Welcome to Alaska Nature! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Tue, 9 Sep 2008 23:15:00 -0500 Tue, 9 Sep 2008 23:15:00 -0500 It is about time we got back to our Nature Journals. Our leaves do not last long here in Alaska so we have a short window of fall leaves to do whatever we need to do to our leaves. We gathered leaves of all types and brought them in for crayon rubbings. Here are some blessings peeling crayons. Rubbings, blessing #1 really enjoyed this and said he could spend a lot of time doing so, he did!   Blessing #2 wanted a little closer look at her leaves. Finally, they cut out their leaves and glued them into their nature journals. I read about leaves and trees from the Handbook of Nature Study. Then, we cleaned up all that mess from cutting and pasting and crayon paper, etc. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/587790/ Tue, 9 Sep 2008 23:15:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/587790/   Rose Hips (I may be out picking rose hips to dry soon) My children were at a friend's home today and they helped pick some of the last raspberries and strawberries of the season. We have a few in the fridge. Yumm-O tomorrow!!   Here are some mushrooms, I did not take time to look up this specific kind tonight. We had a good mushroom  showing this year due to all the July rain that poured and poured down upon us.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/587235/ Tue, 9 Sep 2008 00:25:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/587235/ Here we have a nagoon berry, looks just like a raspberry but grows low to the ground. Information on the Nagoon Berry (common name) Latin Name: Rubus stellatus Family: Rosaceae Grows best in peaty soil or tundra And is a perennial plant These plants grow all around our yard and the blessings enjoy picking them and popping them right in their mouths. They grow so low to the ground that it wouldn't be a lot of fun to pick them in any large quantity, but we enjoy munching on them during the summer. Clover http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/583528/ Mon, 1 Sep 2008 18:05:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/583528/ Yes, yellow leaves already.... I should be posting more often here now that my surgery is past and I am back to my normal. I took lots of nature pictures this evening so I am ready to get back to posting here regularly.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/577510/ Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:52:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/577510/ The bird feeders have finally started attracting birds. I was able to get a picture of this little Chickadee on Satuday. The picture was taken through the window and screen. I will be getting more acquainted with the ABO website, especially since we are studying the Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day with Apologia Science. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/503905/ Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:13:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/503905/ As some of you may or may not know, we have a little challenge with everything we do here in Alaska. I am very interested in composting to amend our garden soil, cheap and very effective, right up my alley. I had an idea abou a month or so ago that I would keep all of our food scraps, egg shells, etc. in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid and then when garden rototilling time comes we can get it into the garden and let the rototiller finish breaking it down a little. Will it work? I have no idea! There is a lady here locally that writes gardening articles in the Sunday newspaper and I noticed a couple of weeks ago that she has started for the season, so maybe she will address composting soon. The stuff that is already in the bucket is beginning to decompose. I also plan to keep a pile cooking in the yard all summer using yard clippings and black plastic. I will continue to study and find any more effective methods of amending our soil. I do have to say that I am a cheapo gardener.  Thus the evidence of an unlandscaped yard, coupled with the fact that  my husband does not enjoy landscaping but he does like to grow a garden.I am slowly enlarging and landscaping the beds at the front of our home and I plan to do it myself which means lots of me digging with a shovel. I may finish those beds by the year 2038. Plus, I only buy half off perinneals at the end of the season when I can find them. The rest I grab from all the wild perinneals surrounding our yard. I am not posting a picture of my yucky bucket but I will keep posting on this little nature project of mine as time progresses. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/488060/ Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:20:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/488060/ We took a walk to go sledding today and I thought the sky looked kind of neat.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/483995/ Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:08:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/483995/ Ravens are very common here, in fact, our blessings call them black trash bags. They frequent store parking lots, where there is always plenty of trash(especially trash trucks that just through trash in the back of the truck and drive around with it for a while before taking it to the dump, and also road kill sites, and anywhere else there is edible debris. Manly, they are the garbage disposals of the area. I guess someone has got to do it. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/481724/ Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:41:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/481724/ Well, the cold is lingering longer than I would like and we were getting weather reports that the weather would improve Friday or Saturday but now I think that has changed. Update on the ants... one escaped and I paniced and threw them away. Most of them had perished by that time. They did finally eat the spinach but I feel we were not providing them with the best living conditions and it was for the best. Today's nature viewing was this, A common raven corvus corax . Alaska department of fish and game has a really good notebook series, that I purchased years ago as a set (before we even owned a computer and could access this type of information or even had blessings.) Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Subphylum: Vertebrata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Corvidae Genus: Corvus Species: Corvus corax This picture is of our dog attempting to make the raven go away, the raven was not intimidated. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/476808/ Thu, 7 Feb 2008 21:43:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/476808/ Well, our carpenter ants are trudging along but most did not come back and the ones that are living are not eating. But little workers they are. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/470118/ Tue, 29 Jan 2008 01:11:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AlaskaNature/470118/