Spring at Bernheim Forest

We pulled together a little family outing to nearby Bernheim Forest last week. It's one of our favorite places to visit and, considering that it's free during the week, we don't get there nearly often enough. Spring is just gorgeous there with all the blooming dogwoods, redbuds, pears and lilacs. Everything is blooming right now! We only had Jeff's phone for a camera, but it does a pretty decent job.

First we stopped at the Visitor's Center. Such a beautiful building to welcome visitors - look at the cafe area (with sunflower)! The kids put together some insect puzzles. Benjamin checked out the 3-D map of the forest, while Daddy inspected the "creek bed" aquarium.

 

Well, we came to hike, so we collected some maps and headed out to an "easy" trail. Ahem. Not sure who was classifying these, but they failed to take into account my fear of heights!! Aaaggh! Any of us could have fallen to our deaths in several places along the trail, but apparently moms are the only ones who think of these things... The kids had a blast and defied danger without a worry. The forest was so beautiful as we wound around, up and down, along the mostly-dry creek. Climbing down the rocks, we came into the creek itself and Jeff showed the kids how to find "critters". We found a salamander ("sammalander" as Molly says), a tiny snake, and a crayfish. Molly wasn't the slightest bit afraid of the snake. She's got her daddy's love for wildlife!

In between panicking on the trail and trying to catch my breath from all the climbing, I still managed to get a few pictures from the hike.

We could have spent the rest of the day turning over rocks and exploring the creek bed, but we had an appointment at the playground with some of the cousins.

Bernhein is building an enchanting children's garden in the play area, but most of it is still under construction. I can't wait to see how it will look when it's finished!

 

 

Everyone got so much exercise and good fresh air! There is much more to explore here, so we plan to return several times before the summer heat arrives to stay. For now, we're basking in the afterglow of pure springtime bliss...

 

Must-have For Science Study

I'm excited to have run across this cute, affordable microscope which would be perfect for the kids! It's less than $10 on amazon.com. Plus it has good reviews! Carson Microbrite Pocket Microsope

I've been thinking about a microscope for a long time but but didn't think we could afford a good one. Someday I might still like to invest in a bigger one. For now, I think this would meet our needs very well. I'm excited to have found a way to open up the tiny microscopic world to the kids (and me... science geek, anyone?) Hat tip to Jen who mentioned it here as part of a really great science post.

Hickory Nut Harvest

Remember that infamous nature walk? We went back there yesterday, but this time we drove. I had a specific mission in mind: picking up hickory nuts to use for fall crafts. It was getting dark when the inspiration hit, so we had to hurry. It took about 11 seconds to get from our house to the hickory nut tree on that road. I knew it was the right tree when the tires started crunching shells on the road! Thankfully, no one cried on this excursion.

I have seen hickory nuts at my parents' house and we must have the same variety here. I was always intrigued by the smooth white nut inside the ugly outer shell. It just looks like a doll's head to me and my brain immediately starts grinding out hickory nut craft ideas.

It turns out there are many different kinds of hickory nuts. Jeff and I had an argument this morning when he saw our cache. Apparently, our hickory nuts don't look like real hickory nuts, the ones he got paid for picking up in the yard when he was a kid in Arkansas. But those ugly things?! Those are not hickory nuts, as far as I know!  Here is a page showing the varieties. Here, we have shagbark hickories. In Arkansas, it must have been shellbark or kingnut. Funny how different they are! No wonder we didn't even think they were the same animal.

So here's a picture showing some of the nuts we collected. At the top you can see the nuts in various stages of breaking out of their hulls. Aren't those inside kernels pretty?

We were interested first in using the outer shells to make hickory nut boats, which I saw on this blog post. We needed half-shells, but they were so dried up that they fell apart in quarters and we had to glue them back together to make our boats. While I was melting a pumpkin spice jar candle in the oven (which is what you do when you have no beeswax per the instructions) we made little sails from toothpicks and scrapbooking paper scraps. Then we poured the wax into the hollow boats, let it set up for a few minutes, and then installed the sails. Voila! A fleet of lil' nutshell ships!  They smelled great too. So cute. Wish I had seen this in time for Columbus Day...

We read that hickory nuts are hard to crack, but we tried anyway. We had to hit them with a small hammer and pick the meat out with a skewer. I had to sit on the kitchen floor, which is vinyl over concrete - it was the only place hard enough to hammer on. (Note to self: try to avoid sitting on the kitchen floor. Way too much down there that should never be seen at close range!)

