The Red Cabbage Juice Science Experiment

 We have gotten behind on doing our science experiments, as Desert Boy has repeatedly reminded me. So we finally made time this week to do the red cabbage juice experiment. I had bought red cabbage months ago, and we ate half of it. The other half has been sitting in the refrigerator for months. Fortunately red cabbage keeps really well.

The Red Cabbage Juice Indicator Experiment
Red cabbage juice contains flavin (anthocyanin), which is an indicator of pH. If something acidic (low pH) is put in the red cabbage juice, it turns pink. Something basic (high pH) makes it turn greenish. Something neutral (around pH 7) leaves it purple. (pH is measured on a scale of 1 to 14).

Step 1: Boil a small pot of water (about 2-3 cups) and put cut red cabbage in the water. Boil for 10 minutes. Then strain and keep the juice.

Step 2: Get four test tubes (or glasses or jars). Find some common household ingredients. We chose vinegar, lemon juice. washing soda and baking soda.

Step 3: Have the kids make a hypothesis of which items are basic and which are acidic. Remind them of what color acids and bases will make the cabbage juice turn.

Step 4: By this time the cabbage juice should have cooled enough that you can pour it into your test tubes. Don't fill them too high.

Step 6: Add a little of your first ingredient to the cabbage juice. We found a funnel to try to minimize the mess.

Step 7: Watch what happens. If the color doesn't change, add a little more. You might need to stir. You also might need to lift a little water to see what tint it is.

Step 8. Repeat steps 6-7 with all your ingredients, seeing if your hypotheses are correct.

 The kids were really good at taking turns pouring in our test liquids and powders. They were very excited because it felt like real science to them. (Test tubes are pretty awesome that way!)

 We ended up with vinegar and lemon juice turning our cabbage juice pink and washing soda and baking soda making the water greenish.

It was so much fun, and we had enough cabbage juice left over, that we decided to do our experiment again with different ingredients.

 This time around we used apple juice, milk, salt, and cream of tartar. Any guesses on what pH these have?

This was a fun, simple experiment. And since we didn't knock it over, the clean-up time was minimal.

Escaping the Heat

 We've had a long stretch of hot, which leaves three natural options to escape it: go to water, go underground, or go up high. We decided to rise above the heat this last weekend and drove up to 10,000 feet. When we left the house it was 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Two miles above sea level it was a very comfortable 75 degrees.

Our basic plan was to meet some friends from a nearby town (nearby being relative in our remote part of the high desert) and camp out together. Lots of other people had the same idea of escaping the heat; we arrived at the campground at 2 and by 2:15 it was full. Whew, just in time!


Despite the temperatures, what Desert Boy wanted to do most was make a campfire with his flint. We both tried for a long time but eventually had to use a lighter.

 Then the fun was to make a torch and watch the smoke.

 Desert Girl managed to get filthy. Imagine that.

Our friends arrived and the girls played dress up. It was pretty funny.


After dinner we went to the campfire program.


The kids were all excited, but alas only Desert Boy lasted the whole presentation.


He even volunteered to be a helper. I enjoyed the campfire program, it's fun to see a topic be explored in a creative way.

Afterwards we meandered back to the campsite. When we got there it was clear to me that the kids needed to go to bed. We all slept well. I woke up really early and wandered around taking some photos.

 Then I went back to sleep until the kids woke me up. I told them to get up, be quiet, and feed themselves. Instead they wandered over to our friends. At least they managed the get up and be quiet near mom part. I guess I've trained them well!

Desert Girl decided to be a fashionista. I so loved it that it was cool enough for a winter coat (in the 50s)! I knew we were heading back down the mountain later in the day, but I was really wishing we could stay a lot longer.

 We were back to trying to start a fire with a flint and magnesium shavings, and although three of us adults tried it and got some good sparks, we couldn't keep a fire going. I've watched a YouTube video about how to do it, but I guess I need to watch some more!

 In the meantime, Desert Girl played with the baby.

 Then it was time for THE HIKE. The kids were ready, the adults were ready (with patience), and off we went. The first stop was the bridge, where Desert Girl spotted fish. Or maybe not, since fish don't live there. But we went along with the fish idea.

 We had to stop for a Bandaid moment. Dr. Desert Girl helped her friend. It was a charming moment.

 We had plenty of logs to balance on. And a good-humored Dad who didn't mind wearing his daughter's pink hat.

 We eventually had to limit the girls to how many logs they could walk on.

We arrived at the paltry Teresa Lake. Desert Boy called it a pond, which is about right. Nevertheless, it was water, and water means fun!

We promptly rolled up pants legs and went wading. Our friends were geniuses and brought water guns, which made the kids very happy.

Eventually Desert Boy fell in. Then Desert Girl did, too. My kids are somehow good at that.

We decided we didn't want to to the whole sub-alpine lakes loop, but we did want a little shade, so we went to the other end of Teresa Lake.

The Parry's primrose was blooming and beautiful.

I challenged Desert Boy to make a shelter with his emergency poncho. That kept him busy for awhile.

The girls liked it too. We had our picnic lunch, except Desert Girl wasn't eating or drinking well. So I told her to go have a tea party.

That worked well. The girls found a quiet place where they could talk and drink their "tea" and "cookies."

Eventually we decided it was time to head back.

But instead of rushing we dawdled, especially at the bridge, where Desert Boy did his Bear Gryll's impersonations and started jumping off the bridge and pretending he was on a huge adventure while I filmed him. It's so wonderful how their minds grow in the great outdoors. It's also so wonderful to put your feet in a cold mountain stream on a hot summer day. I look forward to heading back up high in the near future!

