Sunday, August 29, 2010

Plecos

So, I went back.  The pond owners are trying to get rid of all of the fish.  I wish I could oblige - I took some, yes, but not all of them.  My 2 ponds with fish cannot further handle, I don't think, any more fish.  I have a huge filtering process, yes, but it can only handle so much.  I just cleaned it out - a giant pile of fish poo. 

Both of the ponds for fish are pretty much full.  I mean, sure, you can put more in them, but is it wise?  I have good filtering and great aeration on both of them  - but - I have read ample material on the subject that yes, there is a point where you can have too many.  It's the point of amount of toxins that accumulate in the ponds, not feeding them - feeding is cheap enough and that doesn't really do anything to turn me away from getting more fish. 

Anyway, catching the Plecostomus proved to be a challenge - much more so than even the Koi yesterday.  They are mud dwellers, they can hide down there.  The man drained the pond down until there was very little water and we were able to get them all out of there - 5 large ones.  This was the score as well as the heaters, I took 8 of them.  I paid for 6.  They threw in a couple extras in case one doesn't work, but they basically said they always discard the ones that aren't working.  Okay, I paid $2 a piece for heaters that are normally $30 a piece.  THAT'S why I went there today.  Now, I am prepared for winter.  I need only get floating thermostats for the ponds to make sure they are warm enough - since that's quite a while away, I am not going to concern myself with it right now. 

Upon viewing the new fish in both ponds, a large white goldfish that I got today and one of the goldfish already in the pond are - doing something.  I don't know if goldfish will get agressive with each other but one is chasing the other around.  Another plausibility is that there are mating rituals going on.  Not really sure.  I'll give it some time to see if the activity dies down - other wise I will remove one or the other from the pond and put it in the other pond. 

Hours long interlude as life occurs and I have to deal with things.

One of which is the ex-Marine's 5th declaration that he is moving out next month on the 11th.  This turned into a long, drawn out conversation.  The fact of the matter is:  he has no idea what he's getting himself into.  Renting an apartment with a friend.  I can think of nothing that can end a friendship faster than living with friends at a young age and attempting to learn the things in life - that many readers learned decades ago.

I gave no warnings about such: most people have to learn that on their own.  I can find another renter, I am not worried about that.  I just watch people come and go out of here - some will make it, some will not.  One was carted off on a stretcher.  He is STILL in a nursing home. 

Uhhh, even more interruptions and this post is over, as I have to go to bed.

G'nite.

ben

Saturday and Sunday

Started an entry yesterday but never finished it. The unemployed tenant had her 2 kids over - a 4 year old girl and 7 year old boy.  They were here ALL day long.  She had little control over them and I will be having a discussion about whether I want them over here again or not considering the yelling, screaming and perpetual chaos that went on for most of the day.  At around 7:00pm I had had MORE than enough when the little girl came into the hallway and started screaming at the top of her lungs - just to hear herself screaming apparently. 

I, in turn, began speaking very loudly that "You need to get your kids under control, stop the screaming junk - NOW!!"

They left shortly after that - I disappeared into my bedroom.  I have my computer out here - here being in the kitchen area - there simply was no peace.  I can handle quite  a bit of stuff, but yesterday was ridiculous.  I had thought she was thinking about having them over another night the way she was talking, I would have intervened and said, no thanks, they've been here long enough, take'em home, thanks. 

Anyway, I DID go and get some more fish yesterday.  2 more ponds shutting down.  My mission: Koi, no more goldfish.  I have lots of goldfish, I only had 2 Koi until yesterday.  I was the first one there, the guy claimed that there were "hundreds" of fish in his pond - simply not true.  He only had 2 Koi, but the 2 he had were huge.  He wanted $10 a piece for them.  A 16 inch long Koi is going to get at least $50 on the market, if not much more.  I bought both of them and considered that my "fun money" for this pay period.  His pond was not much larger than the pond I put those Koi into - he said he had them about 4 years - so, I guess these giant fish can do very well in smaller ponds. 

Catching those suckers - as it always is with Koi - proved to be a lengthy process.  The first one took about 10 minutes to snag, I got him with my small net, put him in the container where he jumped out onto dry land.  Not smart, Mr. Koi, not too smart.  Picked him up, dumped him in there, put a lid on it and then we proceeded to try and catch the other, larger one.  HE was a pain the rear.  He did NOT want to be caught.  Spent a good half hour trying to catch him.  I finally suggested to the guy to block him in at one of the pond and it should be easier to get him.  Sure enough, 2 minutes after blocking him in, I snagged him.

He also had several large plecostumus.  They are algea eaters and I want several.  I dunno how hard it would have been to catch them, the water was too murky from catching the Koi to even see them so I gave up on that idea.  I told him if he could catch them I would come back and get them.  Haven't heard back from him so I dunno.  Maybe I'll call later, he only wanted $3 for a giant pleco, that's a good price.  I have seen people advertising pleco's that large for $15 and up. 

Well, that guy has another ad up so I called him just now - he is selling his pond heaters for $2 each, that's a SMOKING deal and I want them.  I don't need them now but I also don't want to be caught red-handed when winter FINALLY - IF EVER - gets here and the water needs to be warmed up a bit.  Later on for that is all I can say. 

My son is a good boy.  He wants to get my old Buick running and said he had $200 to do so.  I had thought he had much more money than that - yes, he did, his mom is unemployed and he gave her $200 or more to help her out a bit. 

The problem with getting that car going is it's going to cost around $400 or so to do it.  I don't really have "extra" funds right now.  Spending $20 on fish and maybe a few more dollars later for those heaters is about the end of it. 

However, the food bill has gone down considerably around here and the electric use is starting to fall as the temps have come down.  I don't, however, even think about calling summer done - the extended forecasts still show some hot days ahead.  The forecasters in these parts don't seem to have a clue what they are doing.  I mean, it rained yesterday and there wasn't anything in the forecast for rain.  Stuff like that.  Anyway, my problem is that I pretty much got sucked dry in the finance department trying to keep up with huge electric bills and dealing with late paying tenants.  I spent $500 last month on electricity and just hit $400 for this month - 3 more days to go til' the first I'm going to call it about a $430 month for electricity.  Better than last month, still far too high. 

I told Caleb he might ask his grandpa to help him out with the car if he wanted to hand write a letter to him.  Grandma won't help with such things, I know that for a fact so not even worth bothering to ask.  Meanwhile, I'll come up with a budget for next month and see if I can look forward to some extra funds what with much less food being eaten and hopefully shrinking electric use as the hot days start winding down to and END, thank you very much. 

Well, I don't have much more.  It's quiet.  Caleb just left for work and tenants are either sleeping,  awake and I can't hear them or not here, I haven't checked and don't care to.  I have numerous things I want to get done today - I was going to go to church but once again, I didn't make it to a clothing store so, no-go.  I just won't go to church in blue jean s and t-shirts, it's not my style and I wouldn't feel comfortable showing up in such "condition". 

G'day.

ben

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