The Snake and the Spider

The Snake and the Spider, originally uploaded by Corbie.

I've been doing this activity at camp during which I take kids into the forest to gather ingredients for "Ohlone tea". We gather fallen Madrone bark, Douglas Fir needles, Bay Laurel leaves, and Yerba Buena. The secret to good tea is go heavy on the Yerba Buena and Douglas Fir, and really light on the Bay Laurel leaves (I put in too many the first time I tried this, and nearly melted my sinuses). Madrone bark is mostly for color, although I'm told that the Ohlone people used it to make compresses, as well as tea, so it must have some medicinal use. The other secret to getting kids to enjoy the tea is to let them sugar it to taste. Oh, and making it iced tea. It is summer, after all...
Yesterday, we had just started on our gathering hike (with Alex, whose camp name this week is Unpleasant Chicken, coming along) when I got a radio call from our facilities manager, Walrus, that there was a visitor at the new lodge who needed moving. "Does the visitor have a rattle?" I asked. I already knew the answer, and sure enough, I was told that there was a two-foot Rattlesnake near the front of the lodge. I asked the Ohlone tea gathering group if they wouldn't mind becoming a Rattlesnake relocation group. Of course, I got an enthusiastic and unanimous "YES!". On the way back up to the lodge, I grabbed a stick and an old recycling barrel. Then it was just a matter of encouraging the Rattlesnake, who had been hiding behind a stack of cardboard leaning against the wall of the nearly completed new camp entry walkway, into the container. This accomplished, we showed our captive to other nearby kids, and hiked it up the hill away from camp.

It was a beautiful snake too, lookng like it had recently shed.

I also, for the first time, found a cicada nymph. Usually we just find the molted exoskeletons or adults.

The kids are all having a great time at camp this week too. I'll admit, it's hard getting everybody out of bed before 8 and out the door before 8:30, but I managed somehow. The boys are going to sleep over at camp tonight, but I'm taking the girls home. We'll see how the boys fare.