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Starting the School Year in a Positive Mindset
Teachers have always had a very challenging job – or jobs, really. Beyond teaching classes of 15-30+ kids and designing different ways to meet the needs of a variety of learners, teachers take on other jobs – making sure students’ have their basic needs met outside the classroom, lunch/recess supervision, coaching and club organizing, helping with school events and functions, and the list goes on and on. Teachers are “on” all day long, often without a break, working through lunch and prepping/grading in their “free” periods. I know elementary teachers who don’t drink water during the day because they’re afraid they won’t have an opportunity to use the restroom. They bring their work home with them. They spend their own money on classroom supplies. They continue their education, keeping up on the latest pedagogy and training in order to be able to renew their teaching license. They’re available when students need to talk or parents have a concern. They work their tails off because they care about our kids – all while under the careful scrutiny of their administration, parents, the general public, and social media. The high stress and low pay of teachers leads to the profession having a very high attrition rate, with roughly 8% of teachers leaving the industry each year (only ⅓ of those are retirement age).
Nature Notes: Dragonfly Daze
The hot days at the end of July and early August are often referred to as the “dog days” of summer. While I always thought they were named after pups too hot and lazy to move during this time of year, the name actually comes from the Greeks and Romans who noticed the star Sirius, in the canis major (dog) constellation, rises just before the sun during this time of year. These “dog days” are also the “dragonfly daze” of summer – although dragonfly populations explode in late June and July, many species are still on wing through early August and beyond. But where do they come from, where do they go, and how come these friendly bug eaters are only around for a couple of months!?
Actually, they’re around all year long, but if you’re looking to the skies to find ‘em in cold months, you’re looking in the wrong place. Of course we don’t see dragonflies zooming around all winter in subzero temperatures. They have adapted a rather interesting survival strategy to make it through our long harsh winters – all of the adults die off except for a few species, like the Green Darner, that actually migrate! Green Darner adults fly all the way to Texas in the fall and their offspring will return in the spring (usually one of the first species we see). Dragonflies go through incomplete metamorphosis, which means their life cycle as three stages instead of the four stages you would see in complete metamorphosis. They begin as eggs in the water, hatch into aquatic larvae or nymphs and then skip the pupating stage, instead opting to go straight to adulthood.
Most dragonflies spend their winters underwater as nymphs, in diapause (a resting state) in the “warm” mucky-muck at the bottom of rivers, ponds and lakes. A few species overwinter in eggs on the shoreline, which will be washed into the water in the spring and hatch into nymphs. Depending on the species, dragonflies may be in the nymph stage for only a few weeks or up to 8 years in some Asian species! Here, most of our dragonflies spend about 1-3 years as nymphs.
These nymphs survive underwater by breathing through larval gills and using their keen sense of sight and super sensitive antennae to be ferocious predators of the lake bottom. They devour other insect larvae (like mosquitoes!), other dragonfly larvae, tadpoles, and even small fish with a voracious appetite. In turn, they serve their part in the food web as prey to larger frogs or fish. As they eat, they grow, molting old tight-fitting exoskeletons for new, roomier ones.
When the nymph is ready to turn into an adult it has a day or two of diapause while the final changes are made inside of the larval exoskeleton. During this time the nymph often has its head above water as it becomes acquainted to breathing oxygen, like it will in the adult form. When it is ready, it will climb up onto a plant or rock, the thorax splits open, the adult form emerges small and deflated and spends several hours “pumping” up its body with hemolymph (insect blood) until it reaches its full adult size. You can often find these deserted exuviae, or the exoskeleton they left behind, cling to vegetation or other structures around the water’s edge.
When the exoskeleton has dried and hardened, the dragonfly will take its first flight and become a predator of the sky. With impressive compound eyes of 30,000 lenses, dragonflies have incredible sight. Pair that with the capability of sustained, highly maneuverable flight, antennae that work as anemometers to measure wind speed and direction, powerful jaws, and spines on their front legs that act as a grocery cart for prey, and you get a pretty formidable predator. Dragonflies will eat pretty much anything they can catch, including other dragonflies, butterflies, and have even been observed taking down a hummingbird! They may eat their prey on wing or take it back to a perch. A keen observer may find discarded butterfly wings or beetle wings under a dragonfly perch. If you’re lucky enough to get close to one eating, you can even hear the “crunch!”
You can thank the dragonflies for eating an insane amount of insects and pests (nicknamed the mosquito hunter as some can consume hundreds of mosquitos in just one day). You think a lion or a wolf is a good hunter? Hate to break it to ya, but they ain’t got nothin’ on the dragonfly! Recent studies show dragonflies catch their target prey 95% of the time – a number that decimates the stats of all large mammalian predators. In fact, their precision flight and accuracy is so impressive, they have been used for military and private sector research regarding drone development and design!
