SURPRISE!

I had both kids home for school yesterday because of MLK celebration. My lovely wife went to work. My oldest is a fitness addict, so I had to drop her off at the gym in the morning. While I waited for her, I purchased some seeds, carrots, cabbages, lettuce and some other stuff. I put a few of each seed in some wet paper towel in a germinating box that got plenty of light and tried to forget about it. Well this aquaponic system has become an obsession. I know we are going to get another arctic blast that will mean freezing temps for Jax, but I had to get some fish for my system, so during Elaina's second workout of the day, I purchased 5 goldfish for 38 cent a piece. (a 6th one was thrown in for the patience I showed at purchase but that's another story). I let the fish go, put in a few shrimp peels and tried to forget about it.

So today, as I prepared to work on my website for work (My Website) and a meeting later in the day with my coach, my youngest daughter called to announce that she was too sick to stay at school. So after a couple emails I changed my schedule for the day and dedicated my day to getting Lorna better! We came home, made some slushies with juice and she went for a long nap.

I decided to check on the fish again before running out to a blood appointment that I made back in October. To my surprise, the fish seem to love their new spot. I was a little worried about putting them in the reservoir without a bubbler, but I think that the overflow from the grow bed is sucking enough air for them, and the extra velocity from using a pump that is more power than the system needs gives them a nice current to swim in. Happy fish hurray!

I was happily surprised to see that my blood pressure had dropped back into an acceptable range. I will give a daily dose of celery some of the credit for that Red Yeast Rice some credit as well. My Dr. recommended I start taking it back in October. Well I can't grow that in my current set up, but I can grow plenty of celery!

Speaking of growing, since Lorna is bored around the house, we decided to check on the seeds we set to germinate yesterday (not expecting much).

We were presently surprised to find both types of cabbage to be spouting pretty healthly. All other seeds are showing some progress, with the carrots being the slowest. The sprouted seeds are way more that what I have room for in my pilot system and probably more than my raised beds can handle. Looks like I will have a fun problem over the next few weeks. Worst case, I will have plenty of small plants to give to friends this spring! 

My Blogger surprise was that my traffic tracking shows that I had 3 times as many visitors on here as the 40 something friends that liked my Facebook post about my first blog. Maybe I am on to something! 

And last surprise for now. As I write this, much of Jacksonville is getting a hail storm as this cold weather moves in. 

Stay tuned!