Maybe I spoke too soon on the spec’s. After a week of nice, warming weather I hit the lake again and caught 3 nice spec’s in a couple of hours. That’s not an enormous catch for sure but the first sign of life this season. The signs that this may be a delayed season are that I caught the fish out about 200′ from shore and they were all males. Usually this time of year the spec’s would be right up in the lily pads close to shore and most would be female.
Catching the fish also brought some really good news. A few weeks back during one of the freezes, I went down to the dock to check on things in general and found that the water pump was surging on and off. The pump lifts water from the lake up to the dock where I use it for general watering, cleaning fish, and whatever uses you can think of for water. It has a built in pressure switch so when you turn the faucet, the switch turns the pump on automatically. so when it was cycling I was afraid that the freeze had broken a pipe and it was leaking somewhere. I had installed the pump a couple years ago and had run the input plumbing out to near the end of the dock so that when the lake level was low, the input point would still be submerged. That also meant that a cracked pipe or joint could be way out underneath the dock and a crummy fix job in the cold water. I just pulled the plug on the pump and figured I’d wait until it warmed up before fixing it. So with a catch of fish to be cleaned, I couldn’t put off the plumbing task any longer. I plugged in the pump and was pleased that it didn’t start the surging. I opened the faucet and away it went, pumping it’s little heart out. No leaks, no breaks – working perfectly. I guess that somehow ice had frozen in the pipes which activated the pressure switch and when the ice melted, everything went back to normal. How lucky can I be?
I’ve heard that there are people who have never seen cauliflower growing in the garden. Wow. So here’s the before and after – before picking and after. The variety is called Snow Crown.
Had one that really cracked me up. I have this bug bite based allergy that recurs from time to time. If it really gets bad I have to get a shot and prescription for methyl prednisone. There’s also a prescription creme that will sometimes control it and let me avoid the shot and steroids. I got bit by something a week ago and it started attacking me from the inside a few days later. I had a tube of the creme left over from last year and started applying it. Seems to be helping but it’s a small tube and I needed to have the prescription refilled at the pharmacy. I called and was explaining this to the person who answered the phone. She was of the Mexican persuasion. She asked me if this was a riffle and I said no, it was a tube of creme. She asked again if it was riffle and I said – what’s a riffle? Turns out she was saying refill. Oh, that kind of riffle. After I hung up I started laughing till it brought tears to my eyes.
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