Aullwood Audubom Center and Farm

On Friday we went to the Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm. I am a regular volunteer at Aullwood so most of the staff was already familiar with me. I was put into a small group with, Sarah Alverson, the lead land manager at Aullwood. This summer I will be having an Externship at Aullwood where I will be working closely with Sarah. While our group was walking on the trail I got a chance to talk with her about wildlife and the invasive species we will be removing during my externship. During our trip we identified various plants, trees, and animals. Some notable ones were the American Sycamore, Indigo Bunting, and the American Bullfrog.  After our hike we ate lunch at the Aullwood farm. As soon as I finished eating, I went over to the Chicken coop and fed dandelion greens to the hens. I even got to pet some of them, and they felt incredibly soft.

After we returned to the school we worked on a prompt of creating a meditation script. My script was as follows:

You are siting beneath a mighty oak tree deep in the forest. You are aware of the warm air and an occasional gentle breeze that feels refreshing on your skin. You look at your surroundings and you notice that you are so deep in the forest that all you can see are trees around you for what seems like miles. You look up and notice that several small squirrels are scurrying from tree to tree about twenty feet above your head. They cause one small acorn to come lose from a branch. You watch it as in falls in slow motion and lands right past your feet. This makes you smile.  You close your eyes and rest your head against the tree. You reach your hands downward and grasp gently at the soil. You thoroughly examine the texture of the forest floor, as if it were the first time you had ever experienced that sensation before.

You open your eyes and gaze at the peaceful forest scenery, with the leaves gently flowing in the breeze. You concentrate on the sounds of the forest. You hear the sounds of many birds singing a sweet natural melody. If you focus your ears you can hear the faint sound of rushing water. You focus on this peaceful sound until you lose all track of time. You drift off peacefully until the sound of an acorn falling off to your right side brings you back to reality. You decide to follow the sound of rushing water to its source. You follow a small trail that leads towards the water. You walk from a while and focus on the sound of crunching leaves with each step you take. Off to your left you can see a sublime canyon overlook. You can see a large river flowing at its base and a grand, purple, white capped mountain far in the distance. You fully immerse you self in this breathtaking view and let all of your inhibitions melt away. You go around a bend in the trail and you realize that there is a fork in the road. Both paths lead towards the sound of water but follow slightly different directions. After a moment of contemplation you decide to take the right path.

Satisfied with this decision you take the path for what seems like a few minutes. On your way you notice a large boulder but you cannot see the top of it due to a small cluster of trees. As you pass it you hear an unfamiliar sound, but your motivation to reach that rushing water keeps you moving. Suddenly you are stopped by the sight of a large Elk eating from a black berry bush just on the side of the path. At first you are awestruck by the beauty of this magnificent creature. Then you feel chills as you register that the Elk is only twenty feet ahead of you. You wonder what might happen next, but somehow you feel as if it is all going to be okay. After watching the Elk eat for a good while you, decide not to risk disturbing it. You head back along the trail, and stop when you reach the large boulder once again. You think about how special this experience was and about how beautiful the woodland scenery is. You wish that every day could be filled with such peace and tranquility. You realize that today has been an exceptionally good day. You have felt stressed recently and needed to get away, but now all that stress has been completely washed away. All you can feel is happiness and bliss. You realize that being happy, and spending time in a pristine setting such as this is all that you really need in life. You realize that everything else simply over complicates your life, and adds unnecessary stress. Realizing this makes you feel happy and you think to yourself,” I am completely at peace now. I could die right now, and that would be just okay”. Saying this with the voice in your head feels very refreshing.  It is good that you think this, because it is the very last thought that you have before a mountain lion pounces on you from the top of the boulder.

Cox Arboretum

Today we went to Cox Arboretum. I played in the pond and caught bullfrogs.While I was still at the pond I fed some potato wedges, and chocolate chip cookies to the fish and turtles. Eventually all that commotion attracted a large alligator snapping turtle.  It would stand still in the water and then pop up to eat an entire cookie whole. This reminded me a little of myself. As an introvert I often am one of the last people to join a group, but in the end I have some of the most fun out of anyone there. Later I was able to identify at least five types of trees: River birch, Bur oak, Sweet gum, Irish spruce, redwood, and blue spruce. Today was a blast and I had a great time getting my feet wet and hiking around the arboretum.

My Trip to Delco Park

Yesterday our class hiked to Delco Park to practice Tom Brown Jr.'s Small World exercise. The point of this exercise was to observe a square foot of grass at a standing, kneeling, and laying down position, and notice things that you missed in the previous position with each time you get closer to the space. Once on your belly you would explore the grass as if it were a grand forest, or as if you were an astronaut exploring a strange new planet. While I was standing up, all I could see was grass. Kneeling I could see there was more complexity to the grass. I could begin to see where the grass touched the ground and bits of the soil.On my belly I could see the grass from the top to the soil, and the ants, spiders, and other insects that inhabited it.

From this position I was able to identify a goldenrod spider, a few red ants, and a Mediterranean moth. I could see how the space that appeared to be only a sea of green before was just as complex and important as the forests that I prowl about and explore. This gave me a new appreciation for all types of nature, and I was certain that I could feel myself treading much lighter with each step I took in the grass after that. Before leaving we hung out around the pier over the small pond. From there I was able to identify that the small birds with red bellies that had circled around use earlier in the day, were barn swallows. Shortly after a classmate came to me and asked for help freeing a small channel catfish from a line that a careless fisherman had left behind.

I was able to pull it out of the water and used two sticks to remove the hook which the poor thing had completely swallowed. After about five minutes, I was able to free the struggling fish back into the pond. This poor fish made me think about how in relationships, young people can often be drawn to someone that gives them a sign of hope, but sometimes once they get to know them better, that hope turns out to be nothing more than a hook and fishing line used to draw them in and leave them to rot. Over all this was a very fun and eventful day.

The Beginning of an Adventure

Today was the start of the To the Woods STEM-mersion class. We started out today by contemplating Henry David Thoreau’s quote, “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately”, and we discussed possible definitions of living deliberately. We then participated in a team building exercise. The class was divided into two equal halves, and the entire group had to make it across a thirty foot long area, that representing a small river, using only four wooden tiles. The pictures below are of me (the tall, green shirt wearing, blonde haired, ginger bearded fella) attempting to cross the “river” with two other group members. Then we had a guest speaker, Scott Giesel, a senior writing instructor at Wright State University, come in to give a lecture about nature writing techniques. Finally we went over the rules and expectations for this class, and discussed the field  trips we would take over the next two weeks. This has been an exciting start to our To the Woods STEM-mersion class. I look forward to many fun outdoor adventures, and plenty of opportunities for nature observation.