The Realm

I'm trying to work on a new Minion Talking video. I really hate making those but they need to be made. They are worth all the work once done. Also Minion makes it so much harder by only talking inside his cage. And when I film him, he either stops talking and preens on purpose to act like he's not doing anything. OR he turns his back so you can't see him talking or goes behind a toy and talks back there. Grrr little pest. I love him though. I wish I could find a nice open spot where I could film him clearly. I think that time he talked on the perch was a fluke as he has refused to do that since on the custom mic stand I made him. He keeps jumping off. BTW, "No jumping." Is something I say a lot and he's learned it. Ha ha.

Yesterday was a nice day off. It was the first day that was warmer. I felt a lot better and even my dart frogs all came out at once which is super rare. I sent that pic to most everyone on text. The types of frogs I keep are happy at room temp. If we're comfortable they're comfortable. So they are a good indicator of my health too. I felt quite bad during the cold days and had no engery. Fibro always plays up when it's about to get cold. My frogs were cold and my singer Pavarotii would try to sing but sounded like a car that couldn't start. Later on no frogs were visible. It was like the tank had become an abandoned ghost town. But yesterday and today the frogs are out and happy. I feel a lot better too. But it's a FL winter so we get two days to enjoy it then temps begin to drop again. I don't know how low they'll go but I really hope no more frosts. At least Feb is a short month and it's the last super cold one.

Speaking of Feb, tomorrow will be our 26th year anniversary. I watched UP again the other day. My gosh it's so Chris and I. I have another post here where I explain why that film is so personal to us. It's like they wrote the story of our life. We are so much alike we even had extremely similar childhoods. Here is that post if you guys want to see it.
https://thagirion.livejournal.com/845827.html
Something is wrong with my tag "up". I had to make a new one called "up pixar". I wonder if just the work "up" is some code that messes up the posts. Rather annoying. I don't know if I'll remember the new one next time I talk about this movie. Anyway, everyone knows Jurassic Park is my fave movie. But UP is definitely a close 2nd. My two all time fave movies. And if I get my dog eventually I'll be able to relate even more.

Oh I found an awesome video the other day. Someone made a video where they made a "talking collar" for a real life Dug the dog from Up. It's awesome.


https://youtu.be/e_C5zsPmuXE

We got some chores done yesterday too. We went and did our taxes. Always boring but worth it for the return. Though we had a problem so we're waiting to hear back from our accountant. Don't worry nothing serious. Often times there are small mistakes and things need to be revised more than once. We worked on our garage and got the second row of mylar up for insulation in there. It's looking very cool and space age.

Today I need to call our local bird store. I hope they got in the new budgie apartment. I hope the price hasn't gone up too much. I really need a second one to keep the parrolets away from the budgies and eventually probably a 4th as a breeding stand and baby bird hold. Ok, I need to go check on that now so I'll stop here.
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Oh man, long time no post. I think about LJ everyday but never seem to get around to it. Not for a lack of stuff to talk about. My life is always interesting. So the pumpkin and gourd garden are doing well so far. Looks like I might get at least two types of cushaw pumpkins. It's been chemical warfare though to get it to work and I hope I can stay on top of all the bugs and diseases.

It amazes me how some of my intersts are seasonal. I have found this out from keeping this journal so long. It never fails that I become my most creative in the Fall. It last through winter then come Spring it's gone through Summer and then the cycle starts again. WHY? Why can't I keep up the art year round? Well anyway, I've started working on my Bullet Journal again. Pumpkins is the theme this month. Wanted something easy to draw to get back into it. I'm thinking so much about my characters too. Fear and the rest of the crew of Triangulum Resistance are once again on my mind.

I'm back into my nepenthes too. I'm starting to think I tend to get back into some of my fave plants around this time. This year I've been focusing on collecting as many variants of Nepenthes Ampullaria as I can. Unfortunately funds aren't so wonderful at the moment and nepenthes are expensive. I wish I could buy everything on my wishlists. Bergen Watergardens just got some awesome ones in. I hope to do a video on them soon. So far I have N. ampullaria red x black miracle. This is my fave and most amazing one. N. ampullaria green. N. ampullaria lime twist and N. ampullaria bronze nabine. That last one was from Black Jungle Terrarium supply and it came in like garbage. I have it in a bag hardening it off. Hope it will be ok. I would love to have an all red and the one that's green with red lips. I've got one coming in the mail still called Red speckled. Can't wait to get it. N. ampullaria is unique among nepenthes in that it does not produce digestive acids. It does eat bugs but is a detritovore meaning it eats leaves that fall into its pitchers. If you think about it then it's a cannibalistic plant in a very loose definition of the word.

