Author: pat frederick

Chapel on the Rock

I found this article about the Chapel on the Rock: The St. Catharine of Sienna Chapel in Allenspark, Colorado on the inspiredimperfection.com website. 

Monsignor Joseph Bosetti came across a large rock formation just east of Rocky Mountain National Park in 1916. Inspired by the scripture Matthew 16:18, “Upon this rock I’ll build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” Bosetti envisioned a church built on the rock.

He fought for years to not only raise the funds needed to build the church, but to keep the rock intact. Eventually, the land on which Saint Catherine of Siena Chapel stands today was generously donated by Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Malo to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver.

Chapel on the Rock was designed by Denver architect Jacques Benedict, and built by the Coulihan Brothers and Charlie Miller from Allenspark. Native stone from the surrounding area was used in the Chapel construction, which was completed in 1936. The chapel was dedicated by Archbishop Urban Vehr in honor of Saint Catherine of Siena.

The stunning, colorful stained-glass window shows St. Catherine holding the body of Christ on the cross. It was designed by the world-renowned Franz Mayer and Sons Glass Works in Munich, Germany and was installed in 1937.

The property was named Camp St. Malo and was used as a boys’ camp led by priests and seminarians until the 1970s when it opened to girl campers as well. In 1984, Camp St. Malo closed temporarily then reopened in 1987 as the St. Malo Religious Retreat and Conference Center.

In 1993, Pope John Paul II prayed at Chapel on the Rock during his visit to Colorado for World Youth Day. During his visit, he blessed the chapel and later hiked the trail on the St. Malo Camp property, which was later renamed the John Paul II Trail.

In 2011, the 60,000 square foot conference and retreat center behind the church was burned to the ground in a fire, but thankfully the Chapel on the Rock survived untouched. Then in 2013, the 100-year rains produced massive flooding and created a devastating 5.0 mile landslide. The mud and rocks slid ferociously down Mount Meeker to the foot of the chapel, destroying the land and the historic Pope John Paul II Trail, but once again sparing the church.

The Archdiocese of Denver is currently working to preserve Chapel on the Rock, restore the Pope Saint John Paul II trail, and build a new visitor and heritage center.

Know Before You Go

Chapel on the Rock is located on the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway at 10758 Colorado Route 7, Allenspark, Colorado 80510 in Boulder County.

The Chapel on the Rock, officially Saint Catherine of Siena Chapel, sits on the grounds of the Saint Malo Retreat, Conference, and Spiritual Center of the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver.

It is open to the public every day from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm weather permitting. It is closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Mass is held at the chapel every Wednesday at 12:00 noon.

There is a small, rough, dirt and gravel parking area outside the chapel. There is also limited parking near Saint William Lodge.

There are no restrooms inside the chapel, but there are restrooms inside Saint William Lodge.

Boulder County designated the Chapel a historic site in 1999.

SOURCE: INSPIREDIMPERFECTION.COM Jennifer Bourn

Happy National Frankenstein Day!

Young Frankenstein is one of my favorite Mel Brooks movies.  Mental Floss details 15 thing we may not know about the movie.

From MENTAL FLOSS:

In 1974, Mel Brooks gave the world Young Frankenstein—a movie that would set the bar for all future horror comedies to come.

Studio Executives tried Tricking Director Mel Brooks into Shooting the Film in Color

By the mid-‘70s, black and white cinema was an endangered species. Nevertheless, Brooks felt strongly about replicating the feel of Universal’s classic Frankenstein films by going colorless. However, not everybody shared his vision. Columbia Studios’ brass thought the style was unmarketable and, as Brooks explains in this delightful interview (skip to 47:40), used some slippery tactics in an attempt to get their way:

“They said ‘Okay, we’ll make it in black and white, but on color stock so that we can show it in Peru, which just got color. And I said ‘No. No because you’ll screw me. You will say this and then, in order to save the company, you will risk a lawsuit and you will print everything in color. It’s gotta be on… black & white thick film.”

Thankfully, Brooks prevailed, though 20th Century Fox wound up taking charge of the project.

