What I do is offer my excess goldies to people who had a visit from a heron. That way I move them out a dozen or so at a time. Our goldfish are multiplying exponentially so I have lots and lots to give away. Sharon (one town over) and I have tried golden orfes, we shared a half dozen, but they all ended up dying within two years from one reason or another. We are going to try it again next spring though. With a half dozen each. My favorite idea on goldfish birth control is, I don't remember her name, she posted that her DH gets a few young trout every spring from his area county agent or whatever, and they fatten up on the fish spawn and tadpoles. When the water warms up in summer they are easy to catch - and then he puts them on the grill... I really want to try that some year! *giggle* :) Mary

We usually have crappy weather, we get lots of rain, but this year it is beyond ridiculous. We are getting 4 or 5 days in a row with no let up in the rain and big storms, than a crappy day and then more stormy days. It feels like the house is going to lift off its foundations and that I am going to be off to kansas to see the wizard. I forget what the sun looks like! It has been above average temperatures (17c yesterday) one day then freezing the next. We will get 4-5 inches of snow that turns to rain and then gets washed away. I forget what the sun looks like! The dogs and I are getting fat as we have not been doing anything and it has been tuff to even get out for a decent walk. My poor better half is working in the middle east this week and the weather has totally delayed her travel plans forcing her to have to overnight in a hotel at London's Heathrow airport at a cost of 185 british pounds which is close to $400 for a stinking night. The rain took a pause today and I figured I would go out and check out the garden. First thing I notice was that the neighbour's fence had blown down. The moose was though the hill garden recently: Here is the square foot garden beside the cabin today: I think I was talking with EG about swiss chard a while back and here it is after several frosts. I cut this chard to the ground in the fenced square foot garden a couple weeks back and you notice even in this weather it has grown a bit. Amazing stuff and so good with garlic and a little chicken broth. The creek is eroding away beside the creek square foot garden. I hope it stops there, Next year I am going to have to put rocks on the side of the bank here. Here is the strawberry patch where the creek overflowed. The two new areas that I planted square foot style have a bit of sand and silt but I hope will be ok. The creek has really suffered some erosion this last month. ...

I'm not a salmon expert but we live in Seattle and eat fresh (summer/fall) and frozen salmon (winter/spring) weekly. We only eat wild caught salmon from the Pacific. I have always been disappointment in the flavor of Atlantic salmon I've eaten. From my experience the color varies across species. For example, sockeye has the richest darkest color. King is often lighter. The color does seem to affect flavor, but I think the most important factor to my palette is freshness. The fresher the wildcaught pacific salmon is when eaten or frozen the better it tastes. We buy frozen from a local vendor that fillets and freezes on the boat so the frozen when defrosted still tastes great. The other thing is not to overcook it. I find defrosted frozen salmon takes less time to cook. If you live somewhere that does not have good access to really fresh salmon then I'd buy frozen and try and source boat processed salmon. I haven't tried Costco salmon but they are a Seattle company and I do think they source, in general, pretty good quality products. If you like it then really that's all that matters. Also, largely you get what you pay for with salmon. The exception is that if it's the first of the season it's a rip off and if it's the height of the season it's a great deal. But wild will typically cost more than farmed and Pacific probably more than Atlantic and those price differences are worth it IMHO.

I think you'll get enough insects flying in and amphibians. This is what I'm tryong to do in my top pond. Last year before it was finished it was just a big daphnia factory, and I netted it to feed the sticklebacks in the bottom pond. I had lots of little black beetles and also some big (half or 3/4 inch ones) beetles. It is now planted up, and in a warm spell in autumn a couple of frogs arrived, so I hope they will adopt this one to spawn in away from the stickleback. If not, I'll transfer some of the spawn. The waterfall is finished, and when I finally get the pump in, I'll only run it intermittently with a pair of tights on after spawning to try to keep it fish free. Good luck with yours....but I bet the trout turn up!!