In Awe of Placed Based Learning

Last Friday I was honored to be able to attend a field trip with my youngest son's Middle School 7th and 8th graders. Chris goes to a local public K-8 school with a small environmental middle school program (60 kids). As the program is fairly new, half of the students are 6th graders and the other half are 7th and 8th graders. This field trip was only the 7th & 8th graders, so 3o students. The other half of the middle school went to Avery park to muck around at Mary's River. We went to the Santiam River, up past Sweet Home, to check out a fish hatchery and a river restoration site. Our students will be raising chinook salmon and one of the types of trout in the classroom this year for release later in the year. The science focus study this year is "rivers and the Ocean", so their field studies will be centered around these themes.

Because they are studying it in class, they came to the fishery with a base of knowledge already present. I, however, did not. I think it was fascinating for all of us, but it was totally new for me.



This fishery worker is clipping the fin of a steelhead fry before it gets popped out into the growing areas. There is a tube that leads outside attached to the black basin she's puts the fish in after clipping. The hatchery grown steelhead are clipped as a way for fisherman to know that they are legal to keep. Wild steelhead must be released back into the wild when caught. It's extremely important for the long-term success of steelhead that fishermen play by the rules and don't keep any wild steelhead. For some reason, the prodigy of hatchery steelhead are not viable and don't survive. There is apparently an edge that natural selection has provided wild steelhead ensuring their success in breeding not present with hatchery steelhead. Fishery biologists are working diligently to close that gap, but it's a time consuming venture and it's a race against the clock to keep our steelhead from dying out in the mean time.



The students are feeding the fish held in the water below them. The kids were so excited when the fish would pop up to the surface. One of the things I love about this middle school program is how delighted our kids are in little things like feeding fish. At a time that is agonizing for most people (the dreaded middle school years), our students are allowed to be what they are: kids.

Another part of the field trip was looking at a river restoration site. Our students will be working on a restoration site through this year, including growing native plants to place at the site they choose. They grew plants last year for their wetland restoration projects, so it will be interesting for them to grow different types that will work along the river beds.

The first picture is of a part of the river that hasn't been restored, the bottom picture is of a site that was restored recently. Our tour leader is a fishery biologist with the department of forestry (I believe) who lead this restoration project, got the grants for it, and guided the work. The big difference in the river to note is the fallen trees that have been placed throughout. The trees will provide hiding spots for growing fish and slow down the river in places so that the fish can rest. But, probably most importantly it will cause gravel that is traveling with the current to gather along the shore. This will provide future spawning ground.





In the art scene here, Chris and Andy went to a puppet workshop at The Majestic (as Andy posted below) and Chris came back inspired. Since the workshop he created this dragon, which is chicken wire covered in duct tape, and his new lunch box "fuzzy".





He took fuzzy to school a couple of times last week, but told me that fuzzy needs to "lay low" for awhile. Apparently he was getting too much attention at lunch, and Chris had a streak of shyness and started to feel funny with random kids coming up and petting his lunch box. Funny, funny. He's gluing the eyes on another box for Scott, who I am sure can't wait for strange kids to come up to him at lunch time and pet his new lunch box.

I was the happy recipient of a large box of gapes from a friend's vine this week. I'd been wanting to try making jelly, so it was the perfect opportunity. Overall it was very easy to make. I used about half of the sugar the recipes called for, so the jelly actually tastes likes grape. It turned out wonderful, I can see this is going to be another annual canning project to add to the list. I like it even better than the strawberries. Believe me, that is saying something. If you are local and read this, holler and we can work out a way to get you some. If you aren't local and you're family, you can holler too. If you are real nice to me and Andy doesn't see me putting any precious jars of jelly/jam in a box, I'm sure I can get you some.

Visual Coding for Artists

While randomly following some links I ran across this little gem, a visualization created with Processing, an open source code base for artists. The following is procedural, not a traditional keyframed animation.


Weird Fishes: Arpeggi from flight404 on Vimeo.

There are other cool projects out there, like knitted news and live pong performance art, among other things. Something I must look into once I have a bit more spare time. Or at least spend some serious time browsing all of Flight404's videos.

