Dream travels are my version of a New Years Resolution.

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Naima

This year instead of making a New Years Resolution I decided to dream my way into the new year.  One of the things I would love to do in this life, is see more of this world and share it with you as my adventures happen.  I, of course, love for all of you to feel like you are seeing the world through my eyes and become inspired for some little getaways yourself but writing and taking pictures on my adventures allows me to experience the journey, remember it, and take a higher value in it.  I am lucky to do any traveling.  I have met many a family that have not made it out of their neighborhood, let alone the state or the country.  There is a fear there that cannot be explained but I’ve seen it so many times, the fear of the unknown.  I do hope with sharing these journeys it makes people think, if she can do it, I can do it.  And you can.  Start small and work your way up.  But what follows are my huge dreams.  The ones that I may not accomplish for 30 more years, but I want to chisel at this year.  One big trip leads to the next big trip so lets start it off!

Any why do I want to visit these places?  I feel that with every adventure I embark on, I become a better person.  I learn a lesson, I open my eyes to the many cultures and beliefs, I have to figure things out, plan ahead, and most of all I learn to live in the moment.  Everyone struggles with this.  This year I want to be more present in my moments.  Traveling for me keeps me present and thinking.

One of the other reasons I want to visit certain places is wildlife.  There are so many species I have yet to see in the wild and with the way our world is declining, many are disappearing at an alarming rate.  Some animals, I must see now or I risk them going extinct before I make it (tigers, orangutans, rhinos, etc).  I am just as excited to see local wildlife and still watch the squirrels in my front yard but a part of me yearns to see a killer whale splashing through the water, a cotton top tamarin hopping from tree to tree, and so many more.

So here is my grand travel list to complete by an undetermined time; before I get to frail to enjoy it.  I limited myself to 5 otherwise I would have just named every dang place on this Earth.

1. The Great Barrier Reef – If anyone asks me what my happy place is, it’s snorkeling.  I can only imagine the extreme sense of happy I would feel exploring the largest reef in the world.  I would never get out of the water.
2. Madagascar – With habitat degradation happening at an alarming rate, I have to see the many rare species that reside there before they are gone!
3.  South Africa – It’s always been on my to do list for the culture as much as the wildlife.  I am also in the middle of the 600 page Nelson Mandela book that is pushing me over the edge with the yearning to visit.
4.  Northern Alaska – Puffins, killer whales, polar bears, and the Bering Sea full of King Crab!
5. Machu Picchu – South American rainforest at it’s best! Chinchillas!

So dream away because you can’t accomplish anything unless you first Dream it.

Dream Travels.

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I met my match with… curtains!

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Naima

As I lay my head down to sleep, the bright light hitting me directly in the eyes and lighting up my room like it’s 11am, was just the push I needed.  The three huge lights outside my bedroom, were recently put up after an incident at the restaurant behind our house.  I am usually against having outside lights on, but after reading about the incident so close to my house, I really didn’t mind them going up.  But something had to be done about my lit up bedroom.  I decided to take it into my own hands and make some curtains for the bedroom windows.  I figured, I have lots of fabric I bought to make curtains years ago, and had been waiting for the  push to get it done.  I can do this.

Well, let me tell you, this is one I will NEVER do again.  (Although, never say never because circumstances will always come around to make you eat your words.)  Let’s just say these curtains were my nightmare.  I’m the kind of sew lady that does not use a pattern.  They bog me down and stifle my creativity.  I’m happy with a little quirkiness to my end products so I refuse to be held in by cutting patterns and pinning them.  So I let my scissors fly, do some rough measurements, pin the fabric and off to the sewing machine I go.  This tactic seems to work fine for my other projects, but not curtains. Curtains are the evil of straightness, requiring straight lines, folds, the right fabric, and precise measurements.  I had met my match.

