PA Wildlife: Eastern Coyote

As I grew up, I never heard about any coyotes in our woods. As I read about the creature and its history in Pennsylvania, I now understand why.

The Eastern coyote can be one of four colors: red, blond, dark brown, or tri-color. Females are 35 to 40 pounds while the larger male generally is 45 to 55 pounds. Many have black lines on the front legs from top to bottom.  Their bushy tails look like a fox’s.  On their heads are ears that stand up and come to a rounded point. Like their wolf relative, coyotes howl and yip. Coyote are most active at night but they  also hunt in the mornings.

Coyotes prey on deer, small mammals, and birds. They also eat plants and fruit. Even pets and livestock are part of their diet but to a much lesser degree.

Coyotes stay with their mate for several years and sometimes live with more than one litter for up to two years. Other adults may stay nearby and help with the feeding of the litter which averages five to seven pups.

A member of the dog family, the Eastern Coyote is a result of a wolf and western coyote cross breeding. This makes them larger than the western cousin.

Little is known about the early history of coyotes in Pennsylvania. Hunters and trappers of the 1700s and 1800s may have turned them in and called them wolves. The oldest proof of them living in Pennsylvania is a photo taken in the 1930s. Men saw very few of them until the 1980s when their population seemed to explode. Experts believe that they migrated from the New York Catskill Mountains. The largest population at that time lived in the Pocono Mountains. By 1990 coyotes lived all over the state although most stayed in the northern half. In 2003, the estimated Pennsylvania state coyote population was 25,000 to 30,000.

Coyotes can now be hunted and trapped year round and in unlimited numbers.

Life Lesson: The story of the migration of coyotes into Pennsylvania and their explosion of population is reminiscent of how sin can move into one’s life. Telling oneself, “Oh, it won’t hurt to do it this once,” can be a pathway down from the mountains that allows sin to spread, hurting oneself and loved ones. Romans 1:21-32 shows the progression sin can take from few to many.

Dear God, help us to stop sin at the mountain pass and keep it from detonating our lives.

References: 

Hayden, Arnold. “Eastern Coyote,” Wildlife Note—175-39. Pennsylvania Game Commission

Shedding LIght on the Eastern Coyote and The Eastern Coyote, It's Closer Than You Think,

Pennsylvania Game Commission

PA State Parks: Greenwood Furnace

Up Big Valley through Belleville over the mountain down into the valley lies a unique slice of history, Greenwood Furnace State Park. My introduction to the place came as a child when we used to picnic and swim there. Little then did I realize the rich history of the place.

Greenwood Furnace State Park is located at the site of a charcoal-fueled iron furnace which operated from 1834 to 1904. Many of the original buildings remain. Walking the grounds and reading the numerous signs telling of each building’s history, one can almost imagine the sounds and sights of the 1800s operation. In addition, the visitor’s center shows a video and the museum adds even more to one’s imagination of what it had been like.

Each summer, Paul Fagley, the resident historian, offers classes for teachers to learn about charcoal burning and archeology. See my experience at the charcoal burn in my February 2014, Pennsylvania History Class 2 blog

Here are a few snapshots I've taken in the park:

Inside the museum, a wall mural of the original furnace building

What is left of the original furnace building

Ironmaster's Mansion

Church added in 1865

Homeschooling Using a Child’s Interests

1. Find out what your children’s      

Lego Creation by Matt

interests are by observing, asking 

questions, and praying. 

The interests of some of our children showed themselves early and easily. Suzanne liked to make things almost from the day I brought her home from the hospital. Not quite, but it seems like that. I remember fixing up a little corner in our trailer where she could create. A small table, a small chair, and lots of fun things to glue onto paper. Matt fell in love with Legos. Tad’s interests developed more slowly. He drew cars first, then began to notice makes and models on car trips. Ben, at a young age, liked people!  

2. Think and pray about how to use these as motivation, learning experiences, and sometimes, a full year’s curriculum.

My key to Suzanne lay with her skilled hands. We shopped at A. C. Moore often. When I picked curriculum for her, I looked for kits, models to assemble, and things to cut out. When we cleaned our storage room a year ago, she and I threw out six garbage bags of projects she had made. Nothing lost. The value of those projects have shown up in her care for her own home, her landscaped yard, and her joy in her various jobs. 

