Opal has been a mystery for centuries. No two opals look alike. The word ‘opal’ was derived from a Greek word opallos, meaning “to see changes of color”. Opal is derived as a precious gemstone which is formed from non-crystalline silica gel. It consists of 6 to 10 per cent water and small silica spheres are arranged in a regular pattern. It generally measures 5.5 to 6.5 on MOH’s hardness scale with diamonds measuring 9 to 10 and pearls 4 to 5. It is a birthstone for October.

Opal dates back to 1849 where it was found at a cattle station named Tarrawilla, near Angaston some 80 km outside Adelaide in Australia. Nearly 95% of the opal is found in Australia. A small number is found in other countries like Mexico, Brazil and USA. There are three major opal mining regions in Australia that produce different types of opal.

White opal also known as “milk” opal is found in and around the towns of Coober Pedy, Mintabie and Andamooka in South Australia. The most famous opal is the black opal which is found in Lightning Ridge in the state of New South Wales. Boulder Opal is found in Central Queensland, Quilpie, Winton and Opalton. Other opals include Light Opal, Doublet, Triplet, Common, Synthetic and Imitation.

Most of the opal deposits are found in New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. At present, mining of opal is done in the following areas and each produces solid Opal with specific characteristics and color patterns.

Lightning Ridge, NSW, is famous for glorious black opal. This town is situated 770 kilometers northwest of Sydney. Black opal was first discovered at Lighting Ridge in the late 1880’s.

White Cliffs is Australia’s oldest commercial opal field. This is situated around 295 kilometres northeast of Broken Hill. Opal was first mined at White Cliffs about 1889. For nearly 30 years, White Cliff opal fields produced opal for the world market.

The real development of Queensland’s vast opal deposits began in 1873 with the discovery of fine quality opal north of Thargomindah. Opal mines are concentrated in certain regions like Yowah, Quilpie, Eromanga and Jundah.

Coober Pedy is famous for White or milky opals. At present, opal fields encompass an area of approximately 45 kilometres. Andamooka is found southwest of Coober Pedy in harsh desert country. Andamooka is one of Australia’s most famous opal fields, having produced some of the most beautiful pieces of opal. The opal fields in and around Andamooka produce top gem, crystal, light opal and some dark opal.

Opal usually occurs in both sedimentary and volcanic rocks. There are various methods of opal mining.

Methods of opal mining

Sink a shaft:

The simplest form of opal mining is by shaft sinking with a pick and shovel. A shaft is sunk straight down until some promising “opal dirt” is discovered. Length of the shaft could be as short as three metres or as long as 20 metres. A handpick or screwdriver is used to extract any opal found, due to the frailty of the stone.

Open cut mining:

Open cut method is done by the use of heavy machinery to remove large amounts of opal dirt from closer to the surface for inspection. This method is more expensive and is mostly used to search for boulder opal in Central Queensland.

Noodling:

Many locals search through heaps of discarded mullock for pieces of precious opal. An abandoned open-cut mine is another good place for a noodler, using a rake and sieve for tools. Some have taken to large scale machine noodling by allowing large amounts of opal dirt travel on a conveyer belt under ultra-violet light, which detects the precious opal.

Puddling and Rumbling:

A Puddler is a large mesh-lined drum attached to a motor. This device rotates and turns the clay into sludge as water is pumped into the drum. The sludge escapes through the mesh. A related technique is dry rumbling.

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Clement G. Hurd was an American illustrator of children’s books. He was born on January 12, 1908 and became best known for his collaborations with author Margaret Wise Brown, including Goodnight Moon in 1947, which has since sold more than two million copies. He also illustrated The Runaway Bunny (1942) and a number of books written by his wife Edith (a friend of Brown’s) as well as a children’s book written by Gertrude Stein, The World Is Round (1938).

The son of a New York mortgage banker, Hurd was educated at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire.  He then studied architecture at Yale University as well as painting with Fernand Léger in Paris. On seeing two of his paintings, Margaret Wise Brown asked him if he would consider illustrating children’s books.

His son Thacher Hurd is also a children’s book author and illustrator, and referred in an interview to the “wonderful aura of creativity” surrounding his father and the Vermont farm that was their home.

A doctored/altered photo of Hurd was included in the 60th anniversary republication of Goodnight Moon with a cigarette removed from his hand, causing controversy over publication standards. A New York Times article wrote “In the great green room, there is a telephone, and a red balloon, but no ashtray. “Goodnight Moon,” the children’s classic by Margaret Wise Brown, has gone smoke free.”

Hurd died February 5, 1988.

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If you remember a few months ago, we answered a question on “where do wolves live.” That answer led to more questions about the life of wolves and we thought we would answer one of those questions today. If you do have more questions about wolves, feel free to email us your question or to post it here and we will try to post new answers as the questions arise.

So with that little introduction, let’s look at what wolves eat.

