Sunday, September 25, 2011

Crush, some stitching progress a Happy Birthday and a Cobra

Crush’s new tank: My best friend took me to pick up this 55-gallon used aquarium that I found on Craig’s List. It was a smoking deal. Brand new I could have easily paid $300 give or take for the same system, and then still need to get a filter for the tank.


When we get it back to my place he helps me clean it out. It was clean, but not clean to my standards. Plus I am cautious, it has been in storage in a garage, or at least that is where it was when we got it so better safe than sorry when it comes to Crush’s health. The dirt that was in it probably wouldn’t have hurt Crush, but why take that chance, and might as well start out with a clean tank, it won’t stay that way.

We got the tank all set up and was filling it with water. We went to put the turtle topper on the tank, and I had melted it when I cleaned it. I left it in the dishwasher when I went to go get the tank. I forgot to turn it off before leaving, so it was totally my fault. So my friend tried to warm it up and bend it back into shape, it is working but not doing a lot. So he decides he is going to take it home and use a heat gun on it. Best case I get it back and it is like new, worst case it is toast and I need a new topper.

The result, a little bump on top, but it works just the way it should work. My best friend to the rescue again!

The turtle topper, is probably the greatest water turtle accessory ever invented. It fits on top of most tanks 10 gallons to 60 gallons. As long as they are no wider then 13 inches. The breeder tanks won’t fit the topper. I think Penplex needs to design a Turtle Topper 2.0 to fit wider tanks. But a 55 gallon will last Crush the rest of her life.

Another friend and I determined that Crush is a girl. We thought as much before, but we are certain the Crush is a girl, so excuse me if I slip and say he. Crush was a boy turtle in Finding Nemo so my mind set is there. It is like Candy, I say she, but that cute feisty little pink snake could very easily be a boy. Someday I will know, for now it is not an issue.

So my friend returned the topper, and I have to say I think Crush was pretty pleased with her new digs, as far as turtles can be pleased that is. She has an underwater platform to rest on, and her topper to pull back out of the water on and bask in the heat lamp. Her little Rosy Red Minnow friend ever survived living in a picture on my kitchen sink for more than half a day. Crush and I are both happy to have her out of my bath tub.

Here are some shots of the tank, and sure enough the rosy red gets lost in the tank. Also of Crush.

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Oh a co-worker gave me 2 canister filters, the one here is working, the other, I haven’t played with it yet but she says the motor works but it isn’t pumping the water through. I am going to see if I can get it running, dual filters would be great. Need to get something a little more stable to sit it on, going to pick up a couple of cinder blocks.

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I also got some more stitching done today. Yet another section of my Tree of Stitches by Abi Gurden at Yahoo Groups The Stitch Specialists. I have noticed that my placement is off on the stitches so I decided to get Lester and Horace stitched on now rather than later and risk Lester losing his seat in the tree. So now I will work around Lester. While stitching Lester I was doing a stitch called knit stitch, it is so easy and so much fun, by far my favorite stitch to date. I decided Lester would have yellow eyes and the flowers would be yellow as well, for a pop of color. So sections G, N, O, P are now done.



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I also stitch San Man Originals Snowflake Day 2. A different shade of blue from the last one. These stitch up real fast and are pretty when complete. Least I think so. These are for me, or they would be shades of pink. Still can’t reveal their purpose.

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I also started beading the first of my San Man Originals Ear of Corn pins. It is working up nicely so far, my last attempt at beading didn’t turn out so well, I gave up and tossed it in a drawer somewhere. Kind of hard to tell it is beads.

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Here are some of the animals being lazy about the house.

Grumpy

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Neo

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Michelangelo – she actually came storming out last night, was parading about the living room and has stayed out here since then. She usually likes to stay in my room and hide under the bed. She had worms for breakfast this morning. She hasn’t been eating real well lately, just the last week, so with her sucking down two she must be feeling better. Here she is enjoy a little fresh air.

