Back to School!

Summer has come to an end and it's time to get back into the classroom and prepare for the new year.  Ms. Perry and I have been hard at work getting ready to help you be successful.

I was so excited to get back that I ended up at school at 3am on Sunday morning.  What you see in the distance (camera doesn't do it justice) is the big bright moon.  Really makes me think about space and the moon.  We've established that the earth is not flat (supposedly) but we have this mysterious moon visit us.

• Water on the moon.  Just came out in the news.  Mind blown, "established" science busted.  
• New things to learn in old topics - During your consume stage of the project remember that because somebody already reported about the topic doesn't mean there isn't something new to think about
• Insomnia and stress.  Yes it's a stressful job and sometimes I don't sleep because I'm thinking about the next great opportunity to learn.

All of the faculty and staff at Pines comes for four days to get ready for the school year.  This year SOAR MS and HS were given time to share with everyone how unique and important SOAR is.

During this time we've done some rearranging and reorganizing of our space and dedicated ourselves to the approach we started last year.

• Consume - Create - Curate
• Inspiration - Exploration - Investigation - Explanation - Presentation

Lets get mathie for a second.  We've also adopted the blogging model from this summer and are giving you the opportunity to use this medium to log your learning.  Welcome to the:

This is your learning log for the year.  We'll talk about it when school starts but we're super excited at the opportunity to work with you on mapping and reflecting on your learning.  This will take the place of the learning log you've done in the past and actually be a tool for you to use in your learning.  I, personally, am so excited for this because doing the blog this summer (the one I shared with you) has been an AMAZING experience!  I find myself more engaged in my own learning and experiences this summer.

Stopped by to check in on some of our SOAR kids who claim to work where ice cream is sold.  Didn't see anyone there.  Ice cream was great - nice to have in the middle of the day.

Funny what you come across when you're adventuring around, paying attention to your surroundings and looking for inspiration.  

Welcome Back!

Found some familiar friends in the Ottawa National Forest Information Center in Watersmeet

Tourism and my attention spa . . . Squirrel!

Part of my time spent visiting family in the Hayward area was being a tourist.  Living in a tourist town we sometimes forget what it's like to be on the other side of the counter.  So . . . I ended up at a Lumberjack Show.

It was entertaining.  It also made me think about a few things (of course!)

• Lumberjacks.  We're in the north woods and this is a rich part of our history.  From the industry side of it to the lifestyle and decline . . . it's all great possible topics.
• Tourism.  This is the niche Hayward has found (and fishing of course).  What defines ER as tourism?  What does the tourist industry look like in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota . . . and about 47 other states?
• How does the economic impact of the industry translate to all of the people living in the area?
• Where do tourism-industry people go?
• Why didn't I stand up and belt out a little Monty Python while I was watching the show?

And then . . . squirrel!

I was off to other thinks.  I had a little time and a lot of distraction so I played around on YouTube a little to see what I could see.  After I tired (or felt guilty) about watching stuff blow up and people fall down, I clicked on an old think I had: Magnet Fishing.

Look it up.  I want to do it.  We should do it.  We'll visit this again down the road.

And then there was the videos about the bail bonds.  This connects to other thoughts I had regarding the legal system and how this fits in.

And then there's . . . just driving along and talking to someone about the different thinks I think.  Conversation is a great way to navigate through the messiness of project work sometimes.  You don't have to do it alone; you can bounce your ideas off someone else and get help with that navigation. 

And that someone else doesn't need to be an advisor.

Perspective

How you look at something can affect how you learn.  I had the opportunity to go out to Copper Falls State Forest and hike around.  Liking to think a think like I like to think, I had a few thoughts about perspective.

First of all, sitting down to think is a great way to start.  In all seriousness, I love to observe.  Without being creepy, you can look around, take in the sights and activity and have a good start to your good think.  This entire walk was a great opportunity to think about perspective.

I already wrote previously about leaving the pavement.  Standing at the end of this walkway I was struck with a thought about where we're going.  Looking down the path I couldn't see what was at the end but I had to trust that since someone spent time making a path there, it was worth seeing.  I didn't need someone to tell me what was there before I went but I was willing to travel the distance to embrace the next leg of the journey.  I thought a lot about the bridge, though, since it was pretty rustic and old looking.  Held up fine.

