Central Oregon, part 3

Visit to central  oregon 111

The high desert museum contains displays of animals, plants, native American artifacts, mock ups of mining towns and homesteads.  We have been once before, in May, but the boys asked if we could go again.  This time they raced through the exhibition on plains Indians, the stopped by the small black and white tv in the mock-up of a house on a reservation and watched the Lone Ranger for about 20 minutes (they believe they are starved of television time).  

Following that we went up to the homestead that has been set up outside, complete with a family home, stable, hired hand house, saw mill, stables, vegetable patch, hen house, cold store.  There  were two actors dressed up as the owner and hired hand from 1904.  The boys took to life in the early 1900s with a passion.  They dug in the vegetable patch, collected eggs, chased chickens, fed horses, played with a wooden hoop, learned how the steam powered lumber mill worked, and then started telling all the other visitors about the place. They told the actor about the visit to Shaniko several days previously and he talked about his visits to the town in 1904 and how it was so important, all the brand new buildings - it fitted in so well with that visit.  All in all we stayed at the homestead for over 2 hours, while many other visitors came and went.  

I really believe that time is one of the best gifts that I can give to my children in our unschooling journey.  They were interested in this (all 3 of them in different aspects of it) and had the time to find out more than most people passing through. 

The following day two of the boys were outside and came in periodically with status updates.  "Philips has done his 20s",  "I have done my 30s", etc.  We didn't enquire what that meant, but just said "great, carry on".  In the car later Philip said "20, 40,  60, 80, 100".  Clearly he is counting by 20s, and probably worked out 30s and 40s too.  

Visit to central Oregon II

Back in central Oregon, and so much that we have seen and done.  

I had read about a ghost town near Terrebonne, which sounded intriguing.  There are still people living in the town, but there are many buildings which were built about 100 years ago, and abandoned about 90 years ago.  It is quite a long drive from Crooked River Ranch, but the boys seem interested, and I certainly was, so we decided to go for it. 

After a long drive, through some barren scenery, we finally got to Shaniko.  It was definitely worth it.  The main building is a hotel that is still in great condition, and looked authentic inside, but unfortunately, due to disputes between the owner and the county it is not open.  Outside there is a boardwalk.    Just stepping on that makes me feel that I am in a different century, and as I walk along the "main" street we do get an inkling of what it might have been like 100 years ago.  Possibly the highlight of the visit is a barn which is full of old cars and wagons.  They have clearly been there for decades, as they are covered in bird droppings, dust, have dried out tyres, and are gradually fading away.  But, it is a museum of car history.  Cars from the early 1910s, unmodified, and just there, not as a proud display, but just a reminder of what has been and gone.  Similarly the wagon, which we could climb on and into, gave us a brief glimpse of what life was like for Laura Ingalls (at least, that is the closest experience we have read about). 

On the way back to Crooked River Ranch we saw a sign for rock houunds - a term I wasn't even familiar with - which apparently means amateur geologists.  Central Oregon is a great place for thunder eggs, or geodes, and they are the state rock of Oregon.  Patrick has always wanted to dig one up, so he clearly could not pass by a sign advertising them, anymore than he can pass by a sign for an estate sale. The family who owns the land has mining rights and periodically digs out an area that is rich in thunder eggs, then instructs people on how to dig for them, what to look for and lets them go off and do it.  What a great activity this was.  It was in a beautiful area, and in a similar way to Shaniko it felt like we were in a western movie. There was absolute silence at the digging site, hot sun and rocks.  We were armed with rock hammers and we weren't afraid to use them.  Patrick hit geode gold straight away with 5 in a cluster,  and after much patient hammering they were freed.  He was thrilled.  We hit a bit of a lull after that,  but then found a spot where we hardly even had to dig, we just scraped and they came straight out.  After about 1 1/2 hours we had a bucket full of geodes, were hot and tired and ready to head back.  We chose one to be cut in two.  Although none were a great quality, they were ours which we had dug out, and we felt great pride in them.  Plus, we have a out 20 more to cut.  

This was a wonderful day out, with history and geology.  The last few weeks in Central Oregon have taught me more about geology than I have learned the rest of my life.  There is no substitute for getting out there and seeing it "in situ".  My 5 year old knows as much as I do, just because he is living it. 

On Sunday we had a very different day, but still lots of great experiences.  I had heard there was an art show going on in Sisters, and I wanted to go to it.  A week ago a wildfire started in the Sisters wilderness, and we have been watching the effects here at Crooked River Ranch.  Early in the morning the wind has been blowing to the north and our view of the mountains had been obliterated.  Very sad.  By about 3pm the wind has clearly changed direction to the east, over our house, and we have started seeing the mountains, smelling the smoke and seeing amazing sunsets with the ash cloud.  So we were not sure what it would be like in the town itself.  It as definitely very smoky, and we couldn't see the mountains even there, but not terrible.  Probably it would be considered terrible if we had asthma or other lung diseases.  A forest ranger had a display set up in the street giving an update to the fire, where it had started, how big it was, the containment, the road closures, the implications. It was well done. 