Star and Co-Writer Gene Wilder Convinced Brooks to Forgo his Usual Cameo Appearance

Like Alfred Hitchcock, Brooks usually gave himself a part in his own films, from Blazing Saddles’ loopy governor to the wine-selling Rabbi of Robin Hood: Men in Tights. These characters regularly broke the fourth wall and “winked” at the audience, something Wilder felt would clash with Young Frankenstein’s tone. So, as a condition of his taking on the lead role, Wilder made Brooks agree to remain off-camera. However, the director did provide some howling: As Frederick Frankenstein (Wilder) takes his first ride to the family castle, the distant wolf cry which startles him is a sound Brooks actually vocalized himself.

Early On, We Hear the Exact Same Conversation Repeated in Both English and German

En route to Romania, our protagonist catches a train to New York, whereupon he hears an American couple bickering. In the very next scene, Frederick (now on a Transylvania-bound locomotive) witnesses a European pair having an identical, word-for-word exchange in German

One of Igor’s Best Moments Inspired a Hit Aerosmith Song

“Walk this way!” Marty Feldman’s Igor instructs his master, who proceeds to copy the hunchback’s shuffling gait. Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler found this line hilarious and repurposed it as the title of a track about high school lovers.

Hans Delbrück Was a Real Person

As Frederick readies his monster, he sends Igor to fetch a very special brain which rests in a jar labeled “Hans Delbruck: Scientist and Saint”. The actual Hans Delbrück (1848-1929) was an accomplished military historian whose son, Max, won a Nobel Prize for his work with viruses.

Several Props Had Previously Appeared in the Masterful 1931 Frankenstein Film

Taking his feature-length tribute to the next level, Brooks included much of the faux lab equipment used in that earlier picture.

Teri Garr Based Her Character’s Voice on Cher’s Hairdresser

Garr made several appearances on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour and used Cher’s German wig-stylist as a model for ditzy lab assistant Inga’s heavy accent.

Brooks Hired Kenneth Mars After the Actor Signed Off on an Odd Costuming Choice

The two had already collaborated in 1968’s The Producers, and while casting Young Frankenstein, Brooks offered Mars the role of grumpy Inspector Kemp, but not before pitching an eccentric wardrobe gimmick that ultimately wound up on-screen.

“He [said],” Mars later reminisced, “‘Let me ask you this… if you’re wearing an eye patch and you’ve got a monocle on top of the eye patch, is that too much?’ I said ‘Of course not.’ He said ‘Good, you’re hired!’”

Gene Hackman Specifically Asked Wilder for a Part in Young Frankenstein Because he “Wanted to Try Comedy”

According to the movie’s Blu-Ray commentary, Hackman—who’d been thrice nominated for an Academy Award (and won one in 1971)—learned about Young Frankenstein through his frequent tennis partner Wilder and requested a role. Ultimately, ‘Harold’—the lonely blind character he briefly portrayed—sparked one of the most memorable sequences in comedic history.

Peter Boyle Had to Wear a Special Pad Over His Crotch to Avoid Getting Scalded During the Famous Blind Man Scene

During their hysterical encounter, sightless Harold winds up accidentally dumping a bowlful of hot soup onto the poor creature’s lap. Fortunately, Boyle’s protective gear kept him from having to method act his way through the ordeal.

A Huge Percentage of the Movie Had to Be Deleted

“For every joke that worked, there were three that fell flat,” says Brooks, who whittled Young Frankenstein down to its current runtime after observing several mixed reactions from test audiences. This cut material included a clip in which Frederick’s relatives listen to a recorded will left by his great grandfather Beauvort von Frankenstein whose message starts skipping and nonchalantly repeats the phrase “Up Yours!”

In addition, the “Puttin’ on the Ritz” number was nearly axed as well. Brooks reportedly felt that having Dr. Frankenstein and his monster tap dance to an old Irving Berlin song seemed “too crazy.” Hearing this, Wilder—who though it brilliant—snapped and came “close to rage and tears” before Brooks unexpectedly changed his tune. “I wanted to see how hard you’d fight for it,” said the director, “And I knew if you fought hard enough, it was right…You did, so it’s in.”

