Columbia Gorge Discovery Center, The Dalles, Oregon.

Yesterday we took a trip to The Dalles, Oregon. We visited the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center Museum. I like to do some homeschooling with the kids in addition to their regular public schooling, and we have been studying the Oregon trail lately and talking about the pioneers. This museum had quite a bit of information about the Oregon Trail, as well as the first explorers of the pacific northwest, Lewis and Clark. There was even a kids room where they could dress up in period clothing and climb into a boat to pretend to be in "The Corps of Discovery" with Lewis and Clark.

The museum also had exhibits on the ice age, as well as skipping ahead to the early 1900's with the inventions of telephones and cars.

They offered a great "Raptor" Show featuring a Red Tailed Hawk, and an Owl. We sat in the front row and were feet from the presenter and the birds. It was fascinating to see these birds up close and Makai asked a few questions about the birds. We really learned a lot.

Here is Asher being an Archeologist. 

A family floating down the Columbia in a covered wagon. 

There were clothes to dress up in to join the pioneers, Makai wanted to be the girl. 

Here we are trying to make a decision.

The "Point of Decision" in The Dalles, is  the place where the Pioneers who had finally made it to Oregon, but are not quite to the settlement area in Oregon City, had to decide whether to risk damaging their wagons or injuring themselves or their livestalk by crossing the steep mountain passes following the "Barlow Road" or to make a raft and risk drowning or losing all of their belongings into the massive Columbia river while floating down it, making for a faster trip and avoiding the mountains. 

There was also a great hiking trail outside the museum where we could see some of the actual wagons that were used, as well as Tepee poles. We took a walk and the boys played in the tall grass. We discovered a very large black beetle on the trail and we were all checking him out and wondering why he stood there with his butt in the air, when Asher suddenly picked up his foot and stomped right on him. Oops. I guess Asher is not a fan of large bugs. 

The museum was wonderful and we had such a great time. This is a must see for anyone who is in the Northern Oregon area!

After we finished at the museum we decided to check out a nearby park where Brandon had seen on the map that it had a disc golf course (his hobby). The park was way up on a hill overlooking the city, and the sun came out as we were leaving the museum making it a beautiful sight. The park also had a great wooden play structure, or "castles" as the boys like to call them. So as Brandon got in a round of disc golf, the boys played on the playground, and I got to enjoy the beautiful sunshine and read a book. What a lovely way to spend an afternoon! 

Sorosis Park. Strange name, beautiful park.

Dragon slide

Hope your family has a great memorial day! And thanks for reading. 

Our Urban Farm

     Earlier this spring I had a random thought that hatching eggs would be a fun spring project for the kids. I, of course, didn't want to spend upwards of $50 for an incubator that would only be used once, so I improvised and built one out of things I had and could obtain fairly cheap or free. I went dumpster diving at Petco and pulled out styrofoam boxes that were used to ship their aquariums, and I purchased a cheap thermometer and humidity gauge. I wanted to be able to see inside the incubator so we could watch the eggs hatch, so I used an empty 39 gallon aquarium that we had (since our pet rats died) and I cut the styrofoam to fit inside, attached a lamp to the top, and voila! An incubator! It wasn't the most accurate, but it did end up getting the job done.
     I purchased some Mallard duck eggs and a week later some chicken eggs from local farmers I found on craigslist, and placed them inside. Then on April 2nd, our eggs hatched! (well some of them did).

Here is a video of one of our eggs hatching.

     We now have 4 chickens and 3 ducks living in our backyard. The original plan was to give them away to a local farm after they outgrew the aquarium, but of course we got attached to our little babies so Brandon built us a coop for the chickens and we fenced off a section of our yard for the ducks (to protect them from our puppy. We did have one "incident" involving Cooper and the ducks when we just had the ducks loose in the yard.)
     So now we have a nice little urban backyard farm. We are looking forward to when our chickens are finally old enough to give us some fresh eggs each day!

"Bernard" our first hatchling, fresh from his egg.

our 3 baby ducks.

Our chicks, the day they hatched.

Just a couple days old here. unfortunately the chick with the rust 

colored face later passed away.

taking a swim at 3 weeks old. 

"Mom, he pooped!!"

Hunting for eggs with the ducks. Easter.

What are you lookin at?

The brand new coop. Our boys and neighbors. 

chillin' in the new coop.

Fenced off portion of yard for the ducks. 

Safe from the mean ol' puppy

Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge

    Yesterday I took the boys and a couple friends of ours to Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge in Ridgefield, WA. It is about an hour drive from our home near Portland, OR. It was an overcast day, but not too cold and not rainy, so it was quite a pleasant trip.

     When we first pulled in to the refuge they had a little information booth where we picked up some brochures showing the different types of animals and birds we might see, as well as a CD audio guide that we could borrow to listen to in the car on the driving tour part. As we drove around the loop there were numbered posts where we could stop and the audio guide talked about what to look for and described the different birds and played their songs so we would know what to listen for. At the very first post we saw some river otters eating and swimming in the large pond, and a heron took off from the pond side and flew across the driving trail right in front of us! There were loud geese flying over us the entire time and many red winged black birds in the cattails on the side of the road.

     About halfway through the driving route there was a place to stop and a walking trail. It's a 1.5 mile loop which was no problem for the kids. The older ones ran ahead while Asher walked with me and my friend, and we stopped often to spot birds, and even saw a large frog poking it's head out of the pond under the boardwalk.

                                                 Can you see the frog?

     The whole place was pretty darn cool and I would like to visit there again. The only thing that would have made it better was if we had a pair of binoculars to better spot the birds off in the distance, and a better camera. Oh and a good birding book would have been helpful as well. I have never heard so many different kinds of birds at one time! It was such an awesome experience to be out in the middle of such a beautiful, natural place, and to hear all the wonderful sounds coming from all these birds! So many different birds that I have never heard or seen anywhere before!