The Future is Now

FRONT PAGE NEWS:  Count us among the legions of folks who watched "Back to the Future Part II" last night, as Oct. 21 was the day lead character Marty McFly traveled to the future. 

While there, one thing Marty did was read a USA Today dated Oct. 22, 2015, marveling at the headlines.

Today, we hit the newsstand and bought a commemorative, today only edition of that paper 

It's fun reading the headlines, which made mention of a female president (not yet), and the Cubs winning the 2015 World Series (they were eliminated from the post season last night).

One element USA Today publishers had to change from the movie prop was a headline that had had "Queen Diana" visiting Washington D.C. That possibility ended in 1997, when she was killed in a tragic auto accident.

PARK POSTERS:  We're still working our way through a stack of educational and attractive posters we got as part of an Earth Sciences week packed. For the last few days, we've had a couple of full color posters about our National Parks system on the wall.

I asked the kids to share a couple of things they learned about the NPS, and tell me what park they'd most like to go visit.  

Here's what Annabelle had to say. ... 

The National Parks Service is an organization dedicated to organizing and protecting national parks. National parks span the entire country and are located in almost every state. National parks also come in many different forms, from campsites to nature preserves. National parks are a great palce to visit if you are looking for a nice place to take a stroll. National parks can be loacted almost anywhere, including a building, as evidenced by the gold rush museum here in Seattle. One national park I would like to visit is the Olympic National Park, located on the Olympic Peninsula. 

        Credit: NPS photo

It has an overwhelming population of Roosevelt elk, the largest unmanaged population in the world. It was almost named “Elk National Park”, because it was founded in part to protect these elks. The park is very large and it seems like fun to explore. I would love to visit someday.

Credit: NPS photo Autumn Elk in the Hoh

And the following is CJ's take. ... 

The National Park Service is, according to Wikipedia, an agency of the United States federal government that manages all U.S. national parks, many American national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations. In the United States, the primary goal of establishing national parks is to preserve their natural beauty for the public and future generations to see.

According to www.classzone.com, a place must meet the following 3 criteria to be considered to become a national park: 1: It must possess a unique natural, cultural, or recreational resource.2: It must be in need of protection, and no organization other than the National Park Service would be able to secure adequate protection.3: It must be able to be protected. (It is suitable and feasible to protect the area.)' I would like to visit the Mount Rainier National Park, which is located in southeast Pierce County and northeast Lewis County. 

Credit: NPS photo - Rainier from Paradise

The park is most well known for Mount Rainier, which is the highest mountain of the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, and the highest mountain in the state of Washington. The park also has the Wonderland Trail, which is 93 miles long, and there are several beautiful pictures of the park online. 

                                              1921 Rainier National Park Company brochure                                          

                                                CREDIT: Mount Rainier National Park Archives

Carbon Glacier, which is in the park, is the largest glacier by volume in the contiguous United States, while Emmons Glacier, which is also in the park, is the largest glacier by area.

JUST WONDERING: As we took a neighborhood stroll this afternoon, we saw a home with an attractive display of gourds and squash on their porch. That got us to wonderin', what's the difference between gourds and squash? Annabelle did a little research, and it turns out, she says, "The main difference between gourds and squash is that squash is mainly grown for eating, while gourds are usually cultivated for display." 

From the Missouri Botanical Garden, we learned both gourds and squash are members of the enormously diverse Cucurbitaceae family, which contains more than 100 genera and over 700 species. 

We talked about how gourds have also had utilitarian purposes for centuries, hollowed out and used as bowls and other vessels. Annabelle noted that a character in a book she's reading, "A Single Shard" has a gourd bowl.

On Solid Ground

DOWN ON THE FARM:  The kids are involved in a social issues class that meets twice weekly. The group is focusing on hunger at home an abroad, and ways to combat it. That led to us volunteering at a food bank last week, and this week, it meant a field trip to a local farm that grows produce that is distributed to 27 food banks in the area, Marra Farm.

We gathered under this tree and learned lots about the farm from a worker. 

Located in the South Park area of south Seattle, once upon a time the Marra family, Italian farmers, worked the land from the early 1900s until the 1970s, when they sold it to King County. 

