Monday, January 31, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Daily Photo - Crested Gecko
My 7 year old male. I have no idea why I never named the crested geckos, but I haven't. This one may end up co-habitating with my adult female just to get her to stop laying unfertilized eggs. They do nothing but make moon eyes at each other anyway. I won't go out of my way to save the eggs, but I would like to stop finding them in her cage for no purpose. She's also bigger than him now so I don't expect much bullying. Waiting two years for one of the babies to grow up isn't really fair to her, though they are much prettier then my old male.
I promise I'll get up tomorrow morning and brave the freezing cold for some good snow pics. Mom even gave me her snowshoes to use as mine are sitting in North Dakota.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
Daily Photo - Ugly Desk
Until recently a fish tank sat upon this desk. There is actually a nice outline of the tank now imprinted on the top. I took down the tank and dithered about dumping the desk. It's as you can see ugly, dated, and too big for the room. After being too lazy to get it downstairs for a few days I moved it into an out of the way part of the room.
Now the freaking thing has moved in. I just finished sanding down the drawer fronts and they have a layer of poly on them now. I'll sand down and poly the top once it's warm enough to open my windows again. At least it will be slightly prettier than it is now. It won't stay clear for long. I have a weakness for flat surfaces. Any I see get covered with junk...
Friday, January 7, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Down to 1 (okay really 3) Fish Tanks
A number of years ago I got a 75 gallon fish tank for my living room. Fast forward to now. I finally put all my little peaceful fish in it (pic tomorrow.) This was the plan all along, I just got sidetrack4d a few months ago by having to remove my two aggressive fish from my kitchen. They went in the 75, and all the really small fish I had disappeared. This of course required setting up two other smaller tanks, one for my evil cichlid, and one for the evil catfish. (If I put them together in a small space I'll end up with only one fish.) This meant I got to take down the java fern infested one in my bedroom. The best part is how little the fish seem to have been stressed. All of them were back to full color within a half hour.
As to the evil cichlid and catfish. The catfish is destined to hang out in his tank for a few weeks, and when I'm sure he isn't stressed he's getting swapped to the good fish store a few towns away. The cichlid will be living in his little tank until he dies, unless I find the pond fish didn't survive the winter in which case he will be going outside.
Downside of all of this is while I was draining the java fern tank I found fish fry, well only one. It is now in a little plastic box floating around the big tank. We'll see how it survives. At the moment it is so small I'm not sure exactly what kind of fish it is.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Kenyan Sand Boas Rock
I really do feel these guys don't get enough credit as an excellent pet snake. Yes, they are largely invisible, but you really can't beat the temperament. Last week I went to feed him, and for the first time in the year I've owned him he tried to bite me. I took this a little hard, but he has tiny teeth, and I barely felt anything. This week when I went to feed I noticed he had shed stuck on his head. Whenever a snake has any stuck shed on their head there is a high likelihood of there also being retained eye caps. They can't see well through these caps and normally docile snakes begin striking out of fear.
I just spent ten minutes massaging water onto his head until the stuck shed peeled off. This snake which is the thickness of my thumb, and maybe 12" long didn't even flinch. It sat perfectly content to let me repeatedly pet its head with wet fingers. It did have eye caps and a piece of shed barely 1/2" long on the top of its head. I do handle this snake, but not that often, maybe once a week on average. It is a delightful snake, perfectly calm when removed from the cage, and small enough to handle with one hand. And that seems to be mostly just its own temperament.
It won't get too large, its heat can be provided by lamp or heat pad and it has an excellent temperament. They even come in a few different colors. I think some more people should give these guys a chance and give the ball pythons a break.




















