{"id":62871,"date":"2016-11-08T00:09:57","date_gmt":"2016-11-08T08:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=62871"},"modified":"2016-11-08T00:09:57","modified_gmt":"2016-11-08T08:09:57","slug":"young-cultivator-merit-badge-whistle-while-you-work-beginner-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/62871","title":{"rendered":"Young Cultivator Merit Badge: Whistle While You Work, Beginner Level"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tThe adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our<\/span> Sisterhood Merit Badge program<\/span><\/span><\/a>, now with\u00a07,130 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u201410,150 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Wondering who I am? I\u2019m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my <\/span>former life<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

For this week\u2019s Out There Kids\/Whistle While You Work Beginner Level Young Cultivator Merit Badge<\/u><\/a>, I took little Piper by the hand and off we went to frolic merrily in the field behind my house.<\/p>\n

When was the last time you frolicked, my peeps? A day, a week, a year, or ten years? I heartily recommend a little frolicking at least once a month. It\u2019s good for the soul, the legs, and you can soak up some Vitamin D. It\u2019s a win-win, that frolicking.<\/p>\n

Woman in a Meadow by Grace Hudson via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

Anyway, where was I? Right: in a field with an exuberant small fry. We weren\u2019t here just for the pasture time, no, we were here for something serious. Something badge earning. Something I call Grass Whistling.<\/p>\n

Never heard of it? Well, I\u2019m hardly surprised, you anti-frolicker, you.<\/p>\n

The glorious squawk of a grass whistle is one of the most giggle-icious sounds you\u2019ll ever hear in the great outdoors, and anyone who can pick a blade of grass can. do. it.<\/p>\n

\"grass-whist-3a\"<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Pick a thick piece of grass that\u2019s about 6-8\u201d long.<\/li>\n
  2. Pinch the grass with the thumb and index finger of the left hand.<\/li>\n
  3. Keeping the grass smooth and tight, press the right thumb against the left.<\/li>\n
  4. There will be a little hole between your thumbs that is divided by the grass blade.<\/li>\n
  5. Press your lips against the hole, blow good and hard, and get ready for giggles. You\u2019ll be amazed how loud you can honk!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I know, I had you at \u2018giggle-icious,\u2019 am I right?<\/p>\n

    We got to honking so loudly, a flock of geese stopped by and invited us to Canada. Of course we had to decline; we were having too much fun.<\/p>\n

    \"canadian_geese_lale\"

    photo by Laslovarga via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

    It took some practice, of course, and Piper got the hang of it before I did, naturally, but we became so good we thought about starting our own two-person band. We already had Emmaline, the Bovine Princess, thoughtfully staring at us as she chewed her cud, so we were pretty sure we could drum up a respectable audience (even if half of them were barnyard animals and honking fowl).<\/p>\n

    Not only is grass whistling good for keeping you young at heart and on tune, but it\u2019s a handy-dandy trick to know at boring parties, or when you\u2019re waiting for your little brother to end his soccer match, or just when Mom tells you to go outside and play and your bike tire is flat. It\u2019ll gain you friends and influence people. Okay, maybe that last one was a bit of an exaggeration, but still. It\u2019s a life skill, chickadees.<\/p>\n

    Quite frankly, it\u2019s right up there with frolicking.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with\u00a07,130 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u201410,150 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane\u00a0 Wondering who … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gladsome_sisters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}