Turkey Soup

I am going to give blogging another try; maybe they will be more interesting this time. Many of my friends love to see my pictures and as much as I am interested in underwater marine life, I do understand that others are not interested in reef behavior, life cycles, or mating rituals. I understand. Really I do, and it is Ok. While taking a class on social media, I had a young, (mid 20’s) professional photographer and group travel leader and social media specialist take a look at my blog. He is a very nice young man, extremely talented and ambitious (his specialty is hiking and photographing big mountains). He was quite smart, but I probably reminded him of his mother. He kindly and gently told me that I had too much information in my blogs and not enough personality coming through. He also suggested I write about my other interests and maybe even combine them together in my blogs.  Well, I am fairly intelligent, and can read between the lines. My blogs were boring as hell! With that in mind, I am going to give this another try.

For the last year I have been making a huge effort at healthier living and not wasting so much.  I have been working out at the YMCA with a trainer for a couple of years now. I am sure you are now thinking you hope I am not spending too much on this, because I still have a ways to go, even after a couple of years.  However, I am much stronger, but I still love to cook and eat. My trainer is working on behavior modification in those areas.

Our social life revolves around food and whenever anyone comes to our house, there is always food served. Just so you understand, we celebrate with food, mourn with food, if I am anxious or nervous I cook, you are getting the idea. I also show my family “love” by cooking for them.  My oldest daughter Tara is expecting a baby any day now and you guessed it, I am cooking. I have been cooking for a week now, homemade ice cream, homemade mustard, cranberry ketchup, pies, homemade granola, cookies, homemade breads, and even now trying my hand at making cheese. She really needs to deliver soon, as we are running out of room to store the food.

In my effort to be healthier, we also joined a community shared garden this summer which gave us lots of fresh vegetables, many we had not eaten before. The crops came in abundance, so I froze and canned the excess, so as not to waste anything.  The pantry is over flowing with canned goods, which I share with my grown children who are out of the house and trying to make it on their own. My son, Scott, who still lives with us and works at Meijer Supermarket, was our guinea pig trying all the new vegetables and running to the store or up and down the steps for supplies.

Thanksgiving is over with now and in my effort not to waste, I decided to make turkey rice soup using the carcasses from both turkeys (one smoked by Wayne, my husband, and one traditionally stuffed and baked). I also threw in the chicken carcasses that I had saved in the freezer from any whole baked chickens we had cooked earlier in the year. I chopped up a couple of large bags of carrots and celery, added some onions and cooked them in batches in my large fry pan. At this point it looked like I was cooking for a large army, as I had not one, but two 18 quart pots on the stove cooking. I seasoned it with herbs that came from the garden and I had dried over the summer, and then added the new “waste not” ingredient, beet greens. My friend Cathy told me that the top of beets, beet greens, can be added to soups for extra nutritional value.  I sure hope the kids like it. Another benefit to soup simmering is that our furnace won’t run for hours from two pots simmering.

This endeavor took some time, five hours. I was able to speed it up by using my food processer to slice the vegetables but the meat had to be plucked from the bones which was all laying in the bottom of the pots. I was amazed at how much meat was salvaged. Yes, it would have been easier to have thrown away the carcasses and just chopped up the leftover turkey, but now I can make some casseroles with the sliced meat.  This is a note to my kids; no I did not cook and add the innards. I did cook them and gave them to our dog, Poka, who is now showing her extreme gratitude by having gelatinous diarrhea all over the house.

I have 36 quarts of homemade turkey soup. We will eat some of it. I will send some to my daughter and her family as there will be a new baby any day now, and she won’t have to cook for a couple of nights. My son Jeff, who graduated from college this last spring, living in Wisconsin, working a commission job, and trying to make it on his own, will receive some to eat now and more frozen containers for later. I will freeze and bring down some to my daughter Erin, who lives in Florida, working as an assistant golf pro, and trying to make it on her own as well. Another container will go to a friend, a single mom with two girls at home, who struggles daily to make ends meet. This is my way of showing “love” to my family and friends, as cooking is a labor of love for me.