Wilder was Constantly Cracking Up During Takes

According to Cloris Leachman, “He killed every take [with his laughter] and nothing was done about it!” Shots would frequently have to be repeated as many as fifteen times before Wilder could finally summon a straight face. But, to be fair, he certainly wasn’t the only one who couldn’t always keep it together.

Young Frankenstein sees Marty Feldman’s comic genius on full display, which was often more than his castmates could handle. For example, the scene where Frederick’s fiancée Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn) greets him at the castle generated a lengthy gag reel because Feldman—whose character starts ravenously gnawing on her mink scarf—kept everyone in stitches with his manic over-acting.

Brooks’ Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein were the 1st and 3rd highest-grossing films of 1974, respectively

“It’s good to be the king!” Before this pivotal year, the funnyman’s earlier efforts—The Producers and The Twelve Chairs (1970)—netted mixed reviews and had lackluster box office performances. But after turning out these back-to-back hits at breakneck speed, Brooks’ reputation as one of Hollywood’s greatest comedic directors was secured.

Leachman Was Asked to Reprise Her Role for the ‘Young Frankenstein’ Musical

After getting eliminated from ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, Brooks offered the 82-year-old actress a chance to take a second stab at playing Frau Blücher for his on-stage Young Frankenstein musical, but the show’s run ended before her schedule freed up.

Throughout the Shoot, Brooks Offered Wilder Directing Advice

Knowing his star dreamed of one day sitting in the director’s chair, Brooks made a point to give him as many pointers as possible before shooting concluded. Wilder reminisced, “Mel would say, ‘Do you know the trouble I’m in because I didn’t shoot that close-up? Don’t do that.’ I would say, ‘To whom are you talking?’ ‘You, when you’re directing.’”

Though both headed various productions after Young Frankenstein, they’d never collaborate on another flick. Nevertheless, the pair’s shared legacy is unimpeachable. All three of Brooks’ movies in which Wilder appeared—The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein—have been selected for preservation by the National Film Registry and included on the American Film Institute’s “100 Funniest Movies of All Time” list.

SOURCE: MENTAL FLOSS  MARK MANCINI

My Favorite Spy

Today is Melissa McCarthy’s birthday, born in 1970, and I do not know her politics, but I do enjoy the movies and series I have seen her in—Spy, The Heat, and Mike and Molly.  In Spy, she plays an agent for the government who was tricked into providing support for a handsome agent.  When he is neutralized, she is sent abroad for a low-key surveillance mission where she is assigned aliases such as housewife and cat lady, which she rejects and shows off her true spy capabilities (with some hilarious, but impressive results.) I found an article on factinate.com her describing 42 things we may not know about her, and I wanted to share a few of these.  

From Factinate:

Why Buy It When You Can Make It

Thanks to her fashion background, McCarthy designs the majority of the dresses she wears at award shows and premieres for her movies.

A Little Heads up Would Have Been Nice

In 2011, McCarthy and Joshua Jackson announced the nominees for various Emmy categories, but apparently, no one told her she was up for an award for Mike & Molly. When Jackson announced her name, she was genuinely shocked and so overcome with emotions that she could barely get through the rest of the nominees.

A Dress for Every Occasion

She returned to her fashion roots in 2015 when she launched her own fashion line, Melissa McCarthy Seven7, which offers reasonably priced clothing options for women from size 4 to 28.

Makeover: Diet Edition

After landing the role of Sookie St. James in Gilmore Girls, McCarthy decided to go on an all-liquid diet that resulted in her losing 70 lbs (32 kg) in four months! According to McCarthy, she would never do it again because it drove her crazy, and she would rather have a beer and a burger than starve herself. I’m with ya there, Melissa!

A Very Canadian Heist

In 2011, McCarthy and Mumolo sold a pitch to Paramount Pictures for a movie that has yet to be made and I can’t figure out why. The film would’ve starred McCarthy as a woman who tries to steal the Stanley Cup. Can someone at Paramount finance this movie already!

They Said What?

McCarthy admitted that she was “shocked and heartbroken” after her sitcom Mike & Molly was canceled after 6 seasons. After all, it was one of her first starring roles and she’d achieved much of her film success while still appearing on the show. One of the weirder rumors that was spread after the cancellation was that the show had been axed because McCarthy had lost too much weight after taking diet pills. These rumors were quickly disproven and found to have originated from—you guessed it—a manufacturer of diet pills.