In her senior year, I let her surge ahead and counted hours for a science course centered around her love of gardening. She gardened, read about plants, studied a little botany, and made flower garden plans. Even her nemesis, math, became easy for her as she studied catalogs, prices, and figured out costs. Another course that year developed from her interest in getting healthier and losing weight. She read lots of exercise and health books. She still loves that kind of book! Some other day, I may tell you how I logged a course using Ben's people interest.

Car by Tad

3. Dare to experiment!

You need to let go of the kind of school that happened inside the walls of a public school building. Most of traditional school depends on what will work with a large group. Homeschooling is different! Let people raise their eyebrows. Put away the fears that want to creep up. God can give wisdom and will direct when we ask.

An excellent resource for using high school age students’ interests is Delight Directed Learning  by Lee Binz

Landscaping by Suzanne

PA Wildlife: Bobcat

Imagine our surprise at seeing a bobcat when looking at some webcam photos my friend took. After all, how many bobcat have you seen? The Pennsylvania Game Commission says probably not many because of their shyness, ability to hide, and nocturnal habits. In 2000, the estimated population of bobcat in Pennsylvania was 3,500.

Bobcats in our state average 15 to 20 pounds, have gray-brown fur with dark spots and stripes. Their lips, chin, front of neck, as well as, their belly is white. Including their six-inch tail, they average 36 inches in length, just like the fisher.

What sets them apart from most other cats is their extra fur that extends down from their jowls. The other distinguishing characteristic is their longer back legs which give them a different gait.

Like the fisher, bobcats attack and eat porcupines. They also eat all kinds of small animals and carrion. They have little effect on Pennsylvania’s deer herd because they only eat the crippled or sick deer.

Some bobcats live up to 14 years in the wild and inhabit mostly mountains, isolated forests, and swamps. They seem to prosper best near clear cut forests because of the increase in small mammals that lumbering brings to the newly cut area.

Many bobcats used to roam this region, but with more mature trees and populated areas they declined. Beginning in 1970, the laws changed to protect them and subsequently allowed them to increase. In 2000, the Game Commission made the decision to again allow limited hunting of them.

Reference for writing this was Chuck Fergus’s Wildlife Note #3 on “Bobcats” published by the PA Game Commission online.

The Niagara

Taken in the Erie Maritime Museum

Looking out the window, I could see the ship that I had wanted to investigate, but sadly the weather didn't permit it. Rain poured down so I had to be content touring just the Erie Maritime Museum that day. The ship, called the Niagara, is a reconstructed version of a ship first used in the War of 1812. The ship is also the official Pennsylvania State Flagship.

Inside the museum, we found plenty to interest us, uniforms of seaman, furniture used by captains, and drawings of sailors and their skills. We also learned lots of history.

From the start of the War of 1812, Britain took control of the Great Lakes. The United States government realized that to win the war they needed to be the ones in charge of the Great Lakes. With this goal in mind, the United States in January, 1813, ordered construction of ships at Erie, Pennsylvania: the Niagara, the Lawrence, and four smaller ships.

A month later, these ships became the fighting force against a British fleet in The Battle of Lake Erie. The Lawrence and two British ships battled while the Niagara sat blocked by another of the U.S. Fleet. Before the Niagara could get into position for fighting, the Lawrence became incapacitated, eighty percent of its crew, dead or wounded and all of its guns inoperable. With four remaining experienced seamen, Commander Perry took the flag, left the Lawrence and rowed to the Niagara. A crewman raised the flag and fifteen minutes later, Perry’s intense barrage and a damaging collision between two British ships brought the British to the point of surrender. The Battle of Lake Erie became the first decisive battle in the War of 1812. The victory boosted American morale.

