Grill'n Time!

Um yummy!

Grilled myself a nice swordfish steak with peppers and onions and garlic and lemon, OH MY!

So easy and so daggone delicious.

Mov'n On Up

This might sound weird to some but I re-homed out comet fish.

His summer days spent in a 55-gallon rain barrel are behind him.

He's moved onto a bigger and better tank, with littluns to fuss over him.

Rain Barrel Comets

Emptied our last 55-gallon barrel of it's collected rainwater, time for it's winter nap.  Unfortunately, this means the two comet fish need to come indoors, UGH.  As you can see in the pic they're huge!  I ran out of fish food months ago, so really the only food they got was what insects fell into their water and mosquitos .  I would toss in earth worms or grubs or other caterpillars I'd come across but by in large they were on their own.  The last time I visited my farmer friend, he gave me a half dozen Water Hyacinth plants that I plopped in the 55-gallon barrel.  They did very well too, with some of their rooms almost 12-15" long.  I suspect the fish eat that too.  Honestly, the fish inside is too much work keeping the bowl clean and all but not too many options.  They look good for having spent the past two summers outside in their barrel.

Fish In A Barrel...

Admittedly, not the prettiest picture with the dirty barrel and algae green water.  However, what it does show is that our two comet fish that lived in the same barrel last summer, then wintered over in the house, are doing just fine being put back outside a couple months ago.  It's hard to keep track of them with the water so dark.  Clearly they're doing there job - eating mosquitoes (and other insects), in order to survive.

   

Not Happy, Happy

I cleaned the fish bowl this morning.  Surprising how messy and stinky two comets can be.  I guess being a fish bowl with no filtration or air probably doesn't help.

They don't seem to enjoy any aspect of the cleaning process, especially the fresh water shock!

These are 2 remaining (out of 10) comets that we bought a year ago that spent the entire spring and summer outside in a 55-gallon barrel.  The barrels are used to catch rain water off the house, which is then used to water the gardens and plants. The comets are used to eat the mosquitos and their larva. A perfect system actually.

All happy and clean!

Find The Critter

Can you find the critter in the below picture?

More importantly can you piece together the tragedy?

Hint, start with the yellow arrow, then move to the red arrow.

Emilie won this dude at the annual Franklin fair about this time last year.  He was doing terrific.  He got real big for a fair goldfish, almost too  big for his bowl.  Not sure if he was trying to make it to the toilet to escape or not but we put the lid, so the dude was SOL.  Not a very pleasant site to come down stairs to in the morning, more so for Emilie.

On the bright side, no more fish bowl cleaning needed...

"What I Call, Livin' "

Emilie, JoAnne and I did a little fishin' the other day.

Emilie caught and released about a dozen bluegill.

Here's a picture of her "holdin' that pink rod and reel"...



"And she think we're just fishin' on the riverside"...

Trace Adkins - Just Fishin'

Martin Seamus "Marty" McFly

We welcomed Emilie's new critter, Martin Seamus "Marty" McFly, to the ole homestead yesterday.

In case you were wondering the name comes from the movie trilogy "Back To The Future", which Emilie has taken a liking to.

Bluegill or Sunfish

Emilie, JoAnne and I did a little fishing on Saturday afternoon. Actually, it worked like this - JoAnne worked the camera, Emilie reeled in the catches and I baited the hook, hooked the fish and removed them from the hook. Now tell me who had the better job?

Anyway, we had some leftover worms from out trip to Sebago Lake Maine so we went down to a local pond and had some fun. Despite it being prolly the hottest, thickest, most oppressive day all summer long the Bluegill were bite'n. We caught approximately 12 to 15 fish with many of them hitting the bait almost at the instant it hit the water.


Here is a nice looking Bluegill.


Here's one where the hook almost 'took out an eye'. I am happy to report that I was able to safely remove the hook, save the eye and release back into the wild.


This one was ad libbing. Please pay no attention to my dirty finger. Remember, I was baiting the hook and removing the fish so they're gonna get dirty.


And here is the weapon used to land these ferocious fish - the "Shakespeare". Used with a size 8 Eagle Claw snelled fish hook, killer! Don't let the pink colors and floral design fool you, this bad boy can party!

Bottom line is that we all had fun, especially Emilie. Even the fish got a bite to eat, the lucky ones, and all were released unharmed. The remaining worms were also released into my compost pile and the container recycled. A win-win-win!