Not much been going on around here lately. We are mostly laying low, trying not to get anyone hurt. School starts in a week and we sort of just want to make it to that point without any more drama…so, I took a few pics of stuff I have seen around lately…
I love both bumblebees and coneflowers. This is a perfect picture I think! I like to sort of trick bumblebees to land on my hand and walk on me. Honeybees do it naturally but you sort of have to trick bumblebees. It’s a cool feeling!
I was cleaning out a shed and this big spider was hanging around. I think he wanted to eat my leg but I left him alone and he wandered off to eat someone else I guess. Impressive though!
We installed new motion lights on the house and this pesky robberfly would not leave me alone. There is a variety of robber fly that eats bees, called a beekiller. I used to have an observation hive and one of this guy’s cousins hung out near the pipe that lead from the hive in my house to the outside. He picked off bees all day long. I never could catch him with my shoe…
Speaking of shoes, we went shoe shopping for Isaac the other day in preparation for school…size 15s!
If I wore size 15s, I might have stepped on these roly polies…I generally live and let live but pill bugs like these creep me out in numbers and this is only a portion of the ones that I saw in this pile. I never knew it but these things are also known as wood lice. No wonder they creep me out. Anyhow, with my mere size 10s, I walked on without disturbing the pile!
I was in town the other day and took this cool pic of boats docked on the levee downtown. It may not look it here but there was a good storm going on and I was stuck under a huge metal lightning rod…I mean shelter…freaky!
A few weeks ago, Abigail attended a science in the arts camp sponsored by the WV State Division of Culture and History. It sounds weird but the idea was to demonstrate the use of robots and animatronics in art. About 2 dozen or so kids were invited to the camp where counselors helped young mad scientists put together proximity sensors and motion detectors and wires and batteries to control servos and motors to animate whatever forms the kids wanted.
Abigail chose to build Cheshire the cat! Cheshire looked very much like the cartoon version from the movie Alice in Wonderland which makes sense I guess. I didn’t know she had ever seen the movie but it seems obvious. Anyhow, Abigail’s cat detected when we tried to pet it. It purred and wagged its tail like a good kitty. When we talked to her cat, Cheshire meowed in response.
Mad scientist
I haven’t seen the girl so on fire for technology…ever! Often girls are excluded or exclude themselves from science and technology so I am absolutely delighted that she participated in this week-long day-camp and that she says she wants to work as a robotics engineer! So, thanks WV Division of Culture and History! I think you have sparked a new interest in math and science for my daughter!
In the last post, I mentioned that we had a family emergency that has taken us away from normal doings the last week or so. Here’s the story: a few weeks ago, Isaac mentioned a pain in his hip that sounded very much like a muscle pull. He’s an active kid so it seemed reasonable to us and to him. He did the usual heat and ice and rest which seemed to alleviate the pain somewhat. Like most kids, he doesn’t ever really rest so we figured that it was going to take awhile to get over the problem. That seemed okay until last Tuesday night when we noticed that his pain was magnified dramatically and his entire leg began to swell. By morning, his leg had changed color and he couldn’t walk. Isaac is not a kid who ever cries or skips a chance to eat so we knew there was a problem when both happened. Wednesday morning, Emily took him to the emergency room. In Charleston, kids go to CAMC Women’s and Children’s Hospital. They were really great and took us right in.
In the emergency room
My family has a fun little disorder called Factor V Leiden. Basically, it is a disorder that occurs in around 5% of people and the end result is that carriers are significantly more likely to develop blood clots. You may have heard of problems related to blood clots including pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, and “holy-crap-that-hurts-more-than-eating-glass”. My Dad and I both have tested positive for the issue so more than likely, Isaac has the issue too.
Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Mobile ICU
So, at the hospital, we related our history and experience with clots and they, of course, suspected a clot as well. Unfortunately, they did not have expertise and/or equipment at CAMC W&C Hospital to do a proper clot-identifying ultrasound. Isaac and I rode in an ambulance from W&C to CAMC Memorial Hospital. The rad tech scanned his leg and then scanned more and more and finally, up into his belly. I knew we were into something big when she did that. The ambulance took us back to Women’s and Children’s where they confirmed that Isaac had a clot that ran, roughly, from under his rib cage to his feet.
IV Meds…this was something to watch!
