My Own Personal Tiny Nature Channel

Just, you know, go ahead and read this whole post in Sir David Attenborough's voice.  For fun. 

This is my aquarium: 

It's a 10-gallon* freshwater planted tank which holds five live plants, two sections of driftwood,  one tiny baby ramshorn snail who I assume hitched a ride on a plant as an egg, and two Blue Velvet/Blue Rili shrimp named Fancy and Pants.  (Guy at the fish shop: "Y'all move out the way so I can sell this nice lady some fancy pants shrimps!" and LO, they were named). 

However, now that I have the MOPPothecary unit done and set up, the small tank looked tiny - and I finally had room to expand into a bigger tank! Hooray!

This is my aquarium on drugs No, wait, THIS is my aquarium: 

Here's the same cast, this time on a 20-gallon stage instead of a 10.  It looks so empty!  It IS a lot of tank for two 1" shrimp, but, after I get some more plants, more shrimp, and some tiny silvery fishes, it'll be teeming with life.

I made the background for it myself - it's a screenshot of the sacred forest from the Miyazaki film Princess Mononoke.  I adjusted the pic for size and shape on Blockposter.com, printed the pdf they gave me, taped it together, and taped it to the back of the tank.  The tree-i-ness of it blends with the driftwood roots and gives the tank kind of an underwater-forest look.  

Here are Fancy (left) and Pants).  Near as I can tell, Fancy is a girl and Pants is a boy.  Of course, I could be wrong about that, I'm not shrimp junk expert.  I'd be perfectly happy being the owner of a billion little blue shrimps, but I'm also perfectly happy just having two, so, whatever they feel like doing or not doing, that's just fine with me. 

* I can't type the word "gallon" without first typing "gallong" to save my life. It's not the only word it happens to.  People named Kevin(g), you have my apologies. 

Whew!

I know, it's been a hot minute since I posted here, but that's because I haven't been working on any projects around the house.  I've been painting, sketching along with the Inktober drawing challenge, and crocheting all the things. I'm also prepping for a Halloween party, which I haven't thrown since 2014!

I started a fish tank, too. Right now, it's devoid of actual fish - I let it sit a couple of weeks to cycle, got a couple of plants (the leafy little Anubias nana and the Marimo moss ball (actually a beneficial algae) above), and have been contemplating getting a bunch more plants and a Betta but not actually doing it. Aside from a bit of mold on the wood (need some snails to eat it) it's coming along beautifully for, you know, not having any fish in it. Because it's a fish tank.  Let's be real: it's a box of water with a log in it. But it'll grow.

I do have several furniture projects planned:

• Refinishing the once-and-forever art table, which I've been "working on" refinishing for over a year now
• Refinishing my nightstand, an antique plant stand/hall table 
• Refinishing a little wooden chowki table that's seen better days
• Frosting the glass on the doors of my Ikea HEMNES pantry cabinet, and painting the rest of the unit. 
• Staining my Ikea FORHOJA kitchen cart, something I've been thinking about for three years and hadn't decided on until recently
• Possibly building a big honking sideboard for the living room from scratch. Sort of. 

Lots of projects to keep me in the garage this winter! 

But this month, I'm mostly focused on the Halloween party: 

• Buy all the spooky things
• Make all the other things spooky
• Don't have a heart attack over established friends base meeting new friends from work at the party
• Spray-paint the dog* 
• Finish crocheting the little pseudo-Victorian boot spats I'm making for my costume, block them, and sew buttons on 

* not really, but Daisy is getting a body paint costume, as soon as I order some dog-safe paint

I'm working on a painting right now, slowly, and I have no idea when I'll be finished.  But here's the last one I made, finished three weeks ago: 

I also painted this little papier-maché skull for Halloween.  It's not shaped much like an actual human skull, but I tried to get it as realistic-looking as I could anyway.  I'm kind of proud of poor Yoric here. As a friend said to me this morning, it's hard to paint dimension and shape onto something that has none.  Rewarding, when you get it right, but hard.  

Anyway, I'm off to Halloween all the things.  See you again soon! 

The Oldest Wildebeest, Part IV

FINISHED!  FINALLY!

only took six and a half years. 