Today, Marra Farm is one of the last two remaining pieces of original agricultural land in Seattle.

Today, Marra Farm addresses community food security needs, provides a space for sustainable agriculture education, and engages community members in a myriad of ways.

Following is Annabelle's account of the field trip ...  

On October 20, I went to Marra Farms. Marra Farms is part of the “Lettuce Link” program, which is focused around getting fresh vegetables to those in need. Marra Farms is also part of the Solid Ground organization, which focuses on getting home, food and other necessitates for people in poverty. Marra Farms grows many different kinds of veggies, including chard, beets, asparagus, lettuce, tomatoes, and many more. They also grow a few fruits such as apples and plums. The amount of veggies the farm produces (about 15,000 pounds a year) 500 pounds of veggies could almost fill a van, but it could be used up at a food bank within less than a day. Some people also grow food in a p-patch to feed their own families. They also have a children’s farm where students from the school around the block come and use gardening to tie in with their classes (for instance, the science class could do an experiment where they watered one plant with water and the other with orange juice). They also raise bees and chickens on the farm, to produce fresh eggs and honey. The farm is a very interesting place to visit and I can’t wait for our next field trip, where we will learn more about the history of the farm.

 And here's what CJ had to say ... 

On October 20th, 2015, we went to Marra Farm, an urban farm, which, according to the Solid Ground website, is a historic urban community farm engaging people in sustainable agriculture and education while enhancing local food security. We went to Marra Farm as part of our field trip in our Social Issues Class at my school. Marra Farm is a part of Lettuce Link, a program dedicated to feed hungry people living in Seattle. Lettuce Link is a part of Solid Ground, an organization, that, according to the Solid Ground website, is an organization that fights poverty in Seattle.

According to the City of Seattle website, Marra Farm is inside the Marra-Desimone Park. At Marra Farm, we learned that the farm produces 15,000 pounds of vegetables every year. Marra Farm also has a greenhouse, which is where they grow plants during periods of the year that aren't very plant-friendly, such as winter. Marra Farm also has a hive for honeybees, and the primary reason they own honeybees is so they can pollinate certain flowers. We also learned other things at Marra Farm, such as the subtle difference between chard and beets, which are closely related, and we learned that beet leaves are edible. Overall, I learned a lot from our visit to Marra Farm, and I look forward to our next visit on the 27th.

Sources: http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/p-patch-community-gardening/p-patch-list/marra-farmhttp://www.solid-ground.org/programs/nutrition/marra/pages/default.aspx

BACK TO THE FUTURE: If you were online today, likely you saw mention that it's *the day* that was pivotal in our history. Well, at least cinematic history. ... As a White House press release noted, "It's the date to which Marty McFly traveled into the 'future' in Back to the Future Part II."

The press release also noted, "We've come a long way in the 30 years that have passed since the original Back to the Future came out. Now, we're going to talk about where we're going in the next 30.  All day long, we're hosting a series of conversations with scientists and innovators across the government and the country. You'll be able to ask them questions, watch videos explaining their cutting-edge developments, and share your answer to the question above: What does 2045 look like?"

I thought I'd let the kids ponder that for a few minutes and come up with a paragraph about it. 

Here's what Annabelle had to say. ... 

30 years from now, computers will be one of the only sources of communication and information. Talking face to face will be replaced with "Skypeing", and YouTube will triumph over real-life stage plays and other entertainment. The video game market will boom, especially due to the rise in virtual reality. Video games will have become as immersive as ever, such as jumping and causing your character to jump. Gaming will even be a professional sport, with even more tournaments than there are currently. We can have robots do most of our work, but some tasks require human input. Even humans have been robotized, being quote-unquote “cyborgs”, where they have an ID chip implanted in them (much like a dog’s ID microchip). The chip would also offer wi-fi, no matter where you are. The entire world might even have internet connection. The internet will surely be a major part of our future, judging by the fact it’s already so large.

And here was CJ's take ... 

30 years from now, several different technological advancements will have been made. Multiple rich business-people around the world will own hydrogen-powered vehicles, and self-driving cars are beginning to be phased in. The virtual reality industry will be worth billions of dollars, and the third manned mission to Mars will have been launched. Several people have implants resembling the Google Glass and Apple Watch, but either surgically fused to them or placed internally.