To those of my friends who have more than they need, may you always have enough to share. To my friends who struggle daily with enough to eat, clean water, and adequate shelter, may you always be able to make more from what little you have.

I am left to ponder, how many “things” do we need? How much is too much? How can we share our blessings? Can we make do with what we have, or do we need new, and bigger, and better? I will explore this further in my next blog.   Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey Vegtable Soup

I spent six weeks there in 2009. It wasn’t enough, so I returned for another four weeks in 2010. Exploring the ocean and marine life was my initial goal, but after learning how much Indonesia has to offer, I needed to go back in 2010. For this return trip, I decided to see more of the land, the people, and the customs.  I also wanted to see some of the monkeys known to inhabit the islands, as well.

My first stop was to the Island of Bali. Monkey Forest in Ubid is home to a Hindu temple, where Balinese macaque or long tail monkeys roam where they please and take what they want.  Stores find the monkeys stealing their food and tourists have sunglasses, snacks, hats, and drinks stolen. The Monkey Forest of Padangtegal is a sacred Balinese Hindu site. Balinese Hinduism is different than Hinduism practiced in other parts of the world. Balinese Hinduism combines aspects of Animism, Ancestor worship, Buddhism, and Hinduism.  The original temple was built sometime around 1400’s. Today it is believed that the monkeys keep evil spirits away so the monkeys are protected. Monkey Forest is a preserve, but the monkeys are allowed to come and go as they please. Many different monkey troops live within Monkey Forest causing some overlapping of territories. As a result it is not uncommon to witness some violent physical clashes amongst the troops vying for dominance.

The long tailed macaques have distinguishable physical characteristics. Males are larger than the females, having broader shoulders and larger canine teeth. Females have facial hair that resembles a bear and the males have a more pronounced mustache. Sub adult males have smaller bodies, shorter back hair, narrower shoulders, and smaller canine teeth.

Macaque monkeys have characteristics that are related to both their age and their status in the troop.  For instance, female macaque monkeys do not reach adult social status   until they have given birth. Like most mothers, the macaque monkey moms are very protective of their young, so extra caution had to be taken when photographing them.

My next stop was Northern Sulawesi to Tangkoko National Park, where two species of monkeys reside. There is a small village outside of the park and I rented a room in a home stay, directly across from the park entrance, as there are no accommodations in the park. The village has no electricity and modest plumbing. Water is piped in and I did have a seat on my toilet, but flushed with a bucket of water. I also washed with that bucket of water. All drinking water must be brought to the village and park in bottles.

Indonesia’s national parks are not at all like the national parks in the United States. There are no roads to get into the park and there are limited trails on which to walk. My guide and I just forged our way through the jungle. The entrance fee was $5 per day and I did have a guide, which was a good thing, as they know where the animals tend to be and I would have never found my way back out of the jungle.

After about four hours of hiking, we finally came across the first kind of monkey, the Black Macaque monkey. These are considered an old world monkey, as they do not have long tails but instead, butt pads. They climb through the trees and travel through the forest by walking. This was a fairly large troop consisting of thirty to forty monkeys. I watched and followed for a bit, then practiced my “forging skills” by moving very slowly, avoiding eye contact, and digging at the ground with my feet. I would stop, often picking at myself much like they do. They let me join the troop and I sat on a log in the middle of them. I would shoot a couple of pictures and then resume “grooming “myself, avoiding eye contact which would be considered a threat to them. I stayed with them for about an hour, before the monkeys decided it was time to move on.

Next on my list in the same park, were the Tarsier monkeys. These monkeys are the smallest monkeys in the world. They are about four inches tall and weigh no more than a half pound.  Tarsiers are nocturnal, so their eyes are large, each one being larger than their brain. The eyes are immobile, but the Tarsier can rotate their neck 360 degrees. They have large sensitive ears and can move its ears to determine the location of its prey. Tarsiers are insectivores and this neck and eye combination is helpful in catching their prey at night. They will   also eat small birds, lizards, and snakes. Their name comes from the long tarsus bones in their feet. Their hands have pad-like suction cups on the end of their fingers, enabling them to move up and down on vertical surfaces. They have two grooming claws on their second and third toes, which are used to clean the fur and skin of dirt and parasites.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Tarsiers can jump up to seven feet and use specialized form of locomotion called vertical clinging and leaping. They move from tree to tree, clinging to the trunk or a branch. They also will hop on their long legs. Their tail is used for balance while moving and supports them while resting. Tarsiers prefer to be vertical at all times.

