But Seriously #1 Serving and Free Time

Taking a page from What Christians Like (what is the correct formatting for blog titles anyways?) I decided to include a serious segment every now and then called "But Seriously." My original goal of this blog was to be more serious, but I get enough of that in school right now. I have decided to write about whatever I am currently interested in instead. Still, it is good to be serious every now and then; to look a little more in-depth at life as a follower of Jesus Christ.

This last spring semester at Trinity was probably my hardest semester in school ever. I started the semester working 20 hours a week but had to drop it to 17 hours in order to study. I was taking Beginning Hebrew II, Greek Exegesis I, Church History, Apologetics, and Preaching. It was a heavy load. Everyday I learned to trust God more. I learned that being the A student I was all my life wasn't the most important. It was a struggle for me. God showed me that I actually got more of my identity from being smart and getting A's without trying too hard than I realized. Consistently getting C's, D's, and F's on quizzes was incredibly disheartening for me. On top of that, Cassie and I had to plan a wedding.

I also had to do a Field Education for my MDiv degree. A Field Ed is basically involuntary volunteer work. I hated the idea of it, yet loved doing it. I needed all the free time I could get to study and relax, yet every Thursday night from 6-10pm Cassie and I went to Rogers Park in Chicago to visit with a refugee family from Nepal.

They were incredible. Kul (pronounced "cool"), Bhala ("bahla"), and Bhuja ("boo-dga") are all in their mid-20's. They are the same age as me and have lived 17 years in a refugee camp in Nepal. Kul came to Chicago in December, and his brother Bhala and Bhala's wife, Bhuja, came in mid-January. We met them when they had only been in the country for a week or so. They came from the hot, humid jungles of Nepal to the frozen tundra of a Chicago winter. It was tough coming up with things to talk about when we had nothing in common. We didn't grow up anywhere near the same cultures, but it was great. We watched Indian movies and they gave us Indian tea and amazing soup. Since this summer our relationship with them has blossomed. We are now visiting friends, not just refugees for school credit.

I write about this because God is amazing. I have never volunteered much in my life. I always thought I was too busy or that there were other things to do. But God, in His crazy wisdom, decided to make me volunteer during the busiest time of my life. It was super inconvenient, and on the Thursdays that Cassie and I didn't go we felt like we had all the time in the world. But it so worth it. God got me through the semester. I passed all my classes. I ended up with a C in Church History but who cares what Augustine's mom's name is anyways? (Not to disregard the subject, I think understanding church history is important to making wise decisions in the church now.) God gives us the strength to do what He wants us to do. He stretches us and we hate it. I hate it. But man are the end results great!

Cassie and I are hopefully going to see our friends from Nepal soon and I can't wait.

My New Bonsai

I went for it. I bought a ficus benjamina as my first bonsai. I got to take this nursery stock from Wal-Mart for $11. It looks nothing like a bonsai and was not advertised as one. As you can see from the picture, the left side is a bit more leafy than the right side. This is going to be difficult as I have never really taken care of a plant on my own. I've read that it is one of the more forgiving types of trees to turn into an indoor bonsai though.

Right now it is obnoxiously huge with no real direction. There are like 9 trunks and it is about 3 or so feet tall. I was hoping to have just one trunk, but we'll see what happens. There's a chance that each trunk has its own root system, but I doubt it.

The leaves on the ficus are great! They are a bright green and can be trained to grow smaller. I've read that if you cut them back during the growing season that they will grow back smaller. Also, the ficus benjamina is supposed to be completely defoliated once a year or so. I don't think I am going to do either of these techniques until spring because it will cause a lot of stress for the plant.

These trunks are intimidating! What will I do with all of these? I can tie them all together until they fuse into one trunk in 2-3 years or maybe I can cut some off and create a clump style that shares a common canopy of leaves. The problem with this option is the fact that the trunk stumps might be unsightly.




As our friend, Charles, has shown us. A nursery stock can be pruned and wired into a beautiful bonsai. I'm excited!

I'll keep you posted.

Aquariums

It is becoming more and more clear to me that I am a man of varied interests. This post is about my love for tropical aquarium fish.
Three-and-a-half years ago while I was living on campus as an undergrad Cassie and I decided to make a late night trip to Wal-mart. We wanted fish. We had a great time. Wal-mart had all of the fish that I remember having as a child: tetras, plecos, angel fish, and more.
We each decided to get a one-gallon tank and some fish for them. I got a pleco, 2 goldfish, a mollie, 2 neon tetras, and a frog. Cassie got a guppy, goldfish, and some other fish. As it turns out, fish need more space than that one-gallon tank allowed. All of ours ended up dying, though my mollie lasted the longest. It was a great learning experience. At one point I had a large vase, and 2 one-gallon tanks in my dorm room at the same time (Cassie hated seeing the fish die, it grossed her out), and I was doing major water changes about every day.

Though our first foray into fish was less-than perfect we decided to get larger tanks that summer. I got a 20-gallon and she got a 10-gallon. It has been a blast having my 20-gallon tank, but Trinity doesn't allow tanks larger than 10 gallons so I had to retire it for now. Here is a progression of my 20-gallon tank over the past 3 or so years.

This is my tank not long after I bought it.

Here it is not long after that. There are 2 mollies and 2 neon tetras in this shot. I experimented with rock formations that I got from the construction around my parent's house.
I was so excited the first time my mollies had babies. I learned that some fish are livebearers. This is a sweet shot of the babies along with the neon tetras. You can even see the shrimp in the foreground.
Cassie and I really liked the idea of having plants in our tank. At first we were pretty awful at it though. That bubbler in the background was basically killing the plants by taking away their CO2.
This is my tank after a year or so. I did some different things with the rocks, and the plants are still alive! The little grey fish are long-finned danios. They never stop moving!
Finally Cassie, Nate, and I got fed up with the fact that our plants would survive but never grow. Cassie and I invested in new aquarium plant lights and Nate made us CO2 dispensers. We all chipped in to buy plants online and this is my tank after putting in the new plants. The driftwood is actually from a lake in Wisconsin. I boiled it first to make sure I killed any harmful things that could have been on it.

