Tickling?

          Last Tuesday, my brother and I were playing the tickling game, I usually play with him because he's always complaining about being the little one and having no "brothers" to play with so I decided to be his "brother" and play all kinds of games from cars, dinosaurs, cowboys--and yes I'm the horse and he gets on my back and I have to run with him on top of  until he falls, boxing, and "the tickling game"--we just tickle each other without stopping until we get tired or my mom yells at us; which in this case my mom started yelling at us to stop because we make a lot of noise (yelling) and running around the house, so we went outside to observe the tree and wondered if the tree ever has something that tickles him, something like the wind, birds feet stepping on its branches, kids, or wind. My mom would always tell me that trees had feelings and that if I cut a flower or a leaf out of the the tree he would cry; I believe everything that she says. Probably the tree laughs all the time or when he feels like hes been tickled but we can't see its emotions. I tried to look up and find an answer, but nothing other a book  called "The Tickle Tree" and other pages showed up but none of those pages had an answer to it, so I decided to searched "do trees feel pain" and based on many studies, plants do feel pain and often when we eat vegetables they're still alive (Cohen), when I scrolled down there was many people comments arguing on the topic; some agreed and some others didn't to the "fact."
          A long time I heard from my friend that marijuana plants liked to listen to music, viewzone.com says that the marijuana plants like classical music but they have better results with recording of crickets. Crickets usually chirp before rain which make the plants "act", they open their "stomata's", the breathing pores on the underside of the leaves, which then they start to absorb the water . Below there's a video that shows that plants do have reactions and feelings. 

          This video shows that plants do have feelings and so they feel pain like they showed in the video when the professor burnt a leaf. This video answers the question that we had at the beginning, yes, trees are tickle; if they have feelings than yes that makes the tree feel tickle. 

"Stop Tickling Me"
www.cartoonstock.com

"Ticklish Tree"
www.cartoonstock.com

Work Cited

"Birds and the Bees" Guardian News and Media. Phil Cohen. 2011.                    Web. 09 Nov. 2014.

"The Amazing and Hidden Life of Plants" Do Plants Have Feelings? N.p.           n.d. Web. 09 Nov. 2014.

What's His Name?

          As my last post I tried to figure out the age of my tree but since I needed the specie of the tree I could't do anything. So I did a investigation about it; I looked up "tree identification" and a bunch of leaves came out, I had to find the one that looked like my tree and it was a  "Acer Sacchaurm"  which were identical to the leaves of my tree. Acer Saccharum are the leaves of  a Silver Maple also know as soft maple, white maple, river maple, swamp maple,  and water maple. At first I wasn't sure that that was my tree since it is originated from Eastern Unites States, but then it said that it could grow anywhere in the Unites States and Canada with certain care while they're on the process  of growing. So I guess that's my tree!

My tree
 (October)  

Silver Maple Tree
Yellowstone Valley Tree Surgeons

          You could tell that my tree doesn't have many leaves as the on one the right, the trunk of mine is bigger than the one on the right, and also mine has more branches.

Leaves of My tree        

Silver Maple Leaf
www.wood-database.com

                           
   



          Can't really see the picture I took because they're all together , but the leaves are the same as the picture on the right. You can kind of see it from the top right leaf because is the one that shows.    
                    
  



Steps:

1. Circumference divided by 3.14 (pi)                                                                        7.11/3.14= 2.3
2. Diameter X Growth Factor                                                                                     2.3*3.0= 6.9 

          So the tree is 69 years old! Who knew? Last post my dad told me that he was about 63 years old; using the date when the house was built. It came out to be 6 years older than the house. A tree can be over 4000 years old so I guess he is young.  

