Earth Day 2008 (post II)

EMy family and I spent the majority of Saturday at a local venue, the Ogden Nature Center to explore, play and learn more about sustainable living. We arrived less than an hour after the event began and were awestruck by the number of people that were there already.
This was the scene in the courtyard where a part of the informational booths were located. I have to say that I was very pleased that the booths at this event were not for retailers of "green products" by and large, but rather were primarily for information and education. We took a few minutes to talk with some nice guys representing the local Sierra club, dropped in on a composting class that had surprisingly few people at it and bought the boys a couple of "earth day necklaces to help support the Center.
One of my favorite parts of the center, and one that was not there the last time I visited on a field trip with one of the kids, was their Straw bale visitor center and Center offices. I really loved everything about it, and got a couple of good ideas to put away in the back of my head for use one day when I design our next home.
The boys were able to get in a little climbing; it's one of their favorite things to do. This is the first time we've been anywhere with a climbing tower that didn't cost an arm and a leg to use, in fact this one was free.

We also got to enjoy some local musicians and a group of kids that have a Celtic dance troupe. We've seen them before and their always fun. Plus we all love the Celtic music.

The last thing that we did was listen to a presentation from the Forest Service about caring for out Riparian habitats. Here in the Mountain West, our rivers and streams are really our life blood. Learning how our actions can have either a positive or negative effect on them is definitely an important thing.
It was a great day and a lot of fun. I hope that through events like this that we can help to get our kids motivated to learn more about being more sustainable. While I was there I was able to hook up with the volunteer coordinator and learned more about being a volunteer at the Center. We may "adopt an area" of the center and make it our own to care for, or even help with some of the projects there. I also offered to share my knowledge and experiences, for what that means, with others. I am certainly passionate about the things I am doing, and think that being involved with a place like this would certainly be a blessing.

I hope you all had a great day yesterday, I'd love to hear about what you did.

Till tomorrow,

P~