Happy Tonics

Volunteerism and donations support a nonprofit

cindydyer — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:16:09 +0000

by Mary Ellen Ryall

Volunteer Wisconsin is a new state initiative to promote and support volunteerism. As collaboration between the Volunteer Center Association of Wisconsin, the Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee, Volunteer Center of Washington County, Serve Wisconsin and funded by a Volunteer Generation Fund grant through the Corporation for National and Community Service, Volunteer Wisconsin is the central point for volunteerism and service in the state.

Happy Tonics, Inc. is the first nonprofit in Northwest Wisconsin, Washburn County, to join the organization on January 10, 2012. Volunteer Wisconsin encourages other nonprofit organizations to join. To find out more visit http://www.volunteerwisconsin.org The nonprofit needs a stronger voice to recruit volunteers to the Monarch Butterfly Habitat in season. It is hoped that Volunteer Wisconsin will bring in some new environmental and gardening volunteers.

YOGA CLASS
Lorrie Blockus is planning a Yoga class by donation in January for the Monarch Butterfly Habitat. It is scheduled for Saturday, January 28 at 9:30 a.m. This will be a Yin Yoga class, entitled “The Butterfly Effect,” that will be very gentle and incorporate long holds to work joints and energy lines instead of muscles. Great for sore joints and sluggish bodies in the winter (which is a complete Yin season). Yin Yoga takes us deep inside ourselves to be with our thoughts and emotions and physical discomforts as a means of freeing blocked energies, lubricating the joints, and creating positive change within ourselves as a catalyst for positive change for the world. This will take place at the Om Sweet Om Yoga studio at 32 5th Avenue, downtown, Shell Lake (LifeCircle Building). Everyone is welcome to learn with Lorrie and to help a nonprofit at the same time.

Butterfly Corner

cindydyer — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:51:16 +0000

by Mary Ellen Ryall

Photo © Erin Pryor Pavlica

January 3, 2012—I received an e-mail asking for help. A Black Swallowtail butterfly was born in a home in Saint Paul, MN. I could hardly believe it. How was this possible? Erin Pryor Pavlica needed to know what nectar sources to offer the butterfly. The butterfly formed a chrysalis in November and Erin brought it inside. The butterfly emerged on January 3. Normally butterflies don’t need nectar for 24-48 hours after they emerge. I suggested she try sweet fruit such as an orange and sugar water. Butterflies taste with their feet. The next day, Erin reported that the butterfly did not taste the orange. She was going to try sugar water next.

Erin posted her story on Facebook. Many people around the country answered with suggestions and some had tried similar nectar for butterflies born out of season in their own homes. All agreed that it would be impossible to move the butterfly. There is an average of 560 species of swallowtails. Many are brilliant and live in the tropics. The Monarch Butterfly Habitat in Shell Lake is home to the yellow Canadian Tiger swallowtail in season. Normally the butterfly overwinters outside in the pupal stage. Some swallowtails may spend more than a year like this. I imagine that the home, being heated, was too warm and triggered a different response. Perhaps this is why the butterfly emerged in winter. Surely the butterfly was out of its natural life cycle and habitat.

The Black Swallowtail is thriving. The butterfly has enjoyed sipping from a rotten old apple and an aged squashed banana. On Saturday, Erin said, “Yes, I have several cotton pads with sugar solution soaked into them. I put fresh solution out several times a day. The butterfly is usually active after eating!”

I would like to mention that Erin had a baby girl, Quinn Mae, on New Year’s Eve. She is thrilled that the Black Swallowtail butterfly arrived within days of the child’s birth. I invited the family to visit Shell Lake next summer. I look forward to celebrating the butterfly baby at the Native Wildflower and Butterfly Garden. Quinn Mae won’t be the first butterfly baby to be remembered at the Monarch Butterfly Habitat.

Environmental Film Fest

cindydyer — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:40:11 +0000

January 24 — 12 Noon

Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College
13566 W Trepania Road
Hayward, WI

WATERBUSTERS explores the effects of the Gannon Dam on the Missouri River and how a family, which is one of the WATERBUSTER clan, was torn apart and their journey back to wholeness again. Susan Menzel, Tribal college intern, stated she watched the film and drew parallels about Lac Courte Oreilles history. There was a time when the tribe was flooded to create the Chippewa Flowage in 1924 and the Winter Dam was installed. The Dam was turned over to LCO in the 1970s. Speaker to be announced. The event is open to the community.

