Hodge Podge Lodge; Acorn Fun

Why don't you want. Oh yeah and not on the way. No. Oh. That was just part of my collection.

I'll show you some more of a little later. Do you ever have a day when you can't think of anything interesting to do. Well I thought it might be fun. I'll think up some ideas that you can do with just odds and ends around the house and acorns or something. That's a lot of people have lying around the house you go on a nature walk and pick up a pocket and bring them home and lay them on the shelf and don't get around to doing anything with them for a while. So we're going to find out some interesting things to do with acorns. But first I have a little dish on the table with some parts of plants growing in it. Have you figured out what those are. Garden let's say there I'll take one look at it and see if you know about you Joe. That's pretty tricky. And I would guess what that one is not about here this one has another has a hit on it I

don't it has to be something that was growing. Yeah I thought maybe that purple. Do you know of all that's purple grows in the ground. Yeah it's purple and white and if you like them you really are very fond of them if you don't like them then you really don't. You really don't like them you either like or you don't like them. Most people are not halfway between. I like to eat them raw and sometimes I grate them up and mix them with Manet's and raisins have a nice slaw I like them better roll than cook. Oh I turn that all right. That's what this one is and this is an idea for you to do is something that might just get thrown away and you can make it last a little while longer and get something good to eat or throw in your salad because you can eat the leaves of turnips.

And there's just enough food left in the top those turnip top to make this many new leaves grow. Take a little piece and paste a chip. Joe it's just a little a little. A little peppery but not to really go. So that's one way to get some tart up tops to freshen up your salad now this other vegetable tonic is not purple and I don't know whether you were ever have this at your house if you were her parsnips. Now really great vegetable they look they're shaped like carrots. They're about that long and they grow down the ground but they're yellowish they're not orange and if you if you're having parched up for supper just get your mother to save that little piece she slices off the top and put it in a little shallow dish like this with water and keep an eye on it and in a few days you'll have lots of little greens. I don't know how parchment tops taste.

I'll try one. I got want them myself a little strong but turn up tops are really good and you know some other vegetables you can try that try this trick with. Right. If you don't cut the tops off but as you got the you just take an eye out of it or just a whole potato you can put a dish of water and watch it grow in the sweet potato. But you can do carrot tops that way and radish tops and beet tops. Any vegetable that has a long root in the ground that you use just slice off the top a little bit to provide food and it'll grow and give you something interesting to watch in your spare time. So that's one idea. If you have anything like that in your refrigerator now what do you think this is. Looks like a Wal-Mart right.

And that's one way you can get ideas from nature even if you don't use the real nature of things like I use the turnip top on the parchment tops. Here to grow one of my friends likes to do ceramics and she got the idea of making a big walnut and its addition and keep things in. And I've got it I got it a long time ago from a little boy that I used to teach in kindergarten and everyone says it can't be heaven. Kevin's grandmother helped him make it in her Calum that was a long time ago. Yes and I like it even though I dropped it and broke it. I do like together. It's really nice to keep all kinds of treasures and a great big wallet with a little teeny sitting up. So if you like to make things out of clay and you don't know quite what to make you can look around and

get some ideas from some nature of things you have around the house and you might not be able to make a dish but you can make a solid wall of noise floor on top of it. Well would you like to go over to the discovery table and see some other ideas for ways to have fun on days when you might be looking for something to do. OK sure you want to come through. Do you ever have a carry on with your house. Yes. How about you Joe. This is a very you know literary Messiah garden you know. And it has a lid I took the lid off today so we could see into it. But sometimes when you've had your dreary and. Growing for a long time you look in there and you see some things are doing

fine. Like the ferns you see the ferns are putting out new fronts. But is there a spot for corn. So. You made yourself right at home. See we can get him he's not me not a very big spider. We went right back you know we didn't hear. You. You know and that's when you know let's leave him alone in the show. See when spiders get scared they turn over on their backs and pull their legs in and play dead like a possum. And then and then then they think that their enemies will leave them alone and we probably will but before we put him back in his own home that's a good chance to get a good look at him it was like a little brown bowl doesn't leave. And if you were a bird or something else with a spiders you probably just ignore him. Right. He doesn't doesn't even look alive. Well that was a surprise.

So I forgot to think about that that when you look in your dreary when you haven't looked at it for a long while to see how it's doing you might get a surprise and see something that wasn't there when you made it. Let's see if I can pick him up quietly quickly put him back in his. He's still going to be dead. Aren't you afraid of spiders too. Late. Well. I've got news for you all spiders can bite but only a couple are dangerous I think we've got even that. I can feel the web. Well I was going to say we discovered the spider. Was that when you look in your room and you see that needs a little brightening up. There's one favorite trick I have. And that is to make a little take on a corn cap. You know there's one for you to look at for you. And make another little garden with lichens and ACORN. Yeah like that I always have some lichens around from a field trip. You know what kind These are hard.

