My 100 gallon fish tank

A few weeks ago I bought 6 Silver Dollars (Fish). I usually keep new fish in a separate tank in quarantine for a couple of weeks before I introduce them to my 100 gallon tank, but this time I didn’t. I have a female wagtail platy in the quarantine tank and I’m waiting for her to drop some young.

Anyway, I put the Silver Dollars into the big tank. They seemed okay. They ate right away and swam in a school, but a few days later I counted only 5. After a couple more days I found one caught inside one of the plants. Dead. They kept on dying. Now I only have 2 left. They seem to be okay.

My other fish, guppies (I have idea how many), 1 red wagtail platy, 6 white skirt tetras, and 8 red eye tetras, are fine.

I had the water tested and found out that my pH level was 8.5. Too alkaline for the Silver Dollars. They like it around 6.5. We have well water and it is hard. There was also too much ammonia in the water. The problem is I have too many fish in there. The guppies are multiplying too fast. I need to do more water changes instead of just adding more water. The ammonia builds up to a level too high.

So yesterday I changed 25% of the water to lower the ammonia content and added a piece of driftwood to make the water more acid. I hope it works.

Here are a couple of pictures how the tank looks:

You can see one of the Silver Dollars to the left of the driftwood in the center of the picture.

This is the view of the whole tank. The light on the left is the reflection of the sunlight.

Pasta...Italian no more

How do you say Pasta in French?

Sometimes I can’t believe what goes on in this crazy world we live in. I can understand that the French speaking population in Quebec wants to keep the French language  from dying, but then they shouldn’t bring in immigrants who speak a different language. Strange stuff going on in Quebec anyway. Apparently, a woman can’t take on her husband’s last name when she gets married. It’s the law. The first time I heard about that I couldn’t believe such nonsense . That’s exactly the opposite of what I believe in. A woman should take her husband’s last name. For me it’s a western tradition. Never mind what they do in the Arab countries, where a woman keeps her family name. That is their tradition. Unfortunately, so many couples these days are bucking tradition and that is a shame. So many don’t even get married anymore, while gay people want to get married. Crazy. But that is just me. I’m a dinosaur.

But that is not what I wanted to write about. It’s all about Pasta. There is this Italian restaurant in Quebec with an Italian menu. What else? Nothing unusual about that, is there? Well, not in the Free province of Quebec where they have a language police. Hard to believe, but they have one. And one overzealous language police inspector wants the restaurant to change the menu to French. They don’t allow anything written in another language. It all has to be in French. Quebec is part of Canada, but they don’t allow any English signs there either. The Party Quebecois government wants to remove the Canadian flag from the provincial legislature’s upper chamber, also known as ‘red room’. That’s almost sacrilege. Like spitting into the face of the rest of Canada.

It bugs me every time when I’m on holidays when they announce that some people are from Canada, and others from Quebec. Hello! Quebec is part of Canada, but the Quebecers don’t see it that way. They take the Canadian taxpayer’s money and all the other benefits, but they don’t want to be called Canadians. Just like some of our natives.

No English allowed in Quebec, but the rest of Canada is bilingual, by law. Everything has to be written in English and French. In some parts of Winnipeg there are street names that end in ‘street’ with ‘rue’ in front of it. It’s like saying ‘street Moritz street’. I’m pretty much certain street names in Quebec don’t end with ‘street’. We’ve clearly got a double standard here.

This whole thing smacks of a dictatorship. I’m surprised they are allowed to listen to English (or other language) radio broadcasts or watch English television.

With that attitude it is no wonder there is such animosity between people of different backgrounds and people who speak different languages, or people of different religions. It is not surprising the world is in such an array these days. We need to be more tolerant with each other. Of course, that is easier said than done. Most of us have little tolerance when it comes to people who are or want to be different. I don’t want to have people coming into my country and then try to change it by introducing new customs and laws, but, unfortunately, that can’t be stopped. The Quebecers are trying hard to keep their customs and language pure, but in the end they will have to change. It is only a question of time. We can’t keep on living in the past, even though some of us want nothing more than that.

So, how do you say Pasta in French?

My new book The Published Writer

As I said in previous posts, this blog is for my personal stuff, but in a way everything I do is personal. I wrote and self-published a little How-to booklet on Amazon. It is available for free until February 24 (Sunday night). Since Amazon counts the number of downloads it would be nice to get many. So I'm asking you, my friends, to download the book. It is written for Kindle, but if you don't own a Kindle you can download, for free, an application from Amazon to read it on your PC. You will also need an Account with Amazon. It is free and easy to set up. Amazon sells all kinds of stuff. Who knows? You may want to buy something in the future.

The book is called 'The Published Writer'. Here is the link:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Published-Writer-ebook/dp/B00BHKZBBU/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1361380527&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Published+Writer

Even if you don't want to download it, go there just to check out the cover. I designed that myself, also. My first one and I'm happy to say it turned out okay.

The day after Valentine

We ate the whole duck. I couldn't put up a picture of it yesterday because it needed to be prepared for yesterday's supper. Here is a picture of what it looked like on the plate:

The meat was soft and tender and it tasted delicious. We drank almost a full bottle of red wine with it. Cabernet Shiraz. BTW, that's only half the duck on the plate. The other half was on the second plate.

