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Innovative Marine Aquariums

My 20 Long Journey


Mom2many

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Oh..lamanchas...those are the ones that look like they had their ears cut off, right? I don't think the dwarfs were around 30 years ago..or maybe just not "popular" here. My brothers and I were in 4-H and would show them at the county fair. We had some babies too but seems like they always ended up being male and we had to get rid of them :(.

Yes! I still have one Lamancha with the little elf ears here on the farm. I will post a picture of her. She is black and white like a cow and milks great like one too! My daughter named her Calfy, she said she looks like a little calf. I have been raising milk goats for 16 years. We run about 50/50 males to females in births over time. It is a great experiance for the children to help pick the ones we are going to breed together and why. Help with the births. Bottle feed the babies if we keep any. I can so see you on a small farm someday!

Tank is looking very nice, hopefully that odd pink thing is a sponge or something besides that cotton candy algae.

 

I really like the rockwork on the right side, with the cliff.

Thank you so much! Just cleaned it today. Picked a few little buble algae out and looked closer at the pink thing. It defineitly feels like memory foam. I can bend it and it straightens back up. Weird little thing. After reading a lot on Cotton Candy algae, I dont think this is it. I am hopeing anyways.

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God must have graced you with much patience and a type A personality. I don't know how you find time for everything. I know you said the kids help with chores and taking care of the animals. I'm finding it a great deal just to take care of myself, my dog, 4 tanks and a betta. But, I may have a friend's mother buying my 55g freshwater, albeit the stand which is like a beautiful piece of furniture. I don't want to take it on the move. I have enough.

I don't feel like I have patience most of the time. :) But I try to take things in stride when they happen. I am the kind of person who does not sit still well at all. If I don't stay busy I get into trouble!! Or spend money. Both are not good things! It is by the grace of God that everything gets done around here. I am grateful for the life I have. We have been through some hard things but we are happy and blessed beyond words. We all work together to do everything around here. The older able children help with the barn work, yard work and gardens, when we have them. Everyone has chores. They take turns at kitchen duty and when a child turns 9 in my home (if they are able) they start to do their own laundry. I won't always be here to care for them so they need to learn as many life skills as possible. My husband and I could not have taken in these last four small children without the help of the older children. I just dont have enough arms and time with out their help to comfort one that falls or feed a bottle once in a while, while I am changing a diaper or feeding another one. We home school so we are all home all day and that helps as well. The newest baby was an unexpected suprise so having four under three was not in our plans. But It was in Gods. We are blessed to have her.

 

I think you do great. Your tanks always look amazing and I just saw your dog! What a cutie pie! You did a great groom job. I groom my poodle myself. It is a relaxing time for us both.

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Here is a picture of our goat Calfy the Lamancha. They are born with very small ears or sometimes almost no external ears. Mine has what they call elf ears. She is the only Lamancha we have on the property anymore. We love her.

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Here is one of her baby pictures.

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She is very sweet. :) She faithfully provides milk every day for our family. Her babies, when she has had them, always have the same little elf ears.

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Yes! I still have one Lamancha with the little elf ears here on the farm. I will post a picture of her. She is black and white like a cow and milks great like one too! My daughter named her Calfy, she said she looks like a little calf. I have been raising milk goats for 16 years. We run about 50/50 males to females in births over time. It is a great experiance for the children to help pick the ones we are going to breed together and why. Help with the births. Bottle feed the babies if we keep any. I can so see you on a small farm someday!

 

Thank you so much! Just cleaned it today. Picked a few little buble algae out and looked closer at the pink thing. It defineitly feels like memory foam. I can bend it and it straightens back up. Weird little thing. After reading a lot on Cotton Candy algae, I dont think this is it. I am hopeing anyways.

I'm a country gal living in a big city...so out of my element LOL. Yes, someday the farm life (albeit small farm) for me :).

 

Calfy is adorable! You are making me want goats again LOL.

 

Oh...I forgot to answer your question about my shoulder. It is very much improving. Thank you for asking! Each day I have more and more range of motion. Today I could wash my hair with two hands :).

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Hard to believe she's had babies as she look one herself.

She is only three years old and is what they call a mini mancha. Her dad was a nigerian dwarf and her mom a lamancha. So full grown she is just a little bit bigger than a nigerian dwarf. The perfect size for me to handle at my age.!

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I'm a country gal living in a big city...so out of my element LOL. Yes, someday the farm life (albeit small farm) for me :).

 

Calfy is adorable! You are making me want goats again LOL.

 

Oh...I forgot to answer your question about my shoulder. It is very much improving. Thank you for asking! Each day I have more and more range of motion. Today I could wash my hair with two hands :).

Glad to hear your shoulder is improving so much and so quickly. That is wonderful.

 

We live on ten acres. My dads house is at one end of the property and we live at the other end. It is considered a small gentlemans farm in this area. It is plenty to try to keep up. My dad and son keep it mowed using three differnt tractors. We have the ponies and goats for many reasons but one is to keep the pastures ate down. If we didnt want the milk and ponies for pleasure we would have to have some kind of grazers out in the pastures or they would over grow back to branbles and be worthless. We love this life but it is a lot of work. I have things scaled way back now so it is still fun for all of us. Right now in my life I am trying to simplify things as much as possible. The children and our life take most every moment of my time and I love it and them. They are worth the investment. Reefing is my tiny endulgance, escape and hobby. Talking to you all is my socialization!

