The Binker Files

Digging for treasure

Silas & Levi's friends found an old dump in their backyard and invited us over for an afternoon of archeaology.  A very good time was had by all!

The kids dug until dark and uncovered an amazing assortment of old bottles, many appeared to be about 100 years old, most still intact.  Besides excavation, they managed to squeeze in quite a bit of tree climbing, fort building and ninja fighting, what more could a child want?

Look at this loot:

A lot of the bottles are from the A.S. Hinds of Portland, ME, a company that manufactured skin creams from 1875 to the early 1900's, you can find many bottles just like these for sale on e-bay.  Looks like there will be some historical research in our future!

Young Entrepreneurs

By all accounts, the farm sale was a success.  The boys had a great time and sold a lot of hot cocoa, cupcakes and snowmen.

One of the best things about the fair was the behind the table bartering that happened between all the young entrepreneurs - cupcakes, cocoa & snowmen were traded for fleece headbands, felt acorns, hemp bracelets, rice krispie treats, hand-sewn bird ornaments, painted note cards and candles.

I love Levi's sign, he decided to make his words "fancy".  I think he might share a love of cursive writing with his mother.

The fair took place in a heated greenhouse.  It was very cozy, which may have hurt Levi's hot cocoa sales just a bit.

Arlo seemed to enjoy the day too.  As usual he was very popular, here is a shot of him with his very good friend Ridley:

Check out the new tooth here (click on the picture for a close-up view - an option probably only interesting to grandparents):

Both Silas & Levi are anxious for future business opportunities.  Silas said he likes selling cupcakes, for now, but might want to try selling bigger & better things next!

Monarch love

We have at least three fascinating new houseguests.

They are so beautiful, we can't stop staring at them.  We try to capture their likeness in film or paint.

We can't wait to see what they'll do next!

We're not back to school...

but our days are getting busy!

Fish nests

Did you know that fish make nests?

Look closely at the above photo and you'll see a little sunfish in the 1 o'clock position hovering over the lighter-colored gravel circle at the center of the picture.  For weeks, the boys & I puzzled over these gravel circles found on the bottom of Long Pond, which have appeared with increasing frequency lately.  After a random, recent conversation with another mom about spawning sea lampreys, we guessed that the circles were nests and google has confirmed our suspicions. 

At spawning time, male bluegills, which include sunfish and bass, build nests by fanning their fins over the lake bottom until they have cleared a circular, slightly depressed area.  Females visit the nest only to deposit their eggs.  After fertilizing the eggs, the males guard the nest against predators and care for the eggs by aerating them with their fins.  The little fish near our dock are very busy, always fanning the lake bottom or chasing away any fish that approaches.

As I've mentioned previously, I've spent some part of most summers for the past 27 years at this lake, and yet I've never noticed these nests before.  I can't wait to discover what else I've missed!

"To see something new, take the same path you took yesterday."  --John Burroughs

Summer Solstice

To celebrate the first day of summer, the boys and I harnessed the power of the sun.

We built a solar oven and cooked our lunch outdoors under the bright sun and blue sky on this hot day that definitely felt like summer.  Our little oven worked great and in almost no time at all, we were enjoying a picnic lunch together in the shade of the garden.

 

I give credit to Silas for this lunch, when I asked him how he wanted to do on the solstice, he said "let's make solar bread".  I thought he meant that we should bake something in a solar oven and jumped right on it, but didn't find out until much later that I had misunderstood him, he actually said "let's make a celebration".  So, our ideas came together and we had a solar celebration which was very nice.

Happy Solstice! Here's to a magical and memorable summer!

Oak apple gall

One of the things I love about children is their natural curiosity and how, because of that quality, our family learns so many new and interesting things.  Take for example, the mysterious brown ball attached to the oak leaf in the above picture, which Silas recently discovered on the ground.  I have seen these balls many times before and often wondered what they were, but it took Silas' inquisitiveness to lead us to the nature guides and internet to discover that the these balls, or galls as they are called, are actually little nurseries for the oak gall wasp.  This tiny, non-stinging wasp deposits her egg inside the oak leaf, along with a hormone that causes the leaf to develop a gall around the wasp egg.  The larva of the wasp develops in the center of the gall and, if it makes it to adulthood, chews its way out and flies away.

The poor little larva in this gall didn't get the chance to grow up.  The boys really vacillated between saving the gall to see what eventually crawled out or cutting it open to see what was inside now.  But, the little ones don't have a lot of patience, and sure enough, we discovered a very tiny wasp at the center of the gall.  Although it is pretty hard see, here is the almost fully formed wasp:

The natural world is so amazing and sometimes, it's a little weird.

