a full night's sleep, and not shoveling.

Doubtful. LJ has laid off/fired a bunch most of its employees. Not good, especially for them. For me, it took me several years to start this thing, and I'm pretty pleased with how I've kept up with it, occasional ranty ramblings and all.

That being said, ljarchive has nicely and neatly backed up all my entries, with comments, and photos (but no user icons on comments). I can migrate to wordpress.com and join my brother, backed up blog and all. Options are good. Lack of "friends page" over there, though, saddens me. I'm lazy. I want you all in one place. :) I guess that's what RSS feeds are for.

Levi is back to being a happy swimmy fish. One eye is a little cloudy still, but no longer all swollen. Thank goodness.

Need to get off my butt and go to fencing tonight. Haven't played in a few weeks. Feeling flail-y. Not a good thing. We'll see how it goes.

Co-worker Ben brought his Aussie, Harvey, with him to work for the hour or so it took to repair a fan in the greenhouse. Such a silly doggie. Red merle coloring, very fuzzy and SOFT. Not too hyper, as far as Aussies go, happy to sit and be scritched for a while, then went back to chewing on a random chunk of wood he found... A most entertaining and good part of the day.

Snow tomorrow, and not ending till Thursday afternoon sometime (so sez the weatherguyz). More "wintry mix" than snow, I think. Need to repair coat, wash the salt dust out of my gloves so my fingers don't shrivel into nothing by the end of the day, and prepare a good food supply. At least I get to sleep past 7:30, because I have a feeling I will be waking up far earlier than I want to be once the snow is done and needs clearing so people can get to work the next morning...

I feel like I haven't *been* anywhere in weeks, though just had vacation (of sorts) over Christmas. Never really left the house then, didn't use the camera at all. Haven't taken any trips locally where I can take pretty pictures. Should try to make it to Fort Williams/Portland Head sometime (and maybe visit frothgar and evensongs_fall and meet their new kitties at the same time!). The parking lot of LL Bean's offices is only so interesting for so long... and it's getting to that point... Birka will be wonderful, assuming I can go... stupid snow.

BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL, WE HAVE POWER!

RIP one minnow... just got too cold, I think. No power for about 12 hours, it's back now.

Amazing what one can do on just 20 minutes of sleep. Knew the phone was going to ring last night, just didn't expect it to ring so early... dropped off to dreamland around 12:45, phone rang at 1:05. Oh boy, time to shovel. hnrrrgghhh... took about an hour to get dressed, clean off the car (yay ice!), slide down to the shop, warm up the truck and get IT loaded with all the STUFF we needed, and slide out of the driveway to go pick up Jess. 4-wheel drive is a Good Thing.

It poured down rain most of the night. Thank you, thank you, a thousand times thank you, mom and dad, for my rain gear. I was dry for most of the night, till the water started dripping down inside my gloves, soaking the waterproof liner... ick. Didn't work all that well afterwards... On that same train of thought, an inch and a half of slush combined with at least as much rain, which is still falling, is made of SUCK. With suck garnish. and a side of suck.

Saw the new day lighten on glittering tree branches. Branches that were down everywhere. If a little red pickup truck on the side of the road had parked a foot further back, it would have had a rather large tree limb in the bed... Was never really tired, as long as I kept moving. Sore and physically tired, but didn't have fears of falling asleep until we were really, really all done, and I headed back to the office. Returned home at 8:30 to no power, didn't care much. Collapsed into bed, did not move till 2 PM.

Talked to my family, they got it much worse than we did here... Still no power as of the last time we spoke, and the backyard and neighborhood have changed quite a bit. Two BIG oak trees (that have been leaning for years...) came clean out of the ground. Nothing hit their house, but the neighbors have a tree in their kitchen window, and around the block, dad and pet_spider watched a dozen or so trees just collapse on top of each other. What a mess.

Not quite as bad as the Ice Storm of '98 for number of homes without power, but close. Power will be back on for everybody much quicker than it was then, I think.

