The Gamble Life

Invading Nature's Privacy

One of our last big social events before leaving Durham was going to a birthday party for one of Abe's friends.  This party was held at a park and when we were leaving we spotted a snapping turtle digging in the mud by the edge of the sidewalk.  Luckily just a few weeks before we had seen a similar sight at the museum where a worker told us the turtle was not stuck or struggling, she was digging a hole to lay her eggs!  That time we hadn't stayed to watch because it looked like it was going to take her all day long, so we were really disappointed when we went back about 40 minutes later and she was done and gone (and had hidden her spot very well!). 

We knew better this time and so we threw our schedule out the window, sat down right on the sidewalk and watched.  And I took pictures, over two hundred pictures, because I really wanted to get an egg being laid!

All I can say is, I am really glad there was no one in my delivery rooms trying to get pictures because I don't think I would have been as tolerant as momma turtle here!

She would dig with alternating legs, reaching down as far as she could and bringing up a scoop of mud in her foot.  It was really cool to see.

Almost everyone who came by thought the turtle was stuck and thought we should pick her up!  It was shocking, really, we are all so conceited that we think the turtle, who has been around far, far longer than we have, needs our help.  If you see a turtle "stuck" in the mud, please leave her alone, because she's working so hard...

to do this!

She would sort of catch each egg in her foot and then lower it down into the hole she'd dug.  We watched her lay about twenty eggs and with no end in site we had to leave and get lunch and nap taken care of so we didn't get to see her hide her nest when she finished.

Spring spring spring

The classic bubbles.  They never go out of style.

I remember walking around the hike & bike trail in Austin as a girl, and my dad stopping to show me how to suck the nectar out of the honeysuckle flowers.  I remember it as being the sweetest most wonderful taste ever.

This honeysuckle vine is growing at the entrance to one of the trails in our neighborhood and so I've gotten to introduce that tradition to my sons.  Gus adores them.  Abe is still making up his mind.

I've no idea what kind of flower/bush/plant this is but I just love it.  One thing I'll miss is how beautiful all the flowering bushes are around here and how long they stay in bloom.

Rat a Tat Tat Tap Tap Tap

Is what I've heard almost every day since we moved here but I'd never, not even one time, actually seen one of the woodpeckers responsible...until a day a couple of weeks ago!  Here he is, right off our back porch.  It was so exciting.  Does anyone know what kind of woodpecker this is?

Update:  Looks like a red-cockaded woodpecker which likes it here in North Carolina.  

An Oops by the National Wildlife Federation/Ranger Rick

Let me just say first that Gus continues to adore his Ranger Rick magazines and it is always a huge treat when one shows up in the mail.  They are fun, funny (lots of jokes and riddles) and do a great job educating about the environment in an age-appropriate way.

Why did they mail my son a plastic (some kind of poly-nylon) backpack in a plastic envelope then?!  No idea--they did it to be nice, but we weren't expecting it and would subscribe regardless (did, in fact).  So, I wish they hadn't.  He'll probably use the backpack for something, but it won't last forever and the envelope is not really reusable either.  Oh well--I think it just goes to prove once again that plastic is so ubiquitous it is almost invisible, unless you really make an effort to open your eyes to it.

Umstead Park

So right before school started up Gus, Abe, and I went hiking in Umstead State Park which is right by Chris' office, so very convenient.  It was a very doable hike, with lots of interesting things to see.  I wore Abe on my back in the Ergo.  We saw so many beautiful spider webs!  They always seemed to appear out of nowhere so we had to be careful to make sure we didn't walk through any.

There was this old little cemetery right in the middle of the park.

And the area is known for its many triple-trunked trees so we saw a lot of those too.

There are several trails and they are all marked.  We were following the "blue diamond" trail which had plastic blue diamonds (what's wrong with spray paint anyway?  I didn't think the plastic markers did any better job, they had to be nailed into the trees, and most of them were decomposing!) every few yards marking the way.  I'm serious, there were lots and lots of trail markers. 

