A Hidden Work

It was a mid-November day, and it was perfect Fall.  There was a crisp coolness to the air, but enough sun to keep my jacket off.  The morning had been spent suffocating indoors, weighed down by my own sin and the mess of the house.  We were fighting for clean, but I was being crushed by the weight of the mundane.  There is always cleaning to do, and new inspiration leads to new projects which necessitates new cleaning...  And then there is the daily bread, which once savored becomes dishes and sweeping. It is the grand monotonous cycle of daily life - and we are struggling to push back the chaos just enough for space to live and breathe. But all too often thriving is traded in for surviving, and I forget the point of the struggle.  The point of the struggle - or that there is something more than struggle.  I forget the hidden work that is being done in the dark.

The cleaning moved from inside to out, as the day of the slaughter was upon us.  All our plans for a helper for Hubry and a party for me and the children had been cancelled, and so it was a movie for the children in the attic and Hubry and I alone with the rabbits.  Hubry was doing the slaughtering and the dressing (which is really undressing) while I stood around with clean hands carrying things to and fro -opening  books and pushing play on the youtube video that was our guide.  And while I was not needed I swept the porch, washed the outdoor windows, scrubbed the table and chairs, and organized the pots.

It was in the organizing of pots that I was reminded of the work being done in the dark.  All around were pots half-filled with sterile soil - plants and seeds long having lost all signs of life, but never having been dumped out.  It is easier to cast the pots to the side and forget about them until they are needed in the Spring.  But this day was a day of busying my hands and being available to Hubry, so I set out to clean and organize all the pots - discarding the wasted soil and stacking them neatly on the outdoor shelf. 

As I was dumping out the soil from my white, ceramic pot I noticed three bulbs fall down to the ground.  They were Paperwhite bulbs which I had totally forgotten about, and they had been hidden inside the soil since last December.  Strangely, I noticed a bright shoot of green sticking up underneath one of the bulbs.  When I picked up the bulbs I saw that they were all sending out 3-4 of these beautiful shoots - shoots which spoke life after nearly a year of being left alone in a forgotton pot.

I was struck by the work that had been taking place inside those forgotten bulbs - work that was happening completely independently of my conscious acknowledgemnt of it.  And I was encouraged to see the hidden work which is being done in the dark places of my own heart - the very places which seem forgotten.

Three Little Redcoats and Some Others

Burgess Animal Book Chapter 17

In this chapter we get to know the voles a bit better, though it can be very confusing switching back and forth between Burgess's terminology and modern terminology (remember that Burgess doesn't use the term vole).  He calls all the animals in this chapter mice, though the first three are technically voles.

Also, I found a lot of discrepancy out there as to how to classify these animals.  I chose to stick with Kaufman and keep them in the order Rodentia, family Muridae, sub-family Arvicolinae.  I found a great article by Darren Naish published in this scientific american blog.  He had an image of a drawing comparing the sizes of several species from the subfamily Arvicolinae.  Our coloring page is based on this image.

Piney
Southern Red-Backed Vole (Clethrionomys gapperi)
1. He makes little tunnels just under the surface in the edge of the green forest.
2. He does damage in young orchards by cutting off roots and stripping bark.

Woodland Vole (Microtus pinetorum)
1. He is a thrifty burrower.
2. He lives far form the homes of men in the green forest.

Rufous
Red Tree Vole (Arborimus longicaudus)
1. He lives wholly in the tall trees of the West (such as Redwoods).
2. He eats the thick parts of needles and the bark of tender twigs.

Burgess briefly introduces Bigear the "Rock Mouse" along with the "Beach Mouse" at the end of the chapter, and the best I can figure is that they are both types of Deermice, a term used to describe those belonging to the genus Peromyscus (like Whitefoot from chapter 15).  We didn't do separate pages for these two mice since I'm not entirely sure which ones they are :)

Danny's Northern Cousins and Nimbleheels

Chapter 16: Danny's Northern Cousins and Nimbleheels

Northern Collard Lemming (Dicrostonyx groenlandicus)
Bandy
* Burgess calls it a Banded Lemming*

1. He tail is so short it hardly shows.
2. His ears are so small they are hidden in his fur.
3. His coat is reddish brown and grey in summer and completely white in winter.
Lemming Coloring Page

Brown Lemming (Lemmus trimucronatus)
1. He is much like Bandy, save that he is all brown and does not change his coat in winter.
2. They burrow and tunnel to their underground nests.
3. In winter when food gets scares they migrate together like a great army.

