Snails Stink!!!...I Mean BAD!!!

I love researching things from nature. I love finding new species of insects, birds, animal tracks, feathers, plant pods, even bones and dung and finding out what they are, or who they belong to. Before the internet, I would check out nature books from the library, or thumb through my collection of well worn "Guide Books" with subjects like Mammals of North America, Pond Life, Trees Species of Michigan or my favorite Audobon Book of Birds. That's why I started Wild Wednesday on the blog. I thought you all might enjoy the small nature discoveries that I find, and maybe be inspired to share some of your own!

That was my thought when Zach and I went fishing the other day and found this fabulous snail. I hoped to take this photo and then share with you all the fascinating things I found out about this wondrous creature...la, la la!

And I did do research when I got home...but it had less to do with the snail's biological interests and more to do with how to remove a horrible, horrible ODOR!!!

I've seen similar, large shells on the shores of our local lakes, but never this large, and never this black. The blackness, I attributed to the fact that the snail was still inhabiting the shell and giving it an opaqueness through its somewhat translucent home. I've only ever found these shells empty, this one appeared to be alive...or so I thought.

I've always had the assumption that if a snail is still in it's shell and the hard, disk-like "door" or Operculum (as I found out) is retracted and closed, the snail is alive.

This assumption is a mistake...a HUGE mistake!

The episode went something like this. 

We approached the lake shore with tackle boxes and fishing poles in hand. The sun was low in the sky, there was a warm breeze coming off the lake, cupcakes and rainbows sprouting up everywhere! Zach cast his line out and I saw the snail.

"Look at that cool shell!" I exclaimed with delight! "I'm going to take a photo of it and share it on the blog and tell the world about all the happy snail facts I will find!"...ok, so maybe I didn't say all that, but it may or may not have been running through my head at the time.

I couldn't reach it with my stubby arms, so I got Zach in on the adventure...He won't mind!

Zach plucked the snail out of the water...no problem at all. Zach's the hero of snail blogs!

He handed me the snail and I squealed with delight!

Shortly after this I got a whiff of something coming from the lake.

"Ugh! The water smells bad over here. Something must have died! Here Zach, hold the snail while I get my camera." 

Where Zach exclaimed..."Ugh, I smell it too! Yeah, something's rotten!"

I took a few pictures of the snail, and we let him go.

We decided that we didn't want to go fishing in a lake that smelled like death so we got back in the car and started looking for another fishing hole.

In the car... we could still smell the smell. A mile down the road... we cold still smell the smell.

"What the heck! Did we step in something?"

"I don't know, but I'm rolling down my window"

It was my ever present allergies that brought the source of the smell crashing down around us. I grabbed a Kleenex from my car stash, and upon bringing my hands up to my nose, my sinuses were cleared...and it had nothing to do with tissue.

"Oh my gosh!" I gagged. "Oh my gosh, smell your hands!"

Zach took a quick whiff of his own hands, where his nose too was assaulted and gagged in a similar fashion. 

All attempts at fishing at this point were negated by the smell, and we drove home as fast as we could with our hands out the window. Every once in a while a cross breeze would swoop over and send us into gagging fits...Did I mention how much I love nature?

When we got home we both dashed for the bathroom where we began scrubbing. After the first wash, it was evident that mere hand soap was not going to cut it. I got the Dawn...Dawn cleans everything right?

Nope...not stinky snail smell.

Peroxide...nope. Lemon...nope...vinegar, baking soda, tomato juice, a combination of those...nope, nope, nope.

I even doused my hands in Odor Eaters foot powder, which just created a sickeningly mint-y version of the horridness. 

It was about this time when we started searching the internet on ways to remove stinky snail smell. I did find that this particular snail does have a name, it was most likely a Mystery snail and an invasive species at that! Stinky little bugger. Oh, and not a good idea to handle them as they might carry a parasite that can cause Swimmer's Itch, a non serious yet annoying rash.

Wait...let's reference the photo again...Yup there's my hand in the photo.

Luckily there were no break-outs.

The reason why it smelled so bad was because it was in fact dead. Evidently we are not the first two schmucks to find themselves in this predicament...ahh the internet...

Snails actually are quite famous for smelling like the third circle of hell when they die. We must have missed the memo. 

Most people suggested the above remedies to get the smell off, but that in the end, it wold just have to wear off.

Which it did, but lesson learned. Let snails lie.  
 

New Waterfowl Species (For Me Anyway)

I love nature! Being in the woods, or by a lakeside or pond makes me feel more alive than in any other experience. Something you might not know about me is that I love birding. I come by it naturally as it was something my mother and I did at a very young age. We always had several bird feeders by our door wall; mixed seed, suet, hummingbird, and thistle feeders. I would sit at the kitchen table and every time a new bird landed on the feeder my mom would quiz me. "Ok, how about that one?" she'd ask. If I didn't know its name we would take out her large Audubon Book of North American Birds and browse through the beautiful illustrations of all the colorful species. We'd find the bird and put a Post-It on that page with the date. As I got older, I expanded our love of birding by adding other types of feeders to our yard; Oriole feeders with citrus smelling nectar and grape jelly. I also discovered meal worms and made a peanut feeder for Wood Peckers.   

My love of birding doesn't really make its way into the farming blog that often, but it's definitely something I've always enjoyed. I used to do a feature here on the blog call Wild Wednesday where I would share different photographs of animals, birds, insects, interesting plants or mushrooms that I discovered while on a nature walk.

After we moved, I got away from Wild Wednesday because our lives were so saturated with interesting farming experiences that I had more than enough subject matter to stick with farming...But honestly, I miss it. Nature really is a large part of my personality and for a long time I've felt like something's been gone from my very soul. Not that I don't go out in nature anymore, it's just that I'm not quit as submerged as I used to be while living in the woods. Our little pocket of forest was so saturated with creatures that it felt like I was making new discoveries everyday. And it was even more interesting to note that as the surrounding area became more developed, (a subdivision went up close by; many trees were cut down, large homes were built, roads were paved, etc.) that the occurrence of new wildlife became more and more common. It was bittersweet really. While I enjoyed seeing these new animals on our property, like our first beaver, a pileated woodpecker, a grey fox etc. it was obvious that these animals were being squeezed together in some of the last pockets of woods left for them in the area. Or at least that's my theory?

In a way, a selfish way perhaps, I was glad that in the last few years I was able to experience a surge of wildlife before I left the woods and moved to the prairie.  

But rather than mourning my woodland experiences, I'm going to try to embrace the creatures of the meadow. We now see Sandhill Cranes and Red-winged Blackbirds, I photographed my first Black and Yellow Garden Spider, many varieties of snakes and my latest discovery is two new waterfowl species that I can add to my mothers well worn Book of North American Birds.

I apologize for the terrible photos but we were parked on the edge of a bride photographing what I thought were loons! We were on our way home from a friends house visiting their new baby lamb when I saw a large type of black and white waterfowl with a prominent pointed beak swimming in the thawed water of a frozen lake only about a mile from our house. "Zach!" I shouted. "I think I just saw a bunch of loons!"

I had never seen Loons this far south, but I thought perhaps they were making a stop on the way to their breeding grounds further north. We couldn't easily turn around in the car and the sun was setting so I knew I wouldn't get a good look.

We decided that we would let it be for the night and hopefully the "loons" would still be there the following day.

And they were. Only, after taking some rather distant photos and a good look through my binoculars, I realized these were not Loons at all. But I wasn't sure what they were?

So while I was disappointed that I didn't see a Loon, I was intrigued to identify this new species. Turns out, after browsing around the Michigan Audubon website and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that these are in fact Common Mergansers.You can see that the bodies are much whiter than a Loon, even in the loon's winter plumage. Also the females (If you look really close) have the slightest red-brown tint to their head and the hint of a crest in the back.

After looking through more of the photos I took at the bridge, I noticed this little pair of Lesser Scaups, which is also a new species for me.

Here is a Common Merganser with a male Hooded Merganser (Lower Right) which we used to have on our pond at the other house. 

Here's the same pair of Lesser Scaups with a Canada Goose above. This lake also had a good collection of Wood Ducks and Mallards. I'll keep visiting the lake and see if I can get some better photos to share.

Dyeing Fiber with Black Walnuts (Video!)

So we started the de-shelling process of the Black Walnuts. Most of the green husks were soft enough to just smush off with our fingers, but a few stubborn ones needed a blade to help.

They remind me of a small pine scented coconut.

The unveiling...

Once the green was removed it was time to wash them.

We swished them around in a clean bucket. The rough nut shells help clean each other. We dumped the water when it got cloudy and rinsed several times.

They will cure in this airy basket for two weeks then we'll crack them. (I'll keep you posted.)

The husks we saved in another bucket for dying.

Then we filled the bucket with water and let it soak over night to extract all the dye.

Then we strained the walnut water through an old towel so the bits of walnut wouldn't tangle in the fiber.

Walnut sludge.

Once we had a nice clean dye bath I soaked our mohair overnight.Black walnut dye is so absolute, that you shouldn't need a mordant.

Here is the final product! A very natural brown almost as if it has come from a brown fleece rather than a dye.

Home Made Candy Canes

This is a re-post from last year, but I have to say that it was so much fun I wanted to share it again! As you kneed the candy, and the air gets incorporated, it develops a sheen. It goes from clear and kinda drab, to a shiny almost opalescent candy. So pretty. And it's really fun to play with, (think glossy Silly Putty!)

Collecting Black Walnuts

In the front yard we have a big beautiful Black Walnut Tree that has produced TONS of walnuts this year.

This isn't even half of them. I'll keep you posted as we go through the process of...well... processing them into edible nuts. I'm also excited to use them to make natural dyes to color the roving. I'll keep you posted on that as well.

Awesome Bug Find!

Praying Mantis are always cool to find lurking in the garden. I remember as a kid Mantis's and Stick Insects were always a rare and wonderful treat to observe and watch in their interesting, gangly way. Obviously the excitement hasn't wore off now that I'm an adult, as I was out in the yard in my nightgown photographing this guy. The neighbors must have been thinking "Oh  boy, we've got a live one here!" As I ran outside in my slippers, now soaked with morning dew, camera in tote, hair in much of the same state that it was when I woke up, focusing on what must have looked like a very close shot of the house siding....well...all for your reading pleasure! Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Enjoy!

Wild Wednesday, Eastern Milksnake Babies

I was out in the yard gardening the other day when this little beauty slithered by. We've identified Milk Snakes in the yard before, but what alarmed me about this one was that it coiled and started shaking its tail. I wondered if it was a baby rattle snake, with an underdeveloped rattle. We caught it and brought it to the Howell Nature Center to have them identify it once and for all. It was in fact a Milk Snake, which are also known to shake their tails when threatened. They are born from eggs which hatch in the fall. We've found quite a few babies, so, someone must have laid a clutch of eggs.

Turkey in the Beans

I don't know why, but this struck me as hilarious. Turkeys are kinda funny creatures anyway, but when we saw this flock of wild turkeys and their little bald heads poking through the bean field, I started cracking up!

You can see more of their bodies here...the Aliens have emerged!

Wild Wednesday, Sword Tail Cricket

We are finding all sorts of new wildlife at the house. I'm still trying to get a good picture of our barn swallows. But they're SO fast and they never seem to land. We found this large cricket (I think it's a sword tail) by the pond.

It's about the size of a quarter, maybe a bit bigger.

Wild Wednesday, Eastern Milk Snake

We found this beauty curled up in the flower bed at the new house. I was a little nervous because of the diamond pattern on its back, thinking it might be a Massasauga Rattle snake, which are poisonous. But there was no rattle. We read that each year a rattle snake adds a segment to it's tail, so as it gets older the rattle gets larger. I still wasn't thrilled with the idea of Zach handling it, but we're fairly sure its an Eastern Milk Snake, as it was quite a long snake, the tail was in tact and no evidence of a rattle. If any of you know anything about snakes, I'd love to hear your input. 

May Apples

One of my favorite forest plants. They emerge early May like little green toadstools. With their shiny leaves all fresh and wrinkled up. Then come summer, they blossom open like miniature sun umbrellas. When I was little, I was convinced I'd find a fairy under one.

Towards the middle of summer they form a single bloom that produces a round green fruit.

Spring in Full Force

Before...

My oh my, have I been busy this week. Because spring has been so late, now that the weather has broke I've been going non-stop! The goats are sheared, and one rabbit down. Tomorrow, hopefully I can get Grommit sheared and then start cleaning the barn of the winter pile up. Yay?

After!

I'm so proud! I sheared the goats almost all by myself, and got through the shearing nick free!!! No triple anti-biotic for anyone!! Usually someone gets it, including me. I don't know if I'm getting more comfortable, or if the girls are getting used to being sheared, I think the biggest factor is that they're growing into all that wrinkled skin. Angora goats have loose wrinkled skin and it just loves to wedge itself between the shearing blades. When you shear, you can't pull the shorn wool back or you'll stretch the skin up and go into their flesh. Instead you have to pull the skin taught and run the clippers flat. The hard part is that the wool wants to come off all in one piece, like a pelt, so you need one hand to shear, one hand to smooth the skin, and another hand to move the mohair out of the way. Maybe the reason shearing was so easy was because I grew that third hand this year. No wait, that's not it.    

Amazing Bald Eagle, Live Stream

My friend Stacy just forwarded me this amazing link with a live stream video of a Bald Eagle sitting on her nest. Check it out. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/decorah-eagles

Wild Wednesday Weekly Poll

Day before yesterday I was out in the garden snipping bits of garlic greens from the newly emerging shoots from last Autumn's planting, and today we have 2 inches of snow on the ground! Ah, Michigan!

Spring has to be coming though right? I mean, we're not skipping it this year are we? One thing is for sure, the migratory birds are making their way back. We've already seen Robins, Blue Birds, Sandhill Cranes, Canada Geese, Woodducks and Mallards. The raccoons are out of hibernation, there are rabbits everywhere and it will only be a matter of time before we start to see babies.

All around the country the seasons change in different glorious ways. When we were in Maine in the Fall, we had just missed the Puffins, and if I remember right, the Humpback Whales were moving out of the bay. Nature provides us with so many signs as the seasons continuously move from one into another. I thought it might be interesting to generate some conversation as to what signifies spring in your neck of the woods. To help, I have a weekly poll that you can participate in. Feel free to elaborate, tell your favorite Spring stories, leave comments, and as always pictures are welcome!!

Maple Syrup Success!

We did it! This weekend we boiled down some of our sap.

So far, we have around 15 gallons between our two large maples.

We boiled down about a gallon or two and got around a pint. Our syrup has a definite maple flavor, but it has slight notes of honey. We're thinking is due to the fact that we tapped a Red Maple as opposed to a Sugar Maple. But it's delicious!

My brother, niece and nephew came over to watch the fun. They stayed the night and we had pancakes and homemade breakfast sausage the next morning with our syrup.

Indian Springs Maple Syrup Demonstration

I'm settling down after the chicks being born, and thought I would post about something other than chickens for a change. (I forget sometimes that not everyone in the world is as obsessed with them as I am, ha!)

Our mission to get maple syrup continues. After our last flop attempt at tapping maple trees (see Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber Tap Maple Trees) we decided that we needed some professional assistance. So we attended the Indian Springs Maple Syrup Demonstration. 

We started the day at the nature center in a classroom setting where we learned the history of the maple syruping process and how it has changed over the years. Starting with the Chippewa Indians (which I'm part) and how they constructed buckets and boiling systems by heating rocks and adding them to the syrup containers.

Then we learned how the settlers changed this system with the introduction of metal buckets and spigots. And finally how the large production companies make maple syrup today.

One of the most interesting things we learned is that there is a very small area in the world where maple syrup can be tapped. It is a state wide range including Michigan, Wisconsin, some of southern Canada and a few of the New England states. This is the only place in the world where the change in temperatures throughout the day produces the unique phenomenon which forces the sap to flow.

We also learned about the different grades of syrup starting with fancy, then the different A and B varieties. We also learned that Mrs. Buttersworth, and syrups of a similar variety, are made of corn syrup with artificial maple flavoring.

The most helpful lesson we learned (ahem) was how to identify a maple tree in the spring where there are no leaves present. There is an acronym that can help in this identification process. MADHorse stands for Maples, Ash, Dogwood and Horse Chestnut. These are a select group of trees where the branches grow parallel to each other. Most other trees, the branches are staggered. Another way to identify a maple is by looking at it's bark. The bark on a maple has flat vertical panels and it usually is splitting open on one side.

Turns out we were right to begin with. The tree we originally tapped was in fact a maple. We were just a little too early. It's flowing now!

After we left the classroom, we headed out on the trail to find a maple. Indian Springs provided a great display of historic mock ups along the way, demonstrating how the maple syrup collection has changed over the years.

It was a great spring walk through the woods with the sounds of tricking melted snow, Canada Geese and Sandhill Cranes returning on their migration from the south.

The group of us had to identify and agree on a maple tree. Then one member of the group was allowed to tap the tree. We all got to taste the sap. It was slightly sweet and mildly woodsy-maple flavored.

After we tapped, we walked further down the path to the boiling system. It smelled WONDERFUL!! A hearty combination of  campfire and maple scented steam. We watched as the syrup boiled down and then we were able to taste the delicious syrup!

For more information visit: http://www.michigan.org/Property/Detail.aspx?p=g7993
Fee: $3 per person. 1-800-477-3192 or 248-625-7280.