The Outdoor Hour -- Challenge #2

This week's challenge was to use our sense of hearing to observe our surroundings. We split up and went 6 different directions (seven, if you count Sarah who went to the kitchen table to work on her French homework!) and spent 20 minutes sitting quietly, collecting sounds.

Great assignment. Looking back on it, I think I should have taken the whole group with me and assigned places for them to sit -- I kind of got the feeling that the oldest boys listened intently exactly as long as it took to get 10 distinct sounds and then high-tailed it back to the house. On the other hand, though, I can't fault the lists they came up with!

All three of the older boys are working through Wordsmith (a creative writing program). The unit the twins are currently studying is all about expressing the 5 senses through writing. They really got into this science assignment! I asked them if I could post their lists and they said, "Sure!" but only Seth knew where his was right off the top of his head. [You have to excuse Jessee. The boys have been living in a tent for two weeks while the cement roof of their room dries. They're doing good if they end up being able to find two of the same shoe, let alone a week-old school assignment!!! ;^) ]

So, here's what Seth came up with...(including the formatting)
Mocking bird singing
Car rumbling
Waves crashing
Workers talking
Cement-mixer turning
Wind sweeping through
Motor boat
Trees swishing
Worker whistling
Flies buzzing
Door slamming
Shovel scraping
Dog barking

We all had fun with this assignment. Andrew and Evie struggled at first with sounding out words they didn't know. I reminded them that it wasn't spelling class, so they weren't going to be graded on their spelling. With the pressure removed, they relaxed and really got into listening. Andrew was so funny! "Mom, did you hear the guy with the hammer? What about the guy with the shovel? The guy with the machete?" Can you tell he's really into tools? I honestly thought it was the same guy all three times. And to think I used to worry about his hearing!

Evie showed her personality, too. She said she heard 5 or 6 different birds and two or three different plants moving in the wind (rustling, that is...we don't have Ents here).

After the twins shared their poetic lists, Caleb chuckled and said, "I really didn't go in for the whole 'fancy' thing. I heard..." and he read off his list. It was a good list and it showed he was listening! I told him that he wasn't going to be graded on style! :^)

Our plan for next week (first week of spring break) is to make these lists into scrapbook pages for our science notebook. I'll take a photo when we get it done!

The Outdoor Hour -- Getting started

Add this to my list of books I've had for ages but never got around to using in school.

Well, we're finally doing something with it! When I first received this book, I poured over it and practically drooled. Basic, plain-spoken, old-fashioned and infomative. Everything I love in a textbook. Why have I never used it, then? I dunno. I think it's because I just didn't have time to make up lessons and plan projects.

Then, about a month ago, I happened across this blog which gives practical application and step-by-step instructions for implementation. I'm hooked. It only took a month to get going on it, too! Wow! That's pretty good for me!

So, today we began our journey into nature study "officially". We have been outdoorsy pretty much all our lives, but now we have a Plan.

What did we decide after this first "Outdoor Hour Challenge"? Well, first of all, we all agree that 10 to 15 minutes is not a long enough walk. I think we'll allow half an hour next week.

Second of all, we agree that we'll have to do it a little earlier in the day, because if we wait till 11, which is how it ended up today, it will be too hot. Anyone in Canada envious? Just wait a couple of months!

So, we took a short walk. I was surprised that everyone really seemed eager to go. Usually getting group assent is a tough thing, but it happened pretty smoothly. We counted to 3 and then everyone pointed in the direction we wanted to go. Would you believe that everyone pointed in the same direction? Very cool.

We were only attacked by mosquitos once and then it was only a small swarm. I think Caleb decided to investigate mosquitos further. I suggested he investigate annihilation strategies. He liked that phrase. ;^) Andrew located a chorro cactus (quite prevalent around here).

Evie and Seth captured a cachora lizard with the camera. (I think in English they're called "blue bellies".) We saw so many tracks in the sand. I can't wait to discover what critters they all belong to!

I think we're going to enjoy our newly-scheduled nature walks...at least till June. Caleb suggested that we might investigate the wildlife at the bottom of the pool then. I hope there won't be any wildlife in the pool, but...well, we'll see.

I'll let you know next week how everyone's assignments turn out!

Why We Keep the Computer in the Living Room

'Nuff said.

Sucker!!!

I am, and always have been, a sucker for a puppy!!!

Izzy finally had her puppies. I've had several talks with her over the past few weeks to remind her that we want males and at the most 4...maybe 5. She didn't listen...

