Hamburger Update- final one?

Ok, so I haven't posted in a while- busy- sorry. 

I did have time to take pics of the hamburger though, and without futher a do, here they are:

The first three were taken the week of April 14th.  Notice how much condensation is in the McDonalds burger?  I don't know why, it wasn't hot or even warm when I put it into the container.

McDonalds' close-up 

I am surprised.

Real Hamburger close-up 

It's moldy, but obviously not as bad as the McDonalds.

Now for photos taken the week of May 3rd.

Major difference in the Real Hamburger: 

Now for the McDonalds:

Do you notice the liquid?  And I wish you could smell them.  The McDonalds burger has a sour smell to it.  The Real burger has a moldy smell to it.  The molds look different too.  I am wondering if there are two different molds growing on these burgers?  I contacted the local Extension office to see if they do mold testing or knew anyone that did, and they directed me to the Biology Dept of UF.  I emailed them and they have not responded.  My question now, is how long do I wait for a response?  My family(read: husband) is tired of the experiment.  I have placed the burgers above the garage freezer which will only hasten the decomposition process.  I would really like to find out what types of mold are growing on these burgers!

My findings were not what I expected.  I fully expected the McDonalds burger to stay fresher longer. As you can see that was NOT the case!  I will say that looking at that hamburger has caused The Rocket to think twice before wanting to eat fast food now, however, I still have a long way to go...

The Rocket achieves double digits!

This past weekend we were a partying crew as it was The Rocket's 10th birthday.  We had a pool party with some of his classmates and some other friends.  They are all polar bears because the water is still freezing and yet they swam anyways!  Then they played Just Dance 2 on the wii for a while(got warmed up) then they got back into the pool! CRAZY KIDS!!!!  The Rocket had alot of fun and really enjoyed having his friends over. 

The cake-his design

Transformers...

The birthday crew with mustaches...

The Rocket- 10 years old!

Momma getting in on the mustache fun...

Hamburger update #2

McDonald's hamburger- showing signs of mold now.  Below is the inside of the burger. I am surprised that it is already showing signs of rotting.  I thought for sure it would be a couple more weeks.

This is the Homemade burger, lots of mold.  I could not pry it open to get a view of the inside without destroying the bun.  I'll give it a couple more weeks. 

The smell is not very pronounced on either of them, however on the Homemade burger there is a smell.  On the McDonald's burger it doesn't smell like it originally did, but it doesn't stink either. 

My husband cannot wait for this experiment to be over...

Until next time...

Hamburger update #1

This is the Homemade burger, showing signs of mold growth...

This is the Mcdonald's hamburger, still good...  The Rocket doesn't want to eat this particular one anymore!

It's been a week, and already my thoughts are being proved...  Stay tuned!

McDonalds' "Food"vs Real Food

I have a son that is a junk food junkie.  I mean, he would choose any fast food restaurant over a home cooked meal ANY DAY and EVERYDAY!  So I am going to do a little experiment, one I have seen the pictures from before(so I guess I am stealing the idea), but I want to experience it first hand in the hopes of curbing the monster within him.  Here goes:

First, the McDonald's hamburger.  Regular, nothin' special about it.  Ketchup, mustard, little chopped onions, pickle, what they call "meat", and a bun.

 Now the real hamburger, ketchup, mustard, little chopped onions, minus the pickle, 100% pure beef, and an organic bun.

They will be kept in identical containers on my kitchen counter for however long it takes to show some major degradation.  I labeled them and dated them.  This started on the 22rd of March.

I have been thinking of doing this for a while and the bread I needed finally went on sale at a time when I was contemplating the experiment.  When my neighbor brought the McDonald's hamburger over(bought on his way home from work. Thank you, Mark!), my junk food monster came running in and exclaimed " Is that for ME???"  Dear Lord, he is disappointed I am wasting this burger on an experiment!  The next morning, he said "Can I have it now?"  After learning it had sat out all night on the counter and would continue to do so until it rotted, he didn't want it anymore. 

