The Flood is over and the ark has landed. Noah lets all the animals
out and says, "Go forth and multiply."
A few months later, Noah decides to take a stroll and see how the
animals are doing. Everywhere he looks he finds baby animals.
Everyone is doing fine except for one pair of little snakes.
"What's the problem?" says Noah.
"Cut down some trees and let us live there", say the snakes.
Noah follows their advice. Several more weeks pass. Noah checks on
the snakes again. Lots of little snakes, everybody is happy.
Noah asks, "Want to tell me how the trees helped?"
"Certainly", say the snakes. "We're adders, so we need logs to multiply."
*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
A few weeks back, when ice covered Arkansas and parts of east Texas,
we were "blessed" by a shower of limbs and branches falling into our
back yard. When the ice had melted and the yard was dry, Abe made
two piles of the trash. One pile was in the area where we burn
limbs and leaves, and the other stack was to have everything in one
spot for easy accessability when throwing the limbs onto the fire.
Early last week we had a beautiful day. It was sunny, upper 50's
or maybe lower 60's, very little breeze, and it seemed a perfect
day to burn that brush. I called the fire department and 911 to
let them know I would be lighting a fire in my back yard, then I
raked all around the area where the fire would be lit, to make sure
it wouldn't escape.
When I put the lit match to the dry leaves, it took off like it
had been doused with an accellerant. The heat it emitted was so
hot I instinctively stepped back. The flames were blazing high
but that in itself wasn't a problem. The problem was that it was
so hot, the area where I had raked caught fire and began to burn
outward into the yard that was still covered with dry leaves.
Burning hickory nuts kept popping out onto those dry leaves and
starting more fires in various places. But the fire was too hot
for me to approach and fight it. I wanted to stomp out the areas
that shouldn't be burning and rake other spots before the fire
reached those areas of dry, dead leaves. I couldn't fight it.
It was too hot. And, it was amazing to me how fast the fire got out.
But it's not as bad as it sounds. Before lighting that fire I'd
had the presence of mind to pull out the garden hose and hook it
up just in case. I felt ridiculous standing there hosing down
the fire I had just lit, but no matter. The water took care of
my problem rather nicely. There is now an oversized burning area
in our back yard, and the second pile of brush sits menacingly,
daring me to go out and burn it. This time I'll wait till Abe
is home.
And the moral to this story: Don't wear your new, white tennis
shoes when you're planning to walk around in sooty areas.
*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
This time I haven't been hyped like two weeks ago so there's not
as much to report. But that doesn't mean I've been idle. I've
continued working on restoring the links section and they're
coming quite nicely. Somehow, in the process of moving them from
Hotlinks to Renae's Room, I have lost a lot of links. I'm sure
they're sitting here on my computer somewhere and when I give up
and quit looking for them, they'll show up.
I had planned on keeping track of how many links I added to each
section then report on that. Naturally I kept adding the links,
erasing them from my master file, then was unable to count how
many new ones had been added because they were all mixed together.
Sometimes I can really irritate myself! So, following is a listing
of where the changes have occurred. Sorry, I'm not sure if this
number is what was added or what is actually in that file.
Science 5-8: 107 links Computer 5-8: 8 Math 5-8: 31 Social Studies: 1
Science k-4: 1
Science 9-12: 359 Guidance Counseling: 1 Shop: 13
*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
Web Surfing: This time I've selected a few addresses from the
Administrative area. Hopefully you'll find these, and some of
the others in the Links section, useful.
ASCD - Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
http://www.ascd.org/
(This site was added by special request. Thanks for your input.)
U.S. Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov/
Vermont SIRI MSDS Collection - Site 1
http://siri.uvm.edu/msds/
Vermont SIRI MSDS Collection - Site 2
http://siri.org/msds/
*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
As promised in the last newsletter, a new font designer has joined
us. I want to take a moment to welcome Planckfoam to Renae's Room.
I enjoy his fonts and I'm sure you will find many uses for them in
and around your classroom.
Hollow:
Once in a While, Outer Sider, Quicksilver, Rainy Days, Ripplemere, Airmole, Strange Phenomena
Entertainment:
Hour Photo, Old Time Radio, Pac Font
Fun/Flames:
Firestarter, Mashy Burnin', Mashy Fire
(These fonts were added in memory of what was once a grassy back yard.)
Fun/Toys:
Abcde Enfantin, Sassys Teddys 2
Publishing:
James Bond, Charlemagne, Strange Phenomena Normal and Outlined, Vox Box, Whatafont, Xtraordinary, Airmole - 4 font set, Dimitri, Moog and Moog Schmoog