Be my Valentine

Yes, it is February 14, Valentins's Day. A day for lovers. Some couples will go out for supper tonight. My wife and I will stay home. We'll be celebrating by eating a duck, with boiled potatoes and Savoy cabbage. We've made that our tradition. Hmm, just writing about it makes my mouth water. My wife is a good cook and she makes the best duck I've ever eaten. We've had duck in restaurants, and most of the time it hasn't been long enough in the oven and the breast is usually still covered with a thick layer of fat. The fat needs to be broiled out and the skin has to be crispy. My wife does it like that. Eaten with a glass of wine makes it a wonderful culinary experience.

I write novels, but I've never considered myself to be a poet or a romantic fool, even though I've written over 50 poems for my wife. I write one for every holiday, like Christmas, Easter, birthdays, and, yes, Valentine's Day. I create a card and put the poem into it. I am not allowed to publish the poems. My wife considers them her property, because they've been written for her and not the public. I am making an exception here and I will publish the one I wrote this year. She won't know, because she doesn't read my blog. So, don't tell her. Let this be our secret.

                                                           Valentine's Day 2013
                                                                   To my wife

 

There seems to be some misconception

about this day called Valentine

there may even be a little deception

when someone says to you: Be mine.

There’s talk about a kid named Cupid

who is said to live inside a cloud

I don’t want to say he’s stupid

for shooting his arrows all about

But he seems to waste them on the young

who sure don’t need encouragement

with desires naturally strong

their intentions are quite translucent

Now it’s different with the more mature

I don’t want to imply they’re old

But they could use a nudge for sure

to heat up what has grown a bit cold

One arrow in the heart may do

to flame the fires still aglow

Or maybe  it will take a few

to rekindle those passions from long ago

Love is not something reserved for the young

Us older folks need some loving too

Many a song about that has been sung

Let me sing one for you

Be my Valentine, my Love

Because my love is strong

I love you still with all my heart

And that’s my Valentine’s song

A dangerous deer II

It seems my information was not quite correct. Apparently, the conservation officer who shot the deer used a 9mm pistol. They showed some picture on the news last night, which explained a few things. The people took in the deer as a fawn. It had been injured and they nurtured it back to health. It became tame. There were pictures with the young deer playing with a dog, and lying in front of a house.

They also mentioned a woman in the news, who was injured by a deer in Winnipeg. After she tried to herd the deer into a corral, the deer bumped her with its head and kicked her with a hoof, inflicting a nearly life-threatening injury. Of course, any animal will lash out when it is cornered and feels threatened. That deer was truly wild, probably not used to humans, but the deer that was shot was pretty much tame, having been practically raised by humans. It could almost be considered a pet. What’s wrong with that? Just because someone in authority makes it a rule ‘Don’t feed wild animals’, doesn’t mean people will follow that rule. People still have certain rights to do as they please, as long as it doesn’t involve criminal activities, and I don’t consider feeding animals a criminal activity. I feed birds. You can’t forbid everything, not in a free country.

As a hunter, I follow the wildlife rules imposed on us by Manitoba Conservation, but that doesn’t mean I have to agree with all of them. Most of the rules are there to control the number of animals that can be harvested and to conserve the environment and animals for future generations. That is the whole reason. It has little to do with the protection of people. For that we have our law enforcement officers. Unfortunately, there is a certain group of people in Canada who do not have to follow many of the rules, and that creates negative feelings among hunters who have to pay for licenses and can hunt only at certain times of the year, and have to abide by bag limits, be it deer, elk, moose, or even fish. It is not fair and not right. It does absolutely nothing for conservation, in fact, it makes it nearly impossible. But that is another story and has nothing to do with this incident.

Unforgettable with Poppy Montgomery

I just read some good news. The TV drama Unforgettable, starring Australian actress Poppy Montgomery as a police detective who never forgets anything, is coming back this summer.
I liked that show. She's a nice looking woman with a thick mane of red hair and a good actress. The show was not stupid, either. Even though it attracted around 12 million viewers it was cancelled last year. Sometimes you wonder why some shows stay and some get cancelled. Anyway, this one is coming back.

A dangerous deer

A couple of days ago a conservation officer shot and killed a young  deer people on the Hutterite colony in Pilot Mount had been feeding. Feeding deer is against the law.
Apparently, if they would have stopped feeding the deer, the animal would have been demanding to be fed and it would have become a danger to people. Expert also agreed with this assumption.
You see, dogs have been bred to be friendly to people, but you can't breed the wild strain out of deer.
What the hell are we talking about here? How can you compare a deer to a dog? Dogs have sharp teeth and, as far as I'm concerned, still have plenty of aggression in their DNA. Many people, my dad included, have been bitten by so-called friendly dogs. I was lucky, I only got nipped in the leg.
Now, if they would have been feeding a wolf or a bear I could understand the concern but a deer? Come on! What would this poor animal have done? Gone crazy and attacked people? Perhaps ripped them apart with its sharp teeth? Or stomped them to death with its hoofs? We're talking about a small deer.
This was a senseless and stupid thing to do. What upset everyone is the fact that the officer shot the deer in front of onlookers, possibly even children, and didn't even clean up the mess.
If I, as a private citizen would have done that, I would have been charged with illegal hunting without a license out of season, but since a conservation officer did this, it is okay.
Sorry to say, it isn't okay. Apparently, he even used a small caliber weapon and the deer wasn't killed immediately. I'm a hunter and I shoot deer during hunting season. I follow the law, and I make every effort to give the animal a clean shot so it doesn't suffer.
Another example where somebody hides behind a badge to commit a despicable act.
Perhaps we should not continue feeding the birds anymore in case they become aggressive if we should stop feeding them. I might get attacked by a flock of angry sparrows. I saw the movie 'The Birds' by Alfred Hitchcock. Of course, those birds were gulls, but then...one never knows.