RIP Dick Zion

Yesterday was one of those days that I just HAD to get out to ride. Not really enthused, but had to get out. I loaded up the hybrid and donned my kit. Headed to the Wabash Trace Trailhead.
Rode the paved trail toward the Trails Center. The only "dicy" section of the trail was ice on Indian Creek under Hwy 92. Rutted ice that would throw a rider, specially with the 28mm tires I was riding.
Made my normal stop at the Trails Center. Signed the book. Back at my bike, Dewey called to me. He told me that Dick Zion (another of the folks at the Trails Center) had died. It was a shock for me. We had become more than just acquaintances at the Trails Center. He suggested some web sites for my photography. I showed him my work, kept him advised on trail conditions. He was always interested in my miles and health.
Checked my archive, hoping that I night have taken a photo of Dick during my visits, but it looks like I had not. The above photo is copied from the obituary. Gonna miss you, Dick.
From the Trails Center, I rode into town to stop by the bike shop. Had not been in a while since last week I was suffering the bug going around. Kept me in the house (except for coffee & breakfast) for much of a week. Told Zack about Dick's passing.
On to the car. Ended up with over 18 miles. Really tired after the ride.

Back in Iowa

It was a good trip to Little Rock. Two rides on paved trails and one in the dirt. Thanks to my friends to putting me up and putting up with me. I got home just in time to enjoy the day today (actually got home Thursday evening).
Little windy this afternoon, but with the warm weather, couple not pass up the chance of a good ride. The trail from Wabash Trailhead to the Trail Center was in pretty good shape. A couple short sections with some snow still on the trail. There is the section under Hyw 92 - that was a mess with mud. Finally, wish they would do something at the access to the crosswalk switch S 24th at Penny's.
Hope I can get in a ride tomorrow before the cold front comes through.

Ivy Green: Birthplace of Helen Keller ... America’s First Lady of Courage

Wednesday, 20 February (Part II)
Custom RV (AKA Brannon Hutcheson — Vina, Alabama

Soon after we arrived in Red Bay, Marsha (of Where’s Weaver) recommended that we check out the Helen Keller Museum in Tuscumbia, Alabama … some 40+ miles (64+ km) away.

We intended to go last Sunday, but luckily I checked the website first as they are only open Monday through Saturday. Since we had some free time before our dinner date with friends, we headed over to Ivy Green … Birthplace of Helen Keller this afternoon.

Built in 1820 by Helen’s grandfather, the white clapboard home was the second house to be built in Tuscumbia after Alabama joined the Union as the 22nd state. It is a Virginia style cottage, with four rooms downstairs.
To the right is the cottage where Helen Keller was born; and where Anne Sullivan later taught her.

(If you’d like to see the full-sized versions of the photos that make up the collages, and the photos I did not post here, feel free to visit my online gallery.)

First, I’m going to fess up to not knowing much about Helen Keller before our visit to Ivy Green. I knew her name, of course, and that she was a blind-deaf woman who had overcome great obstacles with the help of her teacher, Anne Sullivan. But that was about it. So I read up on her a bit before we headed out on today’s outing.

A replica of the statue that immortalizes the moment of Helen’s “breakthrough” with touch-signing
is the centerpiece of the memorabilias displayed in what used to be Aunt Evaline's room.

In her book, Helen Keller: Rebellious Spirit, author Laurie Lawlor writes:
Some relatives began to call Helen “a wild, destructive animal.” One uncle told her
mother that she was “mentally defective” and should be put out of sight in an institution.
Loyal Aunt evaline, Captain Keller’s sister, nicknamed Aunt Ev, disagreed. “This child
has more sense than all the kellers,” she said, "’if there’s a way to reach her mind.”

Although my insight into Helen Keller is sketchy at best, it didn’t take me long to realize that we weren’t getting the full picture from the docent who was walking us around the house. A lovely lady, mind you, but she seemed more concerned about pointing out Helen’s physical beauty, exclaiming at every opportunity, “Wasn’t she pretty!”

The original statue is part of the National Statuary Hall Collection at the US Capitol.
It was unveiled in ; unfortunately we didn’t see it when we visited the Capitol in .

The docent briefly told us about the family history; about how, at just 19 months old, Helen Keller came down with a sickness that led to her becoming blind and deaf; about how her parents sought help from Alexander Graham Bell, who was working with hearing-impaired children at the time; about how she was considered a '”wild child” until Anne Sullivan, whom she met at the Perkins Institute for the Blind, took her in hand when she became Helen’s teacher; about how she had a breakthrough in learning Anne’s “touch-signing” at the well pump; about how she then quickly grasped the concept of touch-signing, and went on to speak well enough to be accepted and study at Radcliffe College with the help of her teacher Anne, who interpreted lectures for her.

