Pretty Squirrely!  That’s how we get when we can’t get outside, but our November weather was so mild and delightful; we enjoyed the great outdoors a great deal.  The month did begin with a study of our resident squirrel population, which includes two albino squirrels, who happen to be very dear to Ron’s heart.  Our squirrels enjoy their own heated water dish and a nice platform full of bird seed—what a silly name:  bird seed!  We learned that squirrels maintain a number of dreys (aka “nests”) in order to escape predators and accommodate their pushy relatives (squirrels are very territorial).  We mapped our dreys and conducted formal observations.  We even got to see a squirrel build his drey, with the remnants of a school tablecloth!

We continued to celebrate the harvest and to look forward to Thanksgiving feasts with a week devoted to examining and preparing foods found at local farm stands and markets.  “The Ugly Pumpkin” was a favorite book this week.  We cooked at least four different varieties of squash, including butternut—certainly to be confused with our friend “Butternut” the squash, who was very happy to discover that he was indeed a squash and not an “ugly pumpkin” (Hans Christian Anderson is rolling in his grave no doubt!).  And, when we sliced and diced our own  “Butternut,” I cheerfully explained that our friend was even happier to be eaten (I’m not sure it looked quite like this from the sidelines).  Please try our cranberry sauce recipe, which is not cooked with cute little berries we have named:

·         1 bag of cranberries

·         1 cup of sugar

·         1 cup of water

·         *mint, lemon/Clementine peel, Clementine wedges

Bring the sugar & water to a boil in a good-sized saucepan.  Add the berries and turn down heat to medium.  Cook until berries pop and sauce thickens to desired consistency.  Stir in mint leaves, citrus peel or Clementine pieces.  Chill & serve.  (Adults might appreciate adding cardamom and vanilla bean for a sophisticated twist!).

I’m sure you could see this coming, but we did “talk turkey,” the following week and, yes, I did stop short of putting old Tom on the chopping block.  Wild turkeys were our subject and I am happy to report that our MN turkeys have returned from the brink of extinction.  Did you know that hungry settlers wiped them out and as late as 1970 there really were no wild turkeys here?  The DNR reintroduced turkeys here (from Missouri) in 1973 and we have about 30,000 now.  That is indeed a small number, although sometimes there seem to be more because we live in their favorite habitat, here by the Mississippi.  So the next time you come to a dead stop on Highway 13 because three turkeys are standing in the road, consider yourself lucky to be seeing a pretty rare bird.  Special thanks go out to Autumn Spaulding and her family for supplying us with those calls and decoys; nothing beats a great “prop” with kids this age.  Maybe we need a Country Day turkey…

In December, we look forward to building the “Wolf Web” as we explore the relationships between rabbits, hares, lynx, deer, wolves and people.  We’ll be hosting the Deer and Wolf Boxes from the Bell Museum and spending plenty of time outside role-playing and gaming to understand how much we creatures depend upon one another.

Speaking of our delicate balancing act…I have a great film recommendation for you.  I was fortunate enough to attend the Nordic Lights film festival and viewed a great Swedish feature called “Herdswoman” by Kine Boman.  The subject is three generations of women Sami reindeer herders in Samiland (the arctic regions of the Nordic countries, and a bit of Russia too).  The movie is subtitled, but the photography is stunning and provides a glimpse into the landscape and culture that surround reindeer and the people who live with them.  Parents and children will learn different things from the film, but even listening to people speak another language and seeing their culture in action is very valuable for young ones. 

http://www.herdswoman.com/en/distribution.html