Right now is a great time to get outside and see some dragonflies before they disappear in the fall! Many are feeding, mating, or laying eggs. Dragonflies are fiercely competitive for food and mates, so you may even get to witness a dragonfly brawl. If you’re near water, look for a female dipping her abdomen into the water to lay eggs. Males guard females while laying eggs so they may stay attached to the female, or I more commonly find them “hover guarding” – where the male hovers near by and quickly chases off any other males, sometimes with a loud clash of wings! As dragonflies are hatched in, feed around, and lay eggs in water, they typically don’t travel too far from a water source, so check out any nearby ponds, streams, lake shores, or wetlands for a look-see! Here are just some you might find!
Black-shouldered Spinyleg 
Canada Darner 
Four-spotted Skimmer 
Dusky Clubtail 
Pronghorn Clubtail 
Widow Skimmer (female or juvenile, which often have different colors/patterns than males!) 
Widow Skimmer (Male, which often have different colors/patterns than females and juveniles!) 
Common Baskettail 
Autumn Meadowhawk 
Chalk-fronted Corporal
Enjoy the end of summer weather, getting outside for some fresh air, and watching these remarkable hunters gobble up mosquitoes!
4 Ways to Keep Your Garden Happy in the Heat
While you’re out and about during the summer, it’s important to remember that your garden is also likely under the effects of the heat. Let’s review what you can do to help keep your soil and little green buddies happy and thriving in the hot summer months.
- Water early in the day: If the sun is shining brightly while you water your garden, the moisture you provide will evaporate away. So, water early, by 10 am at the latest. If you’re watering solitary plants (as opposed to a grass bed), point your watering can to the base of the plant.
- Use a drip irrigation system. These babies can keep a continual, but minimal, supply of water to your plants, keeping them happy and perky. You use less water, and your plants thrive. Win-win.
- Apply mulch to keep the soil moist: Covering your soil is a must if you want it to retain any water during a heat wave. Add a mulch of organic material such as compost, leaves, or even dried grass clippings. The extra layer shades the soil and acts as a lid to keep the moisture near the roots. Also, be sure to water before adding the mulch.
- Consider using a shade tunnel. These handy things will do two things for your plants. They’ll act as a wind barrier, keeping moisture where it needs to be and not accelerated by blowing wind. Shade tunnels will also keep leafy greens perky and able to thrive.
- Finally, while it’s certainly too late in the MN summer to start planting new perennials, you might want to consider for the next growing season plants that do well in direct sun and heat. Veggies like sweet potatoes, okra, peppers of many varieties, tomatoes, and cucumbers all love direct sun and heat. That’s one way to turn a scorching summer into a positive.
Let us know if you have any ideas for dealing with summer heat. Leave a message in the comment section below. Happy gardening!
World Environment Day – Teaching Our Children
It should never be understated the importance of raising awareness amongst future generations, our children, of sustainable practices. It is essential that future generations see our planet in a different way than we do, i.e. that they don’t see it as a source from which to extract any needed material to satisfy any slight desire.
Today, Friday, June 5 is World Environment Day. It’s a day that was created to bring political and social awareness to the environment on a global scale. It’s intention is to make aware that our planet is, indeed, all of ours. We are the planet’s caretakers.
Dave taking the time to show some gardening techniques.
Since World Environment Day’s inception, and it’s grand motivation, many great things have been done to help ensure that we can live in symbiosis with our planet. Awareness has risen on the importance of our place in the environment. Worldwide campaigns against deforestation, global warming, food waste, and air pollution have brought these concerns front and center. However, in the last several years, there have been political and commercial agencies that have disregarded these lesson.
We’re All in this Together: A Social Distancing Blog, Part 1
This is an unprecedented time. If you need help with your mental health, here are a list of numbers from the Minnesota Department of Health that are searchable for your county. For more information on mental health preparedness, here’s a good article from PBS.
We are individuals. We are separate. We’re being asked to stay away from friends, family members, worshipers, and colleagues.
But, humans are social creatures. It’s in our nature to be in close contact with others. We love our get-togethers, our barbecues, our baseball games. Our society we fashion our lives around these social interactions.
However, for now and the near future we are being asked to run counter to what’s in our biological programing, what we’ve done in the past. Now, we are being asked to distance ourselves from each other.
