A darn good reason to wake up at 4 a.m.

This was one of those days when getting up early was worth the loss of a few winks to get out of work early and take the kids biking at Scarborough Marsh.

That's a cormorant flying over us as we were admiring the view over the bridge.

G. caught a couple of nice birding shots of that cormorant after we paused at the end of the bridge to watch it.

Anyone else get a chance to enjoy the beautiful day outdoors?

We're Silver EarthCache Masters now

We've been working on the Geological Society of America's EarthCache Masters program for a year and have now earned our Silver (second level) Masters pins. The kids were pretty excited when they arrived in the mail yesterday.

The Silver Masters pin required that in addition to the three EarthCaches we found in two different states for our Bronze Masters pins, we needed to develop our own EarthCache. L. did this in conjunction with a 4-H project last spring and dubbed it Gem Trackers. The EarthCache involves mining for gems at Mt. Apatite, a place my kids really enjoy.

We also had to find three additional EarthCaches respresenting three states for the Silver level (i.e., we had to find one in a state other than Maine or New Hampshire, which were the locations of our two state requirement for Bronze).

It sounds like a lot of work, and it sort of is, but it's also been a really great learning experience for everyone in the family as well.

For the Silver Masters pin we were able to incorporate EarthCaching into our family weekend vacations this past year. During our trip to Acadia last May we completed the Acadia National Park EarthCache Program (this program involved finding six EarthCaches to complete but it only counted as one EarthCache "find" for the Masters).

Then in the fall we visited the Debsconeag Ice Cave in the Debsconeag Lakes Wilderness Area during our weekend trip to Baxter State Park. That was a memorable trip for a couple of reasons, including this EarthCache.

And to log a find in a new state, we made a short detour on our way home from NYC to find the Dinosaur Footprints EarthCache in Massachusetts.

Now the girls are talking about what we need to do for our Gold Masters pin. That one requires we find six more EarthCaches, with at least one being from another state (not MA, NH or ME) and developing another EarthCache of our own. The girls have an idea about the location of our next EarthCache development project but it will be a while before we take a trip beyond New England to log that 4th state.

But setting a new goal is always a good thing, especially for the kids, so we'll see how things shake out this year while we go for the Gold.

Another vernal pool reseach day

We visited three more possible vernal pools over the weekend. Even though only one of the locations was actually a vernal pool, the "research photographer" (G.) had plenty of things to take pictures of while L. and I recorded observations.

Part of being our team's photographer was getting close-up photos of things we found. This meant G., who thought initially that she was going to be able to avoid mucking around in the water, had to do just as much of it as L. and I to get the photos we needed for our data forms. For instance, we spotted a large frog and needed a close up photo to see its markings so we could determine what type he was at home (we aren't so great at frog identification in the field).

We identified him as an American Bullfrog. He was found in a wetland area that we confirmed was not a vernal pool.

At our next location we finally made our own confirmation of a vernal pool! But, we are not sure it is "significant" for this research project based on all the species beyond typical vernal species we found at this location. A lot of wetland species prey on vernals so vernal species aren't likely to breed successfully in large enough numbers to be significant in this area. We're going back to this location in a couple of weeks to count salamanders (once their eggs start to hatch) and wood frogs (they're a bit elusive once hatched) to better asses things. Then we're leaving it to the UMaine researchers to make the final call based on the Project Data Forms.

These are spermataphors and are indicators that this is vernal pool activity. They are easy to miss unless you know what to look for. The girls were excited to check this off on our Project Data Form.

L. gets the credit for finding the spotted salamander egg masses. She was quite pleased with herself for seeing them first.

We also found some species that prey on vernal pool species like these large tadpoles.

And G. spotted these water beetles/bugs and thought they were kind of creepy looking up close. (If you know exactly what these are let me know.)

Unfortunately at our confirmed vernal pool, we also found quite a bit of trash and that was a bummer.

