Photos

The soil in the Mississippi Delta, where my parents live, has a large amount of what we call "gumbo" mud. It is a clay like substance that expands and cracks over the course of the year as the moisture level changes. This causes much trouble for houses. Doors will not open and close at certain times of the year and cracks appear in the walls and in the concrete foundations. People pay big bucks to have holes drilled under their foundations. Into these holes go jacks that are used to level the foundation. It is unfortunately not a permanent fix. Out of such a crack came this little snail leaving his trail of slime and picking up all kinds of things. How dirty our floor was!
I wish I had gotten some photos of the slugs. The back porch is their favorite place. They appear after dark and eat what is left of the cat food. They are joined in this by roaches, ants, birds, the occasional possum and, oh yes, a cat who sometimes makes sport of the birds, the ants and the roaches, especially the birds. The cat is ,to our chagrin, a real killer. The only chipmunk I have ever seen in our yard I only saw once. He was lying next to his poor little head. There is just an astounding array of small critters that one may well never notice.

I posted this same photo on TrekNature with the very same note. I hope I haven't done wrong, but as I wrote the note I realized that I was describing what it is like to live in my parents home town. I thought therefore that it fit in with the goals of Trek Earth.