Eco-cartoon for kids!

My daughter discovered a great show on Netflix: Fishtronaut, about a fish, a young girl and a monkey who solve environmental mysteries in a nature preserve in Brazil. It's actually very intelligent and informative, teaching kids about everything from the habitats and lifestyles of different animals, to recycling, to hydroelectric power. And due to my love for all things Brazilian, the show's Brazilian setting is just the icing on the cake. (Note: the show airs on Discovery Kids in the U.S., in English).

Summer Staycation Adventure, Week 1

(Since last Monday was July 4th, Monday, July 11 was the first vacation day I've taken this summer--making it Week 1 of our Staycation Adventure. My plan is to take each Monday off to have a fun and learning adventure with my daughter. More about our summer staycation plans here).

Discovery Pond: My daughter and I had two adventures last week. On Monday, we visited Discovery Pond at the Tacoma Nature Center. Adding to the specialness, my daughter's daycare teacher has decided to join us for each Monday's adventure, so all of her friends are coming along. Discovery Pond is a play area for kids designed as a natural environment that includes rocks to climb, caves to explore, a pond (with fish!) to rock-hop across, a treehouse to hang out in, and an old-fashioned water pump. A staff person told us that they were amazed that the fish have survived since Discovery Pond opened last year. They were sure that either the fish would die or the raccoons would get them, and neither has happened.

The kids had a ball in the play area, followed by a picnic lunch. We also visited a little of the inside of the Nature Center, and the kids got to see frogs, turtles, snakes and lots of bugs! As a follow up, I asked my daughter what she wanted to learn more about, and she said turtles, so we checked out a few books from the library about them.

Tiptoe through the Tidepools: I learned that day that Metro Parks Tacoma and the Nature Center were sponsoring a free "Tiptoe through the Tidepools" event at Titlow Beach on Saturday (yesterday), one of several they've held this summer. My daughter and I visited and it was fascinating. I learned a new word, "estuary," which is an area where salt water and fresh water come together. The Puget Sound is one of the world's most prolific estuaries, replete with sea creatures that are most visible at low tide. Estuaries are also perfect habitat for salmon, which is why this area is known for them.

My daughter and I were able to see and touch a variety of crabs--and watched a poor kid get pinched by one :( -- along with seaweed, barnacles, starfish, and the most amazing 20-legged sunflower sea star (see pic below). We're following up by reading more about tidepools here in the Northwest.


I'm really starting to appreciate the natural environment here in Washington, and probably will even more so after we visit Mt. Rainier, which is the most prominent mountain in the contiguous US (prominence is the measure of the distance from a mountain's lowest point to its summit), and one of the world's potentially deadliest volcanoes.

I never thought anything could compare to the breathtaking beauty of a New England fall, complete with apple picking and scrumptious apple cider donuts. But I'm learning that Washington state has a unique beauty of its own.

Awesome nature in the city moment

My favorite nature in the city moment occurred about a decade ago, when I was taking a walk on the Esplanade, the long stretch of park that runs along the banks of the Charles River in Boston. I spotted a mama duck and about five or six ducklings standing beside the shore. Several people gathered to watch the sight when suddenly a St. Bernard appeared, barking furiously and running toward the ducks. The mother duck started quacking loudly and jumped into the water, with her babies right behind her.

Although his owners were calling for his return, the dog ignored them and jumped into the river after the ducks. The ducks swam as fast as they could behind a rock. Once her ducklings were safe, the mama duck turned and let out what can only be described as a primal scream. She then took off like a low-flying missile aimed right at the dog!

The funniest part was the expression that appeared on the dog's face. You could tell he was thinking, "Oh no, I'm in trouble now!" As if he had just become aware of his owners' calls, he turned and hightailed it back to them as quickly as possible!

By this time, the dozens of people who saw this scene were rolling with laughter and speculating about what would have happened had the duck actually caught the dog. Despite the massive size difference (this was a St. Bernard!), she meant business. As one person pointed out, "This was a wild duck protecting her babies, vs. somebody's pet."

