2009.09. - Selling, Climbing, Excavating ...

Fall has put an end to a nice summer.


The time arrived to sort out summer clothes and prepare for the Garage Sale of the American Women's Club.


As last time, Julia took over the lion's share of cleaning, ironing, labelling and digitalizing all our items for sale.

The sale itself, in combination with donation of unsold items to the local orphanage, is also a Scouting event.

Leanne, one of the chief organizers always ensures so that the Scouts get "hand-on" experience.

No wonder when they feel like this after two hours of sorting clothes, toys, equipments, books, casettes, films and carrying boxes to cars for transportation ...

Annie could not allow herself to use up all her energy.


She still had a soccer game to attend to after work.







The Sale turned out to be very successful generally and for us too.

Plus it gave Julia and Alena an opportunity to spend a little more time together than normally possible.

They already started partying on Friday, celebrating Alena's birthday in the Rope Climbing Forest in Kelkheim.


While Julia and Alena - due to their height and age - qualified for the routes high up, Annie and Dana still had to stay closer to the ground.

Annie



To their dislike, and to my luck - they stayed within camera range.

Dana




For Norbert unfortunately, there was no way to do stunts like the children.

In fact, he could hardly walk 24 hours after some kind of an insect bit him in the shin.



Therefore, I escorted the kids with Daniel's pack on a Boy Scout Trip to a World Famous Excavation Site near Darmstadt - Grube Messel.



The Messel Pit is a World Heritage Site. It contains 47 million years old fossils which show such a wide range, completeness and quality like nowhere else in the world. Some scientists say Messel means as much to palaeontologists as Pompeii means to archaeologists.


The Pit is a Maar Crater.

The hot lava shooting up through cracks reached ground water which led to volcanic explosions.
Over time the crater left behind got filled up with ground and rain water and subsequently with layers of mud.
The Messel Pit used to be a lake in the middle of a rainforest 50 million years ago.

Some theories claim the volcanic activity did not stop for a while but released poisonous gases periodically into and around the lake - which made it to become a death trap for all the living creatures which happened to live in and around the lake on these occasions.

Animals and plants falling into the lake sunk and became preserved in the mud as fossils over time.

The pit was used as an oil shale mine in modern times. After its closure it was supposed to be filled up but in the meantime amateur fossil hunters discovered their first significant findings which drew global attention to the site.


The pit is generally very rich in fossils. The lower area marked behind Annie is reserved by the Senckenberg Museum and excavated on a regular basis. And the fossils they find are amazing. There are 95-99% complete skeletons, fossils which show skin and hair prints, remaining of last meals in the animals' stomach and fetus in the womb of female creatures, colors of the wings of bugs, etc.

Unexpectedly, our tour guide offered the kids generously lots of rocks to examine - only rule: you cannot take home anything.

For some of the shales we didn't even need a knife, we could gently peel off one layer after the other and hope for a finding.
I cannot imagine we could get any closer to paleontology than this !




D hunting










J examining one of the many fossils made public for visitors on site.










One of the most significant fossils of Messel is "Ida". She is a well preserved 47-million-year-old fossil skeleton of a female monkey.

World scientists believe that monkey was the humans' earliest ancestor. They had spent over 200 years to find a direct connection.

“…Researchers say proof of this transitional species finally confirms Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, and the then radical, outlandish ideas he came up with during his time aboard the Beagle…”

“…When Darwin famously told the Bishop of Worcester's wife about his theory of evolution, she remarked: Descended from the apes! My dear, let us hope that it is not true, but if it is, let us pray that it will not become generally known…”