Happy Dancing Blog

We need to ensure that our lakes are clean and healthy. But how can we tell? One way to tell is to look at the bugs in the water!

The best treatment for poison ivy is proactive care. If you know you've been exposed, immediately clean the area with warm water and soap. But sometimes you need more.

Fall is in the air, leaves have changed colors, days are shorter, and temperatures are dropping. All these environmental cues are a signal to birds (and even some humans!) to start preparing to head south. Despite the misconception that birds don’t like the cold, many birds can survive freezing temperatures, so it’s not necessarily the cold that drives them away. It’s our waning resources.

For eight weeks, from late April to mid-June 2023, Happy Dancing Turtle was fortunate to host the We Are Water MN exhibit on the Hunt Utilities Group Resilient Living Campus. The experience of having a museum-quality exhibit on campus plus the events, collaborations, and conversations that arose during that time continues to inform Happy Dancing Turtle’s work to grow good stewards of the planet.

Like most of us, we were very excited to return to a “normal” summer this year. While we craved the routines and activities of the past, we also recognized the need for caution and to ensure the health and safety of our staff and program participants. So, we were back to “normal”, with a few small changes.

2018 was designated the Year of the Bird by the National Audubon Society, so Birds of a Feather seemed like a natural theme for this year’s Eco Camp. With August now upon us, we have just one camp left. Our first three camps were a huge success and so much fun was had by all! There are favorite activities that we do every year with each group.

The vendor fair is great place to catch up with old friends. Photo by HDT Staff. There were over 260 early registrations, with many more walk-ins. It was a really busy day! Photo by HDT Staff. Boondock Enterprises had a workshop on jelly making and joined the vendor fair for the first time this year. Photo by HDT Staff. Some of the samples were hits. Photo by HDT Staff. Dave enjoyed the horseradish jelly. Photo by HDT Staff. Phil Hunsicker and Mike Duvall of the MN DNR entert

Looking back at a summer of eco camp.

Three of our four 2017 Freshwater Friends Eco Camps are in the books. Our campers have ventured on field trips, eaten straight from the garden, and learned a bit about our environment.