Clots in general can be life threatening and clots of this size are definitely not common. The doctors at W&C Hospital were honest about the gravity of the situation and that they had limited capability to treat all of the potential issues that we could be facing. After a few calls, we settled on a transfer to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH. The weather was bad so an air lift was not an option. The risk of transport was high and the possibility of a pulmonary embolism was real. Nationwide has a mobile ICU ambulance which is equipped for just about any sort of medical emergency so it was dispatched to Charleston. The crew left OH around 10 pm Wednesday and we were on board the ambulance and back on the road for Columbus at 1:30 am Thursday morning. Emily rode with Isaac and I drove separately. We arrived around 4:30 am where we were immediately admitted.
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
I didn’t realize, but in pediatrics, hematology and oncology go together so we were given a room on the “hem-onc” ward. Nationwide is set up brilliantly to make family and patients comfortable and together. Anyhow, we were taken to the interventional radiology department where surgeons placed a catheter into Isaac’s vein in his leg, directly into the clot. Through the “pipe”, they delivered tPA, the clot busting drug given to stroke patients. The idea was to break up the clot, give Isaac blood thinners and get him back to being well. In normal cases, that’s pretty much how it would go. Of course, we didn’t fall into that category.
The vein in his left leg…it should be straight so even the bumps suggest clotting/damage
The surgeons discovered that Isaac doesn’t have an inferior vena cava, the large vein that returns blood from the legs to the heart. Typically, each leg has a large vein that joins somewhere around the belly button creating the inferior vena cava. It is likely that he once had one, but sometime, probably during the trauma that was his birth, it was blocked and/or died. Fortunately, he survived that episode and his body was able to form collateral veins which returned blood back to the heart in spite of the missing IVC. Those collateral veins, of course, are not the way one is supposed to be plumbed so, while effective, they are not as good as a healthy IVC at returning blood to the heart. Couple the Factor V and the missing IVC and we have a serious issue waiting to happen. No one could believe that Isaac has not had any issues prior to this one.
The vein in his right leg. This should be a straight shot. Instead he has many collateral veins…and a many clots
So, the clot buster usually works similar to a small rupture in a dam. Once a hole is poked in a dam, the rushing water opens the hole wider and wider. In a normal anatomy, the tPA works the same way. However, without an IVC, there is no rushing water to open the pipes. As soon as the surgeons removed the catheter, the clot simply reformed. Surgically there is no real solution, at least not anything worth the risk. The only course, then, is to manage the clotting and allow the body to heal itself by creating more collateral veins and isolating the clotted area. We are now on that path. Isaac is on blood thinners and pain meds but still cannot walk by himself. In time, the doctors believe that his body will heal to some level of normal but this is a life changing event for him. Not only has more damage been done to his veins that were already weakened by the missing IVC, but now he is also on blood thinners. He should be able to walk normally again but running will depend on how the healing goes. He is currently nauseous from pain and unable to manage much of anything independently. We have expectations that the pain will subside in a few weeks so we just need to let time pass and his body heal.
Another view of the clots/veins as the inject the dye
I have only the greatest respect and appreciation for the doctors and staff, both in Charleston and at Nationwide Children’s. They were fantastic and so kind and helpful. It’s a weird thing though, as a parent, when you take your child to a hospital and you get news that not much can be done to just fix the problem. We are so used to going to the doctor with a sore throat or even a broken arm. A few meds and a stitch or two and things are back to normal and everything is ok. When that doesn’t happen, it is the weirdest sense of helplessness, and a feeling that I haven’t experienced since Isaac’s birth. It’s a hard place to be in where your tough son is crying in pain and there isn’t a lot to be done. We feel good about where we are headed but the road there is a tough and dangerous one. As I consider the last week though, I saw all around me children with pediatric cancers on the hem-onc ward. Though this is still a scary time for us all, I still feel very fortunate when I consider what other families are going though. Hug your children tight…
I have had this written for quite awhile now but we have had a family emergency. I’ll write more about it soon. So this is a little out of date but I hope you enjoy anyhow…
So awhile back was the sesquicentennial celebration of WV statehood. There was lots going on and there are all sorts of places to check out details but we got a few cool pics of things that went on. Truly, WV went first class on the celebration and made for some really cool memories. On Friday night, Abigail and I went to the Capitol lawn and sat upon a blanket for an hour and a half to see the widely touted 3-D movie and fireworks show. It was to run 3 nights and from where we live, I could see the fireworks and hear the music from the first night. After hearing reviews, we decided to go for the second showing and I am so glad we did!
