Fleur de Lis Homeschool Blog: Mar 5, 2016

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Chicks Day Five March 2016

Chicks Day Five

March 2016

See her little feathers coming in on her wings? The black chicks are Black Stars and the yellow chicks are Buff Orpington's.

I tried to get pictures of the Black Star's cute little yellow bottoms! Not all of them, but just some of them.

The chicks are co-mingling and have shown zero issues after being combined.

All LEGS and FEET!

You can see some wing feathers coming in on the Buff Orpington's in this picture. Dd read that the birds whose wing feathers appear first have a likelihood of being male. Our Buff's have a 50/50 chance of being male. The Black Star's are *suppose* to be all female (or 90% likely).

What beautiful little faces they have!

Yellow bottoms!

The chicks are eating some of the 'chicken starter' food. I read that you shouldn't use wood shavings when they are really young, as they might eat it. I also read you shouldn't use newspaper, as it can get slippery and somehow mess with their leg development. So, I've been using old towels, dish towels, and shop towels and changing them out twice a day.

For small water and 'feed starter' dishes, I have taken old plastic lids and put a lot of rubber bands to create a block so they can't get their heads in the water. They will drink/eat between the rubber band bands. They will also stand on top of the lids and poop in the water! So, I have to rinse out and refill the lids a few times a day. But these little lids are really perfect for this stage.

As you can see, there are chunks of fruit and veg for them to eat and peck at. They have especially liked different lettuce pieces. One chick will grab a piece of lettuce and try to run away from the group, and the group will all run after her! It is really funny to watch, and they all make a big fuss; making lots of noise during this game they play.

All twenty chicks

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SL Core G, Week 22"A" Middle Ages BP Wk 8 Feb. 29-Mar. 4, 2016 Vikings, Great Schism, Erik and Leif.Canterbury Tales..

SL Core G,

Week 22"A"

Middle Ages

BP Wk 8

Feb. 29-Mar. 4, 2016
*Vikings, Great Schism, Erik and Leif, and Canterbury Tales.

Summary of our week---snow, snow, chicks, ice skating, square dancing, vikings, John the Baptist, and more snow! Monday was 'Hatch-Day,' which was rather sad--we only had 8 of the 10 chicks survive 24 hours, and 12 eggs didn't even 'pip,' or try to break-out. Tuesday it started snowing like crazy! But, the extra cold temps didn't encourage our talking walks in the woods to enjoy the beauty of it; plus super winds. Dh couldn't drive up our hill to our house from Tuesday until Friday night! That bad! Dd and I had to cancel her Alto Sax solo lessons on Tuesday, and band/choir on Wednesday. We shoveled and worked hard on Wednesday, for hours, and we finally made it out to town to buy some Black Star pullets (female chicks).

After all last weeks snow had melted away it started snowing all over again! This is Wednesday's snow pictures. It has snowed some each day since, but I'm not in the mood to take any more snow pictures!

We were able to get out on Thursday for our LINK homeschool Co-op. LINK had a special Ice Skating field trip that was a lot of fun. Dd had never ice skated before, and she did quite well! At least she didn't fall! I enjoyed it too! We skated for an hour and a half; and I ended with a blister!

Friday we did our lessons until it was time to go to the Square Dancing event at the Home School Building at 7 PM. We had the same man that was the announcer last time back again. This time the dance was held in a the really large gym, and the dancers had plenty of room--compared to the small barn that they had last time in the fall.

GERD update:

Still doing good, except for the times that I cheat, or work too hard shoveling snow for hours. This week's Cake Decorating class was with a brownie cupcake with peanut butter icing; and I thought it would be okay to have one...bad idea! I had heartburn fairly fast. I really can't have anything with grains. I also had two migraine days; which weren't horrible, but that is still improved since my diet changed. I never thought grains/gluten had anything to do with my migraines, and apparently I was wrong.
Kombucha is going well. I think I'm on my third batch now. I can't drink a lot of it as it is too acidic for my bladder, but I can dilute it and add it in on my smoothies. My smoothies are going great. I can usually get a good tasting one now, after so much practice. Yesterday I found putting in a whole page of seaweed in sure does make a yucky flavor! I'm still eating a TON of celery, but have backed off on the banana's--those two things were listed as being terrific for lowering your pH, but too many banana's is too much sugar for me.

Sprouting: I'm watching lots of YouTube video's on how to sprout my own seeds, to add to our salads and smoothies. I'm not sure which one's I will end up doing. I'd like to get some Wheat-grass this week, and Michele said she would give me some broccoli seeds to sprout, and try. Dh bought me some screen from Lowe's and I have LOTS of mason jars...so I will try doing that soon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiDu_UQw2iw (a quick video that I found encouraging-"How to Grow Sprouts At Home" by Christine Salus, is the link above or you can type it in if you are curious to see one video.)

The old homeowners had left this extremely old snow blower, that we have used, but it only blows left, and is more work than a shovel! But, we tried it. We really need a snow blower, and on that works well too....oh my..

Chickens:

The eight Buff Orpington's and twelve Black Star chicks are all doing really well. I put new towels in and climb in and spend time with them each day; and it is so relaxing! They are such a joy!

Dh's truck:

Dh has been working crazy hours; getting home late every night, but he did manage to work on it some this week--but it is still not working. He has a nut that is stuck and will.not.budge! Prayers appreciated.

Math:

This was our first week with just Teaching Textbooks instead of Math U See. She did very well this week...we will take as long as it takes to master algebra.

Birds:

I *think* I saw a small flock of Robins fly by as I was driving this week! I've been looking for them for weeks now. They are such a welcome sign of spring! Dd and I heard and saw two Whooping Cranes while we were getting out of our car. They were not very far up, and looked like they were looking for something. I've seen Wrens 2-3 times, Pine Siskens, and our other normal birds. The rarest sight this week was a Northern Flicker!

Our lessons:

Veritas Bible Gospels Homeschool Kit

Bible: VP Gospels

Card 105: completed

Ministry of John the Baptist, AD 27

Matt 3: (Bible and Believer's Bible Commentary)

Matt 17:5 ("This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased...")

Mark 1: (Bible and Believer's Bible Commentary)

Luke 3: (Bible and Believer's Bible Commentary)

John 1: (Bible and Believer's Bible Commentary)

*We read what each of the Gospels had to say about John the Baptist; which was a really nice arrangement of readings. We were really able to compare the four Gospels versions and discuss. Our commentary had pages and pages of information on these chapters, and this card took a lot of time.

DC Cook Journey Through the Bible

Journey Through the Bible:

pg. 213

Dd did the VP Workbook pages for card 104 and 105: completed

Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations

Apr 15, 2008

by Alex Harris and Brett Harris

Part of our "bible time" is reading:
Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris:

pg's 37-62

Foreign Language:

Dd hasn't been liking Rosetta Stone, so I told her about the ap Kendra mentioned: "DuoLingo" and Dd thought it was great. So far she has tried the French and German languages on it.

Math: TT Algebra

Lesson 2, didn't pass, redid Lesson 2 and passed, then Lesson 3, Lesson 4, and Lesson 5.

Government Class (with LINK co-op):

Dd had to watch the two hour Republican Debate on YouTube that was filmed in Fort Worth, Texas on Feb. 26th, 2016. We split it into two days of watching since it was so long.