Forgotten Tucson Memory...

Although we DID go to Wisconsin for our Milk Marketing Board photo shoot, I do not have access to any photos for the weekend... BUTTTT, I really wanted to give y'all an update. So we'll go for flashback to a couple weekends ago...

Kate's FAV... Bio Lesson time!!

Meet Opuntia bigelovii:

Yes, it appears to be cute. Yes, it appears to be cuddly. But watch out...

These spines do a number of critical things for the cacti...

1 the spines protect the stem-- they are dense making the cactus look "cuddly"

2 it protects stems from herbivores AND sunlight-- acting as shading agents for the stem

3 the spines are very sharp and barbed

4 unfortunately, the teddy bear cholla's flowers do not produce seed... which is an indication of the importance of the cacti's ability to "JUMP" onto other modes of transportation (then to be dropped on to the ground somewhere else... and then to grow into an entire NEW cacti). Amazing.

So here goes... scroll down to see what happens when an unnamed individual's foot gets too close to the Teddy Bear Cholla or "JUMPING" cholla... We won't mention names, but Leda was still riding, Clare and Kate were eating and Missy was probably fixing Clares bike... So that leaves one person (initials CH)...

Here is Cari's foot. Note that this cacti chunk is EMBEDDED into her foot. She is making some funny sound... I thought she was giggling until I realized she was actually in pain!!!

Take another look. Not only did she get ONE cacti chunk embedded in her foot, but not long after that one sunk it's BARBS into her foot... so did another cacti chunk.

Here goes... I came to the rescue. It took a pair of pliers to get these things out of Cari's foot. It took 3 tries to PULL them out. More like yank... Barb is right, that barb was lodged into her foot. We later found out that it is good to carry a comb with you in for this specific reason. Either that or a pair of pliers. Either way they won't (and didn't) come out early. Missy had some 'biofreeze' on hand and Cari rubbed the afflicted area with this 'special' ointment... she felt better.

Ouch. Cari reached rockstar status that day! Watch for a Wisco update soon! :)

~~niteynight.

kate