I emailed a couple of other research "teams" (there are several 4-H families with children participating in this project -- it's that UMaine/4-H connection that keeps us all so well-informed about interesting programs) and each team said they had more "strike-outs" than actual vernal pool identifications like we did too. About 1 in 5 of the maps each team was given was actually a vernal pool.

After the research photos were taken at each location, G. had some fun by taking advantage of the sunny day to get some shadow and reflection shots.

At our last area to evaluate this particular day, the elderly landowners were outside. We identified ourselves as being with the vernal pool project and they happily showed us their pond. It was not a vernal pool, which only took about 5 minutes to determine (we're getting pretty good at this stuff now), but we spent over an hour with the couple. They chatted about the history of their land (they own over 50 acres) and the creation of their pond. Then they insisted that we come in to their house to see old photos of their lands before they planted the 30,000 trees on it back in the 1950s.

I tried to decline their kind invitation  - we were all covered in muck and sweat from our day of research - but the couple did not seemed fazed by our less-than-fresh odor and firmly insisted we go inside.

Once inside we found ourselves involved in a full tour of their 1800s home and a history lesson about the area.

They were a lovely couple and the girls very much enjoyed the impromptu visit. But this experience, as well as several chats with other landowners while visiting other locations, brought the point home that environmental scientists are also builders of good-will as well as educators. That in order to work to protect certain types of land and species, scientific researchers need to make compromises and work with (not lecture to) landowners about the importance of protecting the habitat/species on their land. Taking a hard-core stand in either direction (a "save the wetlands at all costs" vs. "fill in wetlands to get government off my back" attitudes) is not going to get the job done. It was a good lesson for the kids to see the real-life "politics" of research projects in action (and meet some really nice people) during this project and to know that finding a middle ground on both sides (researchers and landowners) is important for protecting the environment.

Mystery picture downloads and bubbles fun

I downloaded photos from my digital camera last night and it took a long time because the memory card, a 4GB, was maxed out.

Why?

Because the girls grab the camera and take pictures of random things. But they aren't ones to take a few photos and call it good. Nope, they take hundreds of a particular subject (usually our cats or other animals in our lives). I have thousands of pictures (no exaggeration) of cats/animals on our computer and it rivals the number of kid-related photos on my hard drive.

Every once in a while I download photos from my camera only to find out about nefarious activities the kids have been up to when I'm not at home. Like the time they photographed a chicken eating food out of the cat dish in my kitchen.

Taken June 2006.

This picture was wrong for so many reasons but since I had unwittingly downloaded it at the office, my co-workers got a big kick out of it and convinced me it was blog-worthy and not something to get worked up about. But the girls and I did have a chat about restraint in letting chickens in to my kitchen.

So as you can see, the mystery picture downloading is nothing new for me.

And sometimes I find some interesting photos on my camera from one of the girls (usually G.) as I did last night. The girls did a "bubbles study series." I'll refrain from posting the 100+ photos of this "series" here (as well as the cat series) but offer a peak in to my evening of photo downloads last night.

The cat "series" included many photos of Dulce playing with one of the girls with the laser toy.

It's a good thing digital cameras are around because if my shutter bug girls used a film camera, it would have cost me more than the additional external hard drive I have attached to my computer to keep up with their photography interest.

Oh, and the $1 bubble wands I picked up at WalMart last month and brought to Wells Reserve continue to entertain my girls. If you've got tween/teens, don't ever think they're too old to play with a cheap bottle of bubbles!

Spring biking: training includes ice cream

It usually takes several rides in early spring to get everyone's bike legs back to tackle the longer treks we like to take later in the season (a return trip to Augusta and Topsham and South Portland are on our list to visit again in May). But we need a bit of an incentive to get into shape and for us that means a few trips to the ice cream store.

The local "ice cream store"  is technically a convenience store that sells ice cream but it's a nice ride. It is 4-miles round trip on a flat, wide shoulder road that's easy for out-of-shape legs.

L. struggled a bit with this ride because she really needs a larger bike. Peddling on a bike frame that's too small is a lot more work than it should be and she doesn't want to give up her very favorite bike. But we're going to try to fit in a stop at the Great Maine Bike Swap this Sunday in hopes she falls in love with something a little bigger.

