January's YETI badge (and others!)

Congrats to last month's badge earners: Brockhall and Saint Nick!  They both completed 6 Holiday Hacker challenges.  Nice work!

January's YETI badge should have meant lots of snow play but there was just no snow this year!  Our snowshoeing adventure was cancelled due to rain.  Our club meeting resulted in completing only TWO Yeti challenges and continuing a couple other badges.

YETI badge
> making fire starters
> making snow goggles

CLUB MEMBER badge
> make a flag
(we attempted to start this flag in September and have never had time to work on!  It's always good to catch up on our DIY to-do list!) 

PAPERCRAFTER badge
> build a paper vehicle

We learned a little about the invention of snow goggles (which were created by the Inuit) and then we made our own out of felt!  I didn't get any photos of the kids wearing them but check out Maybelline's here: https://diy.org/maybelline/699209

Surrey DIY-ers, Kyler, Josh, and Matty, cutting felt for their snow goggles

Our fire starters were made of Vaseline and cotton balls.  Simple but very helpful when starting a fire!  They WERE a mess to make though!  I encouraged the students to add these to the "winter survival kit" that would meet one of the Yeti challenges!

We are learning that it's important to fully read the description of the challenges to ensure we have what they are asking for.  The flag must be made out of material.  We used fabric markers on our flag - one hexagon per member!

Check out the (mostly) finished products here: Jorja's picture of the Surrey DIY flag: https://diy.org/ravenbeuty/699273 and Abby DIY's flag: ...?  Didn't anyone post it?!

Then, the final challenge was making a paper vehicle!  We used the "how to" on the DIY paper vehicle page and used balloons to make it go.  SO cool!  Some of our DIY-ers got really creative with this portion of today's challenge!

Check out Josh's  (swimrobo) double balloon car and Jorja's (ravenbeuty) triple balloon car:

So that's THREE badges that everyone can aim to earn (the physical badge from me!) by completing 6 challenges in each area!  Good luck, DIY-ers!

December's HOLIDAY HACKER badge

Christmas is just around the corner so it seemed fitting to attempt the HOLIDAY HACKER badge this month!  Unfortunately, the Surrey DIY class was cancelled because of a power outage which was very disappointing.  :(

We completed THREE holiday hacker challenges in the Abbotsford DIY class:

> we made holiday cards

> we made wreaths

And we made holiday gifts!  A pork rub spice.  Find the recipe HERE.

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!  See you in the new year!

November's ORINTHOLOGIST badge!

November marked the first month that we brought our TLA Surrey DIY and TLA Abby DIY groups together for one event!  And thanks to Skywalker2002 for feeding the class and earning another notch in his Club member badge!

We completed THREE orinthologist challenges in our club meeting this month:
.  > we talked to an expert: Gail DeCoffe - "the owl lady"
  >  we drew and labeled the parts of a bird (owls)
  > we dissected owl pellets (and this can kick start your Zoologist badge if you upload it there as well!)

Listening to our expert speak was fantastic!  She gave a slide presentation, quizzed students on their knowledge of types of owls, and then introduced us to TWO live owls in class!

Everyone even got to pet the friendlier owl - MUCH softer than expected!

And listen to how soft Barney the Third's wings are when they flap:

 After Ms. DeCoffe was finished presenting, we dissected owl pellets FROM the very owls we'd met that day!  All kinds of bones were found.  Some students enjoyed this better than others!  ;)

Every DIY-er was sent home with a bird feeder making kit since we weren't going to have time to complete it in class.  Since that class, a few have made their feeders!  Kudos to the TLADIY-ers who have made their bird feeders and posted to DIY.org!  

Saint Nick - also completed 2 additional Orinthologist challenges and will be getting his expert badge at the next club meeting!

Brockhall - also completed 2 additional Orinthologist challenges and will be getting his expert badge at the next club meeting!

Sept 27th's EPIC ADVENTURE!

On Saturday, Sept. 27, a number of TLA DIY members and their families gathered at the trailhead to hike to Lindeman Lake.  We had hikers from 1 yrs (in a backpack) to adults!  The terrain was steep and rocky in places but everyone managed to get to Lindeman with no injuries!  (Camper challenge #1: Travel a trail) 

 Once we arrived, Tim, Mrs. Shulba's husband, showed us his water purifier and discussed how it worked and why you would want to purify your water before drinking.  Everyone got a chance to pump their own water and we refilled our water bottles! (Camper challenge #2: Purify water)

 A TLA DIY Abbotsford mom, Marcy, brought her water purification drops and we tested those out as well.  As it turned out, they worked well without much aftertaste!  For $5, they're a good method to use!

Everyone got to work on a stick fort (Camper challenge #3: Build a shelter) - even the dads got involved!  Because campers at Lindeman likely use the brush and sticks to make campfires, there were very few sticks for our stick fort.  We brought a tarp which helped but I never got a photo of the finished product!  Who's posted it on DIY?

Lastly, we worked on making a fire using flint.  Tim, Marcy, and another DIY dad, Scott, had brought flint so everyone had a chance to try it out.  Because there are no fires allowed at Lindeman Lake, they just worked on getting a little flame started.  It was harder than it looked!  (Camper challenge #4: Learn survival skills)

 But they got a flame going!  

Many a cool sight was seen on our epic hike to Lindeman and it was great to get out in nature on a beautiful Saturday!

Welcome to the #TLADIY club!

We kicked off a great first club meeting this week!  The first meeting was spent troubleshooting HOW to upload our photos and video to www.DIY.org and ensure that they were under the correct skill but by the end of class, I think everyone had the hang of it!

Because there is lots of video making in DIY, I enlisted an expert to come and talk to us about making great videos.  Sherman Hu, of www.shermanlive.com , gave us an acronym to keep the tips straight in our minds when filming:

C - Camera: make sure it's still and use the rule of thirds - if you look at your screen as being broken into 3 equal parts, shoot your subject in either the left third or right third of the screen!

L - Light: make sure there's enough light AND instead of having a light straight on your face, keep the light at 10 o'clock or 2 o'clock

A - Audio: make sure it's quiet in the space that you're filming and that you speak loud and clear.  A video with poor audio will not be watched.

P - Plan what you're going to say and watch your Posture!  Your posture conveys a loud message to your audience.

Sherman showing the screen at TLADIY Abbotsford

Sherman using a volunteer to teach C.L.A.P at TLADIY Surrey.

I'm looking forward to seeing your videos on DIY.org!