Meadow Jumping Mouse (Zapus hudsonius)
Nimbleheels
*According to Kaufman, the jumping mice make up their own special family within North American rodents - the family Dipodidae.  The fact that they are distinguished from the Muridae family points to substantial differences in both habits and traits.  The main difference, of course, is that they jump.  Some have been seen jumping up to 10 feet, according to Kaufman!
1. He has small pockets in his cheeks and long hind legs for jumping.
2. Nimbleheels gets very fat as winter is approaching and then curls up in a ball and hibernates.
3. He uses his tail to balance.
4. He jumps about in times of danger, and runs about like other mice when he is safe.
I found this really cool Jumping Mouse Image to color on Wikipedia.  It was drawn by Thomas Davies in 1797.  It is official a Canada Jumping Mouse, but I love the mouse jumping in the foreground and balled up for hibernation in the background!

Tree in the Trail Ch. 20

Poem

Two Unlike Cousins

Chapter 15: Two Unlike Cousins

Whitefoot

North American Deermouse (Peromyscus maniculatus)

North American Deermouse Coloring Page * Click on Chapter 15-19 and open chapter 15.

1. He is at home in the trees.

2. He is nocturnal.

3. He eats meat, seeds, nuts, and insects.

Danny

Meadow Vole or Field Mouse (Microtus pennsylvanicus)

Meadow Vole Coloring Page * Click on Chapter 15-19 and open chapter 15.

1. He loves the fields and the meadows.

2. There are more meadow mice than any other small rodent in the country.

3. He eats grass, clover, bulbs, seeds, and vegetables.

4. He cuts little pathways through the tall grasses.

Trader and Longfoot

Chapter 14: A Trader and a Handsome Fellow

The next several chapters are all devoted to the little rodents - rats, mice, and voles - which account for over 1/4 of all the mammal species in North America.  According to Kaufman, the Brown Rat (Burgess Chapter 13), the House Rat, and the House Mouse are responsible for most of the damage and disease caused by small rodents.  Interestingly, they are all three Old World rodents (a.k.a. they came over to our country with the European settlers). 

Rats, mice, and voles are all in the family Muridae.  There are a few exceptions to this.  First, the Kangaroo rats and mice and pocket mice belong to the family Heteromyidae.  Second, the jumping mice belong to their own special family Dipodidae. In our taxonomy I started including Subfamily names to help distinguish between groups.  I don't expect the kids to learn all the different Subfamily names, but it is helpful for me to see the connections.

Burgess doesn't ever use the term vole, so to accommodate for this exemption I use the present day name for the heading.  For example, in chapter 15 Burgess calls it a Meadow Mouse, but I use the name from my field guide, Meadow Vole.  Voles belong to the subfamily Arvicolinae, and are generally fuzzier, and shorter-tailed than mice.  Voles are known by the paths and runways they make through grasses and ground coverings.  The Meadow Vole is known as being the most prolific Mammal on earth!  This is hard to believe, but according to Kaufman female Meadow Voles can give birth to up to 10 young every 3 weeks.

Little Robber

Cotton Rat

* We didn't give individual attention to Little Robber since Burgess only briefly mentions him at the beginning of the chapter.

Trader

Eastern Woodrat (Neotoma floridian)

We used this image of an Eastern Woodrat for our coloring page.

1. He collects objects.

2. He never steals, but always trades.

3. When he is alarmed or disturbed he drums on the ground with his hind feet.

Longfoot

Ord's Kangaroo (Dipodomys ordii)

We free-handed this one using this tutorial.

1. His tail is longer than his head and body together, and it helps him balance when in the air.

2. His hind legs and feet are big.

3. He gets along without drinking.

4. He has pockets on the outsides of his cheeks.

Hildegard Von Bingen

Holy Spirit,
Giving life to all life,
Moving all creatures,
Root of all things,
Washing them clean,
Wiping out their mistakes,
Healing their wounds,
You are our true life,
Luminous, wonderful,
Awakening the heart from its ancient sleep.

Hildegard Von Bingen; antiphon from Spiritus Sanctus (translation)