You Say Goodbye...I Say Hello...Hello Hello
On a Saturday this past October, we said goodbye to the three common goldfish Matt purchased for about .30 cents each (when he was in high school). They were healthy happy but were being evicted from their home because some other fish needed to move in - and out of our house. So the three Fantail's moved into the 10 gallon tank in Matt's room...and got ready to be transported to their new home.
In the meanwhile, the 29 gallon tank was filled with the new cichlids because we didn't have the new tank yet.
Jared had arranged a spot for the tank, so we loaded up the truck and moved to Hiawatha (just the fish silly).
A gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds. so we emptied the tank about 1/2 way so it could be carried up three flights of stairs (yes they live on the top floor). Got the tank over to Jared & Ashley's, but when Terry said where are we putting it...and Jared pointed to the glass end table..(insert screeching breaks here)..Ah that won't work. Fully loaded the tank would weigh 80 pounds and bust through the glass. So Terry and I hopped in the truck in search of a 10 gallon tank stand. After about an hour and no luck, we return to Jared's and said, we'll get a stand, and then bring it back. So the goldfish are now back in Matt's room until we can find a black 10 gallon stand for Jared & Ashley. Hello Craigslist!
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
Tales From the Tank #19 Part 2
Continued from prior post...
As you know from our first auction adventure, we didn't really know what we were doing (as if we ever do). But we a bit more selective this time around. However, just before Jared arrived with our lunch, Terry was getting pretty disgusted at how cheaply the bags of cichlids were going....so he whipped out his cell phone and called up KJ and said.."lets make a deal".
He sold KJ the 29 gallon tank (that the goldfish were in) for the babies and decided to keep the 55 gallon were were trying to buy for ourselves. He said to me..."I thought you always wanted a tank with cichlids?"
I have to say...he got me there. I am mesmerized by their different colors. Somewhat like I am with the angel fish. Well, then the "auction bug" caught Terry and he was in his element now...bidding on bags of cichlids.
This is all before we knew what the heck the experts were talking about. KJ always said you can't mix African cichlids with South American cichlids.
Since Terry likes to keep the action going, he bid $1.00 on a bag of baby fish no one wanted, got a bag of yellows for six bucks, a catfish for $9....we spent less than we did the first auction and came home with about 27 fish.
By this time, Jared had shown up with our McDonald's and we had been discussing where to put the 55 gallon tank he was trying to get and where in the world were we gonna put the three gold fish because if we put them all in the 10 gallon tank in Matt's room, then we are back to the problem that started this whole mess...some goldfish picking on the others. Geezzz.......
Ah Hah! Jared...how would you like to have some goldfish? We have the perfect tank for you...all ready to go, we can even give you food and gee, won't Chance (the cat) LOVE to watch them all day long when you guys are at work? (Hee Hee). Of course, he is his father's son (mine too) so he called Ashley and they talked about it. Her response was...."you have to take care of it so it doesn't smell". "I can do that" he said.
So everything was going to work out just fine! BUT WAIT....what do we do with the three original goldfish in Matt's room??
Terry said, "well you know...Petco has a tank for adoption fish. We (meaning me) just have to take them out there and give them up." Seriously? give up fish for adoption? No way....
As you know from our first auction adventure, we didn't really know what we were doing (as if we ever do). But we a bit more selective this time around. However, just before Jared arrived with our lunch, Terry was getting pretty disgusted at how cheaply the bags of cichlids were going....so he whipped out his cell phone and called up KJ and said.."lets make a deal".
He sold KJ the 29 gallon tank (that the goldfish were in) for the babies and decided to keep the 55 gallon were were trying to buy for ourselves. He said to me..."I thought you always wanted a tank with cichlids?"
I have to say...he got me there. I am mesmerized by their different colors. Somewhat like I am with the angel fish. Well, then the "auction bug" caught Terry and he was in his element now...bidding on bags of cichlids.
This is all before we knew what the heck the experts were talking about. KJ always said you can't mix African cichlids with South American cichlids.
Since Terry likes to keep the action going, he bid $1.00 on a bag of baby fish no one wanted, got a bag of yellows for six bucks, a catfish for $9....we spent less than we did the first auction and came home with about 27 fish.
By this time, Jared had shown up with our McDonald's and we had been discussing where to put the 55 gallon tank he was trying to get and where in the world were we gonna put the three gold fish because if we put them all in the 10 gallon tank in Matt's room, then we are back to the problem that started this whole mess...some goldfish picking on the others. Geezzz.......
