A Year in the Woods ...
6 hours outside. The day started with a burdock seed fight. Burdock seeds are a seed that sticks to you like Velcro, try not to get them in your hair! Did you know that just about everything that we do, from engineering to medicine is based on observations in nature? We found wooly bears and talked about the folklore that went with them. Crickets were everywhere and we discussed how they were a great source of protein. (A cricket May or may not been eaten). Spider webs with different engineering styles and patterns were easy to spot in the morning dew. Jewel weed which we usually use for bug bites now has some seed pods on them that explode when you touch them . We helped a lot of seeds disperse today. We found that Autumn olive berries(seeds as well) are easy to identify and discussed how they are a good source of vitamin A and E, bioactive compounds, minerals, flavonoids and proteins they are also astringent , a great vocabulary word BTW ( a lot of autumn olive berries were eaten!) We found some old boards, created a fulcrum and played with load and force by moving different sized people and moving the fulcrum . We would have made a friction fire this morning but because of dry conditions we couldn’t , we are in a fire warning which led us to our current events conversation on the wildfires in CA and a brief discussion on climate change. We stopped in the garden for a quick tomato snack. We liked the yellow ones better. We laughed. We ran. We climbed. That all happened in the first hour. #yearinthewoods #outside #smarterhappierhealthier #pratt ...

A big thank you to all who came out to our Socially distant fundraiser . It was good to be TOGTHER again !! Most were donning their best tie dye because “Why fit in when you were born to stand out ?” #optoutside #community #Prattstyle. ...

Crossing bridges and watching slugs . (Some Of us watched a slug cross the farm driveway for a good 30 minutes. He didn’t get very far) #optoutside #natureschool #smarterhappierhealthier #pratt ...