As you can see, I finally had success with growing plants. Almost too much success! I had to trim plants and throw them away! If you look in the center of the front of the tank you can see one of the aquatic frogs I had at that time. They liked to hide in the moss in the back right corner.

This last year Cassie and I have been struggling to keep her 10-gallon going. With graduate school and work at the same time we haven't really felt up to doing much with the tank. Hopefully that will change this year. We both want to get back into it, so you will be getting periodic updates on how the fish tank is looking.

We plan on getting 20 or so neon tetras (if we can prove to ourselves that we can maintain the tank with school and work). I plan on using the wisteria (a light-green plant with longer branches) as ground cover. It usually grows very tall with the leaves being closer to the top. I want to use some of my bonsai knowledge to see if cutting the wisteria down will cause the branches to grow lower. The java fern (a darker plant) will provide a contrast to the light green of the wisteria.
I'm not sure if this will work or not, but I'm excited to see what happens. If you have any questions on maintaining fish and/or aquatic plants feel free to ask. Cassie and I have made enough mistakes and have learned much from our fish guru friend, Nate.

Oh Honey Honey

I love honey. When I was growing up I wasn't allowed to eat between meals. In order to survive as a 6 foot 135 lb 14-year-old I would sneak honey from the pantry. I would squeeze a large glob onto my hand and eat it. Mmm, the golden liquid tasted so good as it went down my throat.
I hear there is nothing more delicious than honey straight from the honeycomb. Conveniently I have recently become very interested in beekeeping. Apparently you can keep 60,000 bees in a wooden box in your backyard. These bees can make anywhere from 30-100lbs of surplus honey per hive. No more sneaking honey from the pantry for me!
Of course it's a little more complicated than just having 60,000 bees in a box. That box has to be a hive. Most are Langstroth hives to be more exact. These are boxes with 10 wooden frames in them with a 1/4" to 5/8" of space between them. This is called "bee space." Anymore space between the frames and the bees will build comb across the frames instead of just in the frames.
Starting a hive isn't actually that difficult. Surprisingly you can order a 3-pound box of bees along with a queen that will be delivered through the mail. That box will have approximately 10,000 bees in it! Below is a video showing how to install that package of bees into your new hive. It's quite fascinating. Hopefully someday I will have a hive and I can post video and pictures showing my progress.

Unfortunately the same thing inhibiting my new-found interest in bonsai is inhibiting this venture. I don't have any land. Also, the initial set-up can cost between $300-$500. As a graduate student I'm not exactly made of money so that is a bit steep. Although you can sell the honey you get and start making a profit within 2 years.




This picture was just too perfect to pass up. He is rollerblading while bees are all over his body. Intensity hand-chop anyone?

Bonsai again

Through my traversing on the world wide web I came across a site called youtube. This guy named Charles has a great video there on how to start a bonsai from a Juniper bought at the garden center.

It was great because it made me feel like it would be possible to start my own bonsai. I would rather not start from a pre-made bonsai. It would be more enjoyable for me if I got to create it myself. I can't start from a seed though or I'll spend the next 3-5 years just growing the thing to a reasonable size to do anything with it. But a garden center Juniper probably only costs about $20, which ain't too bad. By the looks of this guy's video (which is in 3 parts) I could probably take one of those and get it ready for bonsai training in an afternoon.
Now of course if you read this guy's profile you learn pretty quickly that he has been doing this for 20 years, so he has an idea of what he is doing. I do not. Also, I can't use a Juniper. As mentioned before, my wife and I live in an apartment on campus. I can't grow outside bonsai. But still the thought that I can start a bonsai with a $20 plant from the garden center is very exciting for me.
Hopefully I can find a nice Ficus benjamina for $20 that I can start training right away.

Bonsai!

So lately I've gotten into a couple, unique hobbies. The two that top the list are growing bonsai and beekeeping. Now I can't really do either of these well right now since I live in an apartment, but I can read a lot about them in the meantime. This post is going to focus on bonsai and what I have learned so far. Beekeeping isn't something I am going to be able to do until I have a yard, but some bonsai can be grown inside.
Apparently growing bonsai is an outdoor activity. There is no such thing as a bonsai tree per se. Any tree can be a bonsai tree. They are nothing more than a regular tree grown in a little pot that is made to look like a full grown tree. There are a few trees that work well indoors as bonsai.Ficus benjamina
This is probably my first choice for trying indoors. Its often grown as a regular indoor plant already. It looks nice, and it seems like it is the most forgiving with watering and sunlight.

Boxwood
These trees are pretty cool. They have smaller leaves, and I saw a really sweet forest arrangement of this tree at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. I have read that this one can be done indoors but I think it will be a little hard especially for my first attempt. With graduate school, a part-time job and my first year being married, I don't know if I want to take on a major bonsai project.Jade Tree
This tree is a succulent, which means it needs little water and little sunlight. Perfect for an indoor plant. I'm not such a huge fan though because it didn't look like it would be as easy to keep as the ficus. I'm pretty sure I won't use this one though.

So growing bonsai is more of an outdoor activity. Who knew? I'll probably try it anyways. Right now I have to pay for books so maybe it will make a nice birthday present. Still, it's fun to dream about doing it, and probably a lot easier too.