But the first multi-mile trek was worth the effort. The ice cream sandwiches were yummy!

Vernal pool research is fascinating

We are participating in a research project through UMaine and the Maine Audubon to map vernal pools in the state and it's been a great experience for the kids as well as for me. We've never done anything like this previously and although there's a learning curve, we're really enjoying it.

The Vernal Pool Project received a TogetherGreen Innovation Grant for 11 communities around the state to map locations of vernal pools utilizing citizen research volunteers.

Vernal pools are basically depressions in the ground that fill will water in the early spring. They do not stay wet all year; they usually dry up by mid-summer. Because the pool is not full year-round, it can not support fish and that makes it conducive to certain species that do not require year-round water and would not survive if there was a fish population.

The interesting thing about vernal pools is that they are identified, not by geological indicators (although there are some clear signs to identify the possibility of one), but by the species living in the pool of water.

At the training class I attended, I was given a primer about vernal pools. Here's an excerpt:

Vernal pools are the only wetland in Maine defined primarily by what breeds are in them rather than by vegetation type (e.g., marshes, swamps, etc.). Pools must be free of permanent fish populations, so this excludes permanent ponds, streams, and beaver flowages. Naturally occurring, temporary to semi-permanent pools occurring in shallow depressions in forested landscapes. Vernal pools provide the primary breeding habitat for wood frogs, blue-spotted, spotted salamanders and fairy shrimp and provide habitat for other wildlife including several endangered and threatened species. This is the general vernal pool definition used by regulatory agencies in Maine. Pools were defined as "naturally occurring" so that ruts, farm ponds, recent gravel pits and roadside ditches would not be considered vernal pools. Amphibians will lay their eggs in some of these human-made wetlands, but they are not the primary breeding habitat.

So with a lot of information thrown at the room full of citizen researchers (i.e., the many volunteers of all ages who signed up to help with the project) during the lecture part of the training, we went out to an actual vernal pool to get the hands-on part of our lesson.

At this time of year, particularly this week and next in southern Maine, vernal pools will have egg masses for both wood frogs (an indicator species) as well as spotted-salamander (another indicator species).

During the class we found both "cloudy" and "clear" salamander eggs masses as well as wood frog masses.

Wood frog egg mass

Getting out in to the pool to see these egg masses was fascinating but had me questioning whether or not my family could actually do this sort of identification and research on our own.

But we were up to giving this a whirl and took two possible vernal pool (pvp) maps (researchers used high res mapping information to identify possible locations then the volunteers go out to those locations to confirm whether it is vernal pool or something else) to see if we could identify a vernal pool.

It turned out that the first pvp we went to was not actually a vernal pool but rather a wetlands area (which has it's own unique habitat for other important species). But being newbies at this sort of thing the girls and I made multiple circuits around the body of water and made a list of all the characteristics of the area so we could follow up with one of the UMaine researchers who taught the class to confirm/deny our findings.

The researcher confirmed that we were in fact correct in our identification that this was not a vernal pool. Our list of indicators from that location included:

* no sign of egg masses around the edges and after wading in to knee deep, no indication of branches and/or egg masses closer to center of pool 

* grassy bottom and around edges, very few trees surrounding water (only about 1/4 of pool had trees close to edge) * the water was quite deep 

* tons of cattails around the water and in it 

* the girls thought the water "smelled like a fart" 

* land owners said there was water in this pool year-round

The kids were bummed our first location was not a vernal pool so we set out with our other map for the next pvp. That too prompted a list of indicators to confirm it was not a vernal pool.

* no sign of any egg masses after a complete circuit of the pool 

* bottom of water is very sink-able and unstable to walk on 

* a large amount of green algae that we confirmed were not egg masses 

* area appeared to be wetlands 

* pvp was connected to a slow moving stream of water through a large opening in the pvp 

* landowner confirmed that there is water in location year-round

After the second bust I decided to take the girls to the vernal pool I had been to with the training class.