Ah Hah! Jared...how would you like to have some goldfish? We have the perfect tank for you...all ready to go, we can even give you food and gee, won't Chance (the cat) LOVE to watch them all day long when you guys are at work? (Hee Hee). Of course, he is his father's son (mine too) so he called Ashley and they talked about it. Her response was...."you have to take care of it so it doesn't smell". "I can do that" he said.
So everything was going to work out just fine! BUT WAIT....what do we do with the three original goldfish in Matt's room??
Terry said, "well you know...Petco has a tank for adoption fish. We (meaning me) just have to take them out there and give them up." Seriously? give up fish for adoption? No way....
Tales from the Tank #19 Part1
OOPS...Here we go again!
It's been a while since I've posted an update. Nothing much has really been going on. Lost a few fish here and there...but this past October things have been going on, so I'd better get back to updating this "diary" of adventures!
Our fish partner in crime KJ - has quite a few baby cichlids. Cichlids, if you are unaware, are some of the most fascinating and colorful freshwater fish you can get without going to the saltwater variety! As she is aware of Terry's penchant for creeping and crawling on craigslist, she set him to the task of finding her a larger tank for her "babies". (One can't house the babies with the larger cichlids, because if it's not their mom and pop...they are fish food for other large cichlids). I personally think this is where the term "Fish fry" comes from....groups of baby fish are called "Frye". So when you eat the baby fish...you essentially have a "fish Frye". LOL!
Of course, Terry was successful and found a great tank for a fair price and told Kathy all about it. A 55 gallon with a large pleco, three clown loaches and some platties. She replied that although it was really bigger than she wanted - she would take - and we would get the fish. Meanwhile, while we were waiting for the seller to reply and since we were unable to attend October 1st football game in Pella, Terry said..."By the way, the October EIAA fish auction is this Saturday". Well...you know where this is going right?
Saturday the 1st of October was a beautiful day - the kind you want to spend outdoors doing yard work, or just about anything. But Noooo, not the Schrafels. Now that we are "amateur aquarium hobbyists" we had developed of list of "items" we wanted to find. (Filter supplies, nets, decor, etc - not really fish. Didn't really need any of those). So, armed with our list and our checkbook..and determined not to spend a lot of cash...we headed to the auction .
After we got to the auction site and began previewing items that we thought we could "use", noticed there were tons of cichlids to purchase and not much of anything else. So we just were waiting for the supply items we wanted to come up. Then Jared (our oldest) sent a text and said, "I'm at your house, where are you?". I replied "We aren't there, we are at the fish auction". His reply: "OMG. by the way....I'm washing my car at your house". Remember in an earlier post how I thought our water bill would go down once the kids were gone? Yeah right.
I told him, "when you're done, you can always come hang out with us" and BTW if you do...let me know and you can bring us McDonalds' and I'll buy yours too". (any red-blooded 22 year old can't pass up that bribe).
To be continued....
It's been a while since I've posted an update. Nothing much has really been going on. Lost a few fish here and there...but this past October things have been going on, so I'd better get back to updating this "diary" of adventures!
Our fish partner in crime KJ - has quite a few baby cichlids. Cichlids, if you are unaware, are some of the most fascinating and colorful freshwater fish you can get without going to the saltwater variety! As she is aware of Terry's penchant for creeping and crawling on craigslist, she set him to the task of finding her a larger tank for her "babies". (One can't house the babies with the larger cichlids, because if it's not their mom and pop...they are fish food for other large cichlids). I personally think this is where the term "Fish fry" comes from....groups of baby fish are called "Frye". So when you eat the baby fish...you essentially have a "fish Frye". LOL!
Of course, Terry was successful and found a great tank for a fair price and told Kathy all about it. A 55 gallon with a large pleco, three clown loaches and some platties. She replied that although it was really bigger than she wanted - she would take - and we would get the fish. Meanwhile, while we were waiting for the seller to reply and since we were unable to attend October 1st football game in Pella, Terry said..."By the way, the October EIAA fish auction is this Saturday". Well...you know where this is going right?
Saturday the 1st of October was a beautiful day - the kind you want to spend outdoors doing yard work, or just about anything. But Noooo, not the Schrafels. Now that we are "amateur aquarium hobbyists" we had developed of list of "items" we wanted to find. (Filter supplies, nets, decor, etc - not really fish. Didn't really need any of those). So, armed with our list and our checkbook..and determined not to spend a lot of cash...we headed to the auction .
