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With this many fishing rods (6 in total) we have to catch something!“Did you guys see that Flying Fish?”“Maybe they are just out a little farther”Waiting…Maybe once the sun gets up they will start biting…Well, it IS a nice boat ride

We arrived at the docks at Lahania around 6:30 and once everyone was fitted with fins and snorkel gear – all given special names by the Captain of the boat and her crew – we headed out to sea.  My mask and snorkel was called Mahi-Mahi.  Mahi-mahi is Hawaiian for dolphin fish.

I had bought a small digital camera that was waterproof the day before just for the trip.  Yeah – I know – I really needed another camera.  But I didn’t think saltwater would be good for my SLR, considering how my cell phone reacted to dampness.

The plan was to stop at three places around the island to snorkel.  At the first location we were all given snorkel lessons before we jumped into the water.  The coral was amazing even from the boat. and several sea turtles could be seen under the water or surfacing now and then for air.

I had left the strap for the little camera in Audie’s truck in my big camera bag, but I found a big rubber band to attach to the camera and loop around my wrist.  I wasn’t going to let a little problem like that cause me any grief.

I loved it!  Unfortunately, when I stuck my head above the water I could see almost everyone was back on board the boat.  I remember something came to mind like “candy-asses” but I went along with the majority.

…the beach stop

This isn’t a photo of the babies, of course.  The newborn are about the size of a baby guppy, maybe even smaller.   I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them all this fall if even a few survive.  There must be a hundred or so of the little critters in the pond, ranging in size from newborn to an inch long (about three or four weeks)

The other night, I had the Animal Planet channel on, and in the “coming up next” promos was a show on the “fascinating and deadly vampire fish recently discovered in South America”. Now that sounds good. Vampire fish. Not vicious, flesh eating piranha or sharks, but real, honest to god, blood-sucking vampire fish…

Like all programs like this, the introductory segment explains what they are going to do in this episode, and why, and who. The opening line was something like this:

“We are going to take a trip down the Amazon River in search of the Candiru or vampire fish. According to the native people of the area, this fish is capable of swimming up the urine stream of a man relieving himself in the river, and lodge itself inside the penis. The vampire fish stays there until it is gorged with blood and actually explodes. Because of this nasty habit, it has earned the nickname, the “willy fish”

“The fish has tiny, spike shaped barbed fins, which face backwards, so that when the tail of the fish is pulled in an effort to remove it, the fish becomes even more aggressively and permantly attached to the inside of the penis. Many men, because of the intense pain involved, choose to have their penis amputated rather than wait until they can get to a hospital where there is a chance it can be surgically removed.”

I hear the “chance it can be removed” and shiver. Chance?? Chance!!!?? What’s up with that???

In any event, the intro has caught my attention. Not only is it a real, honest to god vampire fish, but it apparently is rather selective on where its’ blood source comes from, as well as the sex of its donor. Throw in amputation of the one part that no man should be without, and this becomes a “don’t miss episode”.

As it turns out, the vampire fish is a victim of bad P.R. (public relations) and poor judgement. The little bastard appears to be confused about the smell of pee and the smell of fish breath. Then again, they may well have a similar odour. The vampire fish “attacks” the willy because he thinks it smells like the water coming out of another fish’s gills. You see, the inside of gills is where they vampire fish prefers to get his meals.

I haven’t peed for two days now. Better to be safe than sorry, as far as I’m concerned.

You can see a video on YouTube about the vampire fish here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSLKZzuLC00

My new fish pond makes catching the fish a little tricky. The fish have lots of room to get away, and if you reach too far, you will fall in. (No, I didn’t – but close)

First of all, I didn’t have a net big enough. And the only pet store in town was closed. I made my own out of some netting, a wire clothes hanger, a broom handle and some duct tape. It actually worked, though I admit it was kinda crude looking.

There was also the babies I wanted to save. There was only about six survivors. They’re only about a half inch long, and hard to find, and even harder to catch. As soon as you get positioned so that you can catch one, they hide under something, scoot off to the other end of the pond, or simply vanish.

