goldfish – Nancy Tart: Writing for Life

January 18, 2019

Cousin Visits!

My sister, brother, and their three little ones (Sister-Cousin and Brother-Cousins!) have moved back from Kansas!

They came out to our mini-farm (muddy spot with a pond, outside tank with tadpoles, indoor goldfish, foraging chickens, playful Guinea Pigs, cute fluffy bunny, and jumpy adult dogs who think they are 4 months old) over the weekend and the kids were totally excited!

This time, we had very few photographers snapping pictures because they were too busy playing with their cousins!

Lucas was so excited to share his green car (motorized car his Grandma Joanne bought him for his 2^nd birthday) but the battery ran out too quickly – so he shared his Christmas bicycle and his train tracks. For him, those items are his dearest things in the world; train tracks, cars, his bicycle, and his green car.

“Baby JJ” – who isn’t a baby anymore! – and Lucas played train tracks for a bit. JJ liked the bicycle too. Outside JJ and Mandy wanted to see all the fluffy animals.

Anastasia helped show off Minuit, Kimberly’s little black Dwarf Holland Lop Bunny.

Little Minuit loves to eat carrot bits!

Mandy found Jaquline’s “hidden spot” in her bunkbed! (With big paper on the “wall.”)

Taylor and TobyMac did their popcorn jumps after the girls loaded them with Spanish Needles greens (chickens, bunnies, and Guinea Pigs love them before they turn to seed aka the needle part).

Above is the wildflower called Spanish Needle, a favorite food of many small animals.

Jillian showed off her Uncle Buddy knowledge by telling them that people can eat the wildflowers and leaves too. (Yes, but they are bitter unless cooked, and I hoped her younger cousins were distracted by the cuteness of the piggies and missed the “you can eat this weed” tidbit.)

We love cousin visits! It is always fun with family shares their time with each other.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

August 17, 2018

Watching Fish

Becky and Kimberly have a little tank in which they keep trying to grow fish.

Once, (after collecting fish slowly over about a year) they had about a dozen Platys (live-bearing freshwater fish) in four different varieties with two plecostomus (bottom-feeding suckermouth catfish) and two Siamese algae-eaters (bottom-dwelling freshwater fish). It was a very colorful tank. They had plants in the top and bottom levels for hiding places (needed for baby fish).

Lucas watched them feed the fish about three times a day. One day, he dumped a mega can of fish food in the water. Although they tried to save the fish, unfortunately, only a few recovered. Lucas watched them “Save” the fish with the fishnet and thought he could replicate this with a milk cup. We found the remaining three Platys floating in the milk cup.

The tank became a water plant tank for a month or so. (They slowly saved up money for new fish.)

A few weeks ago, Becky and Jillian bought some colorful feeder goldfish and feeder minnows to join Ooh (the remaining Plecostomus who had hidden in the shark decoration for over a week so they were super surprised when he was seen in the “plant tank!”).

The tank has Nemo and the big shark in it, along with some other Nemo stuff, a unicorn laying against the wall like she’s sleeping, a snail, and beach shells (I do not know why the unicorn lives underwater).

The little goldfish have animal names like “Tiger” and “Gazelle.”

They have beautiful coloring!

Aren’t animals amazing? The girls love watching the interaction between the fish (and, they are so funny sometimes!) and play-talking what they are saying. These conversations go something like this:

“Tiger: Food! Food! That tall giant is feeding us that flat stuff that looks like dead leaves but tastes gourmet!”

“Gazelle: You actually eat that?”

“Tiger: (while chomping away) Yummy yummy yummy!”

“Ooh: Why don’t you hide from the giant things?”

“Gazelle: Only the hyper one.”

“Tiger: The hyper one? It isn’t as scary as the smudgy black one.”

At this point I laughed at Becky’s monologue. “Becky, what is the smudgy black one? I get Lucas is the hyper giant.”

“Mom,” Becky laughs and points at the fishtank. Prim (Christina’s 4-year-old Aussie Mix) is standing in her new favorite spot between the fishtank and the couch.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Tag: goldfish

Cousin Visits!

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Watching Fish

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