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.

Weekly World Facts - A Day Off Track

Hello, I return today to give you this week's Weekly World Facts. You might have noticed I did not call it Wednesday's Weekly World Facts. That would be because 1. it is not Wednesday anymore. 2. I did say - A Day Off Track at the end so that might give you a clue. Basically, I did not make this yesterday so I am creating it today. But enough of my rambling, I must get on. Last week you might remember our Question Asking Person saying this: No, wait! What about my last question? The Biggest Country question? You have to answer that! Of course, I did not answer that question (on purpose). I promised I would answer it this week (on Wednesday) so I am going to have that one be the first question answered. Read on now to see this week's Weekly World Facts!

Finally you are going to let me ask this! Now tell me what the biggest country is... please?
I know you are going to be mad because I made you wait so long but the biggest country is... (drum roll please) Russia! You thought I would name a place you probably never heard of before? Well, all of those places are tiny. If you are wondering, Russia's national animal is the Russian Bear and Russia is known for very long, cold winters.

Okay... I have seen pictures of Hummingbirds but what is so special about them?
Hummingbirds are really cool for many reasons. First of all, a humming bird can flap its wings up to 70 times per second, and it does not flap up and down like most. A hummingbird will flap in a figure-eight style with its wings. Another cool thing is how many times its heart will beat in a second. A hummingbird's heart will beat on average 1,260 times per second. Isn't that fast? One thing I like about hummingbirds is that they are so small and colorful. They are no more than 8 inches long, and they do not weigh any more than .7 ounces. Not to mention there is over 300 different species plus they pollinate. To the right is a picture of just one type of humming bird.

How many more questions can I ask? I don't want to but cut short again.

If I don't count that as a question - which I don't - one more. Seriously? Yes. But... Fine. Here is my final question: What is the biggest animal in the world? I am shocked you asked that. I was thinking you would ask something like: What is the rarest insect in the lowest part of the mountains of China? Well now you got to tell me that too! Maybe next week (probably not because finding that answer would be super hard). As to your question, the answer is the Blue Whale which also happens to be the biggest sea animal. They are about 100 feet long and weigh about 200 tons. An Elephant weighs 15,000 pounds and I bet you know how big Elephants are. Imagine how this would look in real life! I can't imagine anything that big. Can you tell me a size of something small? Nope, I am not letting you trick me into answering more questions. I have to save some for next week you know. If you say so...

I hope you enjoyed this week's Weekly World Facts even if it was a day off and I only answered three questions. If you don't like the questions asked by the little Imaginary Person, or you would like to ask your own, you can always ask me in a comment and I might answer in the next week's Weekly World Facts if I can find an answer to it. I am going to work on editing the Hero's Prophecy series now (while listening to original Minecraft songs on Youtube) so I will be signing off here. Be ready for next week's Weekly World Facts and of course, Minecraft Monday!



 

Animal Pictures from the Past

I return again today to show more of my pictures. Last week I made a post showing some of my nature pictures I took in the past. Well, this is basically the same idea but it is of animals. All the pictures I will be showing are from different trips to the two Zoos in Seattle that has happened throughout the years. I hope you enjoy!

Tigers, like the one in this picture, are my second favorite animal. My first favorite is the Giant Panda if you are wondering, but that could change. It was hard to get the picture to turn out right with the fence and people in the way, but I would rather have a fence in the way than have no fence any day. I took this when me and Katie were over in Seattle with our grandma this summer, and I had to take like twenty different pictures of the Tiger just to get one or two good ones. And, like I said in a past post, I normally don't edit pictures but I did crop out some of the fencing in this one which also makes it look like the tiger was just a few feet away from me.

This is a very strange, big, unmoving, and alive fish, but I have no idea what it is called. It looked even bigger and brighter in person but a camera can only show so much. This fish was in a tank with other ones such as an ocean sunfish, smaller fish, and some bigger ones (I really don't know the names of most of them). I liked this one though because it was so colorful and big, plus it was right next to the glass so I could get a few pictures. Actually, it might be a Humphead Wrasse, but I don't know for sure.

As you can see, this is an Elephant (what type, I would have to research first). If it happens to be an African Elephant, it is the heaviest land animal on earth, but I am not sure yet. I like Elephants, but it is hard to imagine how big they really are even when you're at a Zoo. Or maybe I always think they will be bigger, but when I get to see them I find the Elephants are short (in my opinion). But they don't hold the record for being the tallest so I should not see why I think of them as huge. Maybe I get the idea of a huge dinosaur's size in mind when someone mentions an Elephant, but who knows? I have to admit though, Elephants are pretty cool even if they aren't super tall.

This is a picture of the world's tallest animal - the Giraffe. Only thing is, in this picture it does not look all that tall. Unless you notice its head nearly reaches the pine tree's branches of course. Anyways, I did edit this picture by cropping out some things, but I took it so long ago I can't remember if I added any contrast or lighting to it. I probably did, but it does not really matter. I also noticed something - the heaviest land animal and the tallest animal are both in Africa. The Elephant (heaviest land animal) and the Giraffe (tallest animal) hold those two records. It would be really cool if I could actually see these animals out in the wild, but I have a feeling they would squish or attack me before I could even take a decent picture. 

The last picture I have to show is that of a brown bear. I don't know how I did it, but this one actually looks like I am out in the wild. Well... maybe not since I don't think the water would be like that and you can also see the top of a fence down in the bottom left corner. But, if you forget those things, you could imagine this was taken out in the woods. How did I not get eaten or chased? Well... let's just say it is a secret (if you pretend this was not at a Zoo). I like brown bears too along with Giant Pandas, Tigers, Wolves - I like almost all animals.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this post and these animal pictures. Sorry I could not get more recent ones, but this is sort of like a Blast from the Past type of post based off animals. I would really like to see these out in the wild, like I already mentioned, but that would not be possible right now. Until then I can look at pictures of them online, at the Zoo when we go to it, and on my camera. I'll be signing off now so I can work on some things, but I will return again tomorrow.