Getting Crafty at the Curious George Cottage

We had a lot of fun this week with all the kids and parents that joined us for Curious George Story Time and Craft at the Curious George Cottage. Over the vacation week we have made reindeer, Katy-no-Pocket kangaroos, and birch bark sleds complete with pine cone people! Many thanks to our friends at the Bookmonger in Waterville Valley's Town Square for lending us a copy of Rebecca Rule's new book "The Iciest, Diciest, Scariest Sled Ride Ever." It was the perfect book to accompany our birch bark sleds with pine cone people. Check out this book at the Bookmonger - you will enjoy it! 

Join us for Curious George Story Time on Fridays this winter at 3:30 p.m. at the Curious George Cottage, and at the Margret and H.A. Rey Center in Town Square on Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.

Curious George Story Time and Craft will be held again during the February Vacation Weeks. We hope to see you then!

 A New Art Exhibit at the Rey Center

Citizen Science is Blooming!

That's according to the National Environmental Education Foundation. This past year they released a neat poster, highlighting the impact of citizen scientists nation-wide. Some amazing accomplishments in 2011 include the tallying of over 61 million bird observations during the Christmas Bird Count, water quality monitoring at 1,750 sites around the nation on World Water Monitoring Day, and mapping the first detailed fall migration flyway of monarch butterflies in eastern North America. Fine accomplishments indeed!

The Rey Center encourages citizen scientists to get involved wherever they can. One way is to participate in Rey Center citizen science programs, such as, Water Watchers, helping us monitor the quality of our local waterways, Species Monitoring on Welch Ledges, helping us catalog alpine plants for preservation, or Phenology Watchers, recording the timing of seasonal events in our local forests.

You too can make a difference! Join us or look for opportunities in your own backyard. To learn more, contact me at kvotta@thereycenter.org.

Kim Votta

Curious Cuttings...

I have been taking advantage of the lack of snow this December by putting on my hiking shoes. While strolling along I kept noticing green bits on the ground and upon closer inspection I realized that they were cuttings from fir trees. At first I thought maybe they had blown down in the wind, but as I kept walking I noticed more. They seemed to be directly under a tree so I ruled out the wind which would scatter them more.

I picked up one of the cuttings and noticed that it appeared to have been snipped from the tree. That made me start to consider an animal as the culprit leaving all these curious cuttings. So I began to think of critters that might like twigs & buds as a snack. I had recently read an article about porcupines so I had them on the brain and knew they eat parts of trees, but then pictured them hanging precariously on the end of a branch and ruled them out based on weight. So that left me with squirrels.

When I returned to work I asked my coworker, Kim, and she said that it was indeed squirrels. Since the seeds and nuts grow in clusters on the end of the twigs the squirrels have figured out that it is easier to snip the twig instead of each little seed.

These curious cuttings are the work of squirrels busily working to store enough food for the winter that I know is on its way. Bring it on, LET IT SNOW and I will happily trade in my hiking boots for cross country skis!

Leigh Ann Reynolds

Artisan Fair

Join us at the Rey Center for our second annual Holiday Artisan Craft Fair.  Saturday November 24th see Santa arrive by Dog Sled in Town Square and take advantage of these hand-made, one-of-a-kind, made in America, buy local gifts. Come on...everybody's doin' it.

A Weekend Full of Science!

This past Sunday and Monday was the New Hampshire Science Teachers' Association's Fall Conference held in Meredith, NH. The Rey Center had an informational booth and Audrey and Kim spread the word about all of the science programs that we offer. While they were busy telling teachers about our fabulous field based programs on Mt. Tecumseh and Welch Dickey and our hands-on, curriculum based classroom programs I was busy gathering new ideas for programs.

I spent Sunday at the "Finding the Fish: Who lives beneath the water in your backyard?" workshop.

