Tag Archives: nature study

Sign of the Beaver…the Daily Farm Adventures {103}

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No, not the book by Elizabeth George Speare (although we like that too!). I’m talking about the real thing. Brown. Wet. Big flat tail. Makes ponds where there should be no pond. Beavers. He was here… And here… We’ve got beaver problems at the tree farm. We’re not immediately ones to campaign against the local wildlife. We try to have a live-and-let-live philosophy. We only target wildlife that is specifically damaging our resources. For example, we know there’s coyotes around here–but none have ever bothered our stock, so we don’t mind sharing … Continue Reading…

The Night-Stalker…the Daily Farm Adventures {66}

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Well, I posted on Monday asking how everyone felt about pictures here on the blog–do you mind my sometimes blurry, sometimes grainy, sometimes shady pictures? Or would you prefer for me to find only good photography to share (which would probably not be my own!!). All the comments and emails I got were “yes, we like your pictures!” so here’s some more! {smile} I mentioned on Monday that we’ve got an owl in the neighborhood that seems to have made himself quite comfortable and is settling in. Well, he’s taken … Continue Reading…

Always A Bird Thing Going On…the Daily Farm Adventures {67}

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I’m not sure what it is about our kiddos, but they seem to be a magnet for hard-luck cases. Remember the Ladybug’s little bird adventure over the summer? And then there’s the case of the crazy, snuggling chicken (who is still living hale and hearty in the backyard). Well, now the Cowboy (who’s been inside most of the weekend struggling on and off with stomach issues) comes out of the house for ONE MINUTE Saturday evening to check on me working sheep alone–apparently the’re not sure I can handle anything … Continue Reading…

Wild Turkey Nursery…the Daily Farm Adventures {60}

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W have a lot of wild turkey in our area, and managing our field and wood edges carefully encourages them to stick around. We have a local flock that raises two batches of poults a year on the farm. You’ll see a couple hens out there with a passel of babies wandering through the tall grass every morning and evening. The fences and equipment don’t make them nervous. The sheep don’t make them nervous. The cows don’t bother them. The chickens don’t bother them. They just come and go as … Continue Reading…

On the Trail of the Beaver, Part 2…the Daily Farm Adventures {112}

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So on Monday I started to share how we spent all of last weekend scrounging through the woods on the tree farm looking for beavers. They’re damaging and flooding out young pine trees–which is the main product on the tree farm. {smile} But our adventure stopped just short of finding the new beaver hut… Well, here’s what we found–not just a den, but an entire new ecosystem! There are three different dams built to create a two-tier pond system.   Of course, Coal the Cattle Dog had to immediately jump … Continue Reading…

On the Trail of the Beaver, Part 1…the Daily Farm Adventures {111}

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You might think that tree farming is about the easiest farming there is. I did at first. I mean, you’re growing pine trees, and surely they don’t need much supervising…right? Wrong. For crying out loud, sometimes it feels like growing those trees takes more work than raising our human children! {smile} You have to cut, mow, burn, plant, pray for rain…mow, cut, thin, spray…and then the predators…rabbits, mice, rats, voles, disease…apparently everything that doesn’t eat meat loves to eat trees! And now beavers. I wrote before that we’ve found some beaver damage … Continue Reading…

The Boldness of Youth

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We were at the beach for a couple days, so our first day out the kids were a little hesitant.  The waves were pretty big and strong–especially for those of us under 3 feet tall!  And they were new to this whole moving water thing.  Swimming pools don’t chase you and knock you down and suck you back in, ya know.  They played in the water (especially the Ladybug, who had better size on the boys) and mostly on the sand, running down to the edge to fill their buckets. … Continue Reading…

10 Nature Journaling Notes

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We started nature journals with the kiddos over the summer. While I haven’t been completely faithful with them, they’ve been a great activity and we catch up every couple of weeks. We’re certainly not stopping and they’re not just about nature now. We’re recording gratitude lists, family trips, and just snippets of our everyday life together. Here’s a few tips I’ve picked up over the last couple months… 1. Take lots of pictures. This way you don’t lose things just because you don’t draw well or you forgot in the … Continue Reading…

Winter Nature Study Ideas

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Winter in south-eastern Virginia is a toss-up. Sometimes we get snow. Sometimes we just get ice all winter. And sometimes we get, well, not much of anything. This year has been pretty mild, which has been nice since we got so much outdoors-y stuff for the family this year. The kids have been loving our backpacking “practice hikes” around our fields–which is just our normal walks, but with our new gear on. (Well, Mr. Fix-It just puts his pack on to be a good sport with the family–but the rest … Continue Reading…

Nature Connections {Family Connections Summer 2012}

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Once again I’m joining Aurie, Lisa, Amy, and Connie to share ideas for fun, family activities for the summer. We hope you’ll stop by every Wednesday to share in our theme or link up your own posts about great summertime fun for the whole family! This week, our theme is Nature Connections–which my regular readers will know is near and dear to my heart!  Nature study is high on our casual summer study list this year and I’ve got some budding naturalists on my hands. One of the ways I’ve … Continue Reading…

Backyard Nature Birthday Party

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The Ladybug turned 9 back in August. So why am I just posting about her birthday now? Well, partly because we didn’t have her party until November. Awkward? Eh, maybe. But she wanted to invite school friends so we decided to wait until after school started. And September and October are just really busy times for us with school starting and soccer and lamb harvest and just everything. Besides, this is Tidewater Virginia. November is just Fall here, not winter. We didn’t sleep outside, but we did spend the rest … Continue Reading…

Helping Kids LOVE the Outdoors

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It’s no secret that we spend a lot of time outside and love the outdoors. Peruse our Facebook page, Instagram account, or even here at the blog, and almost all our pictures are outside. In the fields, in the woods, at the tree farm…even without structured activities our days are split about 60/40 outside time to inside time, other than school hours. Maybe even 70/30…if the weather is nice on the weekends even 90/10! (Yes, my housework suffers for it!) Here are some of the ways we lever the kiddos … Continue Reading…

Nature Encounters…The Great Horned Owl

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Have you noticed how much hustling about there is right now out in the world of wildlife? Everyone’s scurrying around to find new homes and territories and stock up their dens and burrows and bellies for winter. Seems like the squirrels around here are having a festival of foolishness around the roadside ditches. Mr. Fix-It and I were off for a walk, alone, the other day (how often does that happen!!) and collected a bunch of turkey feathers and an empty turtle shell to take back and show the kiddos. … Continue Reading…

Bald Eagle Encounters…Bald Eagle Study Resources

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I’m out the door in the morning the same time the boys head to the end of the driveway to catch the school bus. When they get picked up, I head to work. So we’re all heading out the other day and the Cowboy comes racing back in, “Mom, where’s your phone?!” Between my laptop, purse, lunch bag, and coat, I had no idea. He stormed through the house, grabbed it and headed back out. We had a Bald Eagle. In the driveway. I dropped my pile of junk by … Continue Reading…

With Wings as Eagles

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My dad would have been 52 today.  I’ve been saving these pictures from last week for his birthday because he would have LOVED them. If the sight of roadkill bothers you (or you’re a cat lover), you’ll probably want to skip this post. If you’re a fan of Wild Discovery in your own backyard (or a few blocks away, in this case) you’ll probably like these too.  The Fed Ex guy that was stuck behind me seemed to think it was pretty cool too.  Although he didn’t have much choice. … Continue Reading…