I'm so sick of all the junk in our house. Why does it seem like there's no end in sight to this dilema. We get rid of stuff but still have too much. We're not adding to the problem. We buy what we need. Although since I ended up with my mother's stuff we really do have a lot less. I think there are two major factors involved. First we have a house that's too small with little to no storage. Closets for example. Second we aren't using our limited space properly. I think a lot of it is wasted and things are stored improperly. So I have been learning about what to do and Chris has been helping me buy bins and boxes. He was impressed with how I have been organizing the garage and the small kitchen pantry. He was worried I was getting so many boxes but really they've all been put to use and have disappeared out of the way. They are labeled so you know what is in them. I am SO looking forward to the day I can make a documentary about this and how how bad we had it in 2016 to how we finally got rid of everything but the stuff we need and love. It went to the storage unit and brought stuff back. That's scary because we don't have room for it. But 2/3 of it s for trash and for donations. The last 1/3 I need to sort through then figure out how to organize it. I have lots of stuff I would like to sell but I don't want to put stuff up on Ebay, Etsy or places like that. I don't like the idea that they take a cut of my profits. Screw that. Hopefully I'll think of something else.

We've also been cleaning up the yard. Chris has helped me cut branches and whole trees down. Some of which I pulled down with my jeep. I do hope to make a video of that at some point too. Again it's crazy how much junk our yard produces and I hope we can hire the dumpster again soon.

Lastly, the budgies are doing good. I have a video of Minion to share where he talks on his perche. I hope he will do this again so that I can make all his talking videos this way. I really hate filming him behind bars, but he only talks in his cage.


https://youtu.be/qA1VyjOwnZ4
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Ok, so I have not posted much but I have just been incredibly busy enjoying life and living it to the fullest. This Monday I'm leaving to visit my friend ACTipton80 in North Carolina. As always I'll be stopping at my aunt's in north Georgia for a rest. I had planned to go to Tennessee and check out an awesome nepenthes nursery. But they never got back to me so that's all unlikely now. Very disappointing. I know they are busying with the biggest import of plants they've ever gotten. But who knows. Maybe on the way back. So I've been busy cleaning up the house. I'm finally seeing progress. It's been amazing. The garage looks amazing. It's still not done but I can't wait to do a comparison from when it was stuffed so no car could get in there to what it is now. And it will still be better. Getting so much out of there has helped get rid of stuff in the house too. The only things left of my mother's now are the tons of photos and some of her picture frames and diplomas that I still don't know what to do about. My room is a disaster but I might be able to work on that today.

I'm also trying to get the patio greenhouse to the point that it's super easy for Chris to take care of. I've got some very cool plants in my collection now. We have greenhouse frogs( Eleutherodactylus planirostris ) that got in the green house. These are tiny frogs that technically are toads. Micro toads. The reason is they are mostly terrestial. Females lay eggs in moist soil and they hatch as frogs. No tadpole stage. They don't swim and are adapted to live under moist plants. They aren't the pretties frog coming in brown, red and grey/tan. But my fave thing about them is the cute chirps they make. If you want to hear there this is my fave video that shows what they sound like.
https://youtu.be/7OyAFglwN28

So this Wednesay May 19 Chris took me to a petstore and bought me a terrarium and some supplies. I already had a lot of stuff around the house too like the plants. So I caught one male frog. Here's the set up.



He's in the upper right. So tiny. I have a nepenthes, and amorphophallus and Calathea Lancifolia. The nepenthes and the amorph will eventually get too big. I'll have to change them out. But for now they look really nice. Like they have a little palm tree in there. I hope the nepenthes will pitcher soon. I hope it won't eat my frogs. I also added springtails and isopods to the soil so they will clean up the frog dropping and decaying leaves. I have to culture those because I may have to restock and I have other tanks I'm going to turn into self cleaning tanks. The isopods are very pretty they are powder orange. I'm hoping I can find the native rollie pollies that are in the yard. I used to play with those as a kid and always loved them. Chris likes them a lot too. I also have to culture wingless fruit flies now too. Wow so much for some tiny frogs ha ha. It's ok I love a challenge like this and the pay off is something nice to look at.

I also bought a travel bubble backpack for Minion. He's coming on the trip and I'm also taking Nitro. They need separate cages but if I go in a store I have to take them with me hence the back pack.



Nautica went into it. She was not afraid and liked it.



