Hail Storm!

Before the girls club meeting, we got caught up in the educational goodness of a hail storm. And the fun. And the practicality of moving the hose from the gutter as it became clogged with hailstones.

Because I had read Weather, from the Golden Book Series, as a youth, I remembered the layers. The layers of a hailstone come from its passing through supercooled zones inside a thunderhead. The one in the photo has at least three layers. "G" of GAIN read from Weather that hailstones can travel up to 75,000 feet before dropping to the ground.

We've been geocaching through a couple rainy days. Light rain does not deter me much. Slippery mud, yes; getting wet, no. We usually just nature hike away from the mud if rain starts to fall. I remember my grandpa laughing at us when we came in from a rainy walk. But it was fun. Fun stuff happens when rain comes. Like leopard frogs in Margo Frankel Woods. It muffles our sounds and scents, which helps us as we look for animals. I completely recommend hiking during a rain. Not a storm, but a shower.

Today's weather would definitely keep me inside from caching. I usually consider weather before a cache hunt. Lightning is a bad condition. Hail is not comfortable either. Weather is certainly something that I try to plan for when placing a cache. Winter weather maintenance also deters me from placing geocaches.

100 Species Challenge #39

Specimen #39 River Birch

Betula nigra

AKA red birch, water birch, and black birch (nigra means black in Latin)

"I" of GAIN spotted this during a search for a geocache. I keyed in the wrong east/west coordinates, so we did not find it. But we did scare up three deer and a lone Canada goose. We'll be back. We have to get to 200 finds. We must!

Our recent study of trees in winter has definitely heightened our tree awareness and knowledge.

You can see the shaggy bark here. It peels in a very irregular way that varies by the tree. These particular trees were near the water, but we have noticed many urban ones. Just scan some front yards for river birches. There are many.

According to the website of Native American Ethnobotany (University of Michigan - Dearborn), the Cherokee nation chewed river birch leaves for dysentery; used an infusion of the bark for colds, stomach problems, 'milky urine;' and a decoction of the inner bark for the same issues.

From the Illinois State Museum website, I read that:

"It is the only spring-fruiting birch and the only native birch whose range includes the southeastern coastal plain. River birch does not tolerate shade, a characteristic of "pioneer" species (plants that are the first to colonize an open habitat). It is one of the first species to colonize streamsides and sandbars when flood waters recede because it produces many seeds which germinate quickly and its seedlings make rapid growth in early development. During early stages of growth, the seedlings have a high soil moisture requirement, but neither seedlings nor mature trees can survive flooding that lasts well into the growing season."

100 Species Challenge #38

Specimen #38

Arborvitae AKA Northern White Cedar

Thuja occidentalis

Here is a tree you'll see during the search for quite a few urban caches. After many pine-y finds, I am grateful for the "softness" of the needles of the Arborvitae.

We're still reading _Discover Nature in Winter_ by Elizabeth Lawlor. Following the Chapter on Cedars ('Cedars' is misleading, since none of the chapters is as limited as the title suggests), we learned about evergreens and gymnosperms. The arborvitae is a plant that falls into both categories. For a fun quiz on your knowledge of angiosperms and gymnosperms, see here.

Here is one of the drawings the kids made. Each child took a different evergreen sample to draw. I am putting this one up here because I was able to get a good photo of it -- it is nice and flat. [Don't ask about the picture rotating. Blogger keeps wanting to rotate for me, no matter which side I say is "up."]

As the book instructed, we crushed the tips and smelled the distinguishable aroma. This involved a hammer for the boys, a hand for the girls.

Nature-Wise has a very interesting perspective on this plant, listing its value to Native People, native animals, and Immigrants.

From Ohio Trees: Arborvitae has scale-like leaves, which along with its twigs form flattened sprays that are soft to the touch, rather than prickly (as in Eastern Redcedar). While Eastern Redcedar prefers warmer (southern) climates, Arborvitae prefers colder (northern) climates, with Ohio in the middle ground between these two in terms of geographic distribution. [Juliecache notes here that North America does not have any true cedar trees. If you read the Chapter, you'll understand.]

Arborvitae is perhaps the most popular evergreen consumed by deer and other mammals during winter, and its evergreen canopy provides cover for mammals and birds year-round. In many parts of Ohio, it is seen as one of the frequent evergreens in cemeteries. When found in the open, non-compact forms may reach 30 feet tall by 10 feet wide. As a member of the Cypress Family, it is related to Eastern Redcedar, False Cypress, and other species of Arborvitae.

On the way back from Major General Maple

When All the World is Full of Snow

I never know
Just where to go,
When all the world
Is full of snow.

I do not want
To make a track,
Not even
To the shed and back.

I only want
to watch and wait,
While snow moths settle
On the gate,

And swarming frost flakes
Fill the trees
With billions
Of albino bees.

I only want
Myself to be
As silent as
A winter tree,

To hear the swirling
Stillness grow,
When all the world
Is full of snow.

-- N. M. Bodecker

# 189 Major General Maple

Today was gorgeous! I had to get out! The NVG frequently uses a military and tree theme for his geocache hides. I would say this one was aptly named -- GC15HNB Major General Maple. And I had to be in the area for one of the kids anyway, so I decided to be productive while waiting for her.

