Category Archives: Animals

The Clover Connection

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It was suggested to me by a special friend, that I should add clover seeds to the back lawn. Now I am not really into lawns, but I do have a small, mostly crab grass lawn in the backyard, that I keep trimmed and minimally watered. It’s primarily for the dog.

Why clover I asked? She said that clover will produce small flowers, which will attract and nurture bees. With a shortage of bees, we need to do all we can to improve their habitats. Without bees pollinating, we do not exist! Okay, I was convinced.

In late fall, she just randomly tossed the seed around the existing lawn. Within a month, the clover was really sprouting. Within about three months it looked like this – complete with white flowers. Of course, growing results will vary by geographical location.

Here’s a closeup of the flowers.

A local honey bee visiting the clover patch.

I use my trimmer to sculpt the clover so that I still have lawn area for the dog. You can also keep the clover shorter if desired. It will still flower.

Here is a picture of year two with clover growing. Also, I really did find a 4-Leaf clover!

Now this is corny (we need more corny in our lives), but it all comes down to this:

To Bee, or Not to Bee? That is the question – I hope that you choose to Bee!

C.A.A.T.

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C.A.A.T. =’s Computer Aided Animal Training.

Sometime ago, I decided that I wanted to appear on ‘The David Letterman show.’ My goal was to submit a pet video for evaluation so that I could be in the show’s segment titled “Stupid Pet Tricks.”

I know, who would do it? I just thought that it would be fun, and I always learn new things from my crazy ideas.

My concept was to have an aquarium fish train itself to run a maze. I called it “Project Little Star.” I would then go on the show with a white lab coat on and my trained fish. I can hear David asking me, “Who would spend so much time and effort to train a fish?” “Well, I would Mr. Letterman.” (Audience laughter.)

I decided on the parts that I needed and made a sketch of my set up. I would need:

  • A computer
  • A frame grabber and camera
  • Auto fish feeder
  • Light
  • Interface board
  • Aquarium
  • Fish
  • Monitors
  • An interactive program for fish training

Here is the sketch that I originally made and my actual set up below.

A lot of thought went into this crazy idea, that by the way never happened. The programming was beyond my capabilities, but in reality it could be done.

The camera would monitor the fish movements. Each time it got close to a maze hoop, a light would flash and the auto fish feeder would drop in some food. The amount of reward would be based on how good the movement was. The rewards would be varied so that the fish would not just keep making the same movement.

Eventually, the fish would train itself to run the entire maze.

So this was all for a stupid pet trick, but I believe that the concept could have some real world application. This idea could be applied to seals or dolphins to train themselves in rescue techniques, say for a downed plane in water or a sunken ship.

Sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men, or humans and fish just don’t work out!