WordPress 2011 Year in Review for Happy Tonics blog

cindydyer — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:42:48 +0000

http://happytonics.wordpress.com/2011/annual-report/

My Name is Butterfly by Mary Ellen Ryall

cindydyer — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:23:43 +0000

Published in the Spooner Advocate newspaper

By Frank Zufall

For those looking for a Christmas gift inspired by a Washburn County story, one idea is My Name is Butterfly, a book written by Mary Ellen Ryall, director of Happy Tonics, the organization behind the Monarch Butterfly Habitat in Shell Lake.

Ryall wrote the story based on personal observations in her Minong garden in 2003.

“I saw this chrysalis under a bean plant, attached to the bottom of the bean leaf,” she said. “I thought, ‘What in heaven’s name is this?’”

She took a photo of the chrysalis and sent it to a friend in Ohio. “She said, ‘Mary-Ellen, do you realize you have a monarch butterfly chrysalis there?’”

From ground level, Ryall studied and observed the chrysalis change to adult butterfly.

“While I was there I had my bottle of water and this notepad,” she said. “I kept wondering, ‘What is she trying to teach me?’ I had no idea why I was having this experience, and I wrote down even about that.’”

Ryall said a rabbit had eaten part of the leaf where the chrysalis was anchored, so she constructed a little fence around the bean plant.

“If that rabbit had come back one more day, I wouldn’t even have a chrysalis left.”

When the chrysalis turned dark, Ryall knew the butterfly was about to emerge.

“This is the very first time the butterfly comes out. Her wings were completely wet,” she said, “and I was with her for three hours. That’s how long it takes for a butterfly”s wings to dry out. They try to climb higher and higher to reach the sun, to get their wings dried. They pump fluids from abdomen to wings to do that.”

Ryall recalls the butterfly’s journey toward the sun: “And then the butterfly tried to climb up the bean pole, but the top of the plant had been eaten by the rabbit. She climbed to another plant and she went to a sunflower. She almost fell down. She had to right herself.”

During the climb, Ryall saw the male butterfly fold its wings back to let the underside dry.

“I’ve never seen a shot like that before,” Ryall said about the photograph she took of the butterfly.

“Then he gets up tall on this sunflower, and that’s when he flew away.”

From her Minong garden, Ryall shared her journal observations and photos with Patrick Shields, an English professor at Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Community College.

“He said, ‘Knowing you, that butterfly will be immortal,’” she said.

The journal notes were transformed in what Ryall calls a “creative, non-fiction” story—her experience but with other characters: a young girl and her mother.

Publishing

After the story was written, Ryall looked for a publisher. In a twist of fate, a publisher’s granddaughter volunteered at the Happy Tonics office

“Her grandmother came in one day and said, ‘I heard you wrote a story about a butterfly, about a monarch.” I said, “I did,” and she said, “Can I see it?’”

The publisher was Lindy Casey of Salt of the Earth Press, a small publisher from Northern Wisconsin focusing on books for children, the environment, organic gardening, recipes.

Ryall left Casey alone in the Happy Tonics office with the manuscript while Ryall visited the Shell Lake library.

“When I came back, she said, ‘This is important work. I’m going to publish it.’”

After a deal was struck, Stevie Marie Aubuchon-Mendoza of Las Vegas, Nev., was chosen to illustrate the book.

To help the illustrator, Ryall asked Minong’s Cassie Thompson and her mother, Tanya, to recreate scenes from the story which Ryall photographed.

“I told her [Cassie] to wear a baseball cap and she said, ‘I don’t wear a baseball cap.’ I said, “In this story she does wear a baseball cap.”

Cassie takes on the character Sara Reynolds who goes out to the garden and finds a butterfly egg and then a caterpillar.

In the story, Mom cautions Sara to leave the new life alone and also teaches Sara new terms, like pupae.

“Her mother teaches her [Sara] while the butterfly teaches her the actual life cycle, so it’s the butterfly telling the story, basically, and getting more information from her mother.”

Coloring book

Following My Name is Butterfly, Ryall and Cindy Dyer, a graphic designer from Alexandria, Va., created a publishing house called Butterfly Woman Publishing.

The first publishing project, due out this spring for Earth Day, is a coloring book of Monarch butterflies illustrated by Gordon artist Mora McCusker.

“There are so many people I can reach locally. If I want the greater message to get out there, I have to get it published,” said Ryall. “That’s why we created the publishing house, so we could get some of my essays and manuscripts out there. If my life is short and sweet, this will be something of me to leave on this planet.”

