March Book Club: A Mercy

This month's book was Mercy by Toni Morrison. The story takes place in 1690, when slavery was still fairly new to America. Florens, the main character, is the child of a slave and is offered as payment to a debt. Jacob is the man who takes Florens as payment to his small, struggling farm that is primarily populated by women. (Jacob does not like having too many men on the farm while he is away) The women on the farm are Rebekkah, Jacob's wife, Lina and Sorrow are the female slaves. The other 3 men characters in the story that play small, but important parts are the Blacksmith, Will and Scully.

Each chapter is told from a different perspective and the reader learns the character's present situation and thoughts are often affected by their past.

Spoilers below.



From my personal perspective, I thought the prose in this book was beautiful and the story spoke to me. The first thing that struck me was the theme of hardship that we impose on others: slavery, class, religion, women's rights. For example, in the beginning of the book, D'Ortega is the cash strapped farmer who is eager to pay his debt to Jacob with another human being. D'Ortega looks at his slaves as commodities instead of people.

Rebekkah parents treated her in much the same way, especially when she came to be of marriage age and there were few prospects in England. Her father searched for a prospective husband and found Jacob's request in a newspaper (Jacob lived in America). It was obvious her father was indifferent to her daughter having a better life than he. He just wanted her out of the house because it would be one less mouth to feed. ...Rebekkah's mother objected to the "sale" - she called it that because the prospective groom had stressed "reimbursement" for clothing, expenses and a few supplies - not for the love or need of her daughter, but because the husband to be was a heathen living among savages. And when Rebekkah made the move to America and married Jacob, she never heard from her family again.

Sorrow was a bit older than Florens but had a great deal of hardship in her young life, beginning with her surviving a mass murder on the ship she grew up on. She developed a mechanism to cope with this severe trauma but as a result she was perceived as odd. Instead of being treated with patience and compassion, she was feared and treated as an outcast by the women she lived with on the farm.

Lina was a central character in the book, but somehow it seemed there was too little light shed on this character. She was a member of a tribe that was overcome by illness and when Presbyterians took her in, preaching religion as the "right way" of life, she lost her freedom to slavery. She often inflicted hardship on others, especially Sorrow.

Perhaps the person most affected by hardship was Florens, beginning with her mother offering Florens as payment for D'Ortega's debt. Florens was subjected to the careless way the Blacksmith took her heart and left her behind and this was the beginning of the end for this young woman. Lina, the matriach of the slave family, opposed Floren's attachment to the Blacksmith that waltzed in as a free black man to build an iron gate for Jacob's new estate. She knew this man would break Florens' heart, possibly even her soul.
Florens had been a quiet, timid version of herself at the time of displacement. Before destruction. Before sin. Before man...Lina saw the flaw in Florens' unabiding devotion to the blacksmith and Florens was blind to it. "You are a leaf on his tree" "No," said Florens "I am his tree."

When Rebekkah fell ill she asked for the Blacksmith's aid (he had some medical knowledge) and Florens eagerly volunteered to go find him under the illusion of a happy reunion would be had. The sad transformation began on this journey. When Florens stayed with a widow and her young child she was subjected to the harsh racial and religious prejudice of a visiting pastor and his family. They forced her to take off her clothes to make sure she was not a demon.
...eyes that examine me for a tail, an extra teat, a man's whip between my legs...they want to see if my tongue is split like a snake, or if my teeth or filing to points to chew them up.

Florens makes her escape from the house, but the experience just short of shattered her.
Inside I am shrinking. I climb the stream bed under watching trees and know I am not the same. I am losing something with every step I take. I can feel the drain. Something precious is leaving me. I am a thing apart...inside dark is small, feathered and toothy...

And when Florens arrives at the Blacksmith's doorstep, she is disheartened to see he has a young child and there is not the joyous, passionate reunion she was expecting. He leaves the child in Florens care while he tends to Rebekkah and the young woman barely tolerates the boy's presence, seeing him as competition for the Blacksmith's attention. She ends up nearly beating the boy and then the Blacksmith, when he interrupts the physical violence. She is hurt and doesn't understand when he calls her a slave with no mind or sense of self. She is enraged and her fury takes on a life of its own.

