Re: NANFA-- bad day

Gupp (gupp_at_naturalaquariums.com)
Fri, 21 Apr 2000 10:12:28 -0600

Dear Killer, :)

Gosh I think I have days like that almost everyday. The worst thing I
ever did though was with my chickens. I always liked animals and have
always wanted a farm. We live in a county island and are allowed some
farm animals including chickens. I don't have a real big yard but it's
pretty good compared to the size they make yards around here now,
probably about a quarter acre total maybe less. Anyway last year I
decided I may never get my farm. Time runs fast I'm not getting any
younger so I bought some chicks. I ran all around town getting a variety
of chicks from different feed stores and ended up with 13 I think. I
raised them up, only lost one when the dog thought he should try playing
with them, sigh. They were about half grown and I put them outside in
the coop I made them.

A few weeks later the monsoon season started and I was really worried
about my little chickens out there in the rain. I had a big wooden box
with a hinged lid. It's probably about 5 foot long and 2 foot wide. I
ran out in the rain and put all my chickens in the box to stay dry. I'd
used it when they were chicks to keep them from running all over the
fish room after they got their wings, so I figured it would be ok. I
went out after the rain stopped to check on them. By this time it was
getting dark. Chickens go to sleep when it's dark and can be pretty
lethargic. They were all fine but they didn't want to jump out of the
box so I figured I'd just let them out in the morning.

I got up the next morning, went out to check on my chickens, opened up
the box and 8 of them were dead. One of my neighbors who raises birds
think they probably huddled up together and squashed each other. I was
totally devastated and cried for days. I did end up getting some more
chickens and some ducks, I had 21 chickens and 6 ducks at one point but
was getting way too many eggs and gave away and sold some so now I'm
down to 13 chickens and 3 ducks. I still give my friends a lot of eggs
but at least now I can keep up with them. I've also learned how to cook
a lot of egg recipes.

Anyway that's my very worst tale of doing something really stupid while
trying to give the best possible care to my animals. I have broken
several tanks in my day too. I've got about 70 tanks and bowls going
now, plus kiddie pools and some plastic shoe boxes, so I have a lot of
opportunity to break things. I broke a bowl last week. I was putting
some bettas into individual bowls and accidentally hit one against a
tank. Luckily it was the bowl and not the tank that broke that time. I
broke a tank once by not remembering that wood would expand when it got
wet. The decorative new piece of driftwood I had put in a tank went
through the side of it. Fortunately it was a 10 gallon tank so not
expensive to replace (that was back when I had a lot less) and the break
was high enough up so the fish still had water and they hadn't gotten
swooshed out with the water, since it was mostly just flowing slowly out
through the crack.

Now if you want to hear about a real expensive disappointment with
breaking things. :) I also collect pink depression glass and
china/dinnerware from the same era. About 8 or 9 years ago I had taken a
small closet in our kitchen, where we lived at the time, and turned it
into a little china cabinet. I used those shelves you can put on the
wall with the metal strips and then the little metal brackets hold the
shelves. About 5 years ago, we heard this loud crash. The whole thing
collapsed and I lost hundreds of dollars worth of glass and china. Quite
a few pieces were family ones, including a set of dinnerware that's gone
up a lot since then. I've been trying to replace that set on ebay
lately.

Hopefully these tales of woe will cheer up your day. :) I guess I better
stop typing. After finally getting my youngest to go to sleep last night
a little after 1:00am (darn Easter candy from school had him really
wound up) I woke up to the sound of running water at 5:30 this morning.
My husband stayed across town last night at his bosses after a late
business meeting so it's now my problem to deal with. There was no water
running anywhere that I could find but the sound is under the
dishwasher. I turned off the water to the house and tried to get some
more sleep, but the kids were having none of that, and now I'm going to
have to go try to pull the dishwasher out and see what's going on, sigh.
Oh well at least I'm better at doing plumbing jobs than my husband. I
hope the dishwasher isn't too heavy, I'm also about 5 months pregnant.
:) Plumbing has been fun lately, gosh in the last month the toilet has
flooded the house twice, that was after we paid the plumber to fix it.

What did I say about sounds like almost everyday for me? Cheer up, there
are people out here that do worse things. :)

Rhonda

-- 
http://naturalaquariums.com

Michiganfish_at_aol.com wrote: > > First Dusky darters hatched today. Set up tank with small sponge filter added > greenwater APR and fry. They were very active swarming at the surface. I > then promptly knock something into the tank and right through the bottom. > Water and fry all over the basement floor and I'm crawling around looking for > any fry to save. I got maybe three out of twenty five. I'm in a very bad mood > but at least I'm getting lots of eggs Over one hundred tonight. Has anyone > else done anything as stupid as this. Let me know maybe it will cheer me up. > > Bob "Darter killer" Muller > > /----------------------------------------------------------------------------- > /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily > / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes > / Association" > / This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association > / nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word > / subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to > / nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to > / nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead. > / For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org

/----------------------------------------------------------------------------- /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes / Association" / This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association / nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word / subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to / nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to / nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead. / For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org