Sunday, May 28, 2017

Forestry at Landis

Yesterday we drove over to Landis Arboretum to practice some of Maddie's forestry skills. She has offered to take the kids in a younger 4H group on a walk/hike around the property a bit to introduce them to tree identification and we needed a good route. We found one! The route we found has Ironwood right in the middle (the trunk of this tree feels like someone is flexing their muscle) and ends with a black or sweet birch(this one smells like wintergreen or root beer depending on the person smelling it!). So there will be 2 really fun trees right at good spots to keep their attention.



There were sculptures scattered about this time. I don't recall those from previous visits but the T-Rex is brand new so maybe my attention was just not drawn to them like it was this time!





Brian and Maddie tried to identify trees at the very beginning but it turned out most of them were native to China so there wasn't a whole lot they could identify! However they did generally get at least in the ballpark--its a birch, its a fruit tree etc.

I was trying to take a picture of the quilt on the barn.....





These were cones on the contorted blue spruce (this I would never have known if Landis didn't have it on their facebook page). The cones were magenta! They were really neat!!



Then we went off into the woods to see what we could find without labels on things. One of the first things we heard when we entered the wooded area was a barred owl! We stayed very quiet for a bit but he only called onec. Maddie did really well she kept saying "Oh! This is a ______, Here is how I know!" I was having her practice explaining to us how to identify the tree so she has it in mind when she has a gaggle of 7-9 year olds in tow.





Then we got to a stand of evergreens and hardwoods mixed together and we got out the Biltmore stick. Brian ordered a diameter tape so we can be sure that we are using the stick right! First Maddie measured with the Biltmore stick then double checked herself with the tape. Now we just have to figure out the darn height--board feet--measuring and we will be all set with that!



Trying height measurement
Then we came out by the really old oak trees and headed back down the hill to the car. It is so pretty there!


There is a bluebird on the left side of this sculpture. Maddie snuck up taking photos!



When we got back to the parking lot 2 ladies were all set up painting. We stopped to talk to them for a minute and one asked Maddie if she could see her bluebird photo. It was too hard to see on the small screen in the sun though. We enjoyed their paintings!!


We will be going back here again and again this summer I think! Maddie wants to keep practicing and its a good spot for that.