~Photo Friday~ School Days

The school house at Raven Hill Discovery Center.

Don't Pet the Spider

Yes, we were told on our recent visit to the Raven Hill Discovery Center (in northern Michigan) that we could not "pet" the spider.

Here is our guide. She is a wonderful guide who owns this museum. I believe she has done a fabulous job.

And this is a close-up of the spider in her hand. Despite popular opinion, this is not a tarantula. We were told not to "pet" the spider since one of its defense mechanisms is to release its hair, causing itching and sneezing. She also said the first itching powder (a prank) was made from the hair of this type of spider.

So what else did the Animal Room have to offer?

There were tortoises. I have seen tortoises before. I have never seen four in the same room, one of which looked almost big enough to ride.

The four I'm referring to were all adopted by the kind owners of the Raven Hill Discovery Center. Apparently, this type of tortoise is one that can be purchased for a pet. (Why any parent would think this giant turtle would make a good pet is beyond me.)

We got there in time to help feed these fascinating animals. We were warned of the strength of their grip and to keep our fingers back. They don't know where the food stops and the human begins, after all.

Thankfully, they were perfect gentlemen (ladies?), however, and no fingers were lost. :o)

Of course, there were also some smaller turtles. I don't know what all of them are but here's the pics I took. Decide for yourself. :o)

The label on the tank said box turtles. There were five turtles in there, however, as you can see, and one of them looked a lot different than the others.

They had pythons, of course. I'm pretty sure this, to the left, is a python but there was a small boa constrictor in one of the tanks, too. I was getting them mixed up quite a bit...

Our guide informed us of the unsuitability of pythons as pets for children. (As if I needed someone to tell me that. LOL) She mentioned one family who thought one mouse per week was sufficient food for a python. That same python eats 3-4 RATS per week and even that isn't quite enough.

And this one to the right...sheesh, it's either a boa skeleton or a python skeleton. I'm leaning toward boa for some reason but I honestly can't remember which our guide told us it was. It was in a display case, just as if it were alive. Obviously, it is too delicate a specimen to be out for people to touch. I can only imagine children wanting to reach out to the thin bones only to have them snap off.

To the right here is a corn snake. I never realized how bright they were, pretty almost. (I never, never thought I would call a snake pretty...) There was an albino corn snake as well but, stupid me, I didn't take a picture. :o(

And the lizards. Oh, the lizards. They only had a few. (Turtles seemed to be their most numerous pets.)

To the left is a skink. Honestly, I don't remember much of anything she told us about skinks. My bad.

To the right is a leopard gecko. Notice the puffy tail. Apparently, geckos store food in their tails. I'm still marveling over that. Our guide took this neat little lizard out so we could pet him. That was pretty cool. :o)

The walls of this room were covered in animal skins and skeletons, butterfly displays and more. It was a fascinating room.

For more information, driving directions and classes, visit the center's site: Raven Hill Discovery Center.

Ever Hear of a Music Garden?

You read that correctly. I said a music garden. We discovered one on our recent trip up north. First, the reason we even went that direction...

Saturday, my family went on a little mini "Corvette Trip" as we call it. (Every year we take a "Corvette Trip" to the Upper Peninsula here in Michigan for the Corvette Show and parade across the Mackinac Bridge. See our Vettes above, belonging my brother, my dad and myself.) My sister-in-law, who is like 1000 months pregnant, won't be able to go on our usual overnight trip this year so we took a mini trip. Rain prevented us from going to Ludington as we had planned so we ended up in Boyne Falls instead.

Near there, we found the Raven Hill Discovery Center. This place is featured on 9&10 News a couple times a year for their really interesting hands-on displays.

They have some of the neatest displays I have ever seen. There is a "Periodic Room" with a Periodic Table of Elements that covers nearly an entire wall. There is an "Animal Room" where they house the animals they generously take in from people who would abandon them. No surprise, these animals are mostly reptiles and one spider.

While there are many, many other displays all worthy of mention, the display I want to focus on here is the "Music Garden."

The Music Garden is an outdoor exhibit that features several instruments. These are all playable and most are even in tune. If you know how to play, you can.

(In the back of the picture you can see the Solar House. This is an exhibit that is still being worked on. Eventually, the entire house will use solar and wind power to operate as a normal home...but that is for another post.)

Many of these I can't remember if our guide even told us a name. I know this one, to the right, makes sound when someone slides their fingers down the aluminum pipes. They have to have resin on their fingers and grip fairly hard. The sound is rather piercing.

To the left are what look a little like bells. In essence, that's what they are. When struck with the rubber mallet, they make a very similar sound. They are made from old acetylene tanks, cut down. Our guide told us that one of these tanks actually had a Nazi swastika on it.

To the right is an instrument made of PVC tubes, cut at different lengths and set in a frame. Tucked between the tubes are four flip-flops. A deep, hollow sound is produced when a flip-flop is struck against the open holes visible in front.

There is an amazing lithophone, too. It is pictured here, left. Looks like any ole xylophone, doesn't it? The difference? This instrument is stone instead of wood, hence LITHOphone instead of XYLOphone.

This is another percussion instrument on the right. When struck with two rubber mallets, the droning sound reverberated through the ground. I even have a video of this in action below. The two women playing it are not musicians, just having fun. :o)

For contact info, available activities and directions, you can visit their site at www.ravenhilldiscoverycenter.org.