Monthly Archives: July 2008

We’ve been hitting the beach on occasion. On one of our forays, we were able to see hammer-head sharks that came into the swimming area. Nobody was in danger, there are lots of food sources that are more interesting to them than swimmers, with all the fishing that goes on here. These pictures were passed on by a friend from NOAA Fisheries. Our home school group is part of the crowd in the background shallows that day.

On another trip to the beach, we encountered small, stinging, jelly fish. There were tons of them and the children were catching them in sand pails and relocating them to the other side of the rocks, away from the swimmers. Most of the children were fine, as long as they didn’t touch the stinger part. The jellies must release a toxin into the water though, because any children that were sensitive to perfumes and chemicals, complained of itching everywhere that touched the water…..even if they were not part of the relocation efforts. Two of mine fell into this category, so we didn’t stay very long.

Hat tip to our friend from Hawaii for sharing that vinegar, urine, or meat tenderizer will take away the itch or sting of jellies. We poured vinegar over them from head to toe and it worked like a charm!

This is the alpha wolf which greeted us and rolled over to have his tummy scratched by the children.

One of two orphaned red fox kits…..their soft fur and playfulness reminded me of little kittens!

This is Tulip the skunk. She is descented and behaves like a little lap dog. The kids LOVED her!

The children also played with timber wolf puppies. They were very squirmy and liked to chew on everything.

The two baby raccoons were a HUGE hit! They made the coolest churtling sounds and had very cool “hands”.

We had to drive forever to get to this animal preserve, but it was well worth it to hold all the baby critters! Fun was had by all.