# June 19th Plant Club Meeting



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Hello Everyone!

Its about that time again! The last plant club meeting was a blast! We went out to two local ponds, got some good old sunshine and found about 7 species of plants, some are not even available in the hobby yet!

Our next meeting (June 19th) will be similar. The plan is to meet at Amanda's house and have a look at the local waterways near her, then take a drive to a nearby state park and look for driftwood and more plants.

Amanda has been kind enough to write a document (attached) that gives people directions to her house, and the state park (for all you latecomers!), a list of what to bring, and a list of what we will probably find in the field.

Please contact me for directions.
*
Please PM/email/call me to let me know if you are coming or if you are not coming*

-Michael


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

XD Indeed. Seeing as I'm the intended guide for this thing, I suppose it's safe to say I'll be there...here... wherever. You can all mock my haphazardly assembled pile of fish tanks when you get here, lol.

One minor correction: the park isn't a state park. It's privately owned land provided to Southbury area residents to use freely, but the deed itself is owned by O&G Quarry... a state park would require too much governmental red tape to get permission to collect from. We'd be mired in bureaucracy for a year if we tried that, lol. Private property provided for our use is so much easier to deal with... fishing is allowed there as well, by the way, and parts of the river are stocked with trout.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Hehe! Glad to know we won't be mired in bureaucracy for a year! 

By the way, you mentioned something about swimming? I have a few snorkel masks and some flippers, should I bring them?

Perhaps people want to bring some snacks as well? We might as well have a picknick while we are out there.

I can bring some soda, cups and plates. We'll need cold meats (turkey and salami), and chips. Any volunteers??


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

The Southbury park is a perfect picnic area, they have tables and stuff. There used to be some spots where it was deep enough to swim, no idea if that's changed this summer - it being a river floodplain, the water's path is constantly changing and such. The masks would be great, especially in the event that we find a plant 4ft underwater that we want to get a better look at, lol. Flippers would probably get in the way more than they would help, but you can bring them if you like.

... If we're going to go the food route, though, there's a sandwich shop called Mikee's Place in Southbury that we could all grab sandwiches at to bring to the park. Just a thought.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Eeeeexccccellent Smithers! The sandwich shop will do nicely!


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

Okay, then I propose an amendment to my driving directions: we're now getting off exit 14 from I-84, taking a left at the bottom of the exit ramp, and then a right at the traffic light, which will put us on southbury's main drag, Mikee's is in one of the strip malls a little ways down on the left, before the Southbury Food Mart plaza.

.... or Google for Mikee's Place in Southbury, CT to get their address and use GPS to direct yourselves, if you prefer.


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## khanzer22 (Nov 30, 2009)

Oh man, this is gonna be fun! Have to check my schedule that day if I'm clear of any obligations so I can seal the deal and go LOL


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

You totally need to come, so to heck with any other obligations, lol  And this time you need to take things home with you!


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Yeah!!!! That Val we found is doing wonderfully. Its color is so nice.


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

Zapins said:


> Yeah!!!! That Val we found is doing wonderfully. Its color is so nice.


Really? Mine died on me, lol. Kinda like every other val I ever owned. I think they do it just to spite me... seriously

But the other stuff is doing well - that Polygonum-looking thing wound up in the upper part of my pond (i.e. where there are no goldfish) but the rest all went to the guppy and endler tanks... I'm hoping the hairgrass fills in nicely in my 10-gallon-on-a-clothes-dryer setup (long story).

By the way, did we ever find an ID for that grassy stuff that we couldn't figure out? The one you thought might be a Najas? That's also sitting in my guppy tank...


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Not yet, mine seems to have been damaged a bit by leaving it in KMnO4 for 3-4 hours  I'm letting it recover a bit before I snap some pics and post them for Cavan to gobble up. 

By the way, my discus spawned again and I managed to save about 60 eggs before the parents or angels finished eating them all. They are in a 2.5g tank waiting to hatch  I hope they survive!

Also, that newt I caught a few weeks ago? That thing is HUGE now! Its easily 2 inches long and half an inch thick! Its beastly looking and I'm beginning to worry about my shrimp population haha!


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

Lol, which is why I only soaked mine for 20 mins. It's doing okay for me... or at least it hasn't keeled over dead like that val, lol. 

The problem with hatching baby discus artificially is that you'll need to devise a way of feeding them some kind of artificial "slime coat" once they hatch... 
As for my discus pair, they spawned and I tried the metal cage thing... worked for a day, then the snails discovered the eggs -.-' I may stick my yoyo loach in that tank for a week to dine on escargot or something, then try it again.