You can read more facts about Melissa at the factinate.com website!

SOURCE: FACTINATE.COM

Brilliant Uses for Eggshells

This article comes from the ruralsprout.com website:

An eggshell is more than just a useful container for the nutritious yolk and egg white inside: it is a prime example of nature’s perfect packaging. Eggshells are beneficial for us too, consisting of 95% calcium carbonate, making them very similar to our own bones and teeth. It comes as no surprise then, that eggshells help to strengthen our bones and protect our tooth enamel. If we only used the shells, rather than throwing them out.

You may not have heard it yet, but just as you can eat the peels of organic bananas or lemons, the entire egg can also be eaten. The shells are an amazing source of calcium, just half an eggshell provides you with your daily recommended calcium intake. It makes practical sense, not only to feed the shells to your egg-laying chickens, but for you to utilize their unusual strengths too. If you raise backyard chickens, you are likely to go through hundreds of eggs a year. Save those shells from entering the landfill and use them in your own home and garden instead.

Clever Uses for Eggshells

Use eggshells to start seedlings indoors

In the pursuit of a plastic-free life and garden, finding a sustainable solution for starting seeds isn’t always easy. In the past, people reused what they had, yogurt containers or the like, but at some point, plastic pots break down and need to be thrown away/recycled. Of course, there are peat pots, newspaper pots, gourd shells and wooden flats as examples to eco-friendly planting options, though eggshells come out as the garden winner. Fill the shell halfway with soil, carefully place your seeds and wait for them to grow. To keep the eggshells in place, place them back in the eggshell carton. When the plants are large enough, you can transplant the entire pot to the garden, where the shell will break down, providing added calcium to the soil around it.

Garden mulch

After a hearty breakfast, or the baking of a delicious cake, crush your eggshells and carry them straight out into the garden! As they slowly decompose, they will not only help to aerate the soil as they improve water flow, the eggshells will also release calcium over time. The finer you crush them, the faster they will break down.

Nourish your tomatoes with a boost of calcium.

While you can place eggshells directly under your tomatoes as you transplant them, sometimes a volunteer tomato plant from last season pops up and you wish to save it. Think of it as a survivor, and give it some extra love and attention. The addition of calcium to your tomato plants will help prevent blossom-end rot (not a disease, but a physiological disorder created by a calcium imbalance). For the same reason, eggshells are extremely beneficial for your squashes, peppers, cabbage and broccoli too!

Feed eggshells to your chickens

If you want healthy eggs from your chickens, just toss the eggshells right back at them! Laying hens need plenty of calcium, and if you find that your chickens are in fact eating their own eggs, it may be because of a vitamin deficiency. Dry out the eggshells at room temperature, and when you have collected enough, go ahead and crush them lightly, then lay out the shells thinly on a baking sheet. Bake the shells until brittle, 275 degrees for ten minutes or so, then crush some more and serve to the chooks in small amounts.

Use crushed eggshells in the garden to deter pests

Ducks will gladly dine on slugs, but you can’t always allow them in your garden. In that case, try roughly crushed eggshells around the base of plants to deter snails and slugs who wish to devour your lovely greens.

Add them to the compost

Again, it is the calcium content that comes into play. In order to increase the quality of your compost, you will want to add all the biodegradable matter that you can, eggshells included. Having a compost pile reduces your trash and helps the garden too.

Wild bird food

Just as you can feed your chickens, you can also give a little support to the wild birds. The same processes apply: bake, then crush the shells into bite-sized pieces, and sprinkle in their feed mix or on the ground for them to find.

Boil eggshells in your coffee

This is wonderful for two reasons.  Firstly, if you are making campfire coffee over high heat, crushed eggshells will help keep the grounds from boiling over. This isn’t a common problem unless you are roughing it, but now you know how to avoid a ruined coffee if the situation ever arises.