• Who built the bridge?  How is it constructed?
• Back to the CCC thoughts again.  Was this part part of the put-people-to-work movement to help with the Great Depression?
• Have there been any writings done about the park or inspired by being in the park?
• Why Copper Falls?

Sometimes perspective comes from where you're standing and how you're looking at the situation.  The following perspectives I found myself in led to some thoughts.

Looking up the stairs.  I had a climb ahead of me and didn't know if it would be worth the effort.  Could have turned around and went back I suppose.

Looking down the stairs.  There's a turn at the bottom that continues the adventure.  Railings to help keep balance.  Looks like the steps are not in as good of shape as the upwardly-bound staircase.  Just because it might take a little more effort doesn't mean it's not worth the journey.

Both of these make me think about the impact we make in our natural environment.  This does provide access to something beautiful and wonderful.

• Why this park?  Who chose this location?
• Wisconsin State Park System - Sounds like something I should know more about.
• Virtual tours of the system are just sitting around - I should just go to different parks and observe for myself.
• What's the same, what's different amongst the parks?
• What about the change in Wisconsin's System?  There are no more Park Rangers.

Just a log?  I could have sat on it, but it looks like something I could grow to love.  People see things in different ways.  One day you might look at this and be inspired to think about a hollow, rotting log.  Another day you might see something more positive and loving.  How you see it and how you share it can affect how it's received and sent.  This is the same for your projects; your perspective means a lot to how the final result ends up.

Sometimes you just need to change positions on your topic to get a different perspective.  It's OK to try something unusual or different - You'd be surprised what you can discover along the way.

This is the view from where I was lying on the railing.  All I had to do was look up to see thousands of other possibilities.  So far, I'd just been looking ahead and moving forward.  Good thing I took a minute to reflect.

Often you can find a whole bunch of different things to think about - sometimes this can even seem overwhelming.

But just a slight change in your perspective can reveal something cool and wonderful that you didn't notice before.  Stand up once in a while and look around.  You might already have arrived where you need to be but haven't had a chance to see it.

Or maybe you just need to look closely where you are and see details you didn't notice at first or weren't prepared to see.

Any way you look at it (no pun intended) it's all about perspective and perception.  Now that you've left the road, have a good look and a great think.

Philosophizing about signs

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign 
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind 
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?
                                 -Five Man Electrical Band, 1970

This discovery adventure revolves around 30-40 minutes of driving and a whole lot of thinking.

Signs are everywhere.  I'm going to spend a little time thinking about thinks I thought while on a drive.  It's going to get a little deep as I connect these thinks to the future and ramble on a little about where I want SOAR to go and how students need to be an instrumental part of that whole process.

First, let me put a little plug in for ELA.  Reading and thinking about what you read are essential skills in life.  Not just to name characters or answer questions about specific details, but to connect you to the world around you and introduce you to the joys of interpretation.  Much of the writing I've done in this blog relies on the skills I developed through these practices and I can't imagine a complete life without it.

Part 1: Moving Past the Pavement

I took a drive in Kermit.  This is kind of a bigger feat than it first implies since I don't have a good sense of direction - spatially.  I have a great sense of professional direction, but have a tendency to wander about a great deal more than I should when I'm driving.  However, this has led to some great discoveries and given me the opportunity to think some wonderful thinks.

This sign could be a reason for concern if I wasn't driving a Jeep.  As soon as I passed it I actually turned around and drove back to take a picture of it.  As I continued off the pavement, a think crept into my mind.

• We should leave the pavement more often.  Not just literally in a car or on foot or bike or whatever you choose to get yourself around, but in our learning as well.
• This is symbolic of what we're trying to get students to do with the approach to projects - I'll expand this below

Much of traditional learning follows the pavement.  This doesn't mean all of it does, but much of it is designed that way.  We have roads that have been established with destinations in mind and maps to follow to get you there.  For many this is a perfectly fine way to become educated.  If you look at a map, however, you'll see that any location has more than one way to get there.  I've never been much of a map follower.  Sometimes it necessary, but it doesn't work well for me. I can if I need to but choose not to.  Here are some thinks about it:

• The map I have in my car does not show all of the roads to a destination.  We found this out on the way to Milwaukee.  Sometimes we ended up on a road and trusted that the direction was good and we'd end up where we needed to be.
• Wander in your project.  Inspiration is a part of it, Exploration can take you to places you didn't know existed.
• Wonder in your project.  As you move in the general direction you think you need to be, think about what you see along the way.
• Don't panic!  It's OK to ask for directions - we all stray a little too far sometimes and need a hand finding our way back
• You are in control of your path and your destination.  That is part of student-centered learning.  We will help you navigate there and steer you towards stops along the way.
• Leave the pavement.  Consume some of the information you need to use, but then make your own path.

