I was going to build my own river tank but I do not have enough free time. So I cheated and bought one already made. I bought river tank inserts from abundantearth.com There are other sites out there that also sell the river tank but they are all a rip off. When I finally received them I was not satisfied with the color or texture of them. To make them look like real rock I bought all purpose epoxy resin for $10 and play sand for $2. I mixed the sand with the epoxy resin to a peanutbutter like texture and spread it all over the inserts unevenly with my hands (I wore gloves) after that I dusted a little bit of sand over them. All of this took about 2 hours. The next day I soaked the inserts in the tub to wash off the excess sand. To my surprise there was almost no sand in the tub. When the inserts dried I set them up on my floor and I was very happy with the outcome. From fake, ugly, peach, and plastic molds my inserts now look like real rock. I then purchassed a 120 gal extra high tank (60x18x26) to fit the extra large river kit. I needed a ex large kit because I wanted to create a land area in my tank. I made the land area just by putting extra gravel on the far side of the tank. I then coverd the gravel with fresh sheet moss and that was it. I put a bunch of different plants in the tank some in the dry plant pockets and some are hydroponicly planted. I acctually have 2 basilisks male & female they are about 20" w/ tail there about 8 months old now. I bought them at a reptile show when they were babies only about 4" long. When their that young there not sexed. I guess I was lucky. My tank also houses: 2. giant day gekos 2. White's tree frogs, 1. red eye tree frog 6. fire belly toads 1. southern painted turtle 2. yellow sppoted salamanders 3. newts rough skin paddle tail lota of fish dianos, clown loach, pleco, cory cats, bala sharks, tetra and some more that I dont know what they are called. I also have a bullfrog but he is going back to the pet store. I bought him as a tadpole They told me that he would morph into a tree frog they lied to me He is huge Im scared that he will eat every thing in my tank.

I used to love them, thought they would look so pretty until the wild ones reared their climbing vines! Turned out that the previous owner had trouble with them and hid it from us by covering with landscaping cloth and mulch. They made their way up through the seams and into the arbor vitae by the end of summer. They choked the arbor vitae to death. This is the area I am waiting for Ed to dig up with the excavator. I have weeded, and weeded, and weeded for 3 years and still have not gotten rid of them. I shake my head in disgust when I look at the front of my house. I just can't stand to look anymore. The roots are hard to keep from breaking and then more appear. Yours is beautiful, it gives me hope! I have been pollinating my clematis to see what seeds I get. My understanding is that this will be a long process for germination and development but I do love the clems. Should be fun to see. I have some with seed heads on them (type 3's) and am waiting for the type 2's to brown out. The 2 is a proteus and I have no idea what we will get from this as I have let the bee's do the work for me. I can't wait to see.

gina, they gave her a precription for something for pain, when it runs out I'll tell her to take some naproxyn, thanks. Linda, the Sgt. from the Sheriff's Department who was on the scene told me the motorcycle rider was the luckiest SOB he'd ever seen. All he was worried about was his motorcycle, but I have a feeling he's gotten over that by today. Accident reconstruction is still ongoing but from the length of the skid mark and the damage to the two vehicles, they figure he was going at least 70 mph. He was riding with a friend who got ahead of him and he was trying to "catch up". On a two lane country road lined with hay fields, tractors, wagons full of baled hay and people. Sigh. I just hope that leg is "fixable" and that he doesn't have too many long term complications from it. Annie

Great pictures, kt! This my first time photographing fireworks...Oh my gosh, it was SO much fun! I learned some lessons. I was almost too close for my lens length and got a lot of "partials". I changed my shutter opening time back and forth depending on how fast they were launching them. I'm looking forward to next year! I'll post a few more when I get them converted.