Noises at Night
Posted by: Claire on: October 8, 2009
Do you ever lie awake at night thinking you hear strange footsteps or scary breathing? That’s nothing compared to what we hear outside in our tent at night! Rustle, stomp, crunch, bang! Those are just some of our onamonapeias.
Spelling my initials by flashlight in front of the tent.
One night, at 2:00 am, we heard a strange crunching sound, then a stomp stomp, rustle rustle. My dad unzipped the tent and shined the flashlight right on a pair of black, glowing eyes that were staring straight back at us. It was a raccoon. Not that we were surprised or anything. We get raccoons almost every night. What surprised us was that it was chewing up my dad’s shoe. Dad jumped out of the tent and shoed (ha ha) the raccoon away (which took some doing, for raccoons are not shy creatures). He took his shoe and brought it inside the tent. The creature slowly loped away, staring back at us occasionally with those beady, black eyes. Finally, in peace, we fell asleep. But, of course, it’s never peaceful for long.
Go Green!!!
Posted by: Claire on: October 3, 2009
As you all know , our environment is changing. Global warming, logging, pesticides, and many other harmful things are effecting our earth. But we can change that!!!!!!!!!!! If we work together, we can make a difference! Here are some ways you can help:
- Ride your bike! NOT a motorized bike! Car pollution sends gases into our atmosphere. Anyway, gasoline stinks. Have you ever gone through a parking lot and suddenly smell gas? Imagine how much pollution there is there!
- Turn of those lights! Don’t waste electricity!
- Do you use a clothesline? Well why not start! We use one and it’s become one of my mom’s favorite things to do. She just loves it! And, well, so do I except when friends or neighbors come over and see our underwear!
- Well, I’m not asking you to become a vegetarian or anything, but some people tend to eat meat just because it’s meat. Don’t do that!!! Maybe if you start to eat less of it you will realize that it isn’t that bad to just eat a little less of it! Making meat takes lots of pollution! Also, who wants to eat an animal?
For more ideas, go to my mom’s blog at www.thetanglednest.com, my dad’s blog at www.bikejuju.com, or read the awesome book “Recycle This Book.”
GO GREEN!!!!!!!
On Blog Vacation Till Fall (Or A Rainy Day!!!)
Posted by: Claire on: June 27, 2009
Hi there blog readers! I won’t be blogging until a rainy day or the fall because I’ve been spending most of my time outside and don’t feel like staying inside cooped up on the computer!!! I might add a few things to bookworm or a couple cool links or short posts, but not much to look at so you all can just take a break (or look at my Mom and Dad’s excellent blogs!!!!!!!)!!!
Have an excellent summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
love Claire
Our garden - where I am spending most of my time!!!
How to Cook in a Box Oven
Posted by: Claire on: May 11, 2009
This weekend, I went to Girl Scout encampment with my troop. We baked brownies in a box oven-which is literally just a box covered in tin foil.
- Get a cardboard box
- Cover box in tin foil ( completely)
- Mix up the cookies or brownies or whatsoever
- Place them in the box
- Place the box on a cooling rack over some hot charcoal
- Let it sit and bake
Then enjoy!!! It’s a really fun process. Isn’t it cool how you can bake in a plain old cardboard box? I hope you have as much fun as I did!!!!
The Maya
Posted by: Claire on: April 23, 2009
Getting ready to climb the pyramid at Coba, Mexico!
The Maya are a veeeeery interesting Native American tribe that lived in Mexico. Here are some of the facts I learned about the Maya while I was in the Yucatan in Mexico where they lived.
SYSTEMS
The Maya were one of the few tribes that really had their own way to do almost everything. They had their own language, alphabet, creation story, way to tell time, and more. The Maya had a special pyramid where on the Equinox exactly half of it would be in sunlight, the other half shadowed. This would happen twice a year so they could figure out the date from there.
BEAUTY
The Maya thought it was beautiful for Mayan ladies to be cross-eyed, have a really slanted back forehead with a long, hooked nose coming from it, and pointed teeth (they would actually file them down).
CREATION STORY
The Maya creation story was rather strange. They believed that first, the gods made people out of mud. The mud people were OK, but they melted in rain. Next, the gods made people out of wood. The wood people were better than the mud, but they weren’t very smart. Finally, the gods made people out of corn and those were the Maya. They thought they were originally made out of corn. Weird huh?
We went to one of the Mayan ruins called Coba, where you can climb one of the pyramids, and we climbed all the way to the top!!!!
Chickens
Posted by: Claire on: April 23, 2009
I am holding Chrysanthemum.
You’ll never believe what we did today! We got chicken chicks! We’ve had chickens before in our old house. Our first batch got eaten by raccoons (I know it’s terrible!) and then we had to give our second batch to my great uncle when we moved because he has a farm. So we haven’t had chickens for a while. UNTIL NOW! We got 3 chicks. Chrysanthemum (mine), Esmerelda (mommy’s), and Lucy. Chickens rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy Easter!!!!!!!
Posted by: Claire on: April 12, 2009
Happy Easter!!! I’m sorry to admit that today I’ve been celebrating having desserts ( I gave up desserts for Lent) more than Jesus being risen. Alleluia! There, I celebrated. Well I diiiiid sing religious songs this morning! Any ways, Happy Easter! Have fun eating chocolate and enjoying yummy food and presents! Hey!!!! I think it’s time to have cake and ice cream. Happy Easter once again!!!!
A Fun Craft: Marshmallow People
Posted by: Claire on: April 11, 2009
This is a cute, fun boredom buster! Here are the quick ‘n’ easy steps for making them:
- Get out a few marshmallows. You need one marshmallow per marshmallow person.
- Draw a face and hair and clothes (optional) with sharpie on the marshmallows.
- Get a stick or popsicle stick or something and put it up the bottom of your “person”.
- Hold onto your stick and play around!!!!!!!
That’s it! Bye!!
Earth Day
Posted by: Claire on: April 10, 2009
Riding your bike is FUN aaaaand is GOOD for the earth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello once again! I’m going on vacation this week and won’t be able to blog about Earth Day, so I might as well blog about it now. Earth Day is a day to take care of the earth right? So here are some ideas:
- Go for a walk around your neighbor hood and pick up all the litter you can find.
- Turn off aaaaaall electricity in your house for 1-2 hours. It really saves energy!
- Take a shorter shower.
- Make a list of 5-10 things you can do to be more green, then do them!
- Reduce, reuse, RECYCLE
- Bike, walk, or take the bus somewhere instead of driving.
All these things will make you a greener person. If you can think of more things to do on Earth Day, please tell me about them in a comment!