L. spotted the egg masses floating just below the surface of the water which confirmed this as a vernal Pool. Other indicators for this pool included a heavily forested area and the bottom of the pool was stable (i.e., we could walk in the water without our boots sinking in to muck).

If this were one of our pvp map locations, the next part of the research would have been to count how many egg masses we found in the pool and record them on our official Project Data Forms. Since we were not technically assigned to this place, we just did a bit of counting so the girls could get the hang of it.

L. was a little nervous sticking her hand in the water to touch all the slime (the jelly-like substance helps protect the growing eggs but it takes some getting used to handling it) but she got over that pretty quickly thanks to my white MaineToday frisbee, which we used it to gently scoop up egg masses as the UMaine researcher suggested and it worked great.

G. was our research photographer (i.e., she wasn't so keen on sticking her hands in the water) and took some nice shots at the vernal pool, including this one of the wood frog egg masses at the surface of the water.

We're hoping to get a couple more pvp maps this week in hopes we find another vernal pool to identify. The kids are really enjoying this real-life scientific research and they are thinking that environmental science is both interesting and not as intimidating as they once believed (and I concur). I'm not sure either of the girls will pursue a degree in an environmental science but this sure has got them thinking that science "in the field" is a whole lot of fun, with the added bonus of knowing that volunteering in your community can truly be helpful in protecting habitats.

Our field work at the identified vernal pool



If you want to learn more about this project and learn how Maine Audubon and UMaine are working to protect vernal pools in Maine, visit the Vernal Pool Project website.

Oh, and happy Earth Day.

Babe(s) in the woods

Yesterday we picked up two piglets for L. to raise for her 4-H market hog project this year. She'll spend the rest of spring and summer raising them before bringing them to the 4-H auction at Cumberland Fair at the end of September. L. came up with the idea to raise her own after our visit to the auction last year.

But most of yesterday afternoon, while the piglets were hanging out in a dog crate on our porch while Fino worked on the pig house in the backyard, I wondered what the heck I was thinking when I agreed to this.

But L. has no doubts this is a good project for her and she already loves her new friends.

The piggies are a cross-breed of Hampshire, Yorkshire and Duroc. Here they are in their new house that Fino built (with help from L. since this is her project) with all recycled materials he found at the local dump and a few pieces our neighbor (he's a contractor) had around his yard.

L. opted to choose names for her pigs from her favorite book series (the Roman Mysteries). Pulchra, which means pretty in Latin, is her girl pig's name and Titus, which means giant (and appeals to L.'s sense of humor) is her much smaller boy pig's name.

Fino has been working on the pig shelter with L. for days and days (actually they had the plans draw up months ago but Fino claimed he needed to "think on it" before he actually built it). And as is his usual work style, he was slow and methodical in working on the project so when our friend Wendy (who coordinated our pig purchase and is one of L.'s 4-H leaders) came to check things out with the pig's arrival, the little house was still missing a wall and a roof. But keeping things in perspective that this was a pig shelter and not worth a big argument about work styles and planning ahead, I suggested L. work her charm, as only daughters can do with their fathers, to get the friggin' job done.

He finished about an hour before dark while I spent some time on the phone with my farming friends trying to find the humor in my anxiety about raising these pigs and getting their fenced-in pen completed. The fence part of the project is still in the works after a debate about the type we should build, in addition to an electric one we'll hook up for added insurance, before we let the piglets, who we've been told are crafty and strong as they grow, are let loose outside their house.

Of course you would think we would have figured the fence out by now but these "debates" between Fino and I have not found an agreeable resolution so I've asked my more experienced friends to have a chat with him about this pig fence business. I am certain that I do not want to be chasing pigs around my neighborhood this summer when they get big enough to break through the chicken wire Fino thought would work.

L. spent some time in the pig house reading the piggies a good night story before leaving them for the night. This prompted a gentle reminder from me that this is only a 4-month project before the piggies go off to auction. She nodded her affirmation but I'm certain it's not going to be a good scene when her pigs, which I am sure she will raise with tender loving care, go off to market.