Secondly, eggshells added to coffee make for a less acidic cup. When you experience the overwhelming bitterness from a cup of cheap coffee, or from a pot that was brewed too long, eggshells are here to save the day. The powdered, or finely broken up shell, of just one egg is enough to make 4 cups of fantastic coffee. Try it. It is a great way to get some calcium with your brew, if you are sipping dairy-free.

Toss eggshells in your bone broth or stock pot

Whether you are stirring up an enormous pot of bone broth or a hearty vegetable stock, adding eggshells is extremely beneficial. It is not just calcium that you will be receiving, eggshells also contain small amounts of other minerals:

magnesium

fluoride

selenium

zinc

iron

phosphorus

It won’t change the flavor, though you will feel the nutritional boost!

Add them to your apple cider vinegar

Add some dried eggshells to a jar of apple cider vinegar, with the mother, and let nature science do it’s work. The end result will be a tincture that relieves acid reflux, treats minor skin irritations and itchy skin.

Homemade eggshell toothpaste

Once you make the decision to stop using standard minty fluoride toothpaste with a myriad of unpronounceable ingredients, there is no looking back. You’ll then find all sorts of options to keep your teeth happy and clean – from activated charcoal, to clay and zeolite, all the way to baking soda with coconut oil and essential oils. Remember from up above that eggshells are similar to our own teeth? This gives us great reason to make a very fine eggshell powder toothpaste to brush our pearly whites, holding cavities at bay.

Make an eggshell face mask

To nourish and tighten your skin: crush your dried eggshells in a mortar and pestle to make a fine powder. Then whisk an egg white till it is somewhat stiff and add the eggshell powder. Spread it over your face and allow it to dry. Wash the mask off with cold water and enjoy your free facial treatment.

Whiten your laundry

If your whites are not so bright as they used to be and chlorine is a no-go in your natural laundry routine, why not try the method of putting eggshells into a tightly woven bag (or old stocking) with a few slices of lemon?  It doesn’t cost much, if anything, and is definitely worth a try.

Scrub your tough-to-clean pots

In a pinch, you can crush a few eggshells into a dirty pot, along with soap and hot water to get it clean. The shells will break up and remove the dirt as they are wonderfully abrasive. You can use crushed eggshells in hard-to-clean vases as well for a more glistening glass surface.

Eat your eggshells

The best way to eat your eggshells? Powder them finely and add to juices, smoothies, soups and stews. Don’t go overboard though, if you are already getting enough calcium in your diet, you may want to find another use for them. Half an eggshell a day covers your basic calcium needs, more than that is unnecessary.

Why eat eggshells?

Besides the obvious benefits of bio-available calcium coming from free-range eggshells, and the fact that they improve bone density, as well as helping remineralize teeth, eggshells are known to relieve joint pain and inflammation.

That’s a lot of glowing health when you eat the entire egg!

What kind of eggshells to use?

For the sake of eating a healthy, natural diet, you’ll want to make sure that the eggshells you are about to consume come from organic or free-range chickens. Eggs from factory farms are far less nutritious, and may carry hidden pathogens which you will want to avoid.

If you don’t have your own hens, purchase from a local farmer or the farmers market for the healthiest farm fresh eggs possible.  And yes, you can do this with duck eggs or turkey eggs, even quail eggs too.


SOURCE: RURALSPROUT.COM

What Shall We Make Today?

Today’s recipe has a lot of steps, but it’s not too hard…Copycat Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake!

This recipe comes from the liveloveandsugar.com website.  It’s certainly harder than just buying an ice cream cake; however, the price of a smallish ice cream cake is now around $35!

Ingredients

Chocolate Cookie Crunchies

3/4 cup Oreo crumbs (about 9 Oreos)

1 1/2 tbsp butter, melted

Ice Cream Layers

1.5 quart container vanilla ice cream

1.5 quart container chocolate ice cream

Chocolate Fudge

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips*

3 tbsp light corn syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Whipped Cream

