Saving the salamander

As you know, Wednesdays are Bagel Days!  We take this day to do a long ride as well — about 7 miles prior to breakfast and then 10 or 11 miles after breakfast. Gotta work off that bagel:

 

We were on the post breakfast ride. John was riding in front of me and he looked back a couple of times. He said he saw something orange  in the shoulder and it was moving. He wanted to go check it out. We turned around and I spotted it in the middle of the road! There were cars coming and I thought for sure it would be squished by the time we got to it.  However, fate smiled on the little guy and I scooped him up.

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Turns out this is a juvenile Eastern red spotted newt (salamander).  The adults end up larger and green.

He was pretty active and unafraid:

Look at him strutting his stuff! LOL.

I learned more about this newt via the DEC website:

  • This salamander is native to NY.
  • This guy can live 12 to 17 years! Provided he doesn’t get run over by a car…
  • They eat mosquito larvae. Now we just need 100 of them in our back yard right now.
  • The babies excrete a poisonous toxin. Yikes! I was thinking I was more worried about salmonella, but okay. The color of the juveniles warns away predators.

Pretty neat! It’s always fun to find wildlife.

On a side note, I will share some of my business stuff. Normally I don’t get much time to experiment and the like just because of everything that needs to get done, but I am trying to do more with our products to showcase what they can be used for.  Activated charcoal is one of the new “in” things. I see people brush their teeth with it, use it for masks, etc. It is also popular in soap as an acne bar. Of course, you are not supposed to make a medical claim about your soap because then it becomes a drug and the FDA can go after you. I see too many soapers making claims on their soap.

At any rate, I am working on a tutorial for activated charcoal soap and this is the end result:

The top design is made with a spoon if you can believe that. I don’t do this with my regular soap bars because they won’t fit into my boxes if I do that. But this batch is just for show so I wanted to have some fun.  It’s all shiny because it is fresh soap (also called wet soap) and at a very thick pudding stage here.  This will be ready to try in about a month.  Soap is a very creative medium.

7 thoughts on “Saving the salamander

  1. Karen

    Hi Lori – my daughter has very problematic skin & I would love to have her try your activated charcoal soap. Let me know when you will have it available.

    Thank you, Karen

    1. Lori Post author

      The little guy is cute and very colorful. I guess it isn’t rare or anything, but still interesting to find on the road. I had better not see a little squished orange blob in the road next time I ride through there.

  2. Jody

    LOVE that salamander & the color!!!!! The soap is cool too! I buy my muscle balms from a guy that sells soap & beard products too, He just made a charcoal one.. I knew about this back when but it is in now…. my old face does not need it but I have read both sides to this debate… That design is cool! I just buy the muscle balms but he did send me a free soap back when when he first started.

  3. debby

    The salamander is very pretty! Once in a while we find one in the yard, but it is usually blue. And so interesting about the soap!

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