Fish Hatchery Field Trip

Each year I try to set up or make sure we join in some fun field trips being offered to homeschoolers here on the island and thought it would be fun to organize a trip out to a nearby fish hatchery this year.

There were about 30 of us total and the children got to watch the harvesting of salmon roe (eggs)...

and the milt (sperm) from the male salmon.

Salmon roe are incredibly hardy little rubbery feeling balls and can handle quite a bit of touching so the kids all got to hold some and name them :) The little black spots are their eyes and in the incubation room above were trays and trays of mixed salmon roe and milt waiting to hatch and turn into little Alevin in about 3 months.

When we were finished in the incubation room we had a chance to watch some of the workers taking samples from some of the salmon. They do this randomly and they were taking a piece of the liver from this fish to be sent to Nanaimo for analysis.

Did you know that hatchery fish don't have dorsal fins?

I actually didn't know this but when the young salmon they raise at the hatchery are released into the rivers and streams they have had their dorsal fins removed so that they can easily be identified when they are adults. The above salmon is a wild salmon and you can see that its dorsal fin is still intact :)

As we finished up our tour we all headed down to the river to watch some of the salmon that were spawning right outside the hatchery naturally and came upon a black bear that had come to check out the salmon as well.

He wasn't there purely as a spectator though...

and minutes later he had snatched up one of the salmon and proceeded to take it into the forest for a little afternoon snack *grin*. I guess it was good that we were on the other side of the river when it happened but unfortunately I couldn't get a clear shot of him without all of the fencing in the way. Still very cool for the kids to watch :)

Hope you all had a great week to!

Hugs,
Rosina

Weaving Cedar Bark

Earlier this week the kids and I had a chance to participate in one of the many fantastic homeschool programs that a nearby museum offers. This class was particularly exciting because we were going to learn how to weave a mat using red cedar bark. So cool!

The above photo shows a coil of bark that had been harvested from cedar trees only minutes from where we live. Members from the museum went out into the forest with a first nations guide and he showed them exactly how to harvest the bark from living cedar trees without damaging them. They had a photo slide for us to view and the fellow said a little prayer/blessing to the cedar tree before cutting into the bark and then they pulled strips of bark off of the tree in giant lengths reaching from the base of the trunk all the way upwards. Once the bark was pulled from the tree they then separated the softer in bark from the rough outer bark and the inner portion was what we worked with :)

When we arrived there were strips of the bark that had been soaked for a couple of days to soften them and make them pliable for weaving waiting for us on the tables.



We started with a very basic basket weave pattern of just weaving the strips in and out of each other while alternating the pattern so it looked like a checker board.



As soon as all of the pieces had been woven we started to work the ends in by flipping them over and weaving them into the opposite sides. It looked really simple when we were shown how to do it but when it was time to do it ourselves you really had to pay attention to which way you flipped the ends because one wrong move and you muddled your pattern *grin*.

Here are two of the little woven mats the children made. As you can see there were a few little boo boos where the pattern got a little mixed up :)

We all had so much fun and now I'm tempted to try pulling some of the bark off of a few of the cedar trees we have here on our property *grin*. I think I'm supposed to wait until spring though so that will give me a little more time to find out exactly how to do it so that I don't hurt the trees :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Fossil Hunting ~ Outdoor Challenge Day 2

Today we joined a small group of kids at the museum and headed out for a morning of fossil digging :) It was quite the drive as we headed through locked gates, narrow gravel roads and eventually hiked in by foot along the muddy and sometimes slippery trial. Don't worry though, we all made it there and back in one piece *grin*.

We found ourselves on a narrow little strip of beach along the Puntledge River that was just covered in flaking layers of shale. Very cool! It is also the spot or very near where the very first fossilized skeleton of an Elasmosaur was discovered here in BC.

Here's my 3 fossil hunters in their protective goggles as they hammered away at their chisels. It was quite a rewarding day to! They found clam & mussel shell fossils, fossilized vegetation, a tooth was found and even a seed. The tiny little seed was an especially exciting find as apparently they are hard to come by so that was neat that they got a chance to see one :)

K was particularly interested in finding egg shaped fossils like the one he's holding above. When he found one he would take it to our guide and she would crack them open to see what was inside. Sometimes you can find fossilized stuff and other time it ends up just being fossilized poop. Yup, poop! *grin* This one was just a lump of poo. LOL.

By the time we had finished each of them had a couple of fossils to pack home and we were quite wet from all of the rain :) Good thing we packed along lots of extra clothes!

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, renee, 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