Drying Days

Weather this past week has been absolutely wonderful, plenty of sunshine, breezy and highs about 70. We took advantage of the mold killing sunshine by placing furniture, books and some clothing outside yesterday. We’ve been having our ‘King’s Breakfast’ outside and even had a campfire Friday night. The camera flash revealed John’s terribly over-crisped campfire bread.

Even though my boots were previously sun dried and packed away in a plastic tub, the leather still succumbed to the humidity and mold spores. Of the few leather items we possess, the ones that sit stationary are more susceptible to mold growth, whereas the items that are continually handled, one of my belts and Sally’s binder, are mold free. Its similar to the reduced tendency of long hair to grow where your clothing rubs against your skin. More research is needed!

Visitors yesterday included Pepito and two white horses. From Pepito, we purchased eggs($2.50 for fifteen), banana bread($2.50) and empanadas($2.50 for two, large enough with rice and a vegetable to make a meal for four). Fortunately they were not messy eaters and carefully picked the grass without damaging our struggling banana plant. We gave Rigo a call, and sure enough, the horses were his. By the time Rigo arrived in the front pasture, the horses had moved down the driveway behind the house. As usual, John Gustavo had kept his watchful eye on the animals and was able to direct Rigo to their exact position around a corner.

A neighbor confirmed that he measured over (45 inches) of precipitation in September, the highest monthly total he has seen in his thirty years of recording here. This far in October, we have received less than two inches, most of that on Oct 1. Hopefully those downpours can hold off a few more days. We are taking the boys to the Cloud Forest Reserve this morning and to an amusement park and zoo in San Jose sometime this week.

I met an elephant beetle the other day – a very friendly fellow with small mouthparts, no jaws to dig in to my flesh, and effectively pointy claws for clinging onto skin, clothing, tree bark, a mate, etc. The assistant director at school accepted the invitation to have it placed on her pant leg, but enough was enough as it crawled higher and three of us strategically teamed together to pry its legs from the bluejeans and encourage it to advance to a stick. The elephant beetle belongs to the group of largest and most powerful beetles on earth. The beetle is simply HUGE and prefers to eat tree sap, bark and rotting fruits. The pics show the beetle on my hand but the grub pic is from Wikipedia. Beetles belong to the Coleoptera order, insecta class, and arthropoda phylum.

Finally, Science Lab Safety Test time! Look at the picture of the stunt actor that looks like Mike conducting a science experiment. Can you name at least 5 things that should be improved to make his experiment more safe? Signed M.