I had to set up two tanks because I was afraid the babies would become fish food.

In any event, they all are inside, and of course, I got some pictures to share.

For anyone interested, the first photo is a koi, the second is a shubunkin, the third one is a butterfly koi, and the last one is a comet. I think the shubunkin is one of the parents (probably the mother) of the babies.

And naturally, a baby photo:

Well, in a couple of weeks I hope to actually have the back yard done, so there’s always the possibility that a bucket of common sense will splash on me, and the inside work (where you actually live and eat and sleep) that should be done will be done.

In the meantime, here’s some of what I’ve done in the yard.

• built a bridge
• dug a fish pond
• built a waterfall and stream to the pond
• underground sprinkling system in the back yard
• cut out pathways through the lawn
• moved the sod from the pathways to the south side of the house
• roto-tilled the driveway to get rid of the weeds
• removed all of the plants, weeds, junk from the north side of the house, and replaced it with gravel
• hauled away three wheel-barrows full of cat poo from the front of the house by the varanda
• moved a million or so iris plants to the pond
• cut down all of the bushes, trees, and other miscellaneous stuff from the south side of the house
• planted a new tree (a Russian Olive) beside the fish pond
• roto-tilled the driveway again

If you take a look at the photos here, you can see there’s a lot left to do. Digging a pond 4.5 meters X 2.5 meters (about 15 ft X 8 ft, for the unmetricized) leaves a lot of dirt. You can probably see it in the pictures. On the “to do” list is

• load the dirt into the truck and haul it away
• finish cutting the paths through the back yard
• haul the gravel for the paths
• haul gravel for the driveway
• finish building the fence
• paint the fence (someone please volunteer for that job )
• stain the bridge
• clean up the flower (weed) garden at the very back of the yard
• tear down the old shed, and build a new one
• plant a couple more trees, ’cause there ain’t none in the back yard

The fish pond already has fish in it. That was a little ahead of schedule. Sherry dumped a couple of fish (big ones) from her house into the pond because they she thought they were mean, nasty fish. I think they were just horny, because they appear to be doing the mating dance marathon now. As well, I decided to put my fish into the pond. The big fish obviously have more important matters on their mind, because they pretty much leave the small ones alone.

I’ll post some more photos when the work is a little more complete.

I had been promised that there would be good fishing because my guides knew all of the good spots. As it turns out, there was only three or fish in the whole lake, and Sherry caught them all. Two of them were worth keeping, one of them was a little iffy, and the one to the left was nothing more than a large guppy.

Despite the fact the fishing wasn’t the greatest, it was a sunny, calm day, and well worth the time. My sister claims she had “the big one,” but that story cannot be verified, and goes into “the one that got away” bin. I may have had one fish nibble at the hook, but more than likely I just snagged on some seaweed. Herb also claims he had one up to the side of the boat, but there is no evidence to the existence of that fish.

The only ones that appeared to be ahead in the game were the pelicans. They do have the advantage – their plan was to herd them into a group and swoop them out of the water. There’s no challenge in that, but it did put supper on the table.

Somewhere in my fish pond live about 12 fish. There are some koi, shubunkins, and common goldfish. Originally there were 14 fish. I guess a couple of them decided to move out.

I seldom get to see them. Goldfish and koi don’t particularly like the sun, so they hide under the floating plants, or inside the pipe I have scattered around the bottom of the pond. As well, the pond naturally develops algae, and it makes the water a little murky.

This morning, they were all out and looking for food, since it was cloudy and a little cooler. I thought I might be able to get a picture of them so I grabbed my camera from the house and returned to the pond.

No fish. Anywhere. All of them had disappeared.

I waited patiently, thinking that I had startled them, and they would return to the surface in a few minutes.

Wrong.

After about 20 minutes, I decided I wasn’t going to get my photos. At least not today. (more on next page)