Western Mound Buiding Ants

Something that has interested me for some time are the mound building ants on my land. This year we had alot of snow but as soon as the snow melts away on top of these mounds all it takes is a sunny day or two and the Western Thatching ants begin to slowly move about. This year it was early March when I saw the first mounds cleared of snow. I believe the heat from the composting twigs, needles and vegetation acts like a compost pile of sorts(my theory) and the heat produced helps to melt the snow faster than it would otherwise--(when I stuck my nose next to the mound it reminded me of fermenting silage in the silos of my dads farm) There are over 12,000 species of ants in the world and Formica Obscuripes builds these mounds as high as several feet. The raised mound also serves to catch the suns rays and further heat it up. These ants eat the seeds of the surrounding vegetation and carry bits of vegetation back to build the raised mounds.

Outhouse door

Today it was raining so the kids and I decided to continue working on the outhouse we are building for our land. We found some Western Red Cedar to work with for the door and finished it off with both a star and moon at the top. From the "The Vanishing American Outhouse" by Ronald S. Barlow: ...."Vents often doubled as symbols for gender identification. Luna, the ancient crescent shaped figure, was a universal symbol for womankind. A moon, sawed into a privy door, served as the "Ladies Room" sign of early innkeeping days. Sol, a sunburst pattern, was cut into the men's room side of the outhouse. These symbols were necessary because in Colonial times only a fraction of our population could read or write. ...As time passed by and frontiers were pushed further westward, the gentleman's restrooms fell into disrepair and eventually were abandoned altogether. Accommodations for ladies were better maintained and this is why the moon symbol remains on many outhouse doors today. Its original meaning, however, was lost to the general population sometime in the mid 1800's." I love the grain of the Cedar wood in this door with all the knots . I have also used Western red cedar foilage to make a really nice aromatic soap in the past. This outhouse will be a composting type based on the principles in The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins.
(http://weblife.org/humanure/default.html) I can get plenty of free coffee grounds and sawdust for the compost buckets.This humanure will provide compost for our fruit trees and save us the time of pulling our travel trailer up to the rv dump station so often.

Buttercups are up

Today I decided that I would start my blog about the natural world. While returning from my daughters horse riding lesson I was doing my usual botanizing while driving and I noticed the first Buttercups along a south facing cut on the side of the road. In the interior of the Pacific Northwest of the United States the buttercup is called ‘Coyote’s eyes’ — iceyéeyenm sílu in Nez Perce and spilyaynmí áčaš in Sahaptin. In the legend Coyote was tossing his eyes up in the air and catching them again when Eagle snatched them. Unable to see, Coyote made eyes from the buttercup.There are several hundred species of the buttercup family in the world. The family name Ranunculaceae is from the latin word for frog which is "rana". This is in reference to the preference of wet habitat by many of the species. The common name buttercup is thought to be from the yellow,waxy surface of the petals reminding one of a cup of butter. Most references refer to the buttercups as being poisonous when eaten as the leaves contain an acrid juice only to be used externally as a poultice. I was able to find numerous uses of this plant in my ethnobotany books but I have no direct experience using buttercups. We had snow again yesterday, just a couple inches of wet March snow--already melted for the most part.