Sunday, May 30, 2010

Horseshoe Crabbyness: The BP Oil Spill-Horseshoe Crab-Shorebird Connection

One last ... (I think) ... item from that marine field trip a few weeks ago.

We saw a lot of horseshoe crabs on our two trips. Most were coupled up, with smaller males clinging to larger females so they would be there when she spawned.

The students were fascinated at these "crabs that aren't really crabs". Horseshoe crabs have lots of icky, creepy, graspy, fluttery, clicky, pointy parts, so the kids were a bit hesitant to touch anything but the long telson at first.

Well, ... not just at first, but throughout the day, even after I demonstrated that they can't hurt you.

This pair hooked right back up again shortly after our encounter so all you Merostomata romantics out there can just relax.




This is an animal whose next generation could be devastated by the BP oil spill in the Gulf.
As the oil reaches the beaches, it will coat the sand either preventing spawning or killing eggs that are incubating in the sand near the high tide line.

Just one more innocent at risk.

The seabirds will get all the attention on the news, due to the "pretty" factor, but the "uglies" will be devastated also ... probably in much worse ways.

Birders should be VERY concerned about horseshoe crabs and the oil spill of course. The eggs of horseshoe crabs and the tiny amphipods that live in great abundance in shoreline wrack (washed up seaweed and seagrasses) are the fuel that powers countless migrating shorebirds.


The oil has the potential to remove both of these things as a food source.

Shore birds may very well be "countless" next year.

You get my drift?

Friday, May 28, 2010

Busy Yesterday ... Sharks and Solar Houses

This week has been such a whirlwind here at school.

We are in that last, nebulous time before finals. Everyone is feeling the pull of summer, ... of liberation.

I guess the kids are feeling it ... I can only speak for the teachers.

The county, in it's infinite wisdom, pulled a ton of teachers out for a week of training. This overwhelmed our tiny supply of subs, so I haven't had a planning period all week. Instead, I am covering other teacher's classes.

In addition, I have been incredibly busy in my own classes, trying to pack their brains with new experiences and a wee bit of knowledge before time runs out.

To that end, we spent Monday and Tuesday in Shark Lab.

Every year, we sacrifice about a dozen dogfish shark in the pursuit of knowledge.

Since you may ask, Dogfish are not an overfished resource, in fact, their populations are increasing.

Dogfish are fished commercially for human food, cat food, and a host of other products. Some go to biological supply houses for dissection labs.

Some of those go to me.

I teach shark conservation in my classes and release them when I catch them out in the Gulf of Petroleum, so my angst over using a baker's dozen this year to educate 70 kids about fish anatomy (and their own) is minimal.


That's where I am on the subject.

See those claspers? The two projections on the inside of the shark pelvic fins tell you this is a male.

They are used in mating.
Sharks mate ... none of that silly, impersonal spawning stuff.


The snout of a shark is loaded with electroperceptive organs called Ampullae of Lorenzini. They are sensitive to the bioelectric field generated by the nervous system of animals, so the shark could sense that shrimp, even if it could not see it.

The shrimp in the forceps came from this shark's stomach.


More wrinkles = more surface area, and more room for absorption of nutrients.
Your stomach is similar inside and THAT sort of thing is where this study of a shark is not just a fish lesson.

It's about us too.


Shark brain exposed.
Here things are different. Sharks do not have wrinkled brains and are therefore, not deep thinkers.


Shark gills.
The skin and gill slits have been removed.

We do external shark anatomy on day one, and internal on day two, so it's a really busy pair of days.
Very rewarding though.

It's also another milestone signalling the end of the year.
It's okay for me to put away the lab gear now.

Soon, it will be time to release our aquarium fish back into the Gulf, ... although this year they are probably better off in an aquarium.

There's no oil there.



Meanwhile, in the two Environmental Science classes that are filled with struggling readers, we have been building solar house models.

After some book learning about alternative energy sources, I showed them my solar cell kit full of electrical goodies and told them to build a house with a light and a ceiling fan that runs off of solar energy.

And they did.


Not that you can tell from that still picture, but the fan is spinning and the light is on.
Trust me.


After this project, A 9th grade kid who reads at an elementary level, told me, " I have driven past this building on So and So road a hundred times and never realized what those big things were, the ones mounted out on the lawn. The other day I suddenly realized those were solar panels and I knew what they were for."