I attempted two other caches of the NVG's today, GC15HNN Here on NVG's Isle and GC1J0VQ Twin Cottonwood Colonel's Offset. For the Isle cache, the lake was not frozen enough. We attempted this cache about a year ago, and had to ditch for the same reason. For Cottonwood, the landmark was very easy to spot. But the snow! Lots of thick snow prevented a thorough search.

I learned that walking the park was more difficult when I couldn't see what was underfoot. The snow made the leaves and sticks and path and curbs all look the same. My depth perception was off. The paths I took for Cottonwood and Maple had only one previous traveler since yesterday's snowfall -- a XC skier and his two dogs. We left around at the same time. Interesting to watch him carry and load his gear. Makes me think how it would be if it were me. My time in between caches would have been much shorter had I skiied. I don't know that snowshoes would have helped today, but skis definitely would have. I'd really like to return for Cottonwood now that I've found a new to me path.

100 Species Challenge -- #37

Specimen # 37

Paper Birch
AKA Canoe Birch

Betula papyrifera

This specimen is in our backyard. On our walk to the park this week, and having previously read the Discover Nature in Winter chapter on trees, we noticed differences between gray and paper birches for the first time in our lives. If you click on the photo, you will see that the bark of our tree is all different colors of white because it is always peeling. You may even see some bark scrolling away near the branches. In the summer, you will see bark shaded orange and peach.

In Clive Library Book Sale find, _Trees of the Eastern and Central United States and Canada_ by William M. Harlow, I learned that the paper birch is used for many things: tinder (we experienced this during our stay in the Northwoods last summer) from fallen branches and natural "shed," baskets (seen at Indian Creek Nature Center near Cedar Rapids) and other bark utensils, 'writing paper' (the underside of the bark), a pioneer covering for lean-tos and underlayment for shingles, as well as emergency food. The inner bark is pounded into flour, and syrup can be made from the sap -- it makes " a pleasant cooling drink."

From the Lawlor book and our Northwoods stay this past summer, we know that paper birhces are often the first trees to grow in disturbed soil (i.e., due to fire or clearing for contruction). I'll post about the gray birch once I snap a photo.

100 Species # 36

Specimen # 36

??? My guess is a Blue Spruce.

Found while searching for GC1EYJP A Sticky Situation. I had to use my camera phone. Without a macro lens setting and a steady breeze to interrupt my photos, I am a little at a loss to ID this tree since I left the park. I'll go back with field guide in hand.

We are following the Handbook of Nature Study blog, so our geocaching hunt went right along with our study. More on that in the next post.

100 Species # 35

Specimen #35

Coast Douglas-fir
Pseudotsuga menziesii

Found in a WDM neighborhood.

Photo by me (apologies for waiting until after dark to whip out the camera for a pic. the coloring is substandard.)

During our study of _Discover Nature in Winter_ in tandem with _Winter Tree Finder_, I found that I needed yet another book, _Reader's Digest North American Wildlife_ to positively identify this specimen. We were all puzzling over the cone -- a three pointed bract sticking out of the scales. We thought the tree was a fir because of the needle habit but the cone was a puzzler.

The "coast" in the tree's name refers to the west coast, where it will naturally grow up to 250 ft. tall, rivaling the redwood. If you do not have the books I mentioned above, you can always try here. Since it at about.com, you have to tolerate annoying ads.

Discover Nature in Winter

After reading the blog, Handbook of Nature Study, I bought the book _Discover Nature in Winter_, by Elizabeth Lawlor. The book has given our family great discussion points and something different to do while walking to a geocache. Just as geocaching added a new dimension to our nature walks that were moving toward 'stale-ness,' Discover Nature in Winter has added a new dimension to our geocaching.

# 187

I found my 187th hide today, GC1M3RY, Spike's House, with a Difficulty of One Star and Terrain of Two and Half Stars. I have always really liked the easy difficulty but hard terrain. For this one, I climbed a steep embankment, then climbed a tree.


You would probably have laughed at me as I took this picture. Getting my phone out of my sleeve pocket, then figuring out how to hold it -- the camera button is on the right, the strap is on the left. I needed the strap to avoid dropping it into the ice below me, and I needed to hold on to the tree trunk with one hand. A dilemma -- which hand should I use to take the photo? I used my left.

Also, the view of the neighbor's yard behind this tree makes me think that I know who lives there. Hopefully if they notice us geocachers, they don't think we're peeping toms. I might say something next time I see them.

The really interesting thing about this cache was that although it was in the middle of suburbia, signs of wildlife were everywhere. For example, this photo shows an owl pellet and a piece of rabbit scat. I don't know where the rest of the rabbit pile was -- probably uphill. It's steep here. You can also see the really white hot image of the original log book. Since it was rolled up just so, I knew it could not be a cigarette butt. I also knew from the logs at the geocaching site that the log book was missing. Snow and paper look alike. The snow all melted this weekend, so I was able to spot it and put it back where it ought to be. It is much larger than the substitute log placed earlier. This move helps future finders as well as the cache placer with respect to cache maintenance.

Lesson for this cache: be prepared with extra paper. You never know when you'll need it. The log book could be full or you might drop it in the snow. We've found other caches, and sometimes you need to prepare your geocaching bag with extra containers, too. Actually, bring extra everything with you, if you can.