How To: Custom iPhone Ringtones

Today's class will cover how to turn any of your audio files into an iPhone ring tone using iTunes, followed by a test worth 50 points. Apple can't seem to convince their laywers that this is a good feature, so it may not work in past or future versions of iTunes. Here's what you need:

• iTunes (tested in v7.7.0.43)
• iPhone (tested on 1st gen model, v2.0.2)

Overview:

1. Set start and stops for the file
2. Convert to AAC
3. Rename the extension as .m4r
   

Songs that make good ringtones tend to be the more obnoxious ones in your collection, something you can hear in a crowd, and that happen to contain a memerable riff you can loop.

Step 1. Start and Stop Points

Chances are, you don't want the whole song to play as your ringtone. Let's clip that sucker down to the jucy parts. But first, set iTunes to loop the song. This will simulate what you'll hear when the phone rings. Click the "repeat" button until a little (1) appears.



Now, play your file and watch the time code number. Note the number where you'd like to start and stop your ringtone. A rough number is fine for now.



Next, we'll put in some temporary start and stop times. Right-click on the song and choose "Get Info" from the menu choices.



Select the Options tab and add your start and stop numbers.



Click "OK" and play back the song in iTunes. The song should loop back to the beginning. If the timing isn't quite right just rinse and repeat:

1. Get Info
2. Adjust time settings
3. Play

You can also enter fractions of a second, like 0:30.75

Step 2: Convert to Ringtone

In this step we'll encode the shortened section into an Apple rintone file (m4r). First, make sure iTunes is set to encode as AAC files. Go to the Edit menu and choose Preferences (Ctrl+comma). Then click the Advanced tab at the top, and Importing sub-section.



Check that Import Using is set to AAC Encoder.

Now, back to the audio file. Right-click on it again, and choose Convert Selection to AAC.



Did you notice the option just below this: Create Ringtone. That only works for Music Store songs, ugh!

At this point you may want to filter your songs to only show the one you're working with. Use the search option in the upper right to reduce the playlist.



You should see 2 copies of the same file, each with different times. Right-click on the one with the shorter time (your converted file) and choose Show in Windows Explorer (or similar option).

Change the file extension from m4a to m4r.


Can't see the 3 letter file extension? Try one of these.

You now have a ringtone file. Double-clicking it will add it to your ringtones playlist.

Step 3: Cleanup

Now that you've screwed up some iTunes settings and left junk files around, here's a checklist of items you may want to set back the way they were:

• Turn off Repeat One Song. Click the button in the bottom left corner.
  
• Turn off the Start and Stop time for the original song. Select the song and choose Get Info.
• Delete the old converted file, it'll probably show up as missing anyway. See above.
  
• Change encoding from AAC. Why encourage vendor lock-in? Switch your import format to something standard, like MP3. Look under Preferences > Advanced > Importing.

Tales of Robin Hood

The current happenin' Purviance art scene is costuming for Robin Hood. "So, I was thinking we could make it look like a cartoon" Jen said, ever so innocently. After much pondering over how in the world to do that with actors that insist on being 3-dimensional, I decided that the key would be to keep it all visually very simple. The costumes are going to be made out of felt, it's very matte (to give it a flat finish) and it is insanely easy to sew. The main colors are going to be bold, with a lighter color piping to give an outline effect. Shoulders will have stiff boning in them to add to the general "oversized" look. I've already made a couple of the costumes, The Evil Prince John and Robin Hood.

The Evil Prince John: The belt is going to have a huge buckle, but other than that it's done. He will have black leggings, obnoxiously large boots, and a very large crown.



His snotty little cape:



Robin Hood will have an oversized hat and a gold arrow on his back. I added three very large light blue buttons up the front.



I'll have around 20 costumes to make. The play is in November, so it's actually a pretty generous schedule this time.

The boys auditioned for it today, and will go back tomorrow. They both love the audition process, even though the waiting is always somewhat stressful.