The light's all funky in this pic, and it makes the stain look weird;  but this is just to prove that the damned thing is finally done, LOL.

Next stop:  art on the wall!  Nifty little sidekick accessories!  Oh, and FISH!

For the time being, I'm enjoying watching the cats take turns hurling themselves towards the top of the cabinet only to find out too late that the lip isn't nearly wide enough for them to get onto.  They pretty much just bash against the tank and fall off, as though someone's throwing cats at the aquarium.  (They're not hurt, don't worry).

Actually, before the fish thing happens, I'm going to be working on a couple of other things.  A bit more organization in the garage, a thing with a sofa, and some more furniture building.  Stay tuned...

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The Oldest Wildebeest, Part III

Last weekend also saw some of the final stages of the aquarium stand coming together:

L-shaped  outside molding on the corners,
being filled and sanded, nail holes filled.

Kress helping with the staining

First coat:  Ben & Jerry's  Minwax's  Deep Walnut 

Second coat, also Minwax:  Old Maple, in a one-shot stain &
polyurethane.  On its own, the maple is really yellowy, but the
combination is sort of a warm, dark, almost-cherry color. 

The top got a VERY thick layer of clear sealant, to water-
proof the top in case of spills or leaks from the tank.  

Drying.  Sure is dusty in there.  Which is what happens when
you  build a  frame and leave it in the garage for seven years.    

Next steps:

1. very light buffing with a very fine sandpaper to remove any residual nicks and bubbles in the finish, just in case there are some I can't see
2. Attach the doors, and the knobs to the doors
3. Attach the slidey-feet so the wood won't mar the laminate in the house
4. Put it in the living room, and begin working on the aquarium itself!  

Almost there...

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The Oldest Wildebeest: Part II

The aquarium stand that I mentioned in August, revived after having been started in 2006 and then forgotten for five years, has now made a bit more progress:

tr-drrrp.

The sides, top, and trim facing on the front are attached - the wood for which I bought in August last year.  (And when you consider how long it's taken me to get this far, an eight-month gap there isn't actually that bad, right? Right??)

It also now has internal shelves, cut from remnants of the same ex-computer desk that gave us the guitar rack of 2010.  I made sure they're tall enough to accommodate the one tool that in my 15+ years of keeping aquariums has proved to be endlessly useful and at times indispensable: the 5-gallon plastic bucket.

The next phase involves  wood filler that isn't solidified inside the tube (d'oh!) for the nail holes and a few cracky places where the sides and trim didn't match up in the front.  After that it's getting trim molding around the edges, doors, stain & sealant, and then feet.

And then: the aquarium itself!  :D

But first I have to finish the stand.  Anyone want to lay odds on how long it'll take me?


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Updatey Updateness!

BOY did I get stuff done this weekend!

• working on a pair of couch slipcovers for a friend (halfway through the first one) 
• sanded & stained the boards for the shelves for the craft room
• attached some of the outside facing pieces for the tank stand (until I ran out of nails, d'oh! Getting more tonight)
• changed the rear brakes on my truck (did the air filter last week, like I was talking about)
• also did a bit of work on some costume pieces for me and Kress.  

WHEW!

Pic updates later this week;  in the meantime: 

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The Oldest Wildebeest

So, this wood I bought at Lowe's the other day.

As I've mentioned before, once upon a time I kept a crap-ton of aquariums.  I migrated from various types of fish to newts, in my twenties; but then last year, my last aging newt finally kicked the bucket, and I took down my last aquarium.  I've missed it terribly.  I miss the soft bubbling in the background, the light from the water reflections bouncing around the room, watching the cats watching Fish TV, lol.

In 2006 I began building an aquarium cabinet: 

July 2006

painted and sealed interior, with floor. August 2006

...And then I stopped.  I had a very good reason for not finishing this cabinet...not that I remember what it was now, five years later.  But all this cabinet needed was an outside, a shelf in the middle, and a top.

That's where my trip to Lowe's this week comes in:  I now have materials to create walls, doors, and a shelf on the inside.  Will I get it done this weekend?

To be continued...

