Nettle Harvest Skills Day 9-25-16

So, we started our day with some nature magic. Like we do. But not ordinary magic, mind you, but the "amazing oh my goodness I can't believe I'm seeing this" kind of magical nature moment. Gathered in our morning circle after a quick game, we sat down in the center of the labyrinth in Fairhaven Park to welcome a new girl and talk about our day ahead. We were in the midst of our check-in when we were interrupted by a loud ruckus coming from a flock of crows in the copse of nearby fir trees. One of our mentors wondered out loud what was happening since the crows sounded so upset, explaining that amount of ruckus can be a signal that something is amiss in the bird world. Crows sound off to warn others of intruders, like hawks or owls. We shared that there is a long history of crows and owls engaging in eating each other's babies, so there's a lot of animosity between those two species. And that's when a Barred Owl flew out of the fir trees and landed just behind us, in plain view! Like it was in the queue! We about all fell over!

The crows flew over in their murder to surround the owl and give it a hard time. The owl put up with them for about three minutes, and then flew off. We couldn't have planned it better. Wonder-full way to start our day!

In Coyote mentoring, we mentors strive to lead from behind, fostering leadership skills by asking pertinent questions or just getting out of the way as the group makes decisions about their day's exploration. We do this by giving the explorers the opportunity to decide upon their own plan for the day that incorporates the focus for our outing. Out focused learning today was: Be Safe and Harvest nettle. Girls were in charge of deciding how our day unfolded, so games showed up BIG for the Sea Stars.

Some of the great assets the Sea Stars embrace is their ability to play and Widen Their Circle by including new friends. They love games! The awesome power of games to practice our socio-emotional skills is HUGE, and it leads to great connections between the girls as they collaborate and compromise for the greater good of the group. That's a big challenge for fourth graders. And all the rest of us, too. We played Birds and Worms (ask your explorer about the pipe cleaner game, which happens to be a useful too for teaching about the concept of adaptations for survival. Were they an American Robin, a flicker or a Stellars Jay? and several types of tag. Since these girls are so adept at playing together, we gave them a new challenge, at a moment when they couldn't decide what game to play. Their challenge was to make their own game up, incorporating nettles and life cycles. Mentors and educators do this all the time, as a way to practice skills and experience learning in a deep multi-sensory way. And of course, the Sea Stars had their game theory hashed out in about fifteen minutes. We have some strong speakers in this group and we will continue to work on taking care of each other and making sure ALL voices are heard, as all opinions are valid. Theory is not the same as practice, so we had to play a round and see how it worked out. The girls had a great time playing our nettle game that brought in familiar aspects of other favorite games.

We settled down to ear our lunch, and move on through our plan.

Harvesting nettles for cordage!

It was time to crack into our nettle skills, and the girls worked in earnest to harvest, prepare and strip the nettles into string. In harvesting, we remembered the one in twenty principle, where we will take only what we need and what is sustainable for the specific harvesting habitat. Many girls enjoyed (purposeful) nettle stings while removing the leaves from the stalks. We quickly got into a work-flow, and the girls seemed shocked when we ran out of nettles and needed to clean up! We acknowledged those who came before us to use nettles and cordage for a wide variety of purposes, who learned to harness the wild nettle for us to be using today.

We wound down our day with some time spent walking, crawling, skipping, and dancing through the beautiful Fairhaven Labyrinth, before settling down for a sunshiney Peaceful Place. We shared our Attitude of Gratitude at the end of the day, and relished our day full of connection, appreciation, and focus.

To see a slideshow of our day, click here!

Outing at Clark's Point: 6-5-16

Along the edges of Clarks Point are wind-sculpted sandstone cliffs, red-barked madrona trees, towering firs, and tide pools waiting to be explored. Thanks to Doug and Peggy Clark, 78 acres of the magnificent Chuckanut shoreline will remain one of the last large, relatively undeveloped pieces of coastal property in private ownership in the Pacific Northwest. After orienting ourselves to the land, the Sea Stars had to choose to go to the west or east viewpoint, each side provided a very different experience—we decided to go east and see what adventures and lessons would unfold in Mud Bay.

Traversing the short path down to the shoreline, we greeted sword fern, lady fern and bracken fern; we acknowledged the lovely but toxic bleeding heart flowers; inspected a whilttled woodpecker tree; and plucked a few invasive herb Roberts, otherwise known as “stinky bob.”