Our chicken of the day is Chicken Hawk. Endearingly, she jumps up on my lap for snuggles whenever I sit in the run with them. Since she was a day old she has been one of our friendliest birds. Her friendliness is limited to humans, though. She seems to have something to prove with the other birds and is a bit of a brat to them. She never hurts them, but she does constantly challenge all the other birds except Lori and Annie. We had "the talk" yesterday, so I'm sure the egg laying will be happening anytime now. Although, I think my little "eggs or chicken nuggets girls, your choice" speech may not have been taken seriously. They can smell a vegetarian a mile away.

Strawberry Jam

Making jam is not as hard as you would think. I recently canned 36 small jars of strawberry jam in a morning. Though it's not necessarily a cost-saver if you factor in the cost of jars (though these are re-usable) and fruit, the quality you can get with home-made jam is incomparable. Commercial jam is generally made with over-ripe, under-ripe, and ripe fruit, which forces them to use a lot of sugar or worse, high fructose corn syrup. Home-made jam is generally made with fruit that is at the height of flavor, allowing for a deeper fruit flavor without requiring as much sugar.

For this batch of jam, I bought a flat of strawberries from Heavenly Harvest's stand at the Wednesday Farmer's Market. The fruit was perfect, my biggest challenge the entire day was saving some for the jam and not getting a stomach ache from overconsumption. I do love strawberries. Don't bother canning with anything except direct from the grower or home-grown strawberries. The strawberries that are available at most grocery stores aren't worth the trouble, they are made for transport and taste like cardboard. I know it sounds like I am a strawberry elitist, and I admit that I am spoiled, but the only time I eat strawberries is when they are in season. The taste difference is phenomenal.



After getting most of the strawberries home, rinse them off and cut off the stems. Again, this is a dangerous time, you must have nerves of steel to make it through this without gorging on fresh berries. Cut the berries into smaller pieces and plop them in a nice big pot.



Don't forget to feed your stem pieces to your chickens, they will LOVE eating off all of the extra bits of strawberries. This may require you to get some chickens, if you don't already have some. Which you really should.



Add a tablespoon or so of lemon juice to your strawberries, this will bring up the acidity of your jam and help preserve it. You will also want to add sugar. How much sugar is entirely up to you. Most recipe's call for almost as much sugar as fruit, I find this totally excessive and it tends to drown out the taste of your fruit. What I generally do is add some, let it mix and boil for a bit, then taste it and add more if it's not enough. Boil your berries, stirring constantly, until it gets a nice mushy texture. Because you are going with less sugar, you will need to add in some pectin. Pectin is a natural thickener made from apples. For a full flat of strawberries I used 2 packets of liquid pectin. After adding the pectin, let it cook for a few minutes, stirring it constantly. You should see your jam thicken up. It will still be a bit runny, but it should be thick once it cools. While your strawberries cook it is a good time to sterilize your jars. Just put them in boiling water for a few minutes. Keep your jars hot after sterilizing.



Turn off your strawberries. Line up your jars and fill up to 1/4 inch from the top. This is your headspace. Use a clean damp rag to carefully wipe the rim of your jar. Put your new caps on and cover with a screw-top. Your lid should be "fingertip" tight, stop when you meet resistance. Put in your boiler-canner and make sure there is at least an inch of water over the top. Boil for 10 minutes, only start the timer once it is really boiling.



Once the timer goes off, use your jar lifter to pull them out. Let your jars cool on a towel, with a bit of space in between each one. You'll hear a pop sound. That's just the jars sealing up. It's a happy jar sound.



That's it, congratulate yourself on your extreme cleverness! Canning is becoming a lost art, and believe me it looks very impressive when you go over to someone's house and bring them a jar of home-made jam. For strawberry jam I have to really like them an awful lot.

For further reading, there is a fabulous write up here
on how to make apple butter.

Majestic Tryouts today for "Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood"

The Majestic Education is holding tryouts for their upcoming kid performances of The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood today (Mon) and tomorrow (Tues) from 5:00-7:00 pm. Jen Waters will be directing, but they always pick a range of children from novice to experienced. For best results, it pays to tryout on both days.