I spent the entire day on Saturday fighting with the fabric, sewing machine and an insane amount of pins (some that will forever be inside these curtains).  Why did I choose a silky fabric for one side and a cotton stretch for the other??  My original idea didn’t come to fruition in the first completed curtain, so I made a rash decision that all four curtains would be unique.  I thought it may be cute if all the curtains were made of the same fabric, yet all be a bit different.  By the last curtain, and about 8 hours later, I was about to take my comforter and nail it across the windows to block out the light.  My frustration was building and my last curtain became a box.  I can easily stuff it with pillow stuffer and make it a huge pillow someday.

My dog, Beaker, was not helping keeping the fabric straight either:

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Here lies the problem of long straight lines with the wrong fabric.  Bunching, moving, stretching, and all kinds of movement lead to many problems.  curtain 3 curtain 4Don’t judge the final products.  Just be happy I made it through a challenging day and will live to see a dark bedroom in my near future.  I still have to buy one more rod and hooks to hang the last two curtains.  I hope they go up without any problems.

So cheers to making things all on your own, being a renaissance woman, and taking care of the environment.  But today I learned a valuable lesson, some things are worth purchasing!  I am sure there are some environmentally friendly curtains out there, that had my name written all over them.

Made it!

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Green your soup.

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Naima

The past couple of days here in Dallas have been gloom and doom.  The kind of rainy day cold that makes you yearn for something warm in your body.  After the third day of gloom, I decided to make some crazy different version of soup to reclaim my creativity and warmth back.  I hijacked a recipe from Living Well Network and made it my own.

I call it Greens and Turkey Balls.

Let’s just say this was a process.  Only because I was worried about the greens having grit in them and also needed to remove the bitter stems.  A lot of work but now my freezer is stocked with some yumtastic soup for the next time I crave something hot.  So get your sous chef skills ready because you are about to dive in.

First thing is fill your sink with cold water and submerge your greens.  I chose kale, mustard greens, and spinach.  They were hanging out for about 20 minutes and then I rinsed each piece as well.

IMG_4497Next – take the stems off the kale and mustard greens.  This takes a while!  Once you take a stem off just give them a rough chop.  I composted my huge pile of stems but did wish I had chickens to eat them up.

IMG_4500I decided to buy the mature spinach not in the easy ready to go bag.  Big mistake, although I did it because I was avoiding buying the plastic bag.  Yes it was cheaper buying the bundle but picking off all the stems took forever.  Just buy the easy stuff in the bag.

Next – combine chopped onion, garlic, and some curry in a pot and saute.  When the onion is cooked add in water until you think it’s enough and toss in some chicken bullion cubes.  I added in lots of water (probably like 10 cups) and then about 3 chicken bullion cubes.  And now add in the greens and a bay leaf.  They will fill your pot:

IMG_4506IMG_4507Turn the burner on high and wait for a boil.  In the meantime take some ground turkey and add some chili flakes.  I added until I could see a good mix of chili flakes throughout.  Next roll the turkey into little balls.

When the liquid comes to a boil and the greens have started to deflate down, it’s time to add the meatballs.  Just toss them in and simmer another 15-20 minutes.

IMG_4511Lastly – toss the spinach in a pan with some olive oil and salt.  Saute and add the spinach to the pot.  The spinach actually turned out to be my favorite green in the soup.

IMG_4508Finallllllly!  The soup is finished!

IMG_4513I was scared the greens would ruin the flavor of the broth but it actually tasted scrumptious.  I used an entire bundle of mustard greens, kale and spinach so it was Green heavy.  You will definitely get your iron with this soup.  The turkey balls were great with the chili flakes too.

I am on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for health reasons and this falls perfectly into my diet.  I just left out the potatoes in the original recipe and upped my greens.  I made enough for an army so I froze two containers full and will pull this out when I need a quick meal.  Perfect and love having ready to go food in my fridge for my lazy days.

Get your green food on!

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I’ve gone a little extremist, but it may work!

