2014 Hug the Earth Festival with the The Banana Slug String Band and the Students of Miami County, Ohio

This is the sixteenth year that I have helped in some way with the Hug the Earth Festival.  It has grown from a one day event with about seven hundred students participating to a four day event with over three thousand students participating.  In addition, there is now a Saturday Festival open to the public.

Because Stillwater Prairie Reserve was waterlogged from the rains of the previous week, the students' festivals were held at the Miami County Fairgrounds.

There were limp antennae on the Banana Slug mascot who met the children as they began their day on Tuesday but by Thursday his antennae were stiff and perky.  He must have found some starch somewhere.

The band members from Santa Cruz, California, "Solar" Steve Van Zandt,

 "Marine" Mark Nolan,

 Doug "Dirt" Greenfield,

 and "Airy" Larry Graff

have been together  for nearly thirty years.  They entertain children and adults with songs about our wonderful earth and encourage everyone to care for it.  For quite a few years "Gaea" Gary has come with them to play drums.  I don't have a recent photo of him.

During the school year the students learn a special earth song, make costumes related to the song and come out to a Miami County Park for a day of exploring and learning more about their special earth song.  The festival is the culminating  event. This year, some of the students were superheros with superhero capes they decorated themselves.

Here is a superhero of Ohio's prairies.

Here is another Habitat Superhero.  Looks like the habitat is a river.  Beside him is the bucket with the rocks he dug out of the sand and gravel pile deposited in one of the Miami County Fair grounds open sided buildings.  All of the rocks in the pile are mined in Ohio.

The older students panned for their rocks.  The rocks they found were from many areas of the world.

In the trough are the pans the the students will use.  Standing around it, getting last minute instructions are the staff who will help them if they need it.  Notice that most of the staff are wearing slug antennae.

Here the students are comparing the rocks they found with samples enclosed in this box.

The Columbus, Ohio Zoo brought unusual animals like this two-toed sloth and talked to the younger students about the animals'  habits.

The older children were treated to a High Ropes Adventure which included a fast ride down a zipline.  There was also a climbing tower.  These were set up behind the stadium.  I took this before the event was completely set up.

On Saturday, tree climbing using ropes was also set up at Stillwater Reserve.

Rain, Sun, Sleet or Snow, the Hug the Earth Festival goes on and brings smiles to hundreds of people.

2013 Hug the Earth Festival with the Banana Slug String Band

The Banana Slug String Band from Santa Cruz, California was back in Miami County, Ohio last week for the sixteenth annual Hug the Earth Festival.  This is the second year that the five-day long celebration has been held at the Stillwater Prairie Reserve.  The Festival outgrew its old site, the Garby Big Woods Reserve.

Besides the hour-long concerts in which the students performed with the slugs, they enjoyed ...

Earthball activities...

Digging for special rocks like limestone and fossils and shark teeth...

Screening for gemstones...

Petting animals...

Learning about exotic animals...

Climbing trees...

And speeding through the air on Zip lines.

August 5, Painting with Sarah

 

 

We painted from this shelterhouse. The temperature was close to 90 degrees but there was a pleasant light breeze and we were in the shade. The day was overcast. There were a few sprinkles of rain as I was driving home about 4:30 PM. The shelterhouse is in the middle of a large mowed field.

The last time I was at Stillwater Prairie was during the Hug the Earth Festival. There were about a thousand elementary children here, the Banana Slug String Band and lots of action. Today was peaceful and still except for the fall insects calling, a few birds singing, and the distant sound of a riding mower. I painted my version of this scene across the field.

 

 

Here are three photos of the painting in process. I still want to play around with the right side and lighten the tree behind the Red Cedar, the little oval evergreen about in the center. Probably will do a few other odds and ends as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Sarah's painting as she progressed. I noticed this morning that I didn't have the entire painting in the picture when I took the third photo. I'm sorry because all of the painting is important.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We both painted on 300 weight cold-pressed Arches. Both paintings are 10 inches by 8 inches.

Working on a New Grandchildren Mat

Those of you who have visited us know that I have these photos of our grandchildren hanging in the hall.

The top one displays photos from 2004. The bottom one displays photos from 2007 and 2008.

When Ray and Gretchen married last June two more grandchildren became part of our family. In the past, the mat, MY GRANDKIDS contained the eleven openings so each child had one. This year I am filling a mat, GRANDCHILDREN, since there are 13 openings, one for each grandchild. 

It is still a work in process. I will go back through the wedding photographer's pictures to find good ones of Ray's boys.  I don't have newer photos of the three older ones.  I do have 2012 photos of Stephen but I know he will want a picture of himself in his tuxedo since that is what his brothers will be wearing. Colin's photo is from the wedding, too.  

Graylyn was beautiful as her mother's  maid of honor, but,  I like the photo I took of Graylyn when she, Ray, and Gretchen stopped here last September.  I usually like everyday photos the best.  She was on her way to New York City for an internship with NBC.

It usually takes me about a week to resize photos and choose exactly the pose I want of each grandchild. I have eight chosen though I will redo two of them because they are not exactly what I want. Then I will go back through the wedding photos. Since Treven was sick and couldn't visit this summer, I will make do with a photo from last year.

I am eager to get back to painting but, first, I want to finish this mat and do a little more sorting and dumping in the basement. I am happy that Sarah and I are painting en plein air at Stillwater Prairie Reserve tomorrow. I will post the result. Sarah and I haven't painted together for over a year. She finally has a job with a schedule that she can rely on to remain the same week after week.

I hope all of you have a wonderful day.


P.S. For those of you who might be interested in acquiring specialty mats, I bought mine from friends who you can reach by going to their website.

www.namephotomats.com

Hug the Earth Festival, 2012, Songs and Activities, Part 2

 
Here is Marine Mark leading children in dance to the tune of "I'm a Tree". "I'm a tree, I'm a tree, and I'm growing very tall".




Doug the Drop leads the Water Cycle Boogie Dancers. "The watercycle boogie goes round and round. The watercycle boogie goes up and down".




The Everything Needs a Home singers..."Everything needs a home, a habitat, a place to roam".






Airy Larry, The Plant Man, leading the Roots, Stems, Leaves, Flowers, Fruits, and Seeds singers. "Roots, Stems, Leaves, Flowers, Fruits, and Seeds, Six plant parts that every plant and animal needs".

There were lots of other activities besides the big concert.





Mike Manning, The Rock Man, showed these children fascinating rocks and talked about how people used them.


 

The children panned for treasure and found some of the rocks Mike talked about. Here is what one child found.





On the other side of the park, workers from Ohio mining put on a skit which emphasized that everything is mined or grown.





One child was dressed up as a miner.




These children mined for Ohio ores in especially prepared sand hills.





Then they took their pail of rocks to a table where they could compare what they found with named samples.




All of the children played with , a huge inflated "Earth" ball, and all ate a picnic lunch with their classmates.


  On Friday, the younger students were treated to a visit from the Kentucky Reptile Zoo. They saw a variety of reptiles.

 


The older students had a special treat, a Ropes Campus where they could climb a "Cliff", walk high above the ground on ropes and zip down a Zip Line. Tom pulled this photo from a video.





Here are students climbing the rock wall.
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