Our neighbor's dog had her pups, too, about a week ago. Hammer (Ernesto thought she was a he when he named her!) is a labrador/boxer cross and Caleb has been wanting one of her pups since Hammer was a baby! Turns out that the daddy of all the pups, both Izzy's and Hammer's, is an adorable and lovable purebred black lab named Benito.

How do we know this? Because they all look the same!!! The mamas had almost the same number of pups and all the same colors.

Yesterday morning, Izzy (who had been resting under the couch -- where we were SURE she would have her pups) disappeared into the bushes for several hours. When she reappeared, she was much skinnier! The kids tracked down her little nest and we transferred the 4 puppies from the nest in the sand to the front patio. By 3 o'clock she had 7 puppies. Then we got word from Esteban that Ernesto's dog was in trouble.

Apparently, a few days ago Hammer was bitten by a rattlesnake. The anti-venin they gave her dried up her milk, and Ernesto is now hand-feeding all 8 puppies. Well, as I said, I'm a sucker for a puppy!

Since Izzy only had 7, and had room for 10 I told Esteban to bring over 3 of them and Izz would nurse them. Ernesto was overjoyed!!! Although the 8 he had were eating, God just didn't intend for puppies (or anyone else, really) to drink cow's milk (that's another soapbox!). They weren't doing too well. Izzy accepted them without batting an eye (she's actually not the brightest crayon in the box, but she's a lover!) and so now she had 10. Thirty minutes after they all finished eating and fell asleep, Izzy had another pup. Now she had 11. Oops.

Well, they are all still doing fine -- 6 males, 5 females. We moved them into the shop last night because we (I) was worried about the mosquitos harming the babies and now Izzy has a comfy bed encircled by bricks to (hopefully) keep the pups from wandering (how do they move so far without being able to walk???) and her own personal fan. The kids keep giving her bowls of water and scraps of food. She's well-cared-for! (Read that "spoiled".)

She's so easy-going!!! I'm such a sucker!!! But they're so CUTE!!!!!

Wordless Wednesday -- Weird Science

The Mexican clicker beetle...

See more Wordless Wednesday at 5minutesformom.com!

Don't Drink the Water!

One of several reasons why we buy drinking water...Edgar.

Edgar climbs into our cistern at every opportunity. How do we know it's Edgar? Simple. He has the black mask. We should have named him Zorro, but he just looked like an Edgar. Not to be confused with Bob or Tim. They don't usually hang out in the cistern. They frequent our shower. (Although we did fish Bob out of the cistern yesterday. I guess Edgar was being a bad example!)
So, when they say, "Don't drink the water!" There's a reason!

Cannon Ball!!!

As many of you know, we've had some rather odd pets during our 2+ years in Mexico. In addition to the normal cats, dogs and rabbits, we've also had a boa constrictor and hamsters (not a very good combination, I must say), turtles, a horse, a pelican named Bill (only for a short time -- Man! They stink!!!), a wonderful North American Oyster Catcher (bird) named Sam, a 4 foot long iguana named Felicita and a 10 inch long iguana named Neo. The kids in Boca, realizing that we like animals, brought us a couple of additions last week. Check out Sarah's blog to read more about these little critters.

Today, the kids were playing in the pool when they were suddenly joined by another swimmer. Apparently, a fledgling barn swallow heard the splashing water and thought he'd get a little drink. He did a nosedive into the pool and couldn't figure out how to get out. Andrew rescued the poor, bedragled thing and brought him in to me. I dried him a little and then put him into a tree to finish "fluffing". That didn't last long, because the dog noticed the little guy and tried to "play" with him. Again, Andrew rescued him, and we put him in a basket in the house to finish drying.

Later, Andrew took him behind the house (away from the cats and dogs) to set him free. Little Guy took off for the trees, swooped around in a big arc and...plowed back into the pool. OK. Back to the basket.

Hours pass. The bird is dry. The sun is setting and all the other swallows are coming out for their nightly feast of mosquitos. So we take our little Dodo bird out behind the house -- away from the pool -- to set him free...again.

Unfortunately, we hadn't put the cover on the pool yet. He didn't even swerve, but took a bee-line directly to the pool!!! Splash!!!

So, he's in the basket. In the morning, we'll try again. This time, the pool will be covered!!! Just what we need -- another neurotic, eccentric pet.

