The oak was as brilliant as any time we've lived here.
Our neighborhood became notorious for having one of it's members quoted in the local paper complaining about the noise of the new football stadium. We checked out some of the opening night hoopla, not a bad perspective without a ticket.
And the fish were able to stay outside until the middle of October.
The pioneering four made it through another summer. Biggie is our favorite.
But a funny thing happened...
These guys showed up.
At the end of July we noticed that we had a lot of little dark quarter-inch fry swimming around in the pond. Goldfish eat their young but we held out hope that one or two of the most agile might survive. By September we regularly saw two of the young but no more. We were a little surprised to pull out six on October 18. We were happy to finally get number seven, a little fast fish a week later. And we were shocked on October 31 when we were draining the water from the pond in preparation for the upcoming deep freeze. A huge dark fish revealed itself. The shock was two-fold:1. Of the eight young the average size is now about an inch long. This fish is at least three inches long, closer in size to the adults than the other young.
2. We keep the fish in the lower, larger pond. This fish appeared in the upper, smaller pond. To get there the little fish or egg would have had to have gone for a ride through the water pump in the few minutes a week that the filter is off being cleaned.
For now the family is spending its time reunited in their second home/plastic tub. Little do they know that their owners just completed a Craig's List transaction today and they'll soon be movin' on up in the world to 55 gallons enclosed in glass.
On the building front it's been pretty quiet. The warm fall allowed for some time spent in the garage trying out a few new/inherited tools. The drill press and bench grinder came from my grandfather via my great uncle. I don't know when either last operated but both worked great for making metal support braces for the work bench.
All that is left is to cap the ends and add a metal work surface with backsplash. That will have to be ordered as I don't have a torch or plasma cutter. Yet.
