Bat Stanley went to Disney World!

I apologize to all who've been waiting for a Stanley update - they've been home getting some R&R from all their travels and are now ready to share their adventures :)

Clay was thrilled to welcome his Bat Stanley home from all his travels! He visited with a family in Madison, NJ, who then took him with them to Disney World in Orlando, Florida! Cool! He returned home with great photos from Disney as well as Epcot Center. He also brought back great souveniers of pirate coins and stickers which he generously shared with everyone.

Here's what his host family had to say:
"Your flat Stanley came all the way to my city, Madison, NJ USA.
While he was here, these are some of the exciting things he saw and did:
Flat Stanley came to Madison where he really just hung out on the couch waiting to go to Florida. Flat Stanley flew on a plane on April 1sat. When in Florida, he enjoyed a trip to Disney world. He met Winnie the Pooh, an dthe Tigger. He mostly enjoyed Epcot and went there twice.
The distance from Asheville to Madison is 671 mi, and from madison to St. Cloud, FL is 1,110 mi, and from Asheville to St. Cloud is 610 mi.
If Flat Stanley should come back to visit, in Madison it is cold, not freezing, but in Florida it was hot. So one of his young hostesses recommends that he should wear shorts in Florida.
Some other interesting facts about my city include: (facts about St. Cloud, FL) there is a haunted hotel downtown. It is where my grandparents live and is about 40 min. to Disney World. Central Florida is the lightening capital of the world.

We would all like to thank our Madison friends for welcoming Stanley, even though he was lazy on the couch for a while. He really enjoyed his trip and was glad to have brave travelling companions to protect him near haunted hotels and all that lightening!! Thanks guys!

Here's Bat Stanley with his hosts meeting some fave characters at a restaurant called The Crystal Palace:


And here's Stanley living it up at Epcot Center! He got to go to a Marakesh restaurant, and meet a Scottish rock band:

Grove Stone Quarry

We took a field trip this week to the Grove Stone Quarry in Swannanoa, NC (just down the road). We were there for a creek exploration. One of the teachers helped the kids identify bugs found in the creek, and then helped them run a net through the stream, sort out what they found and then analyze what that told us about the stream. We learned that by finding out what creatures live in a stream, you can tell how clean or polluted it is. This stream was wonderfully clean, as there was only forest up to the source. They found salamanders, crayfish, stone flies, mayflies, and more!

One of the teachers also took kids on nature hikes and helped them identify trees while discussing with them tree health. We learned why hemlocks are in so much trouble, what it means when a tree starts shooting out branches near the ground, and even what plants a bear uses as a laxative after hibernation!

We also enjoyed spying all the cicadas that have just hatched ... they're EVEYRWHERE! These are the 17 year cicadas, their little eggs have actually been in the ground for 17 years (the year of the last massive cicada invasion in WNC!). Pretty cool :)

LEAF!

FLast weekend we came back from a wonderful weekend of camping at LEAF (Lake Eden Arts Festival) right down the road in Black Mountain, NC. It was meant to be a nice escape from my life for a minute, didn't exactly turn out that way, but we had a blast anyhow! I couldn't even guess the numbers of campers that come to this. The boys and I camped with about 8 other families, all good friends, either homeschoolers of folks who used to homeschool - so TONS of kids for the boys to play with. In fact, it was hard to get them to leave the campsite and actually enjoy the festivities, they were so busy playing.

We saw our favorite, Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - kids hip-hop. He played several times. I re-learned to contra dance and did a Nia class. We saw some late-night reggae and spent alot of time at the beach of the lake. Reed learned some Aztec dancing and of course busted out some break-dance moves at 23 Skidoo's show. The boys spent LOTS of time at Kids Village - there's a stage there, also random activities (see photos of shaving cream play below), moon sand, crafts, face painting, a kids' talent stage (for tips) and a kids market. Reed has decided that next year he wants to sell some home-made wares at the market - he was very inspired by our friend Isobell who made a couple hundred dollars selling her rubberband yo-yo's!