And the poster looks fantastic! (wink-wink)

Stop! It's Puppet Time

Chris and I really enjoyed our visit to today's puppet workshop put on by the Majestic Theatre (downtown Corvallis, $5). We learned how to breath life into a masking taped wad of inanimate objects, including chopsticks, cloth and wadded newspaper. Mine turned into some form of Mickey Mouseish metro swinger with blue hair. The kid spent a long time forming his dragon head then added purple wings and a spiked tail. Now he can't wait to see the full Reluctant Dragon puppet show - but in the mean time he's out in the backyard sculpting left over chicken wire into a dragon head.

Speaking of puppets, the host mentioned Puppet Up, an improv troupe with Brian Henson and crew. Funny, but not for kids. Well, not for kids that haven't been ruined by crass humor and sarcasm. Ours are already beyond help.



Back in the day I once worked on a few projects involving famous TV puppets. Making video games for preschoolers was always an odd experience. There are few jobs where you might find yourself in a room full of grownups seriously discussing what a bear should say after sniffing you. All the best material was never suitable for all ages. But, even then I was always amazed by the other grownups who made their living with their hand up a puppet's keister. They're nuts. And yet I got the sense of a whole community universe not shared by us normals, where that line of work was as routine as flipping cow patties.

Anyway, I've been getting that creativity bug again, but it's not strong enough to rouse me into manic artist mode ... yet. I just lack that little extra muse-infused guidance to settle on a project I know I'll finish. Soon, very soon ...

2 Kool 4 Skool

A little over a week ago we ordered some shirts online for the boys' back-to-school clothes. Considering the choices available Angie and I just couldn't resist getting some for ourselves. Here's the family favorites. Polar bears eating cute critters, warning of warning signs, glow in the dark ghost making (ahem) copies, slinky + escalator = infinite fun, barfing clown, construction recovery ward, the birds and bees, Abby Chooks and zombie survival guide!

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Song of the day, see if you can find it: "Sénégal Fast Food" by Amadou & Mariam (with Manu Chao). 5 stars!

Trapped

I have gone back and forth on whether or not to share this adventure, but I can't resist. Sunday night, after we finished eating dinner, I went outside to spend a little time with my chickens. After a few minutes, Andy innocently pops in and fills up their feeder then goes back inside, leaving me in the run to continue my chicken petting. A few minutes later, when I get up and try to open the door I realize that he has latched it and LOCKED ME IN THE CHICKEN COOP! Uugh. After a moment of panic, I settle in and wait for what I am convinced is going to just be a few minutes, surely the family will come looking for me, I am the Mom for heavens sake. It's very windy out, and getting dark and more than a little creepy. After a while the chickens go up into the coop and leave me alone in the run, peeping at me that I should go in the coop because it's roosting time, can't I see it's dark out? Any minute now Andy and the boys will hunt me out, I'm sure. Scott is in the kitchen doing dishes with his headphones on, so he can't hear a thing, he's just taunting me with his closeness. I open up the coop window so that the light will shine on me (it's dark by now) and hopefully someone will see me. I'm even considering hollering to a passers-by on the sidewalk for help, but that would be humiliating, so I decide to wait it out a bit longer. I must say that we built a very secure coop. There is no way anything is getting in there (or out) except through the door. Of course the door latch is flush with the frame, so there is no way to push a stick through the screen to open it. The screen mesh is too tight to fit a stick through, anyway (3 broken sticks later, I give up). I could have probably pried the roof off of the run, but I don't want to break my run. So, I wait. An HOUR later I am pretty annoyed when Scott pops his head out (with his headphones on, of course) and I wave madly at him. I just tell him "I want to see your father" and he has enough sense to not laugh when he goes to get Andy. Now in my head I know it was an accident, he just latched it out of habit, but sitting in a windy cold chicken run for over an hour has a tendency to try one's patience. I did hold my tongue (mostly), and he is very apologetic. A pot of tea and a zucchini muffin later I couldn't stay mad.



Yesterday morning I hiked up Chip Ross at what I consider an outrageously early hour, 8:15. I took my lab, Sarah, with me, who continuously reminded me how much I need to work with her on the leash more. But, at the top I was happily out of breath and the view was spectacular. Again, I am constantly amazed at how many beautiful, natural spots we have so close by.