Data is showing that people are doing this in Minnesota. You are flattening the curve and we are so proud of you because it is so hard! That’s why we wanted to show you that you are not alone, not really. We are all in this together.
Does this look familiar to you? Our crew has been social distancing for several weeks but we still need to keep in contact. Online is one of those ways. This is our monthly all-campus meeting…not held on campus, of course.
Our staff has been social distancing for close to a month, and we’ve each fallen into our own routines. We are keeping up our workload but we are finding ways to make our families and ourselves stronger.
Maybe reading how we are individually managing at our homes will give you the inspiration and strength to battle on and maybe also the solace in knowing that we are all in this together.
Executive Director Quinn
My days seem to be passing even more quickly. Are yours, too? Although I haven’t identified the reason, I think there are many contributing factors. At-home-working means less physical and mental separation between work and home so my “to do list” for home is growing all day waiting for lunch break or the end of the work day.
So far this morning water plants, empty dishwasher, kitchen clean, and deck sweeping have made the list. Plus, have you been seeing the myriad of amazing online opportunities being shared each day? Facebook Live and Zoom yoga classes, lectures/learning sessions on nearly any and every topic and so on!
*Note, I may never want to visit an in-person yoga class again; I am in love with yoga classes from afar.*
Also, it’s getting nicer outside! My husband and I take a near-daily walk. It used to be each weekday morning about 4:40am. Now it’s shifted to an afternoon/evening after he returns from work time-frame. As the days have grown lighter longer and snow has melted revealing litter the last few have been trash pickup walks.
We can find purpose even in an afternoon walk. Here Quinn shows off how she’s cleaning up her stretch of road.
Before that, I was searching for acorn “tops” on walks. In the evenings I enjoy craft endeavors and as of late, the craft project du jour has been felting “acorns” to set into the tops.
Quinn has been able to enjoy crafts with nature while at home.
I have been able to more frequently have catch ups with friends and family, utilizing calls, video chats, and texts, too. Typical or normal and new ways to while away time have made for quickly passing days.
Simply though, I recognize with deep gratitude, that I am fortunate to get to spend any day, let alone these days, in good health.
May we, looking back, find that these days were but quick, maybe productive, blips.
Program Coordinator Michelle
These last few weeks have been a big change for all of us. One of the things that have helped my family stay on track and maintain some sense of normalcy is having a schedule. Even before we started distance learning last week we made a schedule that included time for reading, writing, outside time, and STEAM games and activities. Now that they are doing formal schooling again, this schedule has helped my girls focus on their work and be productive.
Getting outside is important.
Focusing on the good things is too.
Finding time to relax
We aren’t strict with our schedule, though. My girls are 8 and 10, in 2nd and 5th grade. Suddenly being home all the time and trying to figure out distance learning can be hard and stressful. Sometimes we need a break, even during our scheduled “work” time, so we take a break if we need to.
Getting outside is almost always what we need to regain focus. We’ve taken daily family walks, sometimes two or three times a day. There have been hula hoop contests, batting practice, and target practice with a bow and arrow. With the snow mostly gone, my youngest has finally been able to get to the swing set. She could swing for hours! My oldest and our puppy love to head off into the woods to explore and almost always come back with a pile of sticks to practice her fire building skills with.
Routine is important.
Schoolwork can keep you busy.
The guidance and support we are receiving from our school is absolutely amazing, too! Their teachers have gone above and beyond in providing instruction and work for our students. Each of my girls have spoken on the phone with their teachers, more than once, and that is a huge morale booster for them. The teachers are delving into new, unknown territory right along with us and they have more than risen to the occasion.
We recently started receiving lunch and breakfast from the school that they deliver each day. We didn’t sign up for them at first because we didn’t think we needed them. That was before we tried to come up with something different for lunch every day! The girls so look forward to that walk to the end of the driveway every day to pick up lunch and there hasn’t been anything yet that they haven’t eaten!
All in all, while this is not an ideal situation and there are still a lot of unknowns, I am thankful to have this time with my family and incredibly thankful for all of the support and services that are available.
We hope you found a little inspiration today in reading this. We will drop another post next week where other members of our staff share what they are doing through this difficult time.
Microplastics
This year, World Water Day occurs on March 22, focusing our attention on one of earth’s most important resources: water. According to the United Nations, we’ll hit a global population of 8 billion by the year 2023. As our population continues to grow, our water resources are becoming increasingly stressed. The World Health Organization shared that 29% of the world’s population still do not have safe drinking water located on the premises and roughly 2.2 million people die from water-related illnesses each year. Unfortunately, there is a new cause of concern as it relates to our water.