Success.

Tonight is the Academic Fair.
It's a chance for all subject areas to show off their finer projects from through out the year. The cafeteria will be full of neat projects ... and HOPEFULLY, some interested parents.

This weekend I will be revising some final exams ... yawn.

It's okay.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Gecko Survives The Winter of '09


I was afraid my porch gecko had succumbed to the frigid temps this winter, since it was so wonderfully cold ... for so long.

So, I was pretty relieved last week to see him scamper across the porch ceiling when I went outside with Bear. By the time I put Bear up and grabbed my camera, he had tucked himself into his nook between the window fram and the siding.
I'm glad he made it.

I am happy about the gecko, but just a little concerned about the alien treefrogs that have started showing up on the porch.

Maybe it's just me, but usually a treefrog does not sport antennae or sit around with his hands clasped together ... as if he was ...


... plotting.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Batfish: The Movie!

After some review and editing, the Batfish movie is sufficiently anonymous to meet my standard for not showing identifiable student pics.

Enjoy!
Ain't excitement grand?



Saturday, May 22, 2010

GargOWLe


I have been pickin' blueberries since last weekend. Most berries on my other bushes are still greenish blue, but this bush is an early variety. I did not keep good records when I planted years ago, so I'm not sure who this is, but I know that over the years I have planted Climax, Beckyblue, Tiftblue, Bluebelle, and some other rabbiteye varieties that escape me now.

The cardinals and I will share the bounty, but the destructive bushtail tree rats best stay out of my plants. It's actually time to hang my rubber snakes in the bushes. That seems to throw the birds off a bit as long as you move them around some.


Speaking of pests ... last weekend, just before true dawn, I heard my tree roosting chickens fussing, so I looked out the kitchen window as I rinsed the coffee pot. Beneath the East Palatka Holly that they have chosen as their sanctuary, sat a cat.

A cat that had travelled from off my property to the center of my ten acres to hunt my animals.

What is it with cat people? Is it impossible to control your pet? If you are not up to the task, then maybe you should consider a hamster ... or goldfish.

Cats can be contained, I have friends who do it quite well, so I don't buy the "It's just the way cats are" excuse. Male bovine feces.
Instead, the rest of us have to deal with your destructive pet choice roaming our property and killing ... well, ... pretty much anything small that moves.

Last night, Bear woke me up at 4:00 am because HE heard the chickens squawking. Something had scattered them from their roost. I walked around a bit with a flashlight, but the perp was gone.
I have not done a roll call yet this morning, so I don't know if I'm a little ticked or a lotta ticked yet.

I know the havahart trap is coming out tonight. Nuff said.




I'm seeing red.

That is a wild native called either "Coral Bean" or "Cherokee Bean", depending on your upbringing. It's glorious, no matter what you call it. This one grows right in amongst my blueberry bushes and is a humming bird magnet ... usually. I have heard a few this year, but my sightings are minimal.












I shot this video as the day slipped into twilight last week, so it's a little dim.

I wonder if I could train this owl to eat cats?



Friday, May 21, 2010

No Quite Full Circle


This is my baby girl Emma (in the shades) and her college buddy Elise.
Emma was home last week for a break between spring term and summer term at USF, so I invited her along on my Marine Science field trip.

After all, she's 3/4 of the way to a degree in secondary science education, so she might as well see how a REAL field trip operates.
Elise is training for the same career, so I told Em to ask her along.

It was only about 4 short years ago that Emma had been a student on this very same trip ... as if any two Gulf trips are ever the same! ... but you know what I mean. She has come almost full circle from student to teacher.

I thought she might see it from a different perspective as an almost teacher ... at the very least, she and Elise could have a great time on the water and I could be around my girl just a little longer before she headed back to school.

Elise is a Jersey girl and had never thrown a castnet ... the HORROR!
It took about 10 minutes of tutoring to change that.
She's a quick study.


Look at that!
She's got the knack. She did great.

The week before the trip, I took my classes out to the school yard and gave castnet throwing lessons, so they would feel confident and actually use the nets on the trip.

Like the Grinch, my heart swells a couple of times in size when I walk a newbie through the steps of casting a net and then watch as they throw a perfect circle ... and if they don't, ... if that first throw is a banana?
Well, we just do a quick technique adjustment ala, ... "You did fine, but you have to let go of the rope." ... or ... " Just a little more body spin and that net will open."