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Only other really exciting thing in my world for today, is I went to get Ice Cream with my Mom, she just wanted to go out, and my Dad helped me move 2 cages around. One of which I really need to finish building. It needs some cosmetic work and doors. Been sitting around a couple of months as a table and a place the cats sleep in. Can’t wait to get Toothless inside it.

Where I left off on the cage –

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In a few minutes I leave to go and get my boy, haven’t seen him since Wednesday, he stayed with his Dad this week to get some math tutoring. Math is not my strong subject, in fact my son is better at it than I am. When the boy gets home he has a birthday gift from my friend to open, the cats sort of helped, ripped the bag apart and the tissue paper wrapping one gift, but everything is still in good shape.

The boy made out like a little bandit for his birthday. Here are all the cards he received. Plus some of his birthday gifts that where waiting for him.

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The book from Nicholas, Dinosaurs

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Pay Day – and you can see the huge Styrofoam glider

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When we were in Williams at Bearizona last weekend, we met this artist that paints these amazing pictures of animals, she painted a Cobra for my son it was the animals he wanted. She did an amazing job making this fearsome creature look like he is smiling for his portrait.

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For those of you that didn’t notice I waited until I got the boy home to finish this post. So I could post him with his cards and gifts. (Please if you know my son’s name do not post it in comments, many thanks).

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Moving around animal homes, Bowl for Kids and I got a little stitching done.

I did some more stitching this week, not a lot another section of my Tree of Stitches by Abi Gurden at Yahoo Groups The Stitch Specialists. The Jerusalem Stitch, fun little stitch, pretty easy too.


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Stitched my first of 12 snowflake ornaments, they are all going to be in shades of blue. Like this one. This San Man Originals Snowflake day 1. I can’t say what they are for in case someone sees it.

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I also stitched up San Man Originals Ear of Corn pin. I am going to do them again in beads. Hopefully, my last attempt at beading did not work out so well. One of the ones I will do in beads will be for my Mom. This one in specialty threads is for me, I will put it out with my fall things. I used Ozarks Canary, Weeks Dye Works Pumpkin, Weeks Dye Works White Wash and Gentle Art Sample Threads Dried Thyme.

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Today I have been spending time rearranging furniture. I am getting ready to get a 55 gallon tank and had to make a space for it. Decided it is going in my kitchen, in case it leaks , the filters at least I want it on tile. I have had issues with ruined carpets from turtle filters. So I have an unhappy Red Ear Slider named Crush in my bathtub right now. I wish I had kept the 60 gallon I had now. Oh well, Crush is getting a new tank now. I was given 2 big filters by a co-worker, she has a bunch of fish tanks and offered these to me. I am hoping to get the 2nd one running so I have dual filters on my tank. Turtles water can get gross. If that fails I will invest in a good pond filter. Ultimately the goal is to get Crush outside into a pond.

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My son received a snake for his birthday. We still have to go and pick him up but I got his new home stuff. I need to get cage locks still though. Snakes can and will escape and in my house with 8 cats, it would be a snack, probably for Nani. So this is Outlaw the gopher snake, sure looks like black tail rattler though doesn’t he? He is non-venomous, but really dang cool looking.

So this is Outlaw – the bowl is clean it is just hard water deposits.

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And this is a black tailed rattlesnake

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And this is some of the parts for Outlaws new home. I am going add a big rock over the heating pad that he can wrap around if he wants, and I have a water dish for him, and a piece of cage carpet.

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I stepped out of my comfort zone and joined a group at work, the bowl for kids group. We are doing some fund raising for our team, My Mom made a quilt we can raffle off, and I put together a pumpkin jar filled with candy, going to a guess game, how many pieces are in the jar, winner gets the jar and the contents. That is 13 bags of various candy corn candies from Brach’s. Yum.

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And the quilt

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I will post pictures of the new tank once I have Crush in it. With his little Rosy Red Minnow friend. My son says we have to keep him, since Crush hasn’t yet eaten him. Hmmmm. I have him in a picture in the kitchen waiting for the new tank to be set up. I think he is going to get lost in that tank. Guess we will find out.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Williams, Birthday cake, and Rhett Butler

This is going to be a long one, with lots of pictures, and more to come once I get the disposable camera developed. Oh I am playing with picture size to see what size I can use on my blog.