I finished up my pear canning later in the day. Some of the pears I canned as slices like on Saturday, but much of it I made into a simple pear-sauce, which turned out delicious! I'll post directions later today, but for now I am all peared out and glad to have that job behind me.



Today's chicken of the day is Rosie. She is my shiest bird. I am constantly trying to bribe her into affection with mealworms (how can the girl resist?!) but so far she is not coming around. At any rate, she's a sweet little thing, just not very assertive, more, ummm, chicken. She's last pullet in the pecking order, which may have something to do with her disposition.

Romping good times at Alsea Falls

Yesterday we explored a close by treasure: Alsea Falls. We hiked the trail, which though beautiful. It is a temperate rainforest with amazingly lush vegetation. These leaves were found only right in or next to creeksides.

The trees were covered in moss, even this late in the summer.

Once we got to the falls the real fun began. We found a path less traveled that took us around and down the creek to a perfect bouldering spot.

While the boys were clambering over rocks, they found a perfectly round,deep hole in one right next to the creek with a crawdad stuck in it. Having pity on the poor little thing, they tormented it by trying to rescue it with sticks. Needless to say, once they did finally get it out it was mad as heck. I'm sure it would have died in there if they hadn't gotten it out, but try telling that to a p**off crawdad.




It was a wonderful hike, and a reminder that we have some of the most beautiful places in the world fairly close by. Unfortunately, this area is BLM land, and on the list for logging through Bush's "healthy forests" initiative. Honestly, there is some thoughtful thinning that could benefit the area, but the equipment would still have have some severely damaging effects on the amazing undergrowth that only an old growth forest can have. Much logging still employs the slash and trash methodology, with planting young trees (usually all of one type) and no thought to the aftereffects on the health of the forest floor. What will happen is that private companies will be awarded the right to log it, with a certain amount (usually fairly small) paid back to the government. Once in awhile these companies are thoughtful, but most times they just want to get in and get out as quickly as possible to maximize profit. Also, the rules under Bush's plan make it so that the buffer between where they can log and creeks and rivers is shortened to a ridiculous amount. The riparian forest (right next to a creek or river) provide an important filtration service to the water in the creeks and rivers. Without it we are going to go right back to the bad old days of grossly polluted streams and rivers, which will kick out into the ocean. The riparian forests and wetlands can't get rid of all of the pollution, but they sure do make a dent. There are people fighting it, but we will see what will happen. There is a lot of economic pressure right now for logging. But you know, if there was less clearcutting and more sustainable selective logging, people wouldn't be fighting so hard. You'd think the logging interests would figure that out. Anyway, off my soapbox.

After our adventure, I got home and found that almost half of my pears that I had picked last week were needing to be processed ASAP or they would be lost. So, I sat my rear down and started peeling and slicing. Though it was hard and exhausting, I looked at my 48 jars of organic home-canned pears and knew it was worth it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy canning, for the first couple of hours. But there's a point in the process where it just becomes work. As most good things are. This year I focused efforts on canning what we ate most last winter. We have 60 pounds of blueberries in the freezer, tons of jam left from last year, and now pears. Still to come is strawberry jam, and tons of apple pie filling (for crisps). I am hoping for 40 jars of filling. A friend has a number of apple trees coming ripe next month, so I have a good free organic source.

Our chicken of the day is Ellie. She has developed a bit of a crossed beak (more like a sideways overbight) which makes her look somewhat asymmetrical and a bit umm, unintelligent. She is a sweet little bird though, and holds her own with the other chickens. The only time she has issues with her beak is when she tries to pick up something small, but maybe her aim will improve over time. I adore her.

Time for Tea

I have come to a realization: I am fussy. I have for years prided myself at being an avowed tomboy, I love mud, insects, and cute little snakes (in the wild, of course). I prefer good SciFi's over "chick flicks". No Meg Ryan movies for me, thank you. But now, I have to face the facts that I may be a bit on the fussy side. Not only do I use cloth napkins and take great pleasure in coordinating a nice looking table, but I weave my own napkins. I have officially out-fussied my Mother! Oh the shame! I thoroughly enjoyed setting up a pretty table for my Friday tea, I even enjoyed making all of the little treats. But, lest we take ourselves too seriously, I used my absolutely favorite tea-pot: froggy. He had his bloomers on him (his perfectly matching tea cozy that my mother made without even knowing that I had this teapot).


