July 29, 2005

• I’d be in business, but…

  There was a check-box on the application form for my new business
  license that I neglected to check.  In today’s mail, I got back a
  Xerox copy of my application with the relevant area highlighted, and a
  cover letter I was instructed to return with my completed
  application.  Ah, well, I’ve waited this long….

  There were several comments and questions to the recent blog I did
  about Theta brainwave state that deserve a response.  That will be
  forthcoming sometime soon.  Today, Doug and I will work on the
  roof again.  We laid the first tarp of three yesterday.  This
  year’s roofing job is going much more quickly than the previous
  one.  Having done it once before helps, but it is also speeding
  things up having only three 16′ x 20′ tarps to lay instead of the five
  12′ x 16′ tarps we used last time. 

  That time, our choice was dictated by economy.  Five smaller tarps
  were cheaper than three bigger ones.  This time, the three tarps
  were essentially free.  Greyfox had won a $100 gift card in a
  contest the newspaper was running, and his gift card happened to be
  from a building supply business.  I’ll have story and pictures of
  the roofing job for you later.

  Today, as promised, the muskeg through the months:

  

  That first shot, which I’ve posted previously, shows how the muskeg
  looked on a frosty morning late in April.  I think it’s worth the
  time and effort to click for the larger view, to see the detail in the
  ice.  I’ve done that several times myself, and I took the picture
  even.

  When that shot was taken the days were warm and nights were
  freezing.  The muskeg was full and flooding over the edges of the
  road from snowmelt and runoff from rains.

  

  The second shot, above, was taken in May.  Nights weren’t freezing
  by then and continuing runoff had kept the water level high.  On
  sunny days, jillions of mosquito larvae and a few tiny tadpoles could
  be seen at the edges of the muskeg, being preyed upon by diving
  beetles.  They might have been there on cloudy days, too, but
  remained unseen because all that was visible on the water’s surface was
  the reflection of the sky.

  

  Before the middle of June, the first swamp grass had begun to show as a
  sparse haze of green above the surface of the water in the shallows
  around the edges of the muskeg.  The sun penetrated the water and
  we could see at least two species of beetles as well as other larvae
  besides mosquitoes, and there were water striders on the surface,
  attracting the violet-green swallows that had recently migrated back
  north.  The tadpoles were bigger, no longer prey to beetles.

  

  By late June, the grass was thick around the edge of the muskeg, and
  the water level had receded so that a haze of green could be seen in
  places in the middle of the muskeg, too.  The tadpoles were huge,
  bigger than the frogs are that they eventually morphed into. 
  Violet-green swallows were still swooping and catching insects out
  there, and the dragonflies were finally out, helping the birds keep the
  mosquito population down.

  

  By the middle of July, the only open water that could be seen was in
  the four-wheeler ruts, and there were no more tadpoles, just a few shy
  frogs hopping away when we approached the amphibian observation
  area.  That, (the A.O.A.) is our POV in this shot, the spot where
  the four-wheeler trail leaves the road and crosses the muskeg — it’s
  where I sat for many hours during those eleven weeks when I had little
  of interest to do indoors with no computer.  Tadpoles, frogs,
  dragonflies, swallows, hawks and a stray pair of phalaropes, were some
  of the silver lining attached to that cloud.
  

  • 8:58 pm
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