Chapter 5 - A New Friend

Check out links at end of each chapter...
Chapter 1 - May 14, 2009 - Tutu Troubles

Chapter 2 – Oct. 07, 2009 – About My Friends

Chapter 3 – Oct. 15, 2009 – The Inheritance

Chapter 4 – Oct. 22, 2009 – Finding Answers

Chapter 5 – Oct. 29, 2009 – A New Friend

Chapter 6 – Nov. 05, 2009 – A Treasure Map

Chapter 7 – Nov. 12, 2009 – A Treasure Hunt

Chapter 8 – Nov. 19, 2009 – And Beyond

Chapter 9 – Nov. 26, 2009 – Lost Data

Chapter 10 – Dec. 3, 2009 – Found Data

Chapter 11 – Dec. 10, 2009 – The Castle Cellar

Chapter 12 – Dec. 17, 2009 – Forever Never Ending

RosFrankie and Beyond

Chapter 5

A New Friend

Today as I am relaxing in the mud bog, I’m feeling a little sad. Sunbeam has melted and gone away for the season and I miss him. I asked Méabh once where he went when he melted, and Méabh said he went everywhere and to work. I don’t quite understand this. Méabh explained that Sunbeam is a world explorer. And because he is made of water, he has the ability to be either liquid, solid or gas, such as water or ice and snow or even steam. Even ice cream or bubble gum! Méabh said that he is very unique this way, and this ability is what enables him to be such a great explorer.

She says that not only can he go anywhere in the world he wants to go, but he can also be in many different places at the same time because he is made up of so many different water molecules. In fact, when he is in snowman-mode, he is on vacation from work, which is why he doesn’t say much but usually only grunts a lot.

Méabh seems to be the only one who understands his grunts and she says that he is always telling her what he had learned when he was out exploring. It is most interesting to Méabh, but I don’t understand too much of it. Grunts can be tricky to translate.

‘Not to worry,’ Méabh says, ‘you’ll understand most of it someday when you are older.’

Which kind of makes me feel better, but I still miss Sunbeam. Fortunately, friends come in many different sizes and shapes and forms and at many different times. Just at this point, as I am relaxing in my mud bog and thinking things, I hear the call of wild geese over head.

‘Oh,’ I think, ‘Brant and Cana must be coming back.’ I get up from the mud bog and run down to the beaver dam to meet them. ‘I wonder how many goslings they will have this year?’ I say to myself.

I watch them fly in and gracefully land on the pond. Canadian geese, Branta Canadensis, are most fascinating creatures. Their migration routes are taught to the young by the parents from generation to generation. As navigation aids, they use the sun, stars, landscape features, magnetic pulls, and wind flows, among other resources, some of which are known and understood, and some are not known or understood. They fly at speeds averaging 30 miles per hour and have been clocked at 78 MPH. They have been noted by pilots at heights of 9,000 feet and flights of 16 hours in duration have been recorded. Needless to say, they have strong wings and these wings are their best defense when they are attacked. Yet they are very gentle beings, attacking only when threatened. They are extremely social and the goslings are very cuddly. As young goslings, even before they can fly, they can swim under water for 40 feet. Going under water is an important means of protection from predators. Geese can live for more than 20 years. They are very emotional creatures and they mate for life. Of the various sounds which they use to communicate with each other, the loud, short mournful honk of despair will be heard when a goose has lost its mate. In spite of the fact that they are extremely social creatures, a mourning goose will choose to spend much time alone. Sometimes for life.

But as I watch Brant and Cana flying in and landing, I notice something very strange on Cana’s back. It looks like a big bump. A very red and yellow triangular bump.

‘Oh my goodness,’ I worry, ‘I hope some hunter hasn’t shot her and injured her.’ I am suddenly very worried, even though Cana doesn’t fly like she is injured.

Once they land safely, they rush over to greet me. It is at this point that I notice that the very red and yellow triangular bump on Cana’s back has yellow eyes with red circles around them. And red feet!

‘RosFrankie,’ Cana says excitedly,’ Look what we found.’

What they found jumps off of Cana’s back and waddles over to me and starts rubbing against my leg.

A purring, peepy type of noise comes from the very red and yellow triangular beak. I think it is just too cute for words and I pick it up and pet it.

‘Where did you find it?’ I ask.

‘We don’t know.’ Brant answers.

I look at him inquisitively. Cana explains further. ‘We were flying up off of Iceland and realized that there was an island where there never was an island before. We were very curious because we didn’t know that islands grew. Do you know if there is such a thing as island seeds?’

‘I don’t think so,’ I answer, ‘but there is much I don’t know. We should ask Méabh.’

‘Well,’ continues Cana, ‘when we landed on the rocky island we found this little bird all alone all by itself just breaking out of a white egg on a rocky crevice. Well, we think it’s a bird, but we are not sure because it doesn’t seem to know how to fly. And all it ever says are those purring peeping sounds. But we couldn’t leave it alone and it seemed to want to come with us. Do you think we did the right thing?’

‘Oh, I don’t really know,’ I answer, ‘but it feels like the right thing to do. Maybe we should look in ‘THE’ books.’

‘We think it might be a special-needs bird,’ says Brant, ‘because it can’t fly or sing. But it does has a very special talent.’

‘Oh. What talent?’

‘Whenever danger is approaching, whether it be a hunter or a bad storm, it starts peeping loudly and running around in circles. At first we thought it was acting like a silly clown, but then eventually we realized that it was actually a very special self-defense warning-system talent to indicate an approaching danger.’

‘How very interesting! ‘ I reply, and then I notice Cana looking tired and starting to close her eyes, ‘But right now I think you should all rest for a few days after your long trip, and then we can go find Méabh.’

‘Good idea. We think also we should spend some time thinking up a name for it. “It” just doesn’t sound like a proper name to us.’

Well, a few days past, and ‘it’ becomes known as ‘Puff.’ And although Puff is not a magic dragon, he is definitely a magic bird. Everyone is charmed by him and wants to be his friend. He is a lucky and happy bird. Because of his special danger-sensing ability, we all decide that he must be like a watch dog. He is a watch puffin. But we are a little worried that Puff can’t fly. We think that Puff should be able to fly. ‘Not to worry,’ says Cana, ‘Puff can just ride on my back as we fly. No problem.’ Friends and family are like that.

We all know that Méabh is the person to ask about Puff. However, we are all a little hesitant to ask for Méabh at her castle. Mostly she is never there anyway, but she is usually out somewhere with her tent. We are all a little intimidated by her butler whose name is But. He is what is known as a proper English butler, but, in truth, he reminds us all of a vampire. He is very pale and thin and serious. His eyes have big black shadows and no one ever sees him smile. Méabh says he looks that way because he spends all of his time inside in the cold, stale and dark castle. She says it simply is not a good place for living beings to spend a lot of time. Beings need sunlight and fresh air. But But seems to like it.

Méabh calls him ‘But’ not because it is short for ‘butler’ but because every time she suggests something he says, ‘That’s a good idea BUT I have a better one.’ He is always ‘but,’ ‘but,’ and ‘butting.’ Which is also alright with Méabh because she says he comes up with some really good ideas. Only some of the ideas are like Rube Goldberg ideas, which are very very un-necessarily complicated. Méabh will often have to take his complicated solutions and ideas and simplify them greatly in order to make them into workable ideas. And then they really are great ideas. So Méabh really likes working with But even though we all are a little nervous around him. However, this time we don’t have to go to the castle because Méabh comes to us.