The Niagara remained in operation until 1820 when the Navy sank it in the salt water to try to preserve it. During the 100-year anniversary of the battle, the city raised it, repaired it, and displayed it. In 1931, the Pennsylvania government took custody of it and again restored it, finishing in 1963. Unfortunately by the 1980s it became even more decomposed. This time when the builders restored it, they used mostly new wood and only kept the old in nonstructural places. In 1988, the Niagara sailed again on Lake Erie and Pennsylvania legislators voted to make it the official state flagship.

Today, the museum uses the ship for tours and as a floating history classroom for students. Middle-school and older students can actually help sail and maintain with prior arrangements.  

Chairs from the Lawrence at the Erie Maritime Museum

Oops, there's my handsome husband
pretending to be Commander Perry!

A Homeschool Success Story

Our third born son was the easiest baby, toddler, and preschooler. He played contentedly and never gave us much trouble except when we brought the fourth baby home. When I was busy, he smeared Fast Orange all over himself.

I did a lot of reading to the first two. Number three listened and at a young age answered questions about what I had read. He seemed really smart.

Imagine then my frustration when I had a lot of trouble teaching him to read. I had already taught the other two. This one didn’t respond to the same things. For one thing, he couldn’t remember the words from one day to the next. I taught him the sounds but they didn’t seem to stick in his head. To compensate, I read his other subjects to him, doing oral reviews and tests.  

After trying a few other reading programs, I purchased the Sing, Spell, Read, and Write which is very auditory. From a learning consultant and a homeschool convention speaker, I learned about brain dominance. I made him wear a patch over his left eye to change his visual dominance to match his other areas: hearing, hand, and foot. He did this until his right eye became dominant which only took part of one school year. He did not have peers who made fun of him. In fact, he really never knew he was far behind.The summer he turned eleven, he had a different swimming instructor. Her insistence on him moving correctly fit in with what I have learned about “patterning.” Gross motor skills are very important for brain development. That school year is the year that he learned to read.

His skills continued to improve. I read his other subjects for the rest of that year and some of the next to allow his reading ability to catch up to where he was in science and history. By his junior year of high school, he had become an avid reader, evidenced by the eighty age-appropriate books on his portfolio reading list. He actually enjoyed reading!

I substitute teach in public school where I sometimes work in learning support classrooms. I often see children who have the same problems as my third born. I haven’t seen the success stories that I had with him. 

Above all else, our miracle occurred because of God’s mercy in answering our prayers for our son to learn to read and for me to have wisdom for teaching him. I also had a stubborn hold on promises that I had received while reading his Word.

I hope this encourages some of you who have children who struggle. God can do amazing things! As I sit in my home office, I occasionally listen in on a Bible study that takes place in our home. Our son, the former struggling reader, leads it. 

2017 Note: This son graduated from Word of Life Bible Institute in August with a 3.97 average!

PA Wildlife: Fishers

Three Fishers

 What was that? I saw something similar to a cat up ahead when I walked up our neighbor’s road. Highlighted against the pale road, the animal looked black. Since I am very familiar with cats, I wondered about this creature’s humplike back and different gait. I asked several people. Finally, someone suggested a fisher. What? I had never heard of such a thing. I began to investigate.

From a children’s book, Follow a Fisher by Laurence Pringle, I’ve learned some interesting facts. The fisher is part of the weasel family. Most females weigh three to seven pounds. Males are almost twice as large. Average length from nose to the end of their long tail is the same as a yard stick. All fishers are covered with brown and black hair but females tend to be darker. Each of their four feet has five toes with long toe nails.

The most astonishing to me is the amount of time a female carries her young inside her body---about a whole year. What a long time to be pregnant! She also is still caring for her last litter of young while pregnant with the next and all by herself. Yes, the male doesn’t help.

They hunt mostly at night for small animals but also eat carrion, nuts, and berries. The most unusual food they consume is porcupine, an animal only tackled by two others, the bobcat and cougar. In fact, fishers have been introduced into areas that are overpopulated with porcupine to help control the numbers.

On the Pennsylvania Game Commission site, I found that fishers had almost died out in Pennsylvania but in the 1990s they brought them back by introducing 190 in the northern tier. The Game Commission believes that some also migrated from a re-introduced colony in West Virginia. One biologist, Dr. Matt Lovallo, believes that there are thousands now in Pennsylvania.