Rebecca Homecca

The hummingbirds are back here in MI, so it’s time to put the feeders out. Here’s the recipe for homemade food again:

1 Part Sugar
4 Parts Water
Boil 1-2 Minutes
Cool & Store In Refrigerator Do NOT add food coloring. It is not needed and I think birds prefer organic food anyway.

In other nature news I am learning about invasive species in my nature classes and it appears we have 2 (that I have identified so far) in our yard. Great.

Garlic Mustard is the arch nemesis of my nature group and we have a bunch of it in our woods. It is hard to get rid of and you have to work on it every year otherwise it just gets out of control again.

It also looks like we Autumn Olive bushes everywhere. I am going to take a branch in to confirm with the nature ladies. We had planned on taking them out anyway, just because they look kind of scraggly and block our views into the woods. So I guess this would be even more reason!

Here is what I’ve been working on in Art Studio. It took a little longer than planned because I missed a couple weeks with this cold/allergy mess. I bought a book on clearance with different watercolor lessons in it and this was one of them.
It was pretty fun. Especially making the sky. It’s probably 5 different layers and took several sessions to get the colors I wanted.
The tree was also fun and interesting. I used masking fluid on the tree part while I worked on the sky and ground. Then I removed the masking and painted in the tree. The painting really came to life once I got the tree going.

I went to snakes class today for my nature program. Here we are out Herping. That means walking around looking for snakes.

That’s the instructor walking by the set up they have to catch snakes. It leads them into a funnel and they can’t get out. They also caught some frogs and some small mammals. I’m guessing if they were in there with the snakes, only one came out. I didn’t tell them that all they really need to catch snakes is a partially full in ground pool.

Along the walk we came across this

Some silly mama bird put her nest at the bottom of this shrub. I’m guessing these eggs won’t last long.

But they sure were pretty.

We only saw one snake in the wild. It was a Northern Ribbon Snake.

It was  a bit cold for them to be out and about. They had several in the classroom that we could see though. The teaching assistant actually breeds Blue Racers to release back into the wild.

Everyone needs a hobby.

I just got home from my first Master Naturalist class. Five hours of learning and I am exhausted!

We had 3 different speakers and they were all really good. I was glad that it wasn’t too much of a hippy-dippy nature lover kind of thing. The speakers all focused on working with development instead of against it and fitting nature conservation in to a more urban landscape.

The first guy came from an architecture back ground and focused on rainwater run off and how to keep it out of the sewers (and eventually out of the river taking all kinds of pollution with it). He works in a commercial setting  so it is on a more grand scale, but things like rain gardens can be adapted to home use. Also I think it is important to realize that conservation doesn’t just take place in the woods. Efforts can be made everywhere.

The second guy was from a non-profit conservation group. Their philosophy really made a lot of sense to me. As he stated, they are not a tie yourself to a tree to stop a bulldozer kind of organization. Instead, they work WITH municipalities, developers, farmers, and the community. They look at specific geographic areas and focus on very specific issues for that area.  Instead of saving all the butterflies in the world, lets build up the population of them here (for example). I thought it was really good and kind of reminded you that you don’t have to save the world, just your little spot in it.

The last lady works with farmers who want to sell their farms to developers and with those developers and the townships where the farms are located. Her goal is, again, not to impede development, but to make it as ecologically friendly as possible. Their group works within the laws of the township to develop the land and keep as much green space as possible, get the farmer as much money as possible for his land, and help the developers see the financial benefit of conservation efforts. A big task to be sure!

The general theme I took away from today was that development is going to happen, but it doesn’t have to be at the cost of  native plants and animals.

I’ve had the crud for about a week now so I’ve not been doing much. Unless you count sleeping. That I’ve doing plenty of. Things got so bad I stayed home for work yesterday.

And yep, you guessed it-Slept some more. Pretty much all day. I woke up for lunch and then a little while before Hubs got home from work. We had dinner, watched a little TV, and then went to be early.

