Why I Oughta...

One of the activities that we've been doing with the kids this Summer is spending time on walks (or...maybe some of you call them 'hikes') in state parks, on trails and in the forests.  I hesitate to call them hikes because there's VERY little elevation change and we're walking on trails.  After reading this piece about the difference between walking and hiking , I'm actually NOT SURE what we do.  But, it doesn't really matter.  We've been all pulling up our tall socks, putting on our sneakers and going out on paths.  Both in Illinois (Waterfall Glen) and Wisconsin (Bong and Big Foot , mostly), we get out on trails and spend and hour or two getting into nature with the kids.  On one of our recent trips, Nat found a place called "Burlington School Forest" - which we had driven past a few times.  Turns out, the local school district (K-12) in Burlington Wisconsin keeps a forest area for their students.  From the school district's site ...

A few days ago, I posted about seeing an Indigo Bunting male bird in a splendid blue coat down at Waterfall Glen .  During the COVID-19 pandemic, we've tried to find time to get down to Waterfall Glen to go walking with the kids as well as dodging the crowds.  When we first went down there, they had the waterfall itself blocked off - in an attempt to keep from crowds gathering.  That was as recent as back in June. There's now a category tag for [ Waterfall Glen] here on the blog that hosts all the posts. The photo at the top of this post is now the second post featuring a Waterfall Glen sign.  One on of our previous walks,  I came across this Oak Tree identification sign and posted about it in June, too . This sign talks about the waterfall and the "men who built it" and mentions that between 1934 and 1938, a company of men from the Civilian Conservation Corps - as part of the New Deal - were stationed up in Hinsdale at Fullersburg Woods.  It was ...