Some interesting articles from Surfrider

Every week i get a newsletter from Surfrider with interesting articles, so i'll try to start sharing the ones i think are the coolest/most interesting. This is where the article below came from (about fish using rocks as tools) Here's a couple from this week:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/07/pictures/110725-algae-china-beaches-qingdao-swimming-science-environment-world/#/green-algae-bloom-china-lake-heaps_37795_600x450.jpg

this one's pretty crazy, be sure to read the full article:
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/20/great-white-jumps-on-to-research-boat/

Garden: July update

When I started gardening I didn't want to waste any space on flowers, I only cared about what I could eat. Since the spider mites, my first real pest problem, I've decided to add flowers that attract beneficial insects. A well rounded garden will lead to a healthy garden.

Growing alyssum and buckwheat. Alyssum has the pretty white flowers and smells quite pleasant too. It is drought tolerant and attracts lacewings, which destroy aphids. The buckwheat is a "green manure", which improves the soil and its flower attracts bees!
Lavender to attract bees and it's drought tolerant.

Set up some protection from those critters.

Lots of cherry tomatoes!

Old Germans getting sun.
Picked them early to save them from critters.

Makin' ma own dough!

Last Friday I finally decided to try and make pizza dough from scratched. I feel pretty silly now because I put it off for quite some time. I was intimidated of trying something new but it turns out making pizza dough is extremely easy. Flour, salt, yeast, water, and oil is all you need and some time, of course. I highly reccomend making your own pizza from scratch. It's really gratifying to see a bunch of ingredients become a tasty dinner.

The dough is a little thick for my liking, but I'm learning!

better teeth brushing

when i was at the dentist last week, i started asking him if the more natural toothpastes, like Tom's, are better or what his thoughts were on it. he didnt' say it was better, but he did add that a lot of them don't have fluoride in them, which is fine, but you should get it in other ways - tap water, foods, etc (apparently most bottled waters don't have fluoride in them, so don't expect to get it from them, and don't use them anyways, the sink is right next to you with free water and i'm guessing you have reusable glasses are in your cabinet). but he did add that the natural toothpastes have xylitol in them, which is a good ingredient, and an even better way to use this toothpaste is to swish around a small amount of peroxide (like in the brown bottle, maybe 99 cents per bottle), before you brush. he said this raises the pH in your mouth and the xylitol reacts better in your mouth and fight tooth decay/bacteria very well this way. he said there's been some studies out that have proven this, but i couldnt find any online. But i did read that xylitol raises the pH of saliva so it changes both the quantity and the quality of saliva, thus aiding the remineralization process. I guess swishing around peroxide prior to brushing just adds onto raising the pH and aiding even more in the remineralization process. either way, thought i'd throw that out there to you.

dust dowl

I drove up to an area called the dust bowl the other day. it was basically what you expect when you hear the name dust bowl...

yup

Cool article

on fish using rocks as tools- first ever documented..
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/07/fish-tool-use/

Another broken fin

Sooooo, I went out yesterday with my one successful set of fins so far (they've lasted 5 or 6 sessions), and it was a bit big, with some 5 or 6 foot sets coming through. I caught a few, but then on one bigger one, I dropped in, went to carve, and slipped out. After gettign somersaulted around a bit underwater, I pulled the board back to me , and saw I only had one fin... yay. These ones had two layers of glass on each side of the wooden fin (I think). Guess that's not enough. At this point, whatever, I'm passed being bummed and realized that this will happen, at least at the beginning of making these... hopefully the next ones will last.

So far, the three sets on the left have broken, the other two sets I haven't made much progress on making them cuz of being busy. So the left fin of the far left set broke off and was nowhere to be found. The next set to the right: these ones just failed, and the right fin broke off and was nowhere to be found (so at least i have one left fin and one right fin to use, just different sizes), and the middle set: both bases broke on those. I think I've figured out the reason for failing on on three though... like i said, hopefully the next ones last. I'm working on one new set already.

