2018 Life Logs, Day 299—Early Voting
Date: Friday, October 26, 2018
Weather: Sunny and Chilly; High 46, Low 35 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Maybe it was just me, but today felt downright cold. The high was 46 with sunshine, but I was freezing. I’d better toughen up quickly as one thing is for certain. It is only going to get colder! As I sat at my computer and looked out the window, I could still see the colors of fall, but there are also lots of fallen leaves.
Fall is in full swing.
I spent three hours in town today running errands and going to an annual doctor’s appointment. One of my errands was to vote early. I could not believe the number of people doing the same thing. Early voting is at the Town Hall and there were people constantly streaming in and out while I was there. At this rate, I don’t think there will be anyone left to vote on election day. I took a water sample from the aquarium to the pet center in hopes that all is well and that we could add more fish this weekend. But not so. The pH of the water is too high as is the level of ammonia. The high ammonia level is expected in a newly established aquarium, but the not the high pH. The pH should be 7 to 7.5. I filled the aquarium with water from my Berkey water filter and thought it would be fine, but obviously not. The guy at the pet center said to go home and test the tap water and the water from the filter. The tap water has a pH of 10 and it should be between 6.5 and 9.5. The water from the Berkey filter tests at 8.7 as does the water from the aquarium. I added some driftwood to the aquarium tonight which is supposed to help and did a 50 per cent water change. But since the water from the Berkey filter is too high, I think I am going to have to buy something to lower the pH and wait another week to add more fish. Bummer!
At home, I spent some time working on that presentation for the Wayland Sailing Association and I dug up Lemon Grass from the garden and brought it inside so I can harvest it when I have time.
Harvesting means taking about three blades of the grass at a time and twisting it to form a little wreath.
You then let the wreaths dry in a dark area and use them to make Lemon Grass tea. I’ve never done this before, so I’ll let you know how it turns out. Most everything else in the garden was killed by a frost on Sunday night, but there is still kale and arugula.
Tomorrow we are going to have a full blown nor’easter with heavy wind and rain. Sounds like a good day to hide.
