Field Trips and Class Mates

Class-Mates by Robert William Service

Bob Briggs went in for Government,
And helps to run the State;
Some day they say he'll represent
His party in debate:
But with punk politics his job,
I do not envy Bob.

Jim Jones went in for writing books,
Best sellers were his aim;
He's ten years younger than he looks,
And licks the heels of Fame:
Though shop-girls make a fuss of him
I do not envy Jim.

Joe Giles went in for grabbing gold,
And grovelled in the dirt;
He, too, looks prematurely old,
His gastric ulcers hurt:
Although he has a heap of dough.
I do not envy Joe.

I've neither fame nor power nor wealth,
I fish and hunt for food;
But I have heaps of rugged health,
And life seems mighty good.
So when my class-mates come to spend
A week-end in my shack,
With lake and wood at journey's end
--They envy Jack.

hmmm - wonder which of our children will end up hunting and fishing for food and having visitors in their shack? I am not sure if their classmates will envy them, but we certainly will.  We have come to fully appreciate the simple pleasure in fishing and spending more time outdoors than in.

Well, it has been another full and wonderful week in Homer, Alaska. We have had a number of school adventures we would like to share with you. We have been amazed by the number and caliber of the enrichment activites through the school. We have also been surprised by the lack of regulation which makes much of this possible. For example - parents can drive children in their own vehicles to class trips and in fact, are asked to do so.  All you need is a valid drivers license and a vehicle with seatblets ( yes - there are many vehicles on the road that likely have no seatbelts in them).  It was also amazing that they would bring the entire school to the beach - yes - 100's of Kindergardten, 1st and 2nd graders combing the beachers at low tide, with wet, slippery rocks, and no life jackets - go figure -but it was awesome!

We started this past week off by enjoying dinner with our new friends, the Lillbridge's, at their beautiful home on East End road with a gorgeous view of the end of the bay. The night finished like many others - with us seeing 2 Moose - one lying about 20 feet from the van as we were leaving the dinner party.   Monday evening we had a  moose in the back yard. Brianne - these pics are especially for you!!

 

On Tuesday, Tim did a 'self-guided' fishing trip on the Kasilof River, about an hour away. This was the closest place to river-fish for salmon until the other rivers closer to Homer legally open for fishing later in the season.  He only caught one small Dolly Varden, but saw a nice King Salmon get pulled from the river.  It was a good recon for further trips with the the whole family or when others come for a visit! Anna was without a vehicle for the day so she enjoyed a nice long bike ride along the bay.

On Wednesday, Ethan had a field trip Tide Pooling on Bishop's Beach. Anna was lucky enough to chapereon 4 nice boys as they combed the beach for treasures. We found many creatures including Christmas anemone - man are they ugly, burrow anemone, a dogwinkle, cockles, limpets, starfish, mussels, clams and millions of barnacles. It was a great morning. At the same time, Colton was getting ready for his big field trip.

Colton & Tim departed for Colton's 4th grade field trip to the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies' Peterson Bay Field Station, across Kachemak Bay from Homer. This was a three-day, two-night field trip where the kids culminated their classroom studies on the Kachemak Bay ecosystem.  See the link below for more infomation on the place:
http://akcoastalstudies.org/peterson-bay-field-station.html

The trip was phenominal.  What an amazing learning learning experience for the kids, teachers, and parent chaperones.  It started on Wednesday with the boat ride over to Peterson Bay aboard the Rainbow Connection.  We won't speculate on the origins of this boat's name, just thankful it was able to provide the service under the command of a capable captain and crew. 

There was a brief stop and tour of Gull Island, where, you guessed it, we learned about the area's shorebirds!  The other parents & teachers laughed when they heard that this was the 3rd time we've been to Gull Island in the 3 weeks we've been here.

A short ride later, we arrived at the raft in Peterson Bay, where the kids had to transfer their gear from the boat to the raft, then onto the rope-ferry that they used to pull themselves to shore.

Colton and his buddy Luke Walker (wouldn't it be cool if his middle name was Sky?)

After "gear chaining" all of the packs, bags, food, supplies etc. up the stairs and to the lodge,  everyone got assigned their sleeping quarters in the "yurts" and then dinner, and then off for an evening hike around "Boy Scout" rock.  Though it had been a long day, the kids were still "bouncing off the walls" (of the yurts) well past the 9:00PM "lights-out" time.  Micky (the other father chaperone) and Tim got their 7 boys settled down and asleep by 10:00.  No small feat when it's still full day light and there's a dome sky-light.

