Ideal: day 75

Phoenix. Swift. Snips. Shorte. Mystery. Stiki. Four unnamed mantids.
Hatchet. Munch. Ideal.

All of these I kept, which makes a total of 12 I tried to raise from little nymph to adulthood. Sprout isn't, but with him that makes 13.
6 from the first, and 6 from the second. (Sprout doesn't count exactly)

Pheonix, Mystery, Stiki, and the four unnamed mantids were all from the first eggsack, of which none survived.

Hatchet, Munch, Ideal, Swift, Snips, and Shorte were from the second container. Hatchet, Ideal, and Munch were ones that didn't fall out when I shook it. the other three were ones that caught my interest by their looks.

As for Sprout the eggsack that he comes from is unknown, but if I had to guess it'd be the first one. I think I spread most of the second one deeper in the ravine, while the first one closer to the house, in particular the spot where I found Sprout, so it's very likely Sprout's from the first one.

Ideal looking around

Ideal sitting tight.

I hate to burst your bubble Ideal, but those fish are not food for you -_-

Ideal climbing up the arm of the chair


Mantis terrarium #2 complete, Ideal moved in at around 12:30 PM. :D

strange I was planning on adding Ideal's age in days, and I was surprised when I saw learned it turned out that Sprout was exactly 75 days old today.

Sprout is either 78 or 75 depending which eggsack he's from, but most likely he's 78.

Hatchet: Final shots.

Hatchet a few hours before I attempted the preservative measure, a few hours before death. Probably 3-4 hours before death. I wasn't particularly interested in a look good shot, for obvious reasons. I took them as a log of his size, for when he died. The first one is the best, and the second one is the last, and best on showing size in Metric units.




a picture of Sprout eating his first fly today. (yes, first. I was took a chunk of time to feed/ care for the mantises today. A result of the obvious... Yesterday it was geared towards finding another one, to no avail...).



Sprout's last molt did something, I'm not sure what happened but I know what you see above isn't what it's supposed to look like. His abdomen sags, brought down with gravity. The point where it does this is right behind the part where the wings will grow out of when the final molt is completed. And I think Sprout only has one more left. I'm not sure what will happen when he does molt. It is worrisome. Unlike the other two years where I've been unsuccessful in getting an adult mantis I have more then one, not only that I have a possible source for adult mantises. We went to Jack's aquarium (we were going to go to a different one, but I remembered that mom had said one of the people at Jack's aquarium had said something about tons of praying mantises on the back door). If he finds one I'll know. It'd be an adult since it's quite obvious after seeing where he found them, that to get there they'd have to fly there. Probably drawn by the light, and the other bugs around it. I just don't feel good about my odds of getting a pair out of two mantises, plus the fact I don't know if I'll even get an adult none the less two adults.

Now there's something you don't see every day. It appears to be a mating pair of parasitic wasps.

pictures of Ideal, who I let climb on a chair, since I wanted to get a good picture of him, which is difficult since he just keeps moving whenever he's in my hand. It did the trick, he stopped at the top of it and I got to take some better pictures of him. He sure lives up to his name... love the contrast he has, especially between his head, and his eyes. My favorite, now at least... (I raised him from the beginning, Sprout I didn't otherwise it may be different). I think I liked Hatchet more though, but obviously the situation has changed...




As a side note, at Jack's aquarium I got two dozen crickets (for the mantises, as flys are getting harder to find), a ten gallon glass aquarium (the intention is to make in into a second Mantis terrarium, for Ideal), a reptile lid for that ten gallon aquarium (works for mantises too), and a 2.5 gallon aquarium (for triops possibly, if not then probably for any potential guppy babies in the future).

as it stands now:

Sprout- level 7 (molted 4-6 days ago)
Ideal- level 6 (for awhile now)

I did try the extreme measure in trying to do something to help Hatchet, though to no avail. I couldn't just sit there and do nothing, even if I know there was nothing I could do. He was barely moving. What I did was take a cricket that was fresh and feed it to the mantis, (by bringing it up to it's mouth. This measure prolonged a mantis' life once, but it didn't save it.)

Actually I believe Hatchet died while I was doing this. first he was moving, then I started to notice a lack of any movement, earlier he appeared to at least be nibbling on it. No ammount of poking, was able to get a response from Hatchet. Maybe if I had tried that sooner, but I'll never know...

I was able to get a triop to lay eggs again (the third time).

I think Sprout has one more molt left.

Patch is really starting to bug me to go to bed... so off I go.

I was pretty thrilled yesterday when I got one of the triops to lay eggs in another container, I also was able to repeat that today.

but this overshadows it...

Hatchet is dying... and I can't stop it.

the male guppy, Shadow

the female guppy, Sunset

the female guppy, Silvette


See those whitish spots on the triop's sides? Those are eggs, in an egg pouch. They're adults now. Only took 18-19 days too.

a picture to help show you the size.
The triops will still molt. That skin behind the triop below was actually shed after the triop it was from had eggs (I was going to take it out, and basically throw it away, until I noticed something. When the triop shed it, it left behind it's eggs. I never knew they did that before. So I set it aside.)