They always get it in the end and they throw like crazy on the trip. Even when every fish for a quarter mile has been scared away by dozens of kids alternately tossing castnets, they throw, and they throw, and they throw.

I love it.
Their bucket lists just got shortened by one item.



Elise and Emma taking a lunch break.


I shared tips with the college girls about logistics and rules, ... and I stressed that these were older, honor class students ... a middle school trip would be vastly more stressful and exhausting ... with lots more chaperones needed ... and perhaps some valium.

Just kidding ... sorta.


I can't let you go without sharing at least one more catch from the field trip.

The fish in the picture is a leather jacket. It's a member of the mackeral gang and this one is the biggest one I have ever caught. Usually leather jackets in our nets are juvies about 4 inches long, but this one is an adult.

It's a beautiful fusiform fish, built for speed and hunting other critters. It's amazing how shiny mirror-like skin can be so obvious out of the water and yet make the fish almost invisible under the water as it reflects it's surroundings.

I only held it for a momentary photo, but it still managed to spike me with those sharp fin spikes you see.

I can mark "get finned by a leather jacket" off my bucket list now.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Home Aquaculture Progress: Rebirth


A few weeks ago, my 700 gallon tank looked like this after draining it, scrubbing it, and bleaching it. The items in the tank above are sitting in a few inches of bleach water to sterilize them.

Years ago, way before 98% of people had ever heard of tilapia, I grew them in this tank. It was a time when tilapia were not in grocery stores either fresh or frozen. When I told folks I was growing fish in my back yard, I was always asked, " What fish?"

"Tilapia", I would answer ... and then I'd wait for the blank stare and the question ...

"Tuh what?"

After a few years of tilapia growing, I let my permit for them expire during a tight money time and just used the tank for holding various aquatic captures, from my baby turtles to rescued pond fish after a drought.

Lately, I've been thinking it's time to scratch my aquacultural itch again.

So it was, that several weeks ago, I transferred the inhabitants (turtles, minnows, bluegills)from this tank to livestock tank in the garden and then began the cleaning process.

A flaw in my old system had been the lack of a cover to keep rain, leaves, and palm fronds out of the water. Creating a cover that is economical and strong has been the main task this week.

As usual, I am working out of my head and not from a plan, but it's beginning to look like something.


I created this component to level the top cross bar. With this, I didn't have to stress over getting the two pressure treated 4X4's exactly level.
This slips over the top of the 4X4 and then can be adusted until it is level. At that point, it is nailed and later bolted to the vertical 4X4.



There is the bracket in place, but not yet attached.


The upright nearest the barnshed was just a wee bit higher than the opposite upright, so I used a little blocking and a shim to get it just right.





Here's another view of the shimmed up bracket waiting to be nailed.


Once it was level, I clamped it in place and nailed it.
Then the shims come out.

When you work alone, having lots of clamps around is like having an assistant, except without the annoying banter.
I don't want to banter when I am creating a plan in my head ... it's too distracting.

The top horizontal beams are two 2X4's that are lag screwed to the bracket.
I was able to use my faithful assistant, "Clamp" on the first one, but not for the second one as there was not enough room.
Since I wanted the beam tight against the bracket side as I tightened the lag screw, I got my other assistants, "Blocking" and "Shim' to help me out.

Yesterday, I added some braces to the end horizontals that are not shown in this picture. There's lots more to do, but it's coming together and I know now how it should look when it is done.
You don't of course, so be patient.
I will be updating you as well as explaining how that red drum clarifier works.
We'll do this together.
I'm only anti-banter when I am planning and building at the same time, so feel free to banter in the comment section.







Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Polka Dot Batfish


I had teased about a batfish video, but after reviewing the clip, I decided against it. My policy of protecting the privacy of my students forced me to put a hold on that video. I just felt one student in the mix might not be anonymous, and even though she probably wouldn't care, she's not in charge here.
Unless kids at my school are especially buddysome with Junior, they mostly don't know of Pure Florida and I like it that way.
There will be other batfish videos ... trust me. The one you're not seeing was a scene similar to the pic above, except a student was holding Batty, not me ... and there was lots of excited banter and questions with me explaining batfish structure and habits.
... kinda like the ray in "Finding Nemo".
Batfish are pretty common here and so slow that you can almost pick them up by wading and looking. Part of that is due to the fact that they tend to freeze when alerted.
They are in the angler fish group ... a pretty weird assortment of fish ... remember the deep sea angler in "Nemo"?
Thanks to Disney, my students picture deep sea anglers with spotlights atop their punkin heads rather than a dim bioluminescent glow.
Batfish are demersal, which means you hang out on or very near the bottom. For batfish, the operative term is ON the bottom. They walk about on those nicely adapted pectoral fins stalking small invertebrates and anything else small enough to fit in their tiny mouths.
They are bumpy not scaly and so unfishlike that the kids almost never see it as a fish when one pops up in a seine or cast net.
"THAT'S A FISH?"
And then they ask, "Can we take it back?"
Back to our large classroom aquarium is what they mean.
I always say no, having learned my lesson on much earlier field trips like this. For some reason, batfish just do not do well in an aquarium. They refuse to eat, then wither and die so batfish are always a catch and release item on my trips.
Like the Ancient Mariner, (hey, who you callin' ancient?) I have a few batfish hanging around my neck from those early years and I don't plan to add anymore.

Monday, May 17, 2010

See Sea Horses?


My students and I found more seahorses on this years trip into the Gulf than we have on previous trips over the last few years. The variety of shapes, colors, and size was pretty amazing too.

I don't pretend to be a seahorse taxonomist, but I think the seahorse above is a lined seahorse, H. erectus.
It was pretty big compared to most of our seahorse round up. Of course, this time of year, everything is a baby out there in the grass, so you expect some dramatic variation in size.


The seahorse above and the one below are notable for their small size AND the fact that both males seem to be well along in incubating the female's eggs in their pouches.

Despite the dramatic difference in color, I think these two are the same species ... perhaps a dwarf seahorse?


Pregnant male seahorses were released by the way.
We did bring back a nonpreggars pony and it is living in our aquarium for just a few weeks until everything gets released near the end of the school year ... (ABOUT 15 SCHOOL DAYS FROM NOW ... WOOHOO!)

Where you find seahorses, you find pipefish. This is a beautiful specimen with what appears to be a pouch, so we let this one go also.

Pipefish are closely related to seahorses ... almost as if you took a seahorse and straightened him out.
I wasn't keeping an accurate count, but I think we spotted about 8 seahorses between the two trips. Seahorses are incredibly hard to find in the seaweed and grass that comes up in the net, so finding 8 means we were probably close to a lot more that went back overboard ...undiscovered ...with the net debris.
You can tell who really wants to find a seahorse by watching the kids when the net comes aboard and spills it's wonders on to the boat deck.
For the most part, you find a seahorse by sticking a handful of seaweed close to your face and slowly searching for a well camouflaged and probably small seahorse entwined among the "branches" of the seaweed.
The kid with his nose in the gracilaria is a serious seahorse hunter. The kid hurridly tossing it out of the boat is not.
When a seahorse is discovered on these trips, whether it is the first one or the fifth one, it generates lots of excitement.
(Kinda like seeing dolphins ... that should always excite you even if you see them often)
Most kids don't seem to see a seahorse as a fish, so you have to remind them constantly to get it in the water and not pass it around like a hermit crab or a sand dollar.
We had the same issue with the batfish, but that's another story ... and a video.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Out Back

Out back is where my garden, my blueberries, my little dusty crowded shop, and my aquaculture projects are located.

Outback is where I can be found whenever time allows.
A casual observer might walk away with the impression that I'm not doing anything when I'm outback, as a lot of thinking and planning goes on between flurries of activity.

If you arrive in an interflurry period, you could get the impression that I was just walking around out back ... "piddlin", as my Dad would say.

It might seem as if nothing was being done ... but if the observer was a little more observant ... they might notice ...

... that a bunch of iris have apparently divided and repotted themselves.
And the livestock tank has moved, refilled itself, and is now sporting turtles and fish.

Also, coontie plants are digging themselves out of the coontie nursery and migrating to the front yard landscape.

It's a goldarn miracle.

One might notice that a caterpillar has moved from the garden to the nearby woods.