Two of the many pictures of Helen Keller that decorate the walls of Ivy Green.
Because she had a protruding left eye, she was almost always photographed in profile.
(Both eyes were replaced with glass ones later in life.)

Yes, there was mention of her success as both an author and a speaker; and her travels to many countries in her quest to help the deaf-blind around the world. But nowhere was there any mention of her activities as a suffragist, or the fact that she was a member of the Socialist Party … all experiences that helped to shape her into the woman that she was — America’s First Lady of Courage.

Maybe I just didn’t look close enough to see this side of Helen Keller represented at Ivy Green. Or perhaps, had we not been interrupted by a family arriving to visit the house, the docent would have answered the question I was about to pose about the oversight. (This article, which a friend linked me to, makes for an interesting read; perhaps you will find that to be the case as well.)

to show his appreciation of her efforts with war-blinded soldiers, President Eisenhower
invited Helen Keller to the White House. The photo captures the moment after Helen
expressed her desire to "see" Ike’s famous smile.

Polly Thomason, long-time companion and guide, is “signing” into Helen’s hand.

I don’t intend to turn this post into a thesis on Helen Keller. Those who wish to learn more about her can refer to the voluminous amounts of information on the web. In the meantime, let me give you a quick tour of the home in which this remarkable woman was born and raised.

Helen’s parents’ room is one of the four rooms on the ground floor of the two story house.
The docent opened the gate so we could get a closer look at the beautiful bedspread, and
explained that they allow the sight-impaired to touch it so that they can “see” the details.

The parlor, like the rest of the house, is decorated with mostly original furnishings of the
Keller Family and memorabilia from Helen’s life. The picture on the table is of Helen at age seven.

In the movie, the Miracle Worker, the dining room is the scene of one of Helen’s “wild-child” tantrums. The docent told us that Anne Sullivan asked Helen’s parents to leave the room,
locked the door, and spent the day teaching her how to behave at the table.

Helen shared this second floor bedroom with her teacher, Anne Sullivan.

The lengths I go to in order to take pictures!
Although the docent walked us behind the gates in the downstairs rooms,
there was no one to unlock the security gates upstairs.

This building, located in the back garden, houses the kitchen and the cook’s bedroom.

Glimpses into the kitchen …

… and the cook’s bedroom.

From the brochure we were given on arrival at Ivy Green: This is the pump at which Helen learned her first word, “water.” It is located behind the main house. Annie wrote these words later that historic night: “she learned that everything has a name, and that the manual alphabet is the key to everything she wants to know.”

Originally the office where the plantation books were kept, this cottage was
converted into a bridal suite when Helen’s father married her mother;
this is where Helen was born, and later lived with her teacher, Anne Sullivan.

The Docent told us that when Annie realized that Helen’s parents were catering to
all of her whims, she decided she needed to move Helen away in order to control her
tantrums. The story goes that Helen was put into a carriage and taken for a long ride
before being brought back to this cabin, just yards away from the main house; she had
no idea how close she was to the house and her parents.

The two-room cottage consists of the playroom / schoolroom (left) and the bedroom
Helen and Annie shared; the shoes at the foot of the doll bed (top right) belonged to Helen.

Although it was rather chilly to be wandering around outside, we did take some time to check out the grounds. We peeked in at the outdoor stage where William Gibson’s The Miracle Worker, is performed during June and July, and wandered amongst the homages installed in tribute to Helen Keller. At this time of the year, the grounds are devoid of color, but come spring time, I bet the garden is a nice place to sit and contemplate what Helen Keller stood for.

These two totems are part of the “Gateway” from the Maori people of New Zealand.

Helen Keller challenged the Lions to help her “hasten the day when there shall be no preventable
blindness; no little deaf, blind child untaught; no blind man or woman unaided.” That challenge,
and the Lions’ response, are on the left; the Knights of the Blind exhibit is on the right.
[click the collage for a more legible version]

The docent who welcomed us to Ivy Green — and the brochures we picked up — all refer to Helen Keller’s birthplace house as …

… a permanent shrine to the “miracle” that occurred in a blind and deaf seven-year-old girl’s life.

And that’s what visitors will find when they come here. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit, even if, in our humble opinion, it is perhaps an incomplete shrine since it does not pay tribute to the “complete” woman that Helen Keller was. It was definitely worth the $6/person admission ($5/person with AAA or military ID).