My kids have watched most of Food Inc. and Sweetie Pie is not a fan of fast food anymore.  The Junk Food Junkie(otherwise known as The Rocket) on the other hand is only mildly deterred.  Zman is indifferent, and S just rolls his eyes.  My work is cut out for me...

I will be posting pics(I will try for weekly) on the progress of the experiment.  My hypothesis is that the regular hamburger, made of real food, will degrade(rot) faster than the McDonald's hamburger, because of the lack of preservatives in the ingredients.  My hope is that my Junk Food Junkie and his father will learn something about the "food" they love so much, and it will be burned on their minds, so as to never forget it. 

Is that too severe?   Naaaaa

Stop the clocks!!!

This has been my plee as of lately: Stop the clocks, PLEASE!!!!!  Usually, things tend to slow down a bit after the holidays and kids go back to school.  Not this year!  It seems we have been going non-stop for the last two months and I am tired.  Camping trip, visits to Naples, homework(good Lord the homework!), and just everyday life has been hectic! I am ready for spring break, and the brightness of summer vacation is coming into view...

The Rocket practicing his flying skills in a jacket he wore when he was 3!

And now for our camping trip photos: 

Gathering place of our campsite, filled with good food from the breakfast the campground put on.  $5 for all you can eat, the women were all smiling- no cooking or cleanup! : )

Now, what to do for the rest of the day?

How about the pool?  While the men went grocery shopping(how we lucked out with that one I'll never know...) we girls took the kids swimming:

The pool was shaped like the state of Florida, and they had kareoke on Saturday afternoon.  We did not participate(I know you are dissapointed), however the kids enjoyed the show while trying to warm up in the sun after swimming in the frigid waters for about 5 minutes.

The kids spent most of the day going back and forth from the playground to the campsite by any number of different ways they found.  The playground was fantastic!  It was old fashioned with a METAL slide, and the kind of merry-go-round that really gets going good!  Here's how good the merry-go-round was, one of the kids actually threw up after getting off of it! Now that's a GREAT merry-go-round! 

Later that night they had a race party as it was the weekend of the big race and the campground was PACKED!  It was a grill out, with 75cent hotdogs and $1.50 hamburgers(with or without cheese) and all the fixin's, including chili and cheese for the hotdogs! This campground does things like this on special weekends, a nice touch and it cuts down on the cooking and cleanup(always a dreaded thing) while camping.  All those groceries the men got, we came home with alot of them...

At the race party, they had contests for all ages.  Sweetie Pie ran up when they announced the hula-hoop contest!  She didn't win, but for all who participated there was free ice-cream or a candy bar from the general store.  Everyone was having a great time, there was dancing and music and tiki-torches and lots of smiling faces! 

Campsite by dark, ambiance provided by about 5 super long strings of white christmas lights strung up by Brian( Thank you Brian!!). 

Yes, that is a refrigerator you see there.  All I have to say is- It's good to go camping with the Bagley's! : )

It was a bit chilly at night, and with the heaters warming the insides of the camper and tents, we had to have something to warm the gathering spot with...  Good thing Brian brought the gas grill...

Sunday Morning.  Sorry boys, no breakfast buffet today. It's poptarts and bananas and boxed cinnamon rolls(YUM! Thanks Denise!)for you today. 

But for the girls, we will be having champagne cocktails!

We decided to visit the beach Sunday.  It was really nice after it warmed up and the sun felt wonderful!  The kids all played in the sand for hours(no-one got sunburned!) and only went in the water to wash off as it is still very cold!  What am I saying?  It's the Atlantic, it's always cold!

The trip was great.  Everyone had a really good time, all the kids got along really well and were able to be rather independent in their wanderings.  They stayed together in a group and included Sweetie Pie most of the time.  I felt bad for her being the only girl, but she worked it just fine.

The name of the campground we stayed at is Sugar Mill Ruins, in New Smyrna.  You can visit their website here.

Back at home...

Here's some of the neighborhood wildlife:

Hehehe, just kidding Mark!  Although he is wild about the Packers!

