Hi! I am glad you stopped by!
These are the musings and meanderings
of a Christian, homeschooling Mom.
Writing to have a little fun and fellowship
sharing our life and times with friends and family.
I think I have wanted a salt water fish tank from my earliest days at the beach.
Growing up on Cape Cod with the bays, marshes, estuaries, and the Atlantic we have been beachcombers since we could stand. And forever, the disappointment of having to put our treasures back before we left the seaside for home.
We lucked out a few weeks ago and got 2 tank set-ups for free. So close!!
Well, Mike was (and is) working so much and I couldn't carry either the sand or the salt water needed on my own so I was resigned to wait.
Up came our field trip to the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.
We spent the day doing water testing and catching flora and fauna and my desire to have my tank was becoming more of an obsession. Turns out our friend Michael was free after the field trip and great sport that he is, helped us head out to the beach for sand and water, back to the house to set up the tank and back to the river to see what we could catch. It really was a fabulous day.
So now we have a 15 gallon salt water tank and we spend as much time observing our finds as we do catching them. In the hatching tank there are three anemones where we once had one and some sort of eggs on a piece of seaweed.
There are 6 or 7 shrimp and we just observed on the largest one, that it is carrying eggs!! They amuse us with their antics, cleaning constantly everything in the tank.
A graceful, bio-luminescent comb jelly floats back and forth in the current feeding, hypnotizing us with it's grace and light show.
There are 5 fish, four different kinds, not sure what kind they are yet and 4 sand-worms.
Two snails are terribly busy in and out of the sand but my very favorite thing to watch is our beautiful barnacle. So graceful, the feathery critter sways and feeds and ducks back into his shell.
We are on a constant hunt for a pipe eel and find them but the net we use needs a smaller mesh to catch one.
After long months of thought and weeks of working on layout, I am moving my blog to Blogger.
The new website address is http://lizzie-aworkinprogress.blogspot.com/
I hope I don't loose anyone with the move. Let me know what you think of the new one!
Blessings
Lizzie
I had wanted to do this last year and never got to it. So Jenna and I were working together on presents last night and I was able to complete the first two figures of my sculpy Nativity. I think they are not half bad!
I got the directions here.
Two months ago my husband, backing out of the driveway, hit the postal workers vehicle. They got out and she called whoever she had to call and he came out to the scene. He was dismissive of the whole thing, there was no damage, nothing. Then he noticed an infinitesimal scratch, took an entire roll of film on it and everyone went on their merry way.
Yesterday, we got a letter from USPS.
It said: "Ref: Damage to U.S. Postal Service Property"
It informed us that they were making a claim in the amount of $865.80 for damages sustained. And it goes on to immediately threaten legal action if they have not heard from us in 30 days.
The whole thing is ridiculous but the worst it that they had it TOWED 3 times!! This is needful on a vehicle that went and finished it's route no harm, no foul, no damage? Almost $300 in towing charges alone!! It is usury. Plain and simple. It matters not that we have liability coverage, we do, it is the principle of the thing you know?
I suppose we will just have to file the claim in that amount as that is the amount it cost USPS to have it fixed. And Mike did back into the vehicle. But it is wrong, plain and simple. Lousy!
My friend made this for our lunch the other day, too good not to share!
Leiko's Fall Favorite Root Veggie Soup
olive oil
4 garlic pieces
2 large onions
3 or 4 carrots
2 or 3 sweet potatoes
misc zucchini, mushroooms, parsnips, potatoes, what have you
veggie broth or boullion
garlic powder, oregano, onion powder, salt and pepper to taste
good Parmesan
Saute garlic and onions in a fair amount of olive oil.
Add cubed carrots and lots of cubed sweet potatoes and saute some more.
Add zucchini, mushrooms, peppers and what have you. Parsnips are good, other squashes, whatever you have handy.
Add 8 cups of water and 10 veggie bullion cubes OR pre-made, packaged veggie broth.
Let it come to a medium boil and stay there till all the veggies are soft. The last few minutes throw in a package of Pastene pasta, the little tiny stars you can find.
Serve with lots of grated Parmesan and enjoy!
