Social Media and Nature

Meet me in Dallas Center

Learn to Use Social Networking Websites

I'll talk about the ways that social networking can enhance your nature study.

Brenton Arboretum in Dallas Center, IA

Sat., March 5 from 9 - 11 AM. 

My younger two kids and I have enjoyed a few visits to the Brenton Arb over the past years. The staff is fun and supportive of nature study, at one time, including a regularly scheduled nature club for home school families.

How is your winter caching? One of my recent attempts ended in a sad face :-(

Winter maintenance

Many of us have sought caches during the winter. Iowa's weather brings us challenges, like the one I read recently for my cache Ode to Everybody Loves Ray, GC138QR. Its log is frozen. Or the opening is frozen. To seek and get a high from finding a cache to hitting a low because you can't open or sign the log does not bring enjoyment.

Because of that, my winters have been a time of nature study rather than cache hunting. Currently, the birding life list has been fun to add to. Without the leafy growth and with the confused migratory birds, my family has been able to see birds that we'd normally only hear. We're also trying to master bird photography. If they just held still, this would be easier!

We own many historic and a few contemporary bird field guides. I can't say I have a favorite, because each one is useful in its own way.

Vacation Review: Honey Creek Resort

The lake is near the resort.

My husband and I made a quick trip to Honey Creek Resort this month. We've been looking for a lakeside place to stay that was less than 8 hours away. Mr. TellBlast chose a one-bedroom cottage with a loft. The website was not completely accurate. It read:

Spiral stairs to the loft

A 1 bedroom cottage with a loft is comprised of a queen sized bed. The loft area include a twin over full bunk bed and an additional twin bed. The cottage also includes a sofa sleeper and one bathroom.


The loft did not have an additional twin bed. Additionally, the sofa sleeper had a larger bed than the bedroom.


We were curious about the resort being on Lake Rathbun. I thought that the lake would be the main attraction, but since it is fairly inaccessible to the pedestrian, it can't be the main attraction. The geography is full of draws, which makes for very folded land, similar to the elevation change from the top of your knuckles to the crack between your fingers. It's very unlike the glacier-flattened terrain north of the resort. The cottages generally do not have lake views. I could walk out the door to a nice deck and look over a prairie, but not see the lake. I would have to bike or drive to the lake, and wouldn't be able to walk easily to a shore.
 The land is too steep. There is a beach that (hotel) guests can walk to. There are trails with wonderful lake views.

100 Species Challenge #77

Specimen #77: Dogbane
Apocynum androsaemifolium


Apocynum: from the Greek for "away from dog," i.e. noxious to dogs, in reference to its ancient use as a dog poison, hence dogbane (source here).


Photo by me


Location: a prairie at Honey Creek State Park


Harmony Art Mom brought my attention to the book _Discover Nature in Winter_, by Elizabeth Lawlor. In it, an entire chapter is dedicated to studying winter weeds. I've always liked looking at plants, their seed heads and colors, in all seasons. This plant is very interesting to look at with its drooping seed pods and stem color, as well as the nature of its growth -- a central stem with opposite 'branches' scooping out.


Natives would use this plant's fibers for twine, rope, nets, and clothes.

Review of Honey Creek Geocaching Backpack

The Iowa DNR provides nature programming at its Honey Creek Resort. Before my recent visit, I requested the GPS Field Pack (if you follow the link, look mid-page for "GPS Field Pack").

What is in the GPS Field Pack:

• GPS with ten official geocaches already plugged into the unit
• laminated 8 1/2 x 11" F/B sheet of the ten caches' descriptions and attributes
• folder with a map of the park and GPS Bingo game
• first aid kit
• writing utensils
• trinkets for trading
• field guides
• extra batteries

How to use it. The resort website states that you need to reserve the field pack ahead of time. I did this (sort of), and the naturalist remembered my name from our emails (pleasant surprise). I checked it out from her by signing a piece of paper. Everything was very easy; no credit card was necessary (different from the county park packs). Keeping it for a weekend was not an issue. Once I was done using it, I returned the pack to the office.

What I thought about the GPS Field Pack. The most difficult thing for me was not having a map with the caches located on it. But I had an easy fix. I stepped out to the resort's Business Center, printed a geocaching map of the desired area, and transferred the locations (including an earth cache) to a resort map. Total time spent: three minutes.

The pack was nicely stocked with appropriate supplies. The cache descriptions were very helpful. I usually print this out before searching.

I keep thinking about the usefulness of the map (without geocaches). I guess the value would be for general orientation and navigation, but not for seeking specific caches. There is no scale on the map, so I'm still thinking about the value.

What I would do differently. I would check the GPS unit after each check-out and clear out all the crap. It had many waypoints stored on it. Maybe they were from a past exercise with kids or left from someone accidentally pressing the "Mark" button. They were not helpful for a caching trip. I might also scan the geocaching.com website now and then for updates on new earthcaches. (Traditional caches are maxed out on the property.) I like earthcaches; they are cool.

There was only one winter-friendly cache, GC26YAY No Vacancy.

Mice in Winter

In the spirit of Harmony Art Mom's Outdoor Hour Challenge, I'm going to talk about mice in winter.

On Friday, A of GAIN and join one of our home school groups for snowshoeing through a park. A county naturalist is leading the way. (He's the tall one.)

He talked about the many tracks we saw, including mouse tracks. He went on to tell us about mice, running around in burrows above the soil.

Fast forward 24 hours. My husband and I are walking around a prairie, without snowshoes.

Winter walking without snowshoes is totally do-able, especially when you have proper winter clothing. For example, we invested double digits in thermal socks for the family this year.

(and i geocached, too. post on that will come later.)

We heard and saw birds, and saw a lot of animal tracks, including mouse tracks. We didn't see any people tracks.

I laughed when I saw this on the trail.

Mouse tracks in front of mouse burrows/beds. They must wake together and attack the night en masse.

Where nature and technology meet my life

One week after being recognized by Weaky6 at Brenton Skating Plaza, some more friendly geocachers figured out who I was. Am I almost famous?

Honey Creek teaser

We're checking out Honey Creek near Lake Rathbun this weekend. The forecasted "warm" weather should help. Full review next week.