Monthly Archives: September 2020

unschooling

camping at Red Canyon

We went camping with my sister and her boyfriend and my parents down by Flaming Gorge. It was so lovely to get outside for a few days.

We walked (and some of us climbed in crevices) along the edge of the gorge.

We took a hike in the forest to a lake and spotted deer and elk (and maybe a fox) prints on the way. I walked two miles on a trail with rocks and mud and logs and hills… a first for me after my surgery. I had just gotten permission to put my full weight on that knee about a week before our trip so it was perfect timing!

We read in hammocks and chatted with family.

We took a raft and kayaks down the river. It was Lilah’s first time on a raft and she really enjoyed it. Gavin loved it too!

We spotted kokanee salmon swimming upstream, bright red and orange.

Lilah worked hard on her fire starting and tending. With some help she started two fires with a fire striker and some cottonwood seed fluff and lint. She got quite frustrated but kept at it and was eventually successful.

We roasted marshmallows and spotted shooting stars.

We spent the last evening around the fire finding animals and other picture in the flames and coals. There were several alligators in there.

On our way home we listened to an audiobook called The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. It was an excellent listen, young adult fiction about race relations in America today.

It was a beautiful few days.

 

Standard
unschooling

a Wild Storm

A few nights ago there were very high winds here overnight and through the next day. There were gusts up to 100 mph in our valley and not quite so high here at our house. The noise was intense, especially seeming so while it was dark. Our trees all stayed upright with just a few branches down but nearby there were hundreds of big and small trees cracked, uprooted and knocked over.

We saw trees leaning at strange angles everywhere and driving was pretty exciting the next day, the trees blocking entire streets and making wide roads into one lane roads.

We visited our river trail where we saw many trees down and Gavin noticed the water level was extremely high. We think it’s because of all the trees and material in the water suddenly. We hauled some big branches off the trail on our way and cleaned up some trash too on our walk.

The following day we went up the hill from our house about a half mile and visited some uprooted trees on the Capital grounds. It truly is amazing to see how the wind can uproot a hundred or more foot high tree. I wondered why these ones came down and not others close by and if the trees root systems or health affected their chances at all.

 

We played a bit with perspective.

Leading up to the storm the smoke from wildfires states away was making the air terrible here and a strange orange color so I was glad to see blue sky after the wind. I’m grateful our yard and house fared so well and I’m amazed by the forces of nature! It will be fun to go to some of our usual walking areas and see how they have changed.

Standard