In the picture above, we are electrofishing along a section of Clay Brook in Plymouth, NH to get an idea of what fish species are present. After collecting the fish we identified, weighed, and measured each fish. This data was taken back to the lab where it was entered into excel and then merged into a GIS mapping program. We plotted our transect onto a map along with the number of each fish found. This workshop opened my eyes to how much more I have to learn about GIS but has inspired me to take that time so I can begin collecting data and creating maps with students.

Monday was jam packed with workshops that gave me even more ideas for future programs. My first workshop was all about "The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, & Snow Network" or CoCo RaHs for short. This is a citizen science project that anyone can do simply by going to their website www.cocorahs.org and signing up. This is a great way for students to take an active role in collecting scientific data that will be used by many. For example this data can be used to predict major flooding events and to better understand our climate. After learning about CoCoRaHs I was able to shake things up a bit and make some butter. I learned all about the science behind Dairy and how to make butter, cheese, and yogurt. YUMMY! In the afternoon I learned about the emerald ash borer beetle, an invasive species that is predicted to make its way to New Hampshire in one to two years. My brain started churning as I imagined walking around Waterville Valley with the middle school students surveying for ash trees, creating a GIS map, and calculating the potential cost associated with an infestation in Waterville Valley. The last workshop I attended focused on monitoring the health of sugar maples to teach about how our communities may be affected by climate change. Martha Carlson has developed some simple indicators of sugar maple health like leaf color and bud analysis that can be used with elementary aged students.

Now that my brain is bursting with new ideas I'm off to plan some new science programs!

Leigh Ann Reynolds
Education Coordinator

Fall Research Wrap-up

After two months, 37 hikes, and overcoming rain, snow, and a dead car battery, the fall 2012 field observation season is officially over!  The only thing left to do this year is one final hike on each mountain to download data from the loggers and remove my flagging, which should happen early next week.

For weeks now, people have been asking me if it was winter yet in New Hampshire, and I would always respond with, "not quite, but I have graphs showing how close we are!"  No one ever wanted to see my graphs =(

Now that we (myself, along with undergrad assistants Heath and Cotter) have finished collecting data the winter will be spent doing data entry, crunching numbers, and trying to figure out what this all means.  Over the course of my hikes, I've met a lot of nice and interesting people and I'm excited for work to begin again in the spring!

PSU Students Building Sustainable Garden Shed for Community Gardens

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In fall of 2011 students of Plymouth State University’s first Sustainable Structures class engaged in the natural building process by researching, designing and building an “eco” shed for the Eco-house on campus. Steve Whitman, environmental planner and permaculture instructor, and Bryan Felice, a long-time and experienced timber framer, lead the class. In hopes of offering the class again in the Fall of 2012, Bryan sought out a client in need of a community building. Audrey Eisenhaeur, the Executive Director at the Margret and H.A.  Rey Center in Waterville Valley, NH contacted Bryan after seeing the product of the first Sustainable Structures class. From there the discussion of building a community shed for the gardeners of the Rey Center’s Mary Bierbrier Community Gardens began.

Initial design of sustainable shed for the
Mary Bierbrier Community Gardens.

This fall the students in the class have been working to design and implement a shed that has multiple functions on site in Waterville Valley. The shed will provide safe storage, water catchment system, potting sink, community bulletin board for communication and natural materials. The shed provides an educational component for the Waterville Valley Community by being a demonstration site of natural building techniques. The students will engage on a hands on learning process where they learn natural building techniques such as timber framing, board and batten siding, cordwood siding, live edge siding, wattle and daub, and slate roof installation.

A natural building is labeled as one because of the materials and processes used through the design. Natural materials include those that are regionally available or harvested, minimally processed, non-toxic and biodegradable. Natural buildings range from a small shed to a multiple story timber frame house for a family or business. Natural building is a feasible strategy for constructing buildings that have long-term financial rewards and a low impact on the environment which is a smart sustainable option.

The students encourage anyone to come visit the site next to the Curious George Cottage located on Noon Peak rd in Waterville Valley. Look for updates on the project on the Facebook page Rey Center Shed Fall ’12. Students are breaking ground towards the end of October. Workdays will be Monday and Wednesday from 2:00 until 5:30 pm with hopes of completion by the beginning of December.