My friend and I had a nice time at tea, as we always do. It's one of the things I look forward to all week.

In the art realm, I am currently making myself a skirt. I found some second-hand wool yardage that is perfect to felt on. The1950's woman will have household items floating above her head, a mixer, broom, etc. Maybe I am feeling a little mixed about my newly domesticated self (no longer teaching). I think it will be a fun skirt, more costume than anything else, but I'm sure I'll wear it.


And now, for our chicken of the day. I present: Annie.
Annie is a lovely little Golden Comet pullet. She's my largest chicken at this point. I love her dark red coloring and her easy-going disposition. I think she is top bird in the pecking order. She's definately not mean, but the other girls never ever try to boss her around, so that speaks volumes, I think.

Another Wet Head

Alsea Falls park, Oregon. Dunking his head in each waterfall we visit is starting to become a tradition. Peer pressure had NOTHING to do with it.

Alsea Falls

Bouldering in the creek below the falls. And this is the dry season for lush green tree moss. And to think all this could be lost to logging ... er, healthy forests initiative.

Learning New Tricks

I am always game to learn new skills, so on my last trip to California my sister was kind enough to teach me how to shuttle tat. I am hoping to make some pretty little edges to funky up some clothes, and for embellishing some of my up and coming handwoven projects. Though it was a bit tricky to get the hang of at first, I have found tatting to be a relaxing thing to do with my hands when I am a little fidgety, as they often are. While trying to figure it out, I was grateful to have a person showing me how to do it instead of reading directions out of a book, as my sister had to. It must have been extremely challenging for her. To her credit, she stuck it out through the frustrations and did learn how, Kudos to her!

My fuschias and begonias are at their peak right now. I admit that I am a bit of a fuschia fanatic, I have at least 25 different types, and my eye is on several more for next year. It's wonderful to live in a climate so perfectly suitable for fuschias. There has been a little hummingbird visiting the backyard that is definately particularly fond of the fuschias. It's obviously a bird of exquisite taste and sophistication.

The kids went back to school today(yay!). Scott went to his first day of high school, which is terrifying to me, but he had a blast and did great. He already knew a ton of kids and felt very much at home. Chris is at the same K-8, and actually has the same teacher he had in 5th grade as she moved up to the middle school level this year. He adores her, and she is truly an exceptional teacher. Both teachers at the middle school are, we are so fortunate to have them. I spent the first few hours of my newly free day getting the house into recovery from the tornado that was this morning. A friend and I then went to her house and stripped her pear tree of fruit. We'll be canning them on Sunday. I made arrangements to go to another friend's house and pick apples on Saturday. The apples will be canned as apple pie filling for our winter time crisps. MMmmmmm.... All of my favorite fruits to can seem to ripen at exactly the same time. It makes for a very busy late summer.

Today I made chocolate zuchinni muffins & bread to freeze for the upcoming rainy day tea times. Lots, and lots of zuchinni bread. I'll be serving it at my Friday tea this week, actually. I'm excited to see how it goes over. Andy of course whined that he doesn't really like his chocolate muddied down with all that healthy stuff like zuchinni, but he's managed to eat 2 big muffins in the 2 hours he's been home for work. So, his whining holds no merit as far as I'm concerned.

The divine recipe came from here
It's actually chock full of whole grains and fruits and veggies. They are moist and delicious. I'll be buying the book the recipe came out of ASAP, thank you Bethany for posting this recipe!



And now, the moment you have all been waiting for, my featured chicken of the day!

Meet, Henny Penny. I know, not a very original name, but trust me, it suits her. This lovely Easter Egg chickie poo has been voted "Most Likely to be Eaten by a Predator" because of her habit of staying out oblivious to danger when the other girls hear a scary sound and run for the coop. Chicken Hawk made 2 mad dashes out to fetch her one time, to no avail. And yes, the divine Miss Penny is my favorite chicken, bless her dense little heart. I just have to make sure our set up stays as predator proof as possible for her.