Part 2: Off the Pavement

Once I left the pavement I was looking for new thinks.  This is important.  Simply being off pavement and staring at the dirt road or two-rut path or tree that suddenly appeared in front of you isn't really in the spirit of the adventure.  Look around, see what you can see and think what you can think.  I will find a moose this way.

Kick up some dirt as you go along.  Learning off the pavement can be messy and it's OK.  If you never see a cloud of dirt behind you, you may not be uncovering anything new.

• New doesn't have to be undiscovered.  New discoveries to you and your path involve learning along the way.  This is important.  You don't have to create something new to the world, by creating it new to you, you've learned.

Read the signs as you go along.  The path you're finding is chocked full of things others have identified.  Check them out and jot them down.  As you do, new opportunities for learning pop up down the road (no pun intended).  Even if you're still on the pavement, signs can point to opportunities for discovery.

At the end of my little drive I think I found what I was looking for and a sign was just the thing I needed for confirmation.

I am.  Thank you very much.

The Road Less Traveled

Remember as you write this blog, it's about what you think and are inspired by, not what someone whispering in your ear thinks about.  They can always comment on your writing to get their two cents in.

Traveling around I've gotten into the habit of just punching in the address or destination into the GPS on my phone or even the GPS built into the dash of the truck.  It's a pretty simple process afterwards: Drive.  When the voice on the device says turn, I turn.  I repeat this until it tells me I've "arrived at the destination."  For someone like me who is, for the most part, spacially challenged, this is a great way to get around.  As I was leaving to go to Milwaukee this week I had a quick think about it.  You miss a lot of what Wisconsin has to offer if you just follow the voice.  Some thinks about GPS:

• There's a voice actor that has to say a whole bunch of words that are related to directions.  Be interested to find out more about voice acting.
• Someone created an algorithm (set of directions for doing something) that the computer uses to plan a route from one place to the next.  I wonder how complicated and flawed that is.
• Is there something, business-wise, that connects the route to any businesses?  Seems like an awful waste of an opportunity: if two routes are "equal" in length and time, wouldn't it be nice to make a few bucks by sending the traveler past a business?  Lots of thinks to think about there.
• Efficiency vs. enjoyment: You pretty much get one option - fastest.

Like the title of the blog suggests, I didn't really care about getting to Milwaukee the fastest, I wanted to see Wisconsin a little more.  My instructions to my navigator (Myria) were pretty simple: Paper map.  No interstates.  

Wandering

Going down we saw a bunch of little towns that I'd never been to before and a few that I hadn't been to in thirty years.  Sometimes the route wasn't really all that direct, but there were some definite thinks I got to think.

• Why were the towns where they were?  I guess I'd have to look at historical records and make some educated guesses.
• Date town was established
• Type of life presented by the area (farming, industry)
• Natural landscape (forest, river, plains)

**Connection to the learning process: rather than find an historian that has already had a think about this, you can learn a lot more deeply by understanding the components and making the connections yourself.  There is no "right" answer to the end of your thoughts, the learning has already happened because you had the thoughts.  Think about it.**

At Milwaukee we stayed at the Ambassador Hotel right down town next to Marquette University.  

Code.org and Marquette University paid for the hotel.  I went to Milwaukee to meet students I will have during the 2018-19 school year.  This makes me think about education and where it's going.

The industry recognizes the need for computer science and are willing to spend huge amounts of money to support public education's efforts to offer the class.  We're unique in the north - Pines is offering Computer Science - very few other schools in Northern Wisconsin (and it seems like in the country) are offering it.  Thinks to think:

• If computer science industry is willing to pay for education, are there other industries that will as well?
• What's the point of higher education?  Is it to earn the most money or to find something to be passionate about?  If passion is the motivation, we'd better explore as many options as possible during HS so we're not stuck in something we hate for 40 years.