UPDATE: (Thursday, June 19, 2008) Well, Little Swallow rested well through the night and apparently out-grew his unhealthy fixation with swimming pools. When Seth took him outside yesterday morning, Swallow shook his tail feathers and flew, well, like a bird. Kind of sad to see him go...I feel like we shared some good times. ;^)

More Mexican Wildlife Stories

One of my favorite animals here in Mexico is the pelican. I used to stand on our balcony (in the house we rented last year) and watch the birds soar in formation 30 feet above the ocean's surface and then suddenly plummet to the water in search of food. Sometimes as many as 30 of these creatures would fly by in an evenly spaced line -- spectacular!

Unfortunately, not everyone here appreciates these powerful, fish-loving birds as much as I do. To the local fishermen, they are in the same category as rats and stray dogs. Several times during the year, we find wounded or dead pelicans on the beach. Most of the time the best thing we can do is end things mercifully.

We actually tried to help a pelican with a broken wing last summer. The kids affectionately named him Bill, and we did what we could. I did learn several things in the pursuit of medical attention for Bill. First of all, if you have a broken wing (or more likely, a broken arm, leg or finger) and you are seeking first aid, you need to go get an x-ray. Neither the urgent care clinic nor the veterinary office has this equipment. I know now where the rayos-x laboratory is. A good thing to know with our crew, I think! Secondly, I learned that there are organizations in the States who are willing to pour thousands of dollars into the "Save the Pelican" cause. I was willing to transport Bill to the vet, give him antibiotics, set and bind the bone, and hunt fish for him, but when the majority of children in our area survive on less than $5 per day for food and necessities, I couldn't bring myself to allow an organization -- even a really neat, honest organization with lots of money -- to dump 5 grand into air lifting a brown pelican from Los Mochis to Florida for specialized medical care. I guess I'm just not that much of a bleeding heart afterall. I got him comfortable, treated the infection and sent him on his merry way. I heard later that he had ended up at Esteban's mom's house begging fish and then adopted a restaurant down the beach and hung out there for scraps. Quite the oppotunist!

But, as I said, I'm willing to do what I can. Not all the injured pelicans we find on the beach are mortally wounded and not all are cause by mean people. A couple of weeks ago, Sarah and I were walking on the beach when we found two pelicans in distress. Apparently they had been fighting and the younger of the two had most definitely lost the battle. (Graphic description follows -- PG13) The young brown's neck was obviously broken and he was very dead. The older, white-headed pelican was, however, very much alive. The problem was that the young, dead pelican's long neck was hopelessly entangled in the live pelican's beak pouch. There was no way that the live pelican would survive long with a dead pelican attached to him. Already, the stray dogs had begun to circle. He looked a little perplexed, to say the least. My experience with pelicans has been that they are a bit surly. Sarah says I'm not being fair, because every one I've dealt with has been injured in one way or another, so of course they would be grumpy. All I know is that their beak packs a powerful WHOMP. And they have quite a reach! So, my mission was to disentangle a dead pelican from the live pelican without causing further damage to his already torn pouch (or to myself!) in the process. Shortening a long story: I went to the hotel (near where we were) and borrowed a machete. Then I threw my jacket over the live pelican and had Sarah hold him down while I removed the dead bird's head -- necessary, believe me.

I wish I had another photo of him untangled, he was definitely a beautiful fellow! But he took off the instant he was free.

Not even a nod and a thank you! What cheek! :^)

Just Another Wednesday...or NOT!

So -- I'm sitting at the kitchen table sorting through photos on my laptop. Lunch is over, the kids are out and about, Doug and Esteban have gone to Guasave to get some building supplies; overall, the house is calm and peaceful. It never lasts long.

I heard a "pop" sound. My first thought was, "Hm. That air rifle is as loud as a 22." My second was, "Who asked permission to use the air rifles?" Just as my brain formulated that brilliant question, there was a second "crack", because it really was a CRACK rather than a POP. We moms of boys can tell the difference, eh? The second pop/crack got me out of my seat so that I could look out the front window. What I saw headed me out the front door.

The police were parked in front of the house and there was a huddle of guys (including some red-headed boys) all around a big brush pile across the street. As soon as I saw Caleb with his air rifle and the policeman with his 22 handgun, I knew what was up. It's something we keep our eyes open for, since we live where we live. We have snakes. We have really big snakes. Some of those snakes are poisonous, but even the non-poisonous ones are hunted down and killed when they pass 4 or 5 feet long. I trotted over to the brush pile (of course, my camera batteries were charging, bummer) to see what was up. Sure enough, they had cornered the second largest rattlesnake I've ever seen.