After we got to the auction site and began previewing items that we thought we could "use", noticed there were tons of cichlids to purchase and not much of anything else. So we just were waiting for the supply items we wanted to come up. Then Jared (our oldest) sent a text and said, "I'm at your house, where are you?". I replied "We aren't there, we are at the fish auction". His reply: "OMG. by the way....I'm washing my car at your house". Remember in an earlier post how I thought our water bill would go down once the kids were gone? Yeah right.
I told him, "when you're done, you can always come hang out with us" and BTW if you do...let me know and you can bring us McDonalds' and I'll buy yours too". (any red-blooded 22 year old can't pass up that bribe).
To be continued....
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Tales from the Tank #18
Free to Good Home
I have to tell you...Terry still views craigslist all the time and now shows me pictures of all kinds of puppies. Sure, I'd like a puppy, but no, he's only showing me because they are cute -not that he wants one. (I'd have to clean up the poop and feed it anyway).
Tonight (Saturday), we were out and about and he dropped me off at Michaels craft store (need to make another watch band) and he went to the Pet store to "look around".
Not too much later I came out of the store and he's waiting in the car for me (very old peopleish right)?
He hands me a bag of fish! Two red tail sharks about 4 inches long. Apparently one of the pet stores has an "adoption" tank and so he adopted two fish to bring home and put in the 55 gallon tank so the silver dollars and the other tetras wouldn't be so lonely without Hoover and Tiger.
Awww....that's so sweet. Fish adoption is cool!
I have to tell you...Terry still views craigslist all the time and now shows me pictures of all kinds of puppies. Sure, I'd like a puppy, but no, he's only showing me because they are cute -not that he wants one. (I'd have to clean up the poop and feed it anyway).
Tonight (Saturday), we were out and about and he dropped me off at Michaels craft store (need to make another watch band) and he went to the Pet store to "look around".
Not too much later I came out of the store and he's waiting in the car for me (very old peopleish right)?
He hands me a bag of fish! Two red tail sharks about 4 inches long. Apparently one of the pet stores has an "adoption" tank and so he adopted two fish to bring home and put in the 55 gallon tank so the silver dollars and the other tetras wouldn't be so lonely without Hoover and Tiger.
Awww....that's so sweet. Fish adoption is cool!
Tales from the Tank #17
Water Water Everywhere
It's been while since I've had anything to write about. No big adventures or interesting things...until this past week.
Last Saturday we adopted two plecos from an ad on craigslist. The first new addition went into the 29 gallon Goldfish tank (which was looking kinda green), and the second went into the 37 gallon Angel tank. They have done an amazing job cleaning up the algae.
We haven't done any tank cleaning for about a month, so Monday I ran out and got filters and then after dinner we began the monthly ritual of cleaning tanks. We started with the Goldfish, and everything went just fine.
Then we moved the operation upstairs. Normally we siphon about 25-35% of the water (while cleaning up the poop and leftover food), but since we never really cleaned the 55 after we got it, I took it down to a 50% water level. Terry has started just suctioning the water and letting it run into the tub (cuz the process goes faster). So once the 55 was done, I moved out into the living room to start the community tank. We got started siphoning and the next think I know, Terry is yelling to shut the siphon off....the bathroom is flooding!
And when I say "flooding", this wasn't like before, this was a full on flood with at least an inch of water on the floor. "Grab towels" he yelled. Thank goodness I had the foresight to take a day of vacation and get all the towels in the house washed, because we used about 10. The rugs were wet, the carpet in the hall was wet and then I went downstairs. Did I mention wanting to go to bed early? (yeah right).
It was like a rain forest downstairs. There was water dripping from the ceiling in two rooms. Water puddled in my sewing box, water on the floor in two rooms and running down the walls. We figure the hose popped out of the tub for about four minutes. Let me tell you, four minutes of dirty fish water is a lot of water.
Once the water was cleaned up, I sprayed the floor with Clorox Cleanup and wiped it up again. Terry is running around cursing..."how in the #$% did this happen? I was only out of the bathroom for a minute!"
Oh well. got the mess cleaned up and started to fill the tanks back up. Filled the 40 and then the 55. Got the chemicals added and was starting to put away the filters and supplies when we noticed the Tiger barb in the 55 swimming erratically and one of the tetras was swimming sideways. Then to my horror....Hoover, the albino pleco was belly up on the bottom of the tank.
"What the heck?" Terry!!!! the fish are dying! "Did you put the chemical in" he asked. "of course I did". So we went back and forth a bit on who did what...but in the end we had to say goodbye to Hoover, Tiger and one of the red tetras and send them to the big pond in the sky.
After talking with a pet professional, seems that taking the tank down to 50% change out and then adding back the water so fast may have shocked my favorite pleco and Terry's Tiger who would nibble on your fingers if you put them in his way.
It was a sad night Monday.
It's been while since I've had anything to write about. No big adventures or interesting things...until this past week.
Last Saturday we adopted two plecos from an ad on craigslist. The first new addition went into the 29 gallon Goldfish tank (which was looking kinda green), and the second went into the 37 gallon Angel tank. They have done an amazing job cleaning up the algae.
We haven't done any tank cleaning for about a month, so Monday I ran out and got filters and then after dinner we began the monthly ritual of cleaning tanks. We started with the Goldfish, and everything went just fine.
Then we moved the operation upstairs. Normally we siphon about 25-35% of the water (while cleaning up the poop and leftover food), but since we never really cleaned the 55 after we got it, I took it down to a 50% water level. Terry has started just suctioning the water and letting it run into the tub (cuz the process goes faster). So once the 55 was done, I moved out into the living room to start the community tank. We got started siphoning and the next think I know, Terry is yelling to shut the siphon off....the bathroom is flooding!
And when I say "flooding", this wasn't like before, this was a full on flood with at least an inch of water on the floor. "Grab towels" he yelled. Thank goodness I had the foresight to take a day of vacation and get all the towels in the house washed, because we used about 10. The rugs were wet, the carpet in the hall was wet and then I went downstairs. Did I mention wanting to go to bed early? (yeah right).
It was like a rain forest downstairs. There was water dripping from the ceiling in two rooms. Water puddled in my sewing box, water on the floor in two rooms and running down the walls. We figure the hose popped out of the tub for about four minutes. Let me tell you, four minutes of dirty fish water is a lot of water.
Once the water was cleaned up, I sprayed the floor with Clorox Cleanup and wiped it up again. Terry is running around cursing..."how in the #$% did this happen? I was only out of the bathroom for a minute!"
Oh well. got the mess cleaned up and started to fill the tanks back up. Filled the 40 and then the 55. Got the chemicals added and was starting to put away the filters and supplies when we noticed the Tiger barb in the 55 swimming erratically and one of the tetras was swimming sideways. Then to my horror....Hoover, the albino pleco was belly up on the bottom of the tank.
"What the heck?" Terry!!!! the fish are dying! "Did you put the chemical in" he asked. "of course I did". So we went back and forth a bit on who did what...but in the end we had to say goodbye to Hoover, Tiger and one of the red tetras and send them to the big pond in the sky.
After talking with a pet professional, seems that taking the tank down to 50% change out and then adding back the water so fast may have shocked my favorite pleco and Terry's Tiger who would nibble on your fingers if you put them in his way.
It was a sad night Monday.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Hobbies can be dangerous...
Abracadabra! You can buy pressed and dried flowers on the internet! During all my "research" I found a few websites that offered fully pressed and dried flowers for as little as $1.29 for 10.
"Did you buy some?" you ask. "Well of course I did". (remember me?...impatient person who wants dried flowers RIGHT NOW!) I spent a whopping 20bucks on three packages of itsy bitsy tinsy weensey little flat and pressed...flowers...(and you thought I'd say bikinis didn't you?).
Boy...are they brittle. If you woman handle them (cause I don't man handle)...they crumble into little bits of nothing. (lesson learned on a leaf half the size of my thumb) LOL.
Now that I'm offically addicted to pressing and drying flowers, I have to admit I have a VERY indulgent hubby. I'm constantly looking for new and exciting flowers...FOR FREE. So on the way to Brenda's yesterday I saw some really cool yellow flowers that looked like daisys (Yes, in the ditch). So he very kindly pulled over to the side of the road, (Yes on HWY 34) AND handed my a pair of needle nose plyers so I could cut some flowers.
Then about 10 miles down the road, I keep seeing these blue flowers. I need blue flowers. So what does he do? Yep, he pulls over again and lets me out and I grab some of them, plus some purple whispy things too. However, as indulgent as he was, he never misses an opportunity to pull away and let me think he's leaving me on the side of the road. He did it. So I cut some more blue flowers.
