Living In The Avon Hills

I don't live in the Avon Hills but for the third time I went to the "Living In The Avon Hills" conference at St. John's University in Collegeville.  I think this year was the best.  The main speaker was Mike Lynch, a weather reporter for WCCO radio.  I didn't recognize him visually  but I did recognize his jolly voice.  Mike has a passion for star gazing.  He gave us an assignment sheet of the March night sky. I think I might do the assignment too.  We are to go outside and let our eyes adjust to the darkness for 15 minutes.  Then sit on a lounge chair or on the ground and hold the star map he gave us up to the sky.  Comparing the map to one direction at a time, find all the stars on the map.  He said we should use a headlamp with a red bulb so we don't loose our night vision.  As he is speaking, he puts on a headlamp with a red bulb.  Boy, you really never notice how often a speaker bobs his head until he is wearing a headlamp with a red bulb.  He was like a bobble head up there.  After the main speaker we got to choose classes to attend.  My first class was called Fish Tales.  The speaker was Ray Tuhlosky.  Ray also carves fish and fish decoys for spearing.  He uses pop and beer cans for fins.  He showed us replicas of primitive hooks used 4,000 years ago.  These hooks were carved from bone and antlers.  He had a primitive spear with three antler prongs. Ray had interesting facts regarding the effect of WWII on fishing poles, life jackets and the fishing industry.  He had antique rods, reels and jigs to pass around.  He even let us hold the crystal radio he used as a child.    After a delicious lunch (nobody bakes better bread and cookies than St. John's), I had another class on preserving herbs and one on dragon flies and damsel flies.  My last class was on foxes or specifically the ecology of the North American Fox species. This speaker was very involved in bringing back the island kit fox endemic to the channel islands off of southern California.  You might have read about these island foxes who were being exterminated by the golden eagles.   I got to my last class early and I shared my story of how a gray fox attacked Meredith.  The woman I was speaking with mentioned she was interested in raising chickens.  I pulled out the chicken catalog I happened to have with me and we looked through it together. She wrote down the name of the chicken supplier. She was very interested in raising chickens for meat and for eggs.  We admired all the chickens and she wondered how many to order and whether to get a mixed run or only females.  I said, "You know, you don't need a rooster to get eggs don't you?"  She nodded that yes, she knew that.  Some people don't know that.  Five minutes later I learn that she is the speaker for the fox class and she has a PhD in biology.  So yes, I suppose she did know she didn't need a rooster to get eggs.  I had a great day at the conference and was pleased to see many of my master naturalist friends there too.