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Glad to hear your shoulder is improving so much and so quickly. That is wonderful.

 

We live on ten acres. My dads house is at one end of the property and we live at the other end. It is considered a small gentlemans farm in this area. It is plenty to try to keep up. My dad and son keep it mowed using three differnt tractors. We have the ponies and goats for many reasons but one is to keep the pastures ate down. If we didnt want the milk and ponies for pleasure we would have to have some kind of grazers out in the pastures or they would over grow back to branbles and be worthless. We love this life but it is a lot of work. I have things scaled way back now so it is still fun for all of us. Right now in my life I am trying to simplify things as much as possible. The children and our life take most every moment of my time and I love it and them. They are worth the investment. Reefing is my tiny endulgance, escape and hobby. Talking to you all is my socialization!

Nice! This is what my brother and I want to do. Buy a large property (100s of acres) and we both build houses on the property. Not sure if we'll be able to do that someday, but it is definitely a goal! And then I will have my little farm :).

 

And thank you about the shoulder :happy:.

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Sounds like a great plan!!!....A little advice...the more property you have the more animals you talk yourself into getting...Trust me on this one! Ha ha~

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Well, we're glad we can all socialize on these threads. I really enjoy it and it is surprising to me sometimes how much we find out about each other. There are many people here I would consider visiting if I was near their town and would feel like I could trust them completely, after spilling our joys and woes about our tanks. Sometimes there's just a mutual respect that you have when you meet people in your hobby. Do you know what I mean?

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Well, we're glad we can all socialize on these threads. I really enjoy it and it is surprising to me sometimes how much we find out about each other. There are many people here I would consider visiting if I was near their town and would feel like I could trust them completely, after spilling our joys and woes about our tanks. Sometimes there's just a mutual respect that you have when you meet people in your hobby. Do you know what I mean?

I know exactly what you mean! I have really enjoyed meeting everyone on here. Everyone is so kind and friendly.

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I didnt want to tie up anyones thread with my past groom pictures but here is a picture of my old white poodle Melissa. She was a breeder we rescued at a very old age and was from show stock. Her hair was tight, thick and corse and could stand up to any cut I wanted to do on her. Grooming her was like hedge trimming. ha ha.

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My current poodle, Pickles, has soft fine hair for a poodle and does not "stand up". Reds often do. I can not do any fancy grooms on her but enjoy keeping her looking good.

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Awe...he is a cutie pie....I have never been to grooming school but learned everything about grooming on Youtube and from a grooming poodles book I have.


A good bath and blow dry makes for a very even cut. If you want clean trimmed feet they take the longest to do and are typical for a poodle groom job. But many people just do a cute kennel puppy cut.

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He would also look great in a teddy trim. You can look that one up on youtube as well. A good trimmer helps for a professional look as well. I have a good trimmer but I use common sharp kitchen sheers for my hand trimming work and they do a great job.

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HarryPotter

He would also look great in a teddy trim. You can look that one up on youtube as well. A good trimmer helps for a professional look as well. I have a good trimmer but I use common sharp kitchen sheers for my hand trimming work and they do a great job.

No idea what a "Teddy Trim" is, I'll google that. We have a nice dog trimmer that works well.

 

Usually I bathe and blow dry him AFTER I cut his hair. Thinking was that it gets off the remaining loose hair- but I'll switch that around and do it before today.

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No idea what a "Teddy Trim" is, I'll google that. We have a nice dog trimmer that works well.

 

Usually I bathe and blow dry him AFTER I cut his hair. Thinking was that it gets off the remaining loose hair- but I'll switch that around and do it before today.

Cutting dirty or wet hair dulls the blades very quickly. if you wash and blow dry first, all the hair is standing up and stretched out so when you use a trimmer the cut will look smoother. If you dont want his face cut close or feet bare than you can scissor those areas easier than with a trimmer.

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Does your trimmer have different sized blades to change out or clipper guards that slip on and cutt in different lengths? As you would use a shorter blade on the body and slightly longer one on the legs.

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HarryPotter

Does your trimmer have different sized blades to change out or clipper guards that slip on and cutt in different lengths? As you would use a shorter blade on the body and slightly longer one on the legs.

It came with them but they don't really work so I just use the bare trimmer.

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Yeah, guards dont work well unless your trimmer is super sharp. It is hard to get a good trim with out being able to do a few different lengths. But you could use the trimmer on the body and hand sheer the legs, feet and face and get a great look. Before I could aford clippers I did almost all of my cuts by hand with a scissors. Brush hair up and fluff and trim like hedge trimming.

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Photo dump...

 

I like looking down this valley between my two Islands.

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New growth tips already on my two birds nest and slimmer.

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One of my sexy shrimp.

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My favorite rock flower anemone and my coco worm that I have had since February.

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My porcaline crabs were very shy when I first got them but are very friendly and bold now. If I have the turkey baster in the tank they will jump up and grab the end and hang hopeing it will have brine or mysis shrimp in it for them. He is being patient here and waithing for me to give him some.

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Found these pictures from when I set up my tank. The pink Zoas have multiplied.

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These green ones have as well. Frogspawn is gone and replaced but same frag and colony.

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These have multiplied as well. I think there were four heads on this 10 dollar frag above and to the right of the goby.

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I really enjoyed seeing the progress. Sometimes we don't see the progress and growth if we dont look back at the humble beginings.

 

Here is urchin working away cleaning up under my filter where I cant get easily. I like this little guy more and more.

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