I avoided watching tv all day (after Church anyways). I ended up outside most of the day. First, I got food for the mantises (that actually took 30-50 minutes to find/catch 3 flies... pesky things) Then I tried out my old rollarblades, which are supposed to be for size 8, which is 1 1/2 sizes too small now. A little tight, but it worked, though after awhile it started to bother my left foot. Then I came back in, ate, did something while I ate, mowed the lawn, got on my rollar blades again, and ended with a little run (15 minurtes or less). Then I took a shower, and got on the computer (at 6:30 ish).

I did this as an experiment. I wanted to see what I'd fill the time I'd normally be watching TV with. I guess I didn't really realize how much I really watch that thing. that was like 4-5 hours of stuff I just told you above too...

definitely something to think more about.

Now the weather people predicted that it Don would give at least some good amount of rain, but unfortunately the High that's over Texas, like the heat has been doing to people it did to Don. It sucked the energy right out of it. I've seen the satellite view of the landfall, it starts to go over land, then poof it just vanishes. They're gonna need something stronger then a tropical storm...

I've been having trouble, getting a clear picture, which I figured out how to do today (a picture through the water, without it turning out grainy), and I accidentally came across a way to get those energizer bunny triops to hold still on on the edge towards me for longer then a second.

Food... that was the answer. once they find a pellet that I put on the surface of the water, they'll just sink eating it. They'll even stay on their backs.

like this:



As a bonus I got my finger close to it. :)
17-18 day old triop; I'd say within a few days of becoming an adult triop, which is determined by the appearance of an eggsack (unless it's the rare kind of triop, a male triop)

The praying mantises as they stand

Sprout- stage 6 (has been for around a week to ten days now)
Ideal- stage 6 (molted yesterday morning)
Hatchet- stage 5 (3-5 days ago)

also I figured out the name for the last female guppy,

it has an orangish tail, (I thought of it today actually) so I named her Sunset.

so we have Silvette, Sunset, and Shadow. (I just realized those all start with S, how strange)

I also realized Silvette's silverish-blue coloration in her tail fin, is also in her her Ventral fins (fins on her belly). The leading edges of those fins are tipped in that color, she looks great. Sunset does as well, the basically compliment each other swimming around close to one another.

Yesterday after I got up, I just sat in a chair (after I cleaned the one of the sides of the tank of algae, the one I look through specifically.) and I think I zoned out watching the fish swim around. Pretty amazing that there's something so simple, that can hold my attention that long, usually the limit on a simple thing, with my adhd and all, is like 10 minutes max (that's before I've taken my meds for that). This occurred before I took them btw. I think I was watching the fish for over 30 minutes.

dad and I found out that the toolbox that we use to keep the cats from coming up from the basement left a huge rust stain on the kitchen floor. While I was downstairs turning on the washer, he cleaned the rush spot. Mom said a few ideas how to fix this (after I came back up, she got home). Then she went upstairs, so dad and I were floating around ideas, his foil tape (I got that during a second trip downstairs) method (taping the bottom of the toolbox with it so it would slide) got me thinking, about the sliding idea, and then it came to me, use bottle tops, specifically gatorade bottle tops (which I had 10 of which I acquired at the soccer camp). we'll see how that works...
Mom's idea of putting carpet on the bottom of the toolbox was a pretty good one as well

-Running-


The only time I ever really seem to keep going like this (when in physical discomfort, and without anyone's encouragement) is when I run. I just don't want to stop. Though when I'm tired enough I will, unless I have a goal in mind, then I won't. I don't know why I seem to do constantly push through pain, or tiredness while run for long distance (not sprinting). I don't know I think I actually might be trying to get that feeling, and push through it. I think that's what I might like about running (I just thought of that) I've always wondered why I like it quite a bit. Maybe it's a combination as well...

-end running, for now-

How did I get so many gatorade tops at camp?

Well when we first got at camp we ate, and each person got one gatorade. Some of the team decided to fling the tops (actually it turned into dodge the flying gatorade tops). I collected the flung ones (actually I wasn't participating in this "dodging"). Coach then told us to pick them up, and for somereason I decided to keep the ten I had, who knew they'd come in handy ;).

I just wish those politicians would raise the debt ceiling and get it over with...
And this is exactly the reason why I'm going to stay an independant, as opposed to a republican, or democrat. Both parties have some things I like, and some things I don't. Only if there was a combination of the good parts.

Now if I could only find my watch, which I seem to have misplaced yesterday.

Now for some good new, not good, Great News!
Tropical storm don looks like it's going to hit Texas, which desparately needs the rain, maybe the storm could also dislodge that pesky High over Texas as well, ending the extreme heat there. The High has proven to be quite stubborn about moving so far though.

It's supposed to hit Texas Friday night.