2012 Fall Astronomy Festival

The Rey Center took part in the 2nd annual New England Fall Astronomy Festival in Durham, NH on September 22, 2012. We were one of many exhibitors.

At our table families created their own constellation. Marshmallows were scattered on the night sky (black construction paper) and then replaced with little star stickers. Then the participant used their imagination to connect the stars to to make a constellation. Over the course of the day many unique constellations were created like mosquito, Rudolph, snake, house, and penguin to name a few.

 The Rey Center also led the "Rescue of Andromeda" skit twice during the day. This "walk through" skit involves everyone in the crowd. Actors are chosen from the audience and they have an action that they do every time their character's name is mentioned in the story. This is a fun way for people to learn about a few constellations that can be seen in the autumn night sky. There was lots of laughter during the skit and many people commented on how much fun they had.


The governor of New Hampshire has officially named the weekend of September 21 and 22, Astronomy Weekend. The Margret and H.A. Rey Center was mentioned in the dedication as one of the participants. We look forward to this event next year!

If you are interested in astronomy, we have programs throughout the year, like our monthly Dark Sky Stargazing nights. Check out our event calendar at www.thereycenter.org for details.

Fall colors on Welch Mountain

Fall colors in the area are spectacular right now, even more so in the rain. Or so it seems to me. Yesterday, I spent some time on the ledges of Welch Mountain with Environmental Science and Policy undergraduate students from Plymouth State University. The students ventured to the expansive ledge area you first encounter about 1.3 miles from the trail head that leads to the summit of Welch Mountain. Despite overcast skies threatening rain, they hiked to learn about the outcrop plant communities that inhabit the ledge and some of the research methods we are adopting to monitor the long-term health of these plants. Up to 5,000 hikers may visit the ledges in a given summer. This summer we spoke to almost 1,000 hikers about the plants that live there and about the importance of staying on the trail to help protect them. When the students and I were finished with our visit on the ledge, I let them head on down before me. Alone, I enjoyed another moment or two in the kaleidoscope of fall colors breaking through the mist. 

- Kim Votta, Rey Center Research Coordinator

YOU make it possible!

Without volunteers (you know who you are and we THANK YOU) we would not be able to offer such an array of programs. For example, the Curious George Cottage Family Festival took 52 fabulous volunteers to make it happen, from working the ticket booth, drawing Curious Characters, to dressing up as Curious George. This festival is our biggest fundraiser, which helps us achieve our mission to bring art, science, and nature programs to people of all ages. 

However, the festival is only one day out of the year and we are open year round, so volunteers are critical the rest of the year too. I will share a few things that our volunteers are doing. Every Saturday we have Curious George Story Time and Cottage Open Hours. Our story time volunteers enjoy brightening young children’s day by reading the Reys’ books and sharing some laughs at George’s adventures. 

Being a cottage host entails soaking up the relaxing atmosphere of the Reys’ former summer home, visiting with folks, sharing the Reys’ story & our mission, and watching the birds & butterflies in the garden. I know that sounds like hard work:) We also have volunteers that share their love of astronomy during our Dark Sky Stargazing programs and others who share their interest in the health of our rivers during Water Watchers. 

It takes people like you, who believe in our mission to inspire curiosity and discovery, and who donate their time and talent to make everything you love about the Rey Center possible. If you have a skill or interest that you want to share with the Rey Center please contact the volunteer coordinator, Leigh Ann Reynolds. You can email her at lareynolds@thereycenter.org or call 603-236-3308. 

In the Gallery...

Join us in welcoming some vary talented New Hampshire artists showcase their interpretation of the transformation of a forest. A forest is a divine work of art in and of itself.  Through the eyes of an artist it is transformed into another immortal work of art.

"It's not about what it is, it's about what it can become"

 

Chakra Banner by Angie Follensbee-Hall

Angie Follensbee-Hall  of Paper Glade brings her inspirational handmade paper wall sculptures.  Angie's work invokes a meditative quality, reflecting upon the world of myth and nature, suggesting a connection between all beings at their source.

