I don’t know about where you live, but here at MCFC headquarters we have been getting buried with snow, ice and freezing rain this winter. Normally, we keep pretty busy in winter with snowball fights, making snowmen, sledding and ending our day with a hot cup of cocoa. But the first major storm of this winter was a major ice storm which knocked out our power (and water) for 13 days! Then, we got buried by a number of giant storms that dumped a foot or more of snow, and added to all that we had a week of arctic weather with temperatures reaching -20 degrees!

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

You probably only think of pumpkins at Halloween when you’re carving them into jack-o-lanterns, but they’re actually pretty amazing plants worthy of year-round admiration. Here are some pumpkin facts you might not have known about.

A single vine can grow as long as 30 feet. At its peak, the vine can grow as much as 6 inches a day!

I brought some empty notebooks, pens, pencils, crayons, and tape on our camping trip so everybody could make their own nature journal. I think it's the best way to remember and store all of the cool stuff you see when out in nature. Here, I'll show you how you can make one too!

Get a notebook that is a style and size that you are comfortable with. It can either be blank or lined, but spiral bound notebooks are the best type for this kind of journal.

One of my favorite things about camping is meeting new trees. All of the trees on our farm are my dear friends. We know everything about each other. But, in a new forest I see a whole bunch of new friends I can talk with.

Wait…why are you looking at me like that? Haven't you ever talked to a tree?

Camping is one of my all-time favorite vacations. It's not because of the marshmallows, or the rock skipping or tent sleeping. It's because of the sweet, delicious, juicy bugs! If you go camping in a nice wooded area you won’t believe the variety of bugs you can find right around your site! Hundreds and hundreds! I know you might feel a little differently than I do about bugs, but if you're camping bugs are one thing you can't avoid. I thought I would walk around the campsite and tell you about the different bugs that I see.

I guess I've been volunteered to tell the first campfire story of the trip. I know some people like to hear scary tales around the campfire, but I prefer telling inspiring ones.

You probably think it sounds fun to go camping for a few days with nothing but a tent and some snacks to get you through. But what if you went camping for over two years, and instead of you're tent being on the ground it was way up in the air on the highest branches of a very tall tree? Well, one girl did just that, but it wasn’t just for fun. She was trying to save the forest, and this is her true story.