Not a Sound
Montana’s spring is basically winter-lite. It was still snowing went we went out yesterday, though luckily the storm dissipated before reaching our location. Thankfully, the weather app tells me it should be getting a little warmer now. That means we can finally start properly heading out to explore the world without big wool jackets and survival packs. As I just mentioned, yesterday we packed our bikes, the dogs, forty-seven bottles of water, a few Bobo’s Oat Bars, and headed to some mountains not far from where we live – which is what anyone through the entire western side of Montana can say about mountains, really. Levee, our cattledogshepherdmix, is overly-nourished.…
Blood, Sweat, Tears Make the Pain Taste Sweeter
I started learning to ride a bicycle in second grade. My first bike looked very similar to this one. I’m not absolutely sure it had rainbow stripes, but I wouldn’t be surprised. My stepdad would hold on to the chrome seat handle and steady me as I went along the bumpy hill of the yard at my grandparent’s farmhouse. Then he’d let go, and I’d travel twenty to thirty magnificent feet before falling over. This kept happening. It was discouraging. I couldn’t balance for anything. I believe they put some training wheels on, and I was able to cruise down the gravel driveway a little easier. Then one day, as…
I Know You Want to Know But
Our new aquarium light arrived. It brightens everything up, as it’s supposed to do, you know, being a light. I’m sure the plants love it. However, I do not. It’s pretty. The top is aluminum, and the legs are clear acrylic. The aluminum gets toasty, so it’s best used somewhere that air can circulate around it freely. Don’t shove it into a hutch cubby or something. Or do. I’m not your mother. The light itself sits at a set height of approximately four inches and reflects strongly off the top of the water as multi-colored, making it difficult to view into the top of the aquarium at all, and it…
A Fresh Chance to Start Right
Okie doles, as my phone likes to auto-correct. There is now another tank in the house. The ten gallon I may or may not have mentioned ordering is now set up on a relatively unstable shelf in our living room. I am not talented when it comes to aquascaping. Perhaps if I had rooms of rocks and sticks available to choose from, I could do something more elaborate. As it is, we have to choose from what’s on the shelf at our tiny aquarium shop and try to visualize the look without the tank to use for sizing things properly. I do believe if I owned a shop, I’d have…
Place Your Bets on the Limits of a Beast’s Appetite
It started with Esme, one little female betta. Now we have Esme, two loaches, four green tetras, four ember tetras, five shrimp, two gold mystery snails, a greenish-purple mystery snail, three purple mystery snails, a baby mystery snail who hitched a ride home on a plant we purchased, an unknown snail who is growing at an astonishing pace who also hitched a ride home on a plant, aaaaaaand 9,320,473,324 pest snails who must have been hiding on the plants we purchased for the plant tank. It’s just overrun with itty bitty snail babies. I can’t say with any certainty, because they’re still a little too small, but they’re looking a…