Zenger Farms Tour and other things we've been doing

When I saw my friend Laura's post on Zenger Farms, I realized that I had never blogged about it here.  Why not?  Well, I didn't have many good pictures.  It was raining on and off the entire time, so I had to keep stowing the camera.

Our group was split in three smaller groups.  Here's our subgroup checking out the bees at the farm.

 

Here's a classic Marcus look.  I don't remember what it signified; he's probably annoyed because I wanted him to take off his hood when it wasn't raining.



It was raining too hard at the time for pictures, but the kids had great fun at the small pond on the farm's property.  The kids were allowed to scoop up tiny critters with nets, then dump them into a bin of water.  Then the kids were allowed to use turkey basters to suck the little critters up and squirt them back out into an observation jar.  Epic. We have since tried to emulate this method on our own, with some success.  The kids broke the turkey basters, but the aquarium nets and plastic bin work well for observation purposes.


While I was up there jabbering, the kids went to the worm bin!  Hey, who doesn't love to argue over worms?



Marcus got his very own worm to play with (and return to the bin, it even survived).

 

This is probably Stuart trying to find bugs in the grass.  Well, it's definitely Stuart, and he's probably trying to find bugs in the grass.
  



What else have we been up to?  Mostly neglecting to take the camera places.

We went to Tualatin Hills Nature Park to check out their tadpole pond.  I realized when we got there that I had left the camera at home.  That was a shame, because Stuart caught a garter snake!  On maybe the tenth try.  There were MANY garter snakes.  Every few steps on the path you could hear and see a snake slithering away.  We saw other interesting things, like a HUGE bullfrog at the pond, tadpoles, caddisfly larvae, water boatmen, a caterpillar, red-winged blackbirds protecting their nest, etc.  But no pictures! 

I am trying to download the latest pictures now, but it looks like Stu filled up the memory card with videos from an Aikido seminar.  So it may be years before I see the pictures that eventually download.  Oops!