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Naima

If you have been on the internet in the last few weeks you have probably seen the “no poo” trend flying around.  If you haven’t seen it or haven’t wanted to click the link, let me tell you quickly what it is.  You don’t wash your hair with traditional products.  Instead you use baking soda on your roots, rinse and use vinegar on your ends.  Some sites claim your hair will grow two inches per month and be voluminous!

After hearing my mother was giving it a try, I decided if I am going to talk the talk I am going to try and walk the walk in the hair care realm.  I am usually looking for shampoo without palm oil in it and always find the ingredients list way too long and containing some palm oil derivative.  So with two simple ingredients I knew I would be avoiding palm oil. Why avoid palm oil?  Find out by reading my short article here.

I also loved the sound of adding volume to my hair and only washing it 1-2 times a week!  So I bought my supplies and gave it a try.  After the first wash you feel amazing, then experience a grease period as your hair figures out it will be managing itself and by the end of a 2-3 week period, amazing hair.  I can do that! I am currently on day two, but after the first wash I am excited about the possibilities.

I am sure you are wondering, doesn’t your hair stink?  Strange enough I don’t smell baking soda or vinegar.  Hmmm, time will tell if this changes.  Some sites also suggest using cocoa powder on your roots to combat the grease in the first few weeks.  I’m not too sure I want to smell like a chocolate bar all day.

There are lots of sites out there that explain the “no poo” process.  My favorite that helped me create my plan with all kinds of tips was this blog post.  Check it out for all the details.  Here is the main idea:

  • Create two squeeze bottles.
  • One with a mixture of 1Tblsp of baking soda and 1 cup of hot water.
  • One with a mixture of 2Tblsp of apple cider vinegar and 1 cup of hot water.
  • In the shower use the baking soda mixture at your roots, leave in for 2 minutes and rinse.
  • Use the apple cider vinegar next focusing on your ends.  Leave it in for the duration of your shower and rinse well at the end.
  • Add essential oils if you want a smell.
  • Use coconut oil after the shower if you need more moisture or detangle.
  • Dry shampoo for blondes and cocoa powder for darks for grease control.
  • Only “wash” 1-2 times a week.

Here are the ingredients I bought and used.  I also saved these old dish detergent containers that work perfectly!

no poo ingredients

This isn’t the end of my recent crazies.  I have also substituted any facial moisturizer for coconut oil and olive oil.  AH!  The coconut oil is good for at night because it does leave a little sheen to your face.  Olive oil is good for the daytime as it soaks into your skin quickly.  So long wrinkles and hello soft skin.  A few days with my oil friends and I am looking good.

Now if only I could sleep through the night so I can get my beauty sleep!

Extreme gone good!

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Penguins!

Posted on December 8, 2013 by Naima

A lot of people ask me why I like wildlife?  My answer is so simple… there is always more to learn.  Whether you read about plants and animals, or you are out in the field conducting a scientific study, you will always be learning more and more.  There are so many species in the world, no one can know everything about all of them, but it’s fun to keep finding out mind blowing tidbits.  These tidbits inspire me to create activities to encourage people to explore wildlife on their own.  Everyone has that love of animals from their childhood in them, sometimes it just needs to be reignited.

Recently I had the opportunity to further investigate penguins and create hands on activities for students to learn STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) through penguins and wildlife in general.  I was asked to do a live Google Hangout for Girlstart, an organization that promotes STEM participation throughout the country.  I chose to do the live chat on penguins for a few reasons.  First, penguins are so charismatic I thought what person wouldn’t be intrigued by them and what students wouldn’t love to do a project based on penguins!  Second, penguins have some crazy unique adaptations that enable them to survive and you need to hear more about them.  And lastly, 4 of the 18 species of penguins are listed as endangered by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) and there is something we can all do to help out!

So take a look at the video and meet my friend Sid.  We had some technology problems but we made it work!  Thanks to Tom and Alyssa for helping out and working through the glitches.  And thanks to Girlstart for having me on!

