For the love of God the carpet is finally done!  Well it has actually been done for quite a few weeks since it is already the middle of March ~ I know, can you believe it?  We love this time of year in the 1000 Islands as it starts to wake up from winter.  Not much of a wake up this year for sure.  Makes you kinda soft when you don't have to deal with a REAL winter.

We've been very busy repairing tanks for what seems forever.  They were only to last ten years but held out for 17 so that's not so bad.  As we say, better now then July 4th!  We update each new season so that each visit you make to us you can rest assured that we have put time, money, and loving effort into what you are going to see.

This year I'm redoing the information on our creatures.  Everyone has always enjoyed them so I thought I'd do more of the same but updated to this wonderful time in earth's history.  It's turning out to be more fun then I thought!  I enjoy remembering when we got some of them, or times they have eaten their tank mates and although it is always sad, I must say if we are lucky enough to witness it we usually say OMG THAT WAS AWESOME!  Well, not for the guy who just got eaten, lol.

Holy Carpet Batman, thats a lot of carpet!

One of the jobs that we do before we open for a new season is shampoo the carpet.  We have done this many ways but have finally found what works best for us.  We begin with connecting the garden hose to the sink.  Then we connect one of those sprayers that connect to the end of a hose so you can add fertilizer to your plants.  We fill that sprayer with carpet cleaning solution, dial it to # 1 and begin spraying hot water on the carpet.  We let that sit for a minute or two, then we 'shop vac' the carpet.  If there are stains, we pretreat them.  If necessary we use a brush on a long handle to scrub the solution into the carpet.  Wala!  clean carpet. 
Once we had a carpet guy do it but it really didn't seem any cleaner then our efforts so this way we save money, get a good workout, and stand back at the end with a great sense of accomplishment.

KillerJackRussell.wmv (6MB)

KillerJackRussell.wmv (6MB) just love Jacks!  My all time favorite of course is Rosie.  We'd have ten of them if they were all like her!

Almost Done!

Well the time is near......we will only be open thru Labor Day on a daily basis then it's weekends until the fat lady sings!  We stay open weekends until not enough people are around to make it worth our while.  We have lots to do this off season on both the outside (new roof) and inside (new display rack for grow-outs) so Dave will be busy!

Its Blues Weekend in the Bay which we love since we love to listen to the Blues and play them for the entire weekend.  There is not one thing we can be blue about this year ~ we've had a great season.  Everyone downtown is complaining about how slow it is but those people have to just realize that we will not be going back to the 80's when times were supposedly great in the Bay.  Time can only go forward and if you don't do any changin' with the times THEY PASS YOU BY.  Which is  why Clayton is doing so well..... Forward, people, forward.  Quit holding on to the PAST.

Amma.org

Amma.org: "The amount of love, the amount of heart which you pour into your work makes it significant and beautiful."
No wonder the AquaZoo has been around since 1996 ~ we love what we do with all our heart! Yesterday we went to Azial's graduation party and gave him one piece of advice which was pick something you love and you'll never do a days work in your life. David's dad wrote that in his graduation card back in the day, as they say, and he was so right on target.

One of those OMG moments at the AquaZoo

Hotchi Momma!  Yesterday I was on my way to do paperwork and when I turned the corner to get to my office low and behold WATER was on the floor in a BIG WAY!!!  David sprang into action thinking maybe it was the crappy silicone that we have to use now due to all the government regulations on the good stuff, but thank heavens it was a water return pipe that the Snakehead (yes we have a permit) moved out of place.  We vacuumed up the water, replaced the water that was now on the floor back into the tank and reopened, all in about 15 minutes.  Now to get thru the rest of the season without that kind of excitement would be great but if life doesn't throw you any curve balls how do you know how talented you are?

So Funny those Redtails are!

It was so funny the other day when the Redtail that I call Grady and the Yaki Cat were after the same piece of fish.  As Grady began to swirl around to get the food he created a whirl of water that kept the food going around in the same circle that he was in..I watched laughing for at least 30 seconds!  Sometimes when I feed this particular exhibit they make a huge woooossshhhh and I end up getting wet.  The other day I literally had to change my clothes because I got soaked!