At the end of the book, Florens allowed this recent run of hardships to wreck her life, making her mother's sacrifice for naught. And here is where the mercy and hardship intermingle. The mother did not surrender Florens because she no longer wanted her child, as Florens believed, but because the mother wanted Florens to have a better life. The sacrifice was a hardship both on mother and daughter but for different reasons and only the mother knew the true reason for the sacrifice.

Oh Deer!

I went to the Ecology Center this morning to check the nestboxes in the woods and came across this deer skeleton.


My Photographer's eye and Naturalists' curiosity went into overdrive and I spent quite a bit of time examining each bone and "posing" some of the more interesting pieces. Naturally the deer's skull caught my attention first.


Deers have antlers, not horns. Horns are composed mainly of keratin and grow continuously, whereas antlers are made of bone and are shed yearly. Deer shed their antlers sometime in January and begin growing new ones in early spring. Those antlers will grow 1-2" weekly until fall. Those growing antlers are covered in velvet, which contain blood vessels and nerve endings and once the antlers stop growing, the velvet dies and begins to peel. The adult buck will help this process along and rub the velvet off those antlers within a day or two.

The eyes of a deer are interesting as well.


The eyes are located on the side of the head providing the deer with 310 degree vision. This wide angle view of things allows the deer to be aware of its surroundings, even when he is staring straight ahead. The disadvantage to this is that the deer cannot focus on one object or location with both eyes and has poor depth perception. Deer have excellent night vision and it is believed they can see in the ultraviolet light range, which is abundant in the early morning and late afternoon.



It is possible to age a deer based on the growth and wear of the teeth. Deer only have teeth on their bottom jaw and these teeth are big and fairly flat, ideal for chewing and grinding leaves, twigs and hard shelled seeds such as acorns.

The spine and pelvis fascinated me. I didn't realize how narrow the pelvis was on these animals.




This picture is my favorite:


What a unique find. I'm looking forward to the additional treasures I'm going to find this summer in the woods.

A great deal of the info I found on deer anatomy was on hunting.net and the Missouri Dept of Conservation website.

And don't worry Mom, I washed my hands after handling the bones.

Magic Bites

Atlanta provides the backdrop for the first book in this urban fantasy series. But instead of the noisy hustle and bustle of a big city, this Atlanta is filled with magic users, shape shifters, vampires and supernatural monsters. While modern technology does work (this is called the "tech") in this setting, magic waves do hit the city rendering all modern comforts useless. Parts of the city not under the protection of magic resemble war zones as these unpredictable waves have eaten away at the architecture, reducing tall buildings to rubble and hallowed shells.
Life in this Atlanta is rough. In addition to the run-of-the-mill crimes of murder, grand theft auto and the like, there is also the supernatural variety of crime. Dangerous magic lurks on the wrong side of the tracks and the Shapeshifters and Vampires (known as The People), who loosely resemble Mafia Gangs, reign supreme and are at war with each other. The police are not much use in this area of crime, but this is where the Mercenary Guild and the Order of Knights of Merciful Aid step in to dispatch summoned creatures of the nether world and investigate crimes of the paranormal variety.
We meet Kate Daniels in this first book. She's a hardened young woman with inborn magical abilities. She freelances for the Merc Guild and the Order and has recently learned her mentor, a Knight of the Order, has been murdered. She sets into action to find his killer. Kate questions the "Beast Lord", also known as Curran, the alpha Lion shapeshifter of Atlanta but it turns out some of his pack members have been murdered and he needs Kate's help as well. Before long both shapeshifters and vampires are suspects in what is now appears to be a string of related murders.
The ending is a surprise and kudos to Ms. Andrews on her creativity on the who and what of the crimes. The author does a wonderful job of balancing the strengths and weaknesses of the main characters Kate and Curran. Kate's physical prowess is remarkable, but she does have her limitations and has her ass handed to her enough to keep her ego in check. She is protective of her friends and even more so of her past. The author keeps you in suspense of Kate's past and her abilities, only dropping hints of Kate's powers here and there. Ms. Andrews knows how to weave a believable story involving real people with realistic personalities.
If you're looking for a different genre to read, this is a good book that introduces the realm of urban fantasy.

