Sawnee Mountain Preserve

Meet Sawnee the Indian.  Nobody actually knows what he looks like yet, but the artist commissioned to create this sculpture of him figured he probably looked a lot like Babe Ruth.  Instead of a bat, though, he's holding an axe.  The axe is a symbol, something that represents the tremendous skill he had carving wood all his years.  It was also handy when fighting off all the vampires that were prevalent at that time.

There is a mountain in Forsyth County that was named after him - it's called Sawnee Mountain.  This was generally agreed upon as a good idea, as beforehand, it was actually called "the mountain."  That is not a joke.  One indian would say to another, "Hey, I live over there.  By The Mountain."  And the other Indian would say, "Which mountain?" And at that point, the Indians probably realized that they needed to name The Mountain something else.  Fortunately, this remarkable man was nearby to name it after.

You can recognize Sawnee Mountain easily - it's the one that has all the antenna on top of it.  We'll go ahead and say these are feathers in Sawnee's cap.  Regardless, you can see the mountain from quite a ways off, although it's not as distinctive as Mt. Yonah, of course.  Or tall as Brasstown Bald.

We didn't climb Sawnee Mountain today, but we did visit a park at the foot of the mountain.  It was actually a preserve, the Sawnee Nature Preserve.  This was Madison's field trip today, a place to hike and listen to employees desperately attempt to keep the attention of large groups of kids who had too much sugar for breakfast.

Why, here's one of those groups now!  Madison and the girls were well-behaved, of course, listening and answering questions (you can see Madison answering the question above).  There was hiking to do, and a bit of show-and-tell as well.  Madison is seen here feeling some animal fur - it might be that of a rabbit, or a cottontale.

They went on a hike afterwards, all deep in the woods.  Only they didn't sing that song "Into the Woods" for twenty minutes.  Instead, they went on a hunt!  Now to be clear, they weren't hunting for animals to spot.  Though that hope was initially offered up:  "You might spot some wildlife!"  The truth is, our group was about as stealthy and quiet as a marching band practicing on an active mine field.  So, rather than look for animals, the guides opted for everyone to look for fungus instead.  The thinking here is that fungus can't run away.  This is one of the biggest weaknesses of fungus, actually.  Because if fungus could flee, it would have been scurrying off as fast as possible when it heard the sound of school buses approaching.

That said, we did spot some fungus on the sides of trees.  The other mushrooms must have found a way to dart off into the woods, and to safety.  If you listened carefully, you could hear them singing quietly, "Into the woods…"

Here's an observation deck… I think.  It's a nice little wood structure built in the middle of the forest to let you see the same forest at a slightly higher angle.  But more practically, it served as a nice classroom to talk - or at least attempt to talk - about the life cycle of bugs.  Here's Madison and the girls (these are the ones trying to pay attention), checking out larva, pupa and eggs.

Of course, by the time said objects got to the boys on the other side, they were promptly dropped several times.  By the day's end, I'm sure this quiet-spoken guide was ready to leave the wilderness outdoors, probably in favor of some sort of heavy sedative.

Regardless, Madison learned.  And she had a good time.  And we decided we would come back a little later, when things were a bit more quiet.  The park was a nice one, and it is extremely close.  Perhaps we'll climb Sawnee Mountain.  Or maybe we'll just go for a quiet walk in the woods.

We'll tuck this destination away for now though.  It was a pleasant morning for sure.

As for the rest of the day, it was rather routine.  Yes, there was speech therapy in Alpharetta.  And Madison is doing much better with the letter 'r.'  She was having such a good time in class today, that we could hear her and her teacher all the way from the waiting room!

Afterwards, we checked out a Goodwill in Alpharetta, about three miles from the speech therapy place.  The hope was to wait out the traffic, but in fact, it got worse.  Yikes!

BUT, I did find a gem at Goodwill.  It was a record, an album, Amy Grant's "Unguarded."

We put that record on as soon as we got home.  Sure, we have it on the computer, and on a CD.  But it's just awesome listening to a record sometimes!  Madison, Mommy and Daddy went on a time travel trip to the 80's as we ate dinner, and did our final spelling drill.

Yes, we tested her on her spelling words tonight, and she absolutely nailed words like Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana.  For this reason, we let her stay up a little later:  we watched a few episodes of "Clone Wars," the ones where Count Dooku has to work together with Anakin and Obi Wan in order to escape pirates.  They were all tied together, the Sith Lord and the jedi.  Count Dooku got the best line of the night:  "I would kill you now if I didn't have to drag your bodies."

Strangely enough, I could imagine our park guide this morning thinking this very thing as she spoke to some of those unruly kids!

“Ever since the world was created it has been possible to see the qualities of God that are not seen. I’m talking about his eternal power and about the fact that He is God. Those things can be seen in what He has made.” Romans 1:20 NIrV

EINSTEINIUM

Es 99

     Einsteinium was first identified in 1952 by a team of scientists who were pretty excited about their discovery!  There was actually a bit of a race to discover elements 99 and 100, and the American team found these new elements first. 

     If you discover an element first, two big things happen.  First, everyone will always know your name as the one who first found that element.  Secondly, you get to name it!  The scientists at Berkeley got together about this last bit, and decided to name the element after one of the most intelligent scientists ever to walk the earth:  Albert Einstein.  They would call the element einsteinium.   
     Einstein was definitely known as a thinker, always searching for answers found in the universe.  Once he said that God “reveals Himself in the harmony of all that exists.”

     The more we study science, the more we see just glimpses of the amazing.  Our planet is a tiny pale blue dot hanging 93 million miles from the blistering surface of the sun.  A few degrees off, and we would all either disintegrate, or become a frozen ice planet.

     And let’s talk about the balance of the elements! 
     God arranged for us to have enough nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere that we breathe every day.  It is the exact mix that life needs to prosper.  It doesn’t happen on any other planet that way.

     Another great thinker from the Bible said these great words: “Ever since the world was created it has been possible to see the qualities of God that are not seen. I’m talking about his eternal power and about the fact that He is God.”
     The great thing about science is that as a human race, we are always learning something new, and making new discoveries.  And the more we discover, the more we see the order of the universe, and the more we see that just as Paul said, “He is God.”