Also, the young tulip poplar trees from last summer's GA vacation have lept from the deer fenced garden plot and in to new pots.
In their place, red and white sweet corn has planted itself and is knee high. The corn seems to have weeded itself too, but must have gotten interrupted since only half of the plot is hoed.
Corn is easily distracted ... apparently they dropped the hoe and went off to look at something.


The more than casual observer may have noticed that Laya's growing chicks have been teleporting their food and water through the wire of their cage and into their bowls.
Miraculous!




And, if the now less than casual observer were to walk around behind the retired 1982 GMC Truck, he or she might catch the recirculating aquaculture system replumbing itself and preparing to go online.
... just a few things you might notice if you looked a little closer at the guy out back.


Friday, May 14, 2010

Never IN TWENTY YEARS!

In 20 years of taking kids out on to the Gulf of Florida to trawl the grassflats. we have never hauled up a seaturtle.

We see them of course.
They cruise by occasionally, popping their head up for a breath, and then slipping back beneath the surface.

We keep our trawl times very short, ... about 3-5 minutes just because they are out there. Our net is tiny, with an opening that is probably two feet by 3 feet and sea turtles are fast as the dickens in the water, so we NEVER really expect to catch one.

Still, just in case, we make short hauls so that any sea turtle in the net is not overly stressed or drowned.

When the kids ask, "Will we catch a shark or a seaturtle?", I always tell them no.
It just doesn't happen.



Yesterday, when the kids hauled the trawl net aboard, they started yelling, "We caught a turtle! We caught a turtle!"

I was sure they were mistaken, and I said so.

"It's probably just a big horseshoe crab in the grass." I said in my all knowing science teacher way.

Nope.

It was a seaturtle ... a young loggerhead.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!!

OKAY, I THOUGHT IT WAS A YOUNG LOGGERHEAD, BUT A LONG TIME PUREFLORIDA READER, MYAMUHNATIVE, GENTLY CORRECTED ME AND MYAMUH IS RIGHT. IT'S A GREEN AS EVIDENT BY THE 4 PAIRS OF SCUTES ALONG THE SIDE ... LOGGERHEADS HAVE 5.

AT THE TIME I THOUGHT TO MYSELF, "THAT IS ONE PRETTY TURTLE FOR A LOGGERHEAD" .
I SHOULD TAKEN THAT TRAIL OF SELF DOUBT AND KEYED IT OUT BEFORE PUBLISHING, BUT WHEN YOU ARE FULL OF YOURSELF SOMETIMES YOU IGNORE THESE LITTLE SIGNALS.

THANK YOU, MYAMUH!


We got him out of the net quickly, held him on board for about 30 seconds, just long enough to take these shots, and then slipped him smoothly back into the Gulf.

... Talk about some stoked kids! They were ecstatic!

So was I.



I couldn't help think that he may be a grandkid of mine since the thousands of baby loggerheads I hatched as a National Park Ranger in the 80's have been laying eggs for several years now.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Gulf Seagrass Meadows

Spring in the Gulf is not so different from spring on shore. It is a time of reproduction, growth, and abundance.



Beneath the shallow waters of Cedar Key, the grass is growing again, just as it is in your lawn. In the grass, there are creatures that creep and crawl, nibble and hunt ... just like in your lawn.

The great difference in this subsea lawn and your terrestrial lawn is the sheer teeming numbers of individuals and the amazing diversity of species.



By comparison, your bug ridden patch of suburban grass is a desert... even more so if you use pesticides ... but that's another rant.



The seagrass meadows of this big bend region are vast and near pristine due to our undeveloped coastline. The submerged seagrass meadows and their emergent cousins, the saltmarsh cordgrasses, form a vast hatchery - nursery system ... sort of a solar powered seafood replenishment factory ... and it does all this for free.



For free.



All we have to do in return is protect it.



In return we are guaranteed beauty, wildlife, life sustaining and delicious food, oxygen, and so much more.



... If we will just protect it.



That's all.



Just don't do anything to ... (and here he bites his tongue) ... "mess" things up.


Of course, this spring, we did something to "mess" things up.

BP didn't do it.

Haliburton didn't do it.

The politicians didn't do it.

We did it.

We all need oil and we, as a tribe, will do whatever it takes to secure it.

Considering the vast amounts of it that we extract, transport, and use ... we usually do a pretty reasonable job of containing it.

But, not this spring.