‘A little bird told me you had a unique new friend,’ she says.

So we tell her all about Puff. As usual, we all try to talk at once, but eventually she sorts out everything we are saying. Méabh is like that.

‘Mmm…’ she says, ‘let me investigate and ponder on this a while and we’ll see what comes up.’ She scratches Puff under his beak and she almost smiles. She would smile but she knows she has a reputation which she has to keep.

A few days later Méabh comes back and says some interesting things. Brant and Cana are right about the island just growing. Iceland is right on the Mid-Atlantic Rift.

‘What’s the Mid-Atlantic Rift?’ I ask.

It’s a mountain range of volcanoes which runs north to south right down the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Right under all the water. And sometimes the volcanic activity will result in a new island being made. Which means we maybe sometimes should be a little worried about tsunamis.’

chart Woods Hole: www.whoi.edu/oceanus/viewArticle.do?id=2492                                                                                    


‘What’s are tsunamis?’ Cana wants to know.                                                                                               

‘They are huge waves caused by an underwater earthquake often associated with volcanic activity. Sometimes they are over 100 feet high! They can wipe out whole beaches and beach towns.’

‘Oh.’ we all say rather quietly, thinking maybe we will go to the mountains this summer rather than the beach.

‘And But is off on a new mission!’ Méabh continues, ‘We discovered that because of all this hot lava activity underneath Iceland, many of the homes in Iceland are heated with geothermal heat. They run water pipes deep into the ground and this water heats up and comes back up to heat the houses. But thinks that he can devise a geothermal heat pipe to heat the castle. But, of course, I think he is not quite right. I think it will be too difficult to run the pipe all the way down through the cliffs. Maybe it will even cause some of the cliff to break away. Maybe we will lose some of the castle if he tries to drill pipe. I don’t know. We have to study more. But I must make sure that But doesn’t run off cock-sure and do anything before we have studied all the options yet. He sometimes just gets too focused on one part of the problem. Although he does have a history of coming up with some great ideas. I just hope I can survive them all!’

And off she goes, muttering to herself, which is a thing she tends to do a lot, especially when she is talking about But.

‘Well,’ says Brant, ‘that is most interesting. I think.’

‘I wonder if we should ask the computer bug about Iceland before we go back there?’ says Cana.

‘Computer bug? You mean Lordy?’ I ask.

‘Yes, that’s the one. He’s ever so clever finding out things. I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt us to know as much as we can about a place if we regularly visit it.’

‘Maybe he can also tell us,’ I say, ‘what geothermal actually means!’

‘I think there is a car called a ‘geo,’’ says Brant.

‘And I know,’ I say, ‘that ‘thermal’ has something to do with long underwear.’

‘Well, there you have it,’ says Cana, ‘it must be long underwear for cars. That would certainly be useful in Iceland.’

Then we all laugh as we watch Puff doing his new favorite thing to do. Play in the mud bog. It’s good to have a mud bog and even better to have friends to share it with.

Words:
Unique
Gosling
Vampire
Volcanic
geothermal

Questions:
How far is Iceland from where you live?
Is Iceland made only of ice?
Where and when do geese fly when they migrate?
Would you like to fly with the geese every season?
Did you ever plant Island seeds?
What other questions should be asked?

BTW:
Liquid, solid, gas: Everything on Earth can be explained in terms of 4 states of matter-- solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. A substance in a solid state is relatively rigid, has a definite volume and shape. Liquids have a definite volume, but are able to change their shape by flowing. Gases have no definite volume or shape. If unconstrained gases will spread out indefinitely. If confined they will take the shape of their container. The fourth state of matter is plasma. Plasma is an ionized gas, a gas into which sufficient energy is provided to free electrons from atoms or molecules and to allow both ions and electrons to coexist. In effect a plasma is a cloud of protons, neutrons and electrons where all the electrons have come loose from their respective molecules and atoms, giving the plasma the ability to act as a whole rather than as a bunch of atoms. Plasmas are the most common state of matter in the universe comprising more than 99% of our visible universe and most of that not visible.

Puff Magic Dragon song and history: "Puff, the Magic Dragon" is a song written by Leonard Lipton and Peter Yarrow and made popular by the group Peter, Paul and Mary in a 1963 recording. The song is so well-known that it has entered American and British pop culture. The lyrics for "Puff, the Magic Dragon" were based on a 1959 poem by Leonard Lipton, a nineteen-year-old Cornell student. Lipton was inspired by an Ogden Nash poem titled "Custard the Dragon," about a "Really-O, Truly-O, little pet dragon." Lipton passed his poem on to friend and fellow Cornell student Peter Yarrow, who created music and more lyrics to make the poem into the song. In 1961, Yarrow joined Paul Stookey and Mary Travers to form Peter, Paul and Mary. The group incorporated the song into their live performances before recording it in 1962; their 1962 recording of "Puff" reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1963. The authors of the song have repeatedly refuted the urban legend that the song refers to drug use and have strongly and consistently denied that they intended any references to drug use. Peter Yarrow has frequently explained that "Puff" is about the hardships of growing older and has no relationship to drug-taking. He has also said of the song that it "never had any meaning other than the obvious one".

Rube Goldberg: Reuben Goldberg (4 July 1883 – 7 December 1970) was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor who received a 1948 Pulitzer Prize for his political cartooning. He is best known for his series of popular cartoons depicting Rube Goldberg machines, complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. The Reuben Award of the National Cartoonists Society is named in his honor. In addition, there are several contests around the world known as Rube Goldberg contests which challenge high school students to make a complex machine to perform a simple task.

Computer bugs: The first bug was official named as such in 1945 when engineers found a moth in Panel F, Relay #70 of the Harvard Mark II system. The computer was running a test of its multiplier and adder when the engineers noticed something was wrong. The moth was trapped, removed and taped into the computer's logbook with the words: "first actual case of a bug being found." Sixty years later, computer bugs are still with us, and show no sign of going extinct. I would seriously suggest that you check this reference for confirmation before you repeat it. It doesn’t matter at my age if I say something strange because people just assume I’m getting ‘too old,’ but you’re too young to be ‘too old.’


Check out:
Chemistry, periodic table
http://www.dayah.com/periodic/
http://chemistry.about.com/
Geothermal
http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/renewable/geothermal.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRAQrDduaU0
Iceland
http://www.visiticeland.com/
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ic.html
http://www.iceland.org/us
Puffins
http://www.projectpuffin.org/
http://www.mainebirding.net/puffin/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoHD2GxcBMw
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Animals/CreatureFeature/Atlanticpuffin
Snowflakes
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/
http://snowflakebentley.com/
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-3D-Paper-Snowflake
http://chemistry.about.com/od/moleculescompounds/a/snowflake.htm
Vampires
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Animals/CreatureFeature/Vampire-bat
Volcanoes, mid-Atlantic ridge
http://staff.imsa.edu/science/si/horrell/materials/Earthquakes/quakes5.html
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/understanding.html
http://www.gly.bris.ac.uk/www/teach/virtrips/MAR/mar.html
http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/viewArticle.do?id=2394
http://www.exploratorium.edu/theworld/iceland/volcanoes.html
http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/Thumblinks/mar_page.html
http://revver.com/video/684735/bus-ride-to-mid-atlantic-ridge-iceland/
http://www.mnh.si.edu/earth/text/4_3_1_0.html
http://www.divephotoguide.com/news/scientists_aim_to_unlock_deep_sea___secrets___of_earth__s_crust
www.whoi.edu/oceanus/viewArticle.do?id=2492

Water properties
http://www.uni.edu/~iowawet/H2OProperties.html
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/state.html
http://core.ecu.edu/geology/woods/H2OUNEEK.htm
http://www.chemistry.nmsu.edu/studntres/chem115/notes/ch11.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_(molecule)
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Physical_properties_of_water


Next chapter: A Treasure Map due to be posted on November 5, 2009


All text and images copyright 2009 Jule Dupre
unless otherwise noted.
Observe much - Think long - Say little...
[Credited to Oxford professor of C. Darwin]
Except, of course, in an emergency. Then you should
Look quick - Think fast - Yell loud!
[Credited to The Evil Grandmother]
Remember to always check your references!
Always question, but question with due respect.

Chapter 4 - Finding Answers

Check out links at end of each chapter...



Chapter 1 - May 14, 2009 - Tutu Troubles

Chapter 2 – Oct. 07, 2009 – About My Friends

Chapter 3 – Oct. 15, 2009 – The Inheritance

Chapter 4 – Oct. 22, 2009 – Finding Answers

Chapter 5 – Oct. 29, 2009 – A New Friend

Chapter 6 – Nov. 05, 2009 – A Treasure Map

Chapter 7 – Nov. 12, 2009 – A Treasure Hunt

Chapter 8 – Nov. 19, 2009 – And Beyond

Chapter 9 – Nov. 26, 2009 – Lost Data

Chapter 10 – Dec. 3, 2009 – Found Data

Chapter 11 – Dec. 10, 2009 – The Castle Cellar

Chapter 12 – Dec. 17, 2009 – Forever Never Ending

RosFrankie and Beyond

Chapter 4

Finding Answers

Everything goes on as normal for a few weeks. Except that it rains and it rains and it rains and then it rains some more. Everything everywhere gets wet and wetter and wettest. HOG and Mary-Ann-Drusillda are running out of hay to keep putting on their wet ground floor. Lordy’s computers keep making strange hissing noises. And if dilution is the solution to polution, then my mud bog is pure water. It seems more like a clear fresh water lake rather than a nice, thick, gooey, lovely, dark brown, creamy mud. Right now, the mud is so diluted that it can not even stick to anything. I miss my mud.

One rainy day, as I am standing on my porch looking sadly at my mud bog, Mary-Ann-Drusillda comes running over in a panic. ‘RosFrankie, please help! HOG has rolled herself into a tight ball and I can’t get her to unroll. I don’t know what’s wrong with her.’

Mary-Ann-Drusillda and I go running to the haystack where HOG is balled up. Since HOG is so uptight, I decide that it might be better to pet her gently rather than to yell at her, which never works with HOG anyway. After what seems like a long time and much petting, HOG unrolls a bit and tries to get her emotions under control.

‘What are you feeling?’ I ask her.

‘Everything!’ HOG replies. ‘I don’t know if you are my friends or if you are thieves! I don’t know if I remember right or remember wrong! I don’t know if Méabh will kill me! I don’t think my eyes are working right!’

Finally, after many more patient questions and assurances of friendship, which HOG never really did doubt, the full story is revealed. When HOG went looking for a safe and secret place to put the ‘thing’ she had inherited, she thought the best place would be inside the big salt jar, especially since she is the only one who ever cooks or uses the salt jar. She buried it deep in the salt and never worried about it again. That was quite a while ago. Today she decided to check on the ‘thing’ and when she looked into the salt jar, she got a very big shock. Not only was the ‘thing’ gone but all the salt is a reddish pink color instead of white.

'Oh my goodness,’ I say, ‘I just don’t understand this situation at all. Are you sure you put the ‘thing’ into the salt jar?’

‘I’m not sure of anything right now,’ answers HOG as she starts to roll up again.

‘Méabh, I think, will be angry,’ I say, ‘maybe we better figure this all out before we see her again. We can talk to Lordy and see if he can help us find any answers on his computers. We’ll do that first, and then we’ll see where to go from there.’

HOG unrolls. Whatever surprises life brings, there is nothing like love and friendship to keep one unrolled.

It always surprises me that Lordy, whose antennae are always so bent from flying into tree trunks, is so good at navigating the internet. My mother says it has something to do with the balance of nature, which, of course, is just something else I do not understand and will not understand until I am older. But I don’t really worry about it either.

After we have explained the strange events to Lordy, he leans back on his rear legs and just thinks for awhile. Lordy will go into these deep thought modes rather often, and I suspect that the deep thought modes are why he keeps flying into trees, irregardless of what my mother says about the balance of nature. I am beginning to understand that people who are mostly always right, are not always right. ‘Mostly’ is a very tricky word.

‘Well,’ Lordy finally says, ‘we don’t really have many actual facts to study here. We can’t google ‘thing’ because then everything would come up on the screen, and we would probably spend years getting nowhere. We could google the country far away where your Great Aunt to the 10th lived, but that would also pull up lots of information which would not be relevant, I think.’

‘Think’ is another very tricky word.

He clicks his tongue a bit and then says, ‘Let’s put in the words red salt. The red salt is really the only tangible stuff we have. I can’t think of anything else, so it’s worth a try because it might lead us to other ideas.’

I think that the words red salt will probably pull up many art supply companies because of the color red, and HOG thinks that the words red salt will probably pull up cooking companies because of the word salt, and Mary-Ann-Drusillda doesn’t want to think about what the words red salt will pull up, so she doesn’t.

To everyone’s surprise, google comes up with ‘Kanawha Red Salt.’ Apparently, many years ago, there was a famous salt company in Kanawha, West Virginia, whose salt was colored red as a result of the iron impurities in the soil.

‘Why,’ asks HOG, ‘would someone replace my white salt with Kanawha Red Salt?’

‘I don’t think they did,’ says Lordy, ‘I think what happen is that, with all the rain which has been falling, your white salt got wet. And wet salt will quickly corrode iron. Since the thing which you hid in the salt was iron, it rusted and dissolved and turned your white salt into red salt.’

'Oh,’ says HOG.

‘Oh,’ says Mary-Ann-Drusillda.

‘Oh, oh!’ I say, ‘What will we tell Méabh?’

Well, of course, we will tell Méabh the same thing we always tell her. The truth. But we are very nervous about telling her what we think happened to the ‘thing’ because she seems to think it is very precious.

