Visiting a Farm - Feeding Calves, watching baby Ducklings and Chickens, and More

Hello everyone,

I forgot my camera, but the calves looked like these

As you might know, I am now Unschooled. Along with that I am still taking Beginning Agriculture at the Harrington High school. Well, this morning I went to Agriculture and we had a field trip to a local farm. Once we got there, we got to feed some baby calves their bottles. There were three "crippled cows" that had to be bottle fed. The family that owned the farm waited to feed them so we could help.

One calf had lost its mother, another had a broken leg because its mother had stepped on it, and I can't remember what was wrong with the third cow. I was feeding one of them, which turned out harder (and messier) than planned, but still very fun.

 After that, we got to learn a little bit about the cows and where they are all placed. Along with that, we got to see pictures of what happened when the cows had given birth to their calves during a blizzard and how bad it turned out. The family went out there during the blizzard to find the newborn calves nearly dead. They had to be treated into special rooms and watched carefully that winter.

I forgot my camera, but these are chicken eggs like the ones I saw

We also got to go into the chicken coop where some of us had found eggs. After that, we saw three ducklings that were wondering around, looking for their mother. Something pretty funny happened then.
One of the dogs - the smaller one - started chasing the ducklings. They all scattered and once the dog was stopped, two of the ducklings got back together in a group. But the third one could not find them. So he - or she - wondered up to a nearby chicken and the chicken jumped back. That was, in my opinion, the funny part.

Then we went on to talk about the ducks and chickens. We were told that one year, they got this egg that was jet black. If I remember correctly, it was a duck egg. Then after that they got what was described as a "sort of tie-dye egg" and then brown eggs speckled black. But now they have been only getting white and brown eggs. The average eggs they get for both the chickens and ducks are about 1 egg per day per chicken/duck. But it can be more or less than that. Also, I learned that if you do not wash the eggs, they do not need to be refrigerated due to a special covering that is naturally on the eggs. But if you wash them like most people, that covering is washed away and the eggs need to be refrigerated.

After all of this, we headed back to the bus because second period had already started at school. Of course, I just had to walk home, but everyone else had math to get to. Overall, this field trip was a fun, educational thing I got to do. Plus it was my first time really being around farm animals. Usually I just see them at the petting zoos at fairs. Also, I am sorry that the pictures are not mine. I forgot to get pictures, plus I only had my phone which cannot send photos to my computer. Either way, I hoped you enjoyed this post. Be ready because tomorrow I will have the Portal into the Past - Egypt, Washington Missile Silo with plenty of strange photos I took while there over the weekend.

Where have I been all this time? The Past Months and Future Plans (Part 2)

Part 2 -

Hello everyone,

Let me continue on from my last, very long post. What are my plans now that I am homeschooled? Well, I will continue on with Minecraft Monday starting on the 20th of this month because I am even more

Minecraft Monday will be started again on the 20th of this month

into Minecraft than when I first started this blog. I now do mods, new servers, new hardcore and survival worlds, new builds, and all sorts of cool stuff. For Minecraft Monday, I plan to do a video with a post most of the time. Along with that, I think I will be starting up an actual YouTube channel directly related to Minecraft. But I cannot do that until I get a video camera, which should be soon. So until then, Minecraft Monday will be a post with plenty of pictures.

Along with that, I plan to do "Into the Portal of the Past to (location here)". My family and I go Geocaching every weekend. We go to some really cool, historic locations in Lincoln County and nearby areas. So what I am going to do is for Monday and Tuesday I will research on my favorite location we visited that weekend. Then I will find everything I can on that area and add that to the pictures I would have taken over the weekend. Then, on Wednesday, I will combine all the found information, some cool

One of our Geocaching trips nearby

things about the Geocache area, and pictures to create a "Into the Portal of the Past to (location here)" post. These should typically be on Wednesdays, unless research takes longer than planned.

Then for Tuesdays and Thursdays, I will have free-post days where I will post whatever I think is good for that time. And if I have enough time, I will post on the weekends and Friday as well. But those are the days my family are typically busy or Geocaching.

