Invertebrate class Part 1

Our little science class met again today. Today we studied some of the invertebrates, and dissected earthworms. It was sprinkling so we had to have class inside, but it worked out fine.




Hard at work




KJ seems awfully happy.




Doesn't she look studious? (the young lady, not me)



A somewhat mutilated worm.

Kookaburra

Do you remember singing this song in grade school? I do. You can go here to sing along.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry, merry king of the bush is he
Laugh, Kookaburra! Laugh, Kookaburra!
Gay your life must be

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Eating all the gum drops he can see
Stop, Kookaburra! Stop, Kookaburra!
Leave some there for me!

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Counting all the monkeys he can see
Stop, Kookaburra! Stop, Kookaburra!
That's not a monkey that's me

Kookaburra sits on a rusty nail
Gets a boo-boo in his tail
Cry, Kookaburra! Cry, kookaburra!
Oh how life can be!

Written by Marion Sinclair

What made me start humming this song? I'm glad you asked. You did ask, didn't you?

Yesterday, I was doing docent of the day (DOD) duty for a lady who's son is in the hospital. Actually, I need to back up a little. I already explained about DOD in an earlier post, but I neglected to mention that the education animals are housed in a replica of an old ranch house, complete with really high ceilings and exposed rafters. This same ranch house also serves as a classroom.

Now, back to yesterday, another docent was doing an animal presentation for a visiting school class while I did DOD duties. KJ was helping us both. (what a wonderful child) I had finished up when I noticed water, LOTS of water coming out of the front of the kookaburra's enclosure. His enclosure looks like a giant curio cabinet, sort of. Cobber, the kookaburra, had decided to take a bath...a very messy bath. He had splashed nearly all of the water out of his pool of water...apparently I had filled it a little more full than usual. Oh he was happy, fluffing his feathers and preening, while I mopped up water. Once I got the floor clean, I opened his enclosure to replace the sopping wet newspaper. Cobber hopped to a closer perch to watch...and then whoosh, he was over my head and out of there. This class of kids was the 4th class in 2 hours, and I guess Cobber wanted to visit. Cobber flew from rafter to rafter laughing his fool head off, which of course the kids absolutely loved.

After the class was over, the other docent and I tried to catch Cobber with no luck. Cobber would not land on the broom handle we held up, nor was he lured down by a mouse. He just laughed and laughed. I eventually called the education curator and the bird staff. They showed up with a long net and managed to catch Cobber in mid-flight. I was horrified that all this happened, because of ME. The education curator just laughed and said that Cobber has gotten out on everyone, including her. She said some of the docents let Cobber out ON PURPOSE so he can fly around while they're doing DOD. Apparently, you get a few people with brooms to block his flight until he flutters to the ground and then you grab him. I don't think I'll every purposely let Cobber out.

Click here to learn more about the kookaburra and hear its laugh.

Whew, what a weekend

We were so busy this weekend! Instead of my usual well-rested Monday morning feeling, I feel as though I need another weekend just to recover.

Many of you may remember that we started cleaning newly constructed homes for a little extra money. We did a few in the fall, but haven't had any since. My neighbor called last week to see if we would be interested in cleaning an older home that an elderly lady had just moved out of. It paid pretty well so despite a previous promise to ourselves that we would not do homes that had been lived in, we agreed to do it on Saturday.

We arrived at the house about 9:15 Saturday morning...and realized that this would take a L-O-N-G time. The original windows had storm windows over them and all were filthy. Just cleaning the insides and outsides of all those window panes took most of the day. Between David, KJ, and I, at least one person was always working on windows. The master bath shower took me an hour by itself. I have never seen anything that grungy in my life. We had to leave at noon to run grab lunch and take KJ to Stonehenge practice so we didn't get back to the house until 4:00. We finally finished a little after 9:00, sore, tired, and grouchy.

Sunday was my first time doing Docent of the Day (DOD) on my own. This involves preparing the diets of the education animals, feeding, changing water, etc. I'm also supposed to walk the oppossums. It took me nearly 4 hours! I think I'll get quicker as I practice. Oops, I have more to say, but I've got to run...another busy day.

before and after

Before



After

my new toy

On Tuesday, I was home expecting a delivery. I had been told that it would be "sometime" that day. At 11:30, I called to see if it would be later that afternoon. If so, I was going to run KJ over to Kerrie-Ann's house so she could take him on to fencing. I was told that the delivery had been delayed so I did indeed have time to leave for a couple of hours.

2 minutes after we arrived at Kerrie-Ann's, her daughter broke her finger. It did NOT look good. Kerrie-Ann got an appointment to get her daughter in to the doctor, and Debbie, who was also there, ended up taking KJ on to fencing.

I headed back home and proceeded to pick branches up out of the yard and wait, wash dishes and wait, make the burn pit deeper and wait, and wait, and wait. Debbie brought KJ back home after fencing...still no delivery. I called at 5:00 to make sure it was still coming. David got home from work. The neighbors came over to visit...still no delivery.

