From the "you couldn't make it up if you tried" department...
Mrs. Augie and I rolled out of CoMO Friday afternoon. Truck loaded with 275 gallon IBC tote, 1600gph worth of pumps,
hot battery, 125cu/ft O2 tank, and a 150qt Coleman cooler full of ice.
Spent the night in Ft. Riley, KS with #3 Son and DiL. Got to meet ten days old baby grand daughter Ruby Jean and play
with the grandsons.
Saturday AM I'm checking over the fish hauling gear in preparation to head for Salina and a rondezvoux with Snipe when
my phone rings. It's my best friend Jeff's wife Donna. Hi Donna, what's up? "Jeff is sick and he isn't going to make it
through the day." Donna likes to prank me and I figured this was another one, but nope, she wasn't joking this time.
He really is sick and he really isn't going to last the day.
Head for Salina. Meet Snipe at the truck stop. Load fish. Short visit. Too short, but he has more fish to deliver and it's
a five hour drive to get mine home. Head east. Drop Son back at his house and hit the road. Crazy Kansas winds from
Ft. Riley to Topeka, where the rain started. Rained all the way to Odessa, MO. Narrowly avoided non-driver pileup on
670 in KC. Phone is blowing up the whole way with people calling/texting wanting to talk about what's up with Jeff.
Stopped for fuel and ice in Booneville, MO. Check with his BiL. Yep, gone. Damn. It's been a long time since I got
kicked in the nuts and now I remember how it felt.
Make it home safe. Fish in good shape. Big cage not quite ready and need to temper the water before transfer.
Consult with Snipe. Finish cage. It's getting dark. More consult with Snipe. Still have +5° temp delta between tank
and pond. It's well past dark by this time. Decide to continue tempering tank water, change-out basically, and transfer
to pond in the AM. Daughter helps me out with that. We pack it in around midnight with 3° water temp delta.
Phone blowing up the whole time with people calling/texting wanting to talk about what's up with Jeff.
Get up Sunday AM. Pump tank down and check fish. 1/200 mort in tank. 199/200 very frisky in tank. Had a heck of a
time catching them. Those little devils are fast! Bucket them to the cage. Everything seems good. 9:00am it sets in to
raining. It rained for nine hours straight. A LOT of rain. Phone in meltdown all day long.
Get up yesterday to find pond up 6" from all the rain. Check cage. Two floaters. Uh oh... Pull cage. 50-ish morts and a
bunch more looking sick. Consult Snipe. Turned em loose. I don't know what was in that rain, but I found dozens of dead
FHM and bullfrog tadpoles floating around the edge of the pond yesterday. Suspect a pH crash due to all the new water.
It's really the only thing that makes sense under the circumstances. The YP were already stressed from transport and the
rain was enough to push some of them past the point of no return.
Noticed a RES feeding yesterday morning that didn't look quite like a RES should. Dangled a bit of worm in his face
during the evening feed yesterday. Fat little pellet-sucking toad of a BG. I suspect he was in with the RES I bought
from NEMO in June and I just missed him when I put them in. Now he's in the creek.
