Fishies!

So, the fishy project is well under way. I have one round of babies (best count is about nine) that are growing quickly, and one female getting closer and closer to spawning some more. Unfortunately it's proven rather difficult to get good pics of baby fishies. They're just too tiny and quick to get reliable photographs.

Anyway, here's the cast:


On the left is the male, and yes, he's much smaller than the females. He's a red Mickey Mouse, you can't see his markings in this photo, but they're subtle and sort of cool looking. The yellow female is a Marigold Variatus Mickey Mouse, and the red female is is a Red Wag, no mickey mouse markings.
Seen above: A baby! Some of this batch are staying yellowish/clear like this one, but several of them are looking grey and reddish, which blends into the gravel. Some are also growing much faster than others, there are a couple that are veritable giants compared to the others, but they'll all end up turtle-snack sized eventually.

As you can see, this female is rather pregnant, and near as I can figure out, may or may not be close to spawning. Unfortunately there isn't a real clear way to figure out exactly when a fish is going to pop. All the websites say "You'll know your female is close to spawning when she is very fat. Like, really very fat." Thank you, helpful online fish websites.

The babies I have now were born in a smaller tank, before I got the big tank up and running, so when I made the move, I left them in the smaller tank for a while. They had a chance to grow a bit without worrying about being eaten, which the next batch probably won't, but hopefully the lovely plants given to me by a very generous father of a friend will provide enough cover for the new babies to hide out and stay away from the adults.

At any rate, now you've seen my latest breeding project. Feel free to call me a dork, since I'm pretty sure I qualify, given how avidly I've been watching this tank for any changes (including trying to catalog the number and variety of snails, or more likely eggs, that hitched a ride on the plants, which is sort of awesome as they're good for the plants and keep the tank clean.)

Mamaw's Cinnamon Rolls

I haven't posted a new recipe for a while so here you go.

Mamaw's Cinnamon Rolls

2 pkgs yeast            1 T sugar
1/4 cup very warm water 

mix well and set aside till foamy.  Cream 2/3 cup softened butter with 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tsp salt.

 Add 3 eggs and beat well.  Add 1 cup hot water and yeast mixture.  

Add 4 cups flour.

Cover and let rise.  Punch down and let rise again. 

Pour onto floured board and roll out to about 1/2 inch.

Spread with butter then sprinkle with cinnamon, sugar and chopped nuts.  The more cinnamon the better for me. 

Roll up and slice 1" to 1 1/2" thick.  In bottom of pan put 1/2 cup butter in pats (the more butter the gooier  the topping ) and brown sugar to cover about 1/2 inch thick.  Sprinkle with chopped nuts, as many as you want.  Place cinnamon rolls on top and let rise. 

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes or till golden brown.  let cool for 10 minutes and then turn out on a tray. 

FarmDad will grab one right out of the oven. 

Once in a while I will chop up a can of apple pie filling and smear that on before I roll them up.  

Enjoy!

Question....

Ok, I'm working on another short story, and probably another one after that... I plan to continue adding to the e-books. There's a question I have, though. So far, all my sales on Men In Black Suits have been on Amazon. Unless Barnes and Noble's reporting system is delayed, that means that nobody wants to read it on a Nook. As fond as I am of the nook platform, there's an option Amazon offers that offers me a chance to make some more money. Maybe. If I make an item exclusive to Amazon for at least 90 days.

So, over on the right, there's a poll. Tell me how you'd like to see future stories published, and I'll listen... since you all are the whole point of publishing this stuff! I've got the "I'll pay more for a PDF/text file" answer on there, because I've gotten that response from a couple of people. If there's enough demand, I'll whip up a pdf or offer the text file for sale on the blog. Keep in mind that delivery wouldn't be instant, since I'd be emailing it.

I'm hoping to have the next short story ready to go by the middle of next week, but we'll see. It's cranking out quite a bit longer than Men In Black Suits already, and I'm not even halfway through. So, tell me what you think.

Men In Black Suits

Ya'll remember, way back in '07, when I wrote a little goofy parody, that sort of got stuck, and never came un-stuck?

Well, it finally did. You can finally find out what in the hell happened with Sam in the bathroom!

Since I'm broke, I'm selling it. Don't worry, it's cheap, only 99 cents. I get less than half of that, but let's face it, it's a short story. It also provided a handy dry run for when I publish Jane... and I've learned a few things that will make that process go much smoother, so it's a net win.

As a side note, no, it's not published under FarmGirl. It's also not published under my real name. Plenty of people out there know who I am, now, but I always planned on publishing Jane under a nom de plume, and this particular one happens to let me honor people that I dearly love at the same time. That dizzy last name? It's pronounced "Dahzee."

Get it at Amazon or Barnes and Noble for your favorite e-reader or e-reader app.

Enjoy!

Jane

I'm working on finishing Jane, I have a couple of chapters past what I last published on the blog and I'm getting on towards wrapping it all up.

What I'm going to do, is e-publish the entire thing when it's done. That way everyone gets the whole story.

Money is tight right now so the extra income will be very welcome, as well.

Watch this space, folks. The long, long, long wait is coming to an end.

April... Showers?

Yeah, it snowed. That second picture is the drift that was in front of my car in the driveway, you can see where my bumper was. Got dug out to where I can get out of the driveway and theoretically into the street, though plowing the street doesn't appear to be a priority for the city, so there's tire tracks in slush a foot deep all the way across the street. I have to go to work in about thirty minutes, so this ought to be interesting.

Why We Don't Have Blogorado In Spring

Sunday, it was over 80 degrees. Monday, it was 40 or lower. Today we have two feet of snow or more, and still coming down.

It's officially spring, Colorado has gone bipolar. Ahhh, home sweet home.

Turtle!

So, shortly after the move, DM's former boss called, regarding a turtle a tennant had left in an apartment. It hadn't been cared for in some time, but was still alive, and came with a tank and filter.

Me being the softie I am, of course I took it. Turned out to be a female red eared slider, who started perking up with proper care. Or, I thought she was perking up and being a normal happy turtle.

I found out otherwise when I put feeder fish in her tank. She went batty for them, and it changed her behavior... made her more active, she basked more, and just generally seemed to be overjoyed at the chance to hunt something.

Since at the time I didn't know there was anywhere in town to get feeders, an eighty mile one way trip to pick them up regularly at the rate she was going through them seemed sort of... excessive.

So, I made a plan, talked to some fishy friends, and settled on breeding platties. Got the tank and the fish now, so the project is officially underway. Platties have several benefits, really, they're livebearers which breed easily, they're prolific, hardy, and as an extra bonus, they're pretty, so they're nice to look at, too.

Since I'm sort of a dork, the breeding experiment is sort of fun in it's own right, and feeding the turtle for cheap is sort of awesome.

More updates as things develop, and pictures of the turtle probably forthcoming once her shell fully recovers from not being able to get dry for so long and she looks less like she has leprosy.