Short Stories

RAD GAB Project

LANDSCAPE PROJECT TURNED INTO A TECHNICAL EXERCISE
Skagit Valley Herald staff

BURLINGTON — The RAD GAB (Reading and Discussing Great Amazing Books) students at the Burlington Public Library take pride in reading books then implementing what they’ve learned by doing a community project. Their most recent undertaking Tuesday, April 28, was planting thyme, wild strawberries, tall Oregon grape and other drought-tolerant plants on the triangular city lot at Hazel Avenue and Cascade Highway in Burlington.

Burlington Children’s Librarian Lisa Anderson said the project quickly became a math and environmental exercise as the students — Max Cook, Nathan Dills, Lochlin Elliott, Riley Flynn, Bearett Hicks, Gunner Hurley, Grady Wells and Susanna Williams — designed their own landscape plans.

She said the RAD GAB participants first read two novels — “First Light” by Rebecca Stead and “The Dead and the Gone” by Susan Beth Pfeffer — that focused on environmental issues. After reading and discussing these books, they decided a planting project would best utilize what they had learned, but discovered they still had to do a lot of work to do before they got out the shovels.

The budding landscapers found a location, then had to beef up their knowledge of soil and plants. Anderson said they also learned about science and conservation and how to place the plants to avoid blocking visibility for traffic.

Math and science skills also came into play as each student designed t h e i r o w n l a n d s c a p e plans for the project. One student, Nathan Dills, spent eight hours designing his plan, she said.

Anderson said the students used a standard building scale in which one-quarter inch equals one foot. They practiced reducing fractions to lowest terms and adding fractions to determine the diameter of circle needed to represent each plant they included on the to-scale blueprint.

“I made them figure out the size circle for a 9-inch strawberry plant,” Anderson said.

The finished landscape blueprints were submitted to the city for review and approval. Rob Biggar from Ecotone Solutions and Margaret Fleek, director of the Planning Department, approved Nathan Dills’ landscape design for the project. Bearett Hicks’ choice of plants was incorporated into Nathan’s plan.


Submitted photo The RAD GAB (Reading and Discussing Great Amazing Books) kids at Burlington Public Library take a break April 28 while sprucing up a vacant city lot with drought-tolerant plants. Participants are Nathan Dills (from left), Riley Flynn, Grady Wells (arms crossed), Lochlin Elliott, Susanna Williams, Children’s Librarian Lisa Anderson, Max Cook, Gunner Hurley and Bearett Hicks.

Sedro Woolley's Next Top Model

This is from a photo shoot held at Avalon Golf Links while waiting for Tim to finish his match. The light was perfect, the model was perfect, what could possibly go wrong? Click on my picture below to find out.

Seriously with Nathan Dills

This is a new thing for me. I am going to do a weekly, "Seriously With Nathan Dills" section on current events and things I want to bring up. The topics will vary from politics to sports and maybe even what events are coming up for me and my family! 

The first topic I want to bring up is HDH. If you don't know this already, HDH is a drug to help your performance on the football and baseball field. It also makes your muscles look bigger than they really are. HDH has been banned from baseball and can get you kicked out of the league. Now that we know what the drug is, let's talk about players who have used it; Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmero, Miguel Tejada, and Alex Rodriguez, most commonly known as, A-Rod. All of these players have been accused of using HDH. 

Let's talk about A-Rod or as I like to call him A-Fraud. All the evidence seems to prove that Alex used and still is using HDH. My proof? Well, let's see, Alex confessed that he used HDH from 2001-2003. He also states that his cousin injected him. Well let's see, his cousin did indeed inject Alex and he did use HDH but not just  from 2001-2003. Take a look at his record season in 2007. How does a person get 54  homers while still getting 31 doubles and 24 stolen bases? Well I think HDH has played a big part. Sure, Alex is good but 54 homers? I don't think he's that good!

Let's take a look back at a spring training game during which Alex hit a home run. No big deal, right? WRONG! After the game, Alex was seen walking with his cousin, the same cousin who injected Alex in the first place. SERIOUSLY?! I really do think this was dumb, even for Alex but I think there are a lot of critics who get this wrong, maybe even like myself, but for now I don't think Alex is the real deal. I will acknowledge, however, that Alex had the guts to come clean unlike Barry Bonds. So I give him props for that but I think he is still a liar, but that's my own opinion. I don't know, I may be wrong but we all have our own opinions.

