Magness Memorial Tree Farm is the World Forestry Center’s education forest. It’s 80 acres located about a half an hour’s drive from the World Forestry Center itself.

We’ve only visited once, & I’ll admit that I left there a bit underwhelmed. I don’t know why. It was a nice place, just not what I was expecting. I think maybe I was envisioning an education center along with the trees or lots of in depth information about the trees. I don’t know.

Although, that being said, I appreciated the area and whoever is upkeeping it. We have visited a couple parks & gardens claiming to show how a real forest looks or how its ecology works. They are phoneys with lots of landscaping done to spruce it up. I live in a forested area. It’s not spruced up & tidy. Magness Memorial Tree Farm really has a natural feel to it with varying heights of trees, shrubs & ground plants. You really are in a Pacific Northwest forest, but with the added convenience of trails.

Much of the forest are Douglas-fir trees, but the tree in the middle of this photo is a Pacific Madrone.

Left: On the day we were walking through the forest, we spotted many of these millipedes crawling on the trail.
Right: Herb Robert Geranium
We have these around our house, too. It’s a cute plant with nice foliage & a pretty flower. However, it is highly invasive.

Oak Tree

Left: A lovely creek for the kids to explore.

Along the trail were signs explaining a variety of things about the forest.

Western Red Cedar.
These probably are my favorite tree, especially the ones that are a few hundred years old.

These log cabins are available to rent.

All in all, it was a pleasant walk and a nice way to spend the afternoon with the kids.

To learn more about the Tree Farm check out this video. After watching the video I’d like to go back and get a tour from Bill, the man in charge.

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Day 3 includes yet another house in the Portland area. The house is listed in the National Registry of Historic Places, but that’s not why most people visit the house. The house is now a museum, the rooms turned into galleries.

If you enjoy natural science then you will adore this museum. If that’s not your thing, then you’ll be really bored here. It really is a museum of pretty much only rocks & minerals.

Technically, it’s called the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks & Minerals. But, who’s going to say all that? We just call it the Rice Rock Museum or even the Rock Museum.

The home turned museum was built in 1952 by rockhounds, Richard & Helen Rice.

Right out front is a large quartz piece found in Arkansas.

Main Building

The Rainbow Gallery is one of our favorites.
Top: In normal light the minerals aren’t all that wowing…
Bottom: … But, wait a few seconds and the lights go out. Then, they cycle through both shortwave & longwave florescent lights. The minerals react differently to the varying wavelengths. They seem to glow.

Top: A visual representation of the hardness scale of minerals.
Bottom: The kids can even test the hardness scale themselves.

Also on display are examples of how minerals are used in our everyday lives.

Synthetic Bismuth from Germany
To be honest, I have know idea what that means, but I thought it was super cool.

The lady on the left is carved from jade. The piece on the right is agate & from Beijing.

Mt. Hood Aurora Borealis carved from contra luz opal by Thomas Harth Ames.

Dennis & Mary Murphy Petrified Wood Gallery

Carved Lewis and Clark

Bottom Left: The green stuff is Pyromorphite. Found in France.
Bottom Right: Wulfenite. Found in Arizona.

Recently a letterbox was hidden at the museum. Of course, we had to find it.

The rare, beautiful & famous ‘Alma Rose’ rhodochrosite. From Colorado.

Cut gems

Northwest Mineral Gallery

As you enter this building you are greeted by this huge opal filled thunderegg found in Oregon. The thunderegg is Oregon’s state rock.

Mesolite. Found in Washington

Another good sized Thunderegg. These rocks are dull on the outside, but beautiful inside.

These thundereggs are about fist size, a more typical size.

Oregon’s state gem, sunstone.

I loved these 3 paintings showing the process of a petrified forest.
Top: “Before Petrification: A forest, including fallen logs is depicted. Volcanoes are erupting in the distance. A lake separates the forest from the volcanoes, and the lakes water cools the lava.”
Middle: “During Petrification: Logs are buried under lava (basalt) and a top layer of soil has developed, implying a long passage of time since burial. The overlying basalt and soil create anaerobic environment preventing the wood from decomposing. Silica rich water seeps down through the soil and basalt to the wood and precipitates microcrystalline quartz (agate/chert/jasper) and/or opal. Other minerals/elements in the water (eg iron) cause the coloration.”
Bottom: “After Petrification: A new landscape exists and erosion has now exposed the now petrified wood to the surface.”

Outside

Left: There is a huge rock pile outside. The kids each got to pick one to take home.
Right: Farm Girl was sweet and gave me her rock to put around our pond. It’s sitting next to a love rock.

My kids love this Rock Museum. We’ve visited it a few times and I’m sure we’ll visit it again.
To see what others are sharing for the month of October check out write31days.com

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A couple years ago Farm Kid2 wanted a flower press, so I cobbled together one. We haven’t used it in awhile, so I thought it would be fun to pull it out. The kids loved it. I like this project because it’s appropriate for all ages.

THE PRESS

As you can see Farm Kid2’s press is nothing fancy. It’s two pieces of flat wood held together by duck tape. When Farm Kid2 was 4 he stamped the cover of the press. Inside the press are pieces of cardstock. The cardstock pieces just sit freely inside, they are not attached to the press. The pages hold & separate the plants & flowers. When we are ready to press plants, I wrap a rubber band around the press and stick it under a stack of books. There is sits for at least 2 weeks.

THE FLOWERS

Our three kids went outside & picked a few prized flowers to press. Certainly we better not mix up whose flowers were whose, so each kid had their own page in the press.

Left: Fresh picked flowers
Right: After the two weeks, we unbury the press, take off the rubber band & open it to admire our pressed, dry flowers.

CREATIONS

The kids added their pressed plants & flowers to cards they dyed a couple weeks before. Click here to read about how we made natural dye.

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This is the extreme version of making sun prints on construction paper. I walked passed this solar print paper at the store and decided to give it a try.

The Paper

The pack I found came with 12 sheets of blue paper & a little frame to hold your treasures in place.

Creating Solar Silhouettes

We placed one blue paper in the frame. Then the kids added their collection of plants. After the plants were placed just perfectly, they layed down the top of the frame.

The directions said to create your design out of direct sunlight because the paper reacts quickly.

They weren’t kidding. In less than a minute of being outside the paper already began changing color.

You know it’s done when the paper turns a near white. This took only about 2 minutes.

We brought the paper inside & removed the plant pieces. Notice where the plants were is blue & where the sun hit the paper is white.

The directions said to run the paper under cold water, which we did. Running the water over the paper changed the blue parts to white & the white parts to blue. Now that’s some crazy science.

Next was to let it dry and the next day I hung it in our school room. Later I will have the boys add these to their nature journals.

Farm Kid2’s Solar Creation

I think this one is my favorite. I love how the daisies turned out.

We still have paper left over. What objects should we experiment with next?

Save

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