Worms

To the membership receiving the email newsletters for the Western Heritage Museum and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame or the Western Heritage Horticultural Society, ya’ll need to come and see this exciting In the Dark exhibit. Bring your kids and grandchildren, even the deep down little kid in you will connect to the exhibit displays and bring back childhood memories.

Helen, from West Texas, Seminole, THANK YOU for the phone call and conversation about this exhibit and what Dr. Dirt was adding to the displays, especially the “living soil profile series”. I greatly enjoyed that one and learned a lot.  Thank you for comments and coming to see the “In the Dark” exhibit too. Dr. Dirt will be adding more information along the way.

Question: What are some other interesting facts about worms in the soil, my yard and garden?

Answer: The term ‘worm’ can have several meanings. Generally, a worm is an immature larval stage of insects, which can be good or bad. Example, caterpillars on plants. Is that worm eating your favorite flower? Bad worm! As this worm pupates, lives to make a cocoon and lives in it for a while and then emerges turning into a beautiful butterfly. Now, this butterfly has become a great pollinator. Other worms, change into hard shell beetles and not so pretty and do damage as living adults.

What I think you are referring to, is the earthworms. They are very beneficial to the soil and they do not eat your favorite flowers roots either.

Did you Know – Facts:

Depending on soil quality, there can be 250,000-1.75 million earthworms per acre of land, in the common soils of Lea County it's closer to the 250,000…lots of worms!

Here’s an interesting note. An average farm with livestock, the weight of the worms beneath the soil’s surface will likely outweigh the livestock that walk on top.

Earthworms can consume half to one times their body weight every day. They are nature's garbage disposers and consume a wide variety of organic matter, tiny rocks; enriching the soil profile.

Certain earthworms can live up to 50-years old and other types living up to 4-8 years of age. Many only live for 1-2years as they are the bottom of the food chain for a great hosts of other animal life.

There are 6,000 species of earthworms known, and a 120 species are widely dispersed around the world.

David Hooten -AKA, Dr. Dirt

The Bear

New Antiquities Theatre Company Opens The Bear

The Bear, a comedy by Anton Chekhov, is being produced by New Antiquities Theatre
Company on February 23 and 24 and March 2 and 3 at 7:30 PM at the Western Heritage
Museum and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame. Tickets are $10 general admission and $7
students and seniors. Directed by Artistic Director Nathan R. Miles and featuring community
performers, The Bear is a hilarious examination of relationships and the battle of the sexes.

In the play, a landowner comes to claim a debt from a young widow who, out of grief,
refuses to see him in an attempt to prove to her faithless dead husband that women are more
loyal than men. Their quarrel escalates into a duel that so impresses the landowner that he falls
madly in love and proposes in this romantic comedy. Tyler Bunch plays Smirnov the landowner,
while Executive Director Marissa Davis plays Popov the bereaved widow. Rounding out the cast
is HHS Art teacher John McMillan and NMJC student Corben Pettigrew sharing the role of
Luka the servant. While physical comedy plays a part, much of the humor in the play comes
from the characters’ lack of self-knowledge and awareness. Both Smirnov and Popov are
examples of alazons, figures made ridiculous by pretending to be more than they actually are.

“The play is absolutely hilarious. It's a beautiful mix of physical, psychological, and
emotional comedy. You'll have an amazing night if you have half as much fun watching as we
did putting it together,” said company member John McMillan who is making his New
Antiquities debut with this production.

While written in 1888, the current production eschews a historical time period for a more
contemporary one. The theater at the Western Heritage Museum has been transformed into the
drawing room on Popov’s estate, providing just enough context for the audience to form an
impression while still allowing them to use their imaginations to fill in the gaps.

The Bear by Anton Chekhov, directed by Nathan R. Miles. Performances Feb. 23, 24, and
Mar. 2 and 3 at 7:30 PM at the Western Heritage Museum and Lea County Cowboy Hall of
Fame. Tickets: $10 general admission, $7 students and seniors. Tickets available at the door the
evening of performances. Cast includes: Tyler Bunch, Marissa Davis, John McMillan (Feb. 23
and 24) and Corben Pettigrew (Mar. 2 and 3). Taylor Marler is the Stage Manager for the
production.