Finally the sun comes out one day and everything returns to normal. We are all sitting in Daisy’s Field when Méabh comes back. She is quite pleased with herself and doesn’t even say ‘Hello. How are you?’ which isn’t unusual because she never says that anyway. She just starts out talking as if nothing else matters except what she has to say. She’s like that. It’s okay with us because we all know her and we understand what she’s like. ‘A Celtic coin die. Very VERY old. Iron dies were used to mold and shape the coins which were made from various melted metals. Mostly the dies didn’t survive this long because the metal from which they were made isn’t as stable as gold. It’s quite a valuable and interesting piece. But HOG, I really don’t think you should sell it. I think you should give it to a museum. Then everyone can enjoy it.’

We all stare at her and don’t say anything

She looks at us, looks from one face to another, and then she squints her eyes a bit and says, ‘What’s up?’ It’s hard to fool Méabh.

Then we all start talking at once, each giving a slightly different version, but somehow, the information and the events all get explained to Méabh.

Much to everyone’s surprise, she doesn’t blow up or yell at us or run around stomping her feet and punching things. She just says, ‘That’s really too bad. It’s a shame when things get ruined like that, especially if they can’t be replaced. But they are only things, and they are not as valuable as people and friends who love each other. And, quite frankly, I’m very proud of you all. You had questions which needed answering and you figured out how to find the answers by yourselves. I’m really quite proud and pleased. People who are not afraid of finding answers are not afraid of asking questions. And if we don’t ask questions, then we will never find answers. I’d like to say that you all deserve a reward, but you already got it, because knowledge is it’s own reward.’

Then Méabh goes off to do the things which Méabh does, whatever they are.

We all go home, thinking about things. And, me, well, of course, I go for a nice sit in my muddy mud bog. Where I think about things.

Words to look up:
Salt jar
Tangible
Google
Celtic
Coin die
Oblong

Questions:
Why does rain make iron rust?
Why is rust the color red?
What are the tricks to a successful google?
What is the history of the word ‘google?’
Would you like to visit Kanawha, West Virginia?
Do you have a scary friend like Méabh?
What other questions should be asked?

BTW:
Kanawha Red Salt history: Salt, a highly valued commodity in ancient and historic times, is an abundant resource in the Kanawha Valley of West Virginia. Salt production along the Kanawha River grew from a small cottage industry to a huge commercial enterprise, exemplifying the Industrial Revolution as it took place in the United States. Called the Red Salt from Kanawha because of its color which was caused by its iron impurities, it was one of the first major industries in Kanawha County. Red Salt was collected by early settlers from surface pools in the area. The brine collected from the surface pools was distilled (liquid evaporated) in kettles and used by the early settlers to preserve their meat. It wasn’t long before commercial manufacture of salt began. In 1797 Elisha Brooks devised a method of dipping into the pools and collecting brine. He used hollowed-out logs with a long pole attached on a pivot. This enabled him to produce salt in larger quantities. Joseph Ruffner took notice of this and joined Elisha Brooks in his salt production. Elisha Brooks leased land from Joseph Ruffner that was adjoining the salt spring. This enabled Elisha to produce up to 150 pounds a day. Elisha’s salt had a pungent taste but was demanded for its use in butter and meat curing, for which it was unique. By 1807 Joseph Ruffner, Jr. And David Ruffner had began a large scale salt industry. They had the capacity to use drills to drill through bedrock which allowed them to collected brine that was 2 1/2 times as strong as the brine that Elisha Brooks had collected. At its hay day the salt industry had 52 furnaces for producing salt. The 15 to 20 wells operating on both sides of the Kanawha produced some 200 gallons of brine. The brine was cooked in huge iron kettles and shipped down stream via the Kanawha River on large flatboats. After improvements were made to the James River and Kanawha Turnpike wagon trail shipments were sent by wagon. The Salt industry boomed until the Civil War. In 1862, during the war several furnaces were destroyed by the Union Army to keep the salt facilities from being used by the Confederates. After the war salt production all but stopped. Only one company remained open but with little impact. With the closing of this company in 1945 the great salt production age in Kanawha County was over.

Check out:
Celtic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celts

Mathematics
Seife, Charles – Zero, Penguin Books, 2000.
http://www-math.mit.edu/
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/
http://www.teachrkids.com/

Salt
Kurlansky, Mark – Salt, Penguin Books, 2002.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt
http://www.saltinstitute.org/
http://www.detroitsalt.com/salt-history.htm


Next chapter: A New Friend due to be posted on Thursday October 29, 2009



All text and images copyright 2009 Jule Dupre
unless otherwise noted.
Observe much - Think long - Say little...
[Credited to Oxford professor of C. Darwin]
Except, of course, in an emergency. Then you should
Look quick - Think fast - Yell loud!
[Credited to The Evil Grandmother]
Remember to always check your references!
Always question, but question with due respect.

Chapter 3 - The Inheritance

Check out links at end of each chapter...



Chapter 1 - May 14, 2009 - Tutu Troubles

Chapter 2 – Oct. 07, 2009 – About My Friends

Chapter 3 – Oct. 15, 2009 – The Inheritance

Chapter 4 – Oct. 22, 2009 – Finding Answers

Chapter 5 – Oct. 29, 2009 – A New Friend

Chapter 6 – Nov. 05, 2009 – A Treasure Map

Chapter 7 – Nov. 12, 2009 – A Treasure Hunt

Chapter 8 – Nov. 19, 2009 – And Beyond

Chapter 9 – Nov. 26, 2009 – Lost Data

Chapter 10 – Dec. 3, 2009 – Found Data

Chapter 11 – Dec. 10, 2009 – The Castle Cellar

Chapter 12 – Dec. 17, 2009 – Forever Never Ending

RosFrankie and Beyond

Chapter 3

The Inheritance

On a fine afternoon in early June, myself and Mary-Ann-Drusillda are having a relaxing mud bogging session after a fine ramble through the enchanted wood over by Beaver Creek. Both of us love to mud bog. Mary-Ann-Drusillda especially loves to sit in the mud and think about mathematical problems in her head. She is ever so good with numbers and can solve long complicated formulas so very easily. She knows how to work mathematical formulas which other people don’t even know exist. Sometimes, though, it is a little difficult to understand what she is talking about. HOG, however, absolutely hates the very thought of mud bogging for any reason and she never joins us in this most pleasurable of activities. We always feel sorry for HOG that she can not enjoy this wonderful pleasure. However she is always so adamant about not getting her feet mudded that we eventually stopped trying to convince her to join us.

Right now, as we are relaxing our cares away, HOG is rolling up hill. It’s not an easy thing to do, roll up hill, and it isn’t exactly what she wants to do, but HOG has no choice in the matter. Something called ‘genetic adaptation’ makes her do it. Méabh asked us once to look up ‘genetic adaptation’ in one of ‘THE’ books but we still don’t quite understand what it means. ‘Not to worry,’ my mother says, ‘Eventually you will grow and then you will understand it all.’

But we do understand the effect it has on HOG. It means that every time she gets excited or angry or ecstatic or afraid or extremely joyful, she will roll herself into a ball. She has absolutely no control over this happening. When she gets highly emotional for any reason, whether good or bad, she rolls. Eventually she will get her emotions under control and she will un-roll. But once she starts to lose emotional control again, she will roll up into a ball again.