On our way out of town we stopped and got breakfast, English muffins sandwich and coffee at Starbucks, they made me a Pumpkin spiced Frappachino. I love Frappachino.

Took my son and “went up the hill” to Williams Arizona, which lies 30 miles West of Flagstaff Arizona and is a major part of Route 66. I love the drive to Flagstaff; I love the mountains, and the wild flowers that litter the side of the road. I saw tons of my favorite flowers, the Black Eyed Susan. I saw Purple Wild Geranium, Datura (aka Desert Thorn Apple) and Black Eyed Susan

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We got up there about 8 on Saturday, had Cheese Crisps around 10ish, and then headed off to Bearizona. A drive thru Wildlife Park. Much like San Diego Wild Animal park, except most of the animals at Bearizona are native species and rescues. They live on 40 acres, and people drive through and take pictures of the animals, and there is a walk through area too, where you can see more animals.

If you ever find yourself in the Flagstaff/Williams area, or are making the trip across country on Route 66, spare 2 hours and pop in and see Bearizona.

http://www.bearizona.com/

So as you driver thru the park you get to see Big Horn Sheep, Bison, Wolves, and Bears. Oh and burros. It Is incredible to see these animals this close.

The first animals we saw was the American Burro.

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Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep

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White Bison, looked more golden blond then white. They had regular colored brown ones as well but I wasn’t able to get a photo of them.

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Alaskan Tundra Wolves - look just like my dogs on a sunny afternoon

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Black Bears, There was so many of them in this 15 acre area. It was wild.

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And just look at that foot.

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My boy

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ME - I hate pictures of me

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My Dad

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My Step-Mom

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Our whole group

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Baby Bear - So cute

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Eurasian Eagle Owl

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This Guys job was to pretend he was the lookout mouse and we were the mice he was watching out for. He was supposed to squeak when he heard the owl’s wings. Because the owl did his roar all of us mice survived. Don’t you love his protective head gear?

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Missed us by this much!! 1/2 and inch was cleared over our heads, it was awesome. I was hit in the head by the wing tips of a Harris Hawk.

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American Kestrel Falcon, this little bird was so beautiful. I wanted to just run my fingers through his feathers, but I like my fingers attached to my hands.

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Harris Hawk

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Crested Caracara - they said they act like vultures and will even harass vultures to get them to drop their food.


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Canadian Lynx, I thought the one was dead and the other was eating him until he moved.

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Raccoons kits

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I will have some more photos when I get my disposable camera printed and scanned, there was javalina, and foxes, baby wolves, bobcats, etc…. lots of neat Arizona animals.

My souvenir from Bearizona, I just loved it and met the lady that paints them, Jackie was so awesome, I will post a link to her website when it is up and running. She is going to paint Aaron a cobra and send it to him. This is a snowy owl. The one she was working on at the park was incredible too. I just loved it, but I love this one too, I am going to display it on my desk at work.

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We celebrated Aaron’s birthday with my Dad and his wife. After Bearizona we went to Dairy Queen, and had ice cream. I had the Peanut butter blast without Chocolate, subbed it for Caramel. Yum.

My Dad made chili, it was really good. I didn’t know my Dad could cook. And after we had cupcakes. They were good. They gave us the leftovers to take home, the frosting/icing melted in the car on the way home.

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Another blunder for my boys birthday, they decorated the cake wrong, it was suppose to look like Spongebob. I was unhappy when I saw it, it is beautifully decorated, but not what I asked for. Would have been really upset if I had picked it up on Saturday for his party and seen it. They told me they would make it look like Spongebob.

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I got my painting of Rhett Butler back from my Grandmother today. She taught me, my aunt and my Mom oil painting. I think we are all happy with our one painting.

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This is the model I used to paint Rhett Butler, my cat Rhett Butler. He is an awesome cat, heavy and solid. His coat is so soft. He is now 2 years old.

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