Jellyfish Live in the Great Lakes
Briar learns a lot during the last day at Marbleseed.
Welcome to Briar’s daily journal. This is where Briar writes about everything she learns daily, mostly for her own personal record. Never stop learning ♥
02/22/2025
The last day of Marbleseed. It was a fun convention, but I am delighted it is all over with. I’m currently back in my peaceful little bubble recovering😌.
My biggest takeaway from the weekend had little to do with agriculture but more to do with how sheltered I am as a person. I naturally tend to gravitate towards people who think just like me(as many of us do), and I don’t spend much time with people who think differently. Not to mention, this was my first experience being with people who weren’t Christians for more than one day.
It was a bit of a culture shock, but I am very thankful for the experience. We might all have very different views of the world, but we are all made in the image of God. It’s good to know people who aren’t Christians so we can spread the light and become examples of joy and peace amidst the struggles of this world.
It’s essential to have a strong core group of fellow Christians who will be there for you when you need community. However, from this experience, I’ve learned that it isn’t the worst thing in the world also to know and spend time with people who don’t believe in God. How are they supposed to see the love of Jesus if we aren’t shining bright in the darkness?
I prayed for opportunities to be an example this weekend, and God answered that prayer for me. On several occasions, I was asked questions that I could smoothly slip in the fact that I went to church and was a Christian. They asked about the mission trip where I went to Peru, and I was able to talk a bit about what that was like.
Ultimately, I want to share this encouragement with anyone else who may be in the same place I am. It’s okay to be around people who aren’t Christians. Of course, don’t let them change your beliefs, but also, don’t be scared to listen to their beliefs and how they got there.
Are you all ready for the superb information now?
Here we go!
-Cities set their train tracks on fire in the winter to keep them warm.
-There’s this FANTASTIC little thing called Custom Grazing. It’s where someone else pays you to graze their animals on pasture. Where do I sign up??
-This morning, I ate a green Japanese Kit Kat that I got yesterday from one of the vendors. It was an odd flavor; it sort of tasted like pistachios. I was hoping that the green color meant it contained mint. Unfortunately, it did not. I just looked it up, and it seems like the green Kit Kats are matcha-flavored, which explains a lot.
Tools
I learned about a few new tools/tractor attachments today.
The power harrow is a piece of equipment that aerates the soil without overturning the different soil layers. It’s still pretty aggressive so broadforks or undercutting is considered more ideal.
-When setting up a greenhouse, or any structure that will need to withstand the weather, use carriage bolts over wood screws. The instructor of the class had a very sad story about the time he decided to use wood screws and his entire greenhouse fell in a windstorm. He uses carriage bolts now and no longer has structural problems.
-A water wheel transplanter is a more efficient way to get your plants into the ground. It saves your back and your time!
- Did you know that there is a tiny penny-sized jellyfish that lives in a few of the Great Lakes? I did know this, but today I learned even more cool things about them. They are called peach-blossom jellies. They have a muscular membrane on their body called the velum which makes them “not true” jellyfish. They may not be considered official jellyfish but they are hydras and are considered polymorphic.
-Other species of jellyfish are farmed for food and biomedical purposes. They are considered anti-cancer because they can slow down the growth of cancer cells. You can also make plastic out of jellyfish biomass which could be a great alternative option to current plastics.
-Some jellyfish are farmed to help rice crops. They get processed into a jellyfish “chip” that gets mixed into the soil. It provides plenty of nutrients and it is a weed suppressent.
-The Scythians were a nomadic warrior tribe who were known for their powerful poison arrows. The arrows were made with snake venom, rotting feces, human blood, and decaying viper carcasses. Even a slight wound would start to effect you within the hour. If the poison didn’t kill you right away, the gangrene infection would get you after 1-2 days. Pretty intense if you ask me.
-Champion trees are the largest individual tree of each species.
-We drove past the largest tree in Wisconsin today, however after further research it is now the 7th largest tree in Wisconsin. I wonder how other trees were able to catch up? Maybe they were a faster growing species?
-Did you know that there are several vegetables that contain natural nicotine? Turns out all the plants in the solanaceae family plus peppers, potatoes, and cauliflower have nicotine. It’s not nearly as much as the tabacco plant so you’re not going to get addicted to your veggies in that sense.
-Tomatoes have the most nicotine as far as common vegetables go but you’d need to eat about 19.8 pounds of tomatoes to equal one cigarette.
-It would take consuming 2,000 lbs of tomatoes to kill you from nicotine, but I think the whole eating-a-ton-of-tomatoes would be the cause of death in that scenario.
-The riper the fruit, the less nicotine it will contain. Unripe veggies have as much as 10 times the amount of nicotine as ripe fruits.
While we were driving back, Dillon taught us all a super fun car game! It’s called GHOST. Here are the rules:
The first person thinks of a word and says the first letter of that word aloud.
The second person thinks of a word that starts with that letter and says the second letter.
The third person continues the pattern.
The fourth person also continues but, from here on out if you spell a word you’re out.
The game continues with adding on letters until somebody is forced to spell a word.
If you add a letter to the word that makes it completely unviable you’re automatically out.
It was great and I was pretty good at it. One of the rounds went like this:
“C”
“L”
“O”
“Hmmm. R”
“Clor? What words start with clor? I can’t think of anything.” Constance forfeited and it went to me.
Thankfully, Brittany gave me a clue about what she was thinking.
“Shhh! It’s a popular cleaner that comes in a blue cylindrical container😉😉.”(she wanted to get Dillon out)
“O!”
*sigh* “X”
-Briar Albaugh
Well... I might be addicted to tomatoes... especially when you pop them right off the vine and they're warm and sweet from being in the sun...
Ohhhh yes. I've heard that they rent out Muscovy ducks in California---and then there are other places that also have entire semis with bees on the back that they use to pollinate orchards.