Right now she has been to the post office and received [spelled ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’…] a most exciting letter. She is most eager to run home and tell everyone about this letter. So she scrambles just as fast as her little legs can carry her, and then she rolls and then she scrambles and then she rolls and then she scrambles and then she rolls. Actually, she goes faster when she rolls…except when she is going up hill. Rolling up hill is most difficult. She wants to ask Méabh why it is more difficult rolling up hill, but then Méabh would ask her to look words up in ‘THE’ books and that means getting ‘THE’ books from the red Jeep Méabh drives, which smells worse than Méabh’s toes, and, HOG feels that the red jeep is a place someone with such a sensitive nose as herself should not go. It could be dangerous for her! She could make herself sick! Sometimes the search for knowledge has that effect on certain people of a sensitive disposition. So HOG does not mud bog and she does not ‘do’ books, but she is still a fine friend to have nevertheless. And she makes the best cookies!

But she is so excited and so tired from rolling up hill that by the time she gets to the mud bog she almost rolls in. Fortunately, myself and Mary-Ann-Drusillda see her rolling towards us and we reach out to stop her before she rolls into the mud bog. Myself and Mary-Ann-Drusillda are also fine friends to have!

When HOG finally unrolls herself and gets her emotions under control, she tells us about the letter. It has come from a country far far away. A country so far away that HOG is sure that it isn’t even on any map, although she isn’t quite sure but she is sure she doesn’t want to ask Méabh where it is or isn’t. This letter is from a lawyer telling HOG that her Great-Great-Great-Aunt-HUGS-Five-Times-Removed-On-Her-Mother's-Side has died at a very old age which far exceeds the life expectancy of the average hedgehog by nine generations.

I want to ask HOG why this aunt was always being removed from her mother’s side. Like, did she really smell bad? Or snore loud? Or what? But, instead, I am polite to my friend and I just say, ‘I’m sorry.’

HOG looks at me and gets a little confused and starts to roll into a ball but catches her self real quick. ‘I didn’t even know that I had a Great-Great-Aunt-Anyone-Anywhere! So I can’t miss her, and she was exceedingly old. But this lawyer wrote to tell me that she left me her most valuable possession in her will. It is very valuable. I am to inherit a fortune! I’m so excited!’

Mary-Ann-Drusillda and I wait for HOG to unroll herself, which she always does eventually. ‘But what shall I do with all that money? I love our little haystack in Daisy’s Field and our comfortable life style. Do you think I should buy us a bigger haystack?’

‘Bigger generally means we spend more time cleaning!’ answers Mary-Ann-Drusillda, who doesn’t like house cleaning her half of their haystack half as much as HOG seems to like cleaning the other half. ‘Maybe we can give it to charity?’

‘Yes, or build a bigger kitchen off of the back straw bale,’ answers HOG.

Mary-Ann-Drusillda and I both sigh together. I have a feeling that HOG’s inheritance is going to cause a bit of trouble.

'When it comes, why don’t you just put it in a safe place for a while and just spend some time thinking on all the possibilities?’ I suggest.

‘Oh, that’s a good idea,’ answers HOG, ‘then I will have more time to check out the big new AGA stoves over in the Big Noisy City.’

‘Sigh,’ Mary-Ann-Drusillda says.

‘Sigh,’ I say.

‘It’s suppose to come next week. I don’t have much time. I better go on-line and order a bunch of catalogs,’ says HOG as she rolls away.

In the mean time, life goes on as always for me and my friends. Except that HOG keeps talking about all the things she is going to buy. Even that isn’t unusual except that now HOG is pretty sure she is going to buy lots of stuff whereas before she just talked about it the same way most people talk about the weather, or what time high tide is, or if the apples are ready to be picked from the trees. All sorts of interesting things to talk about but, in actuality, not something anybody can do anything about. Some things just happen on their own sweet time and no one can control their happening.

Eventually a small box comes for HOG. She rolls it home and she and Mary-Ann-Drusillda and Lordy and myself all stare at it wide eyed and almost afraid to open it.

‘It’s not very big for a fortune,’ says Mary-Ann-Drusillda.

‘Maybe it’s a safe-deposit box key,’ suggest Lordy.

‘Oh,’ says HOG, ‘I hope the safe is not in another country far far away which isn’t even on any map!’ HOG doesn’t really like traveling. There are just too many bumps in the roads, and hills which go up. It always takes her much time and much work to roll anywhere far away.

‘Well,’ I say, ‘why don’t you open it and find out?’

This seems like a very logical and good idea. But still HOG dos not rush to open it. She is, quite frankly, rather enjoying the suspense which will be gone once the box is opened. HOG rather enjoys superficial suspense especially when she can roll in the comfort in her own haystack and not worry about coming out of a roll and not knowing where she is because HOG does not like to be lost, and sometimes that is what happens when she rolls.

Finally the moment comes. HOG opens the box. We all stare hard at the contents. Very hard.

‘What is it?’ we all say together. It certainly does not look like a fortune. It is a strange looking piece of metal. It looks like a funny shaped rock but it is not a rock. We don’t think it is a rock.

‘I like rocks,’ HOG says, but, really, what she is thinking is that she doesn’t think she will build a bigger kitchen off of the back straw bale after all.

‘Mmm,’ I say, ‘I think we are going to have to find Méabh and ask her about this. Maybe you should just put it in a very safe and secret place until we can figure out what it is and what you should do with it. I think Méabh is coming to our house tomorrow for a hot shower.’

Méabh lives in a small tent and doesn’t have hot water so she showers at my house. But Méabh is actually very rich and has a beautiful old castle which was built on the Cliff of Moynar by her family hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Once I asked my mother why Méabh doesn’t live in the old castle and my mother told me that the tent is much more comfortable to live in because the castle has no heat or water and it has lots of strange noises and foggy patches, which are or are not ghosts, but, anyway, Méabh prefers to be outside in nature and wilderness and not be imprisoned by the mortar holding the beautiful castle stones together. Sometimes what is beautiful to look at, and is easy to love, is not so comfortable to live with. I almost understand this, and, of course, my mother says, ‘Not to worry. Someday you will grow and understand it all. And you’ll understand it much better than I do.’

The next day, while Méabh is in the shower, I ask my mother why Méabh always wears the color black. ‘But she doesn’t wear black,‘ my mother answers, ‘Her shirt is white, her vest is red and her pants are tan. They only look black because Méabh never washes them.’

‘Ew…’ I say, ‘That’s disgusting! Why don’t we grab her clothes while she is in the shower and wash them for her?’

‘Oh, no!’ my mother smiles, ‘that would be a very big mistake. I know because I made it once. Méabh lost six months of hard work because of my good intentions. The reason her clothes are never washed is because of the way they smell. To us, they smell really bad. But Méabh is a part of the forest. Have you noticed the eagles which land beside her without fear? Or the wolves who rest their heads on her lap? Or the little moles who sit on her shoulder and chirp in her ears? And bears actually bring her honey! They are all familiar with her and know her by her smell. The smell of her and the smell of the clothes she wears. It takes months to get her clothes smelling just right. If her clothes smell like soap or bleach, it scares the animals. Animals have a very powerful sense of smell. How Méabh gets her clothes to smell so animals don’t fear her is one of her many special knowledges. And it’s one of the few things I think I do not really care to learn.’

