thank david suzuki (my version of god) things are sprouting!

 passing on my love of Coleoptera!

 poor guy was on his way out

 first time i saw him want bites of a sandwich so i just gave it to him! his taste in food changes drastically from week to week

one of the 3 zucchini seeds i planted has started! all i need is one!

I noticed the seeds on the ends of the baby shoots and i think these are the spinach rather than the lettuce.  the smaller round leaves could be the lettuce. oo i just googled it, it is the lettuce!

some of them are quite large already

these are carrot seedlings and that big thing might be a weed again...

put some eggshells down around my tomato plants..supposed to provide nutrients and ward off slugs. my poor tomatoes...not sure how many are going to make it. i didn't "harden them off" properly...they got bleached in the sun. i was leaving them out too long too soon. mostly out of forgetfulness and being busy and scatter brained. i still have a couple in pots inside that i can try again with if these all die

leeks

onions

then i saw a few flying insects landing on the garden...and decided to get my tulle out to protect at least some plants. the wire was from the dollar store and this stretch of tulle was 8 bucks so I think I will get 3 more for the other rows and cover them all like this

I start my experiment tomorrow! We are still doing it, just without the tanks. Instead we gave the ammocoetes a refuge to hide under and sectioned off the tank so that they can either swim around in this small area or hide under the refuge. The swimming time and their behaviour before and after the stimulus is released will be the deciding factor as to whether they can be behaviourally controlled by chemical repellents

after running trials with tanks and no refuge and sand and no sand and lights on and lights off we finally came to the conclusion that this was the best way because they felt safe under the refuge AND we can see them, which was a problem in even 2 cm of sand...they would dig in and completely disappear.

I will most likely be defending the fact that this experiment is artifical and not what they do in the wild, but all we are looking for is a VISIBLE response to a chemical repellent, and this is the only way to find out. Many experiments have tested animal responses in artifical environments and been published, such as one my professor showed me about crabs and their response to predators, which was conducted in a large plastic tank with no substrate.

Same thing we do every week Pinky...

So I'm not sure if its the coffee I just downed or if I actually feel a little better today. I have been at work for an hour and haven't a single customer yet. I love Sundays.

Tomorrow I am going to meet my teacher at the sea lamprey (DFO) building and change our experiment. After building those tanks, he decided we cannot use them because the visibility of the animal is not consistent. Making the tanks any thinner would just reduce their normal behaviour to the point where the experiment would be criticized and not publishable. Sooo RIP tanks. The only good thing about the situation is that I can say "we tried this approach" in case we get a criticism of our NEW way of doing it, which I am not yet sure is going to work either until tomorrow.
 He also told me I need to be a veritable EXPERT on sea lamprey so off I go to read about them.

Reading all of the news lately of violence going on in Canada (shootings in the Eaton Centre in Toronto, we have a new serial killer who mails body parts to politicians) is giving me some anxiety but also making me think about the fact that shootings like that happen everyday in big cities. Just because it wasn't in a bad neighborhood and occurred in a mall, now everyone is frightened? Including myself? They believe it was a gang issue, but don't they always just say that until they know what really happened? And this serial killer dude had a blog where he drowned and suffocated kittens for YEARS and no one did anything. We all know the warning signs that sociopaths display. Step 1. Killing defenseless animals. And this guy did it for everyone to see and even e-mailed the police and warned he was going to move on to people. I guess what I'm trying to say is society is a funny place I don't really understand, and I'm ashamed that I only start to really think about it when things happen close to home and in my little safe mall bubble.

 A favourite quote of mine from an artist and someone who speaks openly about human issues and politics goes like this:

Work, entertainment – all of the aspects of modern life – are nothing more than distractions that increase the successes of power. When you have bills to pay and mouths to feed you’re not really worried about what’s happening out there – and when you get a reprieve from it you spend your time doing whatever takes your mind off of the fact that you spend the majority of your time doing what’s required to survive and achieve. That cycle, though considered by the vast majority to be unbreakable, is precisely why societies that consider themselves ‘free’ are anything but. In fact, that perpetual cycle is what guarantees the success of manipulation. Periphery information and hearsay become largely sacrosanct rather than simply parts of a much larger puzzle worth debating and questioning, giving voice to beliefs that are embarrassingly steeped in utter stupidity. -Matthew Good

I held onto it because I want to break free from this cycle someday and hopefully make a difference. I don't know if I will ever be able to, but I want to. I applaud the protesters in Montreal that other people scoff at.

almost ready to plant!