...I would be very scared if I were your shrimp. Really. Are you still trying to rehome some of those newts?


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## Riverboa (Jun 26, 2007)

Guys/Gals, 
It looks like I'll be joining this month's meet. Looking forward to meeting you all. 

-Tonny


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Great! I look forwards to meeting you too.

As for the discus eggy wegs I was planning on feeding them baby brine. 

I think I have some newts I could give away if people want them. Actually I also want to give away my painted mantella frog if he is still alive.


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

Riverboa said:


> Guys/Gals,
> It looks like I'll be joining this month's meet. Looking forward to meeting you all.
> 
> -Tonny


I'll look forward to seeing you there as well! 



Zapins said:


> As for the discus eggy wegs I was planning on feeding them baby brine.
> 
> I think I have some newts I could give away if people want them. Actually I also want to give away my painted mantella frog if he is still alive.


Bring a newt, I'll take him in or give him to one of my siblings (considering we've cumulatively kept our African clawed frog alive since I was 8 yrs. old, I think we can handle a newt). I figure being a native, he doesn't need a heater... though he might actually like my 29gal Ancistrus setup - its very murky and bog-like, what with the driftwood and all, and only has 2 male plecos in it atm.

o.0' Did you lose your frog or something? I mean, I know my sumo loach likes to disappear for days on end to scare me into thinking he died, but a frog? Anyway, I'll ask Mimi (the younger of my younger sisters) if she wants a frog, too... she's been trying to convince us to get a male African clawed so she can breed them (because we obviously need more frogs swimming around o.0'), but maybe she'd like your little guy instead...

I don't know that discus fry can survive on bbs alone... I think there's something in their parents slime that they need to eat when they're really young, or else they die...

Oh, and a more relevant update: we can add Polygonum spp. to the list of things we'll encounter/collect. I spotted a stem of it today, growing near the edge of my stream - which is rather pitifully low right now, seeing as we've had like no substantial rain lately... ironically, I'm typing this in the middle of a brief summer downpour, yet broadly speaking it's true. Anyway. Polygonum. Had those distinctive heart-shape markings on its leaves and all. No idea what species, I'm gonna leave it where it is to grow 'til the meeting. Watch, with my luck the groundhog will come by, bypass all the Ludwigia, and pluck out every stem of Polygonum on about the 18th or so. :mrgreen:


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

Oh, another random thought: I know we (my sisters and I) used to find crayfish sometimes in one spot in the Southbury park - not sure if they're still there, since it's been about a decade, but we can look


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## khanzer22 (Nov 30, 2009)

Crayfish, yum! LOL

Still 50/50 if I 'm gonna attend or not  Wife will go to a shower that day so I need to find someone to take care of the kid! Will keep you posted...


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

XD I seem to recall them being a little too small for eating, but I suppose if you want to try... people eat fish that come from that water, lol, and there aren't any "no shellfishing" signs there.  

Baby shower or wedding shower? If the former, I vote your wife brings your daughter as an interactive demonstration of what babies become, given a little time  I know, I'm horrible. But, seriously, you should come :mrgreen:


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## khanzer22 (Nov 30, 2009)

Baby shower... Yep, I tried convincing her to bring our daughter but she declined... She said it's an all ladies party, no kids :/


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Aren't moms supposed to take their babies to baby showers!?! How else are they supposed to show up the other moms?

Yea, why don't you bring your kid with? Most kids like playing in mud and pulling up weeds and squashing crayfish! 

I am so looking forwards to snorkeling at the next meet...


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## khanzer22 (Nov 30, 2009)

Well, this kind of shower they don't want to bring kids, weird... I guess it's a lame excuse to get a day off taking care of their kids LOL


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

The heck kind of baby shower has a no-kids rule attached? Kids are kind of the point of the whole thing.... well, that and cooing endlessly over itty bitty baby outfits. ' Personally, I don't entirely get it. 

On the other hand, I don't much like the idea of squished crayfish, either. The playing in the mud and pulling up weeds bit we'll do plenty of though, lol. I'll even probably point out some weeds that we can eat along the way. 

Whatever you do, don't wear nice clothes  T-shirts and old jeans are the dress code of the day :mrgreen:

And Michael, upon digging through my closet I discovered my old snorkeling set, lol. So it looks like we'll have at least two snorking loonies probing the deep depths of the pomperaug for various vegetation... and crayfish. We can race the trout, if you like, but they'll win


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Muahaha!! Trout beware! Crayfish too!

As for the baby shower... its a facade man! Shes going to a strip club with her friends and they don't want to traumatize the kids!!  !!!!!!!