Late in the afternoon, I met up with my guide for a hike back into the forest to find the Tarsier monkeys. Two hours later, we arrive to a tree known to have had Tarsiers living in it. As dusk approached, little squealing sounds could be heard and my guide explained that it was the monkeys. Just as it was getting dark, two monkeys came down from a tree. They were so small that my guide had to point them out. On a small tree behind me was a very large green grasshopper. I positioned myself just under the bug, with the monkeys quite focused on the grasshopper. After twenty minutes of photographing, one of the little tarsiers couldn’t take it any longer. He jumped onto my head, grabbed the grasshopper and jumped back into his tree. It happened so fast that I barely felt it as he was so small and light. Darkness set in and so did the pouring rains that are expected almost daily during this time of year. I packed my camera away and hiked the two hours back to my home stay by flash light. I was soaking wet but thrilled with my encounters with both the Black Macaque and the Tarsier Monkeys.  Click onto this link for a short video of all of the monkeys. Monkeying Around in Indonesia

Ghost Pipefish are sexually dimorphic so the male and female are easily distinguishable. The male is about ½ the size of the female. During breeding season, the Ghost Pipe Fish will change their color and their shape to camouflage themselves even better.

The Ghost Pipefish belong in the same family as the Sea Horse, but unlike the Sea Horse, the female Ghost Pipefish harbors the eggs in her pouch, instead of being carried by the male. Ghost Pipefish are an external skin-brooding species, which means the eggs are enclosed into a pouch and attached inside. This only occurs on the inside surface of the pelvic fins of the females and they are the brooders in this species. The female’s pelvic fins are larger than the males and the female is also larger than the male. The female’s pelvic fins are expanded and connect to the body and to each other to form a brooding pouch.  She will fan the eggs by opening and closing her pelvic fins. The females will carry the eggs in this pouch during the incubation period. This allows the female to move the babies to a protected site for survival and also decreased the risk of them being eaten during the developmental stage. A normal brood size may be up to 350 babies. The young are expelled from the pouch at birth. The small babies start out as larvae, drifting in the ocean currents as maturity is gradually reached. They will then settle on the ocean floor, transparent in color, until it finds its way to the reef to reproduce. At this stage, the Pipefish will now take on shape and color, camouflaging itself on the reef.  Ghost Pipefish will find a mate and pair off in a union that can be observed for many days. Once fertilized the cycle repeats itself.

Ghost Pipefish grow to approximately five inches long and the float almost motionless, with their head and mouth facing downward, by floating around a similar background, they are almost impossible to see.  They feed on tiny crustaceans which they suck through their long snout.

The Ornate or Harlequin Ghost Pipefish are both colorful and distinctive. They are found living around crinoids, featherstars, gorgonian fans and black coral bushes.    Their coloring and body shape help them hide or stay camouflaged. The key to this ability to camouflage is the skin flaps that these fish use to mimic feathers.  Harlequin Ghost Pipefish can be found in shallow tropical and sub tropical waters near coral reefs, rocky drop-offs, or seaweed beds. They usually are found in depths of 9 to 75 feet. I found numerous pairs while diving in Bunaken, and many of the females were brooding babies. Their colors varied and included red, orange, black, and semi-transparent.

Robust Ghost Pipefish do not have the skin flaps of the Ornate Ghost Pipefish. Their bodies are elongated and mostly smooth, but they do have the distinctive pelvic fins like other Ghost Pipefishes.   I also saw many pairs of these fish on the reefs and near algae in the coral rubble vegetation off the coast of Bunaken, and in the muck at Lembeh Strait. Many of the females were brooding eggs in their pouches. They also float, or hover, almost motionless with their mouths facing downward. With smooth bodies, they resembled twigs or sea grass floating in the water and were easily missed by divers. With coloring in shades of light to dark brown, they can also be found in shades of grey to bright green. These are the largest of the Ghost Pipefish growing to a maximum length of 15 cm or almost six inches long. An exciting moment of my trip was finding a Red Robust Ghost Pipefish which is very rare to see.

