Retryin Rags and Frosty

    Rusty and Rags sat in their matching recliners watching Sherlock, eating ice cream, eventually nodding off in their cozy living room.  Then the wind blew the window open and the rushed to turn off the television.  It was too late.  The door opened and Frosty arrived.
    Rusty knew he needed to be the one to get Frosty to leave. Rags had a long history of taking him in, no matter how mean Frosty was. It started right away.  " Rode the train in the ice cream car, all the way from Snowy.  Trains trump all other forms of public transportation, which you wouldn’t know since you never leave this one horse town. You really should get out more. " 

    Rusty got up to close the door and turned the thermostat up to 90°F. The temperature began to rise in the house, and Frosty started to drip.  " What's wrong with your house? This hovel is like an oven! "  Frosty flung open the windows and the cold wind made Rags shiver. Rusty brought him a sweater and went into the kitchen.

    Rags enjoyed a warm beverage before bed. Usually Rusty made him a cup of tea, two sugars and milk. Instead, he made an entire pot. On his way into the living room, Rusty tripped and the hot tea splattered all over Frosty.  " You clumsy fool! I look like a golfball! "  Rusty idroitly cleaned up and made another cup of tea.

    Growing concerned, Rusty appreciated his position. He considered Rags' feelings for Frosty. He wanted an invisible weapon. Rusty went back to the kitchen. He found the salt shaker, and emptied it on the way to the guest bedroom. Rusty woke up early to mop.

Salt Marsh

    Salt marshes are wetlands that are juxtaposed with a body of salt water. Oceans and inland salt flats meet fresh water lakes and rivers which have fluctuating levels. This causes a cycle of flooding and varying salinity. Not all plants survive in these conditions. As a result, salt marshes are not very diverse. 

    Salt marshes are created by deposition of detritus. When water flows slowly, sediment settles out building up the soil level.  The soil is rich with nutrients but floods with salt water which recedes in some areas but not others. Anoxia then occurs because the roots cannot get oxygen from saturated soil. Plants with adaptions to tolerate salinity and flooding thrive with little competition leading to zonation in the marsh. 

    Salt marshes are found on every continent but Antartica. In North America, there are no salt marshes on the Pacific coast because the waves are too strong. There are some on the Atlantic coast and near the Great Salt Lake. 

    All salt marshes have algae, plants and animals. The algae is in the water with the cyanobacteria in the benthic stratum. Plants include grasses on land and weeds in the water.  Animals include insects, reptiles, fish, birds, and mammals. The animals and plants are adapted to conditions in the salt marsh. When these conditions are changed by water management every specie is affected.  

    In the Everglades, the water flow is diverted for human use. The salinity increases which reduces fresh water and estuarine habitat. This reduces diversity and increases zonation. 

    The Great Salt Lake and Jamaica Bay have been invaded by phragmites, a reed that competes with native grasses. This reed is tall and does not break down when it dies which means less light for the short grasses and less room for small mammals. Phragmites reduces diversity. 

    Salt marshes are special habitats that need our protection!

Henry Hudson

Henry Hudson was born in England in the 1570s. His family had a trading company and he worked his way up from cabin boy to captain. He sailed to Russia to trade bolts of wool for spices but only in the warm months. He tried to sail to China four times and failed.

The first trip was for the Muscovy Trading Company on the Hopewell with twelve men. He didn't find China but he found whales and that was economically great for England.This led to a second trip on the Hopewell that was a complete failure.

Henry Hudson was depressed. He thought he'd never sail again. Then the Dutch East India Company hired him to find a route to China. They gave him the Half Moon and he explored the north east coast looking for a river that would cross America.

In 1609 they sailed into New York harbor and met Algonquins that signed about the long, wide river. They sailed up to Albany but had to go back because the Hudson River gets shallow there. They went on land to explore and found especially fertile soil with extraordinary wildlife. They sailed north to continue looking. They found Hudson Strait and Bay. But not China.

Henry Hudson returned to England and put under house arrest for sailing under a Dutch flag. He was released and sailed the Discovery for the East India Company. They sailed to Hudson Bay and tried to exit west to China but got trapped in ice. In the spring the crew mutinied and left him to die.

The end

Two mind

Just doing calculations in my head
Feeling smart inside
Watching my hands grab my feet
Movements not mine
but whose? _

Thanksgiving

The turkey stays over the hill
They hide from the farmer's wife
She prepares to whet her knife
Sharpening for making the kill
The turkey finds it hard to hold still
As it fears the end of its life
She nears its hiding spot rife
With guilt for the blood to spill
Then seeing the immobile bird
She thought of her childhood pet
She considered the food she'd make
President's pardon she heard
Returning the knife to set
Tofurkey in oven to bake _

Ants

Ants are everything we want to be! They are smart, strong, social, and very successful. They make elaborate structures and engage in psychological warfare. They can communicate with scent and chemical kisses. They work together.

There are thirty five thousand varieties of ants living all over the world, except Greenland and Antartica. They range in size from too small to see with the naked eye to six centimeters. They are red, yellow, brown, and black. Like all insects, ants have a head, thorax, abdomen, and six legs. They have an exoskeleton made of chitin which supports and protects them. They breathe using spiracles, openings into their thorax.

Ants have senses unlike ours. They taste information about the colony and the queen. They smell the trail left by other foragers. They use their segmented antennae to smell and feel their way. They have hairs that sense vibration and movement in the air. Ants have developed these adaptations to be successful at surviving in groups that take socialism to its zenith.

Ants' reproduction begins with a mating flight. Only the queen and male ants have wings. After fertilizing the queen, the males die. They have no other purpose in life. The queen starts tunneling to build a new nest for her eggs. She lays her eggs and waits. She absorbs her wing muscles and uses the nutriants to feed the her larvae when they hatch. They spin coccoons and emerge as worker females which do everything in the colony. The queen's only job from then on is to lay eggs.

The greatest struggle in life is to eat without being eaten. Ants work together to provide food for the colony in various ways. Some ants collect grain and store it in the nest to be shared. Some bring it back, in a sharing stomach, or crop, partially digested into bread. Some herd aphids, collecting sweet liquid they make, and storing it in the ants that have a container in their abdomen. Some ants eat insects, including other ants. There are ants that eat birds, amphibians, and small mammals; packs of thousands of pirhana-like ants taking hundreds of thousands of tiny bites can tear the flesh from a frog in minutes!

Ants protect themselves similarly to other hymenopterans, such as wasps and bees, by inhabiting underground nests or otherwise enclosed spaces. They will sting, bite, or spray a stinky substance if threatened. Many animals prey on ants including praying mantises, pangolins and aye-ayes. These exceptional species are a few of the mammals, amphibians, birds, and insects that eat ants.

Ants can ruin homes, destroy crops and spoil a picnic. They can produce a venom that cures arthritis. They make up ten percent of the earth's biomass. We may not name a god after them, but they are an important part of our world. _

Tiny

One day Michelle and Josh decided to make their son, Abey very happy. They took him to the dog pound to adopt a dog. At the pound there were all kinds of dogs from pekinese to poodles, and Abey loved them all. Each dog was placed down in a pen so Abey could see them. Abey wanted to end their misery and bring them home to snuggle. His parents would only let him bring one, so he chose a cute, fuzzy puppy. He named the puppy Tiny. Tiny slept with Abey, tucked under the blanket. Abey wanted to play with him all day, but he had to go to school. When Abey arrived home, he called Tiny. Tiny ran toward him, with blood dripping from his chin. He lept at Abey and sunk his teeth into Abey's jugular vein. Abey awoke with Tiny licking his neck. The end. _