But I learned something important. Opinion is just opinion – it is not the same as knowing something. What smells bad to one smells good to another. And there is knowing what you know, and knowing what you don’t know, and then there is that very dangerous thing which is not knowing what it is you don’t know. I didn’t know that I didn’t know how important the smell of Méabh’s clothing is. I only knew that they smelled bad to me. It’s generally not good to not know what it is which you don’t know.

Although, in HOGs case, it seems that the less she knows, the less she rolls.

Finally and eventually, after showering, Méabh hikes over to the haystack in Daisy’s Field to see if she can help ‘identify’ the treasure which was willed to HOG.

When Méabh sees the item in the box, you can say that her face glows, if one can ever really say that Méabh's face glows. Face glowing just isn’t a Méabh sort of thing. She holds the strange object gently in her hands almost as if she is petting it. It is about two inches long and has a circumference of about ¾ of an inch. Oblong in appearance, it is not exactly any one type of shape, and it is roughly carved. On the bottom of one end, however, there is a finely carved interwoven design.

'Is it solid gold?’ HOG asks.

‘No, it’s iron,’ Méabh answers.

‘What does the design mean?’ I ask.

‘I can’t say for certain. Before I say anything, I want to go check into some books to see if I can find some confirmation.’

I am always surprised by the fact that Méabh always calls ‘THE’ books, just books, rather than ‘THE’ books. It is another thing which my mother says I will understand eventually.

‘Can I buy new furniture with it?’ HOG asks.

Méabh gives her a look. The kind of look which makes HOG roll. The kind of look which always scares everyone even though Méabh never says anything bad or loud or mean. The kind of look which makes people obey Méabh even though she never orders anyone to ever do anything. Sometimes, though, she will make suggestions.

‘I suggest,’ she says, ‘that you put this somewhere very safe and very secret until I come back.’

Then she takes a note book out of one of her vest pockets, a pencil out of another vest pocket, and a camera out of a third vest pocket. Lordy and I have a competition between us to see who can count how many pockets Méabh has in her vest, but neither one of us ever get to finish counting before we either get distracted or Méabh leaves to do ‘things.’ Méabh always has ‘things’ to do.

Méabh draws pictures and writes notes in her note book, and then she takes many pictures of the strange object which HOG has inherited. She gently gives it back to HOG and starts to leave. Just before she leaves, she turns around and gives HOG another ‘look’ just to make sure HOG has heard her.

After she has gone, I say, ‘I think we had all better leave so that HOG can unroll and find a secret and safe place to hide the, the, the thing.’ I don’t know what to call the thing. Méabh gave us no idea of what it might be.

Méabh tries not to ever tell us anything if we can find it out for ourselves in ‘THE’ books, and she knows that we know that we are welcome to come to her Jeep and look in any of ‘THE’ books anytime we want. Her Jeep is never locked, ever. But with a thing like the ‘thing’ we just really can’t figure out for ourselves where to even start looking. This time we will just have to wait for Méabh to give us some of the answers.

But before Méabh comes back to give us some of the answers, we will have to answer a few questions of our own.


WORDS to look up:
Inheritance,
Adamant,
Genetics,
Oblong,
Circumference

QUESTIONS:
What is a lawyer?
What does ‘five-times-removed’ mean?
What is an AGA stove?
What is a safe-deposit box?
What is ‘iron’? Does it have something to do with pressing clothes or is it like gold?
Have you ever tried to roll up hill?
Have you ever gotten lost when you un-rolled?
What other questions should be asked?

BTW:
MAD mudbog formula: the mathematical formula which Mary-Ann-Drusillda is quoting as she sits is the mud bog is an actual formula straight from the Wizard’s doctoral thesis circa 1973. I have no idea what it means. Just because you love someone, does not mean that you have to always understand them.

Genetic adaptation: a useful characteristic which eventually gets embedded in genes and is transferred from generation to generation.

AGA stove: The AGA cooker is a stored-heat stove and cooker invented in 1922 by the Nobel Prize-winning Swedish physicist Dr. Gustaf Dalén (1869 - 1937), who also founded the AGA company. In 1912 Dr. Dalen lost his sight in an explosion while developing his earlier invention, a porous substrate for storing gasses, Agamassen (Aga). Forced to stay at home, Dr. Dalen discovered that his wife was exhausted by cooking. Although blind, he was determined to develop a new stove that was capable of every culinary technique and easy to use and capable of heating a house. Adopting the principle of heat storage, he combined a small and efficient heat source, two large hotplates and two generous ovens into one robust and compact unit: the AGA Cooker. The cooker was introduced to England in 1929, and its popularity in certain parts of English society (owners of medium to large country houses) led to the term "AGA Saga". Today AGAs are criticized for guzzling energy.

Jeep: is the oldest off-road vehicle. The original vehicle first became the primary light 4-wheel-drive car of the US Army and allies during the World War II and postwar period. The term "jeep" was first commonly used during World War I (1914–1918) by soldiers as slang for new recruits and for new unproven vehicles. Many historians suggest that soldiers at the time were so impressed with the new vehicles that they informally named it after Eugene the Jeep, a character in the Popeye cartoons that "could go anywhere."

Check out:
Castle construction
http://history.howstuffworks.com/middle-ages/castle5.htm
http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/castle_builder/
http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS315US316&q=castle+cellar+image&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=J2ipSd3cN4qhtweSpKTrDw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title

Genetic Adaptation:
www.usoe.k12.ut.us/CURR/SCIENCE/.../genetics/.../adapt.htm
esciencenews.com/dictionary/genetic.adaptation

Gravity
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/newtongrav.html
http://www.howstuffworks.com/question232.htm
http://www.howstuffworks.com/what-if-zero-gravity.htm

Mathematics
Seife, Charles – Zero, Penguin Books, 2000.
http://www-math.mit.edu/
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/
http://www.teachrkids.com/


Next chapter: Finding Answers due to be posted on Thursday October 22, 2009



All text and images copyright 2009 Jule Dupre
unless otherwise noted.
Observe much - Think long - Say little...
[Credited to Oxford professor of C. Darwin]
Except, of course, in an emergency. Then you should
Look quick - Think fast - Yell loud!
[Credited to The Evil Grandmother]
Remember to always check your references!
Always question, but question with due respect.

Chapter 2 - About My Friends

Check out links at end of each chapter...

Chapter 1 - May 14, 2009 - Tutu Troubles

Chapter 2 – Oct. 07, 2009 – About My Friends

Chapter 3 – Oct. 15, 2009 – The Inheritance

Chapter 4 – Oct. 22, 2009 – Finding Answers

Chapter 5 – Oct. 29, 2009 – A New Friend

Chapter 6 – Nov. 05, 2009 – A Treasure Map

Chapter 7 – Nov. 12, 2009 – A Treasure Hunt

Chapter 8 – Nov. 19, 2009 – And Beyond

Chapter 9 – Nov. 26, 2009 – Lost Data

Chapter 10 – Dec. 3, 2009 – Found Data

Chapter 11 – Dec. 10, 2009 – The Castle Cellar

Chapter 12 – Dec. 17, 2009 – Forever Never Ending

RosFrankie and Beyond

Chapter 2

About My Friends

I’m happy most of the time even though I still trip and fall down and roll over. And I can’t sit perfectly right. ‘Not to worry,’ my mother always says, ‘You’ll grow into it all eventually and get it perfect.’