February Family Fun Day

February 24, 2018

Admission is FREE all day

10 am – 3 pm: Crafts

11 am & 1 pm: Guest Speaker, Ranger Virginia Moyer

2 pm: Film – Finding Dory (2016)

The Western Heritage Museum and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame presents a free Family Fun Day, Saturday, February 24, from 10:00am until 3:00pm. The event is in conjunction with its exhibition “In the Dark,” an interactive exhibit about the ecosystems of the night, below the ground, inside caverns, and deep in the ocean.

Virginia Moyers, Park Ranger at Carlsbad Caverns National Park since 2008. “Bat Ranger” Virginia will be presenting a program about Brazilian Free-tail bats that reside in the New Mexico Caves.

           

Virginia received her Bachelor’s in Wildlife Science with a Minor in Conservation Biology from New Mexico State University in 2002. She is a desert southwest native whose passions include Bats, Speleology, Cave Microbe Research, Saving Endangered Species, Permian Geology, Early North American Archeology, Art History, and Teaching. Her passion and enthusiasm for bats is contagious!

Other activates for Family Fun Day include arts and crafts for the children, and a special appearance by “Carl S. Bat” throughout the day.

Join Ranger Virginia Moyer at 11 am and 1 pm in the Western Heritage Museum and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame Theater on Saturday, February 24th.

In the Dark Night at the Museum

We've had so much fun in the past with our nights at the museum so we wanted to continue it with In the Dark.  How could we not with an exhibit called IN THE DARK?!  We are hosting 2 events on the same day.  We'll be doing a latenighter for younger kids and then a sleepover for the older kids.  Details are below.  Registration forms can be found here.  Members get $5 off every registrant.

Night at the Museum – April 21, 2018

·         In the Dark Jr.

o    $10

o    Ages 8-12

o    6-8pm

o    Registration required; limited to the first 20 paid kids

o    Crafts, snacks, and experiments

·         In the Dark

o    $30

o    Ages 13-16

o    9pm-7am

o    Bring your sleeping bag and pillow

o    Registration required; limited to the first 20 paid kids

o    Watch movies, play games, eat snacks, experiment about the dark and get to sleep in the exhibit hall

o    T-shirt included

Dr. Dirt - Batty for Bats

Question: Does Lea County, New Mexico have Bats active in our night sky?

Answer: Yes, several species of Bats fly in Lea County. There are actually 25 species found throughout the New Mexico.

Types of Bats: Mexican free-tail, Eastern red, Brown, Leaf-nosed, Vesper, Hoary, Mouse-eared to name a few, but there are more.

Bat Facts:

·       Carlsbad Caverns National Park caves hosts 17 species of bats, Free-tails most common.

·       Brown bats can capture 500 to 600 mosquitos per hour.

·       Bats can live up to 40-years in age.

·       1300 different bat species reside around the world, 42 species America, 25 New Mexico.

·       Bats are great pollinators for certain plants and eradicators of farm insect pests.

1.     Bats are the only ‘true-flying’ mammal –they are NOT birds, fur covered and warm blooded.

2.     They are communal dwellers, living in large colonies in caves, canyon walls, tree tops, under large man-made structures such as bridges/overpasses and even in structures-buildings.

3.     Baby bats are known as pups, and usually one pup is born in June by live birth. They feed off of their mother’s rich milk supply. Pups, from the Mexican Free-tail bats grow quickly on this rich milk and are ready to fly in 4 to 5 weeks from birth.

4.     Some bats create a ‘maternity’ colony. ALL MOMS! NO MALES to deal with, the boys create a ‘bachelor’ colony away from the maternity colony. The small Mexican free-tail bats can have up to 500 pups per square foot –now that is a lot of baby bats, yet each mom can find her own pup by sense of smell and knowing the sound the pup’s call. WOW that’s is an amazing feat. Especially, when you have 1,000’s of baby bats hanging in the maternity colonies.

5.     By August/September, ALL pups are flying and foraging for insects and water on their own. This the time to visit Carlsbad Caverns or numerous bat-flight caverns and other sites in Texas to witness spectacular emerging masses of bats that have doubled in size with the baby bats flying with the adults. This is a short-lived event as the cooler weather of October signals to the bats to begin their annual migrations to Mexico for their over-wintering ranges.