When I got back into the truck with my hand full of flowers...he began to sneeze. Hah! That's what you get for trying to leave me.
Anyhow, we get to BK's and I cut the blooms off and press them into paper towels..I can't tell you how excited I was, and of course how much she laughed when I told her we would have been 30 minutes earlier if we hadn't stopped to "cut the flowers".
As I continue to eye all the different kinds of flowers around, I'm getting dangerously close to taking them from peoples yards....so when I saw the most perfect sunflower (on the side of the road next to a corn field) - I gave BK the plyers and made her cut it off. She's the town librarian, nobody gets mad at the town librarian!
So when we got home last night, Terry help me get something heavy enough for the sunflower and this morning when we checked it, he said you might have to "shave" some of the back of to get it to lay flater. So I grabbed the knife and as I was thinking about the best way to "shave some off", he said, "give me the knife, you make me nervous", and proceed to shave my perfect little sunflower - but alas, he "shaved" too much and it completely fell apart.
So much for stealing flowers...
"Did you buy some?" you ask. "Well of course I did". (remember me?...impatient person who wants dried flowers RIGHT NOW!) I spent a whopping 20bucks on three packages of itsy bitsy tinsy weensey little flat and pressed...flowers...(and you thought I'd say bikinis didn't you?).
Boy...are they brittle. If you woman handle them (cause I don't man handle)...they crumble into little bits of nothing. (lesson learned on a leaf half the size of my thumb) LOL.
Now that I'm offically addicted to pressing and drying flowers, I have to admit I have a VERY indulgent hubby. I'm constantly looking for new and exciting flowers...FOR FREE. So on the way to Brenda's yesterday I saw some really cool yellow flowers that looked like daisys (Yes, in the ditch). So he very kindly pulled over to the side of the road, (Yes on HWY 34) AND handed my a pair of needle nose plyers so I could cut some flowers.
Then about 10 miles down the road, I keep seeing these blue flowers. I need blue flowers. So what does he do? Yep, he pulls over again and lets me out and I grab some of them, plus some purple whispy things too. However, as indulgent as he was, he never misses an opportunity to pull away and let me think he's leaving me on the side of the road. He did it. So I cut some more blue flowers.
When I got back into the truck with my hand full of flowers...he began to sneeze. Hah! That's what you get for trying to leave me.
Anyhow, we get to BK's and I cut the blooms off and press them into paper towels..I can't tell you how excited I was, and of course how much she laughed when I told her we would have been 30 minutes earlier if we hadn't stopped to "cut the flowers".
As I continue to eye all the different kinds of flowers around, I'm getting dangerously close to taking them from peoples yards....so when I saw the most perfect sunflower (on the side of the road next to a corn field) - I gave BK the plyers and made her cut it off. She's the town librarian, nobody gets mad at the town librarian!
So when we got home last night, Terry help me get something heavy enough for the sunflower and this morning when we checked it, he said you might have to "shave" some of the back of to get it to lay flater. So I grabbed the knife and as I was thinking about the best way to "shave some off", he said, "give me the knife, you make me nervous", and proceed to shave my perfect little sunflower - but alas, he "shaved" too much and it completely fell apart.
So much for stealing flowers...
Hobbies can be addictive
It's been awhile since I've written, but it's not that we haven't been busy! Anyone who is familiar with the downtown farmers market here in CR might understand where I'm at with this story.
During last year's market, I saw an old window. It had dried flowers in it and was covered with some type of paper. Low and behold, the owner wanted $165.00 for it. I'm not cheap by any means, except that Terry and I have this terrible habit of saying "Geez, I could make one of those myself", and we move on to the next booth where you pick up a bottle of wine, or a pound of tomatoes.
As Timon in the Lion Kings says, "It begins"...
Over July 4th weekend, we were organizing and packing up some of my sisters things for her big move, so on a whim, Terry climbed into the top of the old barn (no one had ever done it in the 20+ years she's lived there). We found some old windows, so I've decided to make my own window(s).
As Sophie and I walked the trail by our house (before the heat wave), I took my garden shears and cut some flowers, Queen Anne's Lace, Lillie's, etc. Brought them home and put them between paper and put books on them. THEN I started researching how to dry/press flowers. Most instructions say it takes about six weeks for the flowers to dry.