So Abigail and I went early and sat on our blanket. We spent some time talking and some time reading and mostly hunting for lightning bugs and people wearing inappropriate clothing. It was a ton of fun and we had good neighbors. Too many people showed up minutes before the show so it got pretty crowded eventually but we didn’t have too much trouble. Anyhow, back to the show…there was a really cool countdown projected onto the Capitol which was fun since everybody counted down for the real show. The movie was brilliant. The folks that created it used the architecture of the building beautifully and it highlighted all sorts of important events in WV state history. We saw images of settlers and the Civil War and mountain musicians and white water rafting. We saw Mary Lou Retton and the late Senator Robert Byrd. It was just super well done and demonstrated so many of the things about which we should be proud!
The producers played music throughout of course but I think the best part was when the played Country Roads by John Denver. It’s unofficially the state song and whenever it is played, everyone within earshot sings along proudly. The crowd served it up well and reminded me once again the the entire state of West Virginia is just one big small town. It was Country Roads that I could hear playing from my house the night prior to our attendance that let me know for sure that this was going to be a first class show!
Click for a video I took
We had a little bit of traffic to suffer through but I know all of the not-interstate roads to get home so it wasn’t too bad for us. People were courteous as you would expect in our big small town. I am super proud of the state I call home and of the party that we threw. I am glad Abigail and I got to enjoy the party together too!
Today is the sesquicentennial of the creation of the great state of West Virginia! You see, there was a disagreement on how things ought to go, known as the Civil War. Due to the mountainous terrain, slavery was not really profitable so it was more common in eastern Va than in western VA. When the VA legislature decided to count 3/5 of the slaves when setting up representation, western VA residents were not happy. The people of the region that is now WV did not feel properly represented and saw an opportunity for independence from VA by seceding and joining the Union. Residents of western and northern counties set up a separate government under Francis Pierpont in 1861, which they called the “restored” government. Most voted to separate from Virginia, and the new state was admitted to the Union in 1863. In 1864 a state constitutional convention drafted a constitution, which was ratified by the legislature without putting it to popular vote. West Virginia was the only state to form by seceding from a Confederate state and was one of two states formed during the American Civil War (the other being Nevada, which separated from Utah Territory). Personally, I think they should have called Virginia, East Virginia to clarify that we are indeed separate entities. Many people outside the region still think we are one state, united with East Virginia. As a small protest, I always call “Virginia” “East Virginia”…so take that!
Although I am not a native, I have been a part of WV since 1990 when I first came to the state to attend West Virginia Wesleyan College. That happens to be the same place I met my lovely wife when she accosted me from the library and made me drink hot chocolate with her back at her dorm room. She’s a native. We spent a few years away doing schooling and stuff but we were delighted to move back to WV in 2005. All of her people are here and this is where I will live the rest of my days if it is up to me.
Simple things…
The new license plate, the capitol and a view from the Greenbrier
Flowers in the WV mountains
West Virginia is the only state that is entirely within the area commonly defined as Appalachia. To some people, Appalachia is a negative term, but to me, it means something special. Typical stereotypes paint Appalachia with ugly traditions such as moonshining and clan feuding, and often portray the region’s inhabitants as uneducated and prone to impulsive acts of violence. Some of that is true, but there are ugly things everywhere. Rather, I prefer to think of West Virginians as quiet and kind folks who value simple living and the land and family. The music and mountains and old traditions of WV run deep and make WV naturally a different culture than much of Virginia. The state motto, “Montani Semper Liberi” means “Mountaineers are always free” and absolutely represents the mindset that outsiders perceive incorrectly as backwardness or mistrust of outsiders rather than as fierce independence and pride in one’s home.
Panorama from a WV ridgetop
To me, West Virginia is a lot about a way of life. There is rugged beauty here and an abundance of natural, awe-inspiring landscape. It’s about front porch sitting and gardening and being surrounded closely by the mountains that help feed me both physically and spiritually. WV is about people and history and simplicity and freedom. WV is home to me and my family and will always be where I return. It’s home and I am so glad to help celebrate it’s 150 anniversary!
