#1- Try sitting outside sometime during light to moderate shower. Watch the leaves drain the raindrops. What do you notice? I notice that the leaves drop the raindrops further to the outside of the tree away from the trunk. Each leaf migrates the drops toward the perimeter one drop at a time as the raindrops go further down the tree.
Two things then happen.
First: the drip line around the tree is where most trees put their smallest roots to pick up the moisture and nutrients. This is useful information if you ever have to transplant a tree or shrub. The easiest way to see the drip line is to see the tree’s shadow at noon.
Second: is to watch the birds in the rain. They migrate toward the center trunk as the rain increases. This protects them from the rain.
What can we do with that information from nature? If we ever get caught out in a storm; then we need to huddle close to the trunk to maximize the shelter that the tree provides. HOWEVER, do not sit under a solo tree or the tallest tree in a thunder & lightning storm. These trees tend to invite lightning strikes.
#2- Conifer or evergreen trees have needles instead of leaves. They also tend to have taproots (like a carrot – but larger). So the needles do not drip the rainwater to the drip line like deciduous trees.
#2B- What is the difference between deciduous and conifer seeds? Conifers use cones to produce and spread seeds. Deciduous use flowers.
Y- Name a bow that you can not tie.
Z- A Rainbow.
3- I want you to think about this one for a couple of days and look for examples in your own life. What is the difference between Leadership and Management? Let me know your thoughts.
4- Learn how to tie a “one-handed bowline.”
A- What would you call it if a bull did the surgery?
B- Cow-operation.
5- The lower 48 states of the US are in the “mid-Latitudes” region of the Northern Hemisphere. If we venture further north we are in the Polar region. Further south we are in the Tropical region. These 3 regions are defined is by the 2 jet streams called the Polar Jet Stream and the Subtropical Jet Stream. I think you can guess which jet stream is more northerly.
5B- The Southern Hemisphere has a mirror set of these 2 jet streams. That gives the globe 5 regions. The tropical region crosses the equator all the way down to the Southern Subtropical Jet Stream.
5C- Jet streams are sometimes defined by the amount of atmospheric pressure at the bottom of the jet stream. Can you say: Hectopascal? That is the metric pressure unit for measuring low-pressure gasses. One hectopascal is exactly equal to one millibar. But the millibar is used historically and still used frequently.
C- What did Mount St. Helens say to the next mountain?
D- “I blew my top for you.”
6- Jet streams are finicky and flicked, to say the least. They are very fast-flowing, meandering, and narrow bands of very fast winds or currents aloft. They may start, stop, split, combine, reverse, and flow in different directions (some or all at the same time).
The polar jet stream is the strongest and flows at (about) 9-12 km / 30,000-39,000 feet above the earth’s surface.
The subtropical jet stream is a bit weaker (most of the time) and flows at 10-16 km / 33,000-52,000 feet in altitude.
Mostly they flow from west to east. Particularly during the summer and/or next to large bodies of water (Gulf of Mexico), a new jet stream can start up all on its own.
Wondering and wandering,
Gaither