My Tilapia Project ———

It’s an on-going project.  It’s SLOWLY coming along.  There have been some hiccups and delays along the way.  (Surprised?  Why?  This IS the Swamp-Oasis, isn’t it?)  One primary delay (or should I say multiple) has been my inability to move around prior to much needed titanium joints…………………………….but there’s no excuse now!………………………I’m back.

To quote a great movie, “The Shining”———————“Here’s Johnny!”

Watch out—–I’m mobile again!

I have my fish supplier ready……………this great old man down the road. He’s had Tilapia in his pond for years & years.  He’s said I can come down anytime and seine from his pond for my fishy-start.  I have my (4) I.B.C. Totes prepped and ready.  (I have to take a photo of those puppies—–when I can find my camera again—–so you can see what I am talking about.  They are just too hard to explain).  Mine had some sort of food-grade, cherry-syrup something in them first…………………….that was fun sawing them open and climbing inside to scrub out the goo.  Everything smelled like a cherry sundae forever afterwards, my nose hairs were coated with the stuff………………..and I thought my cuticles & fingernails would stay permanently dyed.

I still have to figure out what kind of pump I need to circulate & aerate the fishy environment while circulating their poo-water through the adjacent, accompanying, hydroponic vegetable trays (I am NOT giving up on growing produce here!!!  NEVER!) plus this farm runs on poo. Something useful has to be done with it.  And I really want to squelch my previous reputation of only being able to produce one, solitary, ugly tomato in over twenty years.

I’ve got a solar-panel that I think should run the pump and do the trick.  I have noticed that Florida has a lot of sun.  I know nothing about hooking it up—–but I will figure it out, or complain loudly enough until someone helps.

After having done some research about where & how non-USA-raised Tilapia are farmed and the water they live in and eat in………………………………….yyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeoooooowwwwwwww and AUGH!  You are what you eat!  Blah!

I can do better than THAT!

But I’m still not quite clear on the water pump specifications.  I’m learning about lift & force & squared-water-volume-stuff.  I’m just trying to absorb what the stupid pump-jargon means………………….. Can’t we just employ one of our small, obnoxious terriers in a large gerbil-wheel to move the water?…………………………….Oh, wait………………………here come the PETA-people again……………………….but the terriers have so much energy, can’t it be transformed into some kind of useful BTU’s or something, rather than just bouncing & barking at non-existent intruders?

I’m going to put the Tilapia tanks where my past-garden-attempts have been.  At least that way the area will be fenced off from Wolfhounds.  Otherwise I can see them out there with pool toys and beach umbrellas and ice teas floating around with the fish in mirrored, aviator sunglasses (the hounds not the fish).

I know I’ll have to safe-guard the fishies from long-billed birds, raccoons, possums, Irish Wolfhounds, and lord-knows-what-else.  I’m thinking maybe some sort of stoutly-secured mesh covering over the top of each tank…………………..That should be so much easier than sitting in an adjacent lawn chair 24/7 with my shotgun across my lap, setting off flares, shouting obscenities and maniacally waving off predators looking for a free sashimi hand-out.

If anyone’s getting sushi, it’s going to be me.  In the past I have been known to get very territorial about my plate of raw fish………………………..down right hostile.  Don’t even think about touching my uni…………………………I’ll smear wasabi up your nose.

I have seen cranes and ibis dining on the goldfish in our livestock water-tanks.  We try to keep goldfish there to keep algae to a minimum and to eat the mosquito larvae that inevitably end up in any standing water.  If the fish are smart they stay down at the bottom and out of reach from those long bills.  We occasionally have goldfish survive and get so big that they are almost filet-able…………………..But if I catch those birds fishing for my Tilapia, I’ll duct-tape shut their needle-noses!

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Which reminds me of a quick story from my youth.  The adjacent farm had a propensity for raising and fighting roosters………………………(poultry inherently don’t understand property fencing, so the birds would quite often end up in our barn)———-well my Father showed us what feathers to pull on the roosters that would disable them from balancing to fight (at least until the next ones grew back in).  Our neighbors never found out, but at least we had a negative impact on their bet-income and some fighting cocks lived a little bit longer.

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Now, back to my fish.

Keep in mind, I don’t think Tilapia are that popular as sushi………………..but fried fish filets in beer batter?…………………………..Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.  I can do that!  I haven’t scaled fish in a while, but it’s got to be just like riding a bicycle (you remember the ones I keep falling off of).  We already have the big deep frier.  I’ve got the peanut oil.  I’m good to go.  Easy-peezie………………………..

I’ve YouTube’d instructional videos to death.  As far as I can see (after the appropriate pump & solar panel) all I need are multiple cement blocks & pressure-treated 2″ x 4″s.  Then…………………..Bob’s Your Uncle………………………………(what does that mean, anyway?—–and who is Bob?—–and can he help me with this pump and other stuff?).

You-Tubers make things look so easy.  There’s some guy in Michigan who has his I.B.C. totes in his basement for year round Tilapia production…………….Really???!!!  I’m sure his wife loves that!  Can it really be “that” easy?……………………….           HA!

So first things first, next week I’m grabbing a couple goats, putting them in the enclosure to eat down the weeds, drag the I.B.C. totes in, and get going…………………….well, that is after my first post-surgery appointment with the surgeon to get the stitches out and get on with my life………………………….and NO I’m not telling him about the fish-project, or the horseback riding, or the rest of my life………………………………..he wouldn’t understand…………………….and I just want to take a shower!  My family wants me to too!

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I’m already sure a future post will be me whining about my Tilapia fiasco, and overly-fat, local cranes…………….while trying to figure out how to re-purpose the I.B.C. totes………………..

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Today’s our Forty-ith Wedding Anniversary!  We made it!  It’s still a Twelve-Step Program………………………………One-Day-At-A-Time.       HA!