Clay playing in shaving cream:


And Reed:



Reed:


Cool photo Reed took at Kids' Village:

Inch by Inch Row by Row, I'm gonna make this garden grow!

I now live on an urban 1/2 acre - partially wooded. The woods are nearly taken over with poison ivy, so that will be a project in itself for the next few years. In the long term, I'd like to be very sustainable with food growing - probably not grains, though maybe some. Mostly fruits and veggies. I'd like to slowly convert the woods to an urban orchard. I'd also like to get khaki campbell ducks for their eggs, pest control and general loveliness.

But that's getting ahead of myself... I've been researching the Square Foot Gardening method - while I don't think it will save the world (as the book not-so-modestly implies), I do think it is an effective way to garden in a small space. On the north side of the gardens are trellises made from electric conduit piping that all vining plants will grow on (pumpkins, tomatoes, peas, melons, cukes). I am proud to say that I made all of this stuff - lil' old me :D Girl power! I also constructed (with the help of some friends) a bamboo tee-pee in the back, that we planted runner beans at the base of. Hopefully by mid-Summer, it should be completely covered with bean vines!

I waited all Winter for Spring to show me what hidden treasures lay underground, waiting to come up, in this new yard. Unfortunately, the answer was only poison ivy. So, a new mission is to get some nice perinneals in here as well as functional veggies and such.

Vermont Flat Stanley

A great big thanks to the wonderful family in Barton, Vermont who hosted Flat Stanley! He had such a great time. This was Owen's Ninja Stanley. He got to go sledding, make snow angels, tap maple syrup, and even get strapped onto a paper airplane for a ride!





From the questionare:
Your Flat Stanley came all the way to my city, Barton, Vermont.
While he was here, these are some of the exiting things he saw and did: "Stanley had a great time. His favorite part of being here was playing outside in the snow. He really enjoyed making snow-angels, and making planes with me. Stanley also had a great time exploring through the woods and even got to help us tap some maple trees".
The distance between Asheville, NC and Barton, VT is approximately 1050 miles.
If Flat Stanley should come back to visit, he should wear: "mittens, a hat, coat, boots, ski-pants", because the climate here is "cold and snowy from Octover to the end of April!"
Some other interesting facts about my city include:
"The Barton River runs north towards Canada!
In 1810 Runaway pond flooded Barton with millions of gallons of water in the greatest natural catastrophe in Orleans County post columbia history. The whole pond drained!
In 2004, Phish played their final concert. It was the single largest gathering of people in out town with 70,000 people!
There are 85 homeschooled students. 2, 780 people live in Barton.
The early settlers found wigwams by Barton pond. They say an Indian Foosah killed 27 moose by this pond in the winter of 1783.
Around 1900 a granite quarry was located on crystal lake.
Henry Leland who was an inventor, and engineer, created and named both the original Cadillac and Lincoln companies."

The First Stanley Comes Home!

We are so excited to get our first Stanley back! He went all the way to Albuquerque, New Mexico. This was one that Reed sent out, so he was especially excited. His host family took him lots of neat places like Old Town and the Rio Grande Zoo. They sent him back with great souveniers that he's sharing with us, like pencils, cookie mix (yum!), a pepper-shaped cookie cutter, post cards and maps. Thanks so much Albuquerque family!!

We also went to the craft store today to buy scrapbooks so we can keep all the souveniers of Stanley's adventures :)

Today, we took our Stanleys to our friendly, neighborhood Staples store to be protected by a super power force field (aka lamination)... fortunately, the clerk did not seem to mind being hovered over by two 7-year-old boys and being told all about Stanley!



That was easy!!

We got a huge number of responses when we asked for host families for Stanley. We have marked on our maps all of the offers we have gotten. It's obviously too many for one time, but after our first batch of Stanleys come back, we'll probably send them on new adventures! The blue arrows are places that they are going RIGHT NOW ... the red arrows are future destinations :)