Is it weird to have a favorite bridge? I occasionally have to drive to Columbus, OH for work stuff. I cross the Ohio River at Ravenswood, WV via my favorite bridge. I am not sure why I like it so much…maybe it’s just the color but I think it is also a mix with the architecture of it as well as the surrounding land. I always take a number of pictures as I drive across it. I never pay much attention to the pics as I take them since I am driving, but occasionally I get some pics that almost capture the essence of why I like this bridge so much.
The air just got a little sweeter
We have another tradition also…whenever we cross back into WV from another state, we call interested parties and report that, “the air just got a little sweeter”. I sent this pic to Emily on my last trip with my message. I think Emily is possibly my all-time favorite wife. She even rates a little higher than WV and this bridge!
I am registered on all sorts of lists to catch bee swarms around Charleston. The folks at the 911 call center know me. Several exterminators know me. The Department of Agriculture folks have my number. I get lots of swarm calls. I LOVE SWARMS! Catching swarms of bees has to be my all-time favorite part of beekeeping.
A gentleman called me the other day reporting a large swarm of bees in a tree at his house. He lives within a mile or so of me so it was the perfect situation. I ran to the house, grabbed up a bunch of equipment and headed to his place where I met his family and the neighbors too. The cool thing is that I know the neighbor family. Abigail plays soccer for the neighbor and their son plays for me.
Anyhow, Abigail and I walked up to the swarm and it was a good one. It was about shoulder high on a smaller tree from which I could easily cut a branch to remove the swarm. I typically lay a sheet out, place my destination hive on top and shake the bees from the branch into the swarm box. Bees in a swarm are usually not terribly defensive. I typically approach a swarm pretty boldly to see how they roll and rarely have any issues with them. That being said, never touch a swarm of bees because there are still 10,000 or so stinging insects who don’t care much about manners. Call a beekeeper every time.
So, I sent everyone inside where they could watch from behind screened windows and started my tree trimming. Within a few minutes I had the bees in the hive and we were all done but for the crying. Wait…no crying. Just loading the bees into the car.
edit: one of the ladies took these pictures…
I think I like catching swarms for the “show-off” factor as much as anything. The two families that watched the swarm catching were curious and interested and called me crazy! It doesn’t get any better than that!
When I got home, I had three more calls from people with bee swarms…it might be a busy few weeks!
Emily’s grandparents have a small pond at their place and every year Mr and Mrs Frog raise their babies there. We usually try to time it right to experience the sheer joy of frog season. I don’t know if you are familiar with how frogs work but Mrs Frog lays huge caches of gelatinous eggs which very quickly hatch and turn into tadpoles and eventually frogs. If you watch carefully, you get to see all of the steps in between tadpole and frog which might be the stuff of nightmares if you didn’t know better. Seeing a pond full of tadpoles is simply amazing! They swim so awkwardly and yet not. When they start growing legs and losing their tails, things get really interesting. It is an absolutely amazing transition and a lot of fun to witness!
Anyhow, we were around the pond last week and got to enjoy the tadpoles in the pond. Abigail loves to catch them in her hand and sing to them. She caught a few and while singing, spotted Mrs Frog. Mrs Frog had a protective eye of course (we could tell) but seemed content to watch us watch her babies. Of course, what are her options? We don’t have ferocious frogs here in West-by-God-Virginia.
Abigail decided she wanted to give Mrs Frog a pat on the back, congratulating her on a job well done with her latest crop of babies. She squatted at the edge of the pond (I had my camera ready fully expecting Abigail to fall into the water) and reached out to touch Mrs Frog. With a flash, Mrs Frog leapt into the water upon feeling Abigail’s fingers. She swam across the pond and under a rock where we could see her one back leg hanging out. We decided to leave well enough alone and just watch from afar. Spring is just the absolute best time of year! There are so many opportunities to experience in the spring. The Frog family delights us every year!
We are doing a little bit of fancy building out in the back yard to convert a bit of space from grass to a food plot. A few years ago I cut down and old tree that was both ugly and in the way. I had high hopes of sawing the tree into boards (just to see if I could) and doing something interesting with it. Three years later, the log is pretty well rotted…and in the way like the tree before it. I rolled it out of the way so we could work and we found a regular entomological wonderland!