Ghost Pipefish are so difficult to spot and are such an oddity that when spotted a large group of divers can be found surrounding and gawking at these little “Ghosts”.  They are typically a solitary species, but most of the ones we saw were paired with a mate, which may have indicated a mating season. . Even though these are not extremely rare to find on the reefs, their camouflage hides them so well that they are missed by most divers. During my trip, I saw many of each of these varieties, but because they “hide”, there is always a rush of adrenaline upon “bumping” into one of these ghosts that lurk in the reef and muck

Coral bleaching, pollution and destructive fishing methods are all a threat to the Ghost Pipefish. A further threat to their numbers is the home aquarium trade.

Mandarin Fish, (Synchiropus splendidus), are found in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Australia. I found these colorful jewels of the sea in the Northern Sulawesi diver’s paradise of Bunaken and the Lembeh Strait. These small fish (1 to 2 inches) are strikingly beautiful with their body designs of squiggles, swirls, dots, and stripes in bright colors of orange, green, blue, and yellow. Their name comes from the resemblance to the robes of Imperial Chinese officers known as mandarin. These beautiful fish are members of the dragonete family. Mandarin fish are dimorphic, which means they can accomplish the sexual and reproductive traits of either, if they lack mates of the opposite sex. The males typically have more orange color on their faces, and larger bodies, while the females have smaller dorsal fins. Even with their distinctive markings, mandarin fish are very difficult to locate in their native habitat.

Mandarin fish are difficult to locate because they are extremely shy. They live in pairs and in groups of up to five, living at depths of 4 to 60 feet . They prefer to live on fringing reefs and slopes, inhabiting broken coral rubble beds, in sheltered lagoons. Both movement and lights will scare them back into their coral habitat, which makes them very difficult to photograph. Because they are so shy, we arrived early to get into position, so that we were ready to photo when the action began and not scare them back into the reef.

Mandarin fish are elusive during the day, but if a diver is patient, they can be seen perched on or darting between coral branches. Swimming by rapidly pulsating their fins makes them appear to hover, much like a humming bird. Mandarin fish have a broad and depressed head. They have four dorsal spines, eight dorsal soft rays and no anal spines. The males are larger than the females and have an elongated first dorsal spine. Their big outward-set eyes are ideal for food hunting and feeding in the dim light conditions found underwater.

The Mandarin Fish is one of the few types of fish who do not have scales. The fish are instead protected by a thick mucus-coated slimy and smelly skin. This coating helps protect them from parasites, and discourages predators because of their foul taste.  The bright, vivid coloration also serves as a warning to predators of their bad smell and taste. Not much is known about their predators, but scorpion fish have been known to lie in wait to attack an unsuspecting mandarin fish during their mating ritual.

Mandarin fish reproduce by releasing thousands of eggs into the ocean after a courtship consisting of a “mating dance.” The dance frequently is ended by the female before spawning has occurred, requiring several attempts to complete the process. This mating ritual occurs each evening before sunset.

Within twenty minutes of sunset every evening, three to five females will gather at a particular area of the reef. The males will visit, displaying courtship behavior, in hopes of attracting the females. The males are known to tour around to the different sites, mating with several females in an evening. The female will rest on the pelvic fin of the chosen male.  The pair will slowly raise about one foot up from the reef, belly to belly, and at the peak of their assent a cloud of sperm and eggs (around 200 eggs) are released into the water. The fish then disappear, instantly darting back into the coral. All of this takes place in a matter of seconds. A camera with low light capabilities will help when trying to capture the action. The fertilized eggs are spread by the current and will hatch in 18-24 hours. They hatch into larvae about one eight of an inch and will remain plankton for up to two weeks. Then they settle onto the reef and choose an appropriate habitat where they will reside. Mandarin fish are among the smallest ocean fish that spawn. An average life span is 10 to 15 years.

