~God’s Handiwork~

Focus: the STAR-NOSED MOLE

Food: Primarily an INSECTIVORE (grubs, worms, leeches, snails…)

AND it is an impressive swimmer! It lives in the low wetlands of eastern North America (from Canada down to Georgia).

So… what’ s with the nose?
The nose is unlike any other mammal nose.  It starts out as little bumps (instead of forming as an embryo) and after being born, the appendages split from the nose like a banana peel.

The specialized nose is covered in small extremely sensitive tendrils that have touch receptors.  It can identify and decide if it wants to eat something in 8 milliseconds, and consume anything edible in under 125 milliseconds (most mammals are at 230 milliseconds) Reference   It can also smell underwater! 

The fur is effective to repel water and hold in heat, which assists the mole as it swims in icy rivers and streams.  It makes 2 tunnels– one higher to forage, and one much deeper (sometimes even leads under water) for safety and escape.

The special nose makes up for the poor eyesight….what a wonderful creature to have….nosing around 😉  (Check out videos of this little guy foraging: HERE)

SPROUT!

July 9, 2011.

Peas ready for picking, squash too large to be edible, and still more kale. How wonderful the Lord has been to us that we can realize the fruits of our labors! We aren’t too sure how much corn we will get because the crows got the seeds again! It is too late in the season to plant any more, so we will have to wait and see how much comes up.

We are working out a system of flag markers for the staff and children of the Home to know which crops are ready for harvesting for their use. Crops like sugar snap peas should be harvested every day and that doesn’t fit very well with our Saturday only volunteer schedule. It shouldn’t be too long before we will need extra hands to harvest for the food banks.

–Jane

SPROUT!

July 2, 2011

Simple pleasures. A golden yellow sunflower unfurling its leaves; tomato plants setting fruit; peas sending out tendrils to attach to a climbing trellis. These are the common things that happen in our garden every day that make me realize that God is always at work in our lives.

We harvested all the radishes this week and a lot of squash that must have grown overnight. There is still plenty of kale that needs picking. In the row where the radishes were growing we planted lima beans with the intention of making Brunswick stew; we already have the tomatoes, corn and okra planted. We also planted more corn to compensate for the seeds that were eaten, and put up more string for the peas and beans to climb.

We are managing to keep the weeds under control where we have planted seeds or bedding plants, but we have only planted a quarter of the space available to us. With more volunteers we could plant a larger space, but for now we need to maintain the area we have planted. The garden is producing enough for the Children’s Home to use and there is still enough left over for the volunteers, but not enough yet to donate to the food banks. Kale and squash will be ready to pick on Saturday, July 9.

~Jane