Thursday, Skype Time

Howdy all! Great talking with some of you again, and Mrs. Hardesty's third grade as well! I'm sorry I was a bit late, but we stopped in Bridgewater for groceries, so I got back a bit late. It rained all day and we all were wet. It was a challenge to be honest because we were out in the woods literally all day and it rained the whole time. No kidding. Seriously. Wetness prevailed.

We checked traps, cut some new trails, and did some trail/road maintenance. It was hard work to be honest, especially considering that it was raining.
Froggy Eggs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
J.P. asked: Who's house? Well, the two scientists that are running the studies have been working with Earthwatch for several years. They used to do studies with badgers in England and used Earthwatch volunteers then. As they moved to Nova Scotia to begin studying the mammal population here, they knew they'd have Earthwatch involved so they bought two cottages for this purpose. They built another home for themselves about ten minutes away. We have two houses here, one is the Green house and it is the central house: where we have meeting, eat, and have internet connections. The Yellow house is really just for sleeping. Some people sleep at the Green house and myself and two other men sleep at Yellow house. To be honest, Yellow is slightly creepy at night when you are alone. It's dark, usually windy outside, and the house is creeky. I have come to enjoy the house, but I kind of think it has come to like me too.

You can see that we trapped some critters today. We got two voles and a chipmunk. You can see the chipmunk in the plastic bag. We use plastic bags so we can see the critter. We always release back where the animal was caught so they are in the proper territory.

A great question was brought up by MRS. Pembroke. She said, "Honey, it's Earth Day and you're cutting down trees." You, that does seem contradictory, I would agree. However, in this case we were creating trails so the land can be used as a conservation observatory. Let's all think about the trails in upper Bidwell Park. Those trails needed to be made; cut in if you will. It was necessary to change the habitat somewhat. That being said, we want to minimize the damage, yet make it accessible. Notice that video about the hemlock forest has a boardwalk trail. That would be another example of having to make changes so that in the long run we can preserve the area. The same thing is taking place here at Cook's Lake. We are making changes for a long term conservation effort! It's all good! We love Mother Earth!

It was raining all day today. Please look at the pictures and videos to see my perseverance. Please. I did. I used the LIFESKILL of perseverance and SENSE OF HUMOR to get through the day as we did this important work.

Pictures:
Did you know that conservation sometimes includes hard labor? We were working hard in the rain today by cutting trails and digging trenches to drain the road. Notice my personal trench with my shovel.


I shot three videos today. Please enjoy them and think about what you can learn from them.

Also, I should point out that my wife tried calling me around 4:30 today, your time. Guess what, I couldn't take the call because I was in class! That's right, nearly every evening after dinner we have class. Now today's class was particularly interesting to me because it was the geologic history of Nova Scotia. Now that might sound a bit scary, but you know what? It is very similar to the geologic history of California. Alright now, here's the big question: What words did Dr. Newman use in tonight's class/lecture that I use in my teaching about how Earth is formed/shaped. Think about that now, I'd love some ideas shared on comments or during our Skyping session. That would be my dream. Dreamlike I tell you. Seriously.





Also, I'd like to welcome Mr. Holman's class up there on the hill of Paradise. Thanks for looking on! We also have some comments from Mr. Hull's class. I posted those.
Don't forget to look up! Love it! It's important.
Yes, I commented in today's blog about the need to sometimes remove or change the natural fauna through management, we here believe, as I'm sure Mr. Hull does, that it's important to be stewards of our planet, and sometimes removing a tree seem contradictory to that, but we have to think about long run health and use. Good stuff.

As for the fires changes the mammal and insect population, that is a wonderful example of how energy in Earth's systems are affected by each other and interconnected. We had a short discussion here about the increase or decrease of rodents due to fires: we feel that the population overall would likely go down this year because of lack of vegetation, but in years to come would increase because there will be a lot of low growth. There also will be open space which is bad for the little guys to hide. Finally, the shrew eats bugs, so that species will have some good eats, however the lack of safe cover is still an issue until a couple of years role on by. Naturally, as these populations change, they change the success of the critters that predate on them: hawks, snakes, etc. It's a big web of life!

Riley, no, I won't bring you Canadian bacon home. It's just ham, go get yourself some.
Savannah, the similar things to Chico aren't really that many. I would say this is VERY similar to our California coastal areas, but not so much to Chico, other than the fact that we see many of the same mammals in our area. But weather wise and terrain is mostly like California coast lines. Good Question!

Check my ppembroke videos at youtube if you like, there are some there that aren't here. Careful with youtube though, you never know about that site. It's been very helpful to us here to get our video loaded, this blog doesn't work smoothly for that stuff sometimes, but you have to be careful with content on youtube. Search for ppembroke and you'll find all of mine.

Keep doing your personal best on our state tests! Remember that the answer is on the page, just do your best to find it!~ Have a super day! Mr. P