Picture of the Rare Black Goldfish

I've spoken about the black goldfish that is hard to see, shy and elusive. This afternoon I was crossing the bridge pond (yep, I used the bridge) when low and behold I spied this elusive creature.

I took about 10 pictures of "Blackie" and this is the best one. For your viewing pleasure:

Of course it's hard to see even though Blackie is the largest fish in the pond!  It wouldn't be elusive if it was as bright as the orange goldfish.  If your having trouble spotting Blackie s/he is just above the tail of the orange goldfish. Blackie has it's head under a rock and it's belly is a pale orange almost a gold color.  Hmmm, imagine... a gold goldfish :-)

Gourd Harvest

It clearly states in the Gourd Instruction Manual (GIM) that all gourds must be harvested PRIOR to the first freeze. GIM further states that if the gourds are allowed to be damaged by a freeze they will DIE!

With these dire warnings in mind as well as the decline of the vim, vigor and vitality of the gourd vines, we decided it was time to harvest the fruit of this years labor... not counting tomatoes.

This is the last picture (taken in September 22, 2011) of the gourd trellis.  The leaves are wilting and many have
turned into crispy critters.  Clearly the vine was well past it's prime.

 GIM also states when you harvest gourds you should treat them gently to avoid bruising which may also make them DIE!  Once harvested they need to be washed in a vinegar and water solution... failure to wash them may make the DIE!  Once the gourds have been gently harvested and washed they need to be brought inside the house for about a week.  Failure to bring them in the house for about a week may make the DIE!

This is my gourd cleaning/washing station.  We wound up with 2 boxes full of gourds.  These gourds have been washed as evidenced by the vinegar and water spilled on the wood box top.

I would estimate we got about 75 gourds this year with the majority being the smaller ones in the next picture.

Each and every gourd has been hand washed just like you would was a babies face

The smallest gourd harvested is about 1 1/2 inches long.  It's one of those green guys with the vertical stripes.  The largest one is right there in the box at the bottom of the picture.

I found it interesting that some gourds were quite heavy and some light.  Maybe the lighter ones are older and have lost some of their innards.

I found a couple of gourds that had faded.  According to GIM that is because they matured and were left to wallow in the bright sun.

This is where the gourds will reside during their week in purgatory.  Under the card table in the art room (the Woman's Cave). Here mother nature will decide if they have been handled properly or if they must DIE.

By the way, the box of gourds pictured here is the other box not shown earlier.  As you can clearly see this box also holds the biggest gourd.  I can't explain how there can be more than one "biggest" gourd but seeing is believing.  I guess you have to be a Gourd Daddy to accomplish this feat.

Finally, all the gourd vines will be cut down and taken to the dump.  It isn't healthy for them to remain once they have produced their fruit (well, it's my fruit now).  Thus before the weekend is past all vines will have been cut down and the gourd trellis will be naked until next summer.

We will be planting gourds again only bigger and more diverse.

Whoohoo!! And stay tuned :-)

Fish School Math

In the beginning we had 5 goldfish. Then one disappeared so we had 4. Then there was all this mating activity in the spring but we didn't find any fry. Then we thought we had 3 but it turned out we really had 4 because the black one was so shy, hard to see and also had a good hidy-hole, we just kept missing him.

Then the fish started to make their way out of the bridge pond and wound up in the skimmer pond. Then they would wind up in the skimmer and I would return them to the bridge pond.

EXCEPT for one.

The one we call Glow would not venture into the skimmer nor could we catch him with a net. We finally quit trying and left the poor lonely guy in peace.  I checked on him from time to time to make sure he hadn't changed his mind and swam into the skimmer.

Then two days ago I thought I saw two fish in the skimmer pond! I figured one of the fish from the bridge pond had gone over the waterfalls to the skimmer pond. Good.  That would give Glow a little company for a while.

And then I saw 3 fish in the bridge pond.  So 3 fish in one pond and 2 in the other is 5 fish. We only have 4!  Well, I know they can't jump the falls... they aren't salmon you know.  I talked it over with Ginger and we decided I was seeing things... maybe the infamous rock fish or it might have been a figment of my imagination... I was just nuts maybe... take your pick.

And finally I know the answer. I saw them all right after lunch today. There are 3 fish in the bridge pond and 3 fish (maybe more) in the skimmer pond. Apparently there was a bit of joy with all that mating going on and a few fish lived long enough to get big enough to not get eaten. 

And they all lived happily ever after.

THE END (and whoohoo!!!)

P.S. The new ones are about 3 or 4 inches long now. I'm looking forward to a closer look at 'em to see their markings and introduce myself. Maybe next spring.

Isn't That a Argiope Trifasciata?

By George it is a Argiope Trifasciata! Most folks call them Banded Garden Spiders but the technical name does offer a challenge just to pronounce.

The spider pictured is a female. The males are much smaller as is usual in the spider world.

The white thing that appears like it's hanging from her middle is lunch. Some creature flew into her web and was wrapped in web and then eaten. As we watched her turn the morsel to access juicier parts of her meal we thought it pretty neat that she could maneuver so easily. Reminded me of a juggler.

She was pretty close to the ground with rocks on one side and shrubs and bushes on the others so I was challenged to get these picture which in my estimation are not that great.  Sorry. Some day I'll have a camera that works better.

These spiders emerge in the fall. They don't care for the heat of summer or the freezing of winter so they only come out for a few months in the fall. This is the first time I've ever seen one and I've been around for many fall seasons.

In their web there is a zig-zag pattern they weave. It runs through the center of the web and is called a "stabilimenta." The purpose of this unpronounceable thing is to reinforce the web so it doesn't require repair as often. Studies have shown the inclusion of the stabilimenta results in
fewer "catches" but it also results in less damage from birds as they can then see the web and avoid a collision.

One really cool thing that I thought was amazing was the spider will bounce on it's web if you lightly touch it.  We observed this and at first thought that maybe the web was stuck to the camera strap or something similar. It turns out it was this spider bouncing away.

So that's the big gee-whiz at Red Tail Ridge on this 10th anniversary of the tragedy 10 years ago in New York.

Whoohoo Y'all...