Carolyn Kemp of Word Weavers Ink brings her birch bark vessels, jewelry, baskets and nature inspired watercolor paintings.
"The woven basket is a vessel that carries the sustenance of life forward. In its creation the weaver experiences a timeless unity of form, function, and culture with all the splendor of limitless patterning, color, textures and design. "

Birdie Britton of Waterville Valley brings to us her whimsical twig sculptures inspired by old snags. To Birdie "Trees matter. They root deeply in the earth and reach their limbs to the sky and move with the wind. They link branches with their neighbors or stand alone. They have histories and personalities, proclivities and idiosyncrasies. In short, trees possess character. There's something there you can get to know and perhaps love. Doesn't everyone have a favorite tree?"

Horse Blue by Birdie Britton

Annette Mitchell and Maryellen Sakura both bring their inspirational printmaking skills showcasing their talents in solar printing and Annette's famous foam printing.

Cheryl Johnson's watercolor paintings of old wooden structures tell the story of their long history in the details of her work.

Suncatcher by Cheryl Johnson

This show is truly inspirational! 
Show dates: September 8 - October 27, 2012
Gallery Hours: Wednesday through Saturday 10:00 - 5:00pm
Gallery Reception: Saturday October 6, 2012 6:30pm - 8:30pm  

Curious George Enjoyed Another Visit to Waterville Valley

The Margret and H.A. Rey Center’s sixth annual Curious George Cottage Family Festival, held on August 11-12, delighted over 360 Curious George fans with a weekend of family fun. Children and their parents were treated to live music, storytelling, rocket launching, planetarium shows, nature walks, games, meals with the characters, a petting zoo and more!

Toe Jam Puppet Band recruits a few
young fans to help with this song!

This year’s headlining performers, Toe Jam Puppet Band, had all ages dancing dosie-does, doing the limbo, squealing with glee when getting sprayed with water during the Car Wash song, and generally having an all around great time. Curious George and the man with the yellow hat even found some time to dance to the original tunes of the Toe Jam Puppet Band. 

Take Two Tandem Tellers

Also performing on the Festival stage were Take Two Tandem Tellers, featuring Anne Marie Forer and Cindy Killavey. This storytelling duo presented lively and interactive programs filled with music, merriment and madness. 

Spin, Pop and Boom by Mad Science

Back once again this year was a fascinating and educational performance by Mad Science with their show Spin, Pop and Boom, which lived up to its name as this show was exploding with excitement!

Other activities over the weekend included banana pancake breakfasts at the Snowy Owl Inn; a BBQ lunch with Curious George by the WV Conference Center; a spaghetti dinner with Curious George by Klaudt Catering; Curious George themed games provided by the Waterville Valley Recreation Department; drawing of Curious Characters by local artists Birdie Britton, Maryellen Sakura, Gerri, Denise Siraco and Ken Vallery; rocket launching by Phil Chouinard; a community Eco Art project by artist Cynthia Robinson; a showing of One World, One Sky: Big Bird’s Adventure in a portable planetarium by University of NH Department of Earth, Oceans and Space; a banana eating contest; nature walks and nature discovery stations; story time and cartoon viewing; and a reading of It’s Good to Be Me by photographer and author Liz McNeil Jenkins and owner of the canine stars of the book, Margaret Turner. 

Playing games with the
Waterville Valley Recreation Department

Local artist Maryellen Sakura
draws Curious Characters

Curious George poses with a few friends!

Rocketman Phil Chouinard launching rockets for the crowd

Time! The 7-12 year olds finish their
banana eating contest.

Banana Eating Contest
6 & Under Group

Doing the limbo with Toe Jam Puppet Band
and Curious George

Toe Jam Puppet Band
and their new biggest fans!

Musician Maggie Peak poses with
Curious George and his entourage
after her performance at the
Banana Pancake Breakfast.