So excited

The first Trillium of our spring, Trillium decumbens.

OK, it's not really spring yet. But I'm cheering the effort of this bedraggled little Hepatica¹.
It's not all sunshine and bluebirds yet -- these were the only examples in our two-hour walk today -- but we'll be there before you know it.
-----
¹ I think the name has actually changed to Anemone acutiloba, but I'm in denial.

Boron Toxicity

We've got an interesting water situation in certain areas of the Lowcountry- excess boron. It was a surprising discovery for me and it took me a long time to figure out. When a landscape is being irrigated from a municipal source, you don't expect a toxicity problem.....so I never tested.
Well, finally I did. And as it turned out, the aquifer that a certain municipality pulls water from has high boron levels (it is safe for human consumption) . I have found excessive boron in the well and municipal water in Mount Pleasant, Meggett, Edisto and John's Island.
Boron toxicity is fairly easy to diagnose, but it requires a water or foliar test for confirmation.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW:
1. It occurs on the older growth. It takes a while for the element to accumulate in the leaves, so only the older leaves will show injury.
See how the new growth on these Sago Palms is unaffected? This is a typical injury pattern:

2. A marginal "burn" shows up on the leaves of dicots, while a "tip dieback" happens on monocots. The excessive boron accumulates at the very ends of the leaf veins. In a monocot, the veins run parallel and straight to the tips of the leaves. A good example is shown on 'Evergreen Giant' Liriope:It can also be seen at the tips of palms, like this Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei):
When a dicot like a Hydrangea is suffering from excessive boron in the water, the edges become burned. The necrosis will sometimes look wavy:
Magnolia is extremely sensitive to high boron levels and the injury is very distinctive. In fact, I commonly use this species as my "indicator plant" in a landscape if I suspect high boron.3. It generally doesn't persist in the soil. If the pH is high or there is a lot of calcium in the soil, boron can be bound to the soil. But generally, boron easily leaches from the soil profile. Once the contaminated water is removed as the irrigation source, the plants will recover.
4. Contaminated soil and certain fertilizers can be responsible for excessive boron levels. In my experience, this has never been the source, but it should not be overlooked. If you have fertilized with potassium chloride or amended the soil with marine sediment or animal manure, this may be the cause of the toxicity.
5. Some plants are more sensitive than others. Magnolia, Hydrangea, Palm, Liriope, Cycads and Viburnum show substantial leaf burn. Other plants, like Fatsia and some Camellia cultivars become slightly "off color", but don't have distinctive symptoms. And then there are a few species like Ligustrum and Cleyera (Ternstroemia gymnanthera) that don't seem to be affected at all.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
The take-home message is that soil and water tests are a good idea- they eliminate a lot of guess work. As you can imagine, boron toxicity is often mistaken for drought or fertilizer burn.
If the tests confirm that boron is to blame, the best option you have is to limit irrigation. Turn off the irrigation system in the dormant season and run it no more than once per week during the summer.
Use a rain barrel to collect rain water for supplemental irrigation (this is very important for house plants).

A Good Deed Done

Today I scavenged through my pantry and freezer and came up with three bags of food for our local food bank.
Laurel sent out an e-mail yesterday about how there was a shortage of food to give away and encouraged all the woman in our church to take food by.  
I took her nudge to heart and took Darcie and her BFF to help.  Not that I needed it.  I just thought it would be good for them to serve others during this holiday season.  
I talked to the man who runs the place.  He said that it's a volunteer organization open every day to the public (not sure about Sunday).  People needing food are sent to the food bank with vouchers from other organizations around town such as Red Cross, Children and Family Services, etc.  They have already determined that they are truly needy.  
It's good to have organizations like that to assist the poor and needy.  How much better it would be if the local churches were in charge instead of the government.  Our church certainly does it's part to show the love and compassion of Christ all year round.  I'm very thankful for our deacons who do such a good job.
Maybe Darcie and I will volunteer up there some this coming year.  I think it'd be great for the both of us to serve others more.  I know I'll be making regular drop-offs of food.  How hard will it be to buy a little more each time I grocery shop and then take it to the food bank?

Snowshoeing Wauswaugoning Bay (again)

I went back to snowshoe Wauswaugoning Bay again, this time by myself. I was planning to push beyond where the 3 of us went on our last journey to the bay. We had hoped to make it to the south side of Pigeon Point, where we could get a view of the Susie Islands. As it turned out the distance was farther than we thought and our light was running out so we had to turn around before we made it all the way.

