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".)
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!
It’s summer and the
mosquitoes are flying fast and furious. If you live in a mosquito free area,
count yourself fortunate. The only place we have been where we really don’t see
many mosquitoes is at the ocean. They don’t like salt water. Otherwise, wherever
you go around here the mosquitos are active. But where do they all come from?
Mosquitos are in the group
of insects with flies and gnats. They spend the first part of their life under
water, and then fly in the air as adults. Interestingly, the female is the only
one that bites. She needs the protein in blood to make here eggs. The eggs are
laid on the surface of a stagnant pool of fresh water. When they hatch they
become “wigglers” in the water. They don’t have gills so they need to come up
to the surface to breath. They have a tube on their tail which they use as a snorkel.
When they have grown enough, they float to the surface and form a pupa, or
resting stage. After a few days, they hatch out as adult mosquitos. The males
do not have the long straw like mouth parts to drink blood. They mostly feed on
nectar from flowers.
A female mosquitos wings
beat super-fast, sometimes 1000 times a second. That what make the buzzing
sound if they get close to your ear. They are drawn to the carbon dioxide that
we breath out. They can smell it 100 feet away! There are over 3500 kinds of
mosquitoes in the world. Only Antarctica is mosquito free.
Some mosquitoes can carry dangerous
diseases. That why it’s important to try and avoid them if you can. Here are
some hints.
·Wear an approved mosquito repellant. There are kid
safe types if you do not like DEET.
·Where loose fitting, light colored clothing. Long
pants are recommended.
·Limit time outside at dawn and dusk – the most
active time for mosquitoes.
·Dump out all standing water or get “mosquito dunks”
so they cannot breed.
·Make sure your doors and windows have tight fitting
screens without holes.
·You could get an electric mosquito zapper for your
outside patio. It’s fun to listen to them get zapped. Hey, at least they are
not biting you!
·Some people put up bat houses. Bats eat thousands of
mosquitoes every night!
·If you do get bitten and it starts to itch, try not
to scratch it. It might get infected. They make anti-itch cream that your
parents can put on the bite to make it feel better.
This Sunday is Father’s Day. In the United States it always
falls on the third Sunday of June. As far as we know, Father’s Day was started
by a lady named Sonora Smart Dodd who lived in Spokane, Washington. She started
it to honor her widowed father who was a Civil War veteran. Because his wife
had died, he had to raise 6 children alone. Mother’s Day had just become
popular and she thought it would be good the honor fathers. Although one local
church had a service for fathers to remember the Monongah mining disaster in 1907, it wasn’t
until June 19, 1910 that the celebration went state wide.
It took a while for it to catch on. In 1924 President Calvin
Coolidge added his support to the observance and urged other states to also celebrate it.
President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation in 1966, establishing
the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. Still, it wasn’t until 1972 that President
Richard Nixon signed legislation making Father's Day a permanent national
holiday. (https://www.history.com/articles/fathers-day)
So how will you celebrate Father’s Day? First, be sure to
give your father a great big hug and tell him you love him. (It works for
grandfathers also!) You could make or buy a card for him. You might even serve
him breakfast in bed. If you can’t cook yet you might want to ask mom for help
so you don’t burn the toast. Some families go to church together; others might
go to the park for a picnic. You could even do both. Just be sure you let your
father know how much you appreciate him and all the hard work he does for your
family. (You might even clean your room. That is sure to surprise him!) My
father and I used to go fishing together a lot. I think we may have even fished
on Father’s Day after the picnic was done. Whether you get him a card, his morning
coffee or a breakfast burrito, be sure to let him know how much you love him.
And don’t forget to say thank you to your Heavenly Father for all he has done
for you!
I hope you all have a great time celebrating Father’s Day
this year!
Mema and Papaw just spent
nine days at the beach. It’s one of Mema’s favorite places. One thing that
really makes Papaw sad is when people leave trash on the ground. Sometimes it
is right by the trash cans! I know that animals like raccoons and squirrels can
pull things out of trash cans and add to the litter on the ground, but most of
it comes from us humans. I saw plastic bags, wrappers, water bottles, and even
old socks on the beach. I try to pick up the things I come across, but one
person can only do so much. Also, sometimes it may not be healthy to clean
something up without gloves.
Here are some helpful
guidelines when you are out enjoying nature.
1. If you drop it, pick it
up. If you make a mess, help clean it up.
2. Put wrappers in your
pocket or a bag until you can find a
trash can. Most places have them spaced all around.
3. Leave an area you use
for camping, a picnic, or other activity cleaner than when you arrived.
4. Try to pick up any trash
directly in your path. If everyone did this, there wouldn’t be any trash.
5. Be responsible with the
things you use. If it’s a windy day be sure everything is secure. Make sure
animals can’t get to it.
6 Recycle if possible.
7. Don’t throw trach in the
recycle bins. It makes a real mess for those recycling it.
If we all do our part, we
will have cleaner parks, beaches, and roadways. It will also help the animals.
We don’t want them eating trash and then getting sick!
This last week Papaw and Mema were on vacation. One of the things Mema loves is making s’mores over the campfire. Papaw usually makes the fire. I like to cut up some of the logs with my hatchet so that I have some smaller pieces. These pieces are called kindling. I stack them up like a teepee and put a fire starter block under it. When the kindling gets burning pretty good I can add the bigger pieces. Soon we have a roaring fire. It feels nice and warm on a cool evening at the beach.
Fire needs 3 things to happen, fuel, heat and oxygen. The fuel is the wood. The match gives it the heat it needs to get started. The oxygen comes from the air. As long as you have these, you will have a good fire.
Once the fire dies down you will have lots of red, glowing coals. That’s when it’s s’mores time! Mema toasts a marshmallow til it’s golden brown. Then she squeezes it between two pieces graham cracker with a piece of chocolate inside. The hot marshmallow melts the chocolate and your s’mores will be ooie-gooey delicious! After a couple more s’mores ( who could eat just one?) we sit and enjoy a warmth as tiny flames flicker in the fire pit. Some people even tell stories or sing songs. At the end of the night it is important that you put out the coals. You don’t want to start a fire in the middle of the night.