Had a great day exploring an inner-city Milwaukee school.  I met my students and some of the other teachers and was able to be immersed in the culture and structure for an entire day.  Teachers did an excellent job while I shadowed them and students in the halls and classes were on-task and ready to learn.  

Nice to see the "other" side of the screen.  My MPS students will be seeing me on the monitors in front of the room.  Unless I figure out how to do it via hologram. . . 

Hands-on learning about the insides of a computer

Overall I appreciated the ability to observe and work with students in multiple classes.  There are a few thinks I think about this:

• Never thought I'd be teaching like this.  Kind of feels like I'm pioneering a different way to bring computer science to other schools.
• Kind of makes me nervous if it's going to work or not.  Have a lot more confidence after meeting the students
• Wonder where this is going to lead?  I like the blended format and, having taught online, I think this is a much better way for the students to learn.

This is the lower campus for Golda Meir.  I think it looks like a castle.  Didn't get to tour it but definitely want to down the road.

---

Traveling back to Eagle River we did a similar thing and used a paper map for navigation.  Some thinks about that:

• In Milwaukee the paper map was pretty useless.  I think I'd have to get a city-specific map to help out.
• Myria used a combination of her phone and the paper map for navigation because some of the smaller roads were not printed but able to be zoomed in on the phone.
• Wonder what kind of real-time information is involved with the GPS map?  We were cautioned about congestion because of an "incident" on one section of Hwy. 45 so we went somewhere else
• Saw a storm come across near Fond-du-Lac (means Bottom-of-Lake - learned in French class at MPS) and it was cool to see the lightning strike.  Can I create lightning?
• Lots of windmills - wondered why they were stopped.  Is it the storm?
• Alternative energy - is it working for us?  What are we doing and what are we gaining?

After spending a night in ER, we proceeded over to Hayward.  While we didn't take a paper-map approach to the travel - pretty much one good way to get there - we did take time to pay attention to the trip.

Is there a better way to say "adventure?"  

Top down, loaded with gear for the week and a couple of fat bikes and we were ready to travel across the north.  Riding in a convertible is fun - it's a different kind of ride and hard to hear the radio but definitely worth the ride.  Plus, what's cooler than a lime green Jeep named "Kermit?"  Thinks:

• Motoring around is definitely an American pastime.  Is this similar in other countries? 
• I've watched a bunch of videos from other countries about American culture.  Several of them refer to the size of America.  How does this affect the way we live?  Is it different by state and community?
• Jeep.  Iconic American with a long history (1942) and ties to the military.  Great opportunity to look at how military affects civilian life.  Not just the "official" ways but fashion, vehicles, all kinds of thinks to think.

I know it's to let us know you can't take any vehicle on the trail, but it seems a little slanted towards Jeep.  Or it's just recognizing there's one 4x4 to rule them all . . . 

We stopped by a little road-side parking area and trail head.  Cool stuff to see.

Cool little shelter area at the roadside.

Inside the shelter (unlocked and available)

Cool thoughts about the ski area and ATV area.  Still think it's cool that these area available.  I should look into taking advantage of this service.  After all, I'm part of paying for it.  Thinking . . . 

• Is this unique to the National Forest system?  I know it's a warming station - how about in warmer climates?
• How can I get involved to add something like this to a favorite trail or area?
• How hard would it be to build something like this?  Planning, drafting, building . . . neat project idea.

Which led to this:

America really is beautiful.  There is SO much to see even just in Northern Wisconsin.  Passes to travel to all of them would be a great way to explore during the summer.  And, I wondered what I could do to keep things up an running around Eagle River.  I would love to carve out some additional biking trails and keep them available to the public.

I guess opportunity to volunteer is everywhere . . . 

As well as interesting Northwoods "art."

I got to my destination and was able to relax a little with family.  My wife's brother, girlfriend and two of his daughters are visiting from Germany.  Great time to spend time catching up and visiting.  We started out with a pontoon ride on a nearby lake (I came a little late to the gathering since I was in Milwaukee).

The gentleman driving the boat is not related.  He volunteered to spend 3 hours driving us around the lake on his boat.  Very nice person to get to know.  Thinking . . . 