Horseshoe crab migration - Outdoor Monday

The boys & I just returned from a big adventure, we camped at Thomas Point Beach in Brunswick to witness the annual horseshoe crab migration.  Every year, right around the full moon in May and June, horseshoe crabs migrate to protected beaches within bays and coves to spawn.  This was such an amazing and memorable experience for all of us, I can't believe that the horseshoe crabs have been doing this for over 350 million years and we only just discovered that they are spawning here in Maine.

Some of these crabs are so old, like the male in the above picture, that they've taken on passengers.  We saw many crabs with barnacles, shells, snails and big mussels on their backs. 

The horseshoe crabs lay their eggs in the sand, either on the beach above the high tide line or in shallow waters.  The crabs were everywhere, we saw thousands of them.

 

Though they look a little scary, the crabs are harmless to people.  In fact, they are quite helpful to humans - anyone in the U.S. who has ever received an injectible medication has benefited from horseshoe crab blood, which is used by pharmaceutical and medical device companies to ensure that their products are free of bacterial contamination.

Levi & I especially loved the juveniles.  These little guys live in the intertidal flats for up to nine years before they reach sexual maturity and begin this migration to the beach themselves.  During this time they will molt up to 17 times.

When you stand in the water with the horseshoe crabs, they bump you repeatedly and crawl over your feet, which can be a little startling the first few times in happens.  One of them voluntarily wandered into the moat around Si & Levi's sandcastle, which greatly pleased the boys.  After that, many more went into the moat, but not of their own free will.

If you'd like to see this spectacular event for yourself, the horseshoe crabs will head for the beaches again next month around the full moon on June 26th.  Delaware Bay is the largest spawning ground in the world for horseshoes, but if you are in Maine, head to Thomas Point Beach, you won't be disappointed!

Floating around with the horseshoes were hundreds of beautiful (and harmless) moon jellyfish.

If you'd like to learn more about these interesting creatures, check out this episode of Nature on PBS.org.  Silas put the horseshoes right up to his face and let them tickle him with their legs, just like the fisherman in this show.

By the way, if you do go to Brunswick, don't play with the toxic browntail moth caterpillars or you may end up with a very itchy rash, like Levi did when we first arrived at the campground (luckily it went away after some medicine, a shower & a change of clothes).

 

The view from our campsite.

A brand new dragonfly

Silas, Levi & I have been watching a lot of dragonflies emerge lately.  Do you know where a dragonfly comes from?  Until a couple months ago, we had no idea.

Now we know that the immature form of a dragonfly is an aquatic carnivore called a naiad; it's appearance and lifestyle is nothing like that of the dragonfly that is becomes (except that they both eat bugs).  When the naiad is ready to shed it's skin for the last time so that the dragonfly can emerge, it must crawl from the water and attach itself to a secure spot.  We find them all over buildings and boats near the lake, the one in this picture is hanging onto the side of a sailboat.

The adult dragonfly emerges from the cast-off skin of the naiad quite quickly, but hangs there for a spell to open and dry out its wings.  Doesn't it look much to big to have been squeezed inside that naiad?

In less than an hour, this new dragonfly flew away to start his new life in his new form.  But, the exoskeletons of the naiads always stick around (until little boys remove them to add to their collections).  We've learned that the newly emerged dragonfly doesn't head straight for the water as we expected, but instead takes to the woods for a week or so to gain strength before having to battle for hunting territory on the lake.

The more we learn about insects, the more amazed we are at these incredible creatures.

"If we were to wipe out insects from this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it, would mostly disappear from the land within a few months."  -- E.O. Wilson

Photo by Silas Shutty.

Outdoor Monday

One of Silas & Levi's favorite books is called  The Orphan Seal, it tells the story of an abandoned baby seal that was rescued, nursed back to health, and later returned to the ocean.   Today, we were lucky enough to watch that story come to life when the University of New England's Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center released two juvenile and two adult male harp seals on a beach in Biddeford.

The boys were very impressed with this whole thing, and so was I.  The seals were just adorable and it was such a treat to watch them make they way back into the ocean.  Harp seals live in chilly waters of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, so from here they will swim north to Canada.

A young harp seal.

An adult male harp seal.

Almost there.

These are the seals that are often hunted as babies for their beautiful, fluffy, white fur.  Can you imagine clubbing such a cute animal?

 

After getting in the water, the seals gave a couple long looks back toward shore, as if saying goodbye, then swam away.  We watched until they were gone, then spent the rest of the beautiful afternoon on the beach.

Levi, Si & Coco.

These little creatures were all over the beach, we think they are krill:

Silas & Levi spent a lot of time with a dead sea worm.

 

It is always a good time at the beach, but today was really good!