Mid-October Merriment

CAKENSTEIN:  October means a bunch of birthdays in the family, including Annabelle, who turned 11 this year. 

She gets to choose what kind of cake she wanted, and this go-round she opted for a robot shaped cake based on a character created by singer songwriter Morgan Taylor, whom she, CJ, and a few other lucky Seattle kids took a wonderful week-long workshop with this past summer. 

Here's a video all about the cakey monster. 


The song calls for a pink cake, and I recalled pink champagne cakes of years gone by. (I think they were a pretty big deal in the '80s!)  That sounded good to Annabelle, and so she popped some bubbly (to be used as an ingredient in the cake batter). Maybe I'll buy her a bottle of pink champagne for her birthday 10 years from now. :)

We made six little layers of cake, ranging in diameter from six inches for the base to the size of a tuna can for the head.

Rice Krispie treats were necessary for Cakenstein's arms and for his detonator/energizer switch. 

We made a whole lot of gray fondant, and a little red (for his cherry eyes), and a bit of blue (for the cakey babies' blueberry eyes).

We baked and built the whole thing in one day, pretty much. Not bad for a multi-tiered cake monster with cakey babies. :)

PATCHY:  Mid-October also means it's about time to be hitting up a local pumpkin patch. For several years running, we've tried to go to different places. This year's new-to-us destination was Dr. Maze's Farm, in Redmond, WA, just about a half hour east of Seattle.

Dr. Maze's was founded in 2010, and it's part of a group of neighboring farms that created The South 47 Farm, which works to protect farmland and promote sustainable farming.

 The moment we pulled into our parking spot, I started peering out the windows and asked, "What's that sound?" knowing full well that it was the noise of legions of winged creatures.

I can honestly say in my 50 years, I've never heard that much bird 'song' in one place, at one time. I found it rather frightening.

CJ, who is fortunate enough not to have seen Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds," didn't seem frightened at all. Lucky boy.

With a bit of trepidation (at least on my part), we approached the admission stand. 

There were photo opps aplenty at Dr. Maze's.  The kids took a ride on a pumpkin truck ... 

and they got their American Gothic on.

CJ was a crazy driver of a virtual tractor. He sat there wishing he had on an Oculus Rift.

Once we headed into the maze, there were questions and puzzles awaiting. 

 The kids and Christian never could solve this one where they were supposed to start on red, then go green and then yellow, in that order and work your way to the end. 

 We did, however, easily find the end of the maze.

Outside, the kids played giant Jenga.

And they made some music.

Speaking of music, there was an entertaining animatronic chicken chorus.

CJ was a huge fan. After the rest of us had moved on, I caught him over by the coop, doing the chicken dance. :) 

There were ponies to ride bareback.

It was big fun for the big kids. 

I sure am glad they don't think they're too old and cool for this stuff. :)

Spudtacular

YOU SAY POTATO: Another busy, busy weekend, with birthday celebrations, field trips and more. 

In fact, it was so busy, and we're so bushed, the big write up is going to have to wait. 

For now, I leave you with a potato. 

But not just any potato. It's a Martian potato. 

More specifically, a "The Martian" potato, a movie tie in.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a post somewhere mentioning that as a promotion for the recent movie about an astronaut stranded on Mars, the movie studio hired Mail a Spud, a company that, well, mails potatoes, to send out some special spuds with "The Martian" stamps.

The article I saw noted that the first 1,000 people who registered would get their spud for free!! That's right, a FREE potato!! It's like winning the lottery, pretty much!  (Normally it costs $10 to have them mail a potato for you.)

I immediately followed the (now disabled) link and ordered up a potato, hoping beyond hope it would be delivered in time for Annabelle's birthday, because who wouldn't want a potato for their birthday, right?!

Lo and behold, the United States Postal Service brought our specially stamped spud to our door on Saturday, just in time for Bee's big day. Hooray!

Fortunately, "The Martian" has posted instructions so we can grow potatoes from our "Martian" potato, just like Mark Watney did in the movie. Wish us luck!