2 cups heavy whipping cream, cold

1 cup powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Sprinkles

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat and set aside.
Combine the Oreo crumbs and melted butter and stir until well combined. Spread the crumbs evenly onto the prepared cookie sheet.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, then allow to cool. Use your fingers to break any big clumps into smaller ones. Set aside.
Line an 8×3 inch cake pan* with clear wrap that covers the bottom and goes above the sides of the cake pan. I used two pieces.
About 20 minutes before you need it, set the chocolate ice cream out to soften. Once softened, stir it up until smooth and creamy. Add the softened chocolate ice cream to the prepared cake pan and spread into an even layer. Freeze for 30 minutes.
To make the fudge layer, add the chocolate chips, corn syrup and vanilla extract to a medium sized bowl.
Heat the heavy whipping cream just until it begins to boil, then pour it over the chocolate chips. Allow to sit for 2-3 minutes, then whisk until smooth.
Remove the cake pan with the chocolate ice cream from the freezer, then pour the chocolate fudge over the ice cream and spread into an even layer. Freeze for about 10 minutes.
Add the cookie crumbles to the top of the fudge layer, then freeze for about 2 hours, until mostly firm.
About 20 minutes before you need it, set the vanilla ice cream out to soften. Once softened, stir it up until smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla ice cream to the top of the cake, then freeze until firm, 2-3 hours.
Use the clear wrap to lift the frozen cake out of the pan, then place it on a cardboard cake circle or a serving plate. Set it back in the freezer.
To make the whipped cream, add the heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract to a large mixer bowl. Whip on high speed until stiff peaks form.
Frost the cake with the whipped cream and decorate as desired. I used Ateco tip 844 for piping the borders.
Freeze the cake until ready to serve. Cake is best when stored well covered and eaten within 4-5 days.

Notes

I like using the 8×3 inch cake pan and having a taller cake, but if you don’t have one of those pans on hand and don’t want to purchase it, you could also use a 9 inch pan (including a springform pan). The cake just won’t be as tall.

Semi-sweet chocolate must be used, not milk chocolate or another, for the fudge layer to set properly

SOURCE: liveloveandsugar.com

Kansas State Mammal: American Buffalo

From Nature.org:

Meet the American bison

The American bison takes the top prize for the largest land mammal in North America. Adult males weigh in at up to 2,000 pounds and stand as tall as six feet high at the shoulder.

These titans of North America are grazers, matriarchal-led family groups ranging from tens to thousands of buffalo. As they move across the prairie, they selectively focus on the grasses and sedges avoiding most of the forbs and legumes which helps balance the floristic competition. They sometimes wallow, which among many benefits helps mitigate biting insects and is also a social behavior thought to be a sign of contentment. These wallows create shallow depressions in the dense prairie which provide microhabitats to insects and amphibians among others to complete their reproductive cycles.

Bison life cycle and reproduction

Male bison reach sexual maturity at 6 years old and females at 3 years old. They mate once each year from July up to September. During the mating season, also called the rut, bulls (males) will fight aggressively by ramming their heads together and charging at one another for a chance to mate with a cow (female).

After a nine-month gestation period, cows give birth to a single calf each spring. You can typically see mothers with young calves beginning in April.

It’s worth noting here that female bison weigh up to 1,000 pounds and run just as fast as the males at 40 miles per hour.

Bison are very protective of their young and as a group do their best to protect them from any dangers. When visiting a TNC preserve—or any preserve—where bison are present, it’s best to give them the space and respect they deserve, for your safety and for theirs.

Wait… Are they bison or buffalo?

Yes! Both terms have important scientific and historical meanings and use, and both continue to be used today to refer to the official mammal of the United States. There are also hundreds of words from Indigenous languages that have been used for thousands of years. Words like: “tatanka” or “pte” in Lakota and “yanasi” in Cherokee.

Genetically speaking, the American bison is not akin to either the water buffalo of Asia or the Cape buffalo of Africa. The American bison are found only in North America and certain parts of Europe.

Oceans apart in their range, the physical appearance of the American bison is vastly different from water buffalo and Cape buffalo. Developing on different continents means they encountered different conditions including climate, which influenced the evolution of their bodies and behavior.

Protecting the American Bison

Millions of bison once lived and traveled across huge sections of North America. At one point, you could see these icons of the prairie from Canada all the way south to Mexico and even as far east and west as the coasts.

