Our Volcano

We have spent the last two weeks studying volcanoes. The first week we made a classic baking soda and vinegar volcano. It was nothing fancy, only newspaper and duct tape with a water bottle "magma chamber", but the boys enjoyed it anyway! We made it a little more exciting with a few unsuspecting stick figure victims surrounding the volcano.

Before

After

Here is short video of the second explosion. We ended up making it "explode" twice because the first time wasn't as forceful as we had hoped and it didn't knock down that many of our stick figures. As you'll see, it was a bit more exciting the second time.

We ended the second week of our volcano study with an interview. We video chatted with a survivor of the Mount Saint Helen's blast - our very own Grandma Linda. My family lived in northern Idaho in May of 1980 when Mt. St. Helen's blew. We weren't in any major danger, but it did affect us. Grandma showed us a jar of ash she kept and lots of newspaper/magazine clippings. My personal favorite was a brochure sent by the government (after the fact, of course!) telling residents how to prepare for falling volcanic ash.

Hayden must have had volcanoes on his mind because a few days later he was playing around on the iPad and created this "virtual" artwork:

Heiroglyphic Hike

Wesley is in the Forestry and Outdoor Adventure project for 4-H again this year. For the first hike of the year, Wesley and Jerry joined the rest of the group on a hieroglyphic hike in the Superstition Mountains. We had never heard of this trail, but now that we know were it is we'll have to go back again. Jerry said it was a pretty scenic (yet easy) hike. Sounds just about perfect for most of our crew.

They had a great time and saw some interesting things - including real hieroglyphs! Looking at the photos I was surprised at how many more saguaros there are just a few miles from here. Jerry said the natural water hole actually had tadpoles swimming in it.

I sent the camera along. Here are a few of the photos Jerry took: