Ok, I'll be back from Glacier when you read this, but I am still preposting one more rerun. I'm typing this before I leave, but I know how much recovery time I'll need after spending a week in the tent with two little boys. You know there is an inordinate amount of laundry. I'll be back live in the next post, but this is a good one!

This is the first in a series of posts on macroinvertebrate activities.

Who doesn't like to crouch on the edge of a stream, or stand knee deep in crystal clear water, looking under rocks? First the water rushes by and chills your fingers, then you feel the smooth texture of a well-weathered stone as you pull it from the streambed.

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Debi over at Go Explore Nature posted a summer bucket list--the things she wants to do this summer.

She inspired me to do the same. So, here are the things I'd like to do outdoors this summer.

* Camp with my family and friends in Glacier National Park
* Spend a few days in Yellowstone with a girlfriend
* Introduce my kids to s'mores
* Float the Yellowstone River with the kids
* Attend an outdoor music festival
* Star gaze
* Harvest lots and lots of food from my garden

What's on your summer bucket list?

I guess it is time for me to admit that spring is here. Or at least almost here. I hate to say goodbye to winter, but the time has come.

So now we turn our thoughts from playing in the snow to playing in water.

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First, a happy birthday to my little Finn who turns 1 today! Wow, that year went fast!

Today's post is written by Karyn Ashby, mom to two little ones--a 4-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter. When not hanging out with her kids or writing guest posts, Karyn works as a teleprompter and has had the honor of teleprompting (is that a word?) for Barak Obama.

August is the perfect month for lake swimming. Lake water has been warming up all summer and the hot August weather is ideal for cooling off with a swim. Sand-loving kids can play on the beach while water-lovers can swim to their heart’s content.

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May 1 is one of my favorite holidays--May Day or Beltane. Whatever you call it, it celebrates the beginning of summer, fertility and a time of purification and transition.

May 1 is also International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day. The gist of it is to find a neglected patch of dirt and plant sunflower seeds.

If you aren't familiar with Guerrilla Gardening, it is a movement to reclaim neglected patches of earth with plants. Guerrilla gardeners usually sneak onto the site under the dark of night to do their work, since they don't own the land. Technically, it is illegal, but I'll let you decide if it is something you could get behind.

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This post is part of a series on macroinvertebrates. Scroll down to find the other activities.

Macroinvertebrates can be divided into groups by species, where they live or how they eat. In this activity we use the latter. A little background:

Shredders have specially adapted anatomy, such as pinchers, to tear apart and eat fibrous leaves. Examples of shredders are cranefly larvae, case-building caddisfly larva, stonefly nymphs, scuds, and sowbugs.

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This post is part of a series on macroinvertebrates. Scroll down to find the other activities.

Looking under stones for macroinvertebrates is pretty fun in of itself, but the species you find--and the proportion of each species--says a lot about the quality of the stream or creek you are checking out.

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