Well, the last harvest is being dried as I write listening to “Dark side of the moon”, a tad smelly I am glad to report, all those important little chemical reactions going on, terpenes and so on. I have a new supply of seeds ready to germinate, some BB cheese, well, cheese cross of course, and some Northern Lights, yippee.
Catman, aka "Svengali" the Maine coon cat, who is unaware he is of the feline disposition, is alert, well, alert as he is likely to be. He’s had a drink from the fish bowl, and taken a shower, {see pics}, (he always has trouble with the controls, can't read you see) So we are happy.
Which takes me to the last time I was at this stage, and decided to clean my rocks.
Lol Nah, the clay pebbles I meant. You see, some were new, and others were manky. I hate the murky swamp mess that lurks in the tank if dusty pebbles are in the system, can't be good, unless one is bacteria, plus, due to interference from a certain “amigo”,
(never again) there were bits of rockwool left among the used pebbles on account of just pulling them out of the buckets in any old way. Now that isn't a good thing, as the little strands band together and clog up the pipes, then the buckets fill and drain at different rates, and the pretty maids all in a row are receiving different volumes of solution. 
Ok I said to Catman, who was at the time eyeing me in a pitiful way, if I take out all the pebbles I can somehow destroy all that rockwool, right? Wrong; 1 Google later, quote read: "Rockwool is virtually, if not completely indestructible" no doubt on account it is the result of being derived from, well, rock. Indestructible! Captain Scarlet would be impressed.
So, one went back to the drawing board, and drew a stick figure or 2, and a stick cat.
No, No, actually I can't find the drawing board, maybe I don't have one!
So, after tripping over a huge pump in the basement, and as I lay prone in the dust, I had an idea.
Catman would be impressed with this I thought; I'll show him I'm no fool! After disentangling my legs from the cables, to the pump, I picked it up and marched purposefully to the next room to retrieve a large, green, water butt. 100 litres capacity or something.
At this juncture, Catman had retreated to a higher observation point, presumably as he knew from past painful experience that being in the vicinity of a “Good idea” was fraught with danger. He pretended to look disinterested, grooming and washing his face, which at the time seemed clean enough to me, but I knew his curiosity was aroused.
I fought with the hose for a shorter time than usual, emptied the water already in the hose over my feet, as usual, and squelched back to the water butt.
Checking there was nothing in it this time, I could feel his eyes of contempt watching me suspiciously. I filled the butt with water, to nearly full, and dropped the pump into the water.
After retrieving the cable and plug, and drying it off, to avoid another electrocution episode. I finally turned it on and “whoosh” the water shot out at an incredible rate, skyward bound. I hurriedly stopped the pump, and fumbled around in the cold water to adjust the direction of the “out” pipe.
Catman was in shock from the impromptu shower, he had had one already that day, remember he had sought a higher place to avoid any “accidents”. Still, I thought, he was washing at the time, so I guess it could have helped, got to be more efficient than licking oneself.
So, moving on, and with the water swirling around, which I should say at this point was part of my plan, you see I figured that I could make a whirlpool of some velocity given the pump was a big mutha, with inch and a half pipe connection. See, no fool me, and it gets better. I had read and was impressed with the sales splurge about clay pebbles, they claimed to be very porous, and contain many air pockets, which would assist in the oxygenation of the roots.
Some say I may be too trusting in sales splurges, I tend to believe all of them, and cupboards in my house are overflowing with gadgets that are all wondrous in their own rights, anyway, I digress. The fact was, and that I sometimes see the odd pebble floating around in my hydro tank, they are indeed buoyant. So if emptied into the water, agitated by the whirlpool, the dirt and rockwool fibres from the pebbles would fall away, then I could then scoop out the revolving pebbles from the surface, all clean and ready, with a sieve. Brilliant.
I worked my way through the buckets, which as you might know is a laborious job, disconnecting the inlet pipes, overflow pipes, and outlet pipes. Anyway, flushed with pride and overflowing with confidence, I carried the buckets to the butt, and emptied 3 buckets worth into the water.
I should say that it wasn’t altogether a failure. I mean, there were some that floated on the top, and spun around, about one buckets worth. The rest had sunk, like a stone,:icon_roll
to the bottom.
I swear I heard some sniggering behind me coming from Catman’s direction, the fact that he disguised it as a snuffle and a sneeze at the same time, didn’t convince me. The cat indeed had an air of mirth about him. His expression confirmed it.
Not to be discouraged, I cleared the floating pebbles, and fished around for the sunken ones. That, and the fact that every so often the pump became blocked with pebbles, took ages. I was fed up, tired, sore, and grumpy. Catman was asleep. I had “cleaned” 80% of the pebbles, and then I gave up. I just emptied the rest in the garden, telling myself that it was good for drainage.
The concept was, I thought, good. But it shows that they aren’t all that full of air pockets. Still, I expect the sales people hadn’t counted on the fact that I would rely on them floating to clean them in the first place.
At this moment, I do need some more pebbles, they will no doubt arrive dusty and turn water into a brown soup within 5 minutes. Pity no one sells them pre-washed.