Aw Crap

OOPS. I did it again. Where did the time go? Believe it or not, I think about my blog often. I think of a topic or of an event and say to myself, "That would be a great blog entry!" But the words often do not accompany the idea. I've read several times that wannabe writers need to write every day. I don't know why I don't put forth the effort. I enjoy writing. I know my writing would stay decent if I practiced more often. But sometimes the idea of writing every day intimidates me. What if I run out of things to say? What then? How much would I have to write if I wrote every day and for how long? Is there a rule book?

But for today I will catch you up on what's been going on for the last several weeks. Prep for Summer field work. I realize over 75% of my entries are on this very subject and I apologize for my lack of originality. But I promise future blog entries will be about other topics. I PROMISE. (Ok, now I just need to hold to the promise)

I attended a bird banding conference in October and met several people who were also passionate about their field jobs. One man in particular gave a presentation on the importance of the questions and design of a research project. His talk began niggling at the doubt I had over MY research design. I wasn't confident with my research methods. I was more-or-less blindly going on what I had done on the projects of other professionals.

I thought a lot about what the man talked about after that conference and began reforming my questions. That took a few weeks but when I was happy with my study questions, the research methods for my project loomed overhead. This happened around the same time I started looking for grant money and inevitably, all the grant applications asked about your research methods. Ok, time to stop procrastinating and take a hard look at the way I was doing my field work.

So I emailed the gentleman who gave the presentation at the conference. We corresponded for about a month and I walked away knowing that some of my research methods were not appropriate for my study. Ouch. But on a positive note, he helped me refine my bird census technique and made me realize that I needed to completely revamp my Nestbox study.

One of the big things the field researcher from the conference pointed out to me was the need for control sites. One of the main questions of my project is centered around bird response to prairie burns and overall habitat size. I had no other prairie habitats to compare to the focal point of my study at the Nature Center. So I began looking for other prairie habitats around my area. In the past, a great chunk of Missouri was covered in prairie. Today, only about 1% of prairie remains in the Show Me state. Finding at least 2 other prairie sites promised to be a challenge. But luck was on my side. I found 2 organizations that sported restored prairie habitat and both were less than 20 miles from my home. I'm still ironing out the details with one of the organizations, but the other prairie (and accompanying paperwork that will absolve me of trouble with the law when I'm hiking around at the crack of dawn) is good to go.

I applied for one grant in early January and will be writing a revised grant proposal to turn in to the Nature Center in the next few weeks. There are still a few worrisome details I need to iron out. Like how in the hell do I perform a habitat assessment? I need to determine plant dominance and density in my prairie plots. You have no idea how often I think about this and worry. I did find a website created by a professor at a university about that very topic. I also have a book that touches on it as well. So really, I should put this concern to rest.

As to my Nestbox Study. Well, I'm disappointed in the results from the last 2 years of data. But writing the report and giving the presentation was good practice. This year I would like to get kids involved. I want to bring field science to the kids. What better way to teach conservation and respect to the environment through hands on experience with living animals? I've pestered at least 2 of my coworkers to let me practice on their children. I hope I have little helpers this summer. That would just make me squee.

You may wonder why I'm putting forth all this effort. A few reasons. I still have hopes for graduate school somewhere in the distant future. If I can create a successful study design on my own, graduate school will not seem so impossible or overwhelming. This research stuff is good practice and a good confidence builder. For me, this study is what conservation is all about. Discovering how plant and animal life are affected by human disturbance and in turn, showing those results to the public. And there's this tiny seed of a dream that perhaps in the future, people will see my work and want to hire me as a contractor to evaluate their management practices on their property, or do freelance work with school districts and take kids OUTSIDE during science class or after school.

But for right now, I'm just in love with the birds and the beauty of the prairie.

Career Day

Friday I took part in a 7th grade Career Day. It was a large event. There were at least 50 professionals ranging from military and medical to hair stylist, animal rescue and dental hygienist. The afternoon was set up on a 20 minute rotation. I was told to expect no more than 6 kids at a time and I had 20 minutes to discuss what a typical day entailed, schooling involved, salary, as well as likes/dislikes about the job. I had my own classroom, complete with white board, computer and projector.

