PCCB Field Trip Pond Study

Polk County Conservation Board (PCCB) offers awesome hands on science classes. We signed up for one a month, year round. Today was the first and it was really, really cool. It was also only $2.50 per family. Some insects, amphibians, and reptiles cannot live in water that is pollutes by certain degrees. The naturalists can determine the health, not only by labratory tests but by cataloguing the creatures and plants in the water. We helped! Here are the pictures of what we found when testing the health of a pond by documenting the living inhabitants.

The Week of Final Exams

We are fast approaching the end of the summer semester and this means grading crunch. I took on a 4th class this summer as a favor and that added 25 students (read 100 essays + 250 discussion forum entries) to my grading load. Needless to say, if I am to balance spending time with the tot with my current employment obligation, there will be fewer posts until August 15th.

Cheers and God Bless!

Mama Podkayne

Star Kitty gets a check up....

Ear Mite & Ear Mite Eggs

This is what else we brought home. :) Star Kitty checked out at the vet, all tests good except ear mites, she had a lot of ear mites. Lil'Bug got to see the mites and eggs under a microscope and they were still wiggling. She thought is was really cool that the Dr. let her back into the lab to see the microscope (so did I!) and fret not, mites are actually pretty common with farm cats and treatable. There are some other medical problems common to farm cats that Star Kitty is free and clear of but that we learned all about anyway. Someday soon we'll have to know as much about it as possible. By the grace of God, that someday will be soon!

New Member of Our Family

This is Star Kitty. Lil'Bug is in love with her! She is exuberant in her affection. Later today we will be visiting the vet for a lesson on how a three year old should hold a kitten.

I have fond memories of animals in my childhood (Thanks Aunt Deedle!) and so far, Lil'Bug is doing really well with animals in general. This is, however, the first furry critter that could not hold their own to Lil'Bug's enthusiastic play! Yikes.