Arriving at the beach we crab crawled along the edges of the sandstone to a magnificently sculpted cave that was our amphitheater for the day. With great enthusiasm the girls headed to the edges of the shore where mud beckoned them. Prior to our arrival we talked about how mud liked to gobble up shoes and so the girls should approach mud with caution. Alas, the mud of Mud Bay taught us some very important lessons this day:

* Walk quickly across the surface to avoid sinking.

* Observe the tracks of other people and walk in their footprints.

* As exciting and inticing as mud may be, do not rush into the mud, STOP and consider Safety First: What are the unseen dangers? If I get stuck how can I get out? If I get scared how can I push through this challenge and return safely back to shore? If I get hurt, am I close enough for help?

* Mud is wonderful, but it can also present challenges that can be overcome; this is called Resilience.

Continuing our wander down the shore, we admired the giant sandstone boulders, found caves of shade, and had a lovely Peaceful Place under the shade of Douglas Firs and Madrona trees. After our long sunny muddy day the girls summarized their experience in these words: “Mud galore, Awesome Resilience!!”

Mottos in play today: Safety First, STOP, The Only Way Out is Through, Get Dirty!,

Service with Greenways at Lake Padden: 5-7-16

The Ospreys and Sea Stars gathered this past Saturday to serve with Greenways and celebrate a warm, sunny spring.

We met early on Saturday morning and started with an opening circle to review our plan for the day and our service ethic. The Sea Stars defined what "invasive species" are, and why we spend our precious sunsiney days removing them. Thankfully, the Sea Stars were full of their Attitude of Gratiude, and were ready to Walk Their Talk by working hard to help the Lake Padden ecosystem.

From there, we met with Rae from Greenways and learned more about our tasks for the day. We then split into two crews - the blackberry removers and the weed pullers. Our blackberry crew worked tirelessly to remove this invasive species from a small hill right near Lake Padden. This team was critical in preventing this hillside from being overwhelmed by blackberries. While the blackberry team worked, the weed pullers brought an overgrown zone back to life. They pulled cleaver, scotch broom, dandelions, grasses, and plantain to make room for red flowering currants and salal. Greenways is hoping to keep this space full of native plants to prevent people from walking off trail here and eroding this hillside. After this big effort, our group took a break in the shade, and returned for a final push to get this whole zone mulched and protected from future weeds! 

We broke for lunch and giggled in the shade as we ate and relaxed for a few minutes. After our lunch break, it was swimming time! The girls changed and almost everyone took a dunk in chilly Lake Padden. During our swim, we explored the Lake's shoreline, and after our dip, as we lounged in the sun, Holly told our group a story about pollinators and flowers. We learned about the different parts of the flower and flowers' adaptions.

To bring our crew back to meet our parents we played Bear Chase-- A game where we all pretended to be salmon avoiding a hungry bear. We finished our day with a closing circle where we shared our attitudes of gratitude. Another special day for the Sea Stars!

To see a photo album of the day, click here! 

Earth Skills: Edible Plants at the 100 Acre Wood: 4-16-16

What a jam-packed day – we were busy exploring and learning every single second of our time with the Sea Stars on Saturday! It is likely true that EC outings could take place just about anywhere – and even at the same setting for each outing – and we'd never run out of things to explore and discover. We rarely get very far in terms of distance, but we travel a great deal with regard to noticing and understanding the webs of connection all around us. This skills day exemplified that; we covered very little territory in the "100 Acre Wood", but we thoroughly explored the places we did go. And that's the point: it really is about the journey, not the destination, and about noticing what's all around us rather than passing through.

Topics we dug into on Saturday included:

• We wrapped our minds around the incredible fact that almost everything in our lives comes from plants (ask your daughter to explain how her raincoat is made out of plants!) and as the rain abated we were able to begin our harvest. Nettles and licorice root were the ingredients in the fabulous forest tea we enjoyed (we also harvested ingredients for edible treats - like stinging nettle pesto and soup - that will be shared at future outings this season). We understood that nature puts its focus in different plant parts each season, putting energy into roots, shoots, and fruits. We added the healthful dandelion and licorice roots into our tea, picked the shoots of nettles, and saw the summer-ripe fruits of Oregon grape in their flower form.  We learned of the many uses for plants we see every day such as nettle, Western red cedar, Douglas fir: food, medicine, tools, shelter, clothing, toys... (each American uses the equivalent of a 100 foot fir tree in wood and paper products each year).

