Gas & Ants

I learned two very interesting things so far today.  First -- ants -- there are a lot of them around this time of year.  I learned that they like to live up inside flower pots.  Russ noticed a bunch of ants in our sunroom, so we watched them march to find the source.  Hmm, they seem to be going under that big pot over there but not coming out the other side.  Lift -- ugh! -- ant colony in the house.  Is it possible to have a million ants in one place?  Pot is now outside.  In a timely twist, I also read a fascinating blurb about ants in the Wash Post this morning -- apparently farmer ants herd aphids like cows and "milk" them using their feet and antennae for a syrupy substance they produce called "honeydew."  They keep them anesthetized with a susbtance the ants secrete, and clip the aphids' wings to keep them from flying away.  Now that is dern interesting!  Curiosity Index:  10.

Ok, so my second lesson of the day was about gas.  We had a lovely propane leak today at the house as well, and I learned that you can isolate the leak by spraying a soapy solution on the pipes.  If there is a leak, you get bubbles.  We got bubbles.  So I am now home waiting for Amerigas.  Ah, the joys of living off the grid with a propane tank.  At least the leak was outside.  And a funny problem to have this week, because we are studying gas in classes this week at Curiosity Zone. . . .

Dirt & Stripes

I was thinking about our garden adventures this weekend, and trying to calculate in my head how many hours I spent rolling around in the dirt.  At one point my stepdaughter, J.M., said, "Memoo (they call me Memoo), what are you doing?"  I was actually accomplishing something -- pruning hollies, spreading mulch, clearing dead branches, fertilizing. . . .  But it never occurred to me NOT to throw myself down into the dirt while doing those things.  Literally, on my front and back, rolling around.  So then I thought - wow, maybe that's not normal.  Fortunately I have a couple of friends in my life who remind me that it's OK to be a little odd.  Makes me think, though, of all the parents out there who tell their kids not to get dirty, or not to roll around in dirt.  Come on, moms and dads, it's fun!  Let a little unbridled energy flow!  I was also sad this weekend when I was repainting our old mailbox and suggested we add stripes -- both Russ and J.M. cringed like they'd never heard anything so dumb.  Come on, what's wrong with a striped mailbox?  Who says mailboxes have to be black?  I'm just saying. . . .

Planting Seeds

The kids and I had a great time getting the garden ready this weekend.  We kicked off the project by planting lots of seeds in one of those starter kits from Home Depot.  They sell trays now with neat little shrunken peat pellets that expand and crumble into dirt when water is added.  That was a big hit at our house -- kind of like those instant capsules that dissolve in water and expand into creatures -- except this was actually useful. It gave us an opportunity to talk about inventions and design -- I'm sure someone has a patent for that cool expanding pellet idea!  J.M., our fifth grader, carefully picked out the plants she wanted to start, and was so interested in the different sizes and shapes of the seeds.  She carefully planted them and drew a grid to map what was planted where.  She also used a little math to figure out how many seeds she needed for the allotted garden space that she had.  Later we had a good time in the garden when we moved a few pieces of wood that had been stationary all winter and found bugs and worms everywhere.  This led to a discussion of who eats what, where bugs go in winter, and how worms eat.  Good questions all!