Unfortunately the 'Bekker Life' hasn't been particularly eventful. Today, Saturday we had the dilemma of whether or not we should go on the Juan de Fuca wilderness trail. The weather started out decent. Monday was going to be sunny and then Tuesday and Wednesday was going to be a little rainy. This morning however, we woke up thinking we were gonna go, only to find out Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were going to be rainy. A big bummer! Too many times we switched from going on the trip to we shouldn'tgo and back again. I guess it mostly all worked out for the good.
My sisters and friend didn't end up getting away from here until 2:00 so that would have made a very late night. As well, back to the topic, I never would have ended up finding the queen ant that led me to my second post on ants.
Yesterday I decided to take a break from the hectic household that our home had become due to my two sisters, their/my (our) friend, and my energetic Nana. I had just finished digging in two fence posts and as I opened the door I realized no one noticed I was gone and no one noticed the door open. So, without attracting unnecessary attention that would turn MY walk into a walk along the highway, I quietly shut the door and jumped on my bike. My idea was to visit a tree that in the spring a couple years back I had seen a swarm of juvenile queen ants. My ant farm had recently been emptied due to the extremely quick mass extinction of my red ants. I guess ants need oxygen too. I definitely learned a few good lessons on ant farming.
To embark on my journey I went up the road on my bike to a little side road that carried on another 100 meters into the bush. I rode the bike as far as I could and then jumped off and bushwhacked. It was a gorgeous day for a walk. The wind was howling and only a few drops of rain were falling from the sky. The temperature was probably somewhere around 15 degrees which felt wonderful as I jogged lightly through some farmer's field. After only a short time I decided that it was probably getting close to supper time. I was on my way back when I noticed a short log overturned and a little bit of sawdust stuff underneath. I turned over the log to find a few carpenter ants scurry out from a hole. I was joyful.
So now today I went back to get my ants. At first I just went back with a yogurt container and I soon realized that the container would be insufficient. I ran/biked back home to get a garbage bag and a saw. I was going to get those ants. I returned back at the nest 15 minutes later breathing hard. I immediately went to work sawing away. The ants really didn't like the vibration caused by the saw as i could see them scurrying out of the hole carrying larva and generally giving the appearance of someone whose house is being ripped apart. Two saw cuts later and i had a two foot section of log in the garbage bag. For some reason it looked like all the ants moved out. I decided I needed to come back with something good so I dug around a little more. To my extreme excitement I discovered more rotting sticks in the ground that housed many more ants. I picked up a few pieces and I was off. The trip back home was kind of hard seeing how I had a garbage bag that weighed near 10 pounds and I had to bike home.
When i got home I shook the ants out of their wooden nest and found that a very large ant was at the bottom of the container. My heart quickened a few beats as I thought, "Did I finally actually get the queen." I put the ants in the farm and my hopes were reassured when I looked again. I definitely got the queen this time. This nearly wraps up my architecture 102 course. In the end i learned that carpenter ants make their home in rotten wood, not sand. My ant farm is not best for rotten wood. Hopefully these ants learn how to dig in sand! Will definitely post again on the welfare of my new queen.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Architecture 101
To start you all off, I don't want to elude you by making you think I actually learned about architecture. What I did learn was that finding an ant queen can be quite challenging in late August. My sister and I finished the Ant Farm I started a couple days ago. After a couple hours of using the router, sawing, and caulking it was done. When we finally looked back at it, the sight was quite impressive. If you are an avid ant farmer and are going to comment go easy because it was my first ant farm. All we had to do then was pour sand in it and add ants. So we thought.
We took a break for lunch and my sister made me an excellent whip cream parfait with chopped almonds, pecans, and hazelnuts with layers of granola and banana dispersed throughout. To say the least, it was a delicious lunch that tasted much more desert like then lunch like. Probably for good reasons.
After our energizing break we set out to find an ant queen which we were led to believe was an easy task. The internet can be so misleading sometimes. After moving a large pile of rocks and excavating a crater in our cement like soil we thought maybe we got the queen. The whole nest had just been transplanted into a cardboard box. Acquiring sand was our next task, a quick trip to the end of the property ended up being somewhat of a workout. We slowly bucketed the sand into the farm. We realized halfway through that intricate patterns were being strewn with the mixture of dark and light sand. We kind of created the Rocky Mountains with sand. Soon after we fetched some ants from our cardboard box colony and waited.
The following hour was devoted to waiting. Let me tell you parents, if you want your kids to be senselessly amused for hours get them an ant farm. If I didn't have to do other things with my life I think I could have spent the rest of the day watching these critters. They would dig a small tunnel and then it would collapse and then they would dig a new one and it would once again collapse. The ants had no sense of where they were throwing their dirt either. One would stick it in the hole of another and that one would put it back in the other's hole. So much for teamwork.
My responsibilities called me to go get some food and watch a movie with my sister. My ant watching was over for the day. After a delicious dinner of enchiladas filled with pumpkin, beans, carrots, and cheese my sister and I went out adventuring to find more ants. We found a large red wood ant nest and took an ice cream pale full of them home. We stuck the sticks and ants into the farm and they went at it. The thing they went at was the previous occupying black ants. I decided right there that to demonstrate the effects of Europeans on North Americans, history teachers should use an ant farm. The europeans (red ants) quickly took over and enslaved the few non-europeans (black ants). That's when i feel we are all very animalish.
To get back to the architecture subject. I must say that an ant farm does not promote quick architecture. Definetly not in my case. My ants were ripped out of their home, put in an alien environment, and then introduced to giant vicious red ants that mostly tore them apart. Tip of the day is that ants take a while to build the intricate tunnels you see on the ant farm commercials.
