COLD DARK ROOM

Cathie G

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5 Year Member
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Aug 9, 2018
Messages
14,908
Location (City and/or State)
Lancaster
What a cold and wet day it's been here today, with Storm Hannah waiting to blow in on the weekend!
Maybe the remnants of the storm that Mark had recently.
Yes and a bit more to come. It's been drizzling, cool, and not a lot of sunshine. I'm in Ohio. A nice day to sit around inside and study.
 

Cheryl Hills

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5 Year Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2016
Messages
2,334
Location (City and/or State)
Youngstown, Ohio

Cathie G

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Aug 9, 2018
Messages
14,908
Location (City and/or State)
Lancaster
Don’t overthink it :). I had my betta in a very small tank in my office for a year or more. Id drain out 2 cups and replenish weekly, using the office water plus a few squirts of “stuff” that i let stand over night. Once I retired, we moved “Alpha” up to a 10 gallon tank and added a few tetras and two coryadora catfish and snails. All is well.
I found a way today. To just use tap water and keep the ph at 7. Easy. I wanted to learn without a fish first. Go through all the steps first. Once I put my pet in the aquarium now I think I'll know a little about what to do. My ph is 8 right now but I know why. And how to bring it to 7. Along with the few squirts of stuff in room temperature water waiting. I enjoyed learning about our city water. I also wondered why I can't drink our city water and no one else can either. It makes us sick. So it was worth learning.
 

EllieMay

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5 Year Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2018
Messages
9,603
Location (City and/or State)
East Texas
As regulars know, we’ve recently had some very tall leaning pine trees come crashing down in our back garden. In addition to their collapse and general chaos and mess, they also crushed many other lower growth trees like holly. As we trimmed, cut, shredded and burned (and continue to do so), I picked up a piece of the holly “log” and noticed how clean and pure the wood appeared.

Sooooo, I picked up a pretty straight piece to see what it might have inside...

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A Representative Holly Tree in our Garden
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Our Crushed Holly
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Firewood or Treasure
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Treasure
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Really nice!
 

EllieMay

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2018
Messages
9,603
Location (City and/or State)
East Texas
I had the bat detector out for an hour this evening and picked up 3 species of bat definitely with 3 that need reviewing by my daughter. I am pretty pleased with 3 over a suburban garden. Six would be amazing!

So we have (library photos my trace)

Serotine
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Soprano Pipistrelle
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And Common Pipistrelle
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that was very close to the detector (so loud!) and chatting to the Serotine
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Too neat! Can I come hang out with you???
 

Cheryl Hills

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2016
Messages
2,334
Location (City and/or State)
Youngstown, Ohio
I got bored, as I had some time on my hands. So enjoy and tell me if it will make a good children's story:

Hi Everybody,

My name is Tortie,


Ye ye I know it sounds terrible, but I was the last of the clutch to hatch. I have 15 brothers and sisters and a Mom and Dad. Well my Mom and Dad are not around anymore as my brothers, sisters and I are laid in a nest underground and then covered with soil. We stay in our nice and warm nest for about 90 days and then it is free for all and we start hatching and making our way to the topside.

I was the last to pip and then make my way to the topside. And boy was I glad, as it was so sunny and green on the top.


Anyway I made it to the top and found a very different world to what I was used to. It is actually very scary being on the topside, sometimes when I get very scared I burrow underground just to get away from the scary topside. Maybe when I am much bigger it will not be as scary. But for now I am just 10grams and about a ¼ inch big.

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I thought that I would share some of my adventures with you. Just the other day as I was cautiously walking around looking for some nice and yummy weeds to eat, I came across another tortoise that looked very different from me. I am sure it is a tortoise as it also carries it’s house around on it’s back. But it’s house is a spiral pattern and the funny thing is that it only has one leg coming out the back and it’s head which has two antennae on it comes out the front. This is what it looked like. Luckily I had my camera with me and took a photo. He said that his name is Snelly. Snelly also told me that he is a snail and not a tortoise. I thought that tortoises were the only creatures who carried it’s house around on it’s back. But Snelly tells me that there are lots of other creatures that do the same thing.

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Snelly is much smaller than me, and was eating some flowers. I like flowers too. Especially the yellow kind – I think you call them Dandelions. But the best is the red Hibiscus flower. That one is super yummy. I also like clover weeds, and plantain. And grass and endive.



I decided to leave my brothers and sisters and go out on my own, as my biggest brother (who was the first one to pip and leave the nest) was a real bully and just would not leave me alone. I don’t know what he had against me, but whatever I did he was always there getting in the way. He would not even let me eat on my own.

This is my brother

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See he even looks like a bully.

It is so much better, more peaceful without my siblings. Except this morning while Snelly and I were grazing and looking for food, there was this huge shadow that flew over us.

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I got such a fright that I hid in my house and as soon as I felt the shadow pass, Snelly and I went and hid under some bushes. I think that we will stay under the bushes for a while and just graze on the weeds in between. Snelly who is much, much older than me says that it was a bird that flew over us and that they like to eat us. Which is terrible, why would that bird want to eat us, are we not all vegetarians?

Snelly and I carried on eating and this very rude little creature (Snelly says it was an ant) it looks like this

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Just ran right over my food that I was eating. He did shout sorry and that he was in a hurry, so could not stop to chat. I wonder why he was in such a hurry. I mean life is about taking it easy and enjoying the moment and peace around you. Oh well some creatures just have no manners whatsoever.



Snelly is taking me to the pond that he says is on the other side of the garden. I want to go drink some water and to maybe lie in the water for a little while, but I will have to find a spot which is under some bushes, as I am too scared that bird that we saw will come back and try to eat me. Snelly says that birds are not vegetarians.



Well it has taken Snelly and I a good couple of hours to get to the pond. But I cannot go in, because there is this other tortoise in there already. And I don’t like being with other tortoises. Snelly tells me that the other tortoise lives in the water in the pond. I am not sure that I want to do that. I like to lie in the water for a little while, you know to have a nice long soak – it is good for my shell, but I like living on land preferably in a burrow that I have made nice and cosy for myself.

Meet Wise one (that is her name – she told me herself) She also told me that she is a turtle and is 50 years old. I think that is why her name is Wise One! She has lived for a long time.

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She said that she does not mind if I want to share a little bit of her water. Wise One told me that she makes sure that all the little creatures get to enjoy the water without being bullied. Wise One is very kind. I like her.



But now I am very tired and want to go and get some sleep. I will see you all tomorrow and tell you about all my adventures tomorrow.

Yawn.

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Night Night

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I love it. You could write a great story book with this!
 
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