But as American settlers developed and expanded, the U.S. government encouraged settlers to slaughter millions of these animals, bringing bison and the Indigenous communities that relied upon the herds to near extinction in the early 20th century.

At the end of this brutality, tribal communities were decimated, and less than 1,000 free-roaming bison remained in the world.

Today, about 500,000 bison live in the U.S. and can be found in all 50 states. However, most of these bison are privately owned and raised as livestock. Only a small fraction of this number includes bison who are living in conservation herds and even much less than that are bison who are roaming on large landscapes. There are no truly free-roaming bison left in North America.

The Nature Conservancy collectively is one of the largest bison producers with over 6,000 bison living on 12 preserves we own and manage in the United States.

SOURCE: NATURE.ORG

Crimson Rosella

What does it look like?

Description: 

There are several color forms of the Crimson Rosella. The form it is named for has mostly crimson (red) plumage and bright blue cheeks. The feathers of the back and wing coverts are black broadly edged with red. The flight feathers of the wings have broad blue edges and the tail is blue above and pale blue below and on the outer feathers. Birds from northern Queensland are generally smaller and darker than southern birds. The ‘Yellow Rosella’ has the crimson areas replaced with light yellow and the tail more greenish. The ‘Adelaide Rosella’ is intermediate in color, ranging from yellow with a reddish wash to dark orange. Otherwise, all the forms are similar in pattern. Young Crimson Rosellas have the characteristic blue cheeks, but the remainder of the body plumage is green-olive to yellowish olive (occasionally red in some areas). The young bird gradually attains the adult plumage over a period of 15 months.

Similar species: 

The adult Crimson Rosella is similar to male Australian King-Parrots, but differs by having blue cheeks, shoulders, and tail, a whitish, rather than red, bill and a dark eye. Immature Crimson Rosellas also differ from female and immature King-Parrots by having blue cheeks, a whitish bill and a more yellow-green rather than dark green coloring.

Where does it live?

There are several populations of the Crimson Rosella. Red (crimson) birds occur in northern Queensland, in southern Queensland to south-eastern South Australia and on Kangaroo Island. Orange birds are restricted to the Flinders Ranges region of South Australia, while yellow ones are found along the Murray, Murrumbidgee and neighbouring rivers (where yellow birds meet red birds they hybridise, producing orange offspring). Red birds have been introduced to Norfolk Island and New Zealand.

Habitat: 

Throughout its range, the Crimson Rosella is commonly associated with tall eucalypt and wetter forests.

What does it do?

Feeding: 

Crimson Rosellas are normally encountered in small flocks and are easily attracted to garden seed trays. Once familiar with humans, they will accept hand held food. Natural foods include seeds of eucalypts, grasses and shrubs, as well as insects and some tree blossoms.

Breeding: 

The Crimson Rosella’s nest is a tree hollow, located high in a tree, and lined with wood shavings and dust. The female alone incubates the white eggs, but both sexes care for the young. The chicks remain dependent on their parents for a further 35 days after leaving the nest.

SOURCE: BIRDSINBACKYARDS.NET

Know-It-All Tuesdays: Star-Spangled Banner Trivia

I found this trivia article on HISTORY.COM.

1 True or False? Francis Scott wrote his verses intending them to be a song not a poem.

2 Was Key a prisoner on the English ship Tonnant when he wrote the ballad?

3 How many men were required to hoist the flag flying over Fort McHenry?

4 What was the original name of The Star-Spangled Banner?

5 In what year did the Star-Spangled Banner become our national anthem?

6 How many versus are in the Star-Spangled Banner?

7 Did Key support the war?

8 What was Key’s occupation?

9 Was Key a slave owner?

10 Was Key tone deaf?

Want to see how you did?

ANSWERS:

1 True

 “The Star Spangled-Banner” was not a poem set to a melody years later. Although Key was an amateur poet and not a songwriter, when he composed his verses, he intended them to accompany a popular song of the day. “We know he had the tune in mind because the rhyme and meter exactly fit it,” says Marc Leepson, author of the Key biography What So Proudly We Hailed. The first broadside of the verses, printed just days after the battle, noted that the words should be sung to the melody of “To Anacreon in Heaven.” Key was quite familiar with the tune, having used it to accompany an 1805 poem, which included a reference to a “star-spangled flag,” he had written to honor Barbary War naval heroes Stephen Decatur and Charles Stewart.  Although Key composed the patriotic lyrics amid a burst of anti-British euphoria, “To Anacreon in Heaven” was ironically an English song composed in 1775 that served as the theme song of the upper-crust Anacreontic Society of London and a popular pub staple.

