october trail keepers

Another month has already flown by and we hit the trail on Sunday to do our monthly pick up. As always, the trail was pretty clean with very little trash and with so many of us looking and picking up it always seems like we do so little. The kids really look forward to this treat each month. They run way ahead of all the adults and do more than their share and get to shed a lot of energy. Here we are organizing and getting ready to head on down to do the work...

The thing I noticed the most about the trail this month was the leaves. They are falling everywhere and there are just piles of them all over the place. I love it! There is so much color, but color that is different than in spring. Fall is exciting like Spring in that it is the precursor to something new. You know things are changing. The days are getting shorter, the light looks different and the colors of everything living are getting darker and we are reminded that we are moving inward to tending to our families and keeping warm and taking care of ourselves. Fall always excites me because it is a time of getting ready for work on myself. Life slows down and we aren't so busy, so the things I need to work on about myself and the changes I want to make in my life I can get ready for in fall and settle into them in the winter months.

After the trail, we all headed over here to have some pizza. The kids spent quite a bit of time running around on the ramp (most of them are not into trying out the skateboards - even though their folks were here - it's a little more intimidating when it is dark outside.) They also had a dance party. India got some great footage of it on the video camera. They covered themselves in sheets and were shaking it up to the Beatles.

September Trail Keepers

So, on Tuesday last week (I know, I am super behind) we went and did this months Trail Keepers. This time the trail was busy with lots of folks with the weather cooling down people are eager to get back outside. The Cooks didn't make it this time, and there weren't a lot of interesting things happening on the trail other than all the folks walking, running, and biking...

Here is Kalib and Jason Bray climbing the rocks to get a plastic bag that was stuck up the hill. If more people used reusable bags when shopping, there would be so many fewer plastic bags on the roads and in the landfill. One simple step to remember your bags when you go to the store. It is empowering to have your own bags and walk out of a store without plastic bags and it does make a difference!

august trail keepers

We had a much smaller group this time. Thursday was Stella's birthday, so she had her very important dinner date with her dad, and Daisy stayed back with her mom to help finish up some stuff for Stella's birthday and help watch Lyle (very sweet Daisy). Hazel came along with us. The Cooks couldn't make it either. It's a long drive in from Danielsville for them, so they decided to not consume the gas to drive into town for an hour. But, as always, the path was filled with lots of interesting finds...

Here are Jason and Rachel looking at Kudzu blooms. I am from around here and I can honestly say I NEVER knew Kudzu bloomed. India gave me one of the flowers while we were walking and I was super excited about how pretty it was until we saw it growing on the kudzu and I had to leave it behind. Thankfully, we don't have any kudzu on our property and I sort of want to keep it that way. I'm a little afraid of bringing it home in any fashion since every part of the kudzu plant is reproductive in some way...

Here's a picture of the blossom. It is very pretty... Also very deceiving. It's a shame this plant isn't used more. It can be used to make paper, baskets, food for both animals and humans, and medicine (potentially to treat alcoholism). I was just reading about the many ways of dealing with it to get rid of it and I saw where some people have goats that eat it since they will eat anything green. It can be used for agriculture feed. There is so much of it and it grows so fast, we should use it more.

Here's the group walking down the path... Rachel and Joe had Georgia along. A treat for all of us and her I'm sure...

Here's Georgia helping us out.

Another cool thing to see was that the river was way up. We've had a lot of rain, so it was nice not be able to see the bottom of the river. It's encouraging after this long drought. It's not that we have gotten enough rain to solve the drought problems, but it is nice to see the water up to a somewhat more "normal" level.

And the most interesting thing we've seen so far... A decomposing Raccoon (?) paw? This is all there was to it and it was just under the bridge where the highway goes over - and no Sarah Cook, I did not bring it home because it smelled really bad. We came (I mean I came) to the conclusion that it was a raccoon for because of the opposable thumb and the way the fingers are jointed. We have a quite a few raccoons that hang around here and this hand seemed about the right size for it... I would be interested to hear of any other possibilities for what it could be. It did get us thinking about how there would only be a hand and no body, but since it was under the highway, there is really no telling.

July Trail Keepers

This month was awesome! The trail had almost no trash on it. It looked like it had been freshly mowed which meant that the trash had also been picked up when we got there. The weather has been muggy and hot, so we were sort of anticipating lots of mosquito's and sweat, but what we found were the ideal conditions for MUSHROOMS (and very few mosquito's and the trail is so shady it wasn't terribly hot). These were the first ones we saw. The kids are always more interested in running on ahead and picking up the trash, so they missed these, but they certainly got our attention and from then on my mind was on finding more! I love mushrooms. They make me think of fairies and pixies and the magical world. I wonder who lives under these?
Here is Sarah C the mushroom master explaining all about how to tell which ones are poisonous and which aren't, but I think it is probably wise to just not eat mushrooms in the wild unless you know for absolutely sure what kind they are. A lot of mushrooms look like other mushrooms and you can be easily tricked if you don't know exactly what you are looking for. It doesn't make them any less intriguing though.
Don't kid yourself, but my dear friend Sarah C is a unicorn at heart... I couldn't not put this one in for everyone to see.
Some of the kids pushing Lyle. I always wonder what they are talking about.
Here are the adults checking out some mushrooms Sarah had picked up. They were examining how easily these mushrooms bruised and all the parts of them. It's almost too bad the kids missed out on this, but when they are interested in mushrooms they will learn about them.Here are the mushrooms she was holding. They turned blue where ever you touched them. You could watch it happen. It was really cool to watch the transformation happen.