 Some soil on the floor from Evan dropping our peppers pot on the floor..had to replant them all haha. They have no luck those poor things. I read that I should probably keep all my peppers (sweet, jalapeno) potted and in this little greenhouse all summer or they may not fruit. So I bought some larger nursery pots today for 3.50 each to replant them in. I am going to try some in the garden as well though.

 A shake breakfast

 Might try the new workout craze Insanity...ugh haha

 And then I got some compost!

 it's not much but I can go and buy some in the store if it's not enough. I like to support local as much as I can afford first.

 Yes yes I should do Insanity. Here's me helping put together the tubing for our tanks' water supply

 Timing how long the stimuli will take to pass through the tanks by timing the appearance of food colouring out the bottom holes.

 Toddlers are fun!

Oh look you can see my horrible DIY air conditioning vent to outside. I broke my plexiglass so I had to tape the vent to it hahaha. Things will be like that around here until I'm finished school and can hire people to do things properly!

 He decided his tractor was a better container for his raspberries than the bowl I provided

 And then we put our grill together at 11 o'clock at night because that's the only time we can do anything uninterrupted!

 We came home to this today. King of the castle

 Let the grilling begin! He wrapped some those asparagus in proscuitto

 Ain't no thang

 He loves water!

 I can't wait to take him swimming

And wheelbarrows.

Today we are going to take the tarp off the area we want to put the garden and scrape off all of the dead weeds and mix in the compost.  We also bought a bag of mulch just to see how much area one bag covers.

 We thought it was going to rain today but the dark clouds passed. It would have been nice for some rain despite our outdoor plans, especially since today we are inundated with smoke from a forest fire in the States, not sure how far away, but from the smell it can't be too far across St. mary's river

Tonight I will review how to sow all of my selected vegetables in our "How to Grow Food" book, and look at my garden layout plan and see if I need to adjust it at all. Might be able to plant some seeds tomorrow before work.

may 23? already?

I have been neglecting you poor blog. My first spring class is over! That was an insane 3 weeks! It took me all weekend to write the paper on the disease of my choice. I chose nephritis because my mother suffered kidney failure about 8 years ago. I was living in Vancouver at the time and had to hear about everything over the phone instead of being there. it was rough for me because my dad had died only two years previous and now my mother's life was in danger and I was far away. My cousin and I ended up selling everything we had in a garage sale, dropping out of school and coming home. I continued school here. I re-lived that a bit as I was writing about the disease and relating it back to my mother. I understand the disease a lot more now and also know how to prevent it from happening to me.

Monday was a lovely day trip to Saginaw, Michigan with one of my best friends and some of her wedding party to purchase our bridesmaid outfits. I ended up buying Damien some summer clothes at an outlet mall on the way home. Kids clothes are so addicting when you are a (new) parent. If I ever find my camera cord I may upload some pictures from that day.

We have made some progress on my thesis experiment!

Visited our lovely landfill and saw the poor bears who have become dependent on human waste as a food source...sigh

The tanks my teacher built to observe the juvenile lamprey

My very important job was to cut some mosquito mesh for the bottom of the tanks.

and sit outside in the sun while he went to get a tool we needed

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans building we are working in

I think if I ever move away the only thing I will miss is being by the river

Did you know there are foot long drill bit extensions?  I guess they are necessary though since we needed one

Filling them up with water to see how quickly they drain

In goes the lamprey baby

I think he likes  it

My compost is getting delivered tomorrow!

I found out my cat not only likes sweet pepper plants but pansies as well! Lucky thing I have a list of plants that are toxic to pets so she never gets herself into too much trouble.

"Your adventure has begun!"

 Had a snack while waiting to hear from my teacher. Dill havarti and italian herbed flat breads mmmm

 oh dear.... (piglet from winnie the pooh voice)

 And then I finally got to feed the sea lamprey ammocoetes

 They came in a box filled with sand

 Prepared a holding tank for them

 Covered the bottom with sand for them to burrow, since that's what they like to do. The water in here is straight from the river, unfiltered and untreated. It was soooo cooold

 Dissolved baker's yeast and sand

 There they are! The larger ones are only about 15 cm long

 

Put the yeast and an oxygen tube in and they are good to go until the morning. They will filter the yeast out of the water overnight as they are in a filter feeding stage of life

 Just since this morning these have grown over 1 centimetre!

The peppers have also gotten a bit bigger.

As my teacher said to me today, my adventure has begun! We will be making the small observation tanks for the sea lamprey Monday. I also have another test and an evening class. Better get lots of sleep Sunday night.