Which makes it all the more amazing that somehow we managed to end up completely off-trail, heading toward the edge of a cliff over a river!  I still don't know exactly how that happened.  There were lots of signs asking people to please stay on the marked trails, so I felt bad about wandering off, but we certainly didn't do it on purpose.  There were lots and lots of interesting rocks but we left them all where we found them.

The coolest thing?  Gus carried our lunch for us in his backpack.

It was a great hike.  I especially love when we do things that are local to where we are.  Talking to a friend of mine today she told me that she and her husband planned out (tentatively, of course) an activity for each of the weekends for the next 52 weeks.  I think this is a great idea and may copy it, with an emphasis on doing things that are local to Durham or North Carolina or nearby, things that we couldn't do living somewhere else.

When I lived in DC I made sure to do something at least every month that I couldn't do anywhere but DC and consequently when I moved away I didn't have any regrets that I'd never gotten around to seeing this museum or that monument.  It was a great feeling, and it was great fun doing it. 

Camp at Home: Rock Week, Part 2

We went on a rock hunt the other day as part of Rock Camp.  We have been identifying the kinds of rocks we see and find.  We didn't have a lot of time so we struck out for the water easement across the street from our house.  We're so lucky to live where we do because there are all these big water easements woven throughout the development which leads to a lot of easily accessible green space.  It had rained that day and the day before so we could hear toads and owls and it was really like we were in a forest somewhere instead of a few hundred feet from our house.

Gus caught his first wild toad.  I think he’s held some baby toads from my mother’s pond, but those are practically tame.

Gus was introduced to the Magic Tree House books at the end of last school year and so far this summer he's read 37 of the 42 books in the series.   At the beginning of the summer he'd read the title and chapter titles and I'd read all the text but now he reads the entire book to himself.   It's incredible to see him walking and reading or riding in the car and reading...just like I used to do.  One of the characters in the books, Jack, wears his backpack everywhere and takes notes on his adventures, so here is Gus taking some notes, while wearing his backpack. 

Using the tree bridge to cross:

And tying his own shoe(Yay!) with no complaining, frustration, or asking for help.  Back when he was learning how to do this I definitely had some days when I thought "forget it! Velcro forever!"  It's an amazing thing to watch your child grow up and to see how much he learns.  An even more amazing thing that I’ve got this opportunity to spend so much time with my kids and really be a part of their adventures.  These past couple of weeks all of us have been feeling a little bit like we’ve had enough of each other.  So Gus is going to an amazing art camp in the afternoons this week and I’m trying to focus on how cool both my boys really are.

Easiest Kid Activity Ever

That's right:  Rubbings!  No cemeteries required.  We have so much fun taking walks and doing rubbings on just about any surface you can think of.  Supplies are minimal, just paper, crayons and stuff out in the world.  (Snacks optional.)

You and your child will be rewarded with many cool rubbings.  Now I just have to figure out how to display or save them (or both).

Things are finally getting back to normal around here.  May was a completely crazy month for me.  I made my choice though--I turned down the job in Austin.  It was (is) a great job that I'm sure I would have enjoyed, but it is the wrong time for me and my family.  Abe is only one and none of us want to be separated from Chris.  So I'm very happy with my decision even if it did take some agony to make it.  And now I have big plans for summer!!!

I need some time to sit down and write about them, maybe tomorrow.  Until then, if you're bored or antsy, get out and do some rubbings!

Review: Almost Green by James Glave

James Glave wants to build a "green" house which he implicitly (but not explicitly) defines as carbon neutral. He lives in Canada so heating his house is a big issue for him. Unfortunately he and his wife couldn't afford to build the carbon-neutral house of their dreams so he instead tries to build the carbon-neutral office/guest house of his dreams. He does a decent job too and makes the story entertaining and even somewhat informative. $90,000 later he has a nice 400 square foot space built with responsibly grown lumber and solar-heated. It sounds good, but it was a lot of effort and a lot of cost and is so obviously out of reach for most people that I sort of wonder what the reader is supposed to do with the information?

