A Second Look--March 6, 2013

Yesterday there was nothing. Today it appeared, in the middle of the yard in a patch of grass--my first crocus. (A squirrel must have planted it there.) I'm glad that I found it before it gets covered with the foot of snow that is predicted for tomorrow.

Also, I found four more bones this week, and I'm not sure what to think about that except there must be a lot of critter activity carrying these bones from place to place. Actually, I need to not think about these bones so much. Tonight at dinner, my half-eaten grill chesse sandwich looked like a squirrel jaw bone to me. But you know, I find it all so darn interesting.

Here's what I saw this week during my Second Look.

Lone crocus in the middle of the grass.

Downy Woodpeckers--female (l), male (r)

Bunny fur

This sky does not look like snow is coming soon.

Female cardinal

White-breasted nuthatch

The skeletal parts I found this week.

A Visit with the Naturalist--Part One

or What's this bone?

This winter while doing Second Looks, I found several bones in the lower part of my yard. They held a great fascination for me as I tried to guess what animal they came from. Recently I visited with Lynn, a naturalist at a local park, to see if she could give me any clues about what I was finding. While much of what she told me may be old hat to the biologists and naturalists out there, I found it all very interesting.

Since I've been finding mostly jaw bones (mandibles), she focused on teeth. Apparently herbivores have a space between their front incisors and their back grinding teeth, and omnivores and carnivores have a continuous set of teeth from front to back. There are variatons on this theme, but it holds true in most all cases. Next, she looked at size and shape, and then considered where the bone was found. With all of these considerations, Lynn then gave me her best guess as to what I had.

Below I've tried to represent what I learned about my collection. The information is not absolute, so kids, don't use this a reference for your school report. :)

 

We were all sure that this belonged to a deer.

The striations on this bone probably came from mice chewing on it to get calcium.

Notice the eye sockets are large and to the side. This is typical of a prey animal that must always be on the lookout.

This is the same skull as above turned over.

The large front gnawing teeth are missing.

Note the relative sizes of the deer, raccoon, young groundhog, and squirrel bones.

There, wasn't that interesting? (if you're into this kind of thing.)

Thankful Sunday--March 3, 2013

I am thankful for taxes.

Actually, I am thankful that Ward and I are both employed so that we need to pay taxes. 

(Ward may have a few more words to add about how complicated the tax system is and maybe a flat tax is the way to go, but we'll save that for another day.)

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Mar. 1, 2013

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions.

This Week's Food Waste

I had lettuce that got limp and slimy before I got to it this week. I looked at it for a couple of days and thought that I should make a salad because the lettuce might be getting old. And guess what? While I was watching it, some of it did get old. So out it went. 

 

This Week's True Food Confessions

We had take out pizza again this week and thoroughly enjoyed it. Otherwise, we cooked at home as I tried to use up ingredients we had on hand. We had soups, casseroles, and some baked chicken and sweet potatoes. Even though we've been doing this for a while, Ward continues to be amazed when we don't ask him to pick up something on his way home from work. Mostly, everyone is happy with the new way of doing things, but they do wish that we ate out more often.

The new recipe this week was inspired by Lili at Creative Savv. She posted a recipe for "meat" balls made from beans. She then used her "meat" balls in a meat ball sandwich. That seemed like a good idea to me. However, when I say a new recipe this week, what I really mean is a new inspiration because I didn't follow her recipe at all. I decided that we weren't ready to have no meat in our meat balls, so I mixed a can of mashed black beans with a pound of extra lean ground beef. I also added some spinach to sneak in a vegetable along with the standards of bread crumbs and eggs. I seasoned with a little of this and that that needed to be used up from the fridge. We then made meatball subs from them with pasta sauce and cheese. 

The results? Everyone definitely enjoyed their meatball sub. However, the meatballs by themselves took a little getting used to. Even though there was an equal amount of meat to the beans, the texture caused problems for a couple of us. I think it may take a couple of more times making them for us to get used to the beany meatballs. 


What's in store for next week? I have no idea, but it's time to start thinking about it.
 
Until next time...


 

A Second Look--February 27, 2013

Right now it's 36° F, with a strong wind driving rain into the windows. I'm glad that I did my exploring earlier in the week because I really don't want to go outside right now. As I did my Second Look, I found that I am focusing more on animals than plants, which I guess is no surprise since most of the plants are still dormant. However, I did find another clump of snowdrops I didn't know about. A pleasant surprise. 

Also, I found more bones this week. Ward and I visited a local park last weekend and talked to the naturalist about some of the bones we've been finding. She gave us some good information to help narrow down what animals we may be dealing with. I found it all very interesting and will share some of her wisdom with you in another post. 


Here's What I Found This Week During a Second Look.

Carolina wren

Acorn caps

Deer hoof prints

Snowdrops

Leaves we didn't get raked last fall.

Red-bellied woodpecker

Mammal jaw bone

Crow vertebrae

Park where Ward and I met with the naturalist.