I was a bit apprehensive about this career day. Usually people's eyes start to glaze over when they ask me "What do you do for a living?" How was I going to make this interesting for a bunch of 7th graders? So I put together a power point presentation of photos of my mistnetting and checking nest boxes. I began telling the kids about my field project and the things they were learning in Science Class (I used the terms Scientific Method, Independent Variable, Dependent Variable, Hypothesis, Habitat, Predator in every talk) were going to stick with them long after school was finished. I showed them the photos and peppered my talk with personal stories and tidbits on bird behavior.

The questions from the kids were what made each presentation interesting and entertaining. I can only hope I was as enlightening and entertaining as they were. Here are the highlights from my afternoon.

What was the funniest thing that happened to you?
I learned the hard way to not just stick your hand in a nestbox without looking first. Once I stuck my hand in a box and when I pulled it out, it was covered in ants. This is my favorite funny story. It's disgusting and I still get the chills when I think about it, but it was funny.

What was the scariest thing that happened to you?
I went up to Alaska to work one summer. We were camping near a stream in the mountains when we had a bear come into our camp. Another favorite story of mine. I love the reactions I get. There was no real danger here. The bear barely entered our camp perimeter when he saw us, turned tail and ran.

What do you like about your job?
The first thing I love the most is being able to have the birds in my hand to look at them and learn about them. It's neat to see their colors up close. The second thing I love about my job is being outside. I like being able to watch the habitat I'm studying change...the growth of flowers, grasses. It all changes in the spring and summer. Nothing stays the same.

What do you hate about your job?
Doing the math calculations for my reports. There is a lot of math involved.

The discussions on bird behavior and resulting stories were entertaining as well. In one group the topic of aggressive Canada Geese came up. I told them that most geese were aggressive because they were usually defending chicks and sometimes territory. When I advised the kids to simply walk further away when they saw adults with their young offspring, one girl raised her hand and said she had a story. Thinking she was going to talk about young geese, I agreed to let her speak and this is what she said.

This one time, um, I think I was 5, it was winter and I was outside and there were mom geese on one side of a pond and dad geese on the other side of the pond and I fed them and there was a sign that said don't feed the geese, but I couldn't read so I didn't know and then these 10 kids came up and picked me up by my shoulders and threw me in the pond.

What?

In another rotation we were discussing songbirds. I learned that one girl's grandmother had bird feeders out and she "made the nectar juice for the hummingbirds." As soon as she stopped talking another boy piped up that his mom screamed and freaked out when a bird flew in their house.

I think my favorite discussion was on birds not being able to count or smell. We were talking about baby birds in one group when one girl mentioned her family taking care of a baby bird that fell out of its nest.

You know what? Birds can't count and they can't smell. So if you happen to find a baby bird on the ground and there's a nest nearby, you can put the bird in the nest. The bird won't know if she has 4 or 5 babies. She'll take care of it. And it can be a different species too. It's ok to put a robin baby bird in a cardinal's nest.

Wait. But won't the momma bird abandon the nest?

Nope. She can't smell, remember?

But, she's going to know you put it there.

No she won't. She can't smell the scent from your hands.

But how is she going to know that you put it in there?

One boy grew tired of this exchange and said in an exasperated tone: SHE CAN'T SMELL. SHE DOESN'T KNOW!

Then the light bulb went off in the girls head. It was so obvious that I almost expected to hear the click of the switch. Ohhhhh.

I smiled at her and said "The only birds that can smell are turkey vultures. They can smell dead animals and that's important, since that's what they eat."

Can they smell us or other living animals?

Hmm, I don't know. That's a good question actually. I'll have to look that one up and you can as well.

During the last rotation, I found myself in a debate with one boy who was convinced turkeys had their nests up in trees when in fact, turkeys are ground nesters. This went on for about 2 minutes when I found myself saying "Dude, I've been working with birds longer than you've been alive. I know what I'm talking about."

Did I just say THAT?

In any case, it was a fun afternoon and I hope I sparked an interest in some of these kids.