Luckily she helped Minion to show him what to do. But he still doesn't like it. I have to train him and Nitro more. Everything is new and scary but hope he'll warm up to it. He needs to get used to it no matter what. I love it. Hope my birds will too in time.

I also need to prep the jeep. I want to convert the back into a sleeping area if for some reason I ever need to pull over for the night and sleep in the back. So I hope to experiment with that today. AND on top of that my other hobbies of action figures. Chris bought me UP and Jurassic Park figures. I have so many videos to make and show. If I have time I need to finish a talking Minion video at least. Ok better get to work. Time's a ticking.
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Finally I have finished the Christmas/New Years Cards.



I hope these pics will work. Let me know if you can't see them. Thanks Calzephyr for the gift art last birthday. I have inked, colored and modified it into the next card. I'm very happy with how this turned out. I've printed two and they look great so far. So be watching your mail and hopefully these won't turn into Valentine's letters. Sigh.

( Update on the Ghost Orchids )
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Today we have reached exactly 200 words with "Jeep Is Not For Sale." tipping the scales. I was hoping for 300 by the end of this year but 200 is not bad. That's over 100 words in this year alone. I am extremely proud of Minion. And I tallied up Whitey's words. She has 12 which is huge for a female budgie. Too bad she's not as clear as Minion. I will now post the vocabulary list of both of them and will be making a special tribute video hopefully tomorrow to celebrate this mile stone. I was at my desk when I heard a cute voice say, "Jeep is not for sale." I have been trying to teach him this because I get so many offers in the mail asking to buy my jeep. Ok so here are the lists.

( Minion,s Vocabulary )

( Whitey Words )
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Happy December everyone. Christmas is here. I'm still reeling from such an awesome thanksgiving. It's back to work for Chris. I think this will be his first busy day as everyone is coming back from Thanksgiving. I really shouldn't be online right now but I'm taking a break before getting to work today. I have a lot to do thanks to the stupid weather. I saw we were getting a cold front and the low for tonight had been posted as being 40 degrees F. Well they changed it and now it's supposed to be as cold as 34. That's only two degrees above freezing. Yikes! That means EVERYTHING has to come in. Birds and all plants. I've been working on the garage because I hope to clear a wall so that I can set up shelves and lights in there since we only have one working bathroom now. I can't put the plants in the bathtub of the guest bath anymore. But I didn't make it in time. So I have to bring in plants and figure out what to do with them. I'm also sick of the stupid pink lights I bought last year. They work fine and the plants do like them. They are full spectrum LED's and they do save electricity and money. All that is nice but they are pink. I can't see the plants. I have to turn them off to see the real colors and I'm sick of that. They finally make normal full spectrum colored LED but can't afford them yet. That reminds me. I need to make a wish list for this year. I'll post that tonight. So anyway annoying pink lights. This is one of the ones I have.
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If you look at the review photos you'll see why I'm starting to go crazy. I do like colored lights for ambiance and decoration. Like behind a TV or computer. But when I'm trying to work and see things as they are this totally sucks.

So as far as plants go I've gotten a lot of new cactus and succulents. I've gotten Stapelias, Huernias, Orbea and one rare plant that turned out to be a disaster. A friend of mine was recommending a rare plant that is majorly endangered in the wild. I wanted one because I strongly think that the survival of many species lies in the hands of captive breeders and private collectors as habitat is destroyed for one reason or another. So I got one of these little succulents the other day and I was so happy. Hardly any info is known about them. It's an unrooted cutting which I'm not a an of. Luckily the guy had two so I went ahead and ordered a second one since it's a breeding program and you need two of everything like Noah's ark. Well I was taking some photos yesterday and closed my blinds because it was too bright in my room. I keep the plants in the windowsill. I forgot to open the blinds and it turned into an oven and my poor plant got cooked. I felt terrible. I almost cried. It's still alive but shrivled and looks nothing like when I got it. I was so happy when I first unboxed it. So now I have it in a special "intensive care" area. I watered it despite being a super arid species. I didn't mean to recreate Mars like conditions. I have a motto. "If there's green there's hope." There is still green but it looks so bad. I hope it makes it. I will be more careful with the next cutting but if this one doesn't make it then I'll only have one. Assuming I can get them to root. I don't like unrooted cuttings but there's not much choice in this case.

I'm taking down the Thanksgiving decorations and slowly putting up Christmas. I'm not doing much this year. Mostly it's the little dinning area that gets decorated now til things get back to normal. And I need to finish the stupid wall paper in the master bath already. So I hope to try to work on all that today. Bring in plants, put away Thanksgiving, work in garage and work on master bath. Ha, yeah that's not happening today but I'll try to do some of these four things. And I'm extremely creative. I want to work on Fear art and stories but just can't right now.