While I am laying down and resting in the mud and contemplating the sky and the clouds and the many different shades of white in the world of color, I start thinking about all sorts of numerous and various things and stuff needing thinking about. Today, I’m thinking that ‘RosFrankie’ is a bit of a strange name but I think it is better than ‘Fido’ or ‘Woofie’ or some long name with all sorts of strange words which I would never be able to pronounce or spell, such as Lady Sir Your Majesty HMS Lord of Yadda Yaddashire Reinforced Duchess of All Dogs etcetera etcetera!!! I am rather not very good at spelling and I tend to ask too many questions which tends to really annoy other people. My favorite words are ‘who,’ ‘what,’ ‘where,’ ‘when,’ ‘why,’ ‘how,’ and ‘what if?’ But today my most favorite word is ‘why’ and I even know how to spell it. I decide to ask my mother why I am named ‘RosFrankie.’ My mother says that the reason I am named RosFrankie is because everyone should know immediately who I am named after and the fact that hardly anybody knows who I am named after is why I am named ‘RosFrankie.’

Naturally, I don’t quite understand this reasoning. Sometimes my mother is not so easy to understand. ‘It’s not really a long name,’ I say to my mother, ‘but it is a little bit long and a little bit hard to spell and pronounce.’

‘Not to worry,’ my mother says, ‘You’ll grow into it all eventually and get it perfect. And someday you will know who you are named after and you will be very very proud of your name and be glad you have it.’

I smile to myself and feel good inside myself and feel good outside myself. ‘Everybody,’ I think, ‘should have a good lay-down in the mud in the back yard. Mud is a cure-all for everything. It makes one tall and thin and straight and, more important, it makes one not care if one is tall and thin and straight or not. Mud is good.’

Sometimes I’m smart.  And sometimes I am very very way-too-not-too-smart. Sometimes being smart is the wrong thing to be and it is better to be way-too-not-too-smart. I don’t always know when it is better to know or to not know. Like when I asked my mother how vegetables were fertilized in the garden. I rather wish my mother never told me because ever since then I have always been suspect of eating vegetables even though I really like vegetables and I know that it’s good to eat them. But, yuck! What they are fertilized with!

When I lie in my mud bog, I think about all sorts of different things and stuff and ideas and stories and, well, just plain ‘things’ in general. Randomly thinking random thoughts.

Today I think to myself, ‘I think I will plant a garden. And then I can share all my bounty with my friends.’

I have many friends. There is Mary-Ann-Drusillda, a little piglet with a pink curly tail. A way-too-big for her curly tail. My mother always tells her, ‘Not to worry. Eventually you will grow into to it and it will fit just right.’ And there is HOG who is a hedgehog and really is a HOG who always eats everything. Even uneatable things! And she makes a sound like a motorcycle when she burps and everyone says ‘Ew..!’ HOG and Mary-Ann-Drusillda live in the same haystack over in the back-forty in Daisy’s Field where there are a lot of daisies always blooming…even in wintertime. Some people say that it is a magic field. I think maybe someday I will study it so that I can understand why daisies always bloom there, even in the winter. Maybe there is an underground hot spring. Or a volcano getting ready to explode! I will just have to learn more things and stuff.

And I probably should learn to spell better so that I can look things up in ‘THE’ books. Some people even say ‘THE’ books are magic but this is said only by people who don’t know how to read them correctly. They keep confusing ‘two’ with ‘too’ with ‘to’ and ‘which’ with ‘witch’ and ‘polish’ with ‘Polish’, which is all very easy to do but I don’t want to think about that all now as it generally eventually gives me a headache.

There is also my friend Sunbeam who is a snowman. Sometimes Sunbeam will go away for a long time and sometimes he will stay around for a long time. He doesn’t do much.....just kind of sits in the snow and grunts. But he has a very interesting way with his grunts and sometimes me and my friends will stay by him for hours just listening to him grunt. It is a little bit like mud bogging. Sunbeam just loves sitting in the sun, even though he is often told by people-who-know-things that sitting in the sun is not good for him.

And then there also are my friends Brant and Cana, a mated pair of wild geese. They will also come and go seasonally and sometimes they will have little baby goslings with them. Sometimes I will baby-sit the goslings. Usually afterwards, I will be very tired and I will have to take a very long nap in my mud bog.

There is also my friend Lordy who is a ladybug because there is no such thing as Lordbugs.

Sometimes he gets very confused as to where he is going because his radar antennae keep getting bent when he whacks them accidentally flying into tree trunks but all his friends will always help him straightened them back straight again and he will quickly be on his way again. His radar antennae are way-too-big for him. My mother always tells him, ‘Not to worry. Eventually you will grow and they will fit perfectly.’ But he still is never very sure where he is going. Even though he will lose his way, he never loses his friends. He always says that ‘family’ is not bugs you are related to, and it’s not just bugs you love but that ‘family’ is bugs you can always trust. And everybody trusts Lordy. Lordy also has a photographic memory and can remember absolutely everything. He is like a flying encyclopedia. He just never can remember where he is going!

And, of course, there is Méabh the most friendly neighborhood witch. She is very old and always wears black, except for her bright yellow rubber hat, and, of course, she has loads and loads of warts and can do all sorts of things and stuff and magic , a word which always has to be whispered, but I don’t know why it has to be whispered. I also don’t know why my mother considers Méabh to be most friendly because Méabh is always scowling and cursing and pointing her finger and stomping her feet and pouting and scratching her toes. Before Méabh scratches her toes, she takes her boots off and they always smell really bad and everyone says, ‘Ew..…!’ Méabh just tells them that if they don’t like it, they don’t have to breathe. She’s like that. Sometimes she will just stand tall and squint her eyes and nod her head up and down. Which is sort of amazing because she isn’t tall at all. She has very strange symbols tattooed onto the wrist area of both her hands.

They are strange looking symbols with numbers and letters in a square box and some people claim that they are a special code to identify her as an alien when alien spaceships decide to land on earth and scare people. And Lordy claims that his antennae always go haywire whenever he flies within ten feet of Méabh, but that doesn’t really count as being very important to me because Lordy’s antennae go haywire whenever he flies within ten feet of anything. Some people say that they think Méabh would be more likable if she did something with her hair, but I don’t understand that reasoning at all because I know some people with really nice hair who are not very likeable and are really very unlikable. When I ask my mother about Méabh, my mother always says, ‘You’re too young to understand. Not to worry. You’ll grow up and eventually understand it all perfectly.’ I think maybe I should ask Méabh about Daisy’s Field. Méabh knows lots of stuff and is really good at reading and understanding ‘THE’ books. Once she told me that whenever I touch a raindrop, I’m touching a living thing which has circumnavigated the whole world from the deepest oceans to the highest rim of the sky, to the mountains and the deserts and has even existed as liquid, solid and gas. I think this is most amazing, especially after I looked up the word ‘circumnavigate’ to see what it means.

