It has been cold and rainy here for a few days. I’ve stayed inside the whole time. As it starts to clear and warm, we decided to not only get out of the house, but to really get out of the house. We’re going to fire up the bus and drive to Laredo. It’s supposed to be 80 degrees and sunny there tomorrow.
Watching our ebird national ranking
….slide. A few new birds here and there has held it in the top 200 though; it’s currently at #172. Any serious effort to improve that would involve some traveling. But, I discover, there is more! One more button to select on eBird; one more sort. We now have a World Ranking! It’s not high, but it’s something. You must surely be impressed to learn you are corresponding with the number 405th eBirders on the Planet!
A charming trinket
..from the Pacific Northwest.
A rain globe for Seattle. That’s right; hold it upside-down for a while, turn it right-side-up …..and it drizzles.
A rain globe for Seattle. That’s right; hold it upside-down for a while, turn it right-side-up …..and it drizzles. Sabal Palm Sanctuary
It’s still in the U.S. It’s on this side of the Rio Grande, but it’s on the other side of the border fence.
The border fence doesn’t always follow the border. It’s always on this side of the Rio Grande, but as the river winds, sometimes the fence just goes straight across, cutting off large segments of land. Gaps are left in the fence (and monitored by the border patrol) so people that need to get through, can.
Sometimes farmers and ranchers have to get to their land. In this case, a whole wildlife sanctuary was left on the other side of the fence.
Sabal Palm Grove Sanctuary has the most tropical feel of all the places we go.
Coincidentally, it’s the farthest south as well. It’s got birds, of course, like Gray Catbird, Northern Cardinal, White-tipped Dove, and Olive Sparrow.
Remember the old abandoned mansion pictures I sent out a few years ago?
Well, the refuge has taken possession of it and refurbished it as their new visitor’s center now.
Nicely done. In the freezer
Becky is homeschooling Teigan and Conner. Sometimes homeschooling is about religion, or curriculum disagreements, but that’s not the reason for this homeschooling. There isn’t any disagreement and the school is supportive. In fact, the school is so supportive that they asked Conner to come back and participate in their spelling bee. He placed first in the 4th grade. There was a rules problem for Conner, moving from the class level to the school level, because he’s homeschooled. The school took it upon themselves to find a different sponsorship which would allow Conner to compete at that level. Now, if he does well at school level, he can go on to District. It’s just that these two kids didn’t seem to be thriving in public school. Teigan is in 7th grade, Conner in 4th. The three of them (Teigan, Conner, and Becky) agreed to give public school a break and homeschool for a while. Becky has found an active on-line parent support group with lots of good ideas to share. She has the lesson plans all worked out. She was able to answer my burning question as well: “When you homeschool, is there homework?” Turns out the answer is no. With this much direct attention, you get everything you need to cover taken care of in class. So Teigan finished an assignment. Of Mice and Men. She read the book, marched over to the refrigerator, and put it in the freezer. That sounded a little odd to us; putting a book in the freezer. Turns out, that’s a family tradition at their house. When the kids finish a sad or scary book, they pop it in the freezer so it can’t get them. It stays there until they have a chance to get over it. I don’t know how long Mice and Men will have to stay in the freezer. I didn’t read it until I was an adult, but I would certainly have popped it in the freezer if I’d know that trick then.