We have a hurricane lamp and a gazillion candles for light, but we need to remember to keep our emergency batteries charged and ready to run the weather radio. There are bottles of propane for the Coleman camp stove/burner thingy, so if we needed to, we could boil water and make soup. But no real backup heat source. That's the only thing that really makes me nervous. Tons of blankets and quilts to huddle under, but that doesn't keep my fish and plants alive (which in the grand scheme of things, is really the last thing to worry about, but they are mine, and living things, that require my care... I promised them I would take care of them...).

Tomorrow brings an oil change, and then fencing (hopefully) at Dartmouth College. Anssem... if you see this... email me? Is it still happening? Where is it, exactly, on campus? Garb/no garb? What's going on?!? Where am I? Who are you people, anyway?

No, not the fish... They are still quite alive and happy, swimming around in the upstairs aquarium. All of my school of 6 are in the photo; they're fast little guys (and gals... I think...)! There is definitely a pecking order being established; the largest (a female, I think... they have rounder bellies.) tends to chase the others around the tank quite a bit, and there's one little guy that I don't think gets quite as much to eat as the others. I will watch him...

Culinary success came in the form of Zuppa Toscana, made fresh in my kitchen. It's kurlon's favorite soup from the olive garden, and I have re-created it, thanks to the wunderful interwebs and its databases of 'copycat' recipes. Last year's attempt was a bit of a disaster; did not cook the sausage long enough in the oven beforehand, so the cream-based soup was rather red, and I either picked too-spicy sausage, or added waaaaay too many red pepper flakes. Cleared his sinuses, I suppose, but I couldn't eat it... This year's was better. Right color, got the kale added at the right time, and was very tasty. We may have it another night soon, as I've got a lot of kale to use up... anybody have any suggestions on what I can use a pound and a half of kale for..?

Tomorrow will bring bread and rolls. Had grand plans today that got sidelined by having to go into work for 45 minutes... could have set the dough to rise during the hour I was gone, but got talking with my mechanic (Rosie is going up on the lift tomorrow to get the strange new whirring noise looked at, and to see if we've finally figured out what the clunking is...), and came home to a sinkful of dirty dishes and not enough time to get the bread started. hrm.

In other news, I have decided what I am going to do with my pumpkins. Muahahaha. Tee hee. Also, Guitar Hero: World Tour is coming my way. I intend to find a copy sometime this week. Haven't decided if I'm going to get the drums or not... probably not.

I returned home from work yesterday to a very unhappy fishtank... Eric, Steve, Carlos, Satch, and Lefty have all gone to the big fishbowl in the sky... I tried to save them, but the water treatments and medication did nothing. Spot left us a few weeks ago, from a (hopefully) unrelated illness... Time to scrub and sterilze the tank (and everything else, including the gravel vac. I do NOT want to lose Levi.) and start over, I suppose. :(

We interrupt the Pennsic recap to mourn the passing of my little finny friend... Last Thursday, while I was at Pennsic, my little Louie went on from his tank on the kitchen counter to the big fishbowl in the sky.

Just a little over two years old, he was perky to the end, swimming up to take food when kurlon fed him that morning. Found resting on the floor of the aquarium that evening, no longer perky... The catfish appear either lost without their tankmate or happy to not be getting chased around quite so much.

I rescued Louie from the tanks at Wal-Mart two Septembers ago. The last crowntail betta they had. The clerk laughed at me when I gave a serious answer to "what's his name?", but Louie he was. My kitchen companion. Not the brightest li'l guy I've ever owned, but cute. He'd survived a bout with swim bladder problems this past winter, which caused him to list slightly portside, but recovered well. Poor li'l guy wasn't quite himself for the last month or so, and I didn't really expect to see him when I got back from vacation... There will be another soon; the tank can't stay empty for long. (and really, he was just a fish... a good fish, but a fish nonetheless)