Traverse to Teddy Bear Cove 12.6.15

Another blustery day in Bellingham and the last outing of the fall season for the Silver Salmon.  We had a small and very well prepared group meet this morning at the North Chuckanut trailhead.  Our destination; Teddy Bear Cove. We meandered along the Interurban; chatting about lichen and rock formations, school and friends, and our plans for the quickly approaching holidays.

The wind was crazy strong out by the bay; but the rain stayed away for the most part. The tide was very high so exploring was limited to the top section. Still the area provided places for secret hide-outs, hanging in trees, and lots of games. And snacks. There is always snacks, especially for hungry squirrels!

There was an extended "fire starting trial"; which was good fun to quietly observe considering how wet our materials were. The Silver Salmon gave it their best effort and problem solved gusty wind conditions together and tried out several different modalities ("let's try it this way, let's try that"), and yet their fire did not catch. Though this experience may have been a bit frustrating for the participants, the lessons of patience, practice, and not having things always turn out the way you expect them to remains good medicine for these girls. Resilience when things don't go your way is a character trait that gains ground when practiced.

Demonstrating more resilience and problem solving skills, we played many rounds of "Squirrel". It was a chilly day with sporadic rain showers and we had little protection from the gusty wind. To stay warm, happy and engaged despite less than ideal weather conditions, we played games. Games are also good for establishing relationships. We started with a fun round of Spider's web, but needed a more active game to warm us up. Playing Squirrel can be tricky business for children because it requires some emotional maturity. The gist of the game is this: Each squirrel has their own nest. There is one large cache of cones that each squirrel may access as food storage, but can carry one (and only one) cone from the group cache to their own individual nest. That cache happens to be guarded by a hungry coyote, and if a squirrel gets tagged by the coyote they must drop their cone, go back home and try again. Because this is wintertime and each squirrel must have a certain number of cones to survive the harsh conditions of winter, they can also raid each other's nests for fir cones. What?! Friendly squirrels can steal from each other? YES! This aspect of the game challenges friend/foe relationships and can result in hurt feelings as friends steal from friends. This mentor is pleased to report that SO MUCH stealing went on, and all in good fun. There was lots of strategizing, fast moving, quick thinking and truce building among the squirrels, yet some still did not survive the winter after playing for about 20 minutes. So then another game would ensue with a new coyote and new nests. We played this game for hours, it seemed like. Whew. Good work, girls!

Watched the train pass by a few times...

We ended our day with an activity we call the web of life. We talked about our fall season and all the ways we feel connected to the environment, our exploring, the service we perform, and each other. Passing around a ball of yarn to physically connect us illustrates this web of connection. It's a nice opportunity to think about the previous outings and reflect on what this group really means to the girls. It's not the easiest thing for a new person to come into an established group and there can be growing pains and uncomfortable moments as we engage in working together and widening our circle. Group work like this is so important to all individuals in a family, it's dynamic, ever-changing, challenging and rewarding. Sometimes all at the same time! These relationships are a long term process we are engaged in, and some lessons require more opportunities to learn. This group is still learning to respectfully hold space for others in an opening or closing circle. Gosh, that can be annoying and feel disrespectful. Consider that there are always people we will meet that don't seem to recognize how their behavior may affect others. It's important to know that everyone is working on their skills and are in different places on their journey. What a great space to practice our compassion, acceptance and patience. Explorer Club Mottos like We Not Me, Widen Our Circle, and Challenge by Choice are empowering steps on our journey together as a group. We are on our way. The mentors have seen this group spend their time together like real salmon might do, in surges, eddies and even flowing backwards in our journey together. We acknowledge that we see new circles widening at every outing, and know that we have lots of opportunities to look forward to in our future. The Silver Salmon are task oriented and strive to do a good job at every service outing and are showing great resilience when playing challenging games. Go Salmon!

For More Photos of our outing to Teddy Bear Cove, check this link. Sorry there are lots of blurry ones, those squirrels move FAST!

Arroyo Exploration Day. 11.8.15

It was destined to be a salmon day!  The Silver Salmon crew were ready to explore, and our native Chum salmon were on their journey upstream.

We widened our circle and welcomed Maddie to our group. We checked our preparedness as the canyon is known as the "Icebox of the Chuckanuts" and the creek is cold!!  Excitement was high as we headed down to the Arroyo canyon to see what awaited us in Chuckanut creek!

Heading east, we stopped a few times before settling beside a section of the creek beside the infamous magic tree.  Here we were delighted by salmon moving upstream, hanging out in shallow pools, and the occasional salmon no longer able to journey, exhausted by the spawning process, succumbing to death.  Curiosity about the dead fish resulted in touching, stroking and general examination. Several girls spent time sweetly and reverently preparing a couple of the dead salmon; covering them with nature's gifts and blessing them. Seems the girls really understand how all things are connected. Witnessing the struggle and death of these splendid animals often brings up sadness. We acknowledged and appreciated our feelings and also acknowledged that death is part of the cycle of life. In Nature, death is necessary to nourish new life. This is evident in nurse logs, fungus, the ocean, your own garden compost, etc. We discussed the importance of a salmon's body in terms of stream ecology and this forest we were exploring. And how in death, salmon can even nourish trees a mile into the forest. Bald Eagles play a role in that, please ask your Explorer how that works! 

We played some games, slid down slippery muddy slopes, built some forts, sailed wish boats down the creek to the ocean, drank hot tea and cocoa, made fairy gardens and spent time just visiting with one another.

At the end of our day we all enjoyed some moments of solitude beside the creek; playing in the mud, or with a stick or simply closing our eyes and listening to the sweet sound of the water moving past.

Words of the Day: Salmon, river, mud, adventures, friends, tea, cocoa and more!

