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Movember 2022


One of the guys on my rugby team does Movember – where grow a mustache during the month of November to raise money for various men’s health issues. Movember started in support of prostate cancer awareness, but has grown to cover other men’s health issues like suicide prevention. It’s pretty cool, so I do it too.

If you have a few scarves lying around, how about throwing a few on the pile for men’s health? You can do that here: https://movember.com/m/14637302?mc=1

Sea-O-Sphere 2

I got a chance to go to Galveston today and so I collected some water for Sea-O-Sphere 2. I got some of the water from this one from a tidal pool and the rest straight from the ocean near East Beach.

I am still living with your ghost; lonely and dreaming of the Gulf Coast

In the photo, straight ahead is the Houston Ship Channel. To the left and right is the tidal pool I got some water and sand from.

The tide was out, and the sand from the ocean side … well it’s a lot coarser and filled with little bits of shell and whatnot. I found a little bit of seaweed that I’m pretty was dead already, but I threw in. And I took a little piece of grass that was growing near the tidal pool. I don’t thing it will survive, but we’ll see.

So there it is with the other Sea-O-Sphere on the window sill. Looking at it, I thought I saw something swimming around in it. I tried to get a picture, but it came off looking a bit like one of those photos of Big Foot.

Sea-O-Sphere

So I went to Corpus Christi for 7’s by the Sea. I got half way there when I realized that I had left the glass jar I had intended to put everything in at home. Ooops. Fortunately I had a couple of empty water bottles I could used.

Beach in Corpus Christi
I am still living with your ghost; lonely and dreaming of the Gulf Coast

After the tourney while we were packing up, I took a moment to go out and get two bottles of ocean water, some salt, a little mussel, and some seaweed.

When I got home I dumped the seaweed and sand out in a bowl. It smelled kinda bad. Hope that’s not a bad sign.

So then I started putting everything in the jar. I’m using an old kombucha jar from HEB for all of this.

So I shoveled in the sand and stuck the seaweed in there. And the mussel as well. I think it might be dead, but I put it in there anyway.

And here’s the finished product on the shelf!

I think I might head to Galveston this weekend. If I do, I’ll make another Sea-O-Sphere from water/seaweed from there. I’d be interesting to see if anything different happens between the two.

Life in (a Prego) Jar

I’ve been watching a lot of Life in Jars on YouTube lately. I’ve always been fascinated by little self-contained ecosystem. When I was a kid, I did a very bad terrarium for a science project (I don’t think I got a good grade on it). I had the aquarium for a long time after and used it to keep critters and crawdads in until a friend knocked it over.

When I lived in Austin, I made a little terrarium from an old candy jar. The bottom had some polished rocks. I’m not sure why I put those in there. It had a little fern plant, some moss, and a snail that I had found out on the Barton Creek Trail. Also, a rock from the parking lot of my apartment. The snail didn’t last long … just not big enough a space for it. The moss did well, but the fern would wax and wane. Unfortunately, during the last move the jar took a bit of a tumble and the rock inside broke the glass.

So I had an empty jar that was previously home to some Prego Alfredo sauce – yeah, I know, I could make it myself, but I’m lazy – so inspired by Life in Jars, I decided to stick some stuff in it and see what happens.

I started with some charcoal. I think this is supposed to help filter water? I just took a briquette and crunched is up using two large rocks.

Next I added some rocks and pine straw. I don’t think the pine straw is too good – I think it tends to make soil acidic. But meh … we’ll see what happens.

Next some dirt and a little clover plant that I dug up in my back yard.

I threw in some of these grass seeds, some berries, and a few pieces of wood with lichen and whatnot on it.

I was looking for some pill bugs but I couldn’t find any. I did find a worm and dropped him in. But then I thought: this little ecosphere is too small to support it, but he had already started squirming away before I could get him out.

There’s the finished jar, lid and dated, and into the window seal. We’ll see how it does.

I’m going to Corpus this weekend for a Rugby 7’s tourney. I’m taking a little jar that I’m going to use to get some sand, salt water, and maybe some seaweed, and see what happens to it.