L. searched the house for our "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" book but couldn't find it so had to settle for "If You Give a Mouse A Cookie" to read to the piggies instead.

In the coming weeks those of you who follow my blog will be subjected to some pig stories. The ones where people who have raised pigs before will shake their heads at our inexperience while we navigate our way through the challenges I'm sure we'll encounter (the you-don't-know-what-you-don't-know-until it happens sort of things). And then there will be those of you who will be glad you aren't the ones raising a couple of pigs.

I'm still in a bit of disbelief that we now have two pigs in the backyard, in addition to our already semi-large flock of poultry (about 25 chickens and ducks with 8 new chicks due to arrive in early May). I have often jokingly refer to our place as a homestead since starting the chicken project (about 6 years ago) but I really never thought it would actually be a real one.

L. faces her first challenge -- getting the piglets into their new house.


L. tells her story about getting her pigs.

Almeida kids blog

Here is a link to the blog me and my sister have about our cats and chickens on MainePets.com - mainepets.mainetoday.com/petshopgirls

posted by L.:)

Professional chef for an afternoon

I was offered a chance to work with Chef Harding Lee Smith at The Grill Room and Bar in Portland as part of an insider's look in to a fine dining kitchen with The Switch magazine. I thought it was an opportunity to do something totally different and I knew both Shannon and Karen (also signed up for the project) were not gourmet foodies. I figured I wouldn't be the only one unfamiliar with the workings and cuisine of a professional kitchen.

It was both a humbling experience and a whole lot of fun!

Part of the deal in being allowed to play chef for the afternoon was to contribute to a feature about my time in the kitchen for The Switch. Below is my story but you can read the whole feature (both Karen and Shannon's parts are very amusing) on  The Switch magazine's website.

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I might be familiar with a kitchen as a mother of two children but I cook in the style of family dining (i.e., casserole dishes to accommodate leftovers for lunch boxes the next day).

So when Karen identified me as “knowing how to cook” to Chef Smith, I cringed. Then I clarified.

"I know how to cook for a family. I don't really know how to 'cook.' "

I knew I was in for a completely and utterly unfamiliar kitchen experience when I looked around and noted the absence of my usual kitchen tools. Where were the measuring cups, glass mixing bowls and food processor?

After a quick introduction by Chef Smith about our menu plans and workstation assignments - for me that was mostly prepping sauces - I jumped right in with my first task.

Chopping shallots for the bacon-truffle vinaigrette set off my panic alarm initially. I wasn’t sure what a shallot was.

After a quick check in with Shannon, who was also unsure about the identity of a shallot (this made me feel better), I figured it out by process of elimination.

One stupid question bullet dodged (with an anticipated hundred more to go).

Chef Smith's demonstration on how to dice a shallot on my cutting board lasted about 15 seconds. His hands and knife worked in a blur of motion. When he asked for confirmation I understood his instructions, I nodded a bit uncertainly and then got to work.

I cut the shallot in half, then laid one half face-down on the cutting board to slice it. Then I made a cut parallel to the cutting board before turning and making the final dice cut.

The dicing took me more than a few minutes and I was midway through the second half of that shallot before I started cursing it.

But I was not the only one struggling with chopping. Shannon had her own troubles with the chives.

Oh where oh where was a darn food processor when I needed it? 

I finished dicing two shallots before moving on to slicing the next ingredient in the vinaigrette, the bacon. This involved cutting the layer of skin off the top of the uncooked slab before slicing it. While I was trying to get over the unsettled feelings I was having about touching the pig's skin and cutting it off the meat, I had my first kitchen crisis.

I failed to watch the pot with the base for the blood orange gastrique and it boiled over on the stove.

Oops.

Chef Smith came to the rescue and moved my pan to a cooler part of the stove and scraped off the sticky overflow.

