Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Emily Race!!!
Emily Race (#3591) has received a certificate of achievement in Outpost for earning an Intermediate & Expert Level Woman-at-Arms Merit Badge!
“I am applying for both the intermediate and expert badge. I have been a hunter for around 9 years. I drew a permit to hunt moose this year and began practicing with my 270 at the rifle range. I learned to be comfortable shooting accurately. I practiced at 100 and 200 yards. I also learned about different grains of bullets that could be used and cleaned my gun.
I then went hunting with my husband and found a beautiful moose.
I became very confident using and taking care of my 270. I was ready when I found the moose to make good, safe hunting choices. We now have 325 pounds of meat we processed in our freezer to feed our family for the year.”
Today, dear hearts, let’s dabble in Dolbear’s Law.
I Vespri Siciliani by Domenico Morelli (1823-1901) via Wikimedia Commons
Oh, no—don’t run off!
Dolbear’s Law is neither as lofty nor as boring as you might think (c’mon, now, you know me better than that).
Forget gavels, girls, and take the hint:
Image courtesy of Walt Disney Productions for RKO Radio Pictures via Wikimedia Commons
Mind you, the clue is not so much “Jiminy” as “cricket.”
That’s right—Dolbear’s Law concerns crickets. More specifically, it reveals the relationship between air temperature and the rate at which crickets chirp.
It’s true. When crickets are singing in the evenings from spring through fall, you can actually figure out the temperature outdoors by counting chirps. Here’s how, according to The Old Farmers Almanac:
Count the number of chirps in 14 seconds, and then add 40 to find the temperature in Fahrenheit.
For example: 30 chirps + 40 = 70°F
It works for Celsius, too, in case you were wondering. Metric mavens can count the number of chirps in 25 seconds, divide by 3, then add 4.
The cricket sound clip below plays for only a few seconds, but you can play with it to get an approximation:
And, as if THAT cricket fact isn’t mind-tickling enough, there is a rumor floating about that says a slowed recording of cricket chirps sounds like a human chorus. Listen:
Lovely, but can it be true? Read more about the mysterious music on Snopes.com.
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
