That Mom

I have a post over on my friend OutsideMom.com's blog today about letting the kids get muddy, and being 'that mom' at the playground. Check it out!

Critters of the New

We found a bunch of cool critters on our hikes to and from climbing spots at the New River Gorge over the 4th of July weekend.


Leaving the crag one day I spotted a newly emerged luna moth (Actias luna) hanging out on a stick. The camera was buried somewhere in the backpack, so I found this (undoubtedly much better) photo on flickr to share. This was my second ever luna moth spotted in the wild, and the first for Doodle and Roo.


We found six of these juvenile red-spotted newts (Notophthalmus viridescens, red eft form) at the base of the Honeymooner's Ladders at Endless Wall. They made themselves scarce not long after we arrived, but we felt lucky to have spotted them out and about.


While J was retrieving the last bits of climbing gear at the end of our final day there, our friend Brenda spotted this brilliantly-colored bird hanging out in the understory - turns out it's a Scarlet Tanager! This is another flickr photo, as yet again the camera was buried.


We also found a beautiful Promethea silkmoth during our hike out in the rain. This is another photo from flickr, as we only paused briefly during the rainstorm to admire the gorgeous, large male moth obviously trying to stay dry on a tree trunk as we passed by.

Berry picking

The kids and I are becoming reacquainted with the joys of berry picking. In Utah we had a raspberry patch in our backyard and, from an early age, Doodle learned to check it daily for delicious morsels. We no longer have a berry patch in our yard, but we did discover a good-sized patch of black raspberries just beyond our community garden.

Roo with the booty. Doodle showing that she's only a little messy.

We have made it out to the black raspberry patch four times so far, and will hopefully squeeze in one or two more pickings as the plants are winding down. We've made berry fruit leather, berry preserves, berry ice cream and dried berries. Tonight: more berry ice cream with yesterday's pickings.

Doodle looking for blueberries.

I'm really enjoying getting out and foraging with the kids, and they enjoy it for short bursts too (about an hour is the max). Doodle eats more than she picks and Roo only eats the berries, so I feel triumphant when I manage to pick enough to bring some home after feeding my helpers. Really, though, I'm just happy to get outside with them and they're happy to be out and eating straight from the bushes.

Doodle happy with her flower despite finding few blueberries at Bear Meadows. Roo eating two of the four ripe berries we found.

Last week we went scouting for blueberries. The short plants are just starting to ripen and the large bushes are probably another week out before we'll head back out for some picking.

What is your favorite thing to do with blueberries?

Commence gardening!

It's garden season!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have a 10' x 15' plot in the Penn State Center for Sustainability Community Garden this year. Saturday was our first work day in the garden, where we helped mark the new plots (including our own), ripped up some old fencing and moved some compost.

photo by Doodle

Sunday we decided to head back to the garden to work just on our plot. We started laying a rock path along the center of our plot. In doing that, J realized there was a large rock buried ~6" below the surface of the soil. We started digging and found a lot of large shale pieces.

J excavating. Photo by Doodle.

We finally got most of the rocks in that quarter of the garden excavated, and filled the hole with dirt and compost. J finished the path and we used the extra rocks to surround our plot.

Our garden after 5 hours of work. Note the stone fairy house in the lower right corner and the beautiful path laid by J.

We were at the garden for five hours yesterday and the kids did great. They love being outside. Doodle explored some wooded areas near the garden, which she loved until her unfortunate discovery of a nettle patch. (I learned she had found the nettles when I saw her stomping on something repeatedly. I asked what she was doing and she told me "Mom, this mean plant zapped me!" Yep, she was stomping on the nettles.) She's now a bit more wary of venturing into the woods, but hopefully we'll get her back in there soon, better able to identify and avoid nettles and poison ivy.

We are planning to grow: herbs, tomatoes, strawberries, onions, tomatoes, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, ground cherries and perhaps some more tomatoes.

Hooray for gardening season!

Haleakala

Subalpine zone, Haleakala National Park

One of our last days in Hawaii J and I took a daytrip with the kiddos up to Haleakala National Park, the big crater in the middle of Maui. We wanted to see a wild Sandalwood tree (J's Master's thesis study organism), some Silverswords (plants native to Hawaii, some of which are endangered), and some Nene (Hawaiian Geese). We struck out on the Nene, but found some introduced Chukar near the top of the crater. I grumbled a little about the chukar, as a guy had pointed us to the trail saying "There's some Nene right over there!" Oh well.

