Summer Shenanigans

Splattery new paint job on the rocket. Thanks, Frida.
Rainer's dreaming on the cozy chair. Summer has been fun and productive!

Last tadpoles to make it out. Way to grow, guys! Finally. Now Frida can get a dwarf hamster who will live in this cage.

Toad found by outdoor bathtub.

Had to let him go, but we've still seen him around his natural habitat.

Snail Experiment

Ten from our yard, ten from our next door neighbor's yard.

Paint each group a different color.

We used pink and blue nail polish.

Then put them back in the others' yard.

Do they have a homing instinct? Will they find their way back to their original yard?

Each group found the nearest bush and hid there.

All snails eventually tucked themselves in like this:
Results from Rainer:
His close observations over 48 hours show they do not have a homing instinct.

Hibaku Seeds

These gingko seeds may have survived the A-bomb, but we're not sure they'll grow in our pots. We're waiting. Here's Hiroshi Sunairi's site again for information on this project.

Volunteering

We pulled weeds in the herb garden at

Potowat Community Food Garden
in Arcata, CA.

The garden is part of
Potowat Health Village.
Great pictures at their site show the lovely wood building and the grounds open to the public.

Thanks Elisa and Solstice!

Hole Update

Kathy, a geologist, came to check out our enormous hole.
Her passion for dirt inspires us!

She had great ideas for studying the soil layers, called horizon lines, like in the picture above. We put a bit of earth and water in jars, shook them up and watched them settle. Silt and clay separate from water at different rates. We need to control this experiment better next time to get reliable results. We also got a topographic quadrant map of our neighborhood to compare nearby elevation. Fun!

She informed us that tunnel digging isn't safe. Rainer has hit sand at the bottom and she explained that where our house sits used to be sea shore.

Thank you, Kathy!

More Bee Action

Rose, our across-the-street neighbor, showed us this hive that got loose and landed on their raspberry bushes. These are European honey bees--totally different social structure than our native bees, who are solitary.

If you go to Rose's you have to pet the chickens.

Below is another European honey bee, probably one of Rose's. We're trying harder now to spot natives.

The Ants in "Art, Science and Ants"

Red Army ant nest! They bite.

Can't yet identify them, but the photo below shows the smallest ants we've ever seen.

Spiders

Our baby Giant Sequoia in the morning light with pumpkin spider webs.

Harvesting

She always finds something special. . .

. . .and arranges it beautifully.

Not everything grew well for us. This is a pathetic patch of corn entirely eaten by a gopher.

Fennel

Morning Glory with dad fixing training wheels.

Elephant garlic flower

It is fall, and the raspberry leaves are turning.

This is the future site of our best work yet, says Rainer. He took this picture of pond liner set out to kill the grass and create a new space for...?

See you next time!