Star light, star bright...

This weekend as part of our birthday party celebration we are offering star shows.

On Thursday night from 8:30 - 9:30PM at PILC we will have out our telescope for a star gazing party. On Friday (9/25) Tom Durkin from the SD Space Grant Consortium will give a video presentation about the Mars Rover at 11AM. And on Saturday and Sunday we will be holding shows at the SD Discovery Center in our traveling planetarium the Star Lab.

What does a star show have to do with Green Hour?

With the days getting shorter, it gets dark earlier, leaving less daylight for after dinner outdoor play. However, this is the perfect time to brush up on your constellations and spend some time bundled in a blanket outside looking at stars. At this time of year, you don't have to stay up till midnight to get full dark and it's just cold enough to be good snuggle up weather.

There are all kinds of ways to spend time in the outdoors and star gazing is about as good a way as I know. Stop by over the weekend at 11AM, 1PM, 3PM to see the star lab show or attend one of our other events.

The crabtree outside the South Dakota Discovery Center is laden with fruit. We are extending our Discovery Garden to include the tree (and the black walnuts in the Mayor's Grove) since fruit and nut trees can and should be used to feed us in addition to wildlife.

The fruiting of the tree is a sure sign that summer is transitioning to fall. This is an exciting time to be outdoors because, as with spring, this is when things are happening. Your green hour could be to go outside everyday and look for some of the signs of fall such as:
- Flock of blackbirds
- Colored leaves
- Ripe crabapples
- Birds flying south (pelicans, geese, ducks)
- Winds from the N
- Empty bird nests
- Squirrels hiding food
- Acorns and walnuts

Parents and teachers, you can also add an element of citizen science to this by participating Journey North's collection of phenology data.

Journey South
Phenology

Perhaps you might wish to journal about the following:

Adopt a tree that will turn color (maples, cottonwoods, ash)
- Note the date you first notice color
- Note the date that the tree is more than 50% colored
- Note the date that you notice more than 50% of the tree is bare.

Whatever you do, go outside and enjoy all the fine days left to us. We still should have plenty but don't let the abundance of nice weather lull you into feeling there is plenty of time. Soon January will be here and getting outside is more of a challenge.

Enjoy!

Fire pit

The Green Hour is usually about being outside and being active, especially with your children. But there is a place to be outside and be engaged in something quiet.

For example (and I know I've discussed this before), I am a big fan of eating outdoors. We have a patio set on the back deck and dinners always seem a little nicer when eaten outside. Our patio set is an investment that has paid for itself multiple times over in terms of quality of life.

We recently invested (if you can call a $35 purchase an investment) into another piece of backyard equipment, namely a fire pit. It's small as far as fire pits go but it does the job of making a safe fire in the backyard. We inaugurated ours the other night and had a fine time of sitting around with a few friends. Granted it was a bit warm (83° when we started) and it didn't get dark till a good hour after we started but it was nice to be outside. Quite frankly, I would be hard pressed to offer a reason to my guests why we should be outside once it got dark if we hadn't had the fire pit. Sitting around in the dark might do if you are in the wilds, but seems a little odd for a backyard.

I am always on the lookout for more opportunities to get me outside. Any other suggestions?

Extreme Peppers

Our peppers are doing quite well at the Discovery Garden. Personally, I would love to "discover" them in some salsa or a bowl of chili myself. No doubt, we will be using them in one of our upcoming classes. Be sure to keep posted to the SD Discovery Website and e-news for announcements.

Collect Bugs

Today a group of summer program participants kept themselves entertained for over 20 minutes collecting bugs! A "museum" of all of their bugs was created with everyone contributing. The collection included: grasshoppers, spiders, pill bugs, ants, centipedes, and a fly. Although bug boxes were used to capture the bugs, a small jar or box would work well. Of course all animals were released at the end of the program.

Build A Fort

During this time of year, build a fort!
Go to a local nature area, wear suncreen and bugspray, and move sticks and logs around to create a fort. Last month a group of 11 participants used their creativity to build 5 forts using found supplies. You can see some photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/AnneLewis.Pierre/SummerPrograms09?feat=embedwebsite#

Happy Building!

Square Foot Garden

As part of our Green Hour experiences, we will be blogging about our Square Foot Garden.

The good news is that the radishes have germinated and soon will need to be thinned. The not-so-good-news? The squirrels are excited about as our garden as we are. Some squirrelish vandalism has occurred and the marigolds (planted to repel pests ironically) have been chewed.

We are not throwing the trowel, however. In an attempt to thwart the squirrels, we have purchased netting. Do you have a suggestion for discouraging squirrels?