Chase Nature At Oakwoods Park

This weekend we'll be taking our Grand Daughters to the Oakwood nature center. The eldest of three, Stella, has been torn by staying with Ms. Jennifer or going to the older kids group, the Explorer's club. All the girls really love Ms. Jennifer and it was hard to convince Stella to change but it was time for her to move on up. The month before she decided to move I notice a table in the fireplace room that had a display of mushrooms on it and I asked how long did it take to collect all of them.
About 48 hours was Chase's reply. He had it down to hours and a few of the specimens were some I'd never seen before.
The next month Stella attended the Explorer's group and immediately got involved in Chase's discussion about beavers. Soon he had given out treats for correct answers and had a member of the group dressed as a beaver with a can of WD-40 and a deodorant applicator attached to the back, it all made sense at the time. Next we took a short walk to a site where beavers were chewing down their favorite trees, aspen or poplar. Wait did we just get beamed up north by Scotty? No we're just a couple miles west of Flatrock. Amazing.
Last month Case announces to the group we will be starting camp fires and boiling eggs. These are 6 - 10 year olds and the thought of each of them starting a fire seemed far fetched even if their name was Blue Tip. Much to my surprise each had a fire going in short order with the supplies provided. From dryer vent lint and shaved wood for kindling to bigger twigs and branches each kid started their own camp fire. The out came the 5 foot 2 x 2s and tin cups with wire handles on them. Soon eggs were boiling in the set ups and after about 10 minutes of this the eggs were cooled and thrown at a wood target. All were hardboiled or very close to it and smashing them on the wood was icing on the cake. A very interesting start to the weekend.
Get Outdoors Downriver