The nuts were delicious! They tasted exactly like a sweet, extra-creamy pecan - not surprising since they are related. After about 1/2 an hour of work, this is what we had. Molly made off with the stash as soon as I took the picture. She loved them! It was a lot of work for little result, but it felt very primal to harvest and eat something uncultivated straight from nature. I have a lot of respect for squirrels now, too.

So then we had time to play with the hickory nuts and other interesting items from our nature box, to see what we could create. (I'm surprised how few ideas I could find on the internet.) Here is what Benjamin came up with on his own. It's supposed to be a frog! He also wanted to use the glue gun on his own. (gasp!)

Here are a few of my creations. Forgive my lack of camera skills! I was stuck in a Christmas ornament rut, so that's what they're meant to be. They are about 3" tall.

Caroling Angel

Snowman

 

Woodland Critter

I'm still mulling over some ideas for when I have more time. I was thrilled to find that there is a little book still in print from 1946 called Miss Hickory, about a doll with a hickory nut head and her nature friends. It sounds delightfully quirky, and this site gives instructions for actually creating the doll and her accessories - no pictures, though. I can't quite predict if the boys will enjoy this adventure, or if I'll have to wait for Molly to grow up a little. I plan to get the book and see! This stuff is right up my ally, so I know I will have a good time regardless.

Apple Orchard

Wouldn't you know, but the time the 90-degree weather finally gave up, the apples were finished and picked already! We almost didn't get to go to this sweet orchard recommended by a friend. But the very kind owner let us come anyway to picnic and see the animals. We were lucky to find a few small red apples left on one tree! Just enough to make it seem like fall at last. Here are some pictures from our day!

 

 

I wish I had taken more pictures - it was a lovely, fun day. We will be sure to put Hidden Hollow Orchard on our schedule for next year, and hope lots of our friends will visit too. Good people there. Now, bonus points if anyone can tell me what kind of bush/tree this is. It was gorgeous!

Dirt 101

As everyone seems to be heading inside to school, we are almost giddy to get outside, what with the (slightly) cooler September weather. Note to self: Next year, choose all educational materials in April and be ready with lots of indoor studies and activities for July and August. What an over-abundance of good indoor time we had this summer!! Now that September and October are upon us, the last thing we want is to be holed up in the house even more. So, out we go.

  
For her birthday, Molly received the most darling little gardening tote from her grandma-with-the-green-thumb, complete with hat, gardening gloves, pail and shovel. She adores it - and, loving dirt as much as the next kid, she loves to get out in the garden and use her tools.

 

Now, you may have noticed that the owners of the house keep the yard manicured to almost park-like standards - so much that when we go out walking in the neighborhood, the boys will say things like, "Look, Mom!! A stick! Can we bring it home?" Yes, it is that bad. So it can be a little tricky to allow them to dig up Paradise. At the same time, I simply can't bring myself to get between a boy with a shovel and his patch of dirt. It's such a necessary part of childhood.

So, into the (manicured, mulched) garden we went today. And boy, can those kids dig! I thought that they might make a few holes, but it started to look like an excavation site for something like a football arena or a mega-hotel. Need a few yards of dirt moved? Hand a kid a shovel!

They buried things in the dirt and then dug them up again. They dug up some tree roots and then tried to "follow" them to the tree, which I had to stop in order to save the yard. A few grubs and worms were unearthed. That was just in the first 20 minutes. Then, Phase II, experimentation.

The drive to experiment seems to necessitate that environments will inevitably be mixed. What I mean is: why do you have to put dirt in every conceivable location? To see what it will look like? Dirt on the patio. (Nooo!)

Dirt on the bikes. (Ewww!) On the toddler slide. (Uh uh.) You see where this goes. My gentle admonitions took on a few more decibels  as I tried to keep it off people's heads and out of the house.

Then, someone added water!! Mud!! Joy, rapture, every child's dream!

Once this happened, many more adventures ensued. Some decibels were added yet again. Eventually, everyone landed in the bath, which boasted a nice deposit of dirt of its own when we were through. I almost brought in the shovel for that, too. But instead I went outside and tried to make things look sort of nice again... until next time.

There will be lots of "next times" in the months ahead. It's a long time until winter in Kentucky. Fall is my favorite season and it's almost impossible for me to stay indoors on beautiful days. In spite of my natural urge to keep things somewhat clean and neat (read: under control), I get great satisfaction from knowing that the kids have spent the afternoon in the dirt. I hope that love and respect for nature grows deep into their souls and brings them joy and awe, not only during childhood, but all of their lives.