By the way... on a more random note I just found the most awesome website. It shows you how to make a casting furnace! Tomorrow I'm going to buy all the materials and start making statues... of myself....


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## khanzer22 (Nov 30, 2009)

Haha, strip club in broad day light, I don't think so!

I wish we still have my wife's kayak so we could reach places that we can't reach by foot... 

How big is the statue you're planning to make? Miniature ones? LOL


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

Zapins said:


> Muahaha!! Trout beware! Crayfish too!
> 
> As for the baby shower... its a facade man! Shes going to a strip club with her friends and they don't want to traumatize the kids!!  !!!!!!!
> 
> By the way... on a more random note I just found the most awesome website. It shows you how to make a casting furnace! Tomorrow I'm going to buy all the materials and start making statues... of myself....


XD It probably says something about my mental health that I think that's actually kind of a cool idea. Except the statues of you part. You're nice and all, but I don't like you enough to go around making statues of you  (Heck, I don't even like me that much... statuary is hard work.) I can, however, be commissioned to do graphite & color portraiture. But that's not the point lol.



khanzer22 said:


> Haha, strip club in broad day light, I don't think so!
> 
> I wish we still have my wife's kayak so we could reach places that we can't reach by foot...
> 
> How big is the statue you're planning to make? Miniature ones? LOL


There are few (inland) places in the state of Connecticut where the water is so wide that I cannot reach by hand and foot, lol. Especially if I have a snorkel set with flippers and all. I have no problem diving 10ft down, either, but the places we're visiting are mostly under 8ft... the park by my house might be a little deeper at the center, but I'm not even sure they allow swimming in the first place.

On another note, we should totally all make plant-collecting action figures (what's the point of miniature statues if they don't move?). Equip them with little plant accessories and stuff. Maybe some removable wading boots and flippers and 5 gal buckets, lol.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

asukawashere said:


> XD It probably says something about my mental health that I think that's actually kind of a cool idea. Except the statues of you part. You're nice and all, but I don't like you enough to go around making statues of you  (Heck, I don't even like me that much... statuary is hard work.) I can, however, be commissioned to do graphite & color portraiture. But that's not the point lol.


Hahaha yea, well I'm planning to make a cast of my face to give to my girl friend, making a full size (and anatomically correct statue) of myself would take quite a lot of metal and time!



asukawashere said:


> On another note, we should totally all make plant-collecting action figures (what's the point of miniature statues if they don't move?). Equip them with little plant accessories and stuff. Maybe some removable wading boots and flippers and 5 gal buckets, lol.


I freaking love this idea! If someone could make a prototype statue I can easily make an impression of it and cast it. I want a bucket on my heat and a giant 2 handed net as my gear, oh oh and flippers too! Maybe that is what we can do for an end-of-the-year prize instead of a plaque - customized statues haha with the title.

As for progress on the casting project; I successfully wasted 180 bucks on materials today and built the flame-thrower apparatus. All I need to do now is mix the refractory material and get a few more supplies and I'll be ready to start melting scrap metal! I still need to find fireclay which is basically sand/clay with a very high aluminum content (it looks grey when wet). Also, I might need to find some very fine silica sand (as much silica content as possible) and finally I need a piece of sheet metal to make the kiln's exterior body. I also have a high pressure propane regulator coming in the mail, so when I get the sand/clay/sheet metal and the stupid regulator I'll be ready to start experimenting. Probably in the next few days.

If anyone knows where to find fireclay or has seen a deposit of gray sand/clay please let me know so I can come pick some up!! Haha. I'll post pictures as soon as I get the parts and start assembling the other parts.


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## kingken (Apr 18, 2010)

bad news, I will not be able to make it saturday, I will be working all day =(


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Oh nooooooooooooesss!!! Well that is a pity! We'll just have to have all the fun for you ;D

By the way... the forge project is moving along nicely. Last night I mixed and set the refractory inside the forge, so in about a week or two I'll fire it up and bake it hard. Then I can start casting. I'm still trying to find Wyoming sodium bentonite powder and the correct fittings to get my propane hose connected to my regulator. Oh and I'm still making my tools.

The project is coming along nicely! I took some pics, so I'll be posting those soon.


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## kingken (Apr 18, 2010)

Just got in from work, hope you guys are having fun!


