Hi! I'm Papaw, at least to my grandchildren. This blog is a collection of notes written for them. Please feel free to read them to your children too! May God bless all who read.
(From the author of "The Musings of a Left-Hand Man".)
This week at the State Park I started noticing holes
in the ground along the camping paths. They are about as big around as Papaw’s
little finger. There are lots of creatures that make holes in the ground here,
but at this time of year, it is probably made by an insect called the annual
cicada. I put a picture of one on the left. They start out as tiny eggs laid by
their mother in small slits in a tree branch. Soon they drop to the ground and
burrow into the soil. It is a good thing that their mother started them up in a
tree. They will spend the next year drinking sap from the tree’s roots. They
continue to grow and stay in the ground over winter. In early summer, they
begin to slowly dig their way to the surface. As they emerge, they leave those
distinctive holes in the ground. They crawl to the nearest tree and climb part way
up the trunk. They don’t look like their parents yet. They have a hard shell
without wings that they need to shed.
Here a picture of what they look like
when they first come out. They hold tight to the tree and begin the process of
molting, which means they are going to come out of their hard shell. The shell
splits down the back and they begin to pull themselves out. Their wings begin
to unfold and stretch out, much like the way a butterfly does. Soon Their wings
dry and harden. They fly into the trees and find a soft twig to land on. The new
adults will drink sap from the trees for the rest of the summer. They will mate,
lay more eggs, and then die in the fall. For the rest of the summer though, you
will be able to hear their buzzing high up in the trees.
Here is a short video that shows what they sound like.
Well, that’s all for this week. Enjoy the rest of your
summer!
Almost everyone has heard crickets chirping in the
evening. But did you know that they are actually telling you the temperature outside?
Today Papaw is going to give you a quick formula to calculate the temperature
by listening to the crickets in your yard. You can even tell your math teacher
that you did some math practice over the summer!
The Old Farmer’s Almanac has helped people with times
for planting crops and preparing for the weather for over 200 years. Some
things are pretty accurate; others are about 50/50. The formula they give for
crickets has been tested scientifically and seems to be pretty accurate. You could
even do an experiment on your own. All you need is a thermometer, a watch or
clock, your awesome addition skills, and some crickets.
Crickets are cold-blooded (they don’t produce their
own heat) so they stay the same temperature as the surrounding air. If they are
cold, they cannot move as fast. When they warm up, they get more energy to
chirp. If it’s too cold or too hot, they say “forget it” and go take a nap. Crickets
usually don’t chirp if the temperature is under 50℉ (Fahrenheit, that’s the
temperature we use here in the US.) or over 100 ℉.
To
Convert Cricket Chirps to Degrees Fahrenheit:
Just count the number of chirps in 14 seconds, then
add 40 to get the temperature. The number you get will be an approximation of
the outside temperature.
Example: 30 chirps + 40 = 70°F
Here is a simple guide I made so you can check out what
the crickets are telling you.
So next time you hear a cricket, check to see what
temperature he is telling you!
Way back when, even before
your parents were born, Papaw had a chance to see a bizarre but wonderful
creature at the ocean’s shore. I was travelling for the college in a music
group. That day we were in Maryland near the Chesapeake Bay. Since I had never
even seen the ocean, I got up really early and went to the beach. There I found
this creature – the horseshoe crab.
They are not really crabs
but are more closely related to spiders and ticks. They have 4 pairs of walking
legs and a pair that act like pinchers to grab their food. Their favorite foods
are sea worms, mollusks (like clams) and other crustaceans.
They normally like living
in deeper waters but come close to shore to spawn. They can lay 20,000 eggs
each night for several days. That is where Papaw saw them. They are fun to
watch. They can even swim upside-down! They are only found in the Atlantic
Ocean. They can be found from Maine all the way down to Mexico. They are
sometimes called “living fossils”. That’s because their fossils look just like
they do today. They have 9 eyes and can see very well. It helps them find their
food.
Horseshoe crabs have helped
us develop medicines. They have blue blood. There is a special chemical in
their blood that can tell us if vaccines or other drugs are ready to give to
sick people. Scientist draw out some blood and then release it back into the
ocean. It usually doesn’t hurt them. Still, we need to be careful and take care
of them. They need clean water and safe beaches to lay their eggs.
(This week both the Musings page and Notes from Papaw have the same post. I’m either lazy or on vacation. Honestly, I’m not sure which.)
This Saturday is the Fourth of July. People around the nation will attend parades, have picnics, light of fireworks at their home, and if your city is having one, attend a professional fireworks display. There you can see bursts of wonderful colors and different shapes, golden showers of sparkles, and eye-widening kabooms!
Have you ever wondered how professional fireworks are made? Ya, so did I. So let’s take a look at the anatomy of a typical firework. When you see a firework display from the launching end, It looks like a bunch of tubes all lined up together. These tubes are called mortars. Inside the tube is the shell. The shell is made of two parts, The lifting charge and the color pellets. The lifting charge is located on the bottom of the shell that is usually made of black powder. It is there to lift the top section high into the air. This makes it easier to see. It also keeps the explosions, sparks, and any hot embers away from people and high enough to burn out before they hit the ground. The top section of the shell has the colorful part. It contains small pellets called stars. These can be made to produce different colors, shapes, and noises. Some of the designs are proprietary, which means they were invented by the firework makers, and the formulas are closely guarded secrets. There are usually at least two fuses. The first fuse lights the lift charge. Once the firework is safely in the air, a second fuse, sometimes called the timer fuse, causes the section with the stars to explode (the burst charge) and starts the stars burning also. They now can even create designs with the fireworks. One special firework that I have seen ends up making a smiley face!
The colors usually come from various metal salts. A salt is a combination of a metal and one or more nonmetals. Table salt is sodium chloride, made of the metal sodium and a gas called chlorine. Here is a list of the most commonly used salts.
And to think these all started with the Chinese putting gun powder into long bamboo tubes. This is thought to have happened somewhere between 600-800 AD, during the Tang Dynasty.
For those of you who don’t have a fireworks display in their home town, here is a display from 2025, courtesy of the Happiest Place on Earth, Disneyland. Enjoy!