For more sleeping.

I felt better today until about 3:30. Then not so much. Hubs was sweet enough to make dinner (aka go get pizza).

I’m internetting for a few and then I am afraid it is off to bed. I’m not even having interesting dreams to blog about.

So there’s only this riveting discussion of my sleep habits.

We can however look forward to my big adventure on Saturday. I am hoping I feel better and am not coughing all over the nature people.

I got my packet for my first Master Naturalist class! My first class is next week. It’s an intro class, so I’m not sure how much outside stuff we will be doing. I think it is mostly explaining.

And shopping.

They give you a notebook, but apparently they have supplemental items for you to purchase (aka bring your wallet!)

There are also varies apparel items for sale (aka bring a full wallet!) including the new “10 Most UnWanted Invasive Plants” t-shirt.

I find that a little silly. But I might want a hat or something to wear while we are out and about.

There will be a snack provided (good to know) but no coffee (especially good to know).

As far as gene pools go, I’m pretty good. Good teeth (only one cavity, ever) and good vision. But old father time, he is a bugger.

So this morning I went to the eye doctor for the first time ever. The thing was, I noticed that it was getting difficult to see things, like street signs for example. Not a big deal when I know where I am going, but kind of annoying when you have to be practically on the sign to see what it says when you don’t know where you are going. It’s nice to get a little heads up.

So I got hooked up with some glasses. I don’t have to wear them all the time, just when driving and at work or any time I want to see far away.

So most of the time. I guess I can take breaks for sleeping and standing around.

Let’s see, what did we do today…

I worked out. Boring.

I listened to a pod cast about a guy trying to reunite the Kinks. It was not as interesting as one would have thought.

I guess the highlight was going to Target to get a few things. I managed to get everything without High Fructose Corn Syrup in it. I’ve been trying to cut down on the HFCS for a while, but it isn’t easy! It’s everywhere-don’t even bother trying to get Ketchup without it. Thankfully, I don’t eat much Ketchup.

Bread even has it. Bread.

So anyway, after I read that article about the mice who ate the HFCS got fat, while the mice who ate the sugar didn’t, even though they consumed the same amount of calories, it freaked me out. I tried to find the link (for like 3 seconds) but couldn’t. Anyway, I was freaked out before and that just made me step up my label reading game.

Did you know Capt Crunch does not have HFCS? Guess my guilty pleasure isn’t AS guilty as I thought;)

As I read more labels, I also find myself putting things back for shear ingredient content. There is no reason applesauce should be more than apples, sugar, and maybe cinnamon. But you can’t get the cinnamon kind without HFCS. So we got plain. I’ll add my own cinnamon thankyouverymuch.

And granola bars! Oh my word! It was like a chemistry experiment! I didn’t recognize most of the words. I did find a few options though that had oats, nuts and little else. I’m not sure if I could give up my granola bar addiction, so that was good.

So after I got home from my big score at Target, I made dinner, did laundry and tormented the cats.

I guess it was a pretty full day after all.

I’ve had a bit of bloggy writers block lately so I went back to re-read some old posts. I stumbled across a post about shopping for a black skirt in January 2008.

I’ll have you know, I still have not found that perfect black skirt. Every time I go school shopping I look and try on skirts, but  no luck.

I’ve come close a couple of times and almost bought a skirt or two. But since they weren’t “the one”, I always end up putting them back.

I am now on the hunt for a khaki skirt. I had one that I actually wore out and finally put it to rest in the garage. It was a staple for summer (and fall with tights), so it is sorely missed!

I’ve never had the allusive black skirt, so my life is not different without having it. Being without this khaki skirt is going to be a problem.

I had the good sense to throw it out this winter, knowing I would be too tempted to wear it once the weather warmed (even though it looked terrible).

It was so much more comfortable than shorts, and I could wear for work or for casual. It worked with flats and heels, even Keds if you are going to be walking a while.

So the search is on (again).