Fantasy Football

This year i'm playing Fantasy Football with my dad and his friends from work so far i am in first place and am ontract to win the league so far i am 9 and 3 and on a roll the thing is i do my dad's team to because he doesn't have as much free time as me so i do his team.

A Short Time In My Life

Hello, I am here to tell you about a part in my life, so terrifying, even Chuck Norris would be scared. You know what I’m talking about, yep, PUBLIC SCHOOL!!!

As you can all probably tell I didn’t have a great experience with public school and I am here to tell you my story.

It all started one cold September day. We were driving home from my grandpa’s house and I was reading one of my favorite books, “A Wrinkle in Time”.  That’s when I saw my brother laughing or giggling or whatever you prefer.  He wouldn’t tell me what he was laughing about.  Then he gave me hints like “how is school going?”  And that was when I got suspicious.  I tried to think of things school related but I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

When they finally told me I was going to public school I felt betrayed.  I just couldn’t believe that they didn’t ask me for my opinion first. It had been decided.

It was my first day in public school and I was very nervous. My teachers name was Mrs. Steinman. In the school it was this name that struck fear into the hearts of children and adults alike. I didn’t know if it was supposed to but it did.  Mrs. Steinman walked into the room and the room fell silent.  Then we heard the principals voice over the loudspeaker telling us what was for hot lunch, it was left over taco salad from Friday.

As class got started I looked around me and saw two kids passing notes.  Mrs. Steinman must have seen them too as she gave them both one “strike”.   The strike system worked like this:  one strike meant a warning, two strikes meant 15 minutes inside from recess and the third strike meant the principal’s office.

After math, history, and science we had lunch.  Lunch was located in the gym, and boy, was the gym messy.  In class there was a lot of yelling going on from Mrs. Steinman.  She is very uptight and very precise on what she wants.  She leaves out no details.

Tuesday was almost the exact same thing but instead of left over taco salad it was beef burritos.  At lunch that day, me and my friend Ethan were talking when out of nowhere a kid walked up to me and put his arm around me and started talking to us.  That’s when I noticed he was stealing my turkey sandwich that my mom made for me.  I didn’t say anything because it was against the lunchroom rules to tattle. My mom MADE me ride the bus home that day.  The bus was very noisy and stressful. One reason for all the noise was because the bus driver was yelling a lot.  There was one little kid that kept hitting me with a rolled up newspaper that resembled a caveman club. It didn’t really hurt but was very annoying and a violation of my personal space.

When I got home and told my mom about the lunch burglar, she couldn’t believe it. The more she thought about it the more she wanted PAYBACK! She shared her idea and I couldn’t believe that! Her idea was to get an innocent and delicious donut, carve out the filling, and refill it with cinnamon toothpaste! So, preparations were made, and the trap was set.

At lunchtime the next day I saw the burglar coming towards me. I quickly sat the donut down on the bench and went to the bathroom to watch in safety. Instead of simply taking the donut and gobbling it up, he sat on it. I’m not sure if this was on purpose or by accident but he sat on it. He quickly got back up and threw the donut in the trash. Nobody seemed to witness this assault on my donut but I had seen it all. Unfortunately, since the rules state, no tattling, I couldn’t do anything about it.

Not being able to do anything about it made me realize how much I missed homeschooling. Being able to work at your own pace and not hear someone else get yelled at because they were talking. Being able to take breaks when you want to is a great freedom. The biggest thing is just being with your family. Talking to them about what matters to you or working on projects together, It’s because of my family that I had to go to public school but it was also because of my family that I was able to survive this chapter of my life called, PUBLIC SCHOOL!

Jennifer Bradbury and her book, Shift

Wednesday afternoon my brother Tim and I went to the library to hear an author talk to us about her book, Shift. Jennifer Bradbury's book is  about a cross country bike ride with two friends Win and Chris that are only in  high school!!! After their trip the FBI comes to Chris's house where they ask Chris if he knows where Win is and that is when Chris discovers Win is missing. 

The author told us what some her favorite books were. They included, The Book Thief, Skin, Hunger, and Feed. Our mom told us to ask at least one question. We were going to but one guy there was asking all of our questions. We also learned about the process of writing a book and the editor letters.

Jennifer Bradbury used to work at the Burlington High School and read her story to the kids. She is now a mother of a daughter who Tim and I babysat at our aunt's daycare. She has written two books and is in the process of writing her third book, a fantasy, about a British spy. Her first two books were more about her own  experiences. She has actually gone on a cross country bike ride with her husband.