• This is a great example of "Northwoods Hospitality."  This man didn't owe anyone anything or have to do this.  He offered and was happy to spend the time talking to us and sharing an afternoon.
• How do different communities define themselves?  Is this the same way in a bigger city?  I've heard of the boroughs of New York - are those smaller communities within a larger city?  What about neighborhoods?  How about lake communities?  Might say something about human beings in general.

While I lounged in the front of the boat and enjoyed the breeze, other members of the family found a more exciting way to spend time on the lake.

Tubing on Moose Lake

Waterskiing on Moose Lake

My wanderlust was rekindled the next day and I went in search of a place to ride my fat bike.  Since this is still part of the national forest over where we were, there had to be something.  The Chequamegon Area Mountain Bike Association (CAMBA) has been carving out trail systems since the 90s.  It was time to check out what they've been up to.

This wasn't the first trail we tried to go to.  The other ones on a Saturday were busy with a bike race fundraiser.  Even though we could have gone on the trails anyway, we opted to find another trail and ride it instead.  We decided Patsy Lake would be a good introduction.  This is the trail:

Single track through the woods.  There were plenty of roots and rocks along the way without too many uphill treks or downhill technical sections.  Still gives me pause to think:

• Why do I do it?  I'm essentially going in a big circle because I come back to where I started.  It's fun but so are other things with less sweating.
• This is open to the public but I didn't see anyone else out there.  How much do the systems get used?  What are we spending to keep them up?
• How can I get this in our area?  We have some trails but not as extensive as these.
• Recreation.  What is a pastime?

Actually, the conversation about pastimes came the next day when I was wondering out loud (getting more often lately) about baseball.  On another no-interstate excursion I noticed that every community had at least one baseball field.  It was the national pastime at one time.

• What happened to it?  Why isn't it as popular any more?
• What is our national pastime?  Hear so much in the news about electronics and technology - has that replaced baseball?
• What do kids do now when they have a pick-up game?

Off the Path Again

I'm glad the spirit of this idea caught on.  We traveled from NW Wisconsin to Central Wisconsin for a family get together.  Out came the map and off we went.

Stopped on the highway to snap a pic of the fire tower.  With all of the advancements in technology, is this something necessary any more?  What would sitting watch up here be like?

• Boring?  Lots of time to look at the tops of trees.
• Intriguing? Lots of time to look at the tops of trees.
• Exciting? You're looking at the tops of trees - that's pretty high up.
• Educational?  There's not just leaves at the tops of those trees.
• Exhilarating? I bet a lightning storm from up there will give you a different perspective.

Somewhere in the not-too-distant past I heard a talk radio show about prairies.  This drive was chocked full of abandoned (or healing?) farm land.  The prairies were beautiful and led to some pretty good thinks:

• What makes a prairie?
• Why are they disappearing?  Are they disappearing?
• How can I grow my own and what benefit will that have?
• Is there a little house on all of them?

Rock river.  Appropriate I guess.  Was cool to see someone in the other direction of the river fly fishing in waders.  I want to learn to fly fish.

Not found on the road but cute frog that climbed behind the handle to the camper door in the middle of the night.

Wandering and Wondering

Time to do a little wandering around and see what I can see and think what I can think.

On the way to camp I always slow down at this section just off the road.  Part of me thinks I'll see a moose.

I'm starting to become obsessed with spotting a moose.  I know there are a few around the area.  In fact, one was caught on game camera in the school forest over by Eagle Lake.  This could easily turn into an awesome project.  It's not like I haven't seen a moose before - I just haven't seen one around here.

• Inspiration - School forest, increase in wet areas, Rocky and Bullwinkle, excitement over the massive animals. (consume)
• Exploration - grab the game cam and start putting it out.  Wait - how do I know where to put it?  This is a great time to use the Internet to find out what kind of habitat would suit them. (consume, create - artifacts)
• Investigation - Time to get out and collect information (consume, create)
• Hands-on - Game cam, looking for signs (tracks, scat)
• Interpersonal - talk to the DNR and National Forest Service and see what they've seen or at least connect with their biologists - might even get a ride-along and JOB SHADOW out of it.
• Explanation - Will have to compile the results of my findings and try and make some sense out of it. (create, curate)
• Presentation - Depending on the results I could easily make a "Moose Spotters Guide" for the area and place it at the chamber of commerce or local businesses like the Hiker Box.  This could also be a great event to create something like a Geocache from and encourage a large audience to participate. (curate)

My younger brother working on the Sauna at the family camp. 