My Name is Butterfly is available at Amazon.com or by visiting www.happytonics.org.

Above: Mary Ellen Ryall is surrounded by photos and her journal used to document the emergence of a monarch butterfly in her garden in 2003, which eventually became the story for My Name is Butterfly. Photo © Frank Zufall

Monarch Survival: An Amazing Feat

cindydyer — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 16:07:17 +0000

News from Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (MLMP) — University of Minneapolis

Butterfly followers may find this article of interest considering that Karen Oberhauser, Director of Monarch in the Classroom, wrote. Karen is a leading scientist and teacher in the field of monarch biology and migration. She wrote, “Mary Ellen Ryall from Shell Lake, WI, has established and dedicated a native remnant tall grass prairie as monarch habitat on 1/2 acre of city land. After a tremendous storm, she has shared an amazing story of monarch survival.”

After the Storm by Mary Ellen Ryall

On July 1, 2011 a straight line wind at 100 mph struck Minong, WI. It blew down 11 red pine trees on my property in the village. In the process of storm cleanup, the trees were cut and taken to the local saw mill to be turned into board foot.

There was an Aldo Leopold bench that was crushed beneath one tree. The logger brought his big equipment in and lifted the tree so that his son could save the bench. Lo and behold, a monarch chrysalis was on the bench. I thought about how the butterfly was a form of transformation and knew it would adapt to the landscape changes. I marveled that I saw a few monarch butterflies flying about the day after the storm. How could winds of 100 mph wreck such havoc in the village and yet allow the butterflies to survive? How did the same wind that caused birds in maple trees to lose their lives allow a butterfly, the weight of a single maple leaf, to survive? It is a beautiful wonder. Left: This chrysalis survived a recent storm. Photo © Mary Ellen Ryall

Karen Oberhauser further stated, “While monarchs have amazing tenacity, many individuals are not as lucky as those in Mary Ellen’s habitat. MLMP volunteer Diane Rock captured some incredible photos of monarch predation last summer…[monarch butterfly faces threats], especially as eggs and larvae, but also as adults. Several studies have shown that only 5-10% of monarchs survive to adulthood in the wild. In strong winds and other extreme climate conditions, individual monarchs stand a fighting chance, but they are often no match for the spiders, ants, stink bugs, wasps and other invertebrates that attack monarch larvae on milkweed plants. Black-beaked orioles and black-headed grosbeaks are common predators of adult monarchs in their overwintering sites, and in their breeding grounds, the adults may fall prey to spiders.

Monarch survival is an amazing feat, considering all the dangers that they face throughout the course of their lives. They appeal to all of us because of the astounding things they are able to accomplish. Research and monitoring through MLMP help us to understand the hardship that monarchs face, and areas where improvements can help support monarch populations.” Right: After the storm, a Monarch sips nectar from a fading zinnia bloom. Photo © Mary Ellen Ryall

Source: After the Storm by Mary Ellen Ryall

http://www.mlmp.org/Newsletters/monthly/2011/mlmp_update_201110.pdf

Shell Lake Girl Scout Silver Award Ceremony

cindydyer — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:56:31 +0000

by Krysy Robinson, Troop Leader

Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011

An award ceremony for Dakota Robinson, Senior Girl Scout of Shell Lake Troop 4392, was held to recognize her for earning the Girl Scout Silver Award, which is one of the highest awards in Girl Scouting. Designed to help girls explore careers and gain leadership abilities, the Silver Award can be earned as an individual or as a group. Girls must be between the ages of 11 and 14 or entering the 6th grade to begin working towards this award and it must be completed by September 30 of the year they are entering the 9th grade. Every activity and badge earned must be documented in this report, including the date it was received and a signature from the supervising advisor. Girls must describe in detail how they helped the community and how the project was completed. The start and completion dates must be included, and the reasons why the project was chosen. Girls also must describe who benefited from the project and what was ultimately learned and achieved.  Dakota’s project was called, “The Amazing Monarch, Flight for Life.” She completed all requirements including choosing to earn the Plant Life Badge, Eco-Action Badge, and the Leadership Badge Interest projects. She has spent the last 4 years volunteering with Happy Tonics and the Monarch Butterfly Habitat, attending events at the Ag research farm, helping host environmental film fests over the summer, as well as gardening of herbs, flowers and vegetables in container gardens at Shell Lake Friendship Commons. She gave presentations at the butterfly habitat and IV Annual Earth Day Event, and was part of the Blessing of the butterfly habitat. Left: Dakota receives Miss Shell Lake Award. Photo © Kryssy Robinson

Girls must first submit a plan for approval from the Girl Scout Council before beginning there project. Then they must first earn three charms, the Girl Scout Leadership Award charm, the Girl Scout Silver Career Charm and the Girl Scout Silver 4B’s Challenge Charm. Then they must earn at least three interest project awards of their choosing that go along with their project. The Earn Your Own Business Interest Project Award and the Studio 2B Focus: Uniquely Me! Charm is then earned.