It's wedding season!

This past weekend we came back to Indy from Friday morning to Sunday evening for my cousin Amy's wedding and other related festivities! here's some pics to go along...


Went out to eat Friday night at a place with a fairly large beer selection. Mel got a beer from Brazil, Indiana! and it uses honey from Martinsville, IN! seeeeiiiick!

I tried out some Sun King so see what all the rave is about. Pretty good, and the cans for these beers are pretty awesome. Very 4-Loko-like

We got out to breakfast with some friends one morning also. Mel is super pumped as you can tell

Once again, Mel is super psyched


Saw this guy just cruisin down Washington St.
Got to see Julia, Mark, and Katie play, which coincidentally was about 300 yards from the church for the wedding that same afternoon



And now the good stuff. Yep, the Zwiesler boys were at it again!

Michalein and Meg swing dancin!

Groovin

and swingin


Maybe a bit drunk...


Many of my relatives, and dad, didn't ever know of my dance moves before this night. Good times were had by all


The cousins: all grown up!

Here's a quick clip from the dance floor. Hopefully I'll get some pics from Meg cuz she had ever better ones... To be continued!

How to clean a bluegill

So when i went fishing with my dad last week, he taught me how to clean fish. Not the most fun thing to do, but i did clean a few myself, as it seems that this is a thing that an outdoorsy person should know how to do, in case you’re stranded in way in the wilderness after being lost off a trail, plane-wrecked, shipwrecked, or some other version of shit-outta-luck. Here's how to do it, in case you don't know how. I probably am forgetting/leaving out something, but this isn't rocket science. you can figure it out.

And now it begins. I don’t like the method of killing them/making them not feel anything – turn the knife around and hit them in the forehead a couple times pretty hard. My dad called it a frontal lobotomy. I’ll take his word on it. Like I said, I don’t like that part. Then grab em by the gill, take the knife and feel for the bone behind the head, and cut from it down along behind that fin that sticks out. Kind of a diagonal cut from the head down to the belly area. You’re only doing one side at a time, so you’re not trying to cut through the entire body here. You can tell your boundaries (major bones) as you’re cutting. Gotta do it I guess to know what I mean.

Then start the next cut from your initial cut up top and run it down the spine along the top of the fish. Cut parallel to the length of the fish, and feel the bones to guide you and stay close to them, so as not to miss any of the meat.

Once you have the cut down the length of the fish, open it up with your hands and get your cut a bit further down (from the spine down towards the belly). Cut about down to the ribs to open it up more. The ribs will be your boundary here. Cut firmly, but not like you’re trying to cut through bone.

Starting right behind the ribs, cut through the fish so the knife sticks out the bottom side of it, as seen in the picture. Then take the cut out the back of the fish to the tail. Keep your cut down low (in the fish) all the way to the tail, so as not to miss meat back there. Make the cut come out right before the part of the tail without any meat. Just about right after where the knife it in the above picture.

Now that the cut is out the back, you can open it up even more. Hold the fillet up out of the way, and cut along the ribs. Just kinda scrape/cut along the ribs to pull the fillet back further without cutting through the ribs/breaking them.

Then take the cut through to the bottom side of the fish, and the fillet is off!

Then put the fillet with the scales down, and use a fingernail to hold down the skin, but not the meaty part. Get the knife in there and start cutting along the inside of the skin, to separate the skin from the meat.

Once you get started, it’s easy.

Once you’ve skinned it, there’s a small section of bone you have to cut out. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it’s a small section. Start at the bottom point of the fish in the picture above, move up the left angled side right to where there’s some red/blood. Its right in there, you just cut a small triangle to cut that section out. You can feel it

Done! now do the other side! You’ll find that you’re really good at the initial cut on one side, and on the other side, you’re really good at second, long cut along the inside of the body.

so yea, that's how you do that. think i'm done eating fish unless i do this process myself.