A field of fire

Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch the annual prairie burn at the Ecology Center. The Ecology Center has been managing 12 acres of Tallgrass Prairie since 1989 through planting Mo native grasses and forbs and yearly burns. The prairie is divided up into 3 plots and each plot is burned every other year. Last year the North Prairie was burned and this year the South Prairie was due for its burn. (Next year will be the North and Pasture prairies)

Historically speaking, the Native Americans burned the prairies and woodlands on a regular basis as a way to fireproof their villages, prepare planting sites, control undesirable pests, control movement of game (especially bison), encourage berry production and expose acorns for food collection. This tradition was continued by European Settlers but US gov agencies such as the Forest Service began to discourage the practice in the early 20th century and by the 1950s the custom was extinguished.

The Ecology Center take these burns very seriously and employ a number of safety measures to ensure the success of the fire. All burns are conducted within a "prescription": a set of guidelines for weather and fire safety, taking into account factors such as humidity, temperature, wind speed, and wind direction. The Fire Department is on hand and the Ecology staff and volunteers don water tanks, rakes and flappers to control small fires that may try to burn too close to the predetermined fire breaks. (areas that serve as buffer zones between the burn site and those locations that must not be burned, such as the woodland and nearby homes). A 65 gallon water container follows the Fire Starters in the event the burn gets out of control.



The fire is started with a drip torch, an aluminum canister that holds a 2:1 fuel mixture of diesel and gasoline. The torch slowly drips fire once lit and has 2 safety mechanisms to prevent flashback.


The fire starters wear fire resistant suits made of Nomex or other similar material.


It was a beautiful day for a prairie burn. The sky was clear and there was a gentle breeze. The ground may have been a bit damp from the October rains, but there was enough dried vegetation on the ground to get the fire going.


The grasses (Big Bluestem, Indian Grass, Switchgrass) caught fire quickly and produced the exciting towers of flames but the Cup Plant and Goldenrod plant species appeared to have retained moisture from all the rain and did not easily burn. Ecology Center staff later told me these plant species normally do not burn well.

The tall plants in the middle are Cup Plants.





Fires play an important role in the Prairie ecosystem. Fire cleans and fertilizes. Most prairie plants grow from just below the surface, not from their stems above the ground so a fire will not kill these plants. However burning will clear out those unwanted plant species not adapted for a fire, plants that may have been prohibiting prairie plants from growing on their native grounds. After the growing season, prairie plants store minerals in their stems, leaves and bark. When these plants are burned and reduced to ash, the minerals in the ashes of the plants return to the soil.


The burned, blackened soil is quickly heated up by the sun's rays and stimulates seed germination, sprouting and growth.


Here is a photo of Nestbox #5, taken last summer


And here is Nestbox #5 after the burn


The burn took a little over an hour to complete and the plot will be carefully monitored for the next few days for signs of smoldering flames. In a few months there will be no sign that this burn ever took place.

Let the growing season begin!

"I pity the fool!" Mr. T and World of Warcraft.

You may have seen the infamous Mr. T from the "A Team" do the Night Elf Mohawk commercial for World of Warcraft last year. It's a 30 second clip where Mr. T proclaims he is a mighty "Night Elf Mohawk" and hollers "Shut up fool!" when the director tells him there's no such thing as a Night Elf Mohawk. William Shatner, Ozzy Osborne and Verne Troyer (Mini Me) also did commericals for World of Warcraft.

Mr. T has crossed the TV threshold into video game land. World of Warcraft is promoting the ingame Night Elf Mohawk grenades.

Are you intrigued? Would you like to know how to get your very own Night Elf Mohawk grenades? Here are the 3 easy steps to get your very own grenade.

Step One
You can easily find Mr. T (aka Night Elf Mohawk) standing outside the starter zone in Elwynn Forest.



Step Two
Simply talk to Night Elf Mohawk and listen to his story.


Step Three
Voila! Night Elf Mohawk will give you a stack of 5 Mohawk grenades you can throw at other players.


Soon everyone (well 5 people anyways) will be running around looking like Mr. T and pitying the fools who don't sport the same awesome Mohawk.



Doesn't this make you want to run out and buy the game? ;)