What do they look like. Well they're you know they're sort of we're sort of usually find them in some of the same places you find Moss but look at each one of those and. Those that remind you of something you used to go I know your brother used to work at a certain kind of store. And he dipped the stuff up and put it in little shapes like ice cream. Don't they remind you of ice cream cones. But whoever first discovered them thought they looked like little cups of pixies drank you know a little sort of like an elf right. So right Joe you heard about pixies or pixies or like fairies and elves and goblins or little imaginary creatures that are supposed to run around the world it's really tiny and these look like the perfect little cup for a little imaginary creature to drink out of. So they're called Pixie cups Dixie Cup lichens. So I'm going to put a few Pixie cups in the acorn and set it right in here to liven up literary M.

And I have some. Other lichens over here I thought you and Joe might like to put in your regular cup just break off a big enough piece and you break off the stem of that. Now that ACORN Here's a pretty red one for you Joe. These are called British soldiers. Have you heard of those. Because they have red tops on. I wanted to put the plant the lichen in the acorn first then stick it in OK. Also it would be a good idea. Let's it put it in a place right so we look in. There now doesn't that brighten it up a little but adds more interest. And. Sometimes I like to just take a on a core so that one fits and doesn't tell you you know when you're making a tour and you try to make it look like a little woods or a field or a little swamp

where you got the plants and this one is supposed to look like a little woods. You know would you see acorns lying on the ground right. Well I saw East two little boys. A little lizard or something to make it look and I might try to make it as much like the place I found it could have been a lizard or it could have been a salamander That's right that's nice to have no animals in your career and never seeing the world. It does look like a little nest on the job but when you look at it from all sides. What do you think it is. And I was kind of ACORN. Everybody knows about cars but I don't think everybody knows that there are about 300 different kinds of acorns. There's not a lot and I'm not sure how many we have around here but we have quite a few and this one came from not not too far away from hodgepodge logging is called the top ACORN because Feel

around the edges. Feels like Moss especially when it's fresh. It feels like loss. So that's one kind of ACORN I don't know what happened to the ACORN but that's just the cat. And here is another pretty big fat one which is like I came from the red oak tree. And these are the ones I used to help so those are really funny awfully nice and low. We see where all those. And. The only way you'll see one of these around here is if someone has planted one because these really grow in England. But when you find a tree that someone's planted and is doing very well it has lots of acorns on and that's I have some for you to make something out of. So. Let me give you an idea here's a my friend Ace made that for me. Can you guess what it is. I'm a pony

right. Oh he'll be so pleased that you guessed right. But he use corn for English oak ACORN sports legs one for its body. Half of one for its neck. One for its head and then he took a little two little pieces and made. Yours and I will strip. It. And so that's a little acorn course. Yeah and that took a long time. I have another friend who likes to make dolls out of different kinds of things and it's body those dolls body is a peanut but its face. Is a horn dog. So that's another idea to make a face. Now here's my whole supply of English. Decor and.

Oh there's one thing that I thought you might like to do and I thought I would write would you like to put a face on that one Joe. I'll give you a pan and Carne would like to put a face on on that one. Is that something else you can do if you have an acorn that's big enough to fit over your finger. Not big enough is a bigger than your finger. It's a tight squeeze on my finger. And while you're doing that. This might be a good time to tell you about all the acorns are divided into white oak acorns and black oak acorns and if you look inside your ACORN. And see that it's smooth inside and you feel that yours was smooth inside. Joe you know it was good. But I bet you could go one step further even to make you know hat when you get home. I mean we got to you know put on his own hat. We came off the tree.

I was a little big but look what kind of a face if you put on your hat. Oh I have. And he's looked like he's trying to say something you know. So you can make a whole family and have them in all your fingers. But you know inside your ACORN and I'm somewhere around here I have a nice little black. OK. Sure. So you can see that right. OK corn in the black. There's a. There's a bigger piece that you can see. Well I'm looking for that. You're going to get started on the necklace. Oh here's one. One of those dolls that my friend makes. It's just the beginning of it so you can see how she fastens the acorn onto the peanut. That's my friend Daisy Well she lives up that's something you know. Here's some with holes

drilled in the carton. And you might have to see. To be careful sit put the first one on and I'll help you tie knots so it won't fall off. And Joe I thought you might like to try out an acorn collage you know to collage it. Garden good do you know what a collage is. Well it's a little early to take cardboard. Right. Take some cardboard and pictures and bunch them together. Right to make a picture of that after drive through them. Hold it up when you use. To hold the things onto the cardboard right. OK one of my job was just to make a dribble of blue around that's a little time dribbled around where you think you might want to put your stuff and then you can then you don't have to put move region to the door and here are some big acorns from the. English oak. But don't take curtains and have the whole take on

all those dish These are for their current capstone. Anything you think would make a nice nice design. And then I thought Oh. OK you may have a little trouble getting something to stand up waiting for the glue to dry. Oh and here's something else you might want to put in your collage sensor is molding these days. I found all of his feathers lying on the floor and I thought you might want to use them in your own house. Oh boy that's going to be a 3-D picture if you can get that to work. Going to come up in an hour. Why don't you remember that idea Joe and all. Oh it's cool. It's going to work at least for a while. OK. Here are some smart cars these are from the willow. Oh that's in the black oak. And I want to use some of them and you might even want to put on a leaf.

