Outdoor Mom's Journal - April

During our outdoor time this week we went....around the yard mostly. I injured my foot about a month ago and am still having trouble walking. So, taking the dogs out for a walk or hiking is out of the question at this point.

We can still walk around the backyard together, and enjoyed a snowfall early this week. It looked like a winter wonderland with everything  covered in snow.

Rabbit tracks were visible in the wet snow.

 The snow clung to the fruits still on the trees.

The sky was a pastel blue with light clouds as far as the eye could see.

The most inspiring thing we experienced was...hearing the first loon of the season and seeing two geese swimming in the pond in the pasture.

Also heard and saw a flock of ducks in the pond. This was a type I had never heard before. They were a large bird compared to a mallard. By the time I got my camera and got back to the pasture, they were just flying off.

Our outdoor time made us ask (or wonder about)...why haven't I invested in an outdoor camera that can take photos whenever there is movement? It would be interesting to see what type of wildlife lives or passes through here at night or at times when I don't have my camera handy.

In the garden, we are planning/planting/harvesting....with warm weather here (in the 50s-70s), it seems tempting to plant some root vegetable seeds (e.g., carrots, beets) and cold-weather crops (e.g., lettuce, onions).

The rhubarb is getting larger.

It's still a bit risky because the weather can become very chilly still - until mid-May. Or, like shown above, it can still snow in April.

Sophia's strawberries are coming up nicely.

We'll put a fence around them this year so

bunnies don't eat the berries.

I added nature journal pages about....four different themes during March. The first way was an overall view of the month inspired by Barb at Outdoor Nature Hour.

The next page was a chronological listing of things I observed during March.

The third entry were sounds I heard around the pond. 

The fourth entry during March was about sandhill cranes which were starting to return to Minnesota.

I am reading...no books at this point that are related to nature. However, I am going through lots of homeschool files that include lots of information about wildlife and nature. I'm planning to refer and use the information and images at a later point in my nature journal.

I am dreaming about…developing the closed-loop trail in the back part of the farm. I would like to plant a variety of trees around the trail this summer so that there's some diversity in trees at our farm to support different types of wildlife.

A photo I would like to share...a sunrise picture that Sophia took on April 8th as we were headed to the 4-H project bowl in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota.

Because we were up early, we saw the sun rise - from a glowing red semi-circle peeking out over the horizon to a brilliant golden ball that colored the sky with shades of yellow, gold, pink, magenta, and lavender.


Thank you to Barb the Outdoor Hour Challenge for the idea of doing an Outdoor Mom's Journal.