LiveScience: Lack of Vitamin D in Children "Shocking"

It sounds like just 15-20 minutes outside would do the trick...

http://www.livescience.com/health/090803-vitamin-d-children.html

Kids and Chickens

This weekend was full of family fun. My sister Katie drove up for a visit from Albuquerque, with her husband Aaron and kids Denae (8), Nathan (6), Jayden (4) and Lincoln (2). On Sunday night we all had dinner at my house. The kids had fun harvesting herbs for the pizza and vinaigrette, and they also picked nasturtiums for the salad.

After dinner we indulged in a little barnyard fun. All of the kids took turns petting the chickens and goats, and Denae and Nathan also did some chicken-holding. The personalities of the chickens were readily apparent, with Cardamom patiently allowing herself to be held endlessly and Thyme kicking and scratching at anyone who tried to hold her.

I foolishly forgot to use my camera until these last snapshots at the end, but my mom and sister both took lots of pictures that they'll send to me (right, guys?) so we'll have a "part 2" of the barnyard fun soon. For now, we have these...

Nathan proudly holding Cardamom, who he caught all by himself.

Jayden with a found feather (which fell off of Sage), Nathan and Cardamom.

Tackling the Big Garden

Our largest garden this year is at Mary's house. It is a 2400 square foot, south-facing yard. We can grow a lot of veggies here!

On Saturday, March 21st we spent about 3.5 hours transforming the space from a yard into a garden. We were lucky to have about 18 adult volunteers, plus lots of kids who jumped right in to help!

The yard "before."

We started at the front of the yard and worked our way back. We'll put an herb garden in front of the fence.

Tearin' it up.

One of our regular garden helpers.

Hazel is not intimidated by the big shovel. :)

Working our way back.

The kids are digging in!

Examining the worms.

Moving the grass out - it is headed for the compost pile.

Lucy is getting tired just watching everyone work! We got her some water ASAP.

We're getting there!

Nathaneal putting some extra "oomph" on the shovel.

Lucy has a lot of kids that like taking care of her.

Peeking over the backyard fence.

I was contacted by my 4th grade teacher, Judy Elliot. She read the article in the North Denver Tribune, and stopped by to watch the project in action.

The garden "after." We have 63 of our 4'x6' garden beds at this location.

We ran out of twine at the end of the project, so we had to pause while one of our Working Members ran to the store. A small group stayed behind to finish up!