Okay, it’s confession time. I’m directionally challenged, but I’m getting out my maps of the world. Will you be my witness and travel companion? From Georgia to Gallup, Greece to Gibraltar, I’m determined to go to my grave without taking another wrong turn.
When I go glamping with my grandgirls later this summer, I want to be able to teach them about the movement of the sun, moon, and stars in the wide-open skies. But the nature of how it all works can be confusing. I recently ran across a basketball analogy that put everything in perspective. Since my son-in-law, Lucas, was a basketball coach, the girls are familiar with the game, so it will be a great way for them to remember how the moon orbits around the Earth.
First, picture a basketball court. We’ll scale the Earth down to the size of a basketball and place it in the basket. That will make the moon the size of a tennis ball. The moon, then, basically orbits the Earth at the 3-point line (that’s the line that looks like a circle about 23’ from the basket where you can’t believe Steph Curry just made a basket from).
Note: Because the moon’s orbit is really elliptic and not exactly circular, it extends away from the 3-point line at its apogee (furthest point from the Earth) and perigee (nearest point to the Earth) at about the length of a tennis racket. But I might save this little tidbit for later. No need to confuse the issue (or Nanny Jane!).
Fun fact: At this same scale (basketball/tennis ball), the sun is about the size of a very large hot-air balloon and it’s about 1 3/4 miles away from the basket. The sun and moon appear to be the same size when we look at them in the sky. However, the sun is 400 times larger than the moon. So why does it appear the same size as the moon? Because it’s nearly 400 times further from the Earth!
Winnie Nielsen says: This is a great idea, MaryJane for helping StellaJane and Mia grasp the concept of the earth and moon. May I suggest you also throw in the idea of gravitational pull needed to keep the moon from whirling away in space. Maybe use a large rubber band to hold the tennis ball (now the earth) and a large marble(now the moon) and show the tension and pull that exists to hold the two in their movement as they continue to circle the sun. The gravity discussion allows you to talk about ocean tides as well if they have been to the beach and seen the difference between high and low tides. Of course gravity concept can start with the simple apple always falling from the tree to the earth instead of flying off into the air.
Karlyne says: And, to follow that tutorial, my two cents worth: what a gorgeous moon it was last weekend! We got to watch it rise over the mountains to our east, through the breeze-blown clouds. It looked a lot like the above picture, only bigger and closer, and, actually, nothing like it at all…
Winnie Nielsen says: Photo challenge of the day: Is this the water spout to a water well? If so, does the well have a hand pump? It sort of reminds me of the water well pump we had at my grandparent’s farm that I am trying to recall 58 years ago.
MaryJane says: Good guess Winnie. Yes, that is a photo of a functional hand pump that sits in our lower garden. It sits atop a 400 foot deep well and when the electricity goes out, we have all the water we can pump by hand. It’s actually quite easy to get the water started and then it fills a bucket very fast. It’s a fantastic workout.
Winnie Nielsen says: I remember going out with an older brother each morning to pump water into the white enamel bucket with red trim and then carry it into the house and set it on a stand in the kitchen. This was our drinking water and there was a big ladle in the bucket to pour water into glasses etc. There were other buckets of water carried into the house for washing up dishes and grandma always kept one on the back of the big black wood stove for a source of hot water each day.
MaryJane says: That’s an awesome memory/image. No wonder you’re rooted in all things farmgirl!
Yesterday’s post sparked a memory about Death Valley …
My late father-in-law, Ivan, loved to tell us about traveling across Death Valley to visit relatives, stationed on an Army base in California. He was born in 1910, so that might have been in the early ’20s. At that time, there apparently were no proper roads across the valley, but folks had discovered they could cut off a few hours’ time traveling southwest if they braved the Mojave Desert on their way to the coast.
So enterprising engineers devised a makeshift “road” of two narrow wooden slats over the sand, and Ivan’s family drove their Model T carefully on the boards, taking care not slip off one side or the other (talk about driving attentively!). And since a slip or a breakdown in the Mojave Desert’s extreme temperatures could be fatal, mounted men regularly patrolled the route (early highway patrolmen?).
