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| | Operation Save the Fishies, AZ | | | |
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Operation Save the Fishies, AZ
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| Hiking | 1.50 Miles |
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| | Hiking | 1.50 Miles | | | |
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| no partners | | I had a mission today ...
Yesterday while walking along the river, I found a small pool that was left over from the last flood ... it was drying up fast, and I noticed that it had some cute little native fish who's days were growing short in that pool. I counted seven of them at the time, and decided that I wanted to try to save them.
A while back, while getting ready to move, there was a very unfortunate mishap with my fish tank and all seven of my sweet little neon tetras died ... I felt horrible about that! I still do. So I thought it would be a nice tribute to try and save these guys who looked a lot like them.
So this morning I went and got a fish net and a bucket and drove back out to Beasley Flats, then hiked back down to the shrinking pool and got to work.
It was harder than I thought at first, and in about 30 minutes I only had two fish in the bucket. They were obviously schooling fish, so I wanted to release as many together as I could but I wasn't sure I would be able to catch anymore ... so I decided to transplant those two and then try for more after the water and the fish settled down a bit. I took my bucket to a nice calm, shallow spot along the river and slowly added some river water to let them get used to the colder temperature. After a while, when I thought they were acclimated, I netted them and gently let them go - they seemed happy and swam off together.
Went back to the pool and had much better luck. I perfected my technique of steering them with my hiking pole in my left hand towards the net in my right hand, and was able to scoop up two and three at a time. Ended up with eight more in my bucket. I stared into the pool and stirred things for a few more minutes until I was satisfied that I had them all ... then went back the river and repeated the acclimation process. I let those eight go, and wished them luck on their new lives as free river fish!
I'm sure many people would think it was silly to spend so much time and energy doing this - but it's the kind of thing I enjoy doing, and I feel really good about it!
Got home and received the great news that I got the apartment I really wanted! It's on a three acre horse property on Salt Mine Road, just 10 miles from Beasley Flats. I got the upstairs, which is quite spacious and has lots of windows and skylights and views of the mountains ... it's very close to hiking and the river, and less than 10 minutes from work. I can garden or even get goats or something if I like. I know the cats and I will be very happy there!  |
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