Global plastic production has skyrocketed over recent decades as we’ve increased our reliance on plastics to allow us to live a life of convenience. Originally, plastics were introduced as a “cheap” alternative to other materials, such as fabrics, animal products (like bone or tortoise shells), metals, and other ores. They made many consumer goods less expensive, increasing accessibility for many products. Plastic production continued to increase as we moved into the convenience of disposable products: diapers, cups, straws, eating utensils, plates, to-go containers, bags, cleaning aids, and more. If you look around your house, you’ll probably find that many (if not most) of your items have some sort of plastic in them – food containers in your fridge, toothbrushes and other cosmetic products, most fabrics, carpets, electronics, office supplies, home decor and so much more. If it wasn’t made with plastic, there’s a good chance that it came packaged in plastic. But what does our use of plastics have to do with the safety of our water? Continue reading
Collective Energy = Wow
The energy of a collective makes pursuit of big ideas possible. This is true for Back to Basics: without the effort of a few for months followed by an intense amount of effort and energy by many, this long-running event wouldn’t be the success it is today!
Another great example of collective energy resulting in realized dreams is that of co-ops. While there are different types of cooperatives, the one many consumers see commonly is that of food co-ops. In this region of MN, we are fortunate to have a few options up and running with a few more in process or emerging! Co-ops have been supporters of Back to Basics (B2B) from the beginning! We gratefully accept the donation of Peace Coffee made possible by the Crow Wing Food Co-op (Brainerd, MN). The Ideal Green Market Cooperative (Ideal Corners, MN) donates tea and the Countryside Co-op (Hackensack, MN) is donating trail mix ingredients this year. Often, local co-ops host booths at B2B, too. This year, visit with Crow Wing Food Co-op, Ideal Green Market Cooperative, and the in-formation-phase Free Range Food Co-op (Grand Rapids, MN). This is a great opportunity to ask questions to understand membership, offerings at each co-op, and much more!
Back to Basics has become a hub in the winter for people to connect. Our local food co-ops are an integral part of making it happen.
Back to Basics 2020 – A Primer
It’s several weeks into the new year, and things are growing busier and busier around the HDT office. Workshop sessions and vendor spaces are filling up so it appears we’re well on our way to another spectacular Back to Basics.
Last year’s B2B Keynote Speaker, Kent Solberg, reaches out to a room full of listeners.
Back to Basics has become the premier sustainable-living event in north-central Minnesota! Each year returning and new participants eagerly await the wide variety of workshop topics. Presenters come from MN and WI to share their knowledge, skills, and experience.
What’s the draw, you might ask?
Growing Gratitude
One of the values that I endeavor to live with is gratitude. There are many ways to inject gratitude into your life and the benefits of doing so are well documented. This time of year especially, there are scads of mentions of thankful, grateful, and blessed. And while these have become pop culture buzz-words with shirts, home decor signs, and mugs imprinted with them, people that embody these sentiments note feeling calmer, more content, and happier!
On the heels of a car breakdown, stressors at work, and a snowstorm, I was reflecting this morning how easy it is to fall into complaint as the primary communication tendency. For me, it’s recognizing the pattern and choosing to flip my perspective. Are these challenges? Yes. Are they insurmountable or life-threatening? No. Even with my car suddenly and completely quitting on my way home Monday, I was not in danger and neither were other commuters. I am grateful that there was a road, just where I needed, to coast the car off the main highway! I am grateful that I had a coworker willing to take me home. I am grateful that there is a spare vehicle that I can call into service to not be wholly inconvenienced by catching rides. And so on….
The same process can be repeated for each concern and for all the blessings too. Are there 3 things that you right now, in this moment are grateful for? They can be mundane and small to grand and sweeping. For me right now – I am grateful for warm feet, a favorite pen, a lovely coworker, and as it’s just after lunch, a full stomach! Want to be better at flipping the gratitude switch? Choose to set a prompt for yourself to list at least 3 things. This prompt could be: a time of day (maybe even set a reminder on your phone?), when you pass through your door on the way to work, or just after your head hits the pillow at night. Whenever you choose, the integration of a small practice like this can reap big benefits.
Dr. Bryan Sexton,a Duke University faculty member, has research that highlights how a ‘3 Good Things’ practice can build resilience and reverse burnout.
5 Exercises to increase your gratefulness – a TED.com blog article with neat options to try.
Do you, like me, receive PassItOn.com daily emails? Each day a new quote comes to my inbox. Monday’s quote from Melody Beattie is above. Check out this search of their list of Gratitude quotes and many, many more quotes on different values.
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