Journey North Week 2 & Bird Feeders!

Today was week 2 of Mystery Class! We were able to separate the Northern and Southern Hemisphere locations, with the exception of one. We think it may reside near the equator as it did not gain or lose time but it did shift in it's sunrise and sunset. So we'll see how that one goes!

We also did bird feeders today to prepare for The Great Backyard Bird Count! Here's how you can participate: http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/howto.

Completed Mystery Locations

Separated by hemisphere, with the exception being the bottom one, it's still a mystery :)

Winter Nature Study - Quartz

Our next study involved investigating Quartz! They had to investigate the properties of it and see if they could scratch it, or if it could scratch and mark other things. We also took the opportunity to grow some Aluminum Potassium Sulfate crystals on rocks and some Polymer Crystals in test tubes :)

Journey North is UNDERWAY!!

That's right we are on it!! I like this project because it reminds me that week by week we are getting more and more sunshine dang it!! It brings hope of a warmer season, that and I like to colour :p

If you are unfamiliar with the project you can find more here: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/mclass/About.html, it covers so many areas it CRAZY!!

Gathering sunrises and sunsets for our Mystery Locations

Colour, colour, colour

A few additional exercises with the project!

Home and our 10 Mystery Locations!

Winter Nature Study - Galls

Galls and fungus and wood pecker holes.. oh my!!! This was a fun one and really took some sharp eyes to find. Galls are those pod like things we see all over that house tiny larvae for the next season. They can be found in various plants and trees!

Carols favourite part, LARVAE!!

Winter Nature Study - Twigs

This week was devoted to TWIGS! It was a really nice day and we collected twigs from a number of different trees found in the area.

Gotta love when learning something new requires an outdoor excursion, and a little tobogganing with friends doesn't hurt either :)

Veterinarian Week!

Little Miss and I continued on with Community Helpers just after the New Year celebrations. She decided she wanted to learn more about Veterinarians :)

We went to the new vet clinic down the street from us: http://www.allandalevet.com/ Its sparkly and new and had all the latest technology you could ever dream of there. The link provided shows a tour through the establishment. The Vet was really great with Little Miss, he took her to all the boarding, treatment, surgery and xray rooms. He showed her an xray of a little dog which was pretty neat! Gave her a ride up and down on the exam table and used the instruments to check my eyes LOL Absolutely wonderful spot!

We then, later in the week, set up our own clinic! We have a few, ahem, animals here all of which where checked out by Little Miss and given a clean bill of health!

Dog #1

Dog #2

Guinea Pig #1

Guinea Pig #2

Rabbit that looks like the cat

Just funny LOL

Cat that looks like rabbit

Bribing the crotchety thing with food to sit still LOL

Clearing out the cobwebs!!

It's been some time since I blogged last! Busy, busy!!

We've been up to some fun things over the past few weeks so the next billions posts will be related to all of that :)

My poor camera had an untimely end so all photos are compliments of Carol :)