Don’t forget to listen and find out what you can do!

As always, I like to over prepare and have way more than what I need, especially since it was live and questions weren’t till the end.  I didn’t say everything I wanted to but I had a cheat sheet to keep me on track.  When I picked up the paper at the end I realized it’s kind of like a musicians set list for the night.  Made me smile so I thought I would post it here too…

Penguin set list.Penguins!

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‘Tis the season for a little personal time.

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Naima

We are in the middle of the holidays which usually bring thoughts of family gatherings, food and lights. But you know what else it means, a little time off from work!  And I try and sneak in a little personal creative time for myself.

This last weekend I had four days off for the Thanksgiving holiday and took a Saturday to do my thang.  As I took miss beaker for a walk I noticed the beautiful leaves on the ground that begged and pleaded to be used in a craft. So I took off my long sleeve shirt and used it as a bag to pick up as many leaves as I could.  I hurried home and turned those leaves into a wreath for my door.  Just for fun I looked to see how much wreaths are in the stores and they are about $30-60!! Much cheaper and more fulfilling to make your own.

Turn these leaves:

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Into this with some hot glue:

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Next I pulled out the sewing machine and started on an apron for my mom.  My style of sewing is a little unorthodox in that I refuse to use a pattern.  To me a pattern stifles my creativity and doesn’t allow me to go outside the box.  However this does mean my finished products have faults.  It also means sewing is problem solving as I struggle to figure out how to get straps sewed on the right side and patterns facing the right way.  But they have seam rippers for a reason, if I mess up I start ripping!

After a few falters here is the finished product. A reversible totally horses apron for my horse loving mom.

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I hope to get some more creative time in but everyday life challenges this. When I get the chance I dive in and it sparks my energy for life.  Give it a try next time you have a little time.

Instead of Black Friday don’t you wish you did craft Friday!

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Children’s Garden at the Burrito

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Naima

I had the opportunity to visit the new Children’s Garden at the Dallas Arboretum, or if you are my nephew and 3, it’s called the burrito.  I won’t lie, I was a skeptic.  How can you spend that much money (estimates range from $50-100 million!) on a children’s garden?  And then charge people $3 per person to get in?!

I wasn’t happy about the high costs to get into the burrito and then the extra cost to get into the children’s garden.  But I didn’t pay a dime!  My brother has a burrito membership that got all of us in to the burrito and the extra children’s garden!  Whaaat?!  So first step if you plan on going is buy a membership.  It also gives you free parking.  Definitely cost efficient.

As we entered the gates I still thought, oh well the children’s garden can’t be that cool.  We stopped by the pumpkin patch snapped some pictures, ate a picnic lunch and headed the children’s garden.  My mind was blown.  It truly is an amazing, spacious, well thought out, interactive, fun, educational area.  We were in the burrito for over 3 hours and didn’t even visit half the space!  I highly recommend the burrito.  Take your kiddos.  They will be intrigued and engaged in science without even knowing it.  I love when learning happens on children’s own time.  Let them play.

But you better dress fly.  There are so many people taking photographs in their quincenera dresses and engagement photos and heels and more.  So make sure to look good to keep up! 😉

So my tips are:
1- buy a membership
2- bring a picnic lunch- you can bring coolers and whatever you want.
3- go anytime – even when it’s really busy there are so many areas that it doesn’t matter!
4- go looking goooood. 😉

Here are some pictures to wet your appetite and get you outdoors to the burrito!
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Beaker does Dallas!

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Naima

The best addition to any adventure is definitely a woman’s best friend… a dog.  And for me that means the love of my life Miss Beaker.

