Sunfish drawings

I love sunfish, both fresh and salty varieties.  Their general shape, as one might suspect, is that of the sun.

The freshwater ones are often called panfish, while their salt water friends must have many names, given the distances they can travel in the open ocean. 

 

The freshwater sunfish I am referring to are those found in North America.   They are often stocked in fishing ponds, and are pretty easy to catch when compared to a more elusive species like a trout.

Below you will find a few of my favourite fishes, most of which I have caught at some point in my fishing career.

My summer diet has not been graced by creative sunfish recipes, and all the sunnies I have caught have gone into a friend's pond or our big aquarium.  This year the smallest ones (caught in a minnow trap) were the size of a quarter.  The biggest ones were as big as my palm.  

One of the teeny tinies is in the turtle aquarium right now.  It is thriving but is still not big enough to identify.  The ones I sent to the pond were mostly identified, but I didn't want to compromise their survivability by keeping them out of the water for too long.

The lucky ones  would flip and flop while I tried to take a picture, some even wriggling out of my hand above the pond.....plop!

 

 

 

 

 

sunfish 1

sunfish 2 & 3

sunfish medley 

bluegill

 

greenie? 

Invasive Species have fooled me again!

 

This little sucker is a round Goby.  They are invasive here in Michigan, and I mistakenly got this guy in Lake St Clair and brought him to a friend's pond.

A few days later I found another one and put it in with the garage's watery creatures.  Since the fins could spread out and show all their markings while in the water, I finally figured out what it was.

The one above is hanging out for the winter in the pond, which was partially iced up earlier this week.  The deep section goes down about 3 feet, so some of the critters should make it through 'til spring.  

I haven't posted here in a LONG time, so I cannot figure out how to insert a pdf, yet.  

 Please check for updates with pond info and other less invasive topics!

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Slightly solid chilly water makes my steps crispy, crunchy

The first real snowfall of the season started late last night.  This morning I woke to the neighbor's high pitched little snow mover thing.  I don't think that it qualifies as a snow blower/thrower like we have.  That purchase was a consequence of moving to a state that has frequent snowfalls of the heavy moist nature.

The stuff here seems to be more fluffy and puffy, akin to the snow I experienced living in the Rocky mountain west.  It is easy to brush off your car, and the only bad thing about it is that your tire tracks compress it and make it difficult to remove from the driveway if you are using a conventional shovel.

I love how it seems more quiet when there is a nice snowfall going strong.  I know most of that has to do with the lack of cars on the road, but when machinery is not working and ruining my chill with motor noises, it is still and idyllic. 

Shovels do not seem to bother me.  The rhythmic scraping can be soothing.  This is best heard from a fair distance.  If you are closer and hear heavy breathing, and possibly swearing, that just ruins everything. 

Today I got decked out in my winter duds, and grabbed the snow shoes to take them out for a test drive.  It is funny how so many things are easier to get than take off.  I got the technique down, but decided that I had chosen the wrong boots.  I will probably go for a little walk tomorrow as well.  Or maybe I will switch to the throwback wooden Ojibwa style snowshoes.  They are more difficult to fasten and release than the aluminum variety, so that will take a bit more planning......  Yuck, planning.

It will be worth it to get more time playing in the snow!

Garage Turtles

We recently had a flood in our basement, and the two feet of water decimated a great deal of our aquarium equipment. 

We found homes for the fish that did not perish when all the pumps and heaters were destroyed, but since the turtles are so large we could not find homes for them in any of our local pet shops or rescue organizations.  Since the basement will need asbestos abatement (there were asbestos tiles under the cheap carpet), the turtles won't be able to go back down there until the spring time (if we can afford the repairs by then).

The garage turtles have gotten all sorts of improvements in their equipment (titanium heater, fancy control system and a brand new filtration system).  I used to be able easily visit them several times a day when they lived in the basement, but now it takes a special trip to the non-attached garage to visit or feed them.  Now that it has started to snow in the midwest, it is harder to motivate ourselves to get out there more than just feeding time.

The turtles don't seem to miss their giant pleco and gold fish friends (Goldie and Whitey started out as 1.5 inch feeder fish and ended up over a foot each).  They have a new algae eater buddy named Algernon, who seems to be getting quite fat on the primarily plant based turtle food.

Garage Turtles would be a great name for a garage band, but since the turtles never make any sounds (except when they fall to floor after escaping the tank), so I think I will have to

How to Divide Peonies

How to Divide Peonies: You seldom hear someone complain about a big, fragrant peony blooming in spring. You often hear, however, gardeners bemoaning the retail price of a new peony plant. The good news is that if you already have a peony growing in the garden, you can divide it to come by more plants. Dan Furman, a third-generation peony grower at Cricket Hill Garden in Thomaston Connecticut, and Fine Gardening's web producer Antonio Reis walk you through the division process in this video.   Now there's no excuse for a lack of peonies.

Angry v. Placid v. Hungry Birds

I have been regularly filling the bird feeder in my back yard, and the hungry little ones have been cleaning it out completely in about two days.  The robins and cardinals seem to just chill out and wait for the little birds to knock a bunch of seeds onto the ground.  They seem to do this quite frequently, but I am not sure if this is an intentional altruistic effort  on the part of the little birds, or just sloppiness.


