Chickens, and Cow Heads, and a Treehouse, OH MY!

We have decided that for summer we'll suspend class-at-the-library days and just do field trips and park days.  Our recent field trip was at Emily's house.  She is raising chickens so we planned to spend a nice afternoon with the chickens in Emily's backyard.  I think this was the best field trip we've had so far.  


Emily's backyard is a magical place for children to play in.   Except for a small grass area, it is not landscaped and has the feel of an enchanted forest.  There are lots of trees, plants crawling all over the ground, and to top it all off, an old-fashioned treehouse--real wood, a ladder, all high up in a tree.  I can't wait for whoever took pictures to post them here.   The kids decided that first they needed to sweep out the treehouse (it hasn't been used for a decade or so).  It was so cute to see them all up there cleaning house together.


With some coaxing, we eventually convinced the kids to come down into the grass area to see the chickens.  There is something really funny about small children and chickens chasing each other around a yard.  After the chickens and kids had their fill, the chickens went back to their laundry-room-bin (they are still too young to live outside), and the kids went back to the enchanted forest.  Soon after, Emily's husband Nick got home from work (he gets home earlier than most dads) - that's when things got really exciting.


Nick is a high school science teacher and passionate about science.  He also loves kids - he still is one.  So when Nick saw his backyard crawling with children he of course thought, "This is great!  I know what we can do!   I have a dead cow head buried in the backyard - we should dig it up!  It's been a year...the meat should all be rotted off by now..."


Nick got out shovels and other digging tools, passed them around and told the kids, "My magic spade tells me there is some buried treasure over here."  The kids began to dig and with help, eventually unearthed the bones of a cow head.  They thought it was the coolest thing they'd ever seen.  Nick showed them how all the pieces fit together and let the kids examine all the bones.  


Nick has made a hobby of collecting roadkill and other dead animals, decomposing the meat and then cleaning and reconstructing the skeletons.  The cow head was one of his more recent ventures.  He showed the kids some of the other skeletons he's collected.  They were fascinated by all of it.  


We are so lucky to have Emily and Nick as mentors for our kids.  There is no way any of us mothers on our own could have planned and executed a field trip this cool.  


Hopefully the pictures will get posted soon...