Ellerbe Creek

When should a naturalist NOT hug a tree?
When it is covered in posion ivy!

This morning we went on a nature walk through Ellerbe Creek. Ellerbe Creek is right beside Indian Trails Park, which is just down the road from Oval Park, which is a few blocks from our house. Ellerbe Creek is a beautiful example of nature, with wooded trails through wetlands and forest. Louisa, Mom and I hiked through the trails to study our local environment. Mom says that we do this to start our week off in a good way.

This morning I saw a hummingbird. It was so quick that I didn't get a good look at it. It was getting nectar from flowers, but whizzed off when we came. There were also some berries that reminded us of bloodberries at the ARA in Uganda. We smushed one to see what the insides would look like. They looked just like bloodberries, very gushy but were sunset purple instead of blood red. They were less juicy than bloodberries but Mom said they could still stain our clothes. If you were wondering about the joke at the top of this, we saw many poison ivy vines wrapping their way around trees. Most were as thick as my arm and super, ultra hairy. We read a sign explaining how to recognize vines and trees by looking at the bark instead of craning our necks to look up fifty feet to see the leaves. Before the sign we almost touched a big hairy vine of poison ivy, beacuse it looked cool. That would have been a mistake we would have been itching to stop.

Unfortunately many of the plants there are non-native and spread quickly. This is a problem becasue it kills off native plants, giving animals that are specialized for this area less good food to eat. This happens because people plant non-native plants in their gardens, but these plants have left their specialized predators behind in their native countries. Soon these plants spread to nearby fields and woods and choke out the native plants. For example, this has happened with English Ivy and Honeysuckle vines. (We learned about something similiar at Zion National Park. There is a type of grass, choke something, that burns very quickly but grows back even quicker. This continues to burn and grow back until it is the only thing left in the area, because native grasses can't grow back as fast. It came to that part of the country because its seeds were used to pack china plates in.) After learning this we are considering destroying the hill of ivy in our front yard and planting some native plants instead. Mom learned that the berries like Ugandan bloodberries are actually elderberries and can be made into a jam. Louisa is learning about slugs and snails, because she found a slug on the trail.

What living creature has hairy limbs?
A tree covered in poison ivy.

By Joe
Age 10

Pirates and Cardboard Boxes

It turns out that in NC you have to file a notice of intent to homeschool your children. The process is all shockingly simple. We had to fill out a single form and attach documents proving that both Kev and I have graduated from high school. The website strongly advises that the process can take 4-6 weeks, so imagine our surprise and delight when four days later our official card came in the mail. The Great American Adventure Academy is now in session! Actually, we've been going strong for several weeks and have hit upon our first independent study period. Kev and I decided to compose our school schedule around a rotation of four weeks of standard curriculum followed by1 week of an independent/self-directed project for each kid. Their first project time was fantastic! They chose to study the Outer Banks of North Carolina. So we pulled out our camping gear and headed off to Cape Hatteras National Seashore. We built sandcastles, played in the waves, collected seashells, learned about sea turtles and the ongoing battle between conservation and development, saw the Wright Brother's Memorial and climbed to the top of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. Joe and Louisa became Jr. Rangers at two more programs (flight and seashore rangers) and overall had a wonderful experience. The weather couldn't have been nicer. But what really made the trip special was hearing the twins sing as they went to sleep that first night, "I love the tent, I love, I love the TENT!"
Today we are back in Durham, and everyone is diving into a study of pirates. Of course, the thought that Blackbeard may have buried his treasure on Ocracoke has added to their fascination. Along with the pirate maps and treasure coins that we purchased at the gift shop! Nate and Savannah especially love putting on their pirate hats and vests, swinging swords and yelling "ARgh, Maties!"
As for me, I am looking around our house realizing that we STILL have cardboard boxes waiting to be unpacked. And although the tape is starting to fray, the big yellow welcome home sign from Blacknall is still above the fireplace. It is time to take the last few steps towards establishing our home here. Time to recycle the cardboard, and put everything in its place. Time to not be moving in still, but to be moved in. Those boxes do feel like the last tenuous thread tying us still to our lives in Bundibugyo and while part of me longs for the aesthetic peace of a neatly unpacked and organized home, another smaller part aches at the closure. Of course, even as I write that I hear many of you laughing "Honey, even if you unpacked everything your house will never be organized!" Four kids and a dog tend to assure that I live a chaotic existence no matter what my lofty aspirations might be!

Jazz

Jazz is a very nice puppy, even though she nibbles sometimes. We got Jazz from the animal shelter. It was very loud there and stinky. They had 195 dogs there when we went to pick her out. That is a lot of dogs! We walked down the hallway and when we looked both ways we were surrounded by cages of dogs. There were five different hallways of dogs, and so many cages. We wrote down the number of her cage and her name and turned it in. Then we went into a room to play with her. She was so energized and not bitey. She kept licking me and everyone else in the family. She was not too wild. We looked at two other dogs, but they were too crazy and Nate and Savannah didn't like when they jumped up on them. So we picked Jazz. Joe and I were both happy. We thought we would be able to take her home right then, but we couldn't becuase of paper work. We had to wait for one week. So we thought about her a lot and picked out stuff for her like her own collar, tag, dishes, food and treats. Then she finally came home to live with us.

She is black with a green collar. She is smaller than KC. KC was our dog in Bundibugyo. He is a collie and we miss him. Jazz makes other dogs bark at her, especially our neighbor's two dogs. She has mastered the stairs. She likes to lick Nate, but he is not so happy with that. When I was crying, she gave me a big doggy hug and lots of licky kisses. She is outside right now, going to the potty. Jazz sleeps inside in her own dog crate. Nate and Savannah are not supposed to go in, but sometimes they do. I really like her and I don't want her to die. I'm glad we saved her from the animal shelter.

Written by Louisa, age 8