For our first Green Hour Challenge, we decided to wait for a nice day.  Yesterday was 63 degrees outside.  It doesn't get any better than that for a winter's day! 

We headed over to the Ralston Creek Trail, which is close to our house but we have never been there before.  The trail is paved and is a narrow green belt through the suburb of Arvada, CO.  Houses back up almost to the creek.  We wish the green belt was wider!  The creek is a great place for little boys to start with their outdoor explorations. 

Here are our observations:

1.  We were excited to see a bird that we have never seen before.  It was a black and white bird, about the same size as a blue jay.  It looked like it was wearing "Napoleon's" hat.  When we got home, we consulted "Birds of Colorado Field Guide" and determined that what we saw was a female belted kingfisher.  We observed it skimming the water in the creek and decided that it was fishing.

2.  The creek was very dirty.  It was full of garbage: plastic bags, Christmas wrapping paper, cardboard, aluminum foil, candy wrappers, and cups.  We wanted to jump in and clean up the creek!!  We want to see if there is an organized group that works to clean up the creek (we want to join it). 

3.  There was LOTS of fresh Canada Goose poop on the trail.  What are they eating?  Is this where they winter?

4.  There were leaf prints embedded on the paved trail.  We talked about how humans impact nature (cement over the earth).  Here was an example of how nature impacted something humans made!

Here are the 2 things we want to investigate further:

1.  We want to know what river Ralston Creek runs into.  We want to see if there is a group we can join to help keep Ralston Creek clean.  As mom observed, "Everyone lives downstream."  The water we are living with is the same water that the dinosaurs bathed in.  We don't want future generations to inherit our dirty water.

2.  We will try to find out more about the habits of Canadian Geese.  We knew that they were at one time on the endangered species list.  They have made an amazing comeback and we want to know why there are so many living around our town in the winter.

"Imagine what our real neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered, as a matter of course, just one kind word to another person.  There have been so many stories about the lack of courtesy, the impatience of today's world, road rage, and even restaurant rage.  Sometimes, all it takes is one kind word to nourish another person.  Think of the ripple effect that can be created when we nourish someone.  One kind empathetic word has a wonderful way of turning into many."

From The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember by Fred Rogers

DENVER OMLET

Butter flaverd spray

1/2 Cup diced ham

1/2 Cup sliced onion

1/2 Cup choped red bell pepper

3 eggs

2 tabelspoons water

1/2 tabelspoon butter

salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 cup salsa

corn tortillas

These are all the instructions I copied.  Make it like any other omlet.

I got this recipe from my Colorado History class today.  If you like omlets you have try this!   Oh yeah, the cheeseburger was invented in Colorado.  Very cool.

by Christian

I was my soccer team's (The Thunderbolts) MVP player last Saturday because I made 2 goals.  I also played every position but I like midfieldman best.  You can go everywhere!!  I LOVE SOCCER!!!!! 

It's harvest time in our garden.  It was an unexpected joy to discover that we can garden in hard, rocky clay soil!  Our tomatoes were very productive and we made 8 quarts of spaghetti sauce and 4 quarts of salsa.  YUM!  Next year, we will need sturdier tomato supports as the tomato cages we used this year have been completely crushed by the weight of all our tomatoes.

The one area of our garden that caused puzzlement was our squash patch.  We waited and waited for the seedlings to appear and after a month, we replanted our seeds.  All of a sudden, in July we had a squash explosion and the patch is overgrown now with pumpkins, cucumbers, and zucchini.  We have so much zucchini that we are starting to great creative with our recipes.  We have baked regular zucchini bread, chocolate chip zucchini cookies, chicken and zucchini soup, and our FAVORITE chocolate zucchini cake!  We suspect that zucchini gardners across the country are in the same boat as to what to do with such an overabundance so here's a list of what you can do with extra zucchini:

*Use a large, overgrown zucchini as a baseball bat.

*Hollow out a small zucchini and use as a boat in the bath tub.

*Give away to neighbors who are still accepting garden offers.

*Giant dog toy.

If none of these silly suggestions work for you, here's my grandmother's Chocolate Zucchini Cake Recipe.

CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI CAKE

1/2 CUP OLEO

1/2 CUP OIL

2 CUPS SUGAR

2 EGGS

1 TSP VANILLA

1/2 CUP BUTTERMILK

2 1/2 CUPS FLOUR

4 TBSP COCOA

1/2 TSP CINNAMON

1/2 TSP CLOVES

3/4 CUP NUTS

3/4 TSP BAKING SODA

3/4 TSP SALT

2 CUPS GRATED ZUCCHINI

COMBINE ALL INGREDIENTS.  BAKE IN A 325 DEGREE (F) OVEN FOR 40-45 MINUTES IN A GREASED ANGEL FOOD/BUNDT PAN .

I HAVE ADDED 1/2 CUP CHOCOLATE CHIPS TO MAKE THIS CAKE MORE APPEALING TO A PICKY EATER. 

We have been working on a butterfly unit study these past few weeks.  As part of the study, we are raising painted lady butterflies from InsectLore.com.  One emerged from its chrysalis today, which Peter noticed first and Christian is sad to see it fly away.  We also planted a butterfly garden, and today the boys wrote haiku poetry.   Here are their poems:

The Monarch Haiku

by Christian

Orange and black scales.

Breakable wings that flutter.

Beautiful Monarch.

Monarch

by Peter

Fragile butterfly,

Migrate home to Mexico.

Soar through air, Monarch!