Before I get into the actual diet of a wolf, it is important to note that wolves are carnivores, meat is their primary food source but they have been known to eat some berries and even insects like grasshoppers or even earthworms.

Since wolves rely on fresh meat as their food supply, the actual food that they eat depends on a number of things; their environment, the prey that is available in their environment and the season. If the herd has migrated to an area where the wolves are not, the pack will find other means to feed themselves.

Wolves, like dogs, can eat several times in a day, usually every 5 hours or so but generally, food is not plentiful enough for that type of feeding behavior so wolves are able to live without food for several weeks.

When it comes to hunting, wolves hunt in packs and will often single out old, sick or young animals to attack. This is beneficial to both the pack and the herd since the animals that are weakened by age or sickness are less likely to injure a wolf and the wolves keep the herd healthy and strong by removing the diseased members.

Since wolves hunt in packs, they are able to take down large game and will often hunt deer, moose and other large game. When large game is not readily available or the pack is too small to successfully kill one, wolves will survive on mice, birds, fish and the berries and insects that I have already mentioned.

A wolf’s digestive system is very efficient and it will digest 95% of the meat swallowed. Any bone splinters or undigested food will be wrapped inside the hair the wolf swallowed and will prevent the intestines from becoming damaged as the bone passes out of the body.

Young wolves are nursed by their dam (mother) until they are old enough to eat food. When they are, adult wolves will take the food back to the den and regurgitate it for the young. As they grow, the adult wolves will begin to take pieces of the kill back to the den for the pups.

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Laika is actually a Russian word for “dog” and it generally refers to any breed that is similar to the husky. Laika, the dog, was believed to be a mongrel that may have been a cross between a husky and possibly a terrier breed, although any number of Nordic breeds could have contributed to the dog’s lineage.

Lakia was originally named Kudryavka and she had many nicknames over the course of her training. Although Laika died during the flight, her remains burning up in the atmosphere on April 14, 1958, the memory of that sweet little dog ignited a debate over the treatment of animals in the race for science.

Today, Lakia is remember in many places including literature and songs and the little monument found in Russia of a little dog perched atop a rocket.

Photo Credit: http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/Sputnik/Sputnik2.php

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But that isn’t what the question is about so I should get down to the answer. Haida used many different materials to create their paint and all of them were from nature. Generally, the Haida mixed a naturally occurring pigment with a binder. This was a substance, like chewed salmon eggs, that gave the pigment a paint like quality. Here are a few naturally occurring pigments that gave the chewed salmon eggs its color.

• Black: Bone that has been burned to charcoal or magnetite, which is an iron ore.
• Blue/Green: Celadonate or Glauconite. This was also known as “green earth,” which is very rare.
• Red: comes from an iron ore called hematite.

For more information on Haida Art, visit The Respect to Bill Reid Pole Project

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With this knowledge, it is important to understand that antioxidants are vitamins, phytochemicals and some nutrients that help protect our bodies from free radicals that are found in our bodies as a result to pollutions in our environment, whether those are through smoking, pesticides or radiation.

Antioxidants are proven to help protect the heart and may also reduce the risk of some forms of cancer.

Some foods that contain antioxidants are:

• Blueberries
• Broccoli
• Raspberries
• Garlic
• Tea
• Tomatoes
• Pomegranates
• Soy
• Red Grapes
• Spinach
• Whole Grains
• Carrots

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My kids, on the other hand, only need to ask and suddenly I am rushing for a container, a mister and everything else that I need to set the snails up into the lap of luxury. They eat well when they visit and many because so used to being handled, that they stretch out each time we pick them up.

So the first time I brought snails into the house, I had to figure out how to make the snails visit enjoyable not only for us but for them. One of these was figuring out what they eat and is a question often asked by many impromptu snail owners.

So what do you feed a snail?

One of the first things that I would like to mention is Cuttle Bones. You can find these in the bird section of any pet store and are very cheap. Without a cuttle bone, snails will not receive the proper nutrients and their shells will harden. This isn’t really what they eat but it is essential to their diet.

When it comes to food, you can feed snails a variety of things including plants, vegetables and fruit. They tend to eat everything and anything that is plant matter and this also includes decaying vegetation. They aren’t very picky and I have had snails that love apples. As soon as an apple plopped down in the terrarium, even with other food, the snails would be all over the apple.

If you are keeping snails in a terrarium, it is better to plant a small houseplant into the terrarium. The snails will curl up onto the plant and come down when food is out. If there is an abundance of vegetables and fruit, you will find that the snails will leave the plant alone – well, for the most part that is.

Lastly, snails need water to survive. They should be misted with a spray bottle several times a day but don’t worry too much if you miss a spritzing. In times of drought, snails will seal up the entrance to their shell with a thick mucus and go into hibernation. To revive your snail, simply mist it a few times and the snail will be back out and being its usual snailish self.

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