Category: Nature, Sports, and Travel Center

Destinations and Apps to Experience the Natural World

Raptor flying in large cage, experience the natural world
~ MD Harris Institute ~ Leave a comment

Americans spend a huge portion of our time indoors and miss the majesty and mystery of the natural world. Places throughout the country, and apps available anywhere, are trying to fix this problem. Go out and experience the natural world.

By Mark Harris

Spring break, which used to be called Easter vacation, provides a few days away from school, and often work. Nancy, Sarah, and I went to visit old friends, the Creason family, this year. The biggest highlight of any such journey is building relationships, but two destinations stood out. Since Americans spend over 90% of their time indoors, and since I love the outdoors, we made sure to visit both on our trip.[1] Since then, we have travelled many other natural places, and technology helped improve our experience.

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Shooting with Sons

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Shooting, including hunting, tactical training, and target practice, is both enjoyable and educational. It is a good way to enjoy friends and family, and to provide for and protect yourself and those you love in times of need. Safe shooting should be a core skill for all interested Americans. Fathers should teach their sons not to fear guns but to master them.  

By Mark D. Harris

Last week I went to the gun range to shoot with one of my sons. Over the years, members of our family have spent many hours on ranges and hunting grounds from Alaska to Germany. Shooting is a useful skill and a pleasant pastime, and we were glad to find the range open again after COVID-19. Many would have us fear guns. They would take them away from us, as the Nazis did to the German people in the 1930s. A better choice is for fathers to learn to use weapons of all sorts and teach their sons (and daughters) how to use them responsibly.

Parents, more than teachers, friends, or anyone else, will answer to God for how well they treated and trained the little ones that He entrusted to their care. From ethics to personal finance, parents train their children. Self-defense should be included.

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Communion on the Moon

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The first food and drink ever consumed on the moon was bread and wine in a Christian communion

By Mark D. Harris

No matter the opposition, the testimony of the Lord will not be denied. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin was with Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins on Apollo 11 on 20 July 1969. He was the second human to walk on the surface of the moon. The following recounts the personal communion he took on the moon:

Almost 50 years ago (July 20, 1969), two human beings changed history by walking on the surface of the moon.

But what happened before Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong exited the Lunar Module is perhaps even more amazing, if only because so few people know about it. I’m talking about the fact that Buzz Aldrin took communion on the surface of the moon. Some months after his return, he wrote about it in Guideposts magazine.

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Strataca

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The Kansas Underground Salt Museum is a family friendly salt mine and museum to explore near Hutchinson, Kansas.

By Mark D. Harris

When Emerson Carey founded the Carey Salt Company to mine rock salt in Hutchinson KS in 1923, he could never have imagined that his mines would also turn into a popular tourist attraction and a storage vault for irreplaceable documents and films. Nonetheless, they did. The 650-foot-deep mines are now owned by the Hutchinson Salt Company, and produce up to 500,000 tons of rock salt for deicing roads, livestock feeding, and other uses per year.

Strataca leases space in the Hutchinson mines to provide an interactive place for adults and children to explore the mine, and to teach them about salt mining past and present. Visitors begin by descending 650 feet in a mining elevator. A mine guide greets guests as they exit and gives them an overview of the mine and mining.

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