I wonder if I could put them into the washing machine, 40 degrees, light spin, might be a bit noisy, Hmmmm….. I wonder what Catman thinks, this will impress him; oh, he’s just left the room…..
Catman, aka "Svengali" the Maine coon cat, who is unaware he is of the feline disposition, is alert, well, alert as he is likely to be. He’s had a drink from the fish bowl, and taken a shower, {see pics}, (he always has trouble with the controls, can't read you see) So we are happy.
Which takes me to the last time I was at this stage, and decided to clean my rocks.
Lol Nah, the clay pebbles I meant. You see, some were new, and others were manky. I hate the murky swamp mess that lurks in the tank if dusty pebbles are in the system, can't be good, unless one is bacteria, plus, due to interference from a certain “amigo”, (never again) there were bits of rockwool left among the used pebbles on account of just pulling them out of the buckets in any old way. Now that isn't a good thing, as the little strands band together and clog up the pipes, then the buckets fill and drain at different rates, and the pretty maids all in a row are receiving different volumes of solution. Ok I said to Catman, who was at the time eyeing me in a pitiful way, if I take out all the pebbles I can somehow destroy all that rockwool, right? Wrong; 1 Google later, quote read: "Rockwool is virtually, if not completely indestructible" no doubt on account it is the result of being derived from, well, rock. Indestructible! Captain Scarlet would be impressed.
So, one went back to the drawing board, and drew a stick figure or 2, and a stick cat.
No, No, actually I can't find the drawing board, maybe I don't have one!So, after tripping over a huge pump in the basement, and as I lay prone in the dust, I had an idea.
Catman would be impressed with this I thought; I'll show him I'm no fool! After disentangling my legs from the cables, to the pump, I picked it up and marched purposefully to the next room to retrieve a large, green, water butt. 100 litres capacity or something. At this juncture, Catman had retreated to a higher observation point, presumably as he knew from past painful experience that being in the vicinity of a “Good idea” was fraught with danger. He pretended to look disinterested, grooming and washing his face, which at the time seemed clean enough to me, but I knew his curiosity was aroused.
I fought with the hose for a shorter time than usual, emptied the water already in the hose over my feet, as usual, and squelched back to the water butt.
Checking there was nothing in it this time, I could feel his eyes of contempt watching me suspiciously. I filled the butt with water, to nearly full, and dropped the pump into the water.
After retrieving the cable and plug, and drying it off, to avoid another electrocution episode. I finally turned it on and “whoosh” the water shot out at an incredible rate, skyward bound. I hurriedly stopped the pump, and fumbled around in the cold water to adjust the direction of the “out” pipe.
Catman was in shock from the impromptu shower, he had had one already that day, remember he had sought a higher place to avoid any “accidents”. Still, I thought, he was washing at the time, so I guess it could have helped, got to be more efficient than licking oneself.
So, moving on, and with the water swirling around, which I should say at this point was part of my plan, you see I figured that I could make a whirlpool of some velocity given the pump was a big mutha, with inch and a half pipe connection. See, no fool me, and it gets better. I had read and was impressed with the sales splurge about clay pebbles, they claimed to be very porous, and contain many air pockets, which would assist in the oxygenation of the roots.
Some say I may be too trusting in sales splurges, I tend to believe all of them, and cupboards in my house are overflowing with gadgets that are all wondrous in their own rights, anyway, I digress. The fact was, and that I sometimes see the odd pebble floating around in my hydro tank, they are indeed buoyant. So if emptied into the water, agitated by the whirlpool, the dirt and rockwool fibres from the pebbles would fall away, then I could then scoop out the revolving pebbles from the surface, all clean and ready, with a sieve. Brilliant.
I worked my way through the buckets, which as you might know is a laborious job, disconnecting the inlet pipes, overflow pipes, and outlet pipes. Anyway, flushed with pride and overflowing with confidence, I carried the buckets to the butt, and emptied 3 buckets worth into the water.
I should say that it wasn’t altogether a failure. I mean, there were some that floated on the top, and spun around, about one buckets worth. The rest had sunk, like a stone,:icon_roll
to the bottom. I swear I heard some sniggering behind me coming from Catman’s direction, the fact that he disguised it as a snuffle and a sneeze at the same time, didn’t convince me. The cat indeed had an air of mirth about him. His expression confirmed it.
Not to be discouraged, I cleared the floating pebbles, and fished around for the sunken ones. That, and the fact that every so often the pump became blocked with pebbles, took ages. I was fed up, tired, sore, and grumpy. Catman was asleep. I had “cleaned” 80% of the pebbles, and then I gave up. I just emptied the rest in the garden, telling myself that it was good for drainage.
The concept was, I thought, good. But it shows that they aren’t all that full of air pockets. Still, I expect the sales people hadn’t counted on the fact that I would rely on them floating to clean them in the first place.
At this moment, I do need some more pebbles, they will no doubt arrive dusty and turn water into a brown soup within 5 minutes. Pity no one sells them pre-washed.
I wonder if I could put them into the washing machine, 40 degrees, light spin, might be a bit noisy, Hmmmm….. I wonder what Catman thinks, this will impress him; oh, he’s just left the room…..