I headed out a bit earlier, hoping it would be enough time to make it. The sky was also totally clear, rather than wall to wall clouds and it was to be a full moon tonight so if I ran out of time again I would have the full moonlight to guide me back (I also had my headlamp, just in case). This ended up being the most amazing snowshoe hike I have ever been on! I made it to the Lake Superior shoreline, just in time for sunset. There were some fascinating ice formations on the shore. I even saw some wolf tracks following the shoreline. To top it off, the ice on Wauswaugoning Bay was creaking and groaning which I could hear throughout the whole hike.

It was especially eerie walking back through the woods after dark, in the moonlight, and hearing the noises of the ice as it shifted and settled. As I walked through the woods guided by the glow from the moon (it was bright enough that I never once turned my headlamp on), every now and then the ice would speak. "Booooooo.... doomp!" it cried. I would walk for another minute or two then again "Boooooooo.... doomp!" This is the best way I can describe the noise. It must be the force of the water pushing the ice into the bay, then when the force eases up on the ice, the ice settles. The pressure pushing the ice in must create the "Boooooo" sound, then when the pressure eases the ice settles down, making the "doomp" sound. At any rate, it was eerie but wonderful. To top things off, I even heard an owl hooting a couple of times as I walked through the woods, bathed in that glorious moonlight. A night to remember.

(Above: I titled this image "Haunted Forest". The surreal look was achieved by running a 2-second exposure while at the same time panning the camera slightly from left to right.)

Austin Maker Faire

Maker Faire is billed as the World's Largest DIY Festival - and it's back in Austin for a second time this weekend. Philo gets Make Magazine - he was at the first Austin Maker Faire last year while I worked with the Divas of the Dirt. I'm sure glad I went this time!
Who wouldn't want to see lofty electric guitars played when pedal power spins them past a stationary pick? The kids were lined up for a chance at this 'ride'.
Wind and pedals ruled outside the main building - with Kites flying in the perfect blue sky while one odd contraption after another was tried out in the Bike Zoo - the 80-foot White Snake, hooked-on-bikes and more.
After playing the pedal guitar, kids took turns pedaling to spin bike frames around like a carnival ride. Some had trouble getting the rhythm but these two girls made an impressive team.
The New York Times called Maker Faire, "A wondrous thing: the gathering of folks from all walks of life who blend science, technology, craft, and art to make things goofy and grand."

When we went inside the Show Barn we saw an enormous Robot suspended from the ceiling - goofy or grand? Maybe a little of each! This Mantis was one piece of the amazing metal art produced by blacksmiths working on a 1200°F forge.
One of the cool things at the Austin Modders booth was this computer case. I loved the idea of being able to see inside the computer as it worked.
The Arts and Crafts included jewelry, bookbinding, scents, bead makers, fabrics, fashion and yarn - did you know there was an Austin Lacemakers' Guild?

It was pretty cool to see replicas of robots from Star Wars at booths

But even cooler to see delighted children turn around and see R2D2 roll up next to them.Philo says he comes for the science, technology and art, but I suspect that Fire Plugs shooting Flames may be an even stronger reason.
Actually, I could not resist the Ring of Fire either!
In the Food Makers area there was actual food to taste, eat and buy (Torchy's Taco's!) and booths for The Green Corn Project, Permaculture, and Organic Landscaping. You can find an array of foods from pastries to hummus to vegan hand-pounded chocolate to the turkey legs enjoyed by these guys, who were kind enough to pose for a garden blogger. My husband wished he'd seen the turkey legs first and joined the Carnivore Club.

None of my photos of the wonderful, musical Tesla Coils came out, darn it. I didn't even take photos of the Life Sized Mousetrap game, intricate Lego layouts, the robotic shop tools, innovative musical instruments, art cars, musical groups, Rocket launching guys, the treadle-powered Land Boat, Hula Hoops, Green living exhibits and what for many people may be the main event - a series of RoboGames competitions held in the arena building inside a separate, bulletproof see-through arena with bleachers and announcer on loudspeakers.You have one more chance to get there - Maker Faire continues tomorrow from 10 AM to 6 PM at the Travis County Expo Center, 7311 Decker Lane, Austin, Texas. My plan is to collapse on the sofa with a DVD and rest up for another event tomorrow.
Philo took some video of the Singing Tesla Coils... sooner or later I hope it appears HERE.

If it doesn't show up - or to see all our videos - use this link to Annie and Philo's YouTube Station.
Edited Sunday AM: Here's a look at the Ring of Fire: