There are many simple-lifestyle-appropriate week-long celebrations this month, including: National Simplify Your Life Week and World Breastfeeding Week, both held annually on the first week in August.  These can only make us smile, so it is a happy coincidence that National Smile Week occurs during the second week.  It’s a good thing Be Kind to Humankind Week happens on the last week, because Shark Week (on Television) also occurs in August.  We hope the Sharks are paying attention!

    If the Sharks didn’t get their Simple Lifestyle Calendars we have International Forgiveness Day and Friendship Day on the first Sunday of August.  That forgiveness also can be extended to Hiroshima Day (Aug. 6) and Nagasaki Day (Aug. 9), sad anniversaries of the world’s first deployed atomic bombs.  Before Dog Days end (Aug. 11) make sure and sample some juicy fruit to combat the sultry heat on National Watermelon Day (Aug. 3).

    August is the perfect time to capture our youthful energy; check out how your meter is running on International Youth Day (always Aug. 12).  If your energy is high (or if it’s not and you want to generate more) check out the Perseid Meteor Showers Peak (Aug. 12-13), when the earth moves through a sun-circling comet trail whose dust produces an average of 50-100 meteors per hour.  Though not as visible this year due to the full Super Moon (Aug. 10 - Full Sturgeon or Grain Moon in the American backwoods tradition), this show is definitely worth arising at 4am to view the miraculous skies.

    I teased my younger brother for years for being a ‘Lefty,’ so he enjoys his revenge on August 13, International Lefthander's Day, where special attention is paid to actions, tasks, and people who lead with their left hand.  I don’t know if he was lefthanded or not, but I admire the spunk of American Orville Wright, born on August 19th, 1871 (also known as Aviation Day), who with his brother Wilbur is credited with inventing and building the first successful airplane.  Another notable August birthday is that of Mother Teresa (born Aug. 27, 1910).  I was introduced to Mother T. in 1983 and witnessed first-hand her miraculous bond with children in her Calcutta, India orphanage.  She spent her life taking care of those she lovingly called “the poorest of the poor,” and we honor her on this day.

    August 29 is not only More Herbs, Less Salt Day, but John the Baptist Day, preparer of souls for the ministry of Jesus who was beheaded Aug. 29, 30 A.D.  I’m sure he would advise during the month of August to stay calm and clear-headed (in other words, "Don't lose your head!).

What is a bug? We have had several programs this summer at the Rockcastle Wilderness Site and a favorite activity for children of all ages is an Arthropod Hunt.  First, we agree upon what an arthropod is - maybe sketch or make a clay model.  This is where children sometimes are much clearer than adults - but not always.  

While discussing the most recent ASPI newsletter, I was asked if I needed to change the reference to bees.  I had called them animals - the editor wanted to change it to insect.  "Either is fine," I said.  There were looks around the table.  "If you want to be specific, insects - more general, animals.  It doesn't matter in the article."

"But insects aren't animals, are they?"

Take a moment here.  If insects are not animals, what are they?  With this question, folks were puzzled.  Well, they are just insects.  Not animals.

Insects are animals!  There are many ways to classify living things, but the most common that is still taught, is by Kingdom - there are Plants, Animals, Fungi, Bacteria, and we can argue about Protists and Archaebacteria some other time.  We'll just agree that insects are not Protists or Archaebacteria, however we classify them.  Then, we'll also agree that insects are not Bacteria, I think I get most of you on board for eliminating Fungi and Plants, as well.  We are left, then, with Animals.

Or, if you want to work the other way, are insects Living Things?  Are they made of cells, do they have a metabolism (utilize energy), do they grow, adapt, evolve, do they reproduce, do they contain DNA and/or RNA, do they respond to stimuli?   There are a few more requirements, but so far, we agree - insects are alive.  Then, we can ask - are they animals?  Do they use other organisms for food (heterotrophs)?  Are they motile in some stage of life?  How do they reproduce?  (Not like a fungi.)  Cell walls?  Nope.  Nuclei?  Yup.

Why do we care?  I mean, except for being factually correct when we publish a newsletter, of course - there is a certain amount of integrity in that.  I think we should care a little bit, because, as animals, we put a great deal of regard into classification.  Wait a second?  Do animals, other than humans classify things?  And, hold on - are humans animals?

We can go back to deciding if humans are living things - and that answer, of course, is yes.  We have all the criteria.  Then, if we look at the simple kingdoms, we, like insects, do not fit in anywhere else but as animals.  Or we can take the criteria of animals and make sure we fit - we do.

Next, do animals classify?  Remember, the Kingdom Animalia is diverse - the supposably simple sponge, sharks, jelly fish, the moss piglet (aka water bear or tardigrade, which is probably not what you are imagining at all).  Some animals, as far as we know, are simply responding to stimuli when it looks like they may be classifying - food or not-food, good habitat or acceptable habitat or poor habitat.  Many, however, have memories and organize information - best foraging grounds, plants to use to medicate, eat, avoid, social structures. 

Ah, there it is, for humans.  We have struggled with classification as part of our social structures.  Us and Them, We and They.  So when we do classify things, it gives them a meaning beyond just factual.  It gives them a complex status in our mind.  This is why it is important to know that insects are animals.  We can understand their needs, requirements.  We can appreciate their place in the ecosystem (necessary for our own lives.)  We can identify with them as fellow Animals.  (We eat fellow Animals, so please do not think I am romanticizing what that means.)  They will occupy a niche, if ecologists will allow me the use of this word, in our beings that is more complex than "We and They."  It is a more complicated place, all shades of gray and no black and white.  Perhaps it allows us to more rightfully claim a superiority among the animals when we do this.  When we do not - and it is "Us and Them" - we are responding to stimuli, like the sponge (often regarded, pitifully, as least of the Animals), and not using our complex neurology at all.

So what are insects?  They are animals, invertebrates, arthropods - the joint-legged.  They occupy such complex, diverse, and numerous niches in the world, we cannot begin to fathom their importance in the ecosystem - and the survival of humans - with our complex brains and all.

At ASPI we dream about big things from small-ish movements. While it is no little thing to grow food for your family, it is not feeding the world. It contributes to feeding the world, and, if you think about it, if everyone could grow more of their own food, it would feed the world. And so the big dreams form. . . Our mission is focussed on sustainability at ASPI. My family dreams of producing most of our own food.

That is a big dream. When we surveyed our tomatoes after rationing the water in the rain barrels for weeks and then standing on the porch watch a deluge for another few weeks, we were quiet. My eight-year old looked at her Romas (which may be the saving grace of the tomato patch), my five-year old surveyed his yellow tomatoes (he prefers less acid, thank-you-very-much) with a serious eye, the baby sniffed a Cherokee Purple, then sunk his teeth in without even picking it. We sighed. It was the most unblemished, ripest tomato we had going. Then the five-year old laughed at his little brother, “It’s good, isn’t it? That’s the best. Right from the garden.” His sister chimed in, “At least someone ate it. Went right to the belly. Just like our peas.”

I grinned. Our tomatoes are alright. We’ve clipped some diseased leaves – oh, o.k. more like branches, and they are not going to bear the glorious harvest of our dreams. But did we have peas! This year we ate peas until, well, we could always eat more peas. We froze peas. That was my goal, even the smallest amount . We never, ever have enough peas. The few that grew were gobbled by children well before they could make it to the house. We also have onions! Never grew them before. They are drying in bunches on the side porch, next to the garlic – enough for all year and cloves to plant this fall. (Side note: I love garlic – my husband likes garlic when it is hidden in and not part of the title of the dish. If you have this conflict in your house, do not cure your garlic on the porch next to your bedroom window. Waking up and trying to identify the smell at 2 a.m. is not good public relations for garlic.)

So in a better mood, the kids and I went on to survey the rest of the garden. We pulled some spent beans and raked to get ready for some beet planting tomorrow. With that to look forward to, we turned to the grim realty of our potatoes. We are also new to potatoes. Something had not gone right. The five-year old was in charge of pulling diseased parts and putting them in a burn pile. By the beginning of July he had his work cut out for him. I figured they were done for, but he liked it. I hoped he wouldn’t be too disappointed if there was nothing to harvest – or worse, mush. While the kiddos chased a toad, I dug with the tater fork. Nothing. Little left. Potatoes! Smooth-skinned, round, good-sized potatoes. I dug a little row then called the kids. This was not a brag-worthy harvest amount, but the excitement of digging food out of the ground cannot be overstated. This was real joy.  Up from the Earth – food!

Children will gladly run out to the garden for dill for their potato salad.

We ate our first kholrabi last night.  It got great reviews from the parents and tolerable reviews from kids.  We added beans and cukes to our salad of kale (which keeps throughout the summer for some reason in our garden.)  Meat has taken a side dish place on our plates this summer.  So, as I sigh about our ho-hum tomatoes, my children and my plate remind me that a garden is more than tomatoes and even, more than food.

P.S.  I haven’t harvested many peppers, either.   The toddler and 5-year old hunt for them and eat them right there in the garden.  I will put my dreams of stuffed peppers on hold, then, until the children are eight and can wait until supper.  The toad is doing well.  We gave him a couple of upturned pots, and he is a regular among the winter squash.