Our first port of call was an art gallery, which contained work by essentially one artist, who was also the host.  She was delightful.  Edward told her that he was an artist and asked if he could borrow a pencil so that he could draw something for her.  The rest of us looked around the gallery and talked to her about her paintings, which we luckily liked.  When we left she posted Edward's drawing up on the wall too. 

Finally we found the craft show, and though it was smaller than we expected, one particular stall had us enthralled. It was selling native American flutes. We spent probably half an hour talking to the owner about the different flutes: what they are made from, how the sizes differ, how they are tuned to different keys, how they compare to different instruments around the world, and of course playing them - because a flute is no flute till you play it! How many "subjects" did that cover - music, geography, social science, maths, biology (because they were all made from different woods)? 

Learning in central Oregon

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Visit to central Oregon

Central Oregon is a wonderful place to learn.  First of all, it does not rain very much so it's a really good place to learn outdoors.

The most inescapable feature is the geology.  There are mountains: from the deck of our house we can see the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th tallest mountains in Oregon.  With a short walk we can also see the tallest.  I love to sit and "check that my mountains are okay" - it's a very important job I assure the boys.   This visit was the first time that we have been there in late summer and there was no, or minimal, snow on them. I loved Benjamin's description of "your mountains look sick, mum".  They certainly don't look as beautiful as when they are covered with snow.  So, we had a good discussion about altitude and seasons, and what might be a good time to go climbing them. 

Secondly are the rivers and the spectacular canyons that they have carved.  The layers of rock, the undulations, colours all tell a geologic history that I know nothing about, but would love to learn.  Why, for instance, did the river carve that path, not 50m to one side? 

Thirdly are the remnants of volcanic eruptions.  Lava flows,  high mountain lakes that are so cold to swim in until you reach a bubbling, sulphurous area that suddenly almost burns you, obsidian and pumice flows to clamber over - and again wonder "why here, when to each side there are forests growing?".  

There is the lava tube, lava cast forest and many more buttes to explore.  The boys are beginning to piece together in their minds how it works, what to look for, what to expect in each area.  My prediction: they will have a good grasp on vulcanology by the time they are teenagers. 

Aside from that there is the flora and fauna of the area, so different from the Willamette Valley.  Armed with a great book of the wildlife of the northwest, we set out to explore the area: footprints, scat, holes, marks on trees, feathers are all routinely examined to determine just what has been there.  They have also learned that sitting quietly is the only way to observe wildlife: just watching a jack rabbit eating for 20 minutes was interesting, and I have to admit that watching my boys still and observant for 20 minutes is a fascinating experience in its own right. 

The other bonus of traveling up to central Oregon is the three hour drive.  Several years ago I would not have considered this a bonus, but then we discovered "Your Story Hour", a series of stories on CDs about famous people (mostly).  Each story is about 25 minutes long, and inspiring.  We have learned about Louis Pasteur, Walter Reid, Eleanor Roosevelt, Booker T Washington,  to name a tiny handful.  All have inspired me to go on and read more about them.  As soon as we get in the car they shout "story hour", and even ones that we have heard numerous times still bring about silence in the car and then great discussions.  Isn't that every parent's dream?  That and the doughnut stop in Sisters.  

After the success of the tin foil experiments, which are still in progress, they took the tin foil and started making sculptures with it.  Philip made a hat,  his first "invention" and a ball.  Edward made a copy of the Dawn Treader and then a statue of Superman as a boy.  That was about 10pm last night, and I haven't been into his room today to see what has been created since then.

This morning I read several unschooling blogs, as usual, and reminded myself that I believe in this method completely - most of the time.  When I see the things other children are doing in traditional school settings, I panic a little, but usually manage to remember that my children are busy processing in a different way, not marching to the "testing" drum.

Wednesday, 6th June.

Yesterday we watched the transit of Venus.  We watched it online, due to the fact that we live in Oregon and it was cloudy.  It was also far more convenient as we could leave it up on the screen and come back to it whenever we wanted.

After a while I started talking about the Planet Suite by Holst, and that Venus is known as the goddess of love.  I googled the music and found the London Philharmonic playing it.  The boys didn't like that particularly, and we went onto Mars, the bringer of war.  They loved that! It's dramatic music, with, not surprisingly, a marching beat.  Benjamin started creeping around as the music suggested "sneaking" then jumped up on me when a large crashing sound was heard.  The music of Mars spoke to them in a way Venus didn't.  We tried a few others (I was trying to find the music for "I vow to thee my country"), but nothing else captured them. 
Meanwhile, Venus was making its slow progress across the sun.....I explained what was happening, but couldn't remember where Venus was in the order of the planets, so we looked that up, having worked out it must of course be nearer the sun than us.
As we were listening to the Mars music on youtube, they started showing pictures of the Mars Rover and the pictures that it sent back.  We looked up details of that mission, and the fact that it had to be unmanned for many reasons.  That led to discussions of the first trips to space, Sputnik, the Russian dog, the space race, cold war, politics. 

Not bad for watching the Transit of Venus with no agenda.

Starting out

Today's question of the day (I don't know who postulated it, or why): Can metal float?

Two hours later, the bath is filled with water and many different tin foil boat creations are successfully floating.   So, the answer is a resounding yes.