Miss Beaker

Miss Beaker

A few years ago I made the decision to take a job that didn’t allow dogs and for the past few years Miss Beaker has been a farm dog living at my parent’s house in Amarillo.  In the time at my parent’s house, Miss Beaker made her mark on their hearts and it was very hard for them to let her go and come back with me.  Not to mention it is extremely hard taking her from the perfect life to the less than optimal working girl life.  I am forever grateful for my parents (who were at first resistant to an inside dog at their house) for taking such good care of her and ultimately opening up their home and even bed to her.  I always know she has her beloved retirement home in Amarillo.  She loves the charmed farm life but Miss Beaker and I are two peas in a pod destined to be together.

So now Beaker is doing Dallas!  With some days better than others… Miss B has separation anxiety and on day one of staying home by herself she managed to destroy three window blinds.  Luckily my neighbor has been awesome and inviting Miss B into her home on a daily basis.  It takes a community to have a child… and a dog!

Beaker is back to city life and she has definitely encouraged me to get off my butt and go for long walks every evening.  One major adjustment to city life is picking up poop again.  Thank goodness she is a little dog!  Whenever I walk by people with their big dogs, I fear they have poop hands from messily trying to pick up 80 pound dog poopoo.

But poop picking up we must do… With at least two poops a day that is a lot of bags, which would definitely make our adventures not very environmentally friendly.  So I found some Earth friendly bags!  If you are in the poop picking up business as well check them out here: earthrated.com.

Beaker has been embracing the city life.  I think the Beaker does Dallas pictures can explain her adventures far better than words ever could.

As you can see in the pictures Dallas is incredibly dog friendly with lots of restaurants accepting dogs, trails, dog parks, and dog bakeries!  She is settling back in to city life just as I am.

Our big city adventure continues.

City life!

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Austin in a quick weekend trip!

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Naima

I’ve had the itch to get out of town and so I made it happen. Thursday I packed the car with all our supplies and went to work Friday waiting for the end of the day. I packed camping supplies but had a grumpy partner worried about a hot, humid and mosquito filled night outdoors. It’s too bad because I love hot humid camping! So I started a search online for hotels. Turns out Austin hotels are expensive!  Even the local hostel was $100 per night for a private room and they were sold out.  So after searching some more I found a deal on hotwire.com.  Sixty bucks a night and the room is yours… but in what hotel?  You don’t find out till after you pay.  I played the game and won.  Our hotel was the Hilton right on 6th street in downtown Austin.  So next time you need a hotel room, check out hotwire.com and take a risk.  Normal rates at that hotel are over $200/night.

We got a late start Friday evening but made it to Austin just in time to throw our stuff in the hotel room and head to the streets.  The streets were hoppin with life and we weaved our way through to find some street food.  Food trucks and pizza by the slice were everywhere so we dove in head first with some yumtastic “not on my diet food”.   It seems it’s a battle of who has the best pizza because every corner has a pizza place.  We didn’t watch the madness too much because I knew Saturday we were going to have to squeeze a lot in, and oh boy did we.

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Saturday included: A hike, swim and rock jump at Mckinney Falls, a trail walk around Zilker park, a swim in Barton Springs, lunch on South Congress St., live music and a run around the city while David took a nap!  It was awesome to spend the day outside and bounce from place to place in short amount of time.  The outdoors is part of Austin, and everything we did was less than 20 minutes from the city center.  No matter the time of day or heat there are people running, walking, biking, swimming, kayaking, paddleboarding, playing with their dogs, playing games at the park or just chillin outside.  Like minded outdoor people sooth my soul.

Although we did a lot during the day I was set on walking down to the Congress Street Bridge to watch the bat emergence.  In grad school I helped on a few bat projects and one was monitoring the populations of Mexican free tailed bats in Clarity Tunnel (near Caprock Canyons State Park).  The Clarity Tunnel population is not accessible by vehicles and is located in the middle on no where.  It was awesome to watch the bats under a full sky of stars and with dive bombing great horned owls looking for a meal.  With this past experience my hopes were high for the emergence at Congress Street.  I was not really impressed with the bat emergence but was extremely impressed by the people emergence!  We arrived on the grassy knoll to watch the bats about 7:30pm and by 8:45pm the entire grassy knowl, bridge sidewalk and water were filled with people!  All to watch the bats!  There were kayaks, canoes, paddleboards and large boats in the water watching as well.  Sooo crazy.  As much as I value the in the middle of nowhere experience, this was awesome to see so many people demonstrating some bat love and not running and hiding thinking the bats will kill them.  I love my crazy insect eating bat friends and I loved seeing others appreciate them.