Curious George visits with fans
at the Rey Center

Volunteer Sophie helps kids make
newspaper boats like George does in
Curious George Rides a Bike

This fundraising event for the Margret and H.A. Rey Center would not be possible without the generosity of our sponsors and partners, and the amazing effort of all of our volunteers. Please thank the following businesses and people for helping to make possible this fun and educational family weekend celebrating Curious George and Waterville Valley.

GOLD LEVEL SPONSORS ($1,000 and up): Roper Real Estate and Waterville Valley Foundation.

SILVER LEVEL SPONSORS ($500 and up): Parenting New Hampshire Magazine, Golden Eagle Lodge, Waterville Valley Realty, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Riveredge Marina, Louis Karno and Company, ABODE Homebuilders, and Waterville Valley Ski Resort.

BRONZE LEVEL SPONSORS (Up to $499): Bierbrier Development Inc., Black Bear Lodge, Blue Moon Café, Bookmonger, Coffee Emporium, Common Man Family of Restaurants, Community Guaranty Savings Bank, Dreams and Visions, Eco Art a la Carte, FunSpot, I Dream of Beading, Legend’s 1291 Sport’s Bar, Mad River Coffee Roasters, Mad Science of N. MA & S. NH, McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, Mount Washington Observatory, Saenger Consulting, Inc., Snowy Owl Inn, Squam Lakes Natural Science Center, The Waterville Company, Toad Hall Toys, Town Square Condos, Town of Waterville Valley, The Valley Inn, University of New Hampshire Department of Earth, Oceans and Space, Wal-Mart of Plymouth, Waterville Valley Conference Center, Waterville Valley Department of Public Safety, Waterville Valley Golf Course, Waterville Valley Recreation Department, Waterville Valley Resort Association, and Willey’s Wildlife Photography.

Thank you to all who helped to make this weekend great! Mark your calendars for next year’s Curious George Cottage Family Festival on August 10-11, 2013 and until then – STAY CURIOUS!

See more photos on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/reycenter

Cool Hawks and Big Rocks

The Rey Center's last Friday Family Hike was hoppin'!  Seriously, there were frogs and toads everywhere.  At first they were cool and exciting and we stopped to take pictures . . . 

. . . but after the first couple dozen they just became part of the scenery.

Anyway, Leigh Ann and I led a small group up to Goodrich Rock, where we ate our lunches and watched four hawks circling the valley below us, though these proved surprisingly difficult to photograph.  Goodrich Rock is located about 2 miles from the Livermore Road trailhead and finishes with a wooden ladder that brings hikers to the top of a giant boulder that rises above the surrounding trees and offers dramatic views of Waterville Valley and all the surrounding mountains.

The first 1.2 miles is flat and largely runs parallel to a large stream, and then veers off up the side of a mountain until you emerge in a forest full of giant boulders.

These Glacial Erratics are giant stones pushed south by glaciers that got deposited over whatever they were above as the last Ice Age ended.  The trail winds under, around, and, at one point, through these colossal rocks until the final epic overlook.

After a long hike up and back, the group stopped and cooled our feet in the stream and, by this point, thoroughly enjoyed the ice cold water.

If you're interested in joining us on a future Friday Family Hike, check with the Rey Center schedule for specifics for that week, but they typically leave from the Curious George Cottage at 10AM.

Learning about Ledges

If you're looking to escape the heat this weekend by hiking in the White Mountains, I would recommend the Welch-Dickey Trail in Thornton, NH, where you'll probably meet one of the Rey Center's Welch Ledge Stewards.  Halfway up Welch Mountain is a unique example of high alpine vegetation found 2-3,000 ft lower in elevation than usual because of the exposed rock and harsh local climate, and our Stewards are there to educate visitors about the habitat and how to appreciate it without damaging these very fragile ecosystems.

In addition to the Stewardship program, the Rey Center is also organizing a census of each habitat island and measuring species composition and dominance, and our second field day was this Wednesday.  Look, that's me doing science!

