When Allana walks the dog, she finds the most interesting things. The other day she spotted a snake skin in the yard.
Thank goodness the snake was nowhere to be found.
Submitted to The Gallery: Animals
Also submitted to
Give Me Some Skin
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Tag Archives: science
Hugs and Kisses to Our Beaches
30 Things I Vow to Do This Summer
#1 – Soak up every ounce of our beautiful white beaches Gulf before the oil arrives.
Check.
I’ve mentioned many times before about my love for our Gulf beaches and this weekend I was truly grateful to soak up every ounce of salt water and sand once again.
Using their bug catchers, the girls made a mini aquariums and filled them with sand fleas and clams they found in the muddy shores. Allana loved observing the tiny creatures swim around and stretch out their siphon tubes as they adjusted to their temporary home.
Even though we’ve been home for a few days, I told my husband that I want to go back to hug and kiss the beach again before the oil arrives.
I know the oil is coming soon and our beautiful beach days are on borrowed time.
Read the rest of the items I vow to do this summer here and view more photos of our trip to Treasure Island, FL here.
Earth Day Lesson: Be Good to Bugs
For the seventh year, I hosted our annual Earth Day play date for our mommy group friends. As in past years, our Earth Day tradition included making dirt cups.
To keep it simple, we used small pudding pots, Oreos and gummy worms. After the food craft, we used our spoons as shovels and filled our pots with real dirt and wildflower seeds.
This year, Emmalynn brought along her bug catcher to the play date, which seemed like a good idea as there were all these furry caterpillars crawling about the park. When we went on our nature walk, she created a small caterpillar community inside her bug jar. Emmalynn was so proud of all the “pets” that she collected and she couldn’t wait to take them home to feed them and watch them grow into butterflies.
She collected more caterpillars at the tower and the pier, but I was too busy noticing the effects of this winter’s rainy season which had gradually grown a lake once again at our favorite park and I began reminiscing of walks along the pier when the water sat at the shore nearly submerging the dock.
At the end of the day, we pack up our pots of sowed seeds and Emmalynn’s pets. Unfortunately, on the way home, she opened her bug jar and some escaped. Thankfully, we hadn’t left the park so I calmly pulled the car over to save a dozen creepy, furry caterpillars crawling around in my mini-van surprisingly without skeeving or hurling.
But, I missed one. One creepy, pissed off grouchy caterpillar slinked across Emmalynn’s car seat. Emmalynn assured me that it was o.k. because she could simply let it crawl around on her arm until we got home.
However, once we were on the highway, it “stung” and she started screaming. Frantically, I pulled over and flicked the little furry bastard pet pest off of her into the grassy shoulder along the highway.
Since Emmalynn is highly allergic to bees and wasps, I wasn’t sure how her little system would handle a caterpillar “sting”. Having grown up in Florida, I know that there are certain breeds of caterpillars that are poisonous and hoped that these vile creatures were not one of them. I nervously watched the red bump for signs of swelling and anaphylactic shock. At the first sign of a reaction, I was prepared to administer her EpiPen. As we waited Emmalynn said in her saddest voice, “We can let that one go, Mommy. He’s mean and not as nice as the other caterpillars.”
After a few minutes, the swelling went down and there was no need to administer the Epi. When we continued our journey home, I explained to Emmalynn how some small animals and bugs use stings and sprays, such as a porcupine, a skunk or an octopus, to protect themselves from larger animals that want to eat them.
“But, I didn’t want to eat him, Mommy.”
Once we returned back home, I searched the Internet for Emmalynn’s pests pets, which are called White Tussock Moths. Moths. Oh for the love of Mother Nature. They’re moths. Gross. And they have urticating hairs (barbed hairs like tarantulas - double gross) which can cause an irritation and a reaction on the skin. Really?! No kidding.
During my caterpillar research, I also learned that White Tussock Moths feed on oak leaves (not sugar water like butterflies). I used this newly acquired knowledge to persuade Emmalynn to release her pests pets back into the world. She could watch them feed on the oak trees in our yard. Yay. Hooray for ugly moths swarming our garage lights like…well like a moth to a flame.
Besides a lesson in conservation this Earth Day, Emmalynn learned a valuable lesson in insect defense mechanisms. Although Miss Spider has been saying it for years, Emmalynn understands firsthand why we need to be good to bugs.
Preserving Brooker Creek Preserve
One of our favorite family pastimes is visiting Brooker Creek Preserve for its hikes, story time and hands-on education center.