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My Other Hobby

Exactly HOW does one work an aquarium into a decor scheme, aside from spending a ka-frillion dollars on a professional service and a room-sized setup that costs more to maintain than the house itself?

Yeah.  I have no idea.

But I love them. :)  I've always considered aquariums to be a sort of combination between pets, houseplants, and TV, lol.  (You've never sat and watched "Fish TV"? Hee).  I've always tried to put them on nice furniture, and create pretty little landscapes inside them to look at, but aside from that, I don't "decorate" with or around tanks - I wouldn't dress my dogs to match my furniture, either, you know what I mean?

Until this year, I'd kept aquariums full of fish, "eels" (sirens), newts, and salamanders for over fifteen years.  I've kept tanks full of live food that I cultured to feed to my swimming pets, and even put together a couple of plant terrariums with no mobile inhabitants.  Until, that is, a couple of months ago when my last aging newt finally kicked the bucket.  After a "burial at sea"  (all drains lead to the ocean, Nemo), I finally tore down my last aquarium.  There's just something about that little box of light and life and energy - I really felt it when it wasn't there anymore.

But then, the day before Thanksgiving a coworker brought me a pair of Bettas (pronounced "bet-uh", not "bay-tah").  She'd bought them for her son, who ended up abandoning them to her care, and she didn't want them - but she was happy to have found them a new home, and I was happy to BE their new home!

 Luckily, after 15+ years of an aquarium habit hobby, I had PLENTY of supplies - including empty tanks - sitting in my garage.  All I had to do was gather a giant armload of stuff and wash it off and put it together. (The putting-together actually took a couple of days, and a trip to the pet store for some water conditioner).

10g with screen lid and light hood

It ain't much, but it'll do for now.  Considering that these little gals (they're both females) lived in plastic cups for a few days, these tanks, though bare, are quite the step up.  It's like living in your car, I guess, and then finally getting HUGE apartment...with no furniture in it.  Yet.

she looks pinkish - because she's actually clear!

My coworker'd kept the girls in a tank together, which is a HUGE Betta no-no:  they're incredibly territorial, and when kept in too close a proximity, will fight incessantly - yes, even the females.  Evidence?  Just look at her fins! The other one had been chasing and biting at this one.  Unfortunately, my coworker thought they were "just playing."  Sigh.

5.5 gallon with homemade cat-proof screen, lol

 The smaller tank, a five-and-a-half gallon (the other is a ten gallon) is about as small as I'd go for a Betta.  They DO live in shallow waters in their native habitat (seasonal ponds and rice paddies in Thailand and thereabouts), but not in small amounts of water (think shallow, but wide ponds) - these people who say you can keep them in tiny jars and cubes have NO clue what they're talking about, just so you know.  Not to get on a soapbox, but, 90% of the information you get from pet stores is written and developed by people who want to sell fish, NOT by people who (a) know much about them or (b) care about their well-being...after all, they're "only" fish, right?  Grrrrr.

navy blue with clear-gold fins;  I'm calling her "Louise"

While these tanks obviously need a substrate of some kind and maybe some decorations (including little dark places for the Bettas to hide - they love hiding in caves and peeking out), foremost on my mind is planting the tanks with live plants.  It's prettier, better for the miniature ecosystem in a tank, and Bettas, IME, love playing and hiding amongst densely planted mini-forests.  (And no, Bettas do NOT eat plants or roots, in case you've heard that crock of sh* from the people trying to sell you "betta vases").

For the time being - for the fishes' sense of privacy and need to hide sometimes, the tanks each have a snippet of plastic vine-y thing in them - but also a large cutting each of Pothos Ivy.  Yup - the houseplant.  It does GREAT floating in an aquarium, and will help establish the beginnings of a healthy, natural bacterial colony in these fresh tanks. 

"WHAT?"

So...yay, fish! You might not be able to tell from the pictures, but both tanks are sitting on the bar between my kitchen and the "office" end of my football field of a living room.  Safest place in the house, cat-wise. Both fish are doing really, really well;  the clear one's fins are growing back really quickly already - she got herself stuck behind her filter yesterday, but didn't hurt herself.

