2013 Potomac Watershed Cleanup, Alice Ferguson

One day each year my family and I walk across the street to a National Park and help pick up trash.  We've been doing it since our sons were toddlers.  It's become a tradition everyone in the household looks forward to.  We are lucky enough to live near the C&O Canal and the Potomac River and as we pick up trash we are teaching our sons about stewardship and an appreciation for nature.

This year we got to know the river very well as I lost my phone during the cleanup.  I spent most of the day retracing my steps until the third (or was it fourth time) I fished it out of leaf covered water by the shore.  I thought that at least finding it in the water would save me from needing to buy a replacement case for the new phone I would be buying later that night until I realized that the phone had turned on.  It had been lost for six hours and was submerged in about a two feet of still water and debris on the side of the shore.  I don't know how I was so lucky to not only find it, but to also find that it still worked, make phone calls and even connect to the Internet.  I was afraid I wouldn't find it until next year's clean-sweep!

Here are some of my photos from the 2013 Alice Ferguson Potomac River Watershed Cleanup.

Point of Rocks Group

Fueling Up

Empty bags at the start.  I think some of the bags were even leftovers from past years.
Talk about conservation.

Fishing….for a CD.
  Wonder if it still plays and if the library in which it was borrowed from will waive the late fee.

We found a lot of golf balls.

One of the most unusual items was a ski that I found.

Send the kid into the chained off area for some trash.

My son (in red) is taking lots of grief from the hooligan in the jean jacket.
He wants my son's golf balls and won't just sit back and enjoy the found rubber duckie.

Start 'em young!

Cleanup Crew

My husband with a "Relax" Beer huggie that he found.

Valentine's Cards

The past three years I have become more creative with the boy's Valentine's Day cards to give to their classmates.  It always involves a photo of them and some little surprise or twist.  This year they didn't like any ideas that I presented except for these.  My eldest insisted that candy was part of the card.  Next year I told them I'm giving everyone toothbrushes!  

The templates came from the Florabella Collection and I moved the wording around so it would fit on a postcard sized card.  On the back of the cards I scanned in two different Tic Tac Toe boards created by the boys (I helped with one).  They made up age appropriate math problems for the kids to solve when they played the game.  The Good -N- Plenty candy was used to play the game.  Tic Tacs would also be appropriate to use.

I happened to sub in my oldest son's class on the day of the party and the game came in handy after a few students finished their Valentine's papers.  And yes, my son was told he that he had a very "creative card" from one of the girls in his class!

Part 3, Entertainment Cabinet

I took over the majority of the painting, but Liam and Luke lent a hand in the beginning.  Oszkar was working hard overseeing the painting portion.

Oszkar, Painting Overseer

Luke & Liam

We finally got to the stage in which we could buy the TV, install it and start filling the cabinets.  I suggested he build a little shelf to fit the cable box and blue-ray player under the TV which will be easy to remove if components change. Ryan installed lights in the upper cabinets.  There are still wires that need to be hidden but the sawdust is off the floor at least.  Door will be ordered shortly which include four glass paneled on the top and four regular doors on the bottom to hide the clutter of cookbooks, games, DVDs and scrap books.
I shrunk the curtains I had made about 10 years ago-opps!  So now I need to figure out if I want to add a different colored panel to the bottom or just get new curtains.

Nearly finished

Part 1
Part 2