I went back to slicing the bacon with hopes that was the last of my mishaps. I put the bacon in the oven, set the stove timer and went back to my kitchen bane (aka dicing shallots).

Once the bacon was crispy (which I taste-tested per Chef Smith's suggestion - it was delicious), I was charged with dicing it.

At that point I had a better handle on how to properly hold my knife (none of that one finger on top of the blade stuff per Chef Smith’s coaching - a full grab with thumb and finger on the blade’s neck with my other three fingers on the handle) and the bacon dicing went much more smoothly than those darn shallots.

During my time dicing, I was also cooking hard-boiled eggs on the stove and I managed that without a boil-over mess. 

Working in the kitchen is nothing if not a test of your multi-tasking abilities.

My last job, which I did with Shannon, was shredding the egg whites for plating the Tartare. This required the use of a tool unfamiliar to me, the microplane grater.  This skinny shredding-like tool took a minute to get used to but the final results of the shredded egg white looked nice on the plate even if it was a time-consuming task for a couple of novices.

I spent a lot of time cutting and dicing various sauce ingredients and by the time my stint in the kitchen was over, I had a nice callous starting on the lowest knuckle of my first finger.

I was not the only one who had a lot of chopping and dicing on her hands in this kitchen. Shannon had her share of challenging tasks to face at her workstation next to me.

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Oh, and if you're unfamiliar with tartare, it's diced raw meat mixed with a few spices. When it was plated I commented (in a whisper) to Shannon that the meat wasn't cooked and asked her if she thought they were going to cook it. We discovered that no, it's served cold and uncooked. It took a minute for me to get my head around that before I ventured a bite. Yeah, the tartare tasted good but it really wigged me out that it was uncooked meat so one bite was all I could do. I whole-heartily concur with Shannon's thoughts as I am also, "an unabashed carnivore with a raw meat aversion."

We were on a tight schedule in preparing dishes and we amateur cooks were only about 15 minutes over the time frame set for serving. Must be that writer thing - we know how to rally to get the job done on a deadline.

Shredding the egg whites on the microplane grater took a heck of a long time. It looked nice when plated with the tartare but not something I'd ever take the time to do at home.

I did a whole lot of laughing in the kitchen, mostly because I didn't have a clue what I was doing and I tend to get silly in situations like that. It turned out that Karen and Shannon have similar "styles" and Chef Harding was a good sport about our silliness.

The grilled meat was oh so good! I don't have any pictures of the grill but it's a really interesting set-up in the restaurant and one you have to see for yourself. The hardwood used in the grill gives the meat an extra tasty flavor.

Originally published in The Maine Switch, April 16, 2009

Discovering dinosaur footprints EarthCache

On our way home from NYC we took a detour to check out an EarthCache in the Springfield, MA, area that features dinosaur footprints. We've been wanting to visit this EarthCache (learn more about EarthCache here) since we found the listing last year because we were taken with the prospect of seeing real footprints. And after spending time at the American Museum of Natural History and seeing the fossils, it seemed like a good idea to do some dinosaur "field work" too.

It was fascinating to see, and touch, the footprints and know that dinosaurs crossed this path 190 million years ago. The kiosk at the site provided some interesting background about how this place (which was just off the side of the road and easily missed if you weren't looking for it) came to be discovered and identified.

Approximately 190 million years ago, what is now the Connecticut River Valley area was a subtropical landscape of lakes and swamps. Two-legged, carnivorous dinosaurs made footprints in the mudflats, which were periodically wetted and dried. Sediment slowly covered the prints, protecting them from erosion. Over the eons, they were transformed into rock and buried underground, until workmen constructing Route 5 unearthed them in the 1920s. In the early 1970s, Yale University Professor John Ostrom identified these tracks as being from three distinct, though related, dinosaurs: The largest prints (11-13 inches long) were from Eubrontes giganteus, which stood 15 feet tall and had a 5-foot stride. The intermediate prints (6-8 inches) are from Anchisauripus sillimani, and the smallest (3-5 inches) from Grallator cuneatus. The most remarkable part of Professor Ostrom's work was his determination that almost all of the 134 footprints he studied were part of 28 distinct trackways, leading in very nearly the same direction. The tracks at this site thus documented for the first time that some dinosaurs were not always solitary, but tended to travel as a "hear, pack, or flock."

