Interesting Day

 1.  My Credit Union (only existing in the building where I worked) has become too inaccessible being 25 miles away now.  So I went looking for a local one a year ago.  Eligibility on their website was too confusing.  So I finally just visited them today.  

It was damn easier than their website!  It is a military credit union, but I had 3 uncles who served active duty in WWII, so I hoped that would get me in.  That didn't, but actually anyone can join if they become a member of a "no obligations" charity organization.  Seemed rather strange...

But they enrolled me and then I was a new credit union member.   Nice that it is just 2 miles away instead of 25.  I set up a basic savings account and bought a 12 month CD offerring 4.94% interest.   Beats my regular bank .01% rate.  I will be switching all my regular checking/savings to the new place as existing CDs mature.

2.  Pleased with my success at the FCU, I went to the meat market and bought some Delmonico steaks (on sale), a chicken breast to poach for The Mews and myself, and some meatloaf mix.  That stuff is better than hamburger though it takes some effort to mix up thoroughly.

3.  Picked a couple of Cherokee tomatoes before they were quite ripe.  The squirrels or groundhog get at them if I don't.  If I catch the little varmints in a Have-A-Hart live trap,  I'll dump it into a large tub of water and bury their butts near a tree as fertilizer.  I have no tolerance for anything that eats my few heirloom tomatoes!

4. But the tub of "water of sudden departure" has tadpoles!  I don't know whether they are toad or frog.  A yard can't have too many toads.  If frogs, I will dump them into the storm drain that leads to the swamp across the street where they will be happy, and thrive.  A lot of toads are fine, but a lot of frogs get noisy.

But I'm feeding them ground-up fish flakes and some algae from the pond.  When I see the first legs, I'll put a small tree branch in the water to help them climb out and another attached to it to lead them down to the ground.  If I don't, they will just start eat eating each other (they turn carnivorous at leg-stage) and I'll just have one big fat frog or toad.  And I want a lot of toads.

5.  I need to rent a thatching machine from the DIY store.  Not that my lawn actually has thatch (few lawns actually do), but Summer was brutal and there are patches of dead (not just dormant) grass.  I need to re-seed next month and a de-thatcher will tear those up to expose bare roughened soil perfect for new seeds.

6.  Figured out the gas can problem.  I feel like an idiot.  There is a pull-lever to release pressure.  I've used it 100 times, how did I forget that?  Yesterday, I couldn't make it work.  Today I just grabbed it and automatically pulled the release lever and it worked fine.  I'm getting old...

7.  Time to go out and mow the lawn.  The flat mower tire has been replaced and what grass is still growing (in the shade) is 5" high. What is dead is dead.  What survives needs attention.  LOL!

Tadpoles

I am sometimes a bit harsh with varmints that move into my yard.  The squirrels got at my tomatoes and beans.  The groundhog eats my flowers.  The deer eat the hostas and Caladiums in the front yard.  They are NOT my loved wild animals.

There is a whole wetland and swamp and running water area across the street.  There are oak trees and stuff wild animals like to eat.  They don't need to bother me.

What they don't NEED to eat are my plants.  So I fight back a bit.  I built an entire enclose around my garden beds.  I built a tall fence 30 years ago.  The deer don't jump it.  But that doesn't stop the rabbits and groundhogs. 

The Mews take care of the rabbits.  But they can't handle a groundhog (aka woodchuck or whistle-pig).  But I can. Those normally eat lawn clover, but they sometimes decide to eat all the flowers. 

That's their end.  A hav-a-hart live cage trap is great with melon slices.  They love melons. 

I have a large tub of water that the cage fits into.   One "blub" and they go to "groundhog beyond".  If I knew a faster way, I would use it.  I hate them.  I once caught a new brood outside the den and pitchforked them!  Mom groundhog hissed at me, but I got her later.

So here is the tub.

I'm also growing aquarium plants in it.  But a frog decided to lay eggs.

Most tadpoles will not survive.  Well, think of it.  If they did, my yard would be ankle deep in frogs!  So I was curious about whether my aquarium fish would eat them (free food of high quality).

They attacked like piranha!  That was enlightening...  So I also put several into my 2 Betta tanks (one betta per tank).  One ate them and the other ignored them.  Nature is weird...

The ones in the tank where that betta didn't et them grew fast.  Betta food aggrees with them.  Today, I cleaned the tanks (monthly requirement as they have to pee in the water they live in in small tanks). 

So I netted the large tadpole in the one tank and returned them to the outdoor tub.  You wnt to know how Nature works?  They will eat their smaller siblings.  So I netted out a lot of the smaller ones.  No great favor to them.  They will be aquarium fish food.

 I watch Nature shows a lot.  Everything is eaten by something else without mercy.  Usually alive, and often ripped apart into pieces.  So I don't feel bad about feeding tadpoles to my aquarium fish or tossing a few lucky large-grown tadpoles to eat their siblings.  That's how all animals survive. 

I will have to bury the drowned groundhog though.  Otherwise the vultures find it and that IS rather gruesome.  But I bury them near specimen trees and that feeds THEM, so that is good. 

The circle of life goes on...

BTW "baby fish", once a tiny pair of eyes in the aquarium hiding in the live plants, the only survivor of a platy, is full size now.  It is my favorite for having survived all the others that wanted to eat it like a tadpole.  Some get lucky...

Pre-Frog

My tadpoles have legs!  But they still have tails too, so they aren't ready to hop onto the surface (according to everything I read).  But I will put  small piece of wood in the tank for them to use when they are ready.

There were originally 7 tiny tadpoles.  I used pond water in the tank (to seem natural to them) and added plants and algae, and algae wafers.  Changed the water once a month (good for my bettas so assume good for tadpoles).

There are only 5 left.  Don't know what happened to the 2.  At least I never saw bodies.  Fed them ground spinach to help.

There is a small bubbler tube in the tank.  Barely moves the water, but I think it adds enough oxygen by changing the surface.  Not enough water movement to bother them AFAICT.

But they have been slow in developing.  I'm sure they should have been full-grown frogs by now in the pond.

But there is the dilemma.  Would any of them survived among the already full-grown frogs in the 5' diameter pond?  Frogs are cannibalistic.  I've probally kept them alive longer than they normally would, but mayb one would have grown to frogdom.

And what do I do with them now?  None of these are prepared to hibernate over Winter at so undeveloped a stage of growth.  I have an unused 20 gallon long aquarium I could keep them in over Winter, but what would I feed them?  Petsmart doesn't sell frog food last I checked (and I asked).

How did my Summer curiosity about watching a few chosen tadpoles develop turn into an ethical problem about the lives of a few wanna-be not-quite-yet frogs?