I was sad to leave Austin. The culture of uniqueness, the undertones of a green city, food truck galore, clean water to swim in and of course hot and humid!

I will be back Austin.  I will be back.

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Calling all teachers!

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Naima

Calling all teachers!

I’ve got an idea. Many classroom science teachers really want to bring science into their classrooms and at the same time meet professionals in the field. I am bombarded with Skype requests for zoologists, keepers and mostly general animal or conservation questions. I love skyping with the teachers and kids because they are excited to hear from an animal person. I usually only have about 20-30 min with a group and its never enough time. I try and extend our interactions as much as I can. Such as, a few weeks ago when I was in California I took a few short videos and texted them to a teacher to show her kids. They loved it.

So sparked my idea… In today’s world we are moving toward technology but the most powerful technology is the personal. If I could have weekly or biweekly short skype dates with several classes it would help the teachers and inspire the kids. The kids could have a deeper connection an be able to ask specific questions as they work on classroom projects and activities.

Each week I can focus on what they are working on in school. I have been creating and teaching teachers workshops and classroom programs for years now and this connection to real life is invaluable. I am well versed in state and national standards so content is always relevant. My background of being a field wildlife biologist, zookeeper, vet assistant and environmental educator has broadened my personal knowledge through hands on experience as well as connections with fellow scientist professionals across the country.

My skyping is all done via my phone and free. So what I propose is we start this! Now is the perfect time. Over summer break we can work out some select times in the school year we should Skype, I can create personalized content and make sure our technology on both ends is working. We can strategically place some interactions to give students some real life examples, problems and projects that fall right in line with your semester sequencing.

Also one thing teachers find most valuable from me is the support. I am on your side and here to help make your classroom a success. Email me and I always email back. You will find, I have a hard (pretty much impossible) time saying no to Good requests.

So why do I want to do this? I love the enjoyment and thrill kids receive from skyping with a zoologist. They love it and they love asking questions. I encourage inquiry in all my programs but the most questions generated are always over skype! Also, I am such a strong believer that science is for everyone, not just the scientists. I do understand most scientists have a hard time talking to kids and the public. I can be the middle man to deliver complex science to any age group! Here is a recent example: Two weeks ago I made convergent evolution activities for preschool to 12th grade. The preschool and high school environmental science teachers were both equally excited to take their respective activities back to their classrooms.

Ok so email me if you want to work this out for the fall. Oh heck if you have summer school and want to do it too, I’m in. Plus it’s Skype so you don’t have to be in my area, you just have to have a webcam and the Internet with enough bandwidth at your school. (Not enough bandwidth and the video doesn’t work).

Njmontacer@gmail.com

Lets excite some kids through personal technology.

Skype for science education!

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The above post was posted on May 24, 2013. I wanted to give an update as many teachers still find this post.

Today: April 2, 2014. I am still happy to Skype with your group. I am a freelance writer now focusing on conservation, wildlife and sustainability. It’s awesome because I utilize my past wildlife experience to create engaging content that reaches more people than any of my previous roles. The best part about writing is that I continue to research and learn more about conservation and wildlife. If you want to see some writing examples click here.

With that being said, I am happy to talk about my experience, wildlife and any questions your students have. But I do not work at a zoo anymore, so my video background has changed. I work from home! The only exotic animal here, is my ten year old beagle mutt.

I look forward to hearing from you. Email me at njmontacer@gmail.com and we can set up a date and time.

Interested to know my crazy background?  View my resume click here.

Thanks,

Naima

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