The sandalwood was everything J had hoped, and even had some bracken fern (his PhD study organism) growing up and out of it. We stopped and botanized in the subalpine zone, where I would definitely spend more time given the opportunity. We saw some Vaccinium (Hawaiian huckleberries), a bunch of neat leguminous shrubs, and even found a cute yellow-faced solitary bee!

cute little male solitary bee!

The silverswords were beautiful, especially in the near-barren alpine zone where they grow. The visitor center at the top is just short of 10,000 feet elevation, and you can see everything from up there. We could see the ocean all around the island, and some of the nearby islands. It was beautiful. I'm glad we decided to head up country because we got to see some beautiful areas and explore some ecosystems that are very different from the beach.

On the long, winding drive up the mountain we saw some hitchhikers with longboards and helmet-cams, and realized they had just done something like this:



We totally would have picked up the guys just to hear their story, but with the carseats and kiddos we didn't have room for them. Bummer.

A little farther up the mountain we saw another pair of guys coming down on their longboards. Looked a little scary, but definitely a rush. The road is perfect for this; it's nice and smooth, long, well maintained, and low traffic. I'm under orders from my mom to not tell my brother about this.



Pretty amazing, don't you think?

Unseasonably Warm

The daily weather forecast on the radio has been for "unseasonably warm weather" every day this week. We've made a point to soak up as much of it as possible, knowing that winter is just around the corner.

The insects seem to have the same idea. Ladybugs searching for a good winter hiding spot

while dragonflies squeeze as much living as possible into these last warm days. (Doodle caught this one with my hat, and later it landed on her leg to finish a meal.)

Ahhh, Vitamin D. Good stuff.

Photos from our outing to Penn-Roosevelt State Park.

Mmm, Fall

Sunny Fall days like we've had this week make me wish Winter would take its sweet time in getting here. We can't seem to be outside enough this week. It's great.

Climbing at Mocanaqua

We went climbing a few weeks ago at Mocanaqua, a place about 2 hours away. Our friend E was trying out his new camera lens, so we got some good photos from the outing.

Dirty Doodle pretending to be angry. The bath was sooooo gross that night.

Dirty cute Roo.

That's the look J gives me when I'm nearing my wit's end with a frustrating crabby Doodle. This look says "Patience, love. She's only three." I get this look a lot.

Roo fading.

And whaddaya know? With enough climbers around to belay and play with children, even Mama can get on the rock. I just did one route, a 5.7, but it was good to climb nonetheless. Hopefully next season I'll get up even more, and maybe even start improving at this whole rock climbing thing.

Mast year

See that pile? Beneath the meager collection of leaves is a whopping pile of acorns. Yes, my children are jumping in/on an acorn pile. Don't feel bad for them. The acorns are subsiding FINALLY, and the leaves are coming down in greater numbers. We really do have leaf piles now for jumping in. Because acorn piles? They kinda suck.

But really, the kids look happy, right? Wouldn't you be happy if your big sister gave you her fuchsia-sequined headband then told you you're pretty?

Doodle excerpts from a nature outing

Memorable snippets from an outing with the kids to Shaver's Creek Environmental Center last week.

Much discussion and admiration of migrating monarchs, and a monarch costume worn proudly.

(real, live) Snakes in tanks with informative signs, followed by a Real! Live! Snake! in the Wild!

Lots of worker bumble bees (that means they're girls, Mom, so don't touch!) foraging on the jewelry (Jewelweed). It's called that because it's like jewelry on the plant. Like bracelets when I bellydance.

Treasures in the form of early-turning fall foliage, collected and carefully stowed for transport home. But don't give it to anyone. Not even a moose.

Admiring injured Bald Eagles, then asking them hey, do you want to go to a playground with me?

This kid is so amazing, so engaged, so awesome.

Crag swing

What do you do with a 3.75 year old at a climbing crag? Well, you give her toys and food, show her where to find mud and acorns for mud pies, and hope all that will occupy her for a while.

But then, after Papa climbs the 5.12a/b overhanging route and needs to take a break...

...it's swinging time!

An Outing

We went for a hike again on Saturday, exploring another state park.

Some of us worked on our skipping technique

...while others simply hiked, exuding cuteness.

I love getting outside and exploring with them.

Backtrack to Black Moshannon

Awhile back I wrote about our 'splorin' adventure to Black Moshannon State Park. Now that I've found the camera cables I wanted to share a few of the photos from that outing.

This is a flower from the non-native orchid, Epipactis helleborine.