These last two are my favorite pics from the night. I just love the world of mushrooms. You can stomp on them and you can spray them, but they are always there under the soil awaiting the right conditions to coming out and creating a world unto themselves. We take mushrooms for granted, we think they are awful because they are poisonous and they destroy yards, but they are doing what they are supposed to do. They are such a part of the decomposition process which is what provides nutrients to the plants we eat and the energy they put off into the air for us to breathe. The process of things breaking down would be slower were it not for mushrooms. Instead of stomping them and being afraid of them, we should celebrate and imagine what all is going on under there that we don't know about yet or that we can't see. Isn't it just fascinating to think that there are 1000's of other mushrooms simply waiting for the right conditions to come out and that this is only one of the many possibilities for the spot it emerged from?

Once again, I am humbled by the beauty and creativity of our magnificent planet and I am thankful for being aware enough to look down and notice these little treasures! Go out and see if you see any mushrooms and what might be lurking under them and tell me if you see any fairies!

To see the rest of the pics from the night you can go to our web album here. There are more of the kids (all of them, I think).http://picasaweb.google.com/quiltingearth/71608TrailKeepers

June Trail Keepers

Talk about a busy week. We haven't slowed down much for me to post and when we have, I just haven't felt like spending my time on the computer. On Monday, we went swimming, on Tuesday, we hung out and had lunch with the Brays and on to celebrate Luke's birthday with him. Wednesday, Spanish and the grocery, Thursday, YMCA dinner and trail keepers, and yesterday I played catch up all day...

Here are some photos from Thursday. We all went to Taquierra La Parilla (yummy Mexican Rest) before going to do the trail. 4 families. Let's see that is 8 adults and 12 children! The adults sat at one table and the kids at the other and I bet they were ready for us to get the heck out of there when we did, but it was fun! It always is.

So, here is Jennifer with a shoe - yuck! One of the kids ask, why would someone leave their shoe down there and how would that happen? It was pretty gross...

Here is the big group heading together to pick up trash. I'm always amazed at how eager the kids are to do this and how much we get. Luke and I really focused on a big spot with a lot of glass. We didn't get it all, but we got a lot of it up and we tried to get up the pieces that were sticking up so the dogs that walk on that trail wouldn't hurt the pads of their feet stepping on glass since most dogs don't wear shoes. I really loved this conversation with Luke. It was insightful and thoughtful the way he was thinking about animals hurting themselves on trash. This is how I know the message is getting across...

Here, we have Kalib and his good friend Elijah walking along the path. I don't know how much trash picking up these boys did as they walked way ahead of everyone else and were the first done, but the vibe they get on when they are together is priceless, so even if they aren't picking up trash, I know they are getting something from being there... if you look closely you might notice they are also both barefoot. They obviously weren't thinking about the glass and yes Elijah towers over Kalib, we just make them small and the Cooks make them not small. It works for me and Sarah C, so why not Elijah and Kalib.

Trail Keepers

Well, another month in... Just barely. It is amazingly difficult to organize so many people to all show up and this month, we just couldn't make it all happen. I didn't get to go, I had work I HAD to do :( but thankfully, Rachel was willing to pick the kids up and they got to go. I sent the camera along so India could take pictures and I could at least see how the trip was. They had a good time as always feeling like they are contributing to keeping Athens clean, and they found some interesting items as always. They found a pair of pants and a car mat now how do you think that got down there? The pants, I can see a homeless person accidentally leaving those behind, but the car mat? Anyhow, I'm already looking forward to next month and I'm going to make sure I get to go! Thanks Rachel and Jennifer for the hard work of watching the kids and including them since I couldn't make it and thanks kids for doing a great job of keeping our trails clean! I'm proud of you all... You really are a special group of kids and folks.

Trail Keepers

Our first official day out to the Greenway with the FRIENDS to do our trail pick up. Who knew picking up trash could be so much fun. We found lots of broken glass, lots of empty beer cans and a few surprises like a tennis ball with roots (sorry about the behind shot). We pushed half a mouse off the trail (we figured a hawk got it) and I found a small bird that was enjoyed by something and all that was left were its feathers (we pushed it over off the edge too). The kids really all got into it and did a great job and stayed focused. You know, I think it is important to be involved in things like this. I found myself wanting to pick up trash every where else we went after this. It worries me the amount of trash on our streets and sidewalks. We don't take as much pride in things and WE as a species seem to leave our imprint everywhere we go - even when we don't mean to. My hope is that we will be inspired and make more of an effort to be the change and inspire others to be the change we want. I want MY imprint to be minimal. I want the things we consume to be able to be reused or recycled or composted. I want to have very little garbage in my life and more than anything I want my species to take pride in what we do and be conscience of our impact and take a look as we walk and really see the impact we are having on this planet. Trash is everywhere you go. We can't escape it or CAN WE?? We can make our consumption mindful, we can pick up trash when we see it, we can recycle, we CAN make a difference with very little cost to our lives and with minimal effort. It takes more effort to constantly consume and deal with the reprecussions of that, than by simply being mindful of what we are taking in and what it's impact is going to be. Be inspired by our kids, be their role models. They are our future. Do we want to leave them with a nasty planet to deal with - assuming she doesn't kick us off first - or do we want to give them the tools to be better stewards of this amazing place we call home? All right, enough soap box... I'm proud of my kids for wanting to be part of this and being excited to get up and get going and really working hard to make a difference at such a young age. Maybe they can be your inspiration and your role models... In the words of Jack Johnson - 3... is a magic #...REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE!!!!