When it doesn't exist here

I have always seemed to have lived in places that were isolated.  Yet, I have been able to overcome small road blocks.  Living here I seem to hit so many walls...  For example.  For science, I ordered mealworms a week or two ago.  They came in on Friday and they seem to be alive and kicking.  The whole process felt like a gamble.  From the time the insects were ordered to the time they arrived, I had no real expectation of living bugs arriving.  Nor did I know how long it would take for them to come.  Would the weather hold them up?  Would the folks in Anchorage hang on to the package despite the "live organisms" label?

The next obstacle for the worms was to find food for them.  Mealworms survive by getting their liquid from sweet potatoes, apples, carrots, or white potatoes and eat wheat bran or rolled oats.  The FOSS science kit assured me that any bulk grocery store would carry bran (I just laughed at this)...  Not being an entomologist, I am not a bug wizard, I don't know if each food is of equal value or not.  Anyways, our store does not sell wheat bran, though it does sell products with bran in them.  If I did buy some mixed product that was fortified with calcium, would the worms thrive and become super mutants or would they become poisoned?

These worries of mine seem petty, but when there are nine kiddos, I really don't want to let them down.  I settled on apples and hopefully our worms like rolled oats.  I just hope I don't kill them.

It doesn't just stop with worms.  Everyday something comes up in the classroom that in the lower 48 could be solved by a dumpster dive, a visit to a recycling center, or a trip to the thrift store.  Here, if you don't have something, call Mom or add it to the list to bring back in the summer...  Then again, you can order it on the internet, though the mail does not deliver all items to us here. 

I think my second year teaching will be a tad easier.  Well, at least having a better idea of what I need the second time around will be very helpful.

Mealworms.