More on the tank-decor as the situation develops!  :)



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Wildebeests: Small Dresser/Aquarium Cabinet

Remember Steve the newt?  And the smaller tank she got last weekend, that needed a home?  This is why:

I know, right?  UGH.   This is the small dresser I'd planned to move it onto: 

Problem was, it was really banged up, and not in a good way;  the knobs it had when it came to me looked just awful on the piece, so I replaced them with these equally-crappy but less offensive little spiral ones, just for the time being;  and there's no way the top would support the weight of even a small aquarium - it's just 1/8" plywood glued across the frame.  Also, the feet - ew.  Plus nobody was using it as a dresser!  It was just sitting in the bedroom, being in the way.

That said, I love this piece, and I have since the moment I laid eyes on it; and I really wanted it out in the living room where I could look at it more often.  So Sunday morning I de-glossed the finish, buffed out the scratches, and dry-brushed over it with black paint lightly so that some of the warm brown color would pop through in the light.  I cut a new top from a 1/2" solid wood table leaf that I had in the garage, and finished it to match - the perfect size to just lay over the top of the piece, so that if I ever decide to use it for something else, I can lift it off, no harm no foul.  Pop on some new knobs, and voila:

Yeesh, blurry.  Sorry.

I love how freaking SHINY it is now.  Wow!  Here it is in action: 

I know, I know, the tank still looks like crap - I'm in the process of spiffing it up.  At present all I've done is dump Steve and some of her stuff into it.  Plus the water's all shaken up in these photos, from me moving the tank around, which is why it looks so dark and dirty.  I promise it's not.

But, hey, look!  Something shiny: 

Oooooh, ahhhhh.  I dunno when this glass-knob-kick I'm on will be over, but today is apparently not that day.  These puppies were only $2 each, too!  I always grab a handful when Hobby Lobby puts their decorative hardware on for half off.   Because I am Bargain Hunter D. 

And because I love little secret color surprises, I painted the inside of the drawers...

...PINK?!?  I swear it was red in the can!  No no no no no no no...

Theeeeere we go.  Wrong can. Woops!  And today I wish I'd painted them turquoise.  *shrug*   Whatever color they are, they made a HUGE difference in my kitchen, believe it or not.  

Until this happened, all the aquarium supplies had been in a couple of my kitchen cabinets and drawers.  I put what I needed into this unit; and took the opportunity to throw out the stuff I didn't need anymore and wouldn't re-use;  so I gained a pretty piece of furniture for the living room, a nice stand for Steve, an empty kitchen drawer and TWO emptied kitchen cabinets!  Sweet. 

A little hand-carved and -painted box from Bali that a friend recently gave to me. 

It smells like herbs. :)

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Newts & Weekend Plans

I've hardly done anything at all this week! Woe!  Stupid shoulder.  It's healed now, has been for a couple of days, but I didn't want to push it.  Which turns out to have been a good idea, considering that it got mad at me for trying to pick up a tub of cat litter with my left hand yesterday at Target. 

But the weekend brings us more stuff to do.  If all goes well, I'll get the rest of the kitchen painted, and the dining room and entry hall, and have lots of nifty pictures for you. 

I may or may not refinish a small, 2-d dresser from my bedroom this weekend, too.  That sounds like more than it is - all I have to do is clean the surface and paint it, and add a slab of wood to the top so it'll support weight.

See, I keep newts.  They're awesome.  But I lost three of them this Spring - two were very old, and one had a serious infection that was getting better, but took a sudden turn for the worse and killed her before I could do anything about it. 

Steve, my one remaining nooticle, got her own tank last night - I spent about two hours tearing down the old ones and setting up a newer, nicer, but smaller, tank for Steve.  Hence the mini-dresser and reinforced top:  a tank full of water weighs quite a bit! 

So, more on that next week.

Romeo & Lita,  1997-2010

Oregon Newts (Taricha granulosa)

M

Margaret, 2003-2010

a Chinese Warty Newt (Paramesotriton chinensis)

Steve 

an Algerian Ribbed Newt (Pleurodeles nebulosus)

...who I thought was a boy until she started laying eggs, lol. 

Hence the name. 

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