The requirements teach girls to set goals and to identify and find a solution for a problem in the community. The biggest piece of the Silver Award is planning and developing the project. The project must take at least 40 hours to complete and provide a service to the community. Once all the requirements have been met and approved the Girl Scout must submit a Final Report to the council for final approval. Right: Emily Lloyd made punch for the Girl Scout Silver Award Ceremony. Photo © Kryssy Robinson

Dakota created a petition to stop the use of pesticides and road side moving during migration season, which has been sent on to the state government and she hopes to get enough signatures and send it on the president. She collected, bagged and handed out milkweed seeds for people to plant, to help sustain the monarch and she gave several speeches on the monarch’s plight. In all she spent 171 hours on this project. Although the project is officially over, she never passes up the chance to spread the word and hopefully gains new advocates for the monarch butterfly, after her ceremony she gave her presentation again to some of the local area brownies who were present.   The ceremony included The Brownie smile song, sang by Shell Lake’s Brownie troop 4475. Junior Girl scout Emily Lloyd led the pledge of allegiance and Girl scout Promise and Girl Scout Law. Dakota was presented and pinned with her Silver Award by one of her troop leaders, Karen Lloyd, followed by punch made by Emily Lloyd and cake. Above: Dakota Robinson teaches Brownies about Monarch Butterfly Migration. Photo © Kryssy Robinson

Butterfly Corner

cindydyer — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:04:19 +0000

by Mary Ellen Ryall

November 7, 2011—Felipe Martinez Meza, Assistant at Biosphere Monarch Butterfly, Zitacuaro, Michoacan, Mexico, confirmed that monarch butterflies had arrived at their overwintering sites in Mexico. He performed field work at the sanctuary the first week of November. His research was reported back to Learner Organization.

True to their encounter with nature and pre-Hispanic tradition, monarch arrival coincided with the Day of the Dead in Mexico on November 1. There were butterflies in their wintering sites in historic sites: The first colony in Ejido El Rosario had occupancy of approximately 50 trees while a second group on November 2 was detected in 10 trees. It is too soon to say what this means as far as monarch concentrations are concerned. Are they doing better or worse this year? Have the migration numbers increased or decreased?

In December, scientists from Learner Organization at the University of Kansas, will travel to Mexico to determine the health and vulnerability of the Mexican butterfly population and the overwintering sites. We can only hope that the butterflies have increased in number especially since their numbers have been dwindling due to climate change, habitat loss and environmental fires, floods, oil contamination and other risks along their 2,000 mile migration route.

Happy Tonics noticed record numbers of monarch butterflies in Shell Lake in 2011 at the Monarch Butterfly Habitat. The last butterflies were seen on October 12, which is very late. Many people called to let us know they too saw many monarchs this year. It could be that the abundant rains increased milkweed growth and enabled the monarchs to propagate beyond normal numbers.

Happy Tonics Open House
Get ready for holiday on Saturday, December 3. Happy Tonics is having an open house at the Visitors Center/Store at 25 Fifth Avenue, 10 a.m. — 2 p.m. Refreshments will be served. We invite parents and grandparents to come in and view the book My Name is Butterfly. The illustrated children’s book features the artwork of Stevie Marie Aubuchon-Medoza and is written by Mary Ellen Ryall, CEO of Happy Tonics and the Monarch Butterfly Habitat in Shell Lake. This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the holidays and honor youth in their home town. The book is available on Amazon. A limited number of copies will be available on December 3 for those who wish to see the book and obtain autographed copies for their families. My Name is Butterfly © Salt of the Earth Press

Happy Tonics happenings…

cindydyer — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:40:35 +0000

October 21—The environmental film Hummingbirds by Nature was shown at Terraceview Living Center. Film crews used special cameras to capture 500 images a second. These wondrous tiny birds are the only bird species that can hover, fly backwards and fly vertical. I have seen male hummingbirds perch near a nectar source in order to defend their territory.