This spring, a single event threatens destruction to natural systems over a vast swath. Even if the oil stopped pouring out of that broken pipe this very minute ... we would still be facing potentially devastating damage to our coastal ecosystems.

And, it's a damage that can linger for decades.

The oil mass hovering offshore was on my mind constantly yesterday as my students went out to sea on their annual Marine Science Field Experience.

Each time we hauled our little trawl net aboard the boat and the seaweed tumbled out trembling with fish, crabs, snails, shrimp, seasquirts, starfish ... I imagined the same scene covered in oil.

In my little daydream, my students shrunk back in horror as the net emerged from a stinking brown sea covered in oil, it's contents dead or dying, the dolphins and seaturtles that usually swim by the boat instead floated nearby dead and bloated ...

You have to keep your daydreams short when you are on a boat with 14 kids, so luckily I only had to endure a few seconds of that nightmarish seascape.

I'm very aware it could still come true.

For now, the innocent go about their business in the seagrass meadows beneath the salty Gulf waters, unaware of our mistake looming offshore.

What follows is a brief sample of our finds yesterday. We sampled and released 99.9 % of what we caught. Only a few critters came home to our salt water tanks and they will be returned in a few weeks when school winds down.

Enjoy, but don't miss the obvious ... all the creatures you see in this post are either juveniles or in the act of reproducing.

Let's hope the nursery doesn't get poisoned.

A young needlefish.



A young stone crab.


A pretty healthy shrimp ... most were still about half this size.




A young, but feisty blue crab.



A tongue fish.



A very tiny, very stressed out puffer known as a striped burrfish.



A banded tulip snail and a clutch of tulip snail eggs.




A tiny grass shrimp in the act of procreation. The mass under her abodomen is a clutch of eggs.








A tiny crab that ... I need to look up!
The horror. I don't think I've ever seen this one ... and get this ... she is full grown.



Here's how we know. She's carrying her eggs too.



A handful of gracilaria, seagrass, and hard bryozoan structure ... evidence of a healthy seabottom.
I hope we can keep it that way.

I'll be out there again tomorrow with a fresh batch of kids.









Monday, May 10, 2010

Danger Larva! Hungry Larva!

Sooooo, this first video may seem odd if YOU don't occasionally talk silly to larvae.

It's just me again isn't it?

Dang.


I stayed out of the second video ... no caterpillar provocation, no dirty hands (I WAS gardening at the time), and no narrative.

Just a hint, in case you are busy ... the scenery and events in the second video do not change after the first few seconds ... okay, the leaf gets just a little smaller, but feel free to back out before the end ... you won't really miss any action.





Tomorrow is the first of two field trips into the Gulf of Florida with my students.

The trips are Tuesday and Thursday so I should come back with lots of stuff to share with you.

Hopefully, that will not include oil or tar balls. We are still due east of the big slick. If the oil does get here months from now, we will have a nice snapshot of what was here on the grassflats and shores of Cedar Key Before Petroleum.

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Happy Mother's Day


Happy Mother's Day, defenders of the brood.

Saturday, May 08, 2010

Prom Night Tips


TIP NUMBER ONE: Be sure your tux compliments your date's outfit. You can't go wrong with classic black.


TIP NUMBER TWO: If you are an international man of intrigue, don't forget to have your tailor stitch in some deep pockets for all your gear.

TIP NUMBER THREE: Take your hands out of your pockets for photos.
Tonight is Junior's Senior Prom, so yet another milestone falls as graduation slips closer and closer.
He and his crew of similar dashing gents and dames are heading out to eat, then to the Prom, and then ... to a late, late showing of IRON MAN 2, and finally to his bud's house to crash until I drag him out for the ride to St. Augustine tomorrow morning.
I'm sure he will be cheerful and perky.
We are celebrating mothers at Mom's tomorrow.
Last week, I asked my Mom what she wanted for her Mother's Day lunch and she said, " Well, you do make pretty good ribs."
So, today I BBQ'd 3 racks to take along tomorrow. While the young coals were tres, tres chaud, I grilled some sirloins for supper and then put the ribs on the grill, off to the side to cook for about 3 hours.
Tomorrow's menu looks to be BBQ ribs, baked beans, salad, bread, and a towering chocolate walnut cake with ganache icing.
Sounds like Father's Day to me ... check the calendar!