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

We had so much fun that even our fun had fun! (I don't know, that sounded more intelligent inside my head.) Also, we got some GORGEOUS rootwood from a dead tree by the river... Michael somehow wedged an 8-foot branch of it into his little car - I hope he didn't get pulled over for it sticking out of his window a bit ... it's actually a good thing he didn't follow me back to rt. 25 on his way home, since Kristina and I had to go through a DUI checkpoint (aka the "field sobriety inspection"). That was an interesting conversation, which went something like this:

Officer: "Have you consumed any alcohol or controlled substance this evening?" (*shines flashlight in my face*)
Me: (*blinking in the blinding light*) No, I have not...
Kristina: I had a Tylenol awhile ago....
Office: ... ... ...Alright, drive safely.
Me: Kristina, he doesn't care what _you_ had, you're not the one driving!

So... yes. Driftwood (you guys who left early _really_ missed out!) And a ton of plant species, some we've seen before and others we haven't. And some really funky macro algae stuff that grows on rocks in river rapids. Some neat rocks, too...

Hopefully John and Michael will upload some of their photos from the trip in the coming days. I was too busy wading and clambering around the aforementioned rapids and snagging planty things and such to take photos (that and my sister "borrowed" my camera today), but we found some fascinating wildlife which we photographed... a neat little salamander, a baby turtle, a ringneck snake, some frogs... all sorts of cool things.

BTW, guys, looked up the striped fish in CT ponds, the only thing that turned up with those markings is the yellow perch, but the body shape just didn't look right to me... yellow perch have more compact,bass-like, laterally compressed profiles that the fish we saw seemed to lack. So apparently, we need to find something that's shaped like a red pickerel but has the barred markings of a yellow perch '

Eh, anyway, I'm all tired out now. Got a busy day tomorrow, too, so I'm turning in for tonight


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## khanzer22 (Nov 30, 2009)

Yep, yesterday was great! We all had fun and weather is just perfect... 

I'll try to transfer and upload some pics today, latest tomorrow, to share to all of you here... 

BTW Asuka, I think I left my 'Ray Ban' sunglasses at your place yesterday... I remember putting it on the hood of the black BMW while I played hoops with your bro... So if you see or already found it, just hold on it for now and bring it on our next meet...


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Yes! Yesterday was simply awesome. I'll have to post pics of the insainly nice driftwood we found later on. I still can't believe what great stuff we found.

Here is a picture of a frog from the field trip yesterday.


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

khanzer22 said:


> Yep, yesterday was great! We all had fun and weather is just perfect...
> 
> I'll try to transfer and upload some pics today, latest tomorrow, to share to all of you here...
> 
> BTW Asuka, I think I left my 'Ray Ban' sunglasses at your place yesterday... I remember putting it on the hood of the black BMW while I played hoops with your bro... So if you see or already found it, just hold on it for now and bring it on our next meet...


I checked the car and haven't found your glasses yet, but if I come across them I'll be sure to hold onto them for you. Would love to see your photos when you get a chance to upload them 



Zapins said:


> Yes! Yesterday was simply awesome. I'll have to post pics of the insainly nice driftwood we found later on. I still can't believe what great stuff we found.
> 
> Here is a picture of a frog from the field trip yesterday.


My frogs are wonderful photography subjects, are they not? (And did you get home okay with that ginormous hunk of driftwood hanging out the window of your car??)

Speaking of driftwood, I'm wondering now if maybe I shouldn't make that tree root into a watersprite tree  If I try the A. nana 'Petite' I'll be buying petite for the next 6 years to have enough...

Also, while we're posting frog photos, this is what I woke up to one morning a few weeks back:









btw, also wondering now if that grass stuff we found in May's trip isn't Zannichellia palustris


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## khanzer22 (Nov 30, 2009)

Ask and you shall receive!


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

Awesome photos! (Except for the one where I look like a dweeb... and now that I look from that angle, those jeans really don't fit me anymore... hmm...aaaanyway...)

I loved that turtle so much. I kinda wish I'd taken him home... oh well. I guess he belongs free in his native habitat and such... but he was a very excellent turtle, IMO.

Nice shot of the liverwort, too!  I gave some of it to my shrimps to pick at.


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## Riverboa (Jun 26, 2007)

Nice pics. Thanks for uploading.
Cool turtle indeed!


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I'm too sexy for my shirt so sexy it huuuurts! Yeaaahhh you lie on that rock you crazy man you!

xD

Anyways, the meeting was a blast! By the way, I fired the furnace up today for the first time and all went well. I was just drying it out a bit, not really blasting the heat. I also bought some scrap brass to melt down during the next week. I'll post some pics soon.


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## khanzer22 (Nov 30, 2009)

LOL

Yeah Zap, that pic of yours is priceless! More pics to come, maybe


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