See the photo album of our day here. 

SS & SO MADD Service at Squalicum Creek, 10/24/15

This is what Community looks like! Wow! The Silver Salmon and the Spotted Owls joined hundreds of people on the fresh new banks of Squalicum Creek for Make a Difference Day this year. MADD is an effort on the national scale. We joined hands with millions of people all over the U.S today! Big gratitude for the Bellingham Parks Dept (especially our restoration mentor, Rae Edwards and her staff) and the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association staff for coordinating this enormous project. Collectively, there were 1500 trees and shrubs to plant, a mountain of mulch to move, and all the tools to make it so. Our new collective noun for both our groups fit naturally into this outing: The Spotted Salmon!


We met on this chilly cloudy day to plant salmon friendly habitat along the new route of Squalicum Creek behind Sunset Square. Why did they need to re-route the creek? Squalicum Creek spilled into Sunset Pond and Bug Lake, two shallow bodies of water that just get too hot for salmon to breathe in. Salmon need cool, clean water with lots of shade and places to rest to survive! Here's a link to the City's info so you can get a grasp on the enormity of this project.

These girls were totally up to the task at hand, and couldn't wait to dig right in. During our opening circle we checked in about the girl's preparedness (which was great preparedness today looked like plenty of layers and raingear, check!), played a quick game of Firry the Fir Cone, held opening circles to ask the important question: Who's "cups" are we filling today? Resounding answer, SALMON! After a buddy-check, we were off. Here are some pictures, but please browse our Photo Album for more visuals of our day!

Thanks, Renee (Explorer's Mom!)! She helped us understand the scope of the day and our specific role in the project. How many plants, again?? No problem.

Let us just grab our partners, shovels and buckets and go. We stopped at mulch mountain to fill those buckets, of course. And found the old railroad line, which brought a quiet moment as we fell into a single file line on out to our site.

Many hands, people. There are many pictures in our photo album of these girls digging hard, breaking up rootballs, chucking rocks, planting and mulching. They only needed encouragement when our work flow stalled due to tiredness and a pause in direction from our MADD leaders. They were kind of busy! A conversation about Walk Your Talk and we were right back at 'em. By noon, we had planted ALL our plants already! Now what do we do? Time for a little play with clay session. Clay is truly magical. We waited, practicing patience as we waited for further instructions from the Stream Team (B'ham PArks & NSEA). Snack happens, as it always does. And then, we moved mulch mountain.

Moving a mulch mountain a 1/4 of a mile required one long mulch bucket brigade as we passed buckets hand over hand, firefighter style. For 1/4 mile from mulch mountain to our individual baby plants. It was kind of epic, really.

Now it was time to make the donuts! Here's how you properly mulch baby plants. Please ask your Explorer all about it.

After lunch and a few fun rounds of the game Bear, Salmon, Mosquito, our Closing circle reflected our Motto: All Things Are Connected. Although not specifically identified, each girl's words of gratitude included salmon, helping, birds, humans and all of nature. 

Words of the day: Restoration with mulch, trees and salmon. Teamwork for the Spotted Salmon!

We didn't plant these! But we wanted to.

Home Connections: Ask your Explorer for a demonstration of our Motto, Our Cup Overflows.
Have a conversation on why service is important, not just for salmon, but for yourself and others.
What kind of plants did your girl plant?
What did she enjoy most about our day?
Why are mulch donuts important?

Nettle Cordage Skills Day; Sunday, September 21

The Silver Salmon's first outing of the Fall 2016 season was filled with learning, exploration, and connecting. The group balanced their goofy, energetic style with focused work for much of the day.

We gathered in Fairhaven Park on a misty, but warm fall morning, and spent our opening circle discussing why we should learn skills like making cordage. The girls determined that the skills are fun, cool to know, and good for survival. We also talked about the pride that comes with making something from hand and the connection we feel to earth when we get to know these natural materials really well. After our opening circle, we decided to go on the hunt for nettles in their fall form.

In fall, nettles are super tall and strong. On our our nettle quest, we found a remarkably dry lunch spot, really cool fungus, a really unique and camouflaged slug, and tons of spiders.

 In addition to this, the girls practiced, without any adult intervention, collaborative decision making on where we should go and how we should use our limited time. It was impressive to see the gals collaborating so well. They were flexible, understanding, and really tried to listen and take in all points of view.

Collaborating and compromising

After a bit more time exploring, we finally found some nettles. The girls practiced removing the nettles close to the ground without actually up-rooting them, stripping the nettles of all leaves/spines, and then keeping the nettle strand safe from bending. 

Rebecca demonstrating how to work with the nettle

Keep the nettle strand safe!!

From there, we all went to the known nettle patch to harvest enough nettles for our spring outing where we will make the cordage! Before harvesting, we talked about the one-in-twenty rule and talked about only taking what we need. We also thanked this patch for providing us with this learning opportunity. Girls broke into teams. Some girls cut the nettles, others stripped, and the final group help organize and protect these delicate strands.

At this point, it was time to learn how to actually get the fiber from the nettle! The girls learned how to gently pull the outside fiber away from the inside fiber. This outside fiber is what will eventually become the fiber for our cordage. The girls sat in a circle and meticulously worked to separate the nettles. Some were totally in to this kind of work, and others quickly tired of it!

While some girls finished the nettle processing, others climbed trees, told jokes, and made funny faces. After we finished this process, we all played an epic game of Down the Rabbit Hole in the rain. It felt good to run and be crazy after focusing for so long. 

We closed our day with an attitude of gratitude; the girls thanked nettles, the rain, and one another for this memorable day.Words of the day: Nettle Cordage, Rain, Play. To see all of our pictures from this earth skills day, click here.