Apparantly the officers were doing their normal drive-by when they saw a big snake slithering across the road in front of our house. He tried to swerve to hit it, but it got away and headed for the bushes. The guys jumped from their truck and shot twice with their 22s. (That was the CRACK I heard!) Then Caleb had come running with his air rifle and pegged it. Finally, Ramon reached in and whacked its head with Andrew's machete. Definitely a group effort, but Caleb was really excited about the prospect of a rattlesnake hide to tan.

Turns out, rattlesnakes are extremely easy to skin. I even prefer them to fish -- once we took the head off. Sorry, I know that once they're dead, they're dead, but the suckers move for ages even with the head OFF. I just couldn't handle it with the head still on. (Side note: there is a slight danger from a dead rattlesnake. The mouth holds some venom, so it really is better to behead it.) So, Caleb cut off the rattle and the head, I skinned the snake and then I was left holding the...snake. Pretty gross, but in all honesty I expected it to be...um, grosser (is that a word? It is now.)

A couple of the boys wanted to cook it up for supper. I actually decided that I didn't want to deal with it, so I chucked it into the brush. Wouldn't you know, it got caught, so we had a dead, skinless-headless-tailless rattler hanging from the top of a brushpile right beside the house. No way that was going to fly. The boys said that they would reclaim the critter from the tree, so I headed in to check the internet to see what I should do with the leftover snake. [Editor's note: After reading this to the crew, Jessee corrected me. They did not offer to reclaim the snake from the tree. They were told to. We must be precise, eh?] I found a couple of great sites. "Everything you wanted to know about...the Western Diamondback but Were Afraid to Ask" -- very helpful site which I figure I'll be visiting often, our family being what it is! I think I'll have to keep it off-limits from the boys, though, because it has information about hunting and capturing rattlesnakes. I'm not sure I want them to have that much information at this time. What is that saying? "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing"? 'Nuff said.

By the time I had gleaned what I needed from the net, the boys had pulled Snakey down from the treetops. I was now prepared to clean and freeze him. Once again, I was surprised at how easily the cleaning went. I had to hose him off well to get the sand off of him (that's what I get for tossing it up in the tree -- what goes up, must come down, you know.

Meanwhile, Caleb was trying his hand at scraping the snake hide. (I found the instructions at "Brazos River Rattlesnake Ranch") After about half an hour, he had completed about 6 inches. Slow going. I gave my "anything worth doing..." speech, but Caleb has heard it a few times. His concern was that his friend Mike was over, and they wanted to play Mech Warriors. So, we have a green snake skin in the freezer; right next to a plastic container labeled "Rattle snake". Now that's something I've never had in my freezer!

Doug just messaged over saying that they were on the way home. I asked him to pick up a couple of kilos of carne asada. It would be the equivalent of ordering out for pizza -- but significantly cheaper -- after a rather tough day on the homefront. The only meat I have in the freezer right now is rattlesnake. I can kill one, skin one, clean one and freeze one, but I don't think I can eat one today!

We had a little visitor at our house day before yesterday. I was getting into the car to run to the market when I caught a slight movement out of the corner of my eye. Since I was curious, just a kid at heart, I hopped out of the van and went over to see what had just crawled under the water tank.


This little guy, the crab -- not the Andrew -- had wandered over from the beach. I sent Andrew and Jessee back down to the beach to reunite him with his family -- quickly...before Doug got ahold of him and roasted him over an open fire!

It's Greek to Me!

I took this picture while we were on furlough in the States this fall. The kids are generally pretty good about taking time in the morning for their personal Bible time, but while we were traveling it was sometimes difficult. Occasionally a Bible was misplaced in the van or who-knows-where and one child or another would have to borrow one to read. Believe it or not, this photo was not posed.

Caleb and Jessee were reading (borrowed) Bibles at Grandma's house. When I looked closely, I noticed a couple of things about the Bible that Jessee (on the left) was reading. First of all, I saw that it was upside down. I was just about to comment to him about the fact that he was being deceitful, when I saw that it was also Hebrew-Greek. I had to take a photo before I called him on it.

It turned out that the Bible was a factory second that Grandma had gotten for a really good price because it was bound incorrectly. Jessee was really reading the Bible -- in English, upside up!