Also, since the time has passed, I have a few new things to share:
First of all, I am working on Book 2 to the Hero's Prophecy Series. I don't know when it will be done, but I just started it. I will keep you all updated on how that is going.
Secondly, I am working on a website that goes with the series. It is going to have some really cool information on the series, Heroes, Enemies, a shop, a blog related only to the series, and even some personality quizzes like: "What THP Character are you?". I will share the link on here once the website is done. I still have to add more pictures and finish the "About the Author" page. Also, the shop won't be up for a while since the series is not done. But it will include all sorts of cool stuff. 

So, now I have made by return from Someplace, and I plan to stick around. My next post probably will not be until Monday, so be prepared! I know this post was long, and I would be pretty shocked if you read it all, but I doubt I even said everything I had planned. But I guess that is what happens when you quit blogging for what? Over 7 months? Well, I guess I deserve that. But I am back, either way. And I have some really cool things planned, so stick around.

Thanks for reading both Part 1 and 2, if you did!

Where have I been all this time? The Past Months and Future Plans (Part 1)

 Part 1 -

Hello everyone,

I am sorry for not posting for so long. But I have some reasons which this post will talk about. To get started, let's just say I have quiet an... adventure since being gone. Here is how:

A picture that describes my series

First off, you might remember I was writing a series called The Hero's Prophecy. Well, I have completely wrote and edited Book 1. Now all I have to do is finish some touch-ups and have someone else edit it for me. The accomplishment of Book 1 has been really important to me and it has taken a lot of hard time. Not to mention I now have a lot of people wanting to read it and most of those people don't even know what the book is about!

But I know what you all must be wondering, if you read my blog in the past. That question is probably: Where have you been?!" Well, that is a long story, but it is a story that must be answered. Now, let me get started:
"

Since I last posted, which was last year in October, I have moved two times. I went from Airway Heights to Spokane, and then to Harrington, WA which is where I currently live. But no worries, we won't be moving anytime soon since my family bought a house here in Harrington.

Yes, you might have noticed I slowly started to fade away in posting. Then when I was completely gone. That was mainly due to me just working so hard and long that my interest in blogging faded. So now I will make it my goal not to post multiple times a day every day like last time. It will be more balanced instead.

Me and Katie at a Geocache location near Harrington

After I "faded away" I moved to Spokane. I was still being homeschooled in Spokane but we only lived there a short time. Just a month or two later we moved to Harrington, which is where I live now. Harrington is an extremely small - but great - town of about 400 people. It is located in Washington, and is about an hour and half away from Spokane if I remember correctly.

When I got to Harrington, Katie and I decided to go to school. My class then was only 7 kids. Soon into 2015, my class got a few other kids. Currently, it is up to 10 kids, not counting me. I had considered restarting my blog again, but being in school would not work. For one, I was not an unschooler anymore, so it does not match with my blog. Secondly, I just did not have enough time. With 2 or more hours of homework, being in tennis (but only for a short time due to the lack of time to study for tests and work on homework), FFA, and just school in general took up all my day. I would be lucky to get an hour of free time if you add on chores and helping around the house.

Then I discovered that I wanted to do a Computer Science career in the future and go to Evergreen State College in Olympia. But with me being in school, I had no time to focus on Computer Science. Plus, considering how Evergreen teaches, unschooling is a lot like it.

That is why I left Harrington High school and I am now unschooled. In fact, I officially left today. But, as I will explain in the last paragraph, I will be taking an Agriculture class at Harrington for the rest of 8th grade. Plus I plan to take 1 to 2 classes each year throughout high school which will probably include more Agriculture classes, Spanish, and P.E. 

So why do I keep on saying both homeschooling and unschooling? Which am I doing now? Well, I call it homeschooling to most people because that is a more common term used. But technically, it is called unschooling. I will be doing Teaching Textbooks for math, and we are still planning everything else.

For the rest of 8th grade, I will be doing Agriculture at Harrington High school, 1-3 art projects depending on how big they are, and a weekly blog post on a Geocaching location we go to by researching the area in-depth and then writing about it which would count for history. I will also be doing an online Minecraft class related to Scientists and what they did. Here is the link: Minecraft Homeschool. Plus I will be taking the Teaching Textbooks Algebra II placement test and use that as a study guide. Once I can pass the Algebra II placement test, then I will get the Teaching Textbooks Algebra II and use that for 9th grade. Plus I can start early on it, which is always nice.