• Since our focus this day was how we use plants for food, we put on our "Owl Eyes" (a way of walking with awareness, using peripheral vision) and worked to spot plants that might be usable for food in this season. We paused to consider poisonous plants: we learned that edible and useful plants far outweigh poisonous ones in this ecosystem, but that it is very important to learn what isn't safe for our bodies. We'll continue to point out and discuss poisonous plants on future outings, but the girls learned to always "Be Sure You Meet Before You Eat!" and never put anything in their mouth unless one can be certain of the plant and its safety. From now on we will ask them to pass the ID challenge - to be able to absolutely, positively ID any plant to one of us before they're allowed to nibble.

Preparing out pesto snacks for the hungry Sea Stars

• We taught ways to walk carefully in the forest, leaving no trace - we'll practice Fox Walking more on future outings. We also talked about how to harvest plants in a sensitive, respectful manner, introducing the "One in Twenty Principle".

• We harvested nettle, and learned just a few of its more than 100 uses. Many girls chose to Stretch Their Edge and take the Nettle Challenge, bravely allowing the plant to touch their bare skin as a way of practicing Challenge By Choice. We made nettle and licorice root tea and tasted nettle pesto. We collected dandelions and big leaf maple blossoms which cooked up into tasty fritters to round out our feast.

• On our explorations, we met Licorice Fern, Oregon Grape, Salal, Douglas Fir, Stinging Nettle, Indian Plum, Bleeding Heart, Poison Hemlock, and more. We were also thrilled to greet newly blooming trillium, letting us know that spring is upon us.

Audrey Stretching Her Edge by taking the "Nettle Challenge"

• We tested our Owl Eyes with a game of hidden objects along the trail, scouring the forest for our lost pipe cleaners. Ask your daughter about what she learned while practicing our Motto, "Slow is Fast".

What a day filled with learning, connection, food, and fantastic collaboration between the Ospreys as they shared the work of harvesting, cooking, and celebrating our wild edibles.

Our Words of the Day? "Nettle, nettle, in the kettle!"

Want to see photos from our day? Click here!

Service for Bellingham Community Meals: 3-6-16

The Sea Stars reunited on Sunday for a unique outing: baking for Bellingham Community Meals. BCM is a group of volunteers that comes together once a month to prepare and serve a warm meal free to the community. The only thing that isn't prepared onsite is… DESSERT! This is where we put our energy, and the girls collaboratively counted, measured, stirred, whipped, beat, melted, poured…and cleaned!

Claire and Sage in the Co-op's bright new space for cooking and learning.  Thanks, Co-op.

After an introduction to our project, we explored questions like: Whose "cups" are we filling today with this project? What other needs are we meeting by helping with this community meal? What would happen in our community without these resources?  The girls responded with thoughtfulness and compassion. We all agreed that filling others’ cups makes our cups more full. Today our goal was to help people meet the basic need of food. A great discussion was had about whether dessert was an actual need: the conclusion being that community meals (and cookies specifically) meet other basic needs as well, like love, community, and connection.

Lumina and Teva getting to work with their mixing

The girls split into three groups, with determination to stir lots of love into the batter along with the other ingredients. The kitchen was a-flurry with egg cracking, whirling beaters and recipe checking. We remembered to go one step at a time, implementing our motto, “Think It Through Before You Do.” Soon our treats were baking and our mouths were watering, and we began a serious Leave No Trace kitchen clean-up.

After our hard work we ate lunch together. What fun it was to laugh and connect with each other while being dry and warm! There was enough time for games; organized and instructed by the girls.

Fox + Rabbit tag indoors?! A crazy sight for an Explorers Club day.

Then we geared up and headed back to Laurel Park for some field games.  A few rounds of "Judge Nature" and "Skunk and Spray" and it was a wrap.

Rebecca helping the Sea Stars Collaborate + Compromise to come up with game ideas

Our words of the day? “ Cookies, cookies, awesome games!"

Mottos especially in use today: Our Cups Overflow, Leave No Trace, Everybody Helps, All Things Are Connected, Widen Our Circle

Want more photos from our day? Click here!

Exploring 100 Acre Wood: 11.22.15

"As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen" Winnie-the-Pooh.