I will say that if I were headed to do a building project I'd look for the responsibly grown/harvested lumber he discusses, that seemed minimally more expensive, and definitely worth it, although at least where he lives, hard to come by.

I was disappointed that he insulated with an expanding polyurethane foam. It does it's job well but was incredibly toxic getting installed and I wonder what happens if the building ever has to be torn down or a wall replaced or something like that? Not to mention that even though once cured it appears to be inert it is incredibly volatile and dangerous until then and the people who work with it are putting themselves at risk for respiratory problems. And of course when it is installed some of those toxins are released into the greater world.

I think keeping our carbon footprint down is important, I'm just not sure it is important above and beyond all other environmental concerns, especially in a building project the size of Glave's which is so small as to have a small impact regardless. And, after all, sits immediately next door to his much larger house which was built without the same carbon consciousness.

At the end I found it to be a fun read but as I'm not building anything any time soon I didn't take much from it that I could use.

View all my reviews.

Happy Earth Day

I thought to celebrate our beautiful and bountiful Earth (shouldn't every day be Earth Day?) that I'd let the joy of discovery bring us all back to our childhoods.  Abe and his first strawberry:

I haven't come up with any special way to mark Earth Day this year.  A couple of years ago we went to a really neat festival at the Austin Nature and Science Center where Gus got to make paper and do other nifty things like that.  I think today maybe we'll go on a bike ride after school or a walk and just enjoy the beautiful spring day.

My baby sweater is coming along nicely; I thought I might finish it last night but ran into a bit of a delay casting on stitches for the sides of the body.  Perhaps tonight!  I've got birthday banners to sew after all.  Some of the fabrics I bought for the banners:

Made From Scratch

Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life by Jenna Woginrich

The book is light, but infectious. Jenna Woginrich is so excited about all the self-sufficient and sustainable aspects of her life that you absolutely want to join her.

As a child my parents raised chickens and rabbits, and the occasional other animal (a duck, a flock of turkeys--turkey eggs have such a thick inner sac you have to cut it with a knife, but they are BIG). I loved it. I love fresh eggs, and I liked hunting around the yard for them. We raised big New Zealand rabbits, meat rabbits, and I really like rabbit meat. I did actually help with the slaughtering, and I continue to believe that if you are going to eat meat you should be knowledgeable and comfortable about the fact that an animal did have to die for you to do so.  And you know absolutely what they ate and how they lived.

Woginrich isn't eating any meat but she eats eggs, wishes she could have harvested some honey, and spins her angora rabbits' fur. She also gardens (another thing I love), knits and is a serious thifter.
I challenge you to read the book and not want a flock of chickens of your own!

One of my main wishes for my children is that we lived in a place and time where they could have more freedom.  Raising animals in the backyard feels like that for me.  It isn't the same as letting my five year old explore the neighborhood on his own, obviously, but it brings a bit of "wild" into the yard.  It makes the yard a place with more opportunity for independence, exploring, responsibility, learning, and all while still being a kid.  And knowing Gus he'd quickly have the idea to set up an egg stand and pretty soon he'd have all the money for Juicy Fruit and Pez he could ever want and I'd be back to supermarket eggs!

We rent right now, and live in a neighborhood with an HOA and associated rules.  We also have no fence.  I'm not willing to do the research and work to figure out if I could raise chickens here and then do it.  But, when we are living in a different situation I am going to do it.  Nothing beats an egg straight from the backyard!  I have big plans too.  Raising bees, a big garden full of fresh veggies, chickens.  Who knows what else?  I already want to skip the grass and grow fruits, flowers, and veggies in my next sunny yard.  One thing at a time though--I'll start with hens* and see where that leads me.

*Oh yes, hens only.  I do have one not-so-fond memory of my childhood chickens involving that time the rooster decided I was too close to his space and thought he'd deal with me.  Nothing is quite the same as having a rooster land on your shoulder and start pecking your head!  I'm not so sorry to confess that I did enjoy having him for dinner quite a bit!

View all my reviews.