2 No

In his capacity as a Washington, D.C., lawyer, Key had been dispatched by President James Madison on a mission to Baltimore to negotiate for the release of Dr. William Beanes, a prominent surgeon captured at the Battle of Bladensburg.  Accompanied by John Stuart Skinner, a fellow lawyer working for the State Department, Key set sail on an American sloop in Baltimore Harbor, and on September 7 the pair boarded the British ship Tonnant, where they dined and secured the prisoner’s release under one condition—they could not go ashore until after the British attacked Baltimore. Accompanied by British guards on September 10, Key returned to the American sloop from which he witnessed the bombardment behind the 50-ship British fleet.

3 11 men
In addition to a thunderstorm of bombs, a torrent of rain fell on Fort McHenry throughout the night of the Battle of Baltimore. The fort’s 30-by-42-foot garrison flag was so massive that it required 11 men to hoist when dry, and if waterlogged, the woolen banner could have weighed upwards of 500 pounds and snapped the flagpole. So as the rain poured down, a smaller storm flag that measured 17-by-25 feet flew in its place. “In the morning, they most likely took down the rain-soaked storm flag and hoisted the bigger one,” Leepson says, “and that’s the flag Key saw in the morning.”

4 When Key scrawled his lyrics on the back of a letter he pulled from his pocket on the morning of September 14, he did not give them any title. Within a week, Key’s verses were printed on broadsides and in Baltimore newspapers under the title “Defense of Fort M’Henry.” In November, a Baltimore music store printed the patriotic song with sheet music for the first time under the more lyrical title “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

5 During the Civil War, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was an anthem for Union troops, and the song increased in popularity in the ensuing decades, which led to President Woodrow Wilson signing an executive order in 1916 designating it as “the national anthem of the United States” for all military ceremonies. On March 3, 1931, after 40 previous attempts failed, a measure passed Congress and was signed into law that formally designated “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem of the United States.

6 4 verses

The version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” traditionally sung on patriotic occasions and at sporting events is only the song’s first verse. All four verses conclude with the same line: “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.” (In 1861, poet Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a fifth verse to support the Union cause in the Civil War and denounce “the traitor that dares to defile the flag of her stars.”)

7 No. Ironically, the man who created one of the lasting patriotic legacies of the War of 1812 adamantly opposed the conflict at its outset. Key referred to the war as “abominable” and “a lump of wickedness.” However, his opposition to the war softened after the British began to raid nearby Chesapeake Bay communities in 1813 and 1814, and he briefly served in a Georgetown wartime militia.

8 Lawyer. Although Key loathed politics, he was a prominent figure in Washington, D.C. “He was an important player in the early republic,” Leepson says. “He was a very successful and influential lawyer at the highest levels in Washington.” Key ran a thriving law practice, served as a trusted advisor in Andrew Jackson’s “Kitchen Cabinet” and was appointed a United States Attorney in 1833. He prosecuted hundreds of cases, including that of Richard Lawrence for the attempted assassination of Jackson, and argued over 100 cases before the United States Supreme Court.

9 Yes. While he advocated for some enslaved people seeking freedom, Key too owned slaves. He hailed from a large slave-owning family and often helped slave owners recapture their escaped slaves. Despite this, Key opposed slave trafficking and became one of the founders of the American Colonization Society, which shipped thousands of free Black people to Africa to establish a homeland there.

10 Most likely. Key was much more adept in his legal day job than he was as an amateur poet. Most of the odes he composed were never meant to be seen beyond family and friends, and none came remotely close to realizing the popular fame of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” In addition to being a middling poet, Key also had a hard time carrying a tune. “Key’s family said he was not musical,” Leepson says, “which means he likely was tone deaf.”

SOURCE: HISTORY.COM