The film showed one species of hummingbird that was trained by a flower. In the tropics, intoxicating datura flowers grow and only the sword bill hummingbird with its extra long bill can pollinate the flower. The movie literally shows the tiny bird as magic in the air. Hummingbirds are the smallest warm bodied creatures on the planet. They are fast and their wings can beat up to 200 times every second.

After the event I stopped by City Hall to chat with Mayor Sally Peterson. She donated the 2010 donor fee for Terraceview in memory of her mother Angeline (Angie) Klopp. It just so happened that October 21 was her mother’s birthday. Mayor Peterson said, “My mother loved hummingbirds.” It was a good feeling to know that the first film to celebrate the fall had an intention beyond simply showing a film.

October 22—Happy Tonics, Inc. held its Annual Meeting at Lakeview Bar and Restaurant. Officers and board are currently exploring long term plans and goals for the nonprofit and the Restored Remnant Tallgrass Prairie. The purpose is to insure that both the public charity and habitat are secure into the future. The Monarch Butterfly Habitat, two blocks north of downtown Shell Lake, is on the long range Comprehensive Plan for Shell Lake.

DOT plans to improve Route 63 near the habitat which in turn will naturally turn into a Pollinating Corridor. This improvement could benefit the Highway Bettering the Economy and Environmental Act (Highway BEE Act), Bill H.R. 2381. Happy Tonics is involved with Pollinator Partnership, which says, “The bill promotes conservation practices on 17 million acres of highway rights-of-ways (ROWs) by encouraging reduced mowing and native plantings that provide improved habitat for pollinators, ground nesting birds and other small wildlife.”

Another consideration for Happy Tonics is the state owned DNR land on the south side of Shell Lake. In years to come the City plans to upgrade the woodland trails. This would allow more opportunities for the public to visit the Monarch Butterfly Habitat that is maintained by the nonprofit on the south side of Shell Lake.

On butterflies and the changing season

cindydyer — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 03:41:18 +0000

October 11 – It was a warm October day in Northwest Wisconsin. I saw a monarch butterfly on cosmos. It was a male. The trademark of two black pheromones were on hind wings. The butterfly was sipping nectar. I went up to it while the butterfly was engrossed in sipping sweet flower dew. Lightly grabbing its closed wings, I was going to pick it up. I noticed how strong its little legs were clinging to the flower. Instead, I bent down and kissed its wings and then let go. It immediately flew off. I wish the butterfly would have stayed with me a little longer. He probably thought I was a predator and escaped.

October 12 – I saw a young monarch on the property in Minong. I was starting to worry because I didn’t see any other floral blooms except for a few African daisies. I knew the butterflies would have a hard time leaving if the temperature dropped below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. It didn’t appear that the butterflies were part of the migration south simply because they looked so fresh and colorful. I suspected they were late emerged monarchs. We did have at least a glorious week of extended warm temperatures. It was a perfect Indian Summer week.

October 13 – The day is cold. Temperature today was 56 degrees Fahrenheit. Tonight it is dropping to 40 degrees Fahrenheit. I brought the film Blue Butterfly to the Spooner Health Center and shared the film in the nursing home activity room which is attached to the hospital. I have a lot of old friends there and I don’t speak about age as much as I speak about some of the residents because I knew them in their healthier years about in community. Many of them know me as Butterfly Woman. Some even know about the Monarch Butterfly Habitat in Shell Lake that our nonprofit environmental organization created in 2008.

I want to speak about the film and some of the reactions of the elders. One nurse’s aide came in to take one of the residents out of the room. She spoke up and questioned, “Why is it you always want to take me away when I am enjoying myself?” She did make her point known. She said, “I want to watch the movie.” The nurse’s aide let her be. I can’t tell you what a delight it was for me to realize the film was reaching her inner child. She wasn’t the only one.

Jackie would laugh at different situations in the film and ask, “Do you know what butterfly that was?” Of course she was referring to some exotic species that I had never seen even though I lived in the Amazon jungle for months on end when I lived in Peru and Ecuador.

The point of the movie is to show how positive thought can manifest into healing. It is more than this too. I don’t want to spoil the movie for you if you haven’t seen it yet. I recommend the film for those who listen and act from heart center. A review of the film follows: A dramatic adventure about courage, redemption and love being filmed in the rain forests of Costa Rica and in Montreal. The movie was produced in 2004.

Next month I will bring in an antique platter that has the blue morph under glass. I didn’t bring it today because it was raining. My sister Ronnie found it in an antique shop in Massachusetts and sent it to me after my husband died. Butterflies are magic and the symbol of transformation.