Well,’ I think as I bogg lazily, ‘If I am going to plant a garden, I will need to buy a shovel, a hoe and a watering can. And, of course, I will need to buy some seeds. What seeds shall I buy? Lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and onion. I like lettuce, tomato, cucumber and onion best. With mayonnaise. But I can’t buy mayonnaise seeds! Maybe I can make my own mayonnaise…..what will I need? Eggs. But I will need chickens in order to have eggs. And if I have chickens I will have to feed them corn. So I will have to plant corn so I can feed the chickens so that they can lay eggs so that I can make mayonnaise to go with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and onion. And I will need to build a big hen house. With wood. First I will have to plant trees and let the trees grow tall and I then can cut the wood and make a hen house. And I will need nails and a hammer and a saw. But by the time I plant the tree forest and build the hen house and plant the corn, I will not have enough land left over to plant lettuce, tomato, cucumber and onion. Mmmm…..maybe I should just plant flowers.

But what kind of flower seeds should I buy?’

I’m getting exhausted just thinking about gardening and I haven’t even done anything yet! I roll over in the mud bog to get my other side mudded.

‘RosFrankie,’ my mother calls, ‘Do you want a salad for lunch?’

I think about all the work and time and effort that goes into making a garden salad, and I yell back, ‘I think just a peanut butter and jelly sandwich today, thank you!’

Then I start to think about all the work and effort that goes into growing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich…..it is even more complicated than a simple garden salad. I think I must be getting what Méabh calls analysis paralysis.

‘Oh,’ I think to myself, ‘I think I have thought too much today and I think I should think no more for a while until I have more time and energy to think about it all!’

And then I fall asleep laying in the warm sun in my nice comfy mud bog.

All text and images copyright 2009 Jule Dupre
Observe much - Think long - Say little...
[Credited to Oxford professor of C. Darwin]
Except, of course, in an emergency. Then you should
Look quick - Think fast - Yell loud!
[Credited to The Evil Grandmother]
Remember to always check your references!
Always question, but question with due respect.

Words to look up:
Fertilize,
Gosling,
Alien,
Circumnavigate,
Radar,
Antennae

Questions to ask:
How are gardens fertilized?
Where do seeds come from?
What is a recipe for mayonnaise?
How is peanut butter made?
What is snow made from?
What is a volcano?
Do you confuse ‘to’ with ‘two’ with ‘too’ also?
What other questions should be asked?

BTW:
Rosalind Franklin: (25 July 1920 – 16 April 1958) was an English biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer who made important contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of DNA, viruses, coal and graphite. Franklin is still best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA. Her data, according to Francis Crick, of The Double Helix fame, were “the data we actually used”. If she had lived, would she have received the Nobel Prize? That is a question whose answer can only be assumed. Since she got little credit for her work, one can assume that she would have gotten fewer prizes.

Garden Fertilization: Well composted manure is much healthier than artificial chemicals.

Underground Hot Springs: A pool of hot water just below the surface of the earth.

Volcano: A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or crust, which allows hot, molten rock, ash, and gases to escape from below the surface. Volcanic activity involving the extrusion of rock tends to form mountains or features like mountains over a period of time. Volcanoes are generally found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging. A mid-oceanic ridge, for example the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, has examples of volcanoes caused by "divergent tectonic plates" pulling apart; the Pacific Ring of Fire has examples of volcanoes caused by "convergent tectonic plates" coming together. By contrast, volcanoes are usually not created where two tectonic plates slide past one another. Volcanoes can also form where there is stretching and thinning of the Earth's crust, such as in the African Rift Valley, the Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field and the Rio Grande Rift in North America and the European Rhine Graben with its Eifel volcanoes. Volcanoes can be caused by "mantle plumes". These so-called "hotspots", for example at Hawaii, can occur far from plate boundaries. Hotspot volcanoes are also found elsewhere in the solar system, especially on rocky planets and moons.

Méabh pronunciation and Meaning: Pronounced ‘Meave’, the ‘bh’ like a ‘ve’ this is a Celtic Irish name meaning ‘enchanting.’

Circumnavigation: To Circumnavigate a place, such as an island, a continent, or the Earth, is to travel all the way around it . A basic definition of a world circumnavigation would be a route which covers at least a great circle, and in particular one which passes through at least one pair of points antipodal to each other. In practice, different definitions of world circumnavigation are used, in order to accommodate practical constraints depending on the method of circumnavigation.

Mayonnaise recipe, Julia Child: Mayonnaise is one of the many foods that is referred to as an emulsion. An emulsion is a combination of two unlike components. According to Julia Child, mayonnaise is also something every cook must confidently and rapidly whip up on command with nary a qualm, because it is one of the elemental cookery procedures. 3 eggs yolks, 3-5 tablespoons wine vinegar or lemon juice, 1 ½ cup olive oil, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon dry mustard, and the book ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking.’

Check out:
Canadian geese
Heinrich, Bernd - The Geese of Beaver Bog, HarperCollins, 2004.
Chemistry, periodic table
http://www.dayah.com/periodic/
http://chemistry.about.com/
Friendship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/friendship/
Garden fertilization
ttp://organicgardens.suite101.com/article.cfm/manure_in_the_organic_garden
http://www.umass.edu/cdl/CDL/publications/Mass%20horse%20guide.pdf
Lady bugs
http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef105.asp
http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek3/ladybugs.htm
Rosalind Franklin
Maddox, Brenda – Rosalind Franklin, HarperCollins, 2002.
http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/franklin.html
http://www.rosalindfranklin.edu/
http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?tip=1&id=1782
http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~cwp/Phase2/Franklin,_Rosalind@841234567.html#sip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2GQDU67ink
http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/KR/Views/AlphaChron/date/
http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/KR/B/B/H/R/_/krbbhr.pdf
http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/KR/B/B/D/P/_/krbbdp.pdf
http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/KR/B/B/B/S/_/krbbbs.pdf
http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/KR/B/B/F/N/_/krbbfn.pdf
Water properties
http://www.uni.edu/~iowawet/H2OProperties.html
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/state.html
http://core.ecu.edu/geology/woods/H2OUNEEK.htm
http://www.chemistry.nmsu.edu/studntres/chem115/notes/ch11.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_(molecule)
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Physical_properties_of_water
X-ray crystallography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_crystallography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_crystallography
http://www.xray.utmb.edu/
http://www.pitt.edu/~geib/Welcome.html
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/press_releases/profiles_franklin_added07.html
http://www.ntanaka.bio.titech.ac.jp/OldVersion/franklin.html

Next chapter: The Inheritance due to be posted on Thursday October 15, 2009.
Chapter 1 - May 14, 2009 - Tutu Troubles

Chapter 2 – Oct. 07, 2009 – About My Friends
Chapter 3 – Oct. 15, 2009 – The Inheritance
Chapter 4 – Oct. 22, 2009 – Finding Answers
Chapter 5 – Oct. 29, 2009 – A New Friend
Chapter 6 – Nov. 05, 2009 – A Treasure Map
Chapter 7 – Nov. 12, 2009 – A Treasure Hunt
Chapter 8 – Nov. 19, 2009 – And Beyond
Chapter 9 – Nov. 26, 2009 – Lost Data
Chapter 10 – Dec. 3, 2009 – Found Data
Chapter 11 – Dec. 19, 2009 – The Castle Cellar
Chapter 12 – Dec. 17, 2009 – Forever Never Ending