Black Moshannon Lake. Lots of waterlilies.

Photo by Doodle.

Doodle & Papa botanizing. She found some sundews, which are cute little carnivorous bog plants.

Reading the informational signage.

This is the Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora), a holoparasitic mycotrophic plant. That means it doesn't photosynthesize and relies entirely on food taken from other plants by way of a connection to a fungal intermediary to their roots. Really dang cool.

It was everywhere.

Me & my minions, futilely searching for frogs.
Maybe we'll find some next time.

'Splorin'

That's Doodlese for "exploring". Still stuck in the Utah routine of being unable to conduct business around town on Sundays, we've taken to making Sunday our splorin' day.

First we headed northeast to Black Moshannon State Park. Took some windy dirt back roads (yay!) to get there, marveling at the green everywhere. People keep telling us it's been dry this summer, and counties around us are on a drought watch, but it seems really wet and green to this western girl. Heck, we've had at least six rainstorms since we've been here. Big thunder-n-lightning rainstorms. Very wet. But I digress. My point is it's really really green here.

We had a picnic then walked the bog trail at Black Moshannon. Found an orchid (Epipactis helleborine - a non-native), a mycotrophic plant (Monotropa uniflora - Indian Pipe), a carnivorous plant (Drosera rotundifolia - a sundew) and a couple of cute lycophytes. Great outing.

This past Sunday we went south to Bear Meadows Natural Area, another beautiful boggy spot. J heard that the blueberries were ripe down there, so we decided to check it out. Sure enough, blueberries galore. We picked for a while, but Doodle got bored so we kept hiking along the loop trail. We saw a ton of Rhododendrons and Vaccinium (blueberries), plus some ferns and a whole bunch of deciduous trees that I don't know. Boy do I need to learn my Eastern trees. Made it about a mile before Doodle decided she was done hiking and we turned around.

After Bear Meadows J wanted to check out a bouldering location further south. By the time we got there both kids were sound asleep. He hiked off to find the boulders while I sat in silence (ahhh) and read. I finally woke the kids up when I realized we were all slowly roasting in the car and should get out to enjoy the shade of the forest.

We got out and had just started our hike up the hill to find J when we heard him hoot, letting us know he was on his way back down. We met up and decided to let the kids play in a nearby stream. While Doodle was eyeing the water striders Roo was trying to launch himself headlong into the stream. J set him down in the shallow stream and Roo was thrilled, splashing and crawling to his heart's content. I caught a crawdad the size of a half-dollar and showed Doodle. She held it, let it go, then begged me to find another. J and I caught a bunch, one after another, to be examined and liberated by our little crawdad aficionado. Once Roo got cold and Doodle became less enthralled with the crustaceans we went back to the car.

On the way I spotted a log sporting a sizable clump of oyster mushrooms. Yum! Mushrooms were collected and put in the cooler for the drive back home. Successful outing in the form of blueberries, both in bellies and in the cooler, mosquito bites, tired forearms, photos of crawdads deemed "cute!", and mushrooms for the cooking.

I'm really liking Sunday splorin'.

Papa's dream

When Doodle was little, maybe less than a year old, we bought her some kid-sized cross country skis. J learned to x-c ski when he was very little, and has always dreamed of teaching his kids to ski. Well, it seems this is the year. We've tried to get Doodle on her skis before, but she hasn't been interested. Until we tried this weekend...

...she loves it! Okay, sometimes she loves it - if she's well fed, it's not too cold, and especially if she's going downhill between Papa's legs. Fast = fun for this three year old.
She was laughing hysterically with every fall, and falling that much more. But she was having fun, and we all got outside for a couple of snow outings this weekend. I think we're going to make this a regular thing...
...much to one Papa's delight.

Oneida Narrows

Sunday we teamed up with friend B and headed up to the Oneida Narrows of the Bear River in Idaho. J and B wanted to get their kayaking legs back, and decided to start with this mellow stretch of river to get the hang of things again. We drove up through a big storm, downpouring with thunder and lightning. But the water looked nice, and the rain was letting up, so they went ahead and got on the river.

Doodle and I were shuttle crew, dropping them off and then leapfrogging with J and B as they proceeded down the river. We'd stop, wave and yell, watch them pass, then pile in the car and drive a little further. Doodle had fun watching her Papa boating and yelling hi to him. The weather got progressively better and was clear and warmish by the time they reached the takeout. Doodle even got to sit in the boat with J at the takeout for a couple minutes. If I get the chance, I'll take video of her interpretation of paddling a kayak - it's hilarious.

