Plaster Paw Print

Today I decided to make a plaster print of my dog's paw.

 

My Akita

 I used homemade playdoh to make the mold

 because we didn't have any clay.

 

playdoh mold

 

 

 

finished print 

Wood Borer and some Water Creatures

Yesterday I went to a park with a creek and a lake.

I saw this insect on a tree. I tried to look it up on the Virginia list of Insect Identification. I did not find it but it looked similar to a Spotted Tree Borer or a White Oak Tree Borer.  I looked up Borers and found it also looks similar to the Sculpted Pine Borer.  I will have to keep researching.  I should have taken a picture of the tree it was on. 

We had some nets and some containers.  We filled the containers with some water and then dragged the nets along the still areas of the creek.  We found mainly tadpole and a few types of water insects.  I also found something that looked like a fairy shrimp!

 All the tadpoles were less than an inch and had back legs.  Except one was about 1 1/2" and didn't have legs yet.  Maybe it was a Bull Frog that was made from the water monster by Koluscap in the Micmac legend.

I hope to go to play in the creek again and I will bring my fishing pole.

Tadpole in a Vernal Pool

A vernal pool is a pool of water that forms from rain & snow melting and is mainly there in spring.  They usually dry up in the summer.  

Today "Bob" and I saw a tadpole with front and back legs in a vernal pool on a nature trail.

Eastern Worm Snake

While we were at archery we discovered a tiny snake.

 My mother thought it was a baby but I think it was an Eastern Worm Snake.

It was black with a pink belly. 

My sisters had fun shooting the zombie.

Fowler's Toad

Yesterday my neighbors found a toad in their yard.

Their wading pools were already filled up so we put the toad in the pools.

 We think it is a Fowler's Toad.

 The scientific name is Anaxyrus fowleri.  

Anaxyrus comes from the Greek ἄναξ which means king or leader.

Papier-mâché Shark, Part 3

I finished painting my shark. In real sharks the gills are closer to the eyes.

I am not very happy about the way it turned out.

So I rescued three more cans from the recycling.

I used PicMonkey for the top photo.

It is fun and free!

Triops, Fairy Shrimp, and Snails

Instead of three triops, we had one triops and two fairy shrimp, but the smallest fairy shrimp died.  

Fairy Shrimp swimming

On Friday my mom brought home some free 'nuisance snails' from Petsmart.

They told her that the snails would breed and the Triops would eat the eggs.

But when I put the snails in the Triops started to attack one of the snails.

Triops eating a snail

The Triops shed its carapace at least twice now. 

Triops swimming

Tetrahedron World

I am creating a tetrahedron world.  I haven't named it yet.  

I just finished creating the landforms and deciding the names of the cities.

To come up with the names I took a handful of Bananagrams letters and put them in an order I liked.

 This is a very forested side.  

This is the side I drew first.  All races except dwarves and gnomes live on this side.

These landforms on the bottom of the world look like a bacteria cell and a mushroom.  The bottom of the world only gets moonlight.  Dwarves live on the mushroom and gnomes live on the bacteria cell.

Fish and Triops

After two and a half days three Triops had hatched.

They were only about 1 millimeter long and very hard to see. Now they are about 1 centimeter.

Looking for food

You can see their eyes, frills, and forked tails.

One is smaller then others so I hope it doesn't get eaten .

Swimming down

Today I took a tour at Whole Foods.

Flounder's gills

A Red Snapper

My favorite part was the Fish Counter.

Vutha the Eastern Ratsnake

 Today there was a large snake on the deck!  We named it Vutha which mean black in D&D draconic.

At first I thought it was a Black Rat Snake but it wasn't all black with just a white chin.

I figured out it was a Eastern Ratsnake which is a kind of constrictor. 

They eat small mammals, eggs, frogs and insects.

I hope we see Vutha again!

Shape Shifting Dinosaurs

Triceratops statue

I watched a TED Talk called Shape Shifting Dinosaurs.

It said Triceratops is actually a baby Torosaurus.

It was very interesting and I highly recommend it.

Zoo Trip

On Friday I went to the Zoo.

Anaconda

My favorite part was "Amazonia" which had a Glass Frog. 

I can't remember what its common name was, so I need to go back.

Lion

When the Lion roared it sounded like an elephant. 

The only elephants I saw were large ones made of wicker.

Tiger Cub

Papier-mâché Shark, Part 2

Yesterday I added the caudal fin (tail). I really think its starting to look like a shark! 

Today I put on the papier-mâché. It was fun.

I discovered anatomical errors. 

The pelvic fins and dorsal fins and pectoral fins are all too far forward.

I hope to paint it tomorrow.

Snake cake and Triops

Snake Birthday Cake

My brother "Bob" had a jellybean snake cake for his birthday.

I gave him a Prehistoric Seamonster kit and helped him set it up.

Triops egg -- I think!

Sand on the bottom 

Nutrients float on top

The Prehistoric Seamonsters are actually tadpole shrimps, Latin name triops.  The are similar to prehistoric creatures.  Sometimes fairy shrimp eggs are included in the bag with the triops eggs.  Triops eat fairy shrimp.  They also eat each other.  And the food you give them.  I hope they hatch!

Papier-mâché Shark, Part 1

I decided to make a shark with a tin can covered with papier-mâché.

It doesn’t look much like the picture yet.  I’m counting a lot on the papier-mâché. 

The book is called National Geographic Kids Everything Sharks by Ruth A. Musgrave in 2011. 

It's starting to look like a shark!

Three sharks

Bigeye thresher, Short fin mako, thresher

Last year I drew and colored the top two sharks and my sister drew the bottom shark.