Raising Piranhas

I started raising fancy guppies when I was a kid and was always curious about raising piranhas.

In 2008 I order 20 one-inch babies from a guy on eBay. They grew fast eating little chunks of meat and fish.

I thought I would raise these up and sell a few to help pay for the remaining ones. What I found is that there is no resale market for piranhas no matter how nice they are. People will come and eagerly look at them but don't want to take them home.

I ended up putting them in a big 300 gallon tub in the garden. It's fun to tell people you can rinse your hands there but don't dangle them for too long because we have big piranhas in there.

I ran an ad to sell the ever growing fish - one guy asked how many would it take to fill up a moat? He is tired of trespassers and wants to dig a moat and put in piranhas to solve the problem. I didn't hear back from him.

The fish are easy to keep, just don't over crowd them or over feed them. The water can get dirty and then they die. I got an over sized biofilter that worked well. I fed catfish chunks (cheaper!) and raw peeled shrimp till it got expensive to feed 20 six inch hungry fish. I eventually got a minnow trap and would catch a bunch of live minnows from the creek for free each morning.

One reason I am getting rid of the tropical fish is that the fluorescent lights use a lot of electricity (40w x 2 each) plus the heaters can be 300 watts in a 55 gallon fish tank. I had 5 big aquariums and it could suck up the power. Not a good idea if you want to run with the least amount of solar panels. Also the lights had a very high EMF radiation which we were able to check with a $40 EMF meter from EBay.

We just got more solar

A very kind benefactor ordered this solar setup for us. It has 3 big solar panels on top and inside 20 6v heavy duty batteries, charge controller and 1200 watt inverter. It also has a generator for charging the batteries, when low, all included in one handy well put together package.

What's nice is that it is totally portable so you can move to where you need it. This solar setup was custom built by a man in Michigan who makes these as a business.

Jim (989) 872-3424.

Cute big dog Rocky and our cat Piewacket

This is Rocky, our German Shepherd.

It hard to believe we carried him home in our arms 18 months ago.

His favorite thing is to go chase a stick. You can throw a stick way into the woods, brush and brambles, at night, and he can find it.

This is our cat, Piewacket.

Someone threw her out a car window as a wee bitty kitten and drove off. Now she has become a loved part of the family. If you come by and need loving she will come up to you

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Spring wildflowers

On our hillsides we have fields with thousands of these wildflowers and more.





It is so amazing to see the wonders of nature, just taking care of itself.

Luna moths

One of the biggest, showiest, magical moths around is the Luna moth.

I created a cardboard box with 1/4" hardware cloth on the front and hatched out a female luna moth. I put the box outside for the night and found several eager and lonely male Luna's at the front of the screen. Males can smell an appealing female from several miles away.

The moths are sleepy in the day time and active at night.

April in the country

It is so pretty here in the country.
The flowers start to bloom making all the work worth while.
We have about 200 different iris colors and styles along 400 feet of driveway.

I like Gothic doors

As I travel I love to discover good gothic doors. There is something mystical and marvelous about them. You almost expect a hobbit to be on the other side with hot tea.

This door was the front door of the house Mary Ingles (of Little House on the Prarie) bought and built for her parents in Missouri.

Send in any good pictures you have. I wonder how hard they are to build?