These are the leaves on stone. They're nice and fuzzy underneath who feel that these are the leaves of the English OK. Well maybe it may be a better way to get it home and away and work on that you might be able to profit up better. Did you notice my necklace card. It's not my friend. And open in the abbess sent me from New York. Korn's I'm not sure what kind of a car she used and then use goals from goldenrod. Oh my God. The hardest part is punching the holes I found it in the holes and they call. It. That's going to be a pretty heavy necklace is not. Let's see how much it was. Maybe you might want to have those big ones in the middle and then finish up with

the smaller ones. That's pretty. Those are a different color. No I don't want to. That's a good idea and I think you could do it but you would have it would take a lot of time. So I want to go ahead and put some other acorns and caps on and you can. Work out that idea when you get home and have will have more time to write right. That's fine. And then here are some of the well on they came from Florida. I don't have 300 kinds of oaks. I only have about 4 times today. Oh here's the inside of that red oh how you feel how fuzzy that is me. So remember that acorns on the block have fuzzy. Fuzzy stuff inside their shells and acorns in the White Oak

are smooth inside their shells inside them. They're not. Sure about I think. I think you'd better concentrate on doing things sideways for a while do you have a little more time. You know what kind of people used to eat a lot of acorns. What kind of people used to live all over the United States before going to union DM's right. And they found out that the acorns from the White Oak were of course they didn't have any any English acorns then those English people hadn't brought their own dreams over yet. But the regular white of the swamp white oak so what they knew it was going to get there. Oh that's no problem. Oh wipe your puppets face maybe his eyes will come off and you have to start over again. But you have to have a few precautions or two before you can eat acorns the acorns of the white oak group are are OK to eat when they're fresh but they're better

if you boil them and leach them out. Boil them and roast them and then run them up into flour make bread that's what the Indians found out. And the acorns of the black oak grew like that big fat red one are very bitter and if you eat a lot of them they would make you very very sick. So. I give you good yeah all right. Looks like a birthday like a TAM like artist where it's going to the bottom. Would you like to try a collage. Now for yourself a little. One so I punched the holes you know. Upset the horse. Just look at you. That's a nice job car. I. Was thinking of ways to have fun with acorns. Look what came in the mail. Somebody who designed stationery. Thought up a nice way to

decorate an envelope with acorns on it. That's the letter I got from my friend in England and those look just like Please don't think they look like the Red Oak ACORN. So that's another way to have fun with acorns to use when you're making a picture or a design of some of these little ones. Joe alone will stick better little ones from one side of. The dividing line. Oh yes. You just have to be sure that you drive before you give it to your mother for a present or try to hang it up and wear. It. Don't forget about a horse brothers over here. Did you ever know one of your photos will be made into a hog. What you meant.

To. Write. We will probably study. We sure get plenty of. You know. Well that's that's nice. Thank you. There's anything else that you would like to use. Thank you notes. Can the caps right or even the twigs. And twigs. That's a that's a funny thing about these English ACORN caps they have the wrong stems on most acorns don't have that. Let me. I'm like a Michael. You're right. Those are some. English acorns are the only thorns I know English OK acorns and have a long stem like that.

Oh now Carmen you're getting very clever. You made a little balancing stand for your puppet. Let's put a few of the lake front out there and let her tables didn't write it. I. Did learn when it's me right there that's it. And you live right near a word Joe. You probably could find some the tree. You know. Do you write Who do you see out there in the foam gathering I'm not Indians but let's talk to her. So if you have to that's that's a good thing to remember that if you want to collect acorns you've got to get out there before the swirls are at the same time the squirrels do. If you want to be sure to get my supply. Now the school was drawn before you get well maybe you need a little fresh launching. You know this could be like me can come.

All right looks like a good. Maybe you can find someone like horns and make a little tiny horse to be in your corral base's horse would need a big girl on a somewhat big horn. English OK Corps. English OK. Horns are long and shiny. And I belong to the white. And how I feel inside me they feel smooth. No. The black ones feel that the black oak will feel supposing that an English ones feel. Feel small and also. The White Oak English OK I'm going to have tougher cops. On you lot. Well do you think you've got a few ideas for the next time you feel bored around home. That's good I hope you've gotten a few ideas for the today for things to do the next time you feel bored look around homes you can push some radish tops or carrot

tops reparse laptops out the sink and make a little garden or do something with acorns likes and again. Woo. Woo. Woo.

Woo. Woo. Woo.