Lastly budgie update and I really should get going. Minion is doing great. He's up to 120 words. He's learned "Shiver me timbers" and "Walk the Plank". but not all the words. He can't say "walk" but says everything else but not in order. The funniest thing he said the other day was "Minion's a plank!" Chris and I both laughed so hard. We also had a short funny conversation. He has learned to say "YES!" He says it very confident and forceful. I hadn't realized my YES was so strong he picked it up. He was saying gibberish the other day and some bad English he said, "Nautica taste." So I asked him, "Nautica wants to take a taste?" and he looked and me and yelled "YES!" Like of course you stupid human. Haha. Or he didn't like being reminded he'd left out a bunch of words in his sentence.
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So things are going well. Been very busy. Mostly the bathroom have been annoying. Chris got the old sink out over the weekend but it was glued to the wall so heavily. We're not sure how to get the glue off as using a metal scraper hasn't worked. I'm hoping to borrow some tools but that has majorly slowed everything down as far as starting to paint the darn thing. The master bathroom is all patched and I should start to prime it with white today then work on repairing all the bamboo wallpaper in there. What's annoying is that we need to have both done because we only want the plumber out here once so we only pay him once so it's not good having a hold up.

Art wise I have been very busy. I'm thrilled I got my first interleaved KJV Bible. That means one blank page between every normal page. Lots of room for art. I like my other art one but I've been getting annoyed with the lack of room and that when I want to draw a favorite verse something else is already drawn on it. The only thing is since this is not an offical journaling Bible I'll have to test all my pens and paints to see if it can handle it. The pages are very thin.

I did get some Faber Castell watercolor pencils which I'm happy about. I have to learn how to use them. But I might do better with them than with regular water colors. I used my cheap water colors just to try out a first page.



This is not bad but they are chalky and pale. I think this could have been better with better paints. So I hope the pencils will work for me. I did not draw those words or the Earth. That was already there.

We went to the pet store to pick up some supplies for the birds. We bought new water bottles but unfortunately they don't work. I'm disappointed because I love the colors but they constantly leak. I'm glad I noticed when I did and that I had a cup under them because a third of their water had gone out and the birds were drinking from the cups. But we got a new hanging ring toy I've seen other birds use. Minion was afraid at first but then liked it when I put Nautica on it and he got on. But Nautica wasn't too keen on it because Minion was bothering her. I finally put her there alone and she chewed the ropes but I don't think it's her thing.





The bullet journal is coming along. I'm almost done catching up on the older months. I decided to do summaries of what happened in them and thank goodness for LJ as I was able to get lots of stuff two write about. I'm still working on April then I should be done. Nov and Dec will get one page because I'm out of pages in this book. I'm hoping some art supplies I have ordered from over seas will come in soon. I got one order coming from Japan that's a bunch of budgie stickers and tape. The other is from England. Can't wait.
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Hi everyone. Been a while since I posted. All is good. Just been busy. Well not all. Had some medical issues. I think it's better now. Just pray for me please. I'm feeling pretty good. I've been working with Minion mostly and am thrilled at how far he's come. Last time I counted we're at 67 words. Possibly more since he's surprised me with a few I did not teach him and I was not sure if he actually said. I'm behind on posting his videos so here they are.



He finally Learned Put That Thing Back Where It Came From Or So Help Me! Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day everyone. We managed to sort of learn Yo Ho A Pirate's Life For Me just in time.



And with all this craziness going on I totally forgot about our trip next week. Sooo, today I will be working on fixing up the house, getting the food ready to make things super easy for Mike and start the packing. We will have internet access so I'll be able to post everywhere and maybe possibly post videos too. We're going in the jeep as it's a perfect beach vehicle. Oh no means I have to wash it. Perhaps I'll do that tomorrow morning. It will just get full of sand again haha. The only bad thing is it's lovebug season. Started at the first week of Sept. We're going to have it bad on the drive. Poor jeep. I try to avoid driving it during the two lovebug seasons but I'd rather take the jeep on vacations than Bruce. It's more comfortable and more fun. Plus poor Chris is so sick of Bruce driving him all over the bay area everyday. I ordered a new dive mask. I hope it will get here today like they say and that it will fit me and be comfortable unlike the last one. I'm looking forward to the shelling. I hope we find bunches of cool ones. And wish us luck that one of us finds one of those rare sought after Junonias.

Possible names for my English budgie girl.

Aggie, Betsy, Delta, Enola

Which do you like?
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