High Waters

The Raccoon River.

Yesterday is on the left. Look at the arches. They meet in points at the bottom. Like McDonald's golden arches, but there are five instead of two arches. Yesterday's water is above the points of the arches.

July 2009 is on the right, water is below the points. 2/4 of GAIN and I walked under the bridge in the picture in July.

Since we had a great sunny day, 3/4 of GAIN and I went to see the rivers yesterday at GC1557G Iowa Cubs Confluence. We saw one small iceberg, several trees floating along, and LOTS of fast, roiling water. Standing on the bridge, looking at the currents, we felt very insignificant.

The Des Moines River just downstream of the confluence.

Here I am yesterday, standing fairly close to the coordinates. The point was under water. There is a ruffled, watery, triangle behind my ear -- that is the confluence.

This is part of Sweet Shot Day, hosted by Darcy.

Gyotaku

Gyotaku is the Japanese art of fish printing. It keeps those fishers honest! It is also an art that could make great keepsakes -- the first fish you ever caught, the largest (to date) fish you ever caught, the smallest fish you ever caught, a fish to help you remember a really nice day, etc. My company arranged for a gyotaku program a few days ago.

Our presenter was Mike Delaney, president of Raccoon River Watershed Association. He wore a shirt that had a fish print screened on the front. The print was meaningful as it was caught by one of his children. It was very cool! Since crappies are his recommendation for fish printing, he also spoke about local fishing, fish handling (catch and release = don't wash off the mucus coating; gyotaku = wash the mucus off, stroke in the direction of the scales), fish anatomy, nitrates in the Raccoon River (check this cool EarthCache GC1557G that I worked on and have yet to send in the info), the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico, and Japanese culture. Of course he gave tips and tricks to make a great fish print -- clay, straight pins, and the all-important card for an eye-circle.

Gyotaku is an example of how nature can be involved in a family's life. It takes the wholesome activity of fishing to another level, similar to geocaching moving a hike to another level. With a large-scaled fish, tempera paint, and Japanese calligraphy paper, you can make keepsake art to display in a frame or scrapbook to bring nature into a more prominent place in the home.

 In the above photo, Delaney is placing his hanko on the print -- his signature -- since no one could write the kids' names in Japanese. (It's just like a Chinese chop.) It really added to the coolness of the print. He also suggested doing as the Japanese do -- in addition to your name, write the fish identification ( I would say 'name of fish,' but that sounds like you've christened it and made it a pet), date, and witnesses' signatures to your print.

Kids just really like touching dead fish for some reason. One boy in the class said, "Awesome!" Every two minutes. Seriously. I don't know if it's that kids don't touch fish in everyday life, excitement over seeing the colors and patterns and scales up close, being able to study fish because they are not moving, I have no idea, but everyone seemed to like it.

Using microscopes to study nature

We recently had Valentine's day flowers get wilted and old. What's a mom to do? Dissect them! What could be more fun to a kid?

After we cut the flowers open on the table, we examined them and named the parts. We talked about our bees in the hive in relation to the flowers, then I thought we were done. Well, I was done; the kids were not. "G" of GAIN had left the microscope out from a couple days prior -- looking at money -- which was fine with me. (His younger sister used it the next day to study the hair on our heads.) Anyway, he and "I" of GAIN decided to examine the flower parts at a higher level.

We always misplace our magnifying glasses, therefore we never use them. Microscopes however, are much less lose-able. The one in the photo above came cheaply from a U of I auction many years ago, a gift from a well-intentioned grandparent. It is very extremely heavy (less loseable and moveable, or should I say "put-away-able"), and the its best feature is the light. No batteries like the ones you get at a "civilian store" (the words of our oldest). It is missing clips on the platform, but we have dealt with it long enough to manage it well.

Having free time and access to equipment to discover and learn on your own is a great gift that can enrich your life. One of the children called the other one and me over to look at the difference between the stigma and anther. This particular flower's parts looked similar to the naked eye, but under the scope, they were very different. I hope to culture the children's curiosity enough for them to keep it all their lives.