Silver Maple Tree Seed
Flickr Hive Mind      

     The silver maple is one of the fastest growing deciduous trees.  The silver maple tree can grow anywhere with moisture, but it's better if in river bottom soils.
          I guess I'm never going to know when is his birthday. Does the birthday of the tree is when the seed was planted? Imagine our world without trees? Would we all be dead? How would the parks look like without shadow? Would we have food/ fruit?  Would we be able to breath? Just imagine, would our world be the same without trees, would we adapt to the fact the we wouldn't have oxygen to breath, not having a simple shadow to cover ourselves from the sun, what about the birds and insects not having a shelter to protect themselves and not having food because if you didn't know the leaves are the food for many animals, a place to have fun like a did with "the tree house" or at a birthday party where the tree plays a big role-where hung up the piñata.
          I'm starting to realize something about my tree that I would've never had if Mrs. Farias wouldn't assign this project. Now that I watch the tree everyday at all times I could tell that I love the way nature amazes us; from the simple things like a spider to the color of the leaves.

Work Cited

          J. Dickerson. " Plant Fact Sheet for Silver Maple: Acer Saccharum L." United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA, RCS). Geyer Wayne A. 29 Nov. 2010. Web. 2 Nov. 2014.

 

How Old is He?

Yesterday, Saturday October 25, was my mom's birthday; and as Mrs. Farias and all of my past English teachers have taught me to relate homework to my everyday life. As we were celebrating her outside the house with all the family I was watching the tree from the table I was sitting, and I wondered how old he is. Today in the morning I asked my dad and he said he might be at least 63 years old or younger, he used the date which the house was built. Even though I think that the tree might be younger because the tree couldn't be planted right after the house was built.

Increment Borer
www.forestry-suppliers.com

I know that to know the age of a tree you have to cut the tree down because the ages is shown by the rings inside the trunk; so I searched "How to know the age of the tree" and that was exactly what I thought and the other thing was to use a increment borer (which I don't have and the cheapest one is $40.00). An increment border consists of a long, hollow drill bit with a hole at the end, a cross handle that you have to turn with two hands and an extractor.
"Trees have different growth rates, depending on their species ." says About Education, so in order to find out the age of the tree using the formula* I have to find out the name or specie of the tree.
About Education gives a formula which can tell the age of the tree without harming or cutting down the tree. Below is the formula:

1. Diameter = Circumference divided by 3014 (pi)
2. Diameter X Growth Factor = Approximate Tree Age

I didn't measure the tree for the calculations (I was too busy cleaning and other things related to the party from yesterday and also because I don't know the Growth Factor ) but I will do it later on my next post. 
Also I found this other page that gives that same formula and also the growth factor by the name of the tree.  This formula was published by the International  Society of Arboriculture. It says that trees that grow in urban areas are more stressed and grow slower and weaker than trees than grow in rural areas. 

Work Cited

"How Old is That Tree?" Missouri Department of Conservation. International Society of                      Arboriculture. 2014. Web. 26 Oct. 2014

"Estimating s Tree's Age." About Education. N.p., 2014. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.

  

                   

The Blowing Wind

  Everything happens in the morning! Before my brother left to school on Monday at 8:30 am, he saw a blackbird with a green chest and a yellow beak, it was on the branch of the tree just looking around, he said. Also during the break we saw a green worm that looked like a caterpillar.

The tree lost so many leaves last Tuesday because of the wind. The wind was blowing east. It was strong that it blowed the sand around the tree, and it also made the tree move which caused the leaves to fall down. I wondered if that helped the tree since it's going to occur someday now, where the tree is going to be bald. We could hear the branches and leaves moving and some of the branches cracking.

Now the days are shorter and the night comes earlier. At 7:30 pm it's dark and sometimes when I have to check the tree closely I have to use a lantern.

After school when I walk home I could see the tree from far, and I could tell that the branches that are facing west are changing to a brown- dead color. 

Field Notes 10/14/14
By: Fabian and Mikaela

The Weirdness of a Tree

The observations this week were few, as some branches of the tree are already changing to yellow, orange and brownish color, and I also found a rare animal I asked my parents if they knew what the animal was but did not know, and also search in the Internet but the only thing that came out was a grasshopper. I also found some bugs. Last week I had found a spider hidden within the wood of the tree and close to it that's were I founded the bug and the rare animal.