Finally at 7:30, a semi backed down our road and stopped in front of the neighbor's house. Curly walked over with David to watch the forklift unload.


The neighbor's goat and horses watched the action with me.


It's here! It's here!

Just a little closer...

My NEW lawn mower!

Yay! We can get rid of the rainforest that has replaced our backyard.

I have lots of pics to post, but I won't have time to get them off my camera until this evening.

Later,

post removal

I removed the last post when my darling husband reminded me that KJ reads this blog. Oops! It's gone now and hopefully KJ never saw it.

GREAT article on socialization.

I had never read this particular article before. It is the best I've read on socialization.

Yay! It's Friday! I really enjoyed zoo camp, really I did. I'm also glad that is over though. I've been too beat to post so here is what I've been up to the past couple of days.

This is Petunia, one of the education opossums. She was found as a tiny baby in a parking lot and had to be hand-raised. She is sweet, but can and will still bite the crap out of you if you get your hand near her mouth.


We took the children on a behind-the-scenes tour of Africa today. Note that these photos were taken BEHIND-THE-SCENES. All the animals have nice habitats out front. When this lioness had her cubs, the lions starting taking turns being out on exhibit, as the male lion will hurt the cubs. You can't really judge their size from this picture. The head of the lioness hits me about chest high. (I'm 4'10")


I believe this is Timbo, or maybe Zoe. I have to look at their tails. She loves to eat grass.


Meet Babe and Wrinkles.

We fed produce to Geoffrey. He heads for the fence whenever he sees a group, because he knows that he usually gets a treat.

Well, I remembered my camera today, but only remembered to take a picture at the paddlefish feeding.

Today was my first day of Zoo Camp. The kids were great. The other docents were great. The Education Coordinator was great. Even the animals were great. The ones that we present behaved themselves, and the ones on exhibit were full of life, moving around and "talking" to us. That being said...I am so tired. It has been several years since my public school teaching days where I was on my feet all day herding children. I'm used to my one half-grown child who I don't have to watch too closely. Speaking of KJ, I heard from him last night and he was having fun. He and his dad had been to the Grand Canyon and were heading on to California. Today, I heard from his "girlfriend's" mom that he had called his "girlfriend" (I refuse to not put that word in quotes), and told her that he was in L.A.

On a totally unrelated topic, if you have a sister, then you absolutely must read My Sister, My Self. I read it and then spent hours psychoanalyzing my relationship with Staci. I was upset and worried when I realized that I remember almost nothing of our relationship before middle school. I felt much better however, after talking to Staci and finding out that she doesn't remember anything either. Either our relationship was uneventful enough to not remember, or it was so horrible we've both blocked it from our memories.

David and I rented several movies to watch over the upcoming week. Yesterday, we watched Jesus Camp. That movie is a must see for everyone. Those poor children will be future suicide bombers for the Christian faith. I just hope people realize that this type of Christian is in the minority. Unfortunately, I know a few homeschoolers like this. I'm going to rent it again next week so KJ can watch it too.

Today, David is watching Clerks II. He has always been a Jay and Silent Bob fan. It's funny, but not really my kind of movie.

We still have Little Miss Sunshine and The Prestige to go. KJ and I saw The Prestige at the theater and really enjoyed it, but David hasn't seen it yet.

KJ left Friday night with his dad. They are driving to California for Spring Break. He'll be back home the morning of the 19th. Meanwhile, I'll be working Zoo Camp from 8:30 to 4:00 everyday next week.

KJ has been fencing for 2 years and today is the first time I've taken any pictures...I'm a bad mom.


You didn't expect me to go easy on you, because you're a girl, did you?

Take the stupid picture and get out of my way.

What have I been spending HOURS on?

I am totally in love with this site, ancestry.com. I've spent waaaay too many late nights the past few days researching my family.

We had a long, but good day today. I have to shadow 6 docent activities before I'm a fully trained zoo docent, so today I shadowed an animal presentation. It was for 2 groups of 2nd graders and was supposed to be from 10:00-11:00. They were coming in from out-of-town and were late, plus the presentations ran a little long so it ended up lasting until 11:45. Since I'm helping with Spring Break Camp, I needed to stay and train on a few more animals. *ahem* I am proud to announce that I have added the Texas Long Nose Snake, Oppossum, and American Alligator to the list of animals I am allowed to handle. KJ took this picture with my phone. It's pretty tiny and poor quality, but it's me with the snake. The alligator was so cool! He's obviously not fully grown (10-12 feet), but is still somewhat intimidating at 3 feet. I should have had KJ get a pic of that.



It was 1:00 by the time we left the zoo, so KJ and I grabbed fast food and headed over to fencing. For the first half of fencing, KJ's drafting teacher helped him catch up after being out sick. Homeschool moms are so nice. Her son is in fencing too, but still, it was very nice of her to spend extra time with KJ. He fenced for the last half and we headed home.