A boy of nine is enormously wise and has a great deal to tell, if anyone at all would listen.  And yet it is a fact that the ideas and opinions of many boys of nine are given very little notice or are entirely overlooked.  Many adults who could learn from them, if they would, pass them by in a great hurry.  It is not a perfect situation.

This is a quote from the book The Cricket Winter by Felice Holman.  It's a book about an underappreciated boy who exchanges Morse code messages with the cricket that lives in his house.   It's a lovely book and I highly recommend this be added to your summer reading list. 

Most everything is coming up in the garden.  I'm still waiting for the squash to appear.  The biggest problem I have is that something is eating the string beans.  I thought it was slugs.  I put out a pie plate of beer for 2 nights but haven't caught a single one.  Either they dislike cheap lite beer or something else is munching.  This is the first year I've gardened in the Front Range so I am not fully acquainted with my insect garden foes.  Perhaps I have cutworms.

In my flower garden I have 9 rose bushes that are in full bloom.  I have noticed that the air in Colorado really holds scent well (good and bad).  Last night, I could smell my roses half a block away.  It's a sweet and spicy scent.  It's been a huge learning curve so far as I never have grown roses due to the fact that they are very hard to grow in North Dakota, where I used to live.  I have been dueling with the aphids which are challenging to even the most experienced organic gardener.  I have 2 boys squishing as fast as they can.  Just when we thought all was lost, the calvary moved in--lots of ladybugs and their larvae!  There's hope!!

I made this bug scuplture for the library.  They are having a bug reading program this summer and they wanted kids to decorate the library.  I used the book from the library and used garbage to make Cody the Bottle Bug.   His body is a Powerade bottle, his wings are made from netting that held apples, pipe cleaners and googly eyes.  Sparkly pipe cleaners made my scuplture better.  I will bring Cody to the library next week.  I hope the librarians like him!

Peter

Our garden is going good so far....... our tomatoes are 11 inches high.  Our sunflowers are hanging in there.  Every thing is great.  We had to do a lot of digging and composting grass off of the dirt clumps.  It was hard work.   But we have every thing great.........right now at least.   We keep it green and watered.  The sun helps too.  But in the front yard its another story that has to wait until another time.

christian

We had to start this garden from scratch.  We had to dig through the sod and the hard clay soil.  We had to add soil amendments.  Finally, we planted tomatoes, jalepeno pepper, sunflowers, onions, green beans, carrots and parsley.  The tomatoes, pepper, and sunflowers were planted last week and the sunflowers are now up!  We spent Memorial Day weekend planting the rest.  The boys are working on a gardening lapbook and learning about pollination, photosynthesis, and how seeds travel.  They will also keep a 15 day log on the progress of their seeds.  So far, the wait continues.....

We are organic gardeners and will try to keep an eye out for bugs.  So far, we have noticed the presence of slugs.  I had read in an Organic Gardening Magazine article to sprinkle coffee grounds around the plant being munched on.  I tried one plant and will see what happens.  The best way to rid a garden of slugs is to put a pie pan in the garden and fill it with beer.  Obviously, this is something Mom does.  The slugs are gluttons and can't resist this drink.  They drown!  I should try yeast water and see if it works just as well as I can't keep buying beer for the bugs in my garden.

We are also working on getting a good mulch layer as our climate is very dry and hot.  Another goal is to get our composter cooking and add compost to our soil.  The boys love to take scraps from the kitchen out to the composter.  Another favorite activity is to find worms, name them, and then give them a home in the composter.  Hopefully they like their new home.

A Veteran's Story

by Christian

My Grandpa Bob served in the Signal Corps of the U.S. Army from 1967-1968.  He served in the "Police Action in Vietnam" but most people call it the Vietnam War.  He served in a middle-sized city called Qui Nhon.  His duties were with electronic and verbal communications.  He typed top secret information that he sent via radio waves to Net Control in Saigon.  He remembers the TET Offensive of February 1, 1968, the fighting, the dead bodies on Main Street, the green countryside, Buddhism, and all his comrades that he served with.

I honor your service to our country, Grandpa.  Thank you for your sacrifice. 

This is our favorite recipe!  We are always asking our mom to make it for us.

Pumpkin Muffins

2 eggs                                                            

1 cup sugar                                                    

1 can (16 oz.) pumpkin                                 

3/4 cup oil                                                        

1/4 cup milk                                                     

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips 

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin, oil, and milk until smooth.  Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt.  Add to wet ingredients.  Fold in chocolate chips.  Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full.  Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes.  Cool muffins in pans for 10 minutes before removing.  Makes about 2 dozen muffins.

Hope you like these as much as we do!

We haven't been blogging due to the fact that we moved 750 miles a week before Christmas.  Now we are moving to our permanent address a few days after Easter.  We just haven't been able to enjoy any holidays due to the fact that we are living out of many boxes!

All throughout these various upheavals, we are still homeschooling.  I strongly believe that homeschooling has been our anchor since we moved.  It has kept us sane!  The one thing that has driven us crazy is the fact that we CANNOT find our Book of Centuries anywhere!  It didn't seem all that important until we had something to add to it.  Now we have a folder brimming with dates and pictures to put into our BOC when we find it.  I'm sure it was stuck into a box that's labelled "garden tools" or something completely unrelated to school.

As soon as we land on our feet after this next move, we are shopping for a church and a homeschool support group.  Colorado is an exciting place to homeschool.  There is so much going on and so many support groups to choose from.  After living in a small town in North Dakota, having choices is hard!  There's so much to choose from, where does one start?

What we are loving about our new home is that we are able to be outside in winter without fear of frostbite.  Behind where we are currently staying are bike/walking paths that take us to this park where we have a view of the foothills.  We are always amazed by the beauty found in our new city.