We took a break for lunch and my sister made me an excellent whip cream parfait with chopped almonds, pecans, and hazelnuts with layers of granola and banana dispersed throughout. To say the least, it was a delicious lunch that tasted much more desert like then lunch like. Probably for good reasons.
After our energizing break we set out to find an ant queen which we were led to believe was an easy task. The internet can be so misleading sometimes. After moving a large pile of rocks and excavating a crater in our cement like soil we thought maybe we got the queen. The whole nest had just been transplanted into a cardboard box. Acquiring sand was our next task, a quick trip to the end of the property ended up being somewhat of a workout. We slowly bucketed the sand into the farm. We realized halfway through that intricate patterns were being strewn with the mixture of dark and light sand. We kind of created the Rocky Mountains with sand. Soon after we fetched some ants from our cardboard box colony and waited.
The following hour was devoted to waiting. Let me tell you parents, if you want your kids to be senselessly amused for hours get them an ant farm. If I didn't have to do other things with my life I think I could have spent the rest of the day watching these critters. They would dig a small tunnel and then it would collapse and then they would dig a new one and it would once again collapse. The ants had no sense of where they were throwing their dirt either. One would stick it in the hole of another and that one would put it back in the other's hole. So much for teamwork.
My responsibilities called me to go get some food and watch a movie with my sister. My ant watching was over for the day. After a delicious dinner of enchiladas filled with pumpkin, beans, carrots, and cheese my sister and I went out adventuring to find more ants. We found a large red wood ant nest and took an ice cream pale full of them home. We stuck the sticks and ants into the farm and they went at it. The thing they went at was the previous occupying black ants. I decided right there that to demonstrate the effects of Europeans on North Americans, history teachers should use an ant farm. The europeans (red ants) quickly took over and enslaved the few non-europeans (black ants). That's when i feel we are all very animalish.
To get back to the architecture subject. I must say that an ant farm does not promote quick architecture. Definetly not in my case. My ants were ripped out of their home, put in an alien environment, and then introduced to giant vicious red ants that mostly tore them apart. Tip of the day is that ants take a while to build the intricate tunnels you see on the ant farm commercials.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Beachin' It!
Today we went for our nearly daily ritual of swimming. It was a full out affair today with multiple air/foam mattresses, towels, fins, and even a little bit of snacks. The last item was particularly fun for me seeing how I was quite starving after all the rafting around.
Let me explain. My sisters' idea for today was to do synchronized back flips off of the air mattresses they brought. Unfortunetly, when that turned out to be a near failure (the mattresses mostly sank) they decided that logs were the new way of doing it. Just to make sure you all know, the mattresses did not sink because my sisters are particularly overweight (because they're not) but because they just weren't buoyant enough. Anyway, they commandeered me into helping them build/carry a raft into the water. We used boards that had nails already in them and used a fist-sized rock to slowly pound the nails into the somewhat punky logs. After three pairs of now raw hands pounded away we got a little makeshift raft together. Now was the time to test it.
The four of us cautiously clambered onto the raft as it sank with each new foot. We quickly decided that it would be a better idea if we didn't all go on it. Our ranks were reduced to three as we set out. The raft quickly fell apart. The idea of a raft was beached. The flotilla was reduced to one sturdy log that resembled a surfboard. The synchronized back flips never were completed. The 'surfboard' log held only two of us and wasn't really stable enough for two of us to do anything but barely manage to stay above water. I guess the Bekkers wasn't meant for synchronized back flips. Windsurfing however is a different story. Any one want to trade some wind for another post?
Let me explain. My sisters' idea for today was to do synchronized back flips off of the air mattresses they brought. Unfortunetly, when that turned out to be a near failure (the mattresses mostly sank) they decided that logs were the new way of doing it. Just to make sure you all know, the mattresses did not sink because my sisters are particularly overweight (because they're not) but because they just weren't buoyant enough. Anyway, they commandeered me into helping them build/carry a raft into the water. We used boards that had nails already in them and used a fist-sized rock to slowly pound the nails into the somewhat punky logs. After three pairs of now raw hands pounded away we got a little makeshift raft together. Now was the time to test it.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
First Post ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So here I am, sitting at the computer, when an idea pops into my head to try my hand at blogging. I quickly searched blog and came to blogger right away. A super simple setup led to a speedy start. Before I finally clicked the button to actually create a blog with this title and purpose i consulted my three sisters who were having a small chat in the lounge. One was concerned about privacy, one was concerned about whether there would ever be any posts, and well, one wasn't really concerned at all.
Here at my first post I'm trying to give you an idea of what this is really going to be about. But, I don't really know. Some people think we have a pretty exciting family life while i think it's unusually normal. One thing hopefully you will see change over the following months as the bright sunny season leads to the dull days where the lack of sunlight fails to recharge my thinking cap is a more exciting 'live for the moment' lifestyle. Hopefully there will be a shift towards spontaneous ideas that may or may not come to fruition. In the end, the blog will probably be about what I ate for dinner or what place I came in at the latest football tournament. Hope you enjoy!
Here at my first post I'm trying to give you an idea of what this is really going to be about. But, I don't really know. Some people think we have a pretty exciting family life while i think it's unusually normal. One thing hopefully you will see change over the following months as the bright sunny season leads to the dull days where the lack of sunlight fails to recharge my thinking cap is a more exciting 'live for the moment' lifestyle. Hopefully there will be a shift towards spontaneous ideas that may or may not come to fruition. In the end, the blog will probably be about what I ate for dinner or what place I came in at the latest football tournament. Hope you enjoy!
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