WHAT? So I started to read more and look for other ways to dry flowers. Meanwhile I have piles and stacks of books all over the living room and the family room and my house is starting to look like the boys moved back home. (I do love you boys!!).
Meanwhile back at HQ, I've moved everything downstairs, commandeered the 8 foot table we use for Easter dinner, the card table and Sophie's kennel for table space. I spent the weekend before this scraping paint off the other windows and putting new glazing in so the glass doesn't fall out.
Found out the windows are backed with rice paper. No one in CR sells rice paper.On the
way back from Minneapolis (and Antiques Roadshow - which is another story), BK and I stop at Hobby Lobby in Waterloo. But of course they are not open on Sundays. Go Figure.
I was getting so antsy, that I took a day and a half vacation, just to organize my piles and go to the Iowa City Hobby Lobby for the rice paper. Found out there is the stuff called Silica Gel, which you can use in the microwave to dry your flowers instantly! Eureka! ...that's the ticket... INSTANT gratification. (Apparently, I'm not a patient crafter).
The next day I picked a couple black eyed Susan's from the back yard. Followed the instructions with the Silica Gel, and ended up with instant FRIED flowers. According to the directions you are supposed to lay the flower on a half inch layer of gel, and the completely cover the flower. Cook on medium power for 1-2 minutes. When I took it out of the gel it complete;y disintegrated. Crumpled into nothing in my impatient little hands.
Over the course of the last week or so, I've pretty much tested all power levels and time lengths for microwaving flowers. If you do power level 2 and 35 seconds, they come out just a little dry so you can then put them between some paper and let them finish drying. I haven't checked them yet, but hopefully it will cut the drying time to less than six weeks.
Oh well, there are still fish to feed!
PS.. First one done...
During last year's market, I saw an old window. It had dried flowers in it and was covered with some type of paper. Low and behold, the owner wanted $165.00 for it. I'm not cheap by any means, except that Terry and I have this terrible habit of saying "Geez, I could make one of those myself", and we move on to the next booth where you pick up a bottle of wine, or a pound of tomatoes.
As Timon in the Lion Kings says, "It begins"...
Over July 4th weekend, we were organizing and packing up some of my sisters things for her big move, so on a whim, Terry climbed into the top of the old barn (no one had ever done it in the 20+ years she's lived there). We found some old windows, so I've decided to make my own window(s).
As Sophie and I walked the trail by our house (before the heat wave), I took my garden shears and cut some flowers, Queen Anne's Lace, Lillie's, etc. Brought them home and put them between paper and put books on them. THEN I started researching how to dry/press flowers. Most instructions say it takes about six weeks for the flowers to dry.
WHAT? So I started to read more and look for other ways to dry flowers. Meanwhile I have piles and stacks of books all over the living room and the family room and my house is starting to look like the boys moved back home. (I do love you boys!!).
Meanwhile back at HQ, I've moved everything downstairs, commandeered the 8 foot table we use for Easter dinner, the card table and Sophie's kennel for table space. I spent the weekend before this scraping paint off the other windows and putting new glazing in so the glass doesn't fall out.
Found out the windows are backed with rice paper. No one in CR sells rice paper.On the
way back from Minneapolis (and Antiques Roadshow - which is another story), BK and I stop at Hobby Lobby in Waterloo. But of course they are not open on Sundays. Go Figure.
I was getting so antsy, that I took a day and a half vacation, just to organize my piles and go to the Iowa City Hobby Lobby for the rice paper. Found out there is the stuff called Silica Gel, which you can use in the microwave to dry your flowers instantly! Eureka! ...that's the ticket... INSTANT gratification. (Apparently, I'm not a patient crafter).
The next day I picked a couple black eyed Susan's from the back yard. Followed the instructions with the Silica Gel, and ended up with instant FRIED flowers. According to the directions you are supposed to lay the flower on a half inch layer of gel, and the completely cover the flower. Cook on medium power for 1-2 minutes. When I took it out of the gel it complete;y disintegrated. Crumpled into nothing in my impatient little hands.
Over the course of the last week or so, I've pretty much tested all power levels and time lengths for microwaving flowers. If you do power level 2 and 35 seconds, they come out just a little dry so you can then put them between some paper and let them finish drying. I haven't checked them yet, but hopefully it will cut the drying time to less than six weeks.
Oh well, there are still fish to feed!
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