Maybe they are just SO EXCITED that this stupid woman keeps shelling out her hard earned dollars to buy birdseed for these wild creatures, that their exuberance causes them to be messy while eating.  Or perhaps they are throwing out the small round seeds to get to the bigger sunflower seeds, or other yummy morsels?!?

Waiting area on the power line - good thing they don't weigh too much!

When I put out a suet feeder the first fall we lived in SE Michigan, I put it in a place that I could see from the kitchen window that looks out into the backyard.  When no birdies were enjoying this free bounty, the nice lady at Wild Birds Unlimited suggested that I put it in a more private location where the birds would feel somewhat sheltered while nibbling on the fatty goodness.

So I moved the suet to a location underneath the pine trees, where I could not see it from the kitchen window, but the squirrels appreciated this new spot, as they could easily get to it from a secluded tree branch without alerting me.  Those buggers are quite healthy and fat, and they hang around sleeping most of the winter, so I didn't think they really needed any additional nourishment for a long migration south.

Last week I bought a shepherd's crook metal feeder holder, which can also accommodate a nice wind chime that we got for our wedding.

Perching room only!

Now I have noticed a few hummingbirds hanging around in the backyard.  They checked out the hanging feeder, but I think they were attracted by the sap in the pine trees, or the nectar from the trumpet vine on the side of the house.  Our composting also attracts a lot of tiny flies, so that is a good source of protein for those fast paced critters.

There are at least 4 on the feeder in this shot.

The angry birds are the ones I hear or see fighting in the trees.  I think the mating season is over for them, so I am not really sure that their problem is.

Makers v. Takers = Shakers v. Bakers

I was listening to Terry Gross on Fresh Air  within the last few weeks, and she was interviewing one of the stars of the HBO series "The Newsroom" John Gallagher, Jr., and they played an audio clip from the show.  The main stars are Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer and Sam Waterston, and their performances are quite excellent from my point of view.  Jane Fonda plays the big boss, and she does a great job of manipulating all her minions.  And the spouse will tell you that I have watched a LOT of television, so I might know what I am talking about in my review of this show.

They deal quite frequently with politics and public opinions in general, and the specific discussions of what they should feature on their nightly news programs are quite fascinating.

The audio clip I mentioned in the first paragraph had to do with the Makers v. Takers argument that Governor Mitt Romney tried to advance during his presidential campaign of 2012.  This is one of the most misguided statements that he made, though my favorite is still the Binders of Women comment during one of the debates.

[borrowed from http://www.whatamimissinghere.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/118899-47-Color-by-Eric-Allie-Caglecartoons-515x356.jpg]

While I was mulling over this comparison of who Romney believes are producers as opposed to consumers of public largesse is exactly backwards.  The makers are the people breaking their backs to actually support their families at little more than minimum wage (people like bakers and fast food employees, etc), while the takers are the ones shaking down the government for lower tax rates so they can keep more of their millions of dollars they make each year.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

Always keep the vermouth guessing!

I must confess that I am a big fan of Martinis.  Not the James Bond version with a crazy lemon peel and vodka AND gin, but the more pedestrian classic semi dry and dirty Martini with olives.  The little green fellows can be stuffed with either peppers, garlic cloves, some sort of yummy stinky cheese (preferably gorgonzola or bleu),  or if I am feeling more spicy, I will go with straight jalapeños or pickled okra.

I couldn't find a cool vintage advertisement from the cheap brand of vermouth I usually use, but this one was from my second choice brand.

[borrowed from http://rlv.zcache.com/martini_rossi_torino_vermouth_bianco_vintage_ad_poster-r14507a846fa4418ab0ae50ad40295e1c_ez7u_8byvr_512.jpg]

The meaning behind the title of this blog involves anthropomorphizing my bottle of vermouth and assuming that it can sense which bottle, gin or vodka, might be joining it in the shaker.  When I want it to be really perplexed, I delay a few minutes before grabbing the gin or vodka out of the liquor cabinet.

Why do I attribute sensation to a bottle of spirits?  Why do I try to figure out what the cats, fish or turtles are thinking?  Kind of relating to the crazy way my brain works.

Salute, salud, skol, kam-pai or whatever toast you may prefer!

Oh yeah, never drive a motor vehicle or boat under the influence.  Stay safe out there!

lawnmowers and leafblowers

Most of our neighbors have their lawns mown by professionals (read teenage boys employed by landscape companies), and thursday is the day that has been chosen for the days on the right and left of us to get their lawns manicured.

Now that I am retired and get to sleep in on weekdays AND weekends, I am greeted in the mornings of nearly every thursday (except those with torrential rainfall) at 8AM by a symphony of lawnmowers and leaf blowers.  Those do not bother me as much as the nasty high-pitched weed whackers they use instead of the edgers which take more time to operate effectively.

The whackers make a bunch of grass bits and the blowers follow them up pushing those clippings back into the lawn.