Because only a small number of females within a group are active, competition for the males is high. Females seem to prefer the bigger and stronger males and therefore the larger males mate more often than the smaller ones.  Because the smaller males don’t mate as often, they have been known to rush up on a mating pair releasing sperm in hopes of random fertilization.

After participating in a Mandarin dive, making the choice of sitting on the dock watching the sun set with a Pina Colada in hand or jumping in to watch the show was an easy one. If you are ever in an area where Mandarin Fish live, take the opportunity to see the beautiful colors and to watch the mating process. When you can find them, it is a good show.

The Red Fox is very sensitive to low-frequency sounds, which sets it apart from most other mammals. The fox listens for underground noises such as digging, gnawing, and the rustling of small animals. When he detects these sounds, he will dig frantically into the ground or snow to capture the animal. He stalks its prey much like a cat, by moving in as close as possible, then running down the prey when it bolts. The Red Fox will continue hunting even if he is full, burying excess food under snow, leaves, or soft dirt. He appears to find his cache by memory and smell, although other animals sometimes find the cache first, before it is retrieved by the Red Fox. An adult fox usually does not retire into a den in the winter but will curl into a ball in the open and wrap its bushy tail around his nose and foot pads. At times he is blanketed by snow while in this position.

Adults remain solitary until mating season, which begins in late January or February with nocturnal barking. The maternity den is built shortly after mating and remains in use until late August when the family disperses. The den is then abandoned. The female will clean out extra dens for her family to use if disturbed, but the same one may be used for several years, which was the case with this mother fox, as she returned to the same den as last spring. Habitats range from mixed cultivated and wooded areas, and brush lands.

The maternity den is usually in sparse ground cover on a slight rise with a full view on all sides. It may also be on a stream bank, slope, rock pile, or the hollow of a tree log. The mail entrance is in an earthen mound, about 3’ wide with a mound of packed dirt. One to three less conspicuous escape holes are also built. This mother’s maternity den had one main entrance and five smaller escape holes. The den is well marked with excavated earth, cache mounds where they will bury their food, holes where food has been dug up, and scraps of bones, feathers, and fur.

While there were four kits with the mother fox, a Red Fox will have from one to ten kits born in March to May.  The kits are born in the maternity den after gestation of 51-53 days. When the kits are born, they already show the white tail tip. At about a month old, the young will play above ground, and will feed on whatever their parents will bring to them. Food is given by the mother to the first kit who begs for it. In years where food is scarce some young may die. At first the mom will predigest the meat and then regurgitate it but soon she will bring live prey, so the kits will learn and practice killing. Later the young hunt with their parents.

Each of these four had distinctive personalities. One was aggressive, one playful, one followed the others around, and the fourth was shy and nervous, obviously the runt of the litter.  In the early morning hours, mom would clean her kits, watch over them as they played, nurse them on demand, and produce rabbits and squirrels from a cache to feed her babies as well as herself. She would give them food and show them how to eat, tearing off meat for them and helping them to do it themselves. She kept a careful watch over them while I stayed back, but not hidden, and photographed as they went about their daily lives. The kits will fledge at about seven months. The males will travel away up to 150 miles, while the females usually will stay closer. The adults also disperse, remaining solitary until the next mating season.

The last morning I spent with them, mom approached me and scratched her head on a stick within three feet of me. She came close enough for me to pet, however I resisted, instead enjoying the close up photograph opportunities she gave to me. Later she brought one of her kits up close for a visit as well. Towards the end of the morning, I believe that mom had become so comfortable with me that she left the four kits and headed down the shoreline, presumably to hunt for food.  She seemed convinced that I would not harm her babies and left the babies out with me. The babies played another half hour and then retired to the den for the day.

The adult Red Fox has few enemies other than humans and cars but rabies, mange, and distemper can be a problem. For years unregulated trapping and bounty payments depleted the Red Fox population, but the collapse of the fur industry and the abolishment of most bounty payments have improved the fox numbers. Poultry farmers have made their farms predator-proof, so farmers are killing fewer foxes as well. The Red Fox seems to be spreading its range but competes with the Coyote which may have a restraining effect instead.

To be able to spend a few days with a Red Fox family, photographing their daily lives, was a privilege I will not soon forget.