Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 12, 2019 7:03:41 GMT -8
For the Birds
I had to remove a section of turf in order to put in a new flower bed recently. It's quite a process of slicing off the grass, shaking out the dirt, and then dispensing with the leftovers (which I could conveniently throw just a few feet away).
A few days earlier I had cut (laboriously with a weed-eater) a section of lawn ("lawn" = a small field of grass poking through every sort of weed known to mankind).
Throughout all this, I've been stalked by robins. And it seems at least one robin in particular (they all look alike, so I can't be sure of this) has become almost completely fearless of me. You've all seen pictures of the birds following the buffalo on the Serengeti. The birds follow close behind (often taking a perch on the buffalo's rump) because the buffalo stirs up insects wherever he romps.
The same was happening with me. This one bird had come to associate me with one of it greatest and easiest food sources. Whether slicing through a field with a noisy weed-eater of throwing shovels of sod, this bird was hardly skittish. In fact, break out the weed-eater and it will attract it. I'd never seen that before, especially allowing me to get so close.
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Post by lynda on Jun 13, 2019 9:06:33 GMT -8
There was a little finch who ghosted me one day while I was weeding. When I was kneeling down, it scurried behind me and ran across the bottoms of my bare feet. I could feel its tiny claws dancing across my skin.
"My" squirrel comes by every day for a few sunflower seeds. She used to come to the window where I sit and read, then humbly wait in her beggar's pose until I would see her and get up to put a few nuts out. Now she boldly strides through the open door, flings open the cupboard, and says, "Why isn't there ever anything to eat around here?"
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Post by kungfuzu on Jun 13, 2019 9:42:59 GMT -8
Jays always alight around me when I mow the lawn. I have to almost run over them before they fly away. I suppose mowing the lawn stirs up the little critters crawling in the grass and make them an easier catch for the birds.
One of the pluses of gardening is the animals one runs across. We have several geckos which invade our patio and live on the many plants there. Last year, I was on the patio talking to my wife, when I noticed a gecko on a potted plant which I was standing next to. As I looked down at it, it looked up at me without blinking. Clearly it was not concerned with my presence. I started to speak to my wife again when I felt a slight tug on my pants around my calf. I looked around and there was the gecko on my leg, still looking at me. As I stood motionless, it stayed on my leg for a about 15-20 seconds. It then leapt on to a bag of compost on the other side of me. It was the first, and only, time I had been used as a bridge by any animal.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 13, 2019 10:19:53 GMT -8
LOL. That paints such a charming picture. And you are very good to your squirrels. I'm trying as best I can to hold a tentative peace with mine. They dig holes all over the garden trying to plant the peanuts that a neighbor hands out.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 13, 2019 10:32:23 GMT -8
That's one friendly lizard. But I don't mind lizards. I could get use to that. Rarely do you see a lizard around here and it's usually a salamander if you do see one.
Just no spiders or ants crawling on me, please. But I do have a better relationship with spiders of the out-of-doors variety because they eat some of the pests who are pests to my garden. Inside, all bets are off.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jun 13, 2019 11:14:14 GMT -8
That's one friendly lizard.
It sure was. There was something very special in that moment. I have thought about telling that story for some time, but didn't feel any of the previous strings met the mood. This one does.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 13, 2019 11:41:57 GMT -8
Let’s see if I can work out a good workflow: from iPhone camera to posting in the forums. 1) Shoot picture 2) Let the app on my iPhone, Google Photos, automatically back it up into the cloud. 3) Grab link from Google Photos in my computer’s web browser 4) Use the free online Google Embed Code app. 5) Paste created link into the forum post editor box via the "insert image" icon.  Okay. That's quick enough, I guess. Anyway, the point is that Gibbnonymous gave me some pretty good weed the other day. It's that little plant in the upper left of the box. She gave me a take-home plant. You basically eat it like lettuce and it tastes in the ballpark of romaine lettuce. And what I can tell you is that this stuff is growing very fast. The little bed I put it in will be overgrown in a flash. But maybe I can eat it fast enough. It really is good and so much easier than trying to get lettuce to grow. I'm not sure if the slugs will go after this but I haven't put any bait around it yet. Hopefully Gibbnonymous can give you the details of this plant's name, etc. Although it takes up a lot of space to get a crop, if you have the room it might make a wonderful addition to your garden. |
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 13, 2019 11:57:57 GMT -8
We don't have a "Wildlife" section, per se. But perhaps you could start a lizard topic (or, more generally, "Wildlife" topic) in the "Outdoor Activities" forum.
The forum structure is subject to change. I'm trying to make it general but relevant and useful. If not a lot of people want to talk about travel, that form could be deleted or changed to something else. Someone could then start a "Travel" topic in the "Hobbies and Passions" forum if they wanted to. I'll keep an eye on trying to make all these general topic make sense.
