Monitor Lizards

So now that I've started blogging again, you may just get sick of me!!  Oh well.  An interesting thing happened this week, a "small" Monitor Lizard got stuck in a pipe by my koi pond!  I wasn't sure what the proper way to get him out was, but the gardener was here working on some things and thought if we put a large stick in the hole the Lizard would climb out.  I listened to him cry his loud cry that night and thought, "ok, just climb on out".  Well, he didn't.  He was still stuck the next day but again I had no clue how to get him out and honestly, I wasn't home most of the day to worry about it or remember it.  But last night, I heard his cries again, only weaker.  I knew that today we had to get him unstuck.  Well, it turns out that the guards at the front gate of our complex are trained in animal handling. . . if we see a snake our first thing to do is to call them so they can come determine if it's poisonous and of course remove it.  I found out today they do lizards too.  When they pulled him out it turned out his leg had been injured, no wonder he couldn't climb out on his own!  So, there you go, a story this week about our "small" monitor lizard!  (I've seen larger ones, fyi, so this really is small, a baby actually!)

RIce World

Ahh the joys of homeschooling!  I have been waiting for our books to arrive so we can use them to do the required schooling for the older two boys.  So, in the meantime, we try to find interesting projects to keep their minds thinking and learning!  They use Kahn academy to brush up on the skills and things they learned last year and we take field trips to learn about the world around us.

Yesterday, I took the two boys to Rice World.  It is the rice museum on IRRI campus and Evan was quite certain it would be boring.  He was very pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it so much!

 They have a population counter when you first walk in.  They found this so interesting!  I'm sure I will take them back so they can compare the numbers they saw the first time with what new number is up in a month or so.

This post will teach you more about rice and it's history than you probably even knew existed!!

 So, let's take a walk!  Here is the rice seed and it's many parts. . . 

 Here is what rice is, in case you weren't sure.

 Parts of the rice plant!!

 I almost took pictures of all the stages of the rice plant, but decided that this was my favorite.  If you look closely, the little granules have little granules sticking out for fertilization to take place.  Really was the coolest looking stage.

They had these chairs that you could sit in and look at the magnified rice light up . . . they had modern rice from different parts of the world, and ancient petrified rice.  This was really cool and one of Brayden's favorite things to look at.

This is the program my husband works on.  Irrigated Rice.  It's the method used most when growing rice.  

These are the other three methods. . . haha, I can't read what they say!!  I remember the rainfed lowland rice, and the rice that grows really tall in flooded areas, but I can't remember that one on the left.  Some rice breeder's wife I am!! 

 If you look closely, you can see that Evan is as tall as me. . . AND that neither of us are as tall as this rice can get!!  Never seen it in real life, but impressive that it adapts like this!

Even Brayden wasn't as tall!

However, he could stand in the Philippines twice.  Once for real (we live here!) and once on the map!  He's a character.

The next few pictures are self explanatory.  It's very interesting how rice was grown in the past, and really how much of these practices still exist today.

The tools were fascinating and how they would use them even more so!

The process of it all has been modernized, but I'm not convinced it's widely used.  Those rice fields we passed on our drive last week didn't seem equipped with such things.

Example of houses built on stilts.

My favorite thing made from the rice stalks. . . these shoes!!  So impressed.  The rice straw seems just as useful as the grain itself!

These are different tools used in the field.  This one was used to straighten the rows and weed out the rice not in the rows.

This is a rice storage bin.  It was really cool looking. . . I'm wondering how I might find some artifacts for my house decor. . . It reminded me of an old ice chest used 100 years ago to keep food.

I'm always thinking I need a basket. . . This one was as big as me.  I'm sure I could find things to fill it!  It was used for rice anciently.

This is carried by a carabou.  They use the yokes on the side to hook of two and it goes through the field.  

Totally used this time to talk about what a yolk was.  

One of my favorite displays!!  How can I find these hats for my husband???  You can see the diagram in the next picture of what each hat was used for and by whom.  I am truly on a journey to find these hats for myself!  They have to be around as souvenirs someplace here!  Seriously LOVE THEM!!

Now these clothes. . . good they found protection from the elements back then!

Wall of knife tools used in rice.

A lunchbox.

Another rice container.

more tools.

Explanation of a few things.

My favorite statues.  

Coolest drum. ever.

Cooking tools.

Will be looking for this as another house decoration. . . 

Carabou pulling the rice cart at a celebration.

Rice in China. . . 

I'm not sure they could have fit much more into the museum, but it was seriously cool!  If you come to visit me, don't think this post counts as your tour.  It's on the list of things we will do!! So I'm sure now everyone wants to come!  The boys are working on their projects this week and will have them ready for their Dad when he come back from France.  Expect awesomeness honey. . . One is doing a report and posters, the other an imovie.  I'll let you guess who is doing what!