POINTS OF INTEREST

Life if full of amazing every day points of interest if we take the time to notice. The above photo of a beautiful Wisconsin sunset was captured by my sister-in-law, Mary, as she and Mike were returning to the car from shopping. Oddly enough, Mary said, of the many people in the parking lot only one other person seemed to even notice.

Bean arbor

The other day while visiting Pebble Creek I noticed this beautiful bean arbor in their garden. Needless to say I came home with a sack of green and white snap beans. Even more interesting I noticed a couple strange objects on a post which turned out to be hives for stingless garden bees. Melipona beecheii is a species of eusocial stingless bee. It is native to Central America from the Yucatán Peninsula in the north to Costa Rica in the south and great for enhancing pollination. Also interesting is the word eusocial, which was new to me.

Jason made bee hives

Late last spring Taylor came home with a rooted clipping from a spider plant about 4 inches tall. I potted the plant and it just sat there in front of a sunny window for months not doing much. Something was wrong so I moved the plant to the edge of my loft and tadaa. It took off.

I have been waiting for the rain so I can start cutting firewood. Finally the day came and out I went all enthused. I love cutting wood and the atmosphere of the forest. Then life got busy with other necessities and I haven’t been back.

I have been attending soccer games. Latah has a game once a week and Teagan often has two games per week. Recently Teagan’s team played against Banks, Oregon’s, girls high school team. Banks is where Sam and Sophie attend school. Trout Lake and Banks are tied in a two game match. Both Teagan and Latah have moved into the next skill level so are adjusting to more powerful players.

Latah, 5th grade. Her last game found her sitting in the sidelines with a bloody nose from when a ball was kicked in her face.
Soon she was back playing
Teagan is a freshman in high school this year.
She loves playing soccer !

Thinking of sports, When Trout Lake played Banks the cousins were able to get together for a few minutes. Mike sent a photo of himself with his handsome grandson Jackson.

Sophie and Teagan
Jackson and Papa Mike

I recently finished two very interesting true story books.

This one I randomly found perusing the library
Deb recommended this book to me

Frances Glessner Lee dedicate her life to founding what is modern investigative forensics. Her story takes place around the time of WWII. She was the daughter of the richest man in Chicago having earned his wealth in farm machinery. His company became International Harvester. Living a privileged life Frances wanted to give back and invested her time and inherited wealth in forming the development of modern forensics.

. In the 1940s and 1950s she built dollhouse crime scenes based on real cases in order to train detectives to assess visual evidence. Still used in forensic training today, the eighteen Nutshell dioramas, on a scale of 1:12, display an astounding level of detail: pencils write, window shades move, whistles blow, and clues to the crimes are revealed to those who study the scenes carefully.

This photo gives an idea of the size of each room. Everything in the rooms were made with the exact materials the real life objects were made of.

The Stranger in the Woods tells the story of a 20 year old young man who made the decision to opt out of society and secreted himself in the dense woods of Maine where he lived outdoors for 27 years without speaking to another person. He survived by stealing from nearby vacation cabins. He was caught stealing from a group camp for special needs kids in 2013. It is an absolutely amazing but sad story. His family had no idea where he had gone. He one day just drove away and was not seen for 27 years. He lived not far from people so he never once started a fire to keep himself warm in the cold Maine winters for fear of revealing himself.

20 year old Christopher Knight
47 year old Christopher Knight
His entire camp consisted of objects stollen from nearby cabins.
Deb and Rex recently noticed the changing colors along the Pipestem River near Jamestown.