While visiting the center the other day, I heard some heartbreaking news. Brooker Creek Preserve faces closure due to budget cuts. Pinellas county commissioners have drastically reduced the staff and the operating hours of the center despite the facility already relying heavily volunteers to run its programs.
As a resident of a neighboring county, I would gladly pay an entrance fees to keep the gates of Brooker Creek Preserve and Weedon Island open to support these invaluable resources and the many lessons taught there.
Both centers offer wonderful lessons of our delicate ecosystems and local history.
I would rather share with my children lessons of conservation rather than sad stories of bureaucrats not seeing the beauty and educational value in such wonderful places.
Since Pinellas residents already pay significant taxes to support these centers, county officials should promote both centers as points of interest to tourists and draw revenue from its visitors and residents outside of Pinellas rather than closing its gates permanently.
If you live in the Tampa Bay area, I urge to support these centers by asking Pinellas County Commissioners to reconsider their position or contact The Friends of Brooker Creek and The Friends of Weedon Island to learn how you can help.
From the Friends of Brooker Creek Preserve website:
The Friends will continue to provide as much support as possible for programs and other needs at Brooker Creek Preserve. We are in the process of finding ways to raise funds to that end. To succeed, we need YOU! We are looking for ideas, event planning assistance, and some energized hands. If you are interested in joining us in this important mission, please contact us at 727-934-2680 or info@friendsofbrookercreekpreserve.org.
A Peaceful Journey
One of Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop prompts for this week “Tell us about your trip” inspired me to share some found memories from our canoe trip on the Peace River last April.
My friend, Chrissy, had always talked about how much she and her family loved canoeing the Peace River and invited us along for the fun. Unfortunately, we arrived late to the outpost and missed our friends, so we had to take a later bus to the launch location. We were left to explore the river without our friends and our shovels and pails.
Peace River is best known for its abundance of fossils and shark teeth deposited in the river bed. The canoe outpost provides shovels and pails, but in our rush to get to the river, we forgot to grab our archeological dig gear. My girls didn’t seem to mind using their hands to search for treasure.
Along the river, the roots of cypress trees construct a natural wall and their huge canopies offer plenty of shade.
There are several shallow spots to take a quick break from paddling and cool off in the water. The girls loved swimming and wading through the water searching for sharks’ teeth.
We enjoyed taking our time to explore each new spot, but it seemed we weren’t the only ones who liked roaming the river banks.
We assumed our friends were far ahead of us, but Allana and Allan decided to let them know we were here.
As we drew closer to the end of our trip, we passed under an old railroad bridge being used as a diving platform by some crazy boaters brave souls.
Although we enjoyed every minute of our two hour expedition, the girls were glad to finally arrive back at the outpost and on dry land.
In the end, we found quite a few sharks’ teeth, but ironically Allana lost one of her own.
Like Chrissy, we fell in love with Peace River that day and we are looking forward to warmer days to paddle down the river once again this spring…
…with my bump and minus the beer, of course.
Loving Manatees
During the winter months, my family and I love to visit the TECO Manatee Viewing Center. Last month, I had the pleasure to visit the center twice in one week with my girls.
With the frequent drops in the temperature this winter season, there are more manatee than ever in the warm waters adjacent to power station in Apollo Beach, FL. On both days, we counted close to 60 manatees…
…and a dozen stingrays.
This free educational viewing center is operated by retired TECO volunteers, who happily educate the public about manatees and conservation.
Recently, the center renovated its hands-on education building with a 12 foot illuminated information panel, a life size skeleton exhibit…
…puzzles, a hurricane simulator and a video game where users pedal to help a manatee swim to safety.
Whether you walk the tidal nature trail or watch from the observation deck, every spot offers a great view…
…unless you happen to stop for a rest along the way.
And if you’re really lucky, you may discover manatees mating, like we witnessed on our second visit.
My Little Gem
A Hidden Gem
After our visit at Black Bear Books, Allana begged us to take her to Doc’s Rocks Gem Mine the following day and we happily obliged.
However, before Ms Walker’s (owner of Black Bear Books) recommendation of Doc’s Rocks Gem Mine, we were a little apprehensive of the many mining establishments located in the Boone area. Jaded from growing up in Florida and numerous tourist traps in our area, I assumed a North Carolina mining experience might also fit into that category. My assumption couldn’t have been farther from the reality.