A wet Colton and Luke

Up & at 'em by 7:00AM the next morning (Thursday), then breakfast in the lodge and hitting the beaches and tidepools at Otter Rock by 8:30AM.  Thursday morning started as most days do on this side of the bay, with light rain.  This side of Kachemak Bay is the northern-most tip of the Pacific Northwest rainforest which starts in northern Califonia.

The rain didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the kids as they searched for sea urchins, anenomes, chitons, crabs, worms and the stealthy purple-toed, yellow lipped, man-eating nudibranches, or something like that!

Colton surfacing after tide-pooling in a cave.



Colton examining a Sea Urchin



Science fun!

By lunch time, with a steady drizzle from above and hours of sloshing through tide pools, most kids were soaked clean-through.  So the next three hours were spent in the lodge at a station journaling about what they had done & learned thus far, a station where they sketched & narratively described several life-forms they saw that morning, and then a station where they learned about the different types of plankton and looked at it under microscopes.












With everyone dried-out, it was time for another hike to learn about the forests on this side of the bay.  Much of the time was spent learning about the difference between the rain forest on this side of the bay vs. the boreal forest on the opposite side of the bay, edible plans that can be found in the forest, and the food chain of the forest.  Conrad, one of the Coastal Studies' instructors, was able to teach these kids while telling a story and keeping the kids hanging on his every word.  By the time the hike was done, everyone was pretty well soaked through again, but it was time for  dinner , so everyone & everything had time to dry out again.
After dinner, there was camp-fire, complete with
skits the children wrote and performed.
The next morning started similarly to the previous with a mile-long hike to the beach and more tide-pooling in China Poot Bay, resulting in the class finding & identifying over 100 different species of sea creatures over the two days.  A bag lunch on the beach followed, then a very animated lesson in geology, and wrapping-up with visit to a 300+ year old site of an Alaskan native's home.  With the "official" learning done all that was left was the mile hike back to the lodge, the "gear chain" to the rope-ferry, raft and onto the boat, and finally the return boat ride home.   Anna and Ethan were waiting at the Harbor for our 6:00pm pick-up. What a trip!
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Ethan had his 2nd guitar lesson from Max and started learning "Jingle Bells!"  Holy *&%!  We're gonna have to listen to this tune get plucked, picked and mangled by an 8 year old who's had two guitar lessons, for 7 months until we can issue a "cease & desist order" once Christmas is over!  Guess that's what you get when you hire an unemployed 19 year old to give your kids music lesssons.  Well, at least the 'teacher' provided (hand-written) sheet music for this one.


While Colton and Tim were away, Ethan had a chance to try out his new (used) rollerblades. The Spit Trail is awesome to ride on. Notice that Ethan is wearing his sweater Anna made - FINALLY FINISHED!

Ethan's second grade class- Paul Banks Elementary

On Friday, Ethan had a second field trip to the
Islands and Oceans Visitors Center where U.S. Fish and Wildlife staff gave a great program on bird feathers. Once again - Anna was availalbe to join the class and enjoyed learning about the birds as much as the children did.

Juvenille Eagle in Flight

Over the weekend we went fishing at the Anchor River as well as at the Homer lagoon. We didn't have
any luck catching fish - but we did enjoy the time outdoors as well as all the wildlife. The eagles really put on a show.

We still have not caught a 'big' fish, but we're sure having fun trying. We hope to post soon a photo of a   big catch- but for now we just have photos of the fishing, not the catching. 

Colton did have the opportunity to help a guy pull in a King salmon. A guy fishing close to Colton got a bite on his 5th cast, after the boys had been out fishing for over an hour.  However, this young man was ill prepared, so Colton ran and got our ($5 pawn shop purchased) net. Once the King finally tired, about 15 minutes after the first tug, Colton was able to get it in the net. Then this young man also needed Colton's knife to kill it as hitting it over the head numerous times with a big rock was not working.  It was a nice fish - about 20 pounds and over 36".  The lucky guy was so happy for Colton's help that he gave him $4.00. We would have preferred a Salmon steak - but hey -unnecessary all the same - it was just exciting to see a big one get pulled in, and Tim only charged Colton $3 for using the net.

Colton waiting patiently for a King to bite

Colton getting his rod ready on the Anchor River. Notice the life jacket.  Alaska has a nice "Kids Don't Float" program where they leave life jackets at the State Recreation Areas & Campgrounds along the rivers for kids to use, just in case you forget your own, like we did.

Colton and Ethan fishing the Lagoon on the Homer Spit

E casting - Nice Sweater!

Tim got a hold of the camera while Anna tried her luck.

This week is the last week of school for the boys.  It has been such a wonderful experience and we all have met some wonderful Alaskans on all the field trips. It is nice that the boys have started to build a social network and will have classmates to call on this summer.

 This week we are off to Kodiak Island - check the blog next week for pictures and stories.