by Larry Whiteley
A Message to you Fathers
Someday I’m going to take my kids fishing you say to yourself as you hurry off to work.
Someday I’m going to teach my kids how to shoot a bow but right now I don’t want to miss this baseball game.
Someday I’m going to go hiking with the kids and teach them to enjoy nature but right now I’ve got yard work to do.
Someday I’m going to take the kids on a canoe trip but I better go get the oil changed today.
Someday I’m going to take the kids camping. Maybe I’ll do that next week if the weather is just right.
Someday I’ll teach my kids how to skip a rock or catch a crawdad or build a camp fire but right now I have to go meet some friends.
Dads, someday your kids will be grown and gone and it will be too late!
A Quote to Remember
“It is my fixed conviction that if a parent can give his children a passionate and wholesome devotion to the outdoors, the fact that he cannot leave each of them a fortune does not really matter so much.” — Archibald Rutledge
Beware the Horse Fly
The dreaded horse fly has a bite that is the insect world’s answer to the great white shark. One does not get bitten by a horse fly as much as kicked. Just be thankful there are not as many of them as there are house flies or we would never go outside.
Rainbows
At the end of a storm you may see one of nature’s wonders—a rainbow. A rainbow is formed when light from the sun passes through individual raindrops, where it is refracted and reflected.
The process is sort of like light passing through a prism. Magnify this by millions of raindrops in a storm, and the result is the vibrant multihued rainbow. Think of it as a parting gift of the storm.
Now You Know What You Might Not Have Known
You are about nine times more likely to die from being struck by lightning than die from being bitten by a snake.
The Light Show
As a June night settles in grab a lawn chair and get outside. The light show is about to begin and it’s a whole lot better than what is on TV. It starts with a flash here, a twinkle there. As you continue to watch, the tiny lights rise into the night sky. They blink and drift until the dark sparkles with little floating flashes made by the firefly.
Some come out at dusk; others wait until its dark. Some live near wetlands; others prefer open fields or edges of woods. Some float softly just above the ground, others fly at eye level or drift among the trees.
How do fireflies light up? I guess only God knows because scientist are still trying to figure it out. Just sit back and enjoy the light show while it lasts.
Nature Note
Fish have been on the earth for more than 450 million years and were well established long before dinosaurs roamed the earth.