Yesterday I experienced another awesome nature in the city moment, and my daughter was there to see it as well! We attended Tacoma's annual Ethnic Fest held in Wright Park. As we walked along the duck pond in the park, a guy who passed us pointed to an area of the pond where hundreds of half-foot long goldfish were swimming. Just as we arrived at the area with the fish, we heard a whistling sound and saw something drop from the sky so fast we couldn't tell what it was. It landed with an explosive splash in the water. A few seconds later, we saw wet wings emerge and a bird lifted into the air. Not just any bird, either--this was a hawk who had caught a nice, juicy goldfish for lunch!

I remember watching a story on TV a few years ago about a family of hawks nesting on the eaves of a tall building near Central Park in New York City. People came out daily with binoculars to watch as the parents fed their babies, and as the fledglings began to learn to fly. It was an amazing sight, and highly unusual, according to the announcer, to have a family of hawks make its home in the city. Well, it seems that Tacoma has at least one hawk living here! And perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. We seem to have plenty of deer around here, even in the central city, not just the outskirts.

Bixby's Rainforest Rescue

This act, which teaches children about the rain forest and encourages them to care for the environment, was a really great part of the Puyallup Spring Fair/Livable Communities Fair. The young man who plays Bixby is very talented; in the course of the half-hour show, he sang, did magic tricks, performed ventriloquism, interacted wonderfully with children, and handled wild animals, including a macaw, a coati, and a Burmese python.

BTW, my daughter is pretty sharp. When he did his ventriloquist act with a toucan puppet, she commented, "The boy's making that puppet talk, right, Mama? I can see his throat moving." (Bixby's adam's apple was bobbing up and down).

She also asked a great question. At the end of the show, Bixby asked for donations to help save the endangered animals of the rain forest. I gave her a dollar to put in the basket. She asked, "How does that money help save the animals?" I told her a few possibilities (to pay scientists who help the animals have babies safely and then release them into the wild; and to set aside land as nature preserves). But the real answer is, "I'll have to get back to you on that!"

Too funny!

This morning I saw a bowl filled with some funny-looking yellow stuff. I asked hubby what it was. He answered, "A mixture of egg, urine and garlic. It's a deer repellant. Hey, it would repel you, wouldn't it?"

I had to laugh. He certainly had that right!

The deer have paid us a visit!

About a week ago, we had a guy coming to power-wash the house, so we had to remove everything from the deck. This included all of our container plants. Hubby placed them in the yard, actually planting his tomatoes and green beans in the yard, but leaving the sunflowers, lettuce, and herbs in their containers. Everything seemed to be doing well, so we left them there.

(Side note: our friends Johnny and Michelle visited one day after we moved these things to the yard. On the downside, they told me that my spinach, which I planted about a month after everything else, had gone to seed. On the upside, they noticed that we had blueberry bushes growing in our yard. We love blueberries and are trying to figure out how we didn't notice them last summer).

Anyway, the deer paid us a visit this morning, leaving big footprints in the soil. They ate all the ripe blueberries (Hey! Maybe the deer ate all the blueberries last summer before we noticed!), and all the unripe tomatoes -- and oddly, left all the green leafy veggies alone.

So now hubby is going to look into some fencing. Since the plants did just fine on our north-facing deck, we think they'll do just as well along the west side of the house where they are now, and it's a smaller and easier area to fence in than the southern front yard where we had originally thought to plant.

Swine flu and pig farming

You've all heard about the current swine flu going around, and the possibility it could become pandemic. It's making me nervous for several reason, many due to flying: hubby is to fly to LA for a few days in late May for job training; and in June, my mom and sister are coming to visit from Ohio and New York, respectively; a week later, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law are coming from Boston and New Jersey. My sister-in-law is especially at risk, because she had a kidney transplant four years ago, and so is immuno-compromised.

My other fear has to do with pig farming. The farmer my hubby wants to help owns pigs. Now, chances are, because theirs is a small, organic family farm and their pigs and chickens are raised humanely, their farm is unlikely to be affected by swine flu. (Large factory farms are more likely the culprit. Read this 2006 article titled "Boss Hogs" from Rolling Stone--it will make you never want to eat pork again). But still, there's the perception, and we want to try to bring young people out there to help on the farm.

Anyway, read the article. I can't help thinking about Joseph Luter, the CEO of Smithfield Foods, the nation's largest pork producer, as described by Rolling Stone. He is pretty upfront that he's about his own wealth and power, and to hell with the environment. But, I have to wonder, doesn't he care about his grandchildren? Money can only protect you so much--environmental degradation affects us all.