The Finale ~ Outdoor Challenge Day 25

It's hard to believe that today is the final day of April and the end of the Outdoor Nature Challenge in recognition of Children & Nature Awareness Month! We have met so many other fabulous like minded nature families, made it outside through rain, hail, wind and sunshine *grin*, and had a ton of fun doing it :)

So as a wind up I thought that I would share some of the photos from throughout the month that didn't make it into our daily entries :)

We've picked dandelion's by the basketful...

Plowed, planted and rolled in the potato patch...

Spied on the cows through the grass...

Played in the rain...

Discovered hidden pathways through the shrubbery that I used to play in as a little girl...

Built forts out of yard furniture and toys...

And reveled in the beauty of nature :)

I hope you all had fun following along and spent some time immersed in the outdoors yourselves!
~ Rosina

Planting Potatoes ~ Outdoor Challenge Day 10

Well the good weather just keeps on coming :)
It's time to start planting the potatoes and my dad thought that our field would be the best one to plow for planting.

He ran our old 1952 Massey Ferguson with the plow attached to the back and dug a nice channel for planting in and then K went along it after with the shovel and dug in little holes so that they could be filled with manure.

On each little hole of manure L helped Opa cover it with a bit of dirt and then placed one of last years potatoes on top. You can see that they are definitely ready to go into the ground as they are covered in lots of long 'eyes'. Those are the sprouts shooting out of the potatoes :)

Have you ever grown your own potatoes and they have come out scabby when you've dug them up? Well if you used manure to fertilize them and you planted your potato right in the manure this could be the cause. In the past we have done this which resulted in lovely big potatoes but they were always covered in scabs. It won't hurt you but they're not as pretty *grin*. We started covering the manure with a little dusting of dirt before planting the potato on top and we cured the scab problem!

Everyone wanted to help so Opa had a lot of helpers :)
They planted 3 rows and just over 300 potatoes and they're not done yet!! If the weather holds they're going to finish on Saturday and I'll have to get some photos of the tractor in action :)

Do you have photos of your children enjoying the outdoors? Visit The Great Outdoors Challenge to join in the fun and you can also visit other participants and see what sort of nature fun they have been having by clicking on the names below :)

~ Rosina

Fellow Nature Players:lisa, sanders, angelina, phyllis, sarah, christie, jennifer, debbie, dong dong, denise, luisa, joy, stephanie, cori, alex, dawn, kristen, catherine, tricia, becky, christy, ruth, kari, courtney, branflakes, jessica, renee, haiku, brynn, amy, clemencia, sherry, leslie, lise, renee, anet, jenn, marina, amy, ella, marcia, karen, beth, julie, kyndale, kelly, lizzie, eileen, ag, mari-ann, cindy, robin, nicole, debbie, julia, anita, lisa, jenn, montessori, marita, jeannie, hallie, mandy, kangaroo, andrea, joey, carmen, teena, stephinie, gidget, elizabeth, emma, rosina, saminda, melissa, katie, becca, atouria, barbara, ariella, missy, elizabeth, sarah, eileen, lisa, stacy, jennifer, tulsileaf, lisa C, morticia, angela, rana, jamie, lisa c, luz, charley, heather, valerie, kirsten, rachel, annie, kendra, beth s, lindsey, michelle, megan, renee

Children & Nature Awareness Month + A Challenge

A couple of months ago I had shared with you about one of my favorite authors, Richard Louv, who wrote the fantastic book 'Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder'. It's a look at how we've gone from you and I spending endless hours outdoors creating our own fun, playing in the woods, building forts or exploring nature to the current generation of children that are completely disconnected from the outdoors and spending more time inside with electronic gadgets and how it's so very important to make sure we are connecting our children with nature!

Well Richard has declared that April is 'Children and Nature Awareness Month' and today I happened to come across a new blog called 5 Orange Potatoes where she has challenged her readers to join her and participate in her Great Outdoors Challenge!

The challenge:
“in honor of Children and Nature Awareness Month, go outside everyday, rain or shine; then take a picture each day, for the rest of April, of your children outdoors and post it. Just a single picture will do; words aren’t even necessary. Lets spread the word and go outdoors!“

I am so up for this challenge as I am a firm believer that nature needs to be part of our day to day interactions and it just happens that I snapped a shot of my daughter above outdoors today as she munched on a rather large chocolate bunny that my sister gave her for Easter. All that sugar definitely had her singing in the rain *grin* and even the rain couldn't stop her from heading outside and enjoying nature :)

If you haven't heard of Richard Louv or his book 'Last Child in the Woods' then make sure you take a moment to visit an entry I shared in February that links to a live webcast of him speaking about his book, some of the statistics between nature and children, now and in the past, stories from the book plus more, and has an open Q&A at the end.

If you want to join in make sure you check out The Great Outdoors Challenge and you can also visit other participants and see what sort of nature fun they have been having by clicking on the names below :)

~ Rosina

Fellow Nature Players: lisa, sanders, angelina, phyllis, sarah, christie, jennifer, debbie, dong dong, denise, luisa, joy, stephanie, cori, alex, dawn, kristen, catherine, tricia, becky, christy, ruth, kari, courtney, branflakes, jessica, renee, haiku, brynn, amy, clemencia, sherry, leslie, lise, renee, anet, jenn, marina, amy, ella, marcia, karen, beth, julie, kyndale, kelly, lizzie, eileen, ag, mari-ann, cindy, robin, nicole, debbie, julia, renee, anita, lisa, jenn, montessori, marita, jeannie, hallie, mandy, kangaroo, andrea, joey, carmen, teena, stephinie