The camp, sauna and generator shed are all made from logs.  While they weren't harvested by us (I'm sure they were bought from a company), they are still logs.  The camp is on 43 acres in the UP (love the UP!) and is bordered by county and power company land.  This works out well since my brother works for the company that owns the land (it's considered "public" anyway).  In the picture he's working on the chinking of the logs.  The space between the logs needs to be filled in with something to keep it more insulated and prevent bugs from getting inside.  This has been neglected over the past 30 years so we're doing it.  The grey line in the pic is foam to fill the gap and then we put a kind of putty over it to seal the gap between logs.  Later we'll stain it to protect it from the sun.

Some thinks I think:

• How did/do you build a log cabin or home?
• Harvesting the logs
• Drying the logs
• Structural supports and engineering

I bet I would learn a lot about history and math from a project like this.

Wild Blueberries

Wild Raspberries

Whew, I just can't stop thinking about what wonderful thinks there are in the world!  We went for a ride on the ATVs and found a couple of big patches of raspberries and blueberries.

• Harvesting our own food.  What's the benefit and could it be done all year?
• Processing and storing the food.  I know it was done.
• Hunter-gatherer type of lifestyle
• Going "off the grid" and living independent of modern conveniences - realistic or way out there?
• Being forced off the grid.  What would happen if the power went out for a week or a month or a year?  How would we be prepared or could we survive?

Seems like a lot of history, society, ELA opportunities in this line of thinking.  An added bonus could be actually harvesting and preserving different foods and learning a valuable lesson in survival as well as problem solving, math (preparing the foods - ingredients).

I'm actually inspired by this and want to try my hand at a little - I'm going to start with pickles.

Forest Friends

The Chequamegon-Nicolet National forest is over 1.5 million acres.  That covers 2,400 square miles of area.  We're right in the thick of it.  This is a great resource and a great area to wander.

We went for a walk.  We hiked around White Deer Lake (could have been Luna I guess) and looked at all the wonderful things.  Part way around the lake we came across a little cement marker with a brass medallion on top.  Very interesting to look at and think about - I assume it's been there since 1941.

Some thinks I think about:

• That's a long time to sit outside; both for the cement (man-made) and for the coin (brass I'm guessing).  It's a survey marker from the Land Office.  I don't know much about the office, but it's definitely worth looking into.
• More than just our natural resources, there are government offices and departments set up for all kinds of stuff.  Since we're paying for this with our taxes, we should probably understand what they do and are for.

As we walked around the lake we came across many different kinds of mushrooms.  This connects more to the edible landscape line of thinking from before.

Some say this is chicken of the wood.  

This one's got a bunch of babies!  And, it's growing right next to the water.  This is different than the other ones.

Some mushrooms are great to eat and others are crazy dangerous.  I'm not educated enough to know which are which.  Either way, all of it connects to hunter-gatherer.

Here's a think:

Several times during the course of this blog I've come across things that relate to other things.  For example, when I first thought about railroads and the railroad system I was on the 400 trail.  Time and time again this was emerging as a theme; I was seeing references to railroads and the rail system and transient workers (hobos) throughout the summer.  By keeping track of what I see and experience and, more importantly, what I think, I'm able to see the larger picture and have references to go back and look at rather than just try to come up with something fresh.

This is probably the most important piece of this whole experiment.

Mystical and Magical

I learned something new.  Learning is a passion of mine and I don't limit myself to one subject or topic or interest.  Having said that, I'm not often surprised by something.  Especially when it seems like everyone I'm with knew about it before I did.  I kind of stay ahead of the curve with at least a passing interest on things.  So . . . when we came across this:

And everyone was like "Oh, that's a fairy garden.  They're everywhere."  My mind was blown.  Way cool thing to come across and I would have chocked it up to a creatively bored person.  Seems as though this is a pretty serious thing and people are very passionate about it.  Makes me think . . . 

• Past times.  What are they and why do people participate?  Is there a common thread amongst the different ones that explains something about how we as a society live?
• Fairies.  Where did we get the idea?  What explanation is there for it?  Can I find them?  Good to look across cultures where this appears and maybe read some of the literature and unlock the mystery.  
• Of course, I could look on the internet and see what people are saying about it but then it wouldn't be my thoughts or insights, but rather just me telling you what someone else thinks about it.
• Once I unlock the mysteries of why stories about fairies exist, I might as well write a story about them and incorporate them into the modern world.

