A springtime bucket list your whole family will enjoy. What’s stopping you and your family from getting outside and enjoying some much needed sunshine and warmer temperatures? Take time over the next couple of months to go though this bucket list and get back to the roots of enjoying all that Michigan nature has to offer.
Create an indoor herb garden.
If it is still a bit cold outside, take some planters—or make your own—and let your kids help plant thyme, cilantro, oregano, rosemary, and other herbs and watch them grow!
Make homemade compost.
This outdoor project requires three basic ingredients: browns (dead leaves, branches, twigs), greens (grass clippings, vegetable waste, fruit scraps, coffee grounds), and water. Mix them all together and you get a natural pile of fertilizer to use during your spring gardening. Great information here.
Buy a My Spy Birdhouse.
The birds are starting to return and eggs will soon be laid. What better way to watch this cycle of life than with a birdhouse you can attach to your window, allowing you a view into the nest? Find more information here.
Go bird watching.
Grab a bird book or make a scavenger list of birds to find, and discover how many birds Michigan really has. If you want an up-close bird encounter, where you can feed many birds and view many more, visit the W.K. Kellogg Bird Sanctuary, located near Gull Lake between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek.
Plan a hiking trip.
After being stuck inside all winter (especially this past winter), warmer air, bright sunshine, and budding flowers and leaves are all you and your family need to warm up. West Michigan has countless paths you can meander. Some of the most notable include Fred Meijer White Pine Trail State Park, Saugatuck Dunes State Park, Muskegon State Park, Kitchel-Lindquist Dunes Preserve, P.J. Hoffmaster State Park, Grand Haven Biking Paths, DeGraaf Nature Center, Duck Lake, and Blandford Nature Center. For a list of possibilitis, visit this website.
Go on a geocaching adventure.
While on your hiking trails, take part in a little scavenger hunt with geocaching. Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor, treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. You’ll navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location. All you have to do is register (it’s free), select a geocache from the list, enter the coordinates, find the hidden geocache, sign the logbook, and return the geocache to its original hiding place. If you take something from the geocache, you must leave something of equal or greater value. Visit http://www.geocaching.com/ for more information.
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