Death Valley is located on the border between southeastern California and Nevada and covers a 3,000-square-mile area. It’s the lowest, driest, and hottest area in North America. (It’s also bordered by Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous U.S.). Consequently, it’s set lots of records: the highest recorded temperature on Earth (134°F), the greatest number of consecutive days over 100°F (154), the hottest daily low temperature ever recorded (107°F), the hottest 24-hour average temperature (117.5°F), and even the hottest overnight low (107°F). Not a place you’d want to get stranded.
Photo by Tuxyso via Wikimedia Commons
Today, California SR 190 travels through Death Valley, following the gold-rush path of 1849. A man named Herman Eichbaum was instrumental in creating a toll road through the valley in 1926, bringing tourism to the area. But I couldn’t find information about either the primitive wooden-slat route my father-in-law talked about or the early highway patrolmen. Maybe a similar story has been passed down in your family? Tell all!
Photo by Jon Rawlinson via Wikimedia Commons
Winnie Nielsen says: I am enjoying these facts about Death Valley the past two days. It has always been a mystery to this east coast girl about such a hot and dry place and I admit I would love to go see the place for myself. Can you imagine trying to cross on wooden boards in the 110 degree sun in a old Ford? Talk about brave and scary! I bet your father-in-law was telling the truth. It does make perfect sense to craft something like they did back in the 1920s but my guess is that the risk meant very few people were able or willing to try using the route. Those old Model T Fords completely opened the world to everyday people and Henry Ford was a genius when he made it a goal to price them so they were more affordable to everyday folks.
When I lived in India, it was commonly 120+ degrees in the hot season in Rajastan. The Indians dealt with the high heat by serving very sweet drinks of mango and such fruits, but salted it . You couldn’t taste the salt and you could drink them all day, really helped with the dehydration.
I mostly lived in the cool Himalayan mountains, luckily.
The hottest place I have ever been in was in Kuwait. It was 130 degrees according to the airport and we had to wait until nightfall for the temperatures to lower enough to have lift off for the planes. Every building in that country is heavily air conditioned. It like going into an icebox. You come in from 120-130 degrees and its like 65 inside, just amazing. They really like it cold!
Winnie Nielsen says: This reminds me of ” amber waves of grain” in the song O Beautiful for Spacious Skies. In out sub-tropical part of the country we are used to see waves of dense green complete with swarms of gnats, no seeums , and mosquitoes!
Hot on the heels of the running goats, I must ask:
“Could you, would you, with a goat?”
Image courtesy of ThePoeticsProject.com
When Dr. Suess wrote Green Eggs and Ham, he probably didn’t entertain any serious notion that someone could be coaxed into dining in the company of farm animals …
“I could not, would not, with a goat!”
But, hey, Sam-I-Am was eventually able to coerce the fellow in the book to try green food, and it seems that customers at the Sakuragaoka Cafe in Tokyo’s Shibuya District are a really rather receptive to the idea of noshing with nannies.
No kidding!
Take a look:
Winnie Nielsen says: How ingenious! Goats that are handled are so tame and sweet so I bet customers love enjoy this diversion. I know I would.
Winnie Nielsen says: I love these rustic bird houses you built for your feathered friends out of vintage scraps. Too cute!
Nancy Coughlin says: Birds sure are finicky when it comes to where they will nest. Despite many gourd birdhouses and other types around my yards, there is a robin’s nest on a cross section of my downstairs back porch. She is busy feeding 3 hungry mouths and has made it very clear she is not happy with traffic on the back porch. Of course the nest is by my picnic table and benches, so have not used it too often so far. She doesn’t seem to object when I go out to water plants, but any other activity out there is most definitely not appreciated. I realize they will all be gone, eventually, so I am biding my time. Those 3 little mouths are very demanding and the parents are kept quite busy.
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
Idaho prairie in her summer finest? Noticing that same sort of look up here in these parts with more mountains .
Where are you now, Winnie? I hope it’s cool!
And it looks cool and not 103′- lovely picture!
LOVE THIS PHOTO!!
AH! This photo could join the others already hung on my wall of old buildings, sheds, cabins and abandoned homes. Add to it all the time.
Why, thank you!