But I don't pay the bills here anymore. I just set the place up. Create new topics wherever you want inside existing forums. I'm not necessarily a neat freak in this regard. And anyone with moderating powers (which you have) can keep an eye out for trolls or things that gets posted by advertising bots. Feel free to delete that kind of stuff at any time. I haven't seen that yet but I can't imagine that won't happen.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 13, 2019 11:59:41 GMT -8
According to the web page, this is a Texas Spiny lizard.  This image was found by searching DuckDuckGo.com in their "images" section. Find a photo you like, click on it, then click on the "View file" button, and then copy the link from your browser's address bar into the "Insert image" icon inside the post editor. Like this...  |
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Post by lynda on Jun 13, 2019 13:50:36 GMT -8
"Hopefully Gibbnonymous can give you the details of this plant's name, etc"
That fabulous weed is Purslane. It is a nutritionally dense plant which can be eaten raw or cooked, including the leaves, stems, flowers, and seeds. I'm not sure about the roots. Don't eat it if you are prone to kidney stones due to the high soluble calcium oxalates (bad for cats too, not that that's a deal-breaker). It is high in Vitamins E, A, C, and Magnesium, as well as a bunch of other stuff you can learn from Mother Earth News.
I think the flavor is great, kind-of a cross between lettuce and cucumber. Your plant is doing great, Brad. I'll collect some seeds for you, so you can have a steady harvest next year! I like having things to nibble on while I'm out in the garden, and the Purslane is easy to pick and eat, and is reasonably clean. Pest seem to ignore it, so no slug slime or crunchy insects to worry about (although I saw that hungry squirrel out in it the other day). Food is so much better for us when it is fresh-fresh. I'm talking really fresh! I've also frozen some for adding to smoothies.
Mine just showed up in the garden a few years ago, and has spread over a mound of sandy compost to cover about 20 square feet or so. It serves as a great ground cover. Edible mulch! And the dark green color it attractive. When it matures, it has little yellow flowers. What's not to like?
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Post by kungfuzu on Jun 13, 2019 14:55:47 GMT -8
Don't eat it if you are prone to kidney stones due to the high soluble calcium oxalates
Glad you mentioned that.
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Post by timothylane on Jun 13, 2019 16:40:29 GMT -8
A friend of mine is subject to calcium oxalate kidney stones. For him, spinach is virtually instant kidney stone.
Was that spiny lizard a horned toad (which we used to pronounce "horny toad")? The head closeup certainly reminds me of it. (A horned toad in any case is actually a lizard, sort of an inverse of most of Brad's lizards being salamanders.)
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 13, 2019 18:17:07 GMT -8
Gibbnonymous, thanks for the further info on Purslane. That's a bit of a girlish name but we won't hold it against it. It is remarkably refreshing right out of the garden. Gibbnonymous was even so clever as to wrap some in a leaf of lettuce and call it her lettuce taco. It was really a nice nibble.
Regarding calcium, one of the intelligent design authors noted that he thinks it likely that many forms of cancer will be found to be due to not enough calcium. You've all seen those wonderful mini-movies of cells dividing with close-ups of the chromosomes actually separating and pulling apart.
Well, there is some type of small micro-machine that does the pulling apart and it is likely that calcium is its engine. Not enough calcium can mean cell divisions that go wrong due to a blown gasket in the engine.
So risk those kidney stones to get a really healthy source of calcium.
This message brought to you by the Purslane Growers Association. Our slogan is "We tried to think of a more manly name for this veggie but ran out of time before lunch. But it's good for you all the same."
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Post by kungfuzu on Jun 15, 2019 13:26:10 GMT -8
So risk those kidney stones to get a really healthy source of calcium. You have obviously never had kidney stones, else you would not write such a thing. Aaaaaaahhhhhh!!!! |
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Post by timothylane on Jun 15, 2019 13:35:52 GMT -8
I once read about a measurement of pain (a dolorimeter). The greatest pains were passing gall and kidney stones. (The greatest moment of pain I ever recall was a consequence of perhaps the single stupidest thing I ever did -- picking up a hot soldering iron by the business end. But my leg wounds provided persistent pain that required extreme pain killers. Fortunately, those finally healed up sufficiently over a year ago.)
On the other hand, the problem seems to be the mixture of calcium and oxalic acid, not the calcium alone. Eating lots of dairy products (in my case, most notably cheese) without the foods rich in oxalic acid (such as spinach, rhubarb, and many nuts -- my friend used to love both macadamias and pistachios and has to give up both) should provide sufficient calcium.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jun 15, 2019 13:50:19 GMT -8
It appears one of the reasons some people form calcium oxalate stones is that they don't absorb enough calcium during digestion of food. Therefore, the excess calcium gets removed from the blood by the kidneys and ends up causing problems.
In fact, there are a number of different reasons people get stones and a person can have a combination of problems. I have had calcium oxalate stones with some uric acid material attached. Sometimes you can't win for losing.
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Post by timothylane on Jun 15, 2019 14:14:23 GMT -8
Among the things that help the body metabolize calcium are lactose and vitamin D. Spending a lot of time outside helps get vitamin D from sunshine.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jun 15, 2019 14:53:28 GMT -8
I had a doctor tell me the same thing while I was having problems on a trans-Pacific flight.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 15, 2019 15:33:01 GMT -8
You have obviously never had kidney stones, else you would not write such a thing. Aaaaaaahhhhhh!!!! Better agony then dead, I suppose, although those in the grip of one might certainly disagree. |
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Post by kungfuzu on Jun 15, 2019 21:00:41 GMT -8
I can recall at least one time thinking that I would not mind if someone came up and shot me at that moment. I was away from home and out in the desert alone.
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