After the river run, we proceeded a few miles up Oneida Narrows Road to our favorite hotspring - Maple Grove. B had never been there so we were happy to take her on her inaugural visit to our not-too-far-away getaway. It was a wonderful day.

Scenery shot, looking upriver from a bridge. J and B are just barely visible rounding the bend.

There's J, happy as can be.

Doodle and Papa at the takeout. The water was about a foot deep here.

Doodle taking charge of paddling.

My aching legs

The past few days have been very busy. I've been active, and now my leg muscles are on the brink of mutiny. I think the activity is good (I've been having fun), but wow am I sore. Here's an account of the past few days, from the perspective of my quadriceps muscles:

• Saturday: five (yes FIVE) hours of bellydance workshop. Lots and lots of shimmying, which means sore quads. Drove to City of Rocks in the evening.
  
• Sunday: woke up feeling stiff. Spent the day hiking around, plus one leg-intensive climb. Legs still sore.
• Monday: Scrambled up to rock outcroppings in Logan Canyon to help a friend catch bees at an endangered primrose. Lots of hill climbing. Legs? A bit more sore.
• Tuesday: Biked to campus to pick up minibus for field trip. Hiked around for nearly two hours looking for fungi on a hillside. Holy sore legs, batman!
  

Either I was incredibly inactive this winter and my muscles have gotten used to being lazy (a possibility) or I've just started doing too much physical stuff day after day after day lately. Doesn't matter. What does matter is that my legs are really stinkin' sore, and I may declare tomorrow a minimal-leg-use day.

At least the bike ride home from campus is all downhill.

Skiing!!!

Okay, so remember my whining about how I haven't been skiing since 2003, and aren't I pitiful?

No longer!

I went skiing yesterday. It was great.

Saturday we were at a friend's 8th birthday party. J and I were chatting with the parents, and he asked them if they would be skiing on Sunday. They said yes. J asked if I could go with them. They said yes.

I said "what? But... but..."

J said "you want to go. You should go. You're going."

And so I went.

It was great. Nice and sunny and clear, and not too cold. The snow was nicely groomed and not icy. I did maybe 10+ runs... I lost count. That's how much fun I was having.

Oh, AND I'm actually an okay skier. I really didn't know how I would do, since it had been so long. But I did really well. No falling. Went fairly fast. Even tried a couple black diamonds, and *had fun* on them. I think maturity and a better sense of my own body has really helped my technique. Which is nice.

So I did it! I went skiing! Now I definitely won't wait so long to go skiing again. Thanks, friends!

Skiing

I really need to go skiing sometime this winter.

Why, you ask?

Well, because I haven't gone downhill skiing since moving to Utah. Ridiculous, I know.

I learned to downhill in junior high. Our ski club went up to the nearest mountain every Friday after school for night skiing. It was the big social activity with my friends - EVERYONE went. I skied nearly every week for three winters. Then high school came and most of my ski buddies were at the other high school. My high school didn't have a ski club. My ski trips dwindled down to 1-2 per winter, when a couple of friends and I would pile into my little Tercel with near-bare studded tires and slowly wind our way up the mountain for a day of fun. I missed it.

College on the California coast meant I went cross-country skiing twice while there, plus whenever I came home. The one time I went downhilling was my first road trip with J, when we skied Mammoth.

That's the last time I went downhill skiing. Mammoth Mountain, March 2003.

And here I am, living in the land of "the greatest snow on Earth". It says so on the freaking license plates, yet I have barely touched the snow. *Sigh* Anyone want to help me fix this?

Back to The City

We went back to the City of Rocks this weekend. A bunch of our friends came, making for a big fun group outing. There were very few people there, probably due to it being the weekend after the 4th. Last time it wasn't necessarily crowded, but there were many more people. I liked the solitude and quiet this time around. Doodle enjoyed the dogs and the dirt (see below - it took her less than 20 minutes from arrival to get that dirty). She also enjoyed playing and interacting with our friends.


I did half of a climb the first day - my first rock climbing since before getting pregnant with Doodle. It was pretty daunting to consider, but I'm glad I got on the wall. I decided not to finish the climb because I hadn't eaten in hours and was feeling pretty shaky and unstable. The second day Doodle was really clingy, so we just chilled at the bottom of the routes and watched J et. al climb. Our group was really mellow, which was perfect. I had a great time. I'm glad we went.