Spring time planting has started, and I need to get moving on incorporating the compost into the beds.  The Spring Master Gardener plant sale is tomorrow, and I need to have the areas ready as I never come home empty-handed from it!  I have already started my tomatos and several veggies.  I also got a bunch of flower seeds from the catalog as well, and am looking forward to the bouquets that Sweetie Pie and The Rocket will be bringing me!  Last fall, I sprinkled out packets of wild flowers(mainly coreopsis, the Florida state wildflower), I can't wait to see if they cover the areas.  Photos of the garden will be coming...

What are you planting this year?

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

 While in Naples over the holidays, we visited Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.  I have been wanting to make a trip out here for a while, since it's been so long since I've been here.  When I was little and went to the Nature Conservancy for camp over the summers, we would make field trips out here and go tromping around in the swamp, exploring nature and getting right up close in the experience.  Alas, my kids lack that experience, and I know I will regret it! Hopefully all the outings I drag them along on, and make them go painfully slow on, will make up for it(a bit)...hopefully! One day I will take them on one of Clyde Butcher's swamp walks, when the $70.00 for each of us isn't such a big deal...  I did it when it was FREE!  My how the world has changed...  But I digress.

Entrance to the visitor center.  The kind man inside let me have the Audubon Society member rate even though I didn't have my card!  Figures, I have been carrying it around for a couple years and haven't used it even once and then after I decide to not carry it(after streamlining the wallet), I have the ability to use it and don't have it! UGH! I believe there's a man named Murphy who has a law that applies to this...?

After paying our fee for entry, we began our walk.  Just outside they had a lady that had a baby alligator you could pet.  I just snapped a picture, I have petted these before and I had also just washed my hands. Being a Florida Native- been there, done that, many times. 

Beyond the Alligator lady, there was a marquee that has some recent wildlife sightings.  My good friend Kathy and her boys went on this walk with us and they are checking out what we might see from the 2 mile walk on the boardwalk. 

We started out the walk with some loud cries that sounded kind-of like a laughing gull.  They were the cries of some red-shouldered hawks.  It was rather dry and not very birdy, but that is the norm for this time of year.  By all means it was teeming with life, just not right out in the open type of stuff.  If you go here in the winter-time, you must have time to spare, and stop along the way to be quiet and listen and watch.  Only then will you see the goings on around you.  We did this alot much to the dismay of Z-man and The Rocket, who accompanied me this time.  It caused us to loose our friends along the way as her boys were more interested in barreling through.  They are young, and kudos to Kathy for introducing them to the area and letting them explore it at their own pace(key to their enjoyment and retention of knowledge)! 

My escorts on this journey. 

Scenery along the way: 

A small garter snake, sunning on the boardwalk.   

I caught him also as he slithered off into the brush.  He evidently didn't like his audience even though we were very quiet and didn't crowd him.  It was very neat to watch him in the bushes, and how he maneuvered through them, of course it helped that he is not a venomous variety. He was, in fact, rather beautiful with his racing stripes, and serene stillness. 

A VERY OLD cypress tree.  This thing was huge! 

A red-shouldered hawk landed on this snag above the boardwalk. 

Night heron(?)

It was so neat to watch him walking on top of the vegetation.  Every once in a while he would step into a hole and stumble, causing him to raise his wings as if in flight.   

Cypress tree knees.  

Contrary to popular belief(even mine, as I was taught this), cypress knees have little to no bearing on the oxygen exchange of the tree it is connected to, rather, they provide stability in the unstable and mushy landscape for storms with high winds that would otherwise knock over the better part of the forest.  All the roots underneath the ground are growing together to form a mesh that provides stability.  It would be damn-near impossible to dig a hole in a mature swamp because of this very reason!  

The bald cypress trees are bald, they will get their "hats" back in summer. 

...and a parting shot. So true, so true. 

But you have to experience these things in order to love them and want to conserve them.  Get outside and visit your national, state, and local parks with your kids.  Unplug them and let them experience what's out there in nature that is ever-changing, entertaining, and imperiled by man if we don't conserve it!  If they don't know what they are missing now, how will they when it's gone?