L. was really curious about the footprints and decided to get a feel for the stride of the dinosaur who made it. Her hypothesis was that the dinosaur who made these particular prints was probably running.

I know I've said this before but our GPS unit (via EarthCache and Geocaching) really does take us to the most interesting places!

If you have a GPS unit, the coordinates to this location can be found on geocaching.com

Day at the Museum and amusing statues

We spent Easter (and a few days after) in the NYC area with my cousin's family and took advantage of our proximity to the American Museum of Natural History to pay it a visit.

We'd never been to this museum so we were all a bit overwhelmed with how large it was and figured out quickly there was no way we were going see it all in one day (in any meaningful way that is). We were in information overload mode until we took a snack break to look at the museum's map and make a plan.

The girls and their cousins are fans of "Night at the Museum" (and are eagerly anticipating the sequel featuring the Smithsonian that will be released May 22) and definitely wanted to check out some of the highlighted areas from the movie. So our plan included several of the mammal areas, the ocean life hall and with reluctant agreement from the girls to accommodate Fino's request, the Mexico and Central America area.

My girls took over my camera to take photos of the exhibits along with their cousin E. who had  brought her own camera. They snapped photos of the exhibits that interested them (almost everything) but after nearly 3 hours the girls started showing signs of weariness, which was about the time we made it the Mexico and Central American area.

I was keeping half an eye on where the girls were in the room while looking at exhibits when I noticed the girls gathered around E.'s camera. All four of them were huddled together looking at the LCD screen and giggling as only tween girls can do.

When I walked up to them to find out what was going on, L. and her cousin S. (who share a similar spirit of spunky-ness) explained to me that E. was taking pictures of the naked statues (mostly male). L. and S. thought the statues were kind of "gross" and "weird" and then L. offered the quote of the day when I asked if they could move on to something else. With a glint in her eye and a big grin on her face, L. offered a parting remark as she made her way to another exhibit.

"OK Mom. We'll just say no to crack."

GPS Drawing - identify the pictures

I worked with another of the girls' 4-H clubs to make drawings using a GPS unit (between the girls they're involved in 4 different 4-H clubs, each with a different project area focus).

This group's ideas were a bit more complicated than the one I worked with previously (it was also a lot warmer so we had more time out in the field to work out details than the group I did this with back in January did).

To create these drawings is a bit like reading a map. The kids have to orientate their pencil drawing to the direction they are walking in with the GPS unit. In order for the drawings to be accurate, they need to "draw" on a large scale so that no line is closer than 10 feet to another line. The kids laid out their designs by putting people at key turning points on the open field to make the drawings. Then with the pencil drawing (which serves like a map), along with people place markers, they get the perspective needed to make these type of drawings.

One of our little friends (a younger sibling to a club member) offered G. one of his precious sticks while she had to stand as a place marker for a drawing. It was really sweet.

Even though some of the drawings are a little hard to decipher this time, it was the fault of the technology (my GPS unit is only accurate to about 10 feet and these drawings were very detailed and a few times the walking path came too close to other lines) than it was from the planning and execution of walking the path of their design. The kids did a great job problem-solving and strategically placing people around the field.

Have a guess what a group of 4-Hers might opt to draw? (See answers below)


 #1 - covered 16,500 square feet (if the kids spread out the details this one might have been a bit more accurate)

#2 - covered 21,405 square feet (this covered plenty of space for the outline but not for the details, particularly on the top right)

#3 - covered 17,750 square feet

#4 - covered 8,800 square feet

#5 - covered 10,750 square feet

#1 - stick person; #2 - pig (we have several kids in this club who are also members of the Swiners (pig) club); #3 - spiral (a much better rendition of a spiral than my girls attempted previously); #4 - star; #6 - barn door