Global warming, catfish and stray cars

We have a string of beautiful days predicted. Darn that global warming, darn it.

I am going to see if I can sweet-talk Mrs ERJ into skinny-dipping in Sprite's pond just to say we went swimming in November.

Catfish spawning nests

Catfish like to spawn in enclosed spaces where they can protect the eggs and newly hatched fingerlings against predation. In the natural habitat those enclosed spaces include muskrat tunnels,under-cut banks and log-jams.

Plans from HERE. Key points: Stake structure in approximately 5' of water with the entrance hole pointing toward deeper water. Put nest structure in water when water temp hits about 65F. Fingerling survival will increase if the nest is near "structure" or weed beds to reduce losses to predators.

Hatcheries that use this kind of box put hinges on one of the top boards so they can open the box and collect the eggs.

A typical Channel Cat will produce between 2000 and 20,000 eggs when she spawns.

Three minute run time. Catfish spawning and hatching.

I think the Grand River would benefit from some spawning boxes between the Smithville Dam and Kinneville Road.

Football

I was at Mom's this afternoon. We watched Iowa knock the snot out of the MSU Spartans. Great job, Hawkeyes!

Vehicles

We are losing some of our lawn ornaments.

Kubota sold one of the vehicles that had been gracing the side of our driveway.

Mrs ERJ suggested that Old Blue needs to go to the local scrap yard so it will be gone within the week.

Kubota's extra vehicle was puzzling. It was missing assorted parts (like doors and decklids) and a friend "gave" it to him. Unfortunately, the friend did not have a title to give.

I leaned on Kubota to get rid of it. Missing doors, rear windows and the like, it wasn't keeping out the weather. One of my other concerns was that I had no way of knowing if the car had been stolen. It would be just our luck to have Kubota stopped in a vehicle that had been reported as stolen.

Then, the title magically appeared and Kubota was able to sell it at "scrap" prices to somebody who had a use for the part.