Mikaela 10/07/14

This animal which name I don't know but I can say that it looks familiar to a grasshopper. I don't know exactly how he lives or anything since I couldn't get any information about it. You might know what this animal is or what's the name of it but I don't because I have never seen one before. Maybe the animal was just looking in the tree for something new, food, shelter, friends or even a mate. Who knows?

Mikaela 10/07/14

This bugs I found are living in this tree, I don't know exactly how they live or what they eat but I'm guessing that the tree is their shelter that protects them from being eaten from other animals, and also that they live as a big family.

Every time I observe the tree in front of my house I find new things; from simple animals to animals that I haven't seen before. This tree makes me wonder more about nature, about animals and the changes that I have seen in the past four weeks. This tree has been hiding animals that I would've never imagined. This tree or "Maxto" like my brother named him, has been the shelter of many animals perhaps food for the animals too. 

I wonder how the tree feels by having "company" (insects,people,animals) around him all the time? or Which is the favorite season of the tree? 

Winter, where it's cold and sometimes covered in snow, where the tree has no leaves, and the branches are twisted. Some people don't like how the tree looks, but does the tree like it? Spring, where the tree grows new leaves to look green once again. Summer, where it's hot and the tree is full of new branches and those branches full of green and beautiful leaves, but also the smell. Or fall, where the tree looks beautiful and the color is yellow or orange but starts to loose it's leaves again. 

The Paralyzed Spider

 As I mentioned before I've seen a lot of spiders in the tree, but this time it was different. While my brother and I were looking around the tree, we found many spiders hidden under the wood of the tree. There were so many spiders but one caught our attention because when we were approaching it seemed that the spider was paralyzing, it stopped moving while the others were running trying to get away from us.

Mikaela
09/29 Field Notes

I don't know what the spider was thinking of by the time that it didn't do anything to escape like the other ones. I wonder what goes on in a spider's mind? I think that spiders are wonderful! They have some many things that I like and are interesting like they can survive anywhere in the world even space. Some people love them and some people hate them maybe because of how they look I feel like I'm in between because they're not adorable at all but have so many interesting things .

My brother and I were happy that we were able to take this picture, but we also noticed something red at the bottom of this picture but we weren't able to see it at that moment maybe because we were to busy looking at the spider, we're not sure if it was a bug or something else. It's fascinating that a simple spider had distracted us, during that time we could've seen more things.

The spider seemed like it didn't do anything it looked paralyzed and as we paid more attention to her we were also becoming paralyzed to the moment where we missed other things going on around the tree. It is fun that animals and humans have a lot alike. My brother and I say that the spider was paralyzed but the spider might be saying the same about us. We don't know how this world works and what goes on into animals or even persons mind, maybe if we were to take a moment to look closer at things that seem to be "paralyzed" we could discover a lot of new things. By being paralyzed we think that nothing happens because the definition of paralyzed is being incapable of doing something, but the spider transmitted us something as if she wasn't scared of us or telling us to get away from her and her family. Hearing, looking, touching, smelling, and tasting could make a big difference. 

A Quick Description

The time that I've been watching the tree I have not noticed anything different than what I've seen before: two black birds (ravens), spider webs, ladybugs, worms, and ants.  The tree is big and has large branches-some with no leaves at all and are falling down, some of the roots are above the dirt, and some leaves are yellow and some are falling down.

Tree in front of my house
Mikaela 09/15

 But there is something about the tree that I never imagined; which are sound, smell, touch and taste. So my brother and I started doing this; and we listened we heard crunches and thought it was perhaps because of the wood, for the smelling the smell is unique; which it reminded me when I was little in Mexico, those rainy days riding horses. The smell is inexplicable all I can say is that I like it and it reminds me of such good moments in my childhood. The touching is hard and weevil. And last the taste, I did not like it because it tastes like dirt and I honestly think that that was the worst taste I've tried.

I wonder if the tree smells the same all seasons or does it change to different smells?