Streams of Salem

While we were driving around and through town yesterday, we began wondering which streams were which.
A few months back when I wrote a post about lunching at The Ram, a reader wrote to correct my mistake in saying their deck looks out on Mill Creek. He said it was the Shelton Ditch.
I remembered to look the info up (yet again) this afternoon. So confusing! It seems in the 1800s, men-who-wished-to-improve-on-nature decided to redirect water into both the Salem Ditch and the Shelton Ditch.

I'll be doing the dancing raisins science activity with the short people tomorrow. Science is usually on Tuesday, but N and I will be a OHSU most of that day with Fran while they do their lung tests and scan. I was reviewing one of my science books and ran across an alternative method for doing the dancing raisins. They start with a clear cup of water with 5-6 raisins and two portion cups - one with vinegar and the other with baking soda. First the kids stir in the baking soda, then add the vinegar and stand back to watch the gas bubbles attach to the raisin wrinkles and carry them up to the surface. The bubbles pop, the raisins sink and the process begins again. In the past Kim and I have used Seven-Up and seltzer water. They don't work consistently for every child throughout the day. We've tried smaller bottles and different brands, but we still get some disappointments. Maybe this will be the ticket, but I'll still warn them that sometimes things just don't work out the way we hope they will.