New Friends for the Kids

Meg did a lot of research…

A few months ago, Meg asked to get some fish again.  We had some back in St. Louis and moved them here, though at the time, Calvin couldn’t open doors and we could keep Sam away from the fish bowl.  This time, however, Calvin’s older and isn’t know for following directions, so if we were going to get a fish tank again, we’d have to be a bit more careful about where it goes and whether it had a lid or not.

Brooke found a starter kit here in town that came with a 10 gallon tank, some peripheral fakery for the inside of the tank, and a nice lid that should keep small paws and hands out of the tank.  However, we had to get the fish from Sedalia, as our options were non-existent here in town.  Meg decided she wanted to go with tropical fish, which meant we needed to get a small heater for the tank.  We also got a filter system, but it didn’t actually come with tubing, so that had to come from Sedalia, too.

Calvin likes his new friends!

Anyway, we ended up with over 10 small fish of varying types and 2 snails for the tank.  So far, the fish have survived, and the kids feed them twice a day.  We’re hopeful that the filter system and snails will limit the amount of cleaning we need to do, as this system is quite a bit more sophisticated than the small bowl we had for years awhile back.  The filters can be picked up here in town and are supposed to be switched out around once a month, and the water should be exchanged at about 1/3 volume at the same time as the filter (or so we read).  The tank is in the kid’s bedroom, which is close to a bathroom but not really close to the kitchen at all, so if it really is just a water exchange every once and awhile, along with the filter, we should probably be alright.

The kids seem enamored with it so far!  All the fish have names, of course.  🙂

Knocking on wood…

It's February. Seriously.
It’s February. Seriously.

I know it’s been awhile since I posted anything, but this particular post has been bouncing around for a bit and I didn’t want to jinx anything.

So far this season, “sickness” has passed us by.  This isn’t to say we haven’t felt ill or anything, but the week-long, knock-out D.B.D. that we tend to experience each Winter has, thus far, eluded us.  Meg had a bout of strep throat two weeks ago that kept her out of school for 3 days, but the antibiotics took care of it, and really, by the third day, she was back to normal and just couldn’t go to school.

Calvin, somehow, hasn’t really come down with anything.  He’s had a lot of gunk in his eyes the last few days, but that’s begun to subside.  It was probably connected with the runny nose he’s had, but again, nothing to keep him from school.  Thus far, he hasn’t missed any days because he’s been sick, which is craziness compared to the last few Winters.

I can only assume that he’s been infected by literally all childhood diseases at this point and he’s now built up an immunity.

Regardless, we’ve been pretty good on the illness front.  Even Brooke and I have resisted sickness pretty well, with the exception of the odd runny nose and headache.

The weather is the other story of the season, where we had a high of 72 F yesterday.  On February 20th.  In Missouri.  It was nice enough late this week that I pulled out the bike trailer and hooked it up to take the kids to the park on Thursday and Friday (pictured above).  Yesterday, since the sun was out and the temperature broached the 70 F mark, we went out to the garden and started working the soil a bit.

There's Calvin..."helping"...
There’s Calvin…”helping”…

Brooke went ahead and started on the new garden plot, a third one to complement the other two we made last year.  She nearly completed it too, as the ground was soft enough to work efficiently and turn it over in a few hours that morning.  I turned over about half the old, large plot to prepare the way for some carrots, radishes and peas Brooke wants to get started with.  The weather should be in the 50 F range this week, so while it’s going to get colder again, I’m hopeful I’ll have at least one warmer day over Spring Break in a few weeks so I can get out there and turn over more of the garden.

It's mostly herbs. I promise.
It’s mostly herbs. I promise.

For now, Brooke started up her seed warmer and a lamp down in the cellar.  So far, she’s got mostly herbs planted, as well as peppers, tomatoes and some flowers.  This is a bit sooner than she started them last year, and we had them on the back porch last year, where the temperatures got a bit hotter earlier than we expected.  Hopefully, the cellar will maintain it’s temperature better and the seeds will be a bit happier.

Feels like Spring is just around the corner!