The SeaStars last fall outing was into the 100 acre wood for exploring and adventure.  The girls gathered and we all checked in with each other around being prepared.  Winnie-the-Pooh would have had his honey of course, and the companionship of his friends. And so we checked for our snacks, ate some too... made sure we had our extra clothing, and set off together to explore the woods.

We found a cozy spot to land and the girls set off to look at mushrooms and cedars, play in a nearby stream, explore shelters, and of course, eat.

The weather was a bit chilly so game playing quickly became the favorite activity of the day.  Many rounds of "Hide" followed; and lots of laughing and enjoying one another's company.  Ask your daughter how Holly thinks she can not be seen behind a sapling! These girls have a well defined sense of play and can make a game happen anywhere, at any time. They widened their circle to include new explorers and used their compromise and collaborate group skills in deciding upon a plan for the day and when we reached a trail intersection. Which way should we go? Mentors explained what they knew about the options, and then stepped out of the circle to remove ourselves from the group's process. And... we have a split decision, but want to move to a base camp, and explore the two options from there. Seastars are creative problem solvers!

We had a backpacking stove and got that going as the day progressed.  Hot chocolate and tea, warm soup and happy bellies! Some art time was well received, and beautiful work produced. Louisa, our EMA for this group, was a great sport in endless rounds of pony. As in, she was the pony for some lucky girls. Thanks for your cheerful, gentle spirit, Louisa!

We ended this season's outings with a thoughtful Web of Life activity as we shared our gratitude and connection to each other, this place and the planet. 

Service in Big Rock Park 10/10/15

Wowza! These Seastars consistently amaze this mentor with their work ethic, commitment and energy to get 'er done! Really, these girls have an amazing attitude and aptitude for service projects. They know how to work and fully embrace and enjoy service projects.


We began our day in a sleepy circle, checking in by sharing what kind of weather we were feeling like today. Lots of cloudy and overcast feelings, possibly due to the earliness of the hour and the actual weather forecast. But these girls quickly warmed up with a fun game of "All My Friends" and became inspired by the project ahead. Big Rock Park is a little known park in need of lots of TLC. We joined Rae Edwards, Alexandra Doumas and a lot of other volunteers on this windy, cloudy day for this park enhancement project. The J.O.B. before us: Protect the hillside, lay down a mulch blanket, plant new native plants, remove invader/bully plants and improve visibility and safety of the park area. But first! Get Prepared! Donning full rain gear to protect our bodies from slivers, dirt and potential rain, we learned how to use tools safely (we even took a quiz!), which buckets had special jobs, discussed the project ahead and donned our gloves.

The Seastars jumped right in, digging up young blackberries by the roots, hacking down obstructing snowberry, pulling ivy (so fun), planting and protecting a few short Oregon Grape babies, and then came the mulch madness... Giant mountains of mulch and empty buckets and sleds were swarmed by fifty volunteers. In the ensuing hours we all used muscles and positive mental attitudes to get the job done. From the moment they confronted Mulch Mountain, these girls were flying to fill buckets as fast as they were emptied, living into their "sled dog" and "reindeer" selves as they pulled heavy sleds of mulch up a steep hill, with big smiles and lots of gusto. Community members paused to watch, stating "Wow, who ARE these girls? They're amazing!"

Why'd we do it? We did it to make this park a friendlier, more accessible place for neighbors and folks who visit. Our efforts were an essential part of a community team: we filled those buckets, others transported them to waiting native plants and trees, some ringed the vegetation with mulch while others removed invasive weeds. After hours of sweating, hauling, filling, Mulch Mountain was reduced to a hill, then bump, and finally a flat brown spot. 

After a much-deserved break for food and water, we had a surprisingly fast and loud game of fox and rabbit tag, yippee! Squeals and screams ensued, as all games of tag seem to do. We then had a good slide down the Big Rock itself, it's really quite an amazing slab of Chuckanut sandstone-wow.

Our Words of the Day? Mulch, Muscles & Muddy Fun


Mottos especially in use today: Stretch Your Edge, LIBK, Collaborate and Compromise, Get Dirty!, Safety First.


See our Photo Album here.

Home Connections: Why do we do service? What do you like best about working on these projects?

Who may benefit from our help in Big Rock Park? 

How do you safely carry gardening tools like clippers and loppers?
Why is a thick layer of mulch better than a 1 inch layer?