Also on hand was Kim from the Rey Center and our high school assistant Haley, who learned more than she ever thought there was to know about lichen (for example, that they're a symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae).  Each plot was measured and divided into approximately equal parts, and in each part we conducted a species inventory and estimated each species' relative dominance.  If we do this for an extended period of time, we will hopefully be able to get a better understanding of how these communities are changing over time and what effect human intervention is having.

If you have more specific questions about what our research is showing, come track me down tomorrow between 9:30 and 2:30, I'll be hanging out about 1.3 miles from the trailhead looking for people to talk to.  If you want more information about the Stewardship program or when our next Citizen Science hike is going to be, check out the Rey Center's schedule of events.  Hope to see you up there!

Happy Friday Rey Blog readers!

Greg here to keep you up to date on where we've been and what we've been up to this week.  This post will be about our Tuesday research hike on Mt Starr King in Jefferson, NH, and I'll be writing a few more posts about other trips into the field over the next day or two.

On Tuesday July 31st, Kim from the Rey Center and I met up with Plymouth State University Professor Michele Pruyn, undergrad researcher Leighton, and high school volunteer Haley to hike Mt Starr King and collect information about almost 30 trees spread out along the trail to its summit.  Grad students and volunteers have been observing the development of these trees every spring and fall for several years, but we were there this week to get measurements of what they're like at their peak.

 

Each tree was flagged so they were mostly easy to find, except for one spruce that shall remain nameless, and we developed a good rhythm after the first couple of trees.  Haley and I would measure how big each trunk was, use a inclinometer to measure its height, and estimate its canopy density while Professor Pruyn and Leighton measured the canopy area and gave the tree a health assessment.  To the untrained eye it might have looked like a bunch of people yelling random numbers at Kim with the clipboard, but trust me, there was a system.  We had to call off our hike four trees short of the summit, possibly because it was getting late, and possibly because we got a bit distracted by the other interesting plants along the way, including these flowering Indian Pipes, a very strange non-photosynthetic plant:  

Even though we came up just short of the summit, we all finished the day tired but proud that we had contributed our part to what will hopefully turn into a very long term monitoring program.

And lastly, because people have been bugging me about this, the picture of the Rey Center in our banana costumes in the 4th of July parade:

Education Program News

This summer has been filled with exciting educational programs. Check out the pictures below to see what we have been up to!

Can you guess the theme for this Friday Family Hike based on the picture above? If you guessed TREES you are correct. We stopped along the trail and played fun activities that taught participants a little more about trees.  This photo was taken after we imagined what it might be like to go from a tiny seed to a HUGE tree like this. We discussed all of the things that trees provide to humans…clean air, toilet paper, building materials, nail polish…etc. There are many reasons we should be grateful for trees. So, have you hugged a tree today to say THANKS? Well, what are you waiting for?

The photos above and below were taken during our weekly Nature Treks program at the REC department. These are the monuments that the kids created during a game in which they were competing to build the first monument on the moon. The rules were similar to capture the flag with the added challenge of taking building materials from the opposing team and creating a monument. Everyone had a blast!

We look forward to seeing you at one of our programs!

A Rockin' Good Time Was Had by All!

On Saturday, July 14, nineteen happy contestants joined us on the shore of Corcoran Pond for our 2nd Annual Rey Center Rock Skipping Contest! Plinkers, pittypats, plonks and gerplunkers abounded as each contestant stepped up to the edge of the pond to show off their skipping skills with their chukker. The best skip of the day occurred during the skip-off for third place in the Hopper division (ages 7-13) when Owen Sheehan came up with 8 skips! The winners in each division are pictured below.

Many thanks to our fantastic judges: Nichole Foster, Ray Kucharski and Dotti Larsson! The day would not have been possible without them. Huge thanks also goes to Jeremy "Rock-it" Phillips for emceeing the contest and to Jordann Landa for volunteering to be our scorecard runner!

Participants warming-up before the contest by cooling off in the Pond while our judges (with yellow hats) discuss their criteria and tactics for the day!

A few nice plinkers!