A Sunday Picnic

We wanted to get out of the house on the weekend, so we decided for a little picnic. Once we found our spot, we settled in. And Desert Girl made faces. She's good at those.

Desert Boy was quite contented with carving sticks with his pocket knife. He's managed to nick his fingers a few times, but overall he's been doing well with the knife.

One of the fun parts of picnics is eating foods we don't normally eat. The kids love Go-Go Squeezs, but I cringe at all the extra packaging that is thrown away. Fortunately, some enterprising companies have made refillable squeeze containers, and on Ebay I was able to get ten new ones for about $15.

After we ate, it was time for a nap. At least that's what we parents thought!

 The kids had some other ideas in mind. Eventually we told them to go climb the trees. Or something like that. Whatever we said, the next thing we knew, they were actually in the trees.

 Up, up and away!

 Desert Boy figured out how to slide down the smooth white aspen bark. It was a rather fun diversion and he did it several times.

Of course if her big brother does it, Desert Girl has to give it a try! (Even if she is wearing sparkly red dancing shoes.)

Sometimes I wonder if the picnics and hikes are worth all the effort. It's a lot of work to pack up and then clean up afterwards. But when we're in the great outdoors, something memorable usually happens, like the tree climbing on this trip. I think that makes it worth it, even if I have to go home and take a nap afterwards!

An Evening of Simple Adventures

 The other evening my husband had a meeting, so I decided that after dinner the kids and I would go for an adventure walk. The kids love adventure walks, especially when they get to choose where we go. Of course they headed to the water. It was too cold to swim, but we could try to cross the first ditch. Desert Girl, in her sparkly red shoes, decided to do it all by herself. She mostly succeeded.

 On the other side we found our next adventure, a log for balancing. It's so nice that simple things give so much pleasure!

 Next it was Desert Boy's happy moment: jumping across the creek (with an airplane magazine in hand). He backed up, took a deep breath, ran, and launched. He made it!

 We wandered under an ash tree and I couldn't help but notice that the leaves were just starting to unfold.

 They made for an interesting contrast of the newer, denser, greener leaves and the slightly older, less green background. Making this little discovery made me relax and enjoy the evening even more. I find that I am always on the quest to learn something new, and even if it's something as small as learning how ash tree leaves unfold, it makes me feel fulfilled.

 Speaking of trees, Desert Boy found one he could climb.

 And of course if Desert Boy did it, Desert Girl had to also. They played on the tree for a long time. The sun had dipped far below the mountains and it was time to head home.

 But first we had to throw in a few more leaps across another ditch, including one that didn't go quite as planned. But alas, only one leg was wet, so all was fine.

I'm hoping for lots more adventure walks (and jumps!) this summer.

What kind of simple adventures do you like to have?

Desert Destination: Death Valley--Golden Canyon & Salt Creek

 Our Death Valley adventure continued after Badwater with a jaunt to Golden Canyon. This is one of the easiest canyons to hike, so I thought it would be perfect for the kids. But it turned out I had a rather whiny kid who did not want to hike, no matter what. I tried to distract him by pointing out the pavement--a road used to go up Golden Canyon, but a flash flood in 1976 that dumped over two inches of rain undermined the road and washed most of it out. That distraction lasted all of about 2.3 seconds.

 I noticed some people duck into a side canyon ahead of us, and we took their cue. It was really cool, and Desert Girl and I had so much fun going up the narrow passage. Mr. Whiny? He hung out near the entrance, pouting.

 Next we found a little cave under some boulders, which I checked out to look for snakes--it would be a perfect place for them to escape the heat. When I didn't see any, I let the kids go in. Desert Girl was up for the challenge, but not Desert Boy.

 Finally I found something that really distracted him--a climbing wall. Here the sedimentary layers have been steeply tilted, making for some fun, but crumbly scrambling.

That distraction changed Desert Boy's attitude. He was now ready to have some fun, so we played the shadow game, trying to stay in the shade of the canyon. If we ran out of shade, we would try to get to the next bit of shade in ten seconds or we would melt. It was a good game and got us up to a part of the canyon that was rather straight and wide and didn't look so interesting. We decided this would be a good place to turn around. But first--one more side trip into a side canyon.

 The canyon was narrow enough we could touch both walls at the same time.

 It had some fun climbing obstacles (and the dry waterfall in the photo above wasn't quite as steep as the photo makes it look!).

 Finally we got to a place where it was a little too tough for us to continue. (Plus we had run out of bandaids.) So we took some photos and headed back down, enjoying a game of hide 'n seek along the way. My advice for Golden Canyon? It's one of the most popular hikes in Death Valley because it's so easy to get to and not too difficult. If you want to get away from the crowds, just slip into one of the many side canyons--they are fun and you don't know what you will find!

By the time we finished, it was time for lunch and swimming. I was lucky in that some teenage girls who had been lounging around the pool for a week were ready for a distraction and played with the kids for a long time. They even taught Desert Boy how to dive. It was great, and I appreciated some relaxation time.

 In the late afternoon we went to Salt Creek to look at the pupfish. Spring is mating time, and we saw thousands of pupfish in the creek. The kids thought it was really cool.

 Desert Boy shows with his fingers how big the fish are.

 A blurry, colorful pupfish. It is so amazing that this fish can survive in such a harsh locale. In fact, thinking about the huge lake, Lake Manly, that used to fill Death Valley and that had many fish species in it, kind of blows my mind.

Salt Creek was an excellent late afternoon stop. Then it was back to our campsite for some more relaxing. We went to bed early, as we wanted to get up early the next morning to pack up and see the sand dunes on our way across Death Valley.