To be Continued!

Online Classes and Unschooling

I am back again and today I bring you information on my Online Classes and unschooling. One might ask, What websites do you use? Well, my first class coming up is Creating Web Pages on ed2go.com which starts on the 17th this month. In the past I took a writing class through ed2go, but almost all my other ones are through Coursera.org. I like Coursera because it is free, there are plenty of classes to choose from, and because being from Universities, the classes are challenging. So far I have done a writing class and a Western Music History class through Coursera, and I passed them both yet the music one was very hard since I have no music experience. Before my Creating Web Pages class ends I will start The American South: Its Stories, Music, and Art which will be on Coursera. After that, I will be doing Water: The Essential Resource and What a Plant Knows (and other things you did not know about plants) which are also through Coursera. So, as you can see, Coursera makes up most of my online classes. I will probably take more Coursera and ed2go classes in the future.

Why do you take these classes? Aren't they long? Well yes, it is hard and some of the classes are really long but I do it for a challenge and to learn something new. Doing classes for my age or grade is simply boring. I don't learn anything and because of that it is a waste of my time. For some people, classes at their grade-level is perfectly fine, and it is that case for me on occasion, but most of the time? I really want a challenge and new adventures. Because of this, I don't find these classes as a waste of my time.

Now this is a PC design I want...

Okay, that makes sense I guess, but why are you taking the Creating Web Pages class? And why is it not on Coursera? I want to learn how to do HTML coding and web design so I decided to take that class. While both websites have college classes, Coursera is much harder since most of them are from Universities compared to just normal colleges. ed2go is better if you are just trying out something. I am not 100% sure if I want to learn coding and web design but this will help me fully decide. If I was to do one through Coursera, I probably would have a harder time. But I thought you said... That I want a challenge? I do, but this will be challenging too, and it will give me a chance to fully decide. If I like this class I am going to do a Coursera one afterwards.

 Okay, I got it but if you are unschooled you don't truly learn, right? I am unschooled, yes, but being unschooled does not necessarily mean no learning. To be unschooled is to choose your own path. If you want to go to college or university, or if you have a career in mind, you do what will get you there. If you want to do a four year, you have to reach their requirements. If you are unschooled, you can reach those requirements your own way. I don't know what I want to do, but I will probably need math, technology, science, or writing and reading skills. Some unschoolers don't do classes, but most do. Most younger kids that are unschooled do little to no classes or things like that which probably gives unschoolers their name as people who do nothing. In reality, unschooling is making your own path. Most of those paths require learning so don't view unschooling as doing nothing. Even younger kids still learn, but just in a different, creative way than how others would.

Making a path

Why do you like being unschooled? I like unschooling because you have plenty of free time to do hobbies and figure out what you want to do in the future. Once you know, or even if you are like me and have an idea, you can try things out and work towards your goal. You have time to create businesses, research, learn, and you work at your own pace. You choose your own path, and how exactly you will get there. I have been to public school before but it never fit me. I have progressed much more being unschooled and that is because I am able to learn at my own pace. Plus, as an unschooler, you can learn what interests you. That interest can become a future career or business. In school you learn whatever they give you but you only remember that stuff temporarily unless it was something really interesting. Maybe public school is perfectly fine for you, but maybe it isn't. For my family, unschooling is the best option. Another thing I like is you're home all day - unless you do groups - meaning you get to spend time with your family. When I was in school I came home, had dinner, did my homework, and then it was basically bedtime. As an unschooler I get a chance to actually spend time with my family.

Okay, I know this post is getting really long now so I will be signing off here, and I think tomorrow I will make a true Questions and Answers post, or maybe a post more about unschooling. Hopefully you found this post interesting, useful, or... or whatever you found good about it. I just hope I did not make you bored out of your mind with a lack of pictures and a lot of words. Note: The computer picture is sort of the color and design I would want mine to be. I picked that one because it sort of goes along with the online classes, HTML coding, and web designing since you use a computer.