After Doc welcomed us, he offered brief instructions on how to mine. Doc encouraged the girls to select the heaviest bucket as it would increase their chances of finding something worth keeping. He also explained to the girls that since the buckets are full of soil, many guests often find roots and earthworms as well as great rocks. He strongly instructed the girls not to discard any rocks, because “you never know what you are looking at” and to leave the inspecting to the experts. “Sometimes a rock is just a rock, but sometimes a rock can also be a gem.” Doc continued by telling us about all the wonderful treasures they find at the end of the day when they clean the flumes because guests simply toss rough looking rocks and unpolished gems aside.
After carefully assessing the weights of the pails, I purchased each girl a $10 shovel (a small pail full of dirt). Allana, my little geologist, dug right into the fun. She carefully sifted through her dirt by rinsing each portion in the heated flumes. After picking out all the best rocks, she brought her small scraps to one of Doc’s assistants for a final inspection. The gentleman praised Allana on her excellent work because she didn’t leave much behind for him to find.
As Allana sifted and searched through her dirt, Allan and I helped Emmalynn. My sensory needy, tactile child loved playing in the dirt and splashing in the water. She scooped out huge piles of dirt faster than I could sift, but thankfully, we didn’t miss much either. Emmalynn found tons of amethysts in her pail, which amazed us since purple is her favorite color.
Once we finished mining, Doc gave a quick geology lesson. He shared the origins of the gems and which mines they are commonly found. He explained how they are formed, the difference between ingenious, metaphoric and sedimentary and the hardness of each stone. As he sorted our findings, he shared the value of each gem. We could not believe the assortment of gems we found between the two buckets: emeralds, citrine, rose quartz, white quartz, a garnet, a sapphire, a ruby, amethysts, and a number special stones such as ametrine (a bend of amethyst and citrine)! Doc pulled aside a few of the gems which would be stunning once cut: garnet, ruby, sapphire, ametrine, and amethyst.
Since the majority of the findings belonged Allana, we requested her permission to cut a few of the gems and she permitted us to cut an emerald, the garnet, and an amethyst for Emmalynn. Allana also wanted to cut one of the citrine stones for herself, since citrine is her birthstone. At the end, we explained to Allana that she could keep some of the fun rocks, but the remaining valuable stones (the sapphire and ruby) would be kept in a safe once we returned home. After all, we’ll need those to pay for books for college someday! ;-)
At the end of the day, my suspicions of a mining field trip were proven inaccurate. Doc’s knowledge and expertise combined with his passion for rocks made for a gem of an experience. We will definitely return for another mining excursion during our next visit to Boone.
A week later, stones arrive at our house and we were thrilled with the outcome.
We Dig Dinosaur World
My pretty paleontologists and I trekked over to Plant City to spend the morning at Dinosaur World. We love field trips to this no frills theme park, but with its location an hour from some of Florida’s largest attractions (such as WDW and Busch Gardens), our prehistoric neighbors are often overlooked.
More of an outdoor museum rather than a theme park, Dinosaur World offers a hands-on education of prehistoric life. The overgrown foliage along the paths of the park offers welcomed shade as well as a realistic backdrop for 150 life-size reptilian replicas prominently displayed through out the park.
Petite paleontologists can dust off the dinosaur bones in the boneyard, but most children look forward to the fossil dig which is included in the admission to the park. During the fossil dig, children sift through sand to search for small fossils and each child may select three to keep as a souvenir.
Although the hot summer months make visits to this museum a bit much, I highly recommend visiting the dinosaurs during the cooler months.
A Frogalypse
With the torrential downpours and thunderstorms over the past couple of days, I haven’t run since Tuesday. When no rain clouds appeared this morning, I ran out the door for a 4 mile run.
Today’s run was gross. Let me rephrase that. The run was good, but the roads were disgusting. I have never seen so many squashed frogs. I suppose the rain confused them or perhaps the rains gave them the courage to explore beyond the cypress swamps, but the results looked like an amphibian apocalypse or what I’m calling “A Frogalypse”. With visions of froggie guts hopping into my head, my college biology class came back to haunt me.
I also spotted a flattened armadillo, which became one with the rode after being continuously run over and a few squashed snakes. Yuck.
Oh, the humanity!
I’ll try my best to shake off the horrible images that still haunt me to share my stats with you.
Tuesday- 3 miles
Time 29:31
Pace 9:50
Thursday- 4 miles
Time 38:16
Pace 9:34
***Disclaimer: No amphibians were harmed in the making of this post. All amphibians sited were already dead. Although I did not stop to inspect the flattened amphibians to determine if the creatures in question were frogs or toads, “frogs” were merely selected for the sole purpose to tell a humorous tale and lack any real scientific evidence to make such a classification.***
