A Frog Down the Drain, A Rescue Operation, AND MY DAUGHTER IS COMING HOME

Make a wish.......I want to see my baby home from CalTech.
Soon, this is me waiting, it's agony.


Last Night I realized one of my two fish tanks was "in trouble."


I have one at home I made to learn how to keep an aquarium alive. A Community Tropical Freshwater aquarium. The second aquarium , the Pink Tank, is at school.


It's doing brilliantly. At the moment. I'm sure I'll go over there in awhile and goof it up.
My first graders have enjoyed it, me too. We log what we add and do, try to figure out things like PH and nitrogen levels or nitrate levels and ammonium levels.



It's funny but it takes a good while for the tank to get "in balance" so that it can break down the wastes. I kind of am learning as we go. But we keep records and journals and mostly talk about it and observe.


But....anyway, at home I went to change the water last night, once a month I change it out about half now with filter change, realizing it smelled awful.
Nothing dead but not good.
And very hot. I think the heater was too high. Hang with this... it has a point...or a laugh.
I cleaned it, changed water. Really there is an issue. Very depressing night. Bad dreams. Awful. I do not like for things to go wrong in my animal world. I'm not sure why but I keep lots of critters. Heidi my friend says it is the Appalachian in me.

So this morning I was home. I missed a day or two of work. well three, okay, a lot.
At the worst possible time. But in two weeks I've learned of serious issues in heart, kidney, system and I'm trying to figure it out. Lower stress. My Mom says when I'm faced with tough times I like to renovate, tear up the closets, go get a pet, or otherwise create something.
This is what she said as i said...I think the fish tank still looks bad. So I vacuumed the rocks. Bad smell. Re-vacuumed, more water.
Then as she was sharing her perspectives, my friend Heidi brought my birds from school.





To stay for a week or so, school is too cold necessitating immediate critical cage cleaning and lots of things to get them resettled. My cats simply going insane.
The birds, three Spice Finches are now settled and chirping. Get finches. I'm building a hutch. I hope too. Out back.

This done. (The class also logs in about the birds and I have nice journals where everyday we write a sentence or two, descriptive writing about their room animals activities. Right now they are eating millet. It is the cheeseburger of bird food. So of course this is what they want to eat.)


I stopped after picking up my middle daughter to get millet, bird food of champions, and bought live plants for my fish tank.

I have it in my mind the problems would be better with "live plants". So those purchased, went home to stick them in the now smelling better tank. And out came the plastic ones to get dumped in my sink. In this house after twenty years of life without dishwashers or garbage disposals, I do now thankfully have a wastub sink. So I'm cleaning the new plants and the sink is running water away so poorly. And I'm wondering and see something there in the drain.....and it's one of my African frogs which probably rode out on the bottom of the plastic plant. He's holding on for dear life. These frog are very dear to me.



Well this is AFTER the rescue. You can't film some stuff.



I get my finger there and get him out, of course he jumps and after a really valiant effort to escape i get everything in the right places. So now I'm waiting for the tank to cycle, clear, waiting to see if the things that brewed up this issue will abate. waiting.

I'm supposed to be baking pumpkin pie, awaiting my daughter, and am instead giving the birds a bath and casting a frog down the sink. But.......that's my life.
Happy Day before the feasts o plenty.

I'm not even going to mention the guy I brought over this morning for a shower in the casitas and a shave, clothes washing and trip to the bus station with ticket money so that I hope he can get to San Diego and his sister. Which is why Mom mentioned my issues. I'd seen him on the highway off ramp yesterday and by the grocery this morning. Boy was he a mess. ah well...