These two huge beetles dashed around in circles. I dubbed them vampire beetles because they just wanted out of the sun. I think they were actually Patent Leather beetles (Odontotaenius disjunctus). I let them crawl around on my hands and arms a bit, trying to get the kids excited (in a “my dad is so brave and awesome” kinda way). It didn’t exactly work as I expected but I was delighted that the kids at least wanted to touch the beetles. I am a country boy trying to raise city kids to not be too much city and a little more country…touching bugs is a good step on the path. I delivered both beetles to a safe spot nearby…I do not want to harm such cool and beneficial bugs.
We also noticed a large millipede cruising around quickly once we moved a chunk of bark. We could not pick him up but he was super cool though a little shy. He had no interest in posing for a photograph. I am not sure about exactly what type of centipede he is but I think he is in the genus Cryptops. I also learned a little something about centipedes versus millipedes. Millipedes have 2 leg pairs per segment while centipedes have one leg-pair on each segment. Centipedes have venomous legs while millipedes do not. Centipedes are fast while millipedes are typically not. Gosh, there are so many other differences…read some more here.
Anyhow, I think what made me happiest about this log was the worm family we found there. Abigail bent right down and grabbed up a worm. It’s a simple little thing but I love that my darling little daughter will pick up a worm without worrying about it being slimy or wiggly. She relocated a family of worms the other day while some other little girls looked on in shock. I have city kids but even in the city, under a log, lies adventure and wonder and just a little bit of country!
I mentioned mountain color in the last post and as much as I like green, I think purple has to be a close second. We have thousands of wild violets in our yard this time of year. They make a really nice blanket of purple in the still-alive-until-summer green grass we have. I hate cutting grass with a passion and my excuse is usually something along the lines of, “I hate to lose all of the pretty flowers that the bees need so much right now.” It has nothing to do with my being lazy of course…it’s for the bees!
Anyhow, I was perusing the interwebs the other day and a blogger I follow, Woodridge, posted a recipe for violet blossom jelly. Check out the original there but I am going to include the recipe here for my own reference too. Woodridge writes from East Virginia, the lesser cousin of West Virginia…
So, Abigail, Emily and I set about picking violet blossoms the other day. Abigail wanted to take some creative license with the recipe so she included a generous helping of green grass also. I picked it out…I have eaten both violets and grass before and only one is really suitable for my palette. Evidently I misread the recipe too as I insisted we pick twice as many blossoms as we needed. We just made a double batch. Many other recipes I found used less blossoms for a single batch but I figured if some is good, more is better which was in line with this recipe anyhow:
Ingredients
3 – 4 cups fresh violet blossoms
3 1/2 cups boiling water
1 package (1 3/4 ounces) powdered fruit pectin
1/2 cup lemon juice
4 cups granulated sugar
Directions
Rinse and drain fresh-picked Violet blossoms; place in a large heat-resistant glass bowl or Pyrex measuring cup.
Pour boiling water over the blossoms. Allow to steep until cool, then cover and allow to stand overnight.
Strain blossoms and reserve violet liquid. Discard blossoms.
Measure violet liquid; add enough water to measure 3 1/2 cups (liquid will be blue-green).
Pour liquid into a large stainless steel pot.
Measure 4 cups sugar (exactly 4 cups) and reserve.
Stir in lemon juice and pectin. Place pot on stove top and bring to full rolling boil on high heat.
Add 4 cups sugar all at once and stir continuously until sugar completely dissolves. The mixture will turn a reddish-violet (depending upon the color of the Violet blossoms). Continue stirring until mixture comes to a hard rolling boil. Stir exactly 1 minute (use a timer), then remove from heat.
Skim foam. Carefully ladle hot liquid into hot sterilized half-pint jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace.
Wipe jar rims, add lids and screw rings. Adjust lids, place jars in canner and make sure boiling water covers jelly jar lids by 1 inch or more.
Cover, bring canning water to a boil.
Process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes. (Adjust timing for elevations over 1,000 feet above sea level.)
Remove from boiling water bath and allow to cool (and ping!).
When cooled, check seals and refrigerate any jars that failed to seal properly.
Yield: 5 half-pints.
Anyhow, the jelly is a beautiful light purple and is some of the prettiest food I have ever seen. It has a super mild flavor and is a little earthy…maybe. I am not sure if that is the right word. Wild is more like it maybe? But that sounds bad…like eating poorly cooked ‘possum or something. Anyhow, it is a light, subtle flavor and will be a really nice addition to our breakfast toast. If you have some violets, whip up a batch and let me know how you would describe the flavor!
