Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Chicks Day One and Two

Chicks Day One and Two
I'll fill in the details later, but here are some pictures.
Dd with Catherine

Sophie is missing our attention.






Catherine, our first (alpha) chick, still on top!



........

Sonlight Core G Week 21 "C" Middle Ages Feb. 22-28th, 2016

SLCore G Week 21 "C"  / BiblioPlan Wk 7
Middle Ages 
Feb. 22-28th, 2016
Brooder Pep Week

Dd built our brooder this week, and took pains to monitor the heat so that we could ensure we had the exact right temperature on the floor for the new chicks.

We needed a week to focus on getting ready for our upcoming chicks hatching, make the brooder, and unbeknownst to me...time to get sick!  This was mostly a week to read and watch YouTube video's on chickens; but we did get some academic things done as well.

Read Aloud:


Great and Terrible Quest

The Great and Terrible Quest by Margaret Lovett
: Completed
I believe BiblioPlan recommended this book at this time, not a SL book.

Dd and I really, really liked this book. We had a hard time putting it down!  We read extra on it this week.  The cover looks kinda cheesy, and I (again) was judging a book by it's cover and didn't think it would be very good, and was totally wrong.  In summary, this young boy, Trad, 10 years old, has been mistreated by his grandfather, who he has been living with most of his life.  His grandfather is pure mean and has no heart or care for his grandson, but only is filled with selfishness.  Trad decides to help rescue an old man that had stumbled into their property, and the story begins.  There are lots of little clues along the way, and we tried repeatedly to figure out who the boy really was, who the old man really was, and all the other mysteries that layered the story.  There was a really nice "wise woman" in the woods that helped the two.  A three legged dog, named "Jokey" added a lot of joy to the story too.  We met a lot of bad characters and a few that risked their lives repeatedly to help these travelers reach their destination.  This was a good fit for our Medieval period study.  There were knights, armour, horses, jesters, jugglers, all sorts of typical medieval images to make us feel like we were back in the story with them.  This was a really lovely story.  The only negative I could share is that the ending was a bit abrupt!  really abrupt!  I could have really sunk my teeth into another chapter beyond where she ended to tie things up a little better.  But, the ending was spectacular and a twist at the very end...which did in fact surprise me!


Good Masters! Sweet Ladies, Voices from a Medieval Village by   : Completed
 I believe BiblioPlan recommended this book at this time, not a SL book.

Dd's review: "It gives a different swing on looking at the Medieval ages.  Mostly peasants, but some noble men in training.  The main characters were 10-15 year old's, and they were narrating their own story, so you saw things from their eyes.  There were around twenty different people sharing their perspectives."
A little flock of Pine Siskin's


This is a Pine Siskin, very cute, very small!  I had not seen any of them in Indiana, but they come around to our feeders now.  They didn't in the fall, but now that it is super cold and snowy they have started coming often.
Here is this small squirrel, one of the smaller breeds we get at our house (there are three dif. types around here).  He is sitting in the middle of one of our feeders, looking exhausted from eating so much!  It kills me how much the squirrels gorge themselves wherever we live.  We can turn a healthy squirrel into this!  Don't you love his expression!

Science:
Taking care of the eggs in the incubator multiple times each day.  Various YouTube video's on chicks....books on chicks...



Walk in the woods with me on Friday, in the snow.



Music:
 One private lesson with Mrs. March on the Alto Sax for thirty minutes each week.

Band Class:  one class (1.5 hours) with group each week; plus about 45 minutes each day practicing.

Choir class: one class each week, for one hour; plus 15-30 minutes each day practicing.

Product Details

The Hobbit -- The Battle of the Five Armies: Easy Piano Selections from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Aug 1, 2015
by Howard Shore and Dan Coates
Piano: Dd got a new piano book this week: Easy Piano: The Hobbit, Battle of the Five Armies.  She practiced an hour each day this week, and really loves her new book!



Fun Reading:

Product Details

Glass Sword (Red Queen)

Feb 9, 2016
Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard (Book 2 of the Red Queen series): Completed and thoroughly enjoyed!


We found another paper wasp nest way up in a tree, in the woods.


Baking/Cooking:
Dd made a chicken dishes two nights in a row.  Very tasty!


Pappa Cardinal



Language Arts:
Worked on her new blog: Michigan Chickens
and 
Wrote the "L" family a letter


Product Details

Cold Steel 92BKKC Hunting Fixed Blade Knives, Black


by Cold Steel
Swords and Trucks:
The Katana sword she ordered arrived...she was/is so excited.  She also got two 'throwing knives.'  Dd also helped her Pappa work on the truck that is still in the barn getting repaired.  


Red Bellied Woodpecker


Math:
http://www.teachingtextbooks.com/
We received the TT (Teaching Textbooks) Algebra I set, and she has done lesson one and two so far.  It arrived on Friday.  I'll let you know if this curriculum is able to help us get through the Algebra course any easier than we've been struggling with MUS.



Especially for Chelle:
Curious how our snails have been fairing since we moved out of the apartment?  Here they are :






............

Link to differences between Bible versions




I am forever doing internet searches explaining the various Bible versions, to save time I am putting the link here so I can come here to find the one(s) that were most helpful. 

http://www.mardel.com/bibleTranslationGuide


If you know of any good sites explaining this; please feel free to suggest them to me.  
........

Monday, February 29, 2016

Meet Alpha, our first chick! Feb. 29, 2016

Meet Alpha, our first chick! aka: Catherine
Feb. 29, 2016
Dd has named this feisty chick, Catherine!












.........

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Snow, Snow, Snow Feb.22-25, 2016

Snow, Snow, Snow 
Feb.22-25, 2016
Anyone want to see some SNOW pictures from Michigan?  We got a lot of heavy, wet snow this week.  We lost our power (again, third time this winter) and were thankful for our generator!  Imagine our poor baby chicks inside the incubator without heat (still inside the eggs).

Before the snow arrived; we were visited by this Pileated Woodpecker (my favorite!).  We had two last week, but I didn't have my camera handy--this time I was prepared.

This is a Hairy Woodpecker, we've had a lot of great birds this week.



Here is the first few hours of the snow--You can still see the purple snow brick makers on the ground.

Our ground was at least 36 degree's, so the snow didn't want to stick at first.



The news said we had a foot of snow, but it was so wet and heavy it kept condensing.  I think we got more than 12".

Our back driveway, I shoveled it the whole way down on Thursday and Dd shoveled it the whole way down on Friday!  it is a l-o-n-g drive!


Our back driveway, with Dh's car at the very bottom.  Even though I shoveled for 2 1/2 hours, he still couldn't get up the hill.  Boy were my muscles sore!


Here's the main road into our neighborhood.  You aren't surprised that we all lost our power!

The tree's down, blocking our front drive way.  We had to clear the trees; luckily Dh took the day off work to help us get righted.



Don't worry, I cleaned off all the feeders and filled them up for the birds (and squirrels).

Sophie helped with the feeders!

We shoveled again, and again, and again...then the sun came out and it started melting!

We were able to get our back driveway and road clear by the end of the week; but the front way looks like it will be blocked for a while!

I took Sophie on a hike in the woods and got this big paper wasp nest down (and brought it home with me).

Ever wonder what wild turkey tracks look like in the snow?


It was a really hard week, but the beauty really helped.  Dd went for a walk with me and Sophie on Sat.


.............