A baby tree frog.

Life does not wait for you and neither does your garden.  So, I dedicated a large portion of my day to tend to my garden.  It was starting to look neglected after our hospital visit.  The corn had to be harvested, other vegetables needed to be picked, etc.  Jake joined me in the scorching heat even though it was still morning.

Jake loves photography.  At his ripe age of eight, he has won many awards for his photographs, including several Grand and Reserve Champion ribbons.  I use many of his photographs on this website.

As we were working together gathering the corn, Jake was inspired by all the critters with us in the garden.  He ran inside to retrieve our camera.  Then he commenced to taking pictures.

Suddenly the whole focus of our day shifted.  We were still working in the garden and picking vegetables.  But, we our focus had shifted from a necessary chore to an outdoor science lesson.

A green grasshopper.

We began discussing ecology, which is a branch of biology.  As he excitedly found a new insect or amphibian, he would run over to show me the picture.  I would have Jake identify the creature.  I would ask him questions like, “Why do you think the tree frog is spending his day on the corn stalk?”  As usual, his answers were thoughtful and interesting. We also discussed camouflage as a defense mechanism.

A big tree frog.

I thought you might enjoy Jake’s photographs as well as be inspired to take advantage of “teachable moments” as they happen.  In the middle of the summer while performing an unrelated task, Jake and I also attended Ecology 101 right in the middle of the corn patch.

Through our work we made the unfortunate discovery of a corn silk worm in one of our ears of corn.  I had not taken any steps in preventing these pests this year.  Luckily they must not like the heat because we only found a few.  In other years, they have tried to decimate our corn crop.  Preventing this pest is fairly easy.  When pollination has occurred, simply drop a few drops of mineral oil onto the silks of each ear of corn.  This helps save countless ears for your own consumption.

A corn silk worm eating trying to eat its weight in kernels.

A brown grasshopper.