Impoundment

We were on our way home when something struck me.  Not literally, but I passed by a sign in the national forest and turned around and went back to it because I was intrigued.  And, because sometimes the best opportunities sneak up on you and you have to be ready to jump at them.  I didn't know when I would ever be back in this spot and I had never been here before (even though I've been in the area for 17 years).  So we followed a long road back to this area:

I kind of knew what an impoundment was, but I might as well go take a look for myself.

Made me interested to learn more about impoundments, more about Ducks Unlimited's connection to the National Forest System and I want to grab my kayak and explore.  I assume I'm allowed since there was nothing posted, but I would check with the NF office in town to make sure.  There's maybe also a little bit of an itch to duck hunt here.  Probably a pretty busy place.  Although, it would definitely be worth coming out and seeing how much duck traffic there is during migration.  I didn't hear any quacking when I was standing by the shore.

By the way, there was a little dam just off to the left of the pics that was holding back the water.  Kind of like a man-made beaver dam.

Beavers . . . another great think to think about.  Architecture, environment, life cycle, problems . . . I love learning!

My wife crowd-sourced identification of this mushroom on the tree to Facebook.  General consensus is Chicken of the Woods.  $12-25 per pound harvested.  Still afraid to just pick and eat.  There was plenty of it though.

Shopping

Had to go to to a discount store.  Needed to get something - I forget what it was.  On the way in I saw this:

It's August and these are already 50% off.  Pretty sure they were never 0% off and this is just a technique to sell them.  Thinking some thinks:

• Frustration.  If the things were never twice the sale price in value, how can a store justify putting them out and saying they are? 
• Something tickles the back of my brain that there are a couple of stores that were sued for never putting items on the floor at full price but rather saying they were on sale and selling them for the actual retail price on "sale."
• Curiosity.  Do we really need to be thinking about fall right now?  Give us a couple of months.
• Disgust.  We buy so much junk.
• Intrigue. We buy so much stuff.  What connection is there psychologically to impulse buying?  I would love to conduct a study that had me going into different stores and recording what I want to buy and trying to figure out why I want to buy it.  Is it the packaging?  The display?  The cost?
• I think advertising is set up for specific words and colors and sounds to trigger a person into purchasing when they don't really want/need to.  Could be a neat look at advertising and looking at how it can be adapted for other things.

If you look close at the picture above you'll see a hummingbird moth.  Haven't seen one of these in my yard in close to 6 or 7 years.  Makes me wonder about them and why I haven't seen them in so long.  Definitely worth looking at why they would be back.  Very cool thing to see.

Hey There, It's the Fair!

I'm not a big fan of going out and hanging around with a large crowd of people, but decided the fair was a fair place to be. 😀

A part of me would love to travel around Wisconsin and visit different small town events, carnivals, festivals, fairs, etc . . . and see what they're about.  Kind of what Discover Wisconsin does, but not with the intent to make a show out of it.  Maybe next summer.

The fair was a BIG deal when I was a kid.  Actually, the midway was a big deal - rides and games and food.  Going to the fair this year I put on my thinking glasses and took a good look around.

It was wrist band day.  $20 unlimited rides.  Sounds like a great deal.  After three hours the kids only went on 8 rides.  The next day was dollar a ride day.  Looks like I got suckered into the "great deal."  I should think about things like this more.  Everything seemed bigger as a kid.  I'm thinking I should visit several different ones and see if I can recapture the magic.

Speaking of being a kid, I'm pretty sure this is the exact ride I would have ridden on 35 years ago when I was at the fair.  Same cars, same paint, same music.  I'm thinking this was a long-term investment for the midway.  Makes me think:

• Ride creation.  How much engineering goes in and what are the regulations surrounding them once they're in service.
• What's the life of a carnie like?

Finally, there's the cornerstone of all midway attractions: The Ferris Wheel.  This design is a little different than what I remember; the seats have little roofs on them.  Kind of a neat idea, however, I liked looking up at the stars as I crossed over the top-most point.  Interesting how a little height can give you a new perspective on your surroundings.