I saw this post way back when I was just a lurker. Much to timid to join in and post at that time. It has haunted me ever since!! Was yelling at my computer "Don't throw away the guts!! The inside is the best part!!" I have a small collection of the insides of minnow buckets. They fascinate me, all have different hole patterns. Some hole patterns are diamonds, or stripes or stars.....slow to rust, they were made for being in water after all. If they still have their lids "oh boy"! Use a screwdriver or such to break and remove the Styrofoam if it's still there. Line the bucket with newspaper so the soil doesn't run out and drainage is ideal. Maybe I can put this to rest now.

I grow Fisherman's Friend, also in a large pot on an obelisk, so I can control it's reach a bit since it's close to the entrance to the garage. I love it. Huge smelly blooms that stay on the plant for a long time. It's situated sorta under the eaves at the front of my porch overhang and that apparently protected it enough that it was the only rose that didn't get damaged by the Big Easter Chill of 2007. It bloomed when nothing else did, a nice flush. No sooner did I deadhead that flush then it started setting buds for the next flush--which is almost at it's peak right now--and sent up 2 large basals. I bought it as a memorial to my father, but it has earned it's place in it's own right. To be fair, a few of the first flush's blooms had vegetative centers, but the rest were gorgeous. It's a keeper here. Yes, mean thorns, and hard to train if the canes are not really new. Barbara

David said "do you have any problem with those White Brook Tilapia reproducing in your tanks? Curious because thats often a problem, and I see they sell a mixed lot of males and females, the males growing considerably faster. Do you find the same?" A: If kept in high densities, spawning is extremely rare. The few that still manage to usually lose most of the fry to predation by the other adults in the tank. Another way to prevent spawning with mixed sex fish is to grow them in cages in the tanks. With larger mesh floors, they have nowhere to nest. If spawning is prevented or mostly prevented, the females will grow ALMOST as fast as the males, but they will still lag slightly. In my experience, even in lower density situations, these fish typically don't start spawning until 5 months of age, just a month shy of harvesting anyway. It is mostly a non-issue on a 6 month harvest cycle. David said "What temperature range is the water in your tanks, and do you need to do any supplementary heating or cooling? Reason I ask is that over 5-6 months, getting the water up to 75-80º might add a significant amount of weight, and you might accomplish that by some hillbilly engineering." A: I start fry out inside until they reach about 3 inches in plain old aquariums usually. I keep them at 80-84 degrees. 82 seems to be the sweet spot with them. Outside, my tanks will range from 72 in the spring to about 90 in the heat of summer, and then back down to about 68 in the late fall when I do my final harvesting for the year. I use a somewhat earth sheltered greenhouse for most of them, which helps to regulate temps a great deal. I usually overwinter about 500 fry minimum every year, but sometimes up to 1500 when I'm feeling up to it. David said "When I did this commercially, we raised them in either fixed or floating cages. Cram them in around 250 per cubic yard and feed them a high-calorie supplement with 15% protein, they'd filter the algae in the water coming through the cages and get supplementary protein and all the vitamins and such." A: As long as you start them out when young on a high protein diet, they will do good in such a situation. I have friends who simply stock them in their fishing ponds every year, and they don't even feed them. The fish simply browse on the diatoms, algae, vascular plant life and inverts already in the pond. They harvest some impressive fish in the fall when temperatures drop. The tilapia get lethargic and just hang out at the water surface making them easy to net up or cast net for them. David said "dollar a piece for a 1/2 inch fingerling. Wow. Linked is an article about large scale fry production, I did all the stuff in Cote d'Ivoire, the Campbell, D. in the references. I used to have to deal with some taxonomical geeks - no matter what they call it, its all the same species of nile tilapia" A: I buy some new stock just about every year to keep genetic diversity where it should be, but it doesn't require buying a ton of fish to do that (50 a year works fine). After I established my initial "colony" of fish, cost of stock has become largely irrelevant to my overall production costs. Sometimes I will buy a very large number of fish to stock (500+), and when I do that I buy at wholesale prices which are far less than what they ask for on small lots. Your last comment about "no matter what they call it, it's all the same species of nile tilapia" I'm unsure of what you mean. There are numerous strains within Oreochromis Niloticus that are VASTLY different. Recent studies have even shown that they carry different sex determinant markers (A good study from UMD is out there as well as one from Virginia Poly off the top of my head). This is generally indicative of distinctly separate evolution of various communities of fish (usually prolonged geographical separation), even if they are in the same species. In this case, one could quite easily argue that there are numerous subspecies of Niles (and other tilapia as well of course), and that many of them have quite different traits and requirements.

I clean the house thoroughly when he's gone so I get a clean house to live in for a few days ;D I throw out empty boxes he collects, sometimes rearrange the furniture. Dig out his handkerchiefs from wherever he's stashed them, and toss them in the laundry, then finish off the laundry (somehow with him around, the hamper is never empty). Sort tons of socks into pairs. I clean and re-arrange his wardrobe. Once all that's done, I clean the microwave like a maniac to get the smell of popcorn out (he eats popcorn everyday!). I fish out the remote controls from under the sofa, watch TV, listen to the radio - at a volume appropriate for someone who's not deaf. Watch the Lion King, Bambi, The Seabiscuit and cry all I want. Eat what I want, when I want, where I want (not in front of the TV). I sleep soundly (nobody snoring/talking in his sleep beside me) and wake up refreshed bcoz there isn't that irritating alarm to jolt me awake. I laze around a lot. I have long conversations with friends and family on the phone. I buy only useful things when I go shopping. And I keep a good hot meal ready and make sure I look very, very busy doing chores around the house when he returns.