...So You Want A Water Garden?

The appearance and sound of the man-made rock stream off our back porch is very nice, but...

... in the spring the stream bed and tanks must be cleaned out.

The clean up involves removing rocks and accumulated, decaying materials to the compost pit.

Tanks are drained.

...tank walls are scrubbed and a 10% bleach solution is used to remover the slimy algae coating.

...followed by rinsing and flushing out the system.

..rocks are then refitted back into position

Four hours later the ciculating pump can be turned back on and the fish returned to the tanks for another year's enjoyment.

Kenyan's Win Again ...'birthers' complain!

Having run the Boston Marathon multiple times in the mid to late 1970's, it was with interest to hear that once again the Kenyan's won the marathon in record time last Monday (4/18); out running the 4th place finish of the nearest American runner.

I was also thinking that President Obama's father was a Kenyan and that several current presidential hopefuls have recently questioned the American President's Official Birth Certificate and consequent right to hold the office of President of the United States of America. Here is my attempt to make a cartoon analogy, paralleling Boston's Annual Partiots' Day celebration with the 'birthers' complaint.

A Mycological/Gastronomical Experiment

Today I innoculated several red oak logs with mushroom plug spawns obtained from Fungi Perfecti (http://www.fungi.com/). The recently cut oak logs were obtained from a local tree trimming outfit and allowed to set for a few more weeks before today's innoculation. Holes were drilled into the logs between 3" and 4" apart in a diamond pattern. Spawn plugs were hammered in and then sealed with parafin.

Slaming the plug spawn into the logs.

Sealing the plugs and open ends of the logs with parafin.

The innoculated logs were then set in a wooded area, out of direct sunlight. I will have to monitor the mushroom logs and keep the area damp during those dry periods this coming summer.Mushroom varieties

Left side: Reishe & Pearl Oyster logs

Right side: Shiitake logs

.....check back in September

...quote from 40 years ago

In last Thursday's Finger Lakes Times under "Days of Yore" a section that recalls interesting events locally and/or nationally 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago on this date I noticed an interesting comment made by then President Nixon in 1971. Needless to say it spawned my lastest editorial cartoon shown below.

It was fun to do and I sent a copy to the FL Times, should they care to post in this weeks paper. Enjoy!

Anxious!

Just got on to the computer this morning after working on school things:

• correcting papers
• thinking about this weeks' topics (Biology - reproduction topics /AP Biology classes - ecology topics) and all the subtopics(mitosis, meiosis, gametogenesis, & hormones/keystone species, interspecific competition, energy flow, niches, etc) that will need to be addressed this coming week.
• thinking about a variety of ways to present subtopics that will appeal to those who don't get it the first time through (notes didn't work, so maybe a crossword puzzle? ...another white board illustration? ...an analogy, ...Hmmn?? what else could I use???).
• thinking about what materials I will need ... physical/hands on stuff (yesterday collecting pill bugs), internet resources (WXXI - TV On Demand), familar practical examples for kids (plant cuttings on your mother or grandmother's kitchen window sill).
• sketching out how I will access whether or not students understand the concepts to be covered this week (multiple choice?? ...free response questions?? ... scoring and weighting questions? ... and then the grading and logging of computer grades.)
• the constant reaching out and inviting students back to the topic of discussion from their "little brush fire conversations"
• ...the distractions: ipods & the daggling wires to ear plugs; hands under the desk to text and/or read text messages --- so you give another reminder to put them away, while having this mental image of placing the device on the floor and crushing it

...and then I looked at my current computer desk top background photo taken last October while backpacking the Long Trail in Vermont.

I know I will be more than ready to turn the classroom over to the regular biology teacher whom I am filling in for while she is on maternity leave until spring break in April.

75 Salads and Still Counting!

Salads topped with shredded carrots from last summers' garden. It has been fun harvesting lettuce, kale, broccoli & collard leaves from the green house since November. With a mulch base under the growing beds and a garden hose circulating water into the basement to a copper coil heat exchanger mounted over the furnace and then back into two water filled, black 50 gallon drums; the green house has been more productive than last year.

Crossing the Icefall

About 3am, Sue notice water dripping down the wall by the door of our back porch. We have had no real ice melting thaws since late Decemember, so water was coming in due to ice build up in the divide where the east/west roof, merges with the north/south roof. While removing snow with a roof rake and salting the ice, I was entranced by the how similar the ice on the roof was to photos I have seen of the Klumbu icefall that Mt. Everest climbers must cross in order to reach the summit. So out came the camera and below are two photos. One is a googled, pirated image of the Kkumbu icefall and the other is of my roof with penciled in figures.