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.
Today I bring you Skyblock. Yes, the wonderful world of Skyblock. So what is it, anyways? Well, imagine this: You spawn alone in a tiny, L-shaped island up in the sky with only one tree and a chest. You open the chest to find a single bucket of lava and a block of ice. And in the distance there is a small sand island with one chest and a single cactus. Where are you? Where are your friends, and what about things like stone, food, and animals? With no way out of this cruel set-up, you must survive with the given resources.
That is the basics to Skyblock, really simple. At least, it seems like that. But in reality, the world of Skyblock is extremely complicated and hard to survive.
I have a pretty interesting story on how I got Skyblock in the first place. I had been watching the Skyblock series on YouTube from Lachlan, BajanCanadian, and JeromeASF. I had decided to try my own Skyblock so I went to download the map for Singleplayer. I got the map to work (after some issues, being that it was my first map downloaded) and then logged into it. Well... I sort of had a little issue. I was suffocating in a block. No matter what I did, I could not move. And then when I died, I spawned in the normal world with no idea where the Skyblock island was.
So with this issue, I went into Creative mode on my own world. After changing the settings, the whole world was made of one block layer of sand. The whole world. So... I followed some instructions I found and placed a dirt block on one of the sand blocks. Bad idea. While the sand all fell like it was supposed to, creating a void, it created extreme lag. So bad I could not move, and Minecraft basically shut down. Yet I did try it a few times again - with the same result of course.
After this, I created a new world in creative, and built up into the sky until I could not see the land anymore. Then I created the Skyblock island, went into survival mode, and started my world. Yes, I did have to cheat and go into creative to retrieve another lava bucket because it was my first time making a cobblestone generator. And maybe when I was pushed off the island by some monsters and flew back up? Well... I don't do that anymore though. Anyways, below I have some screenshots that I describe. I hope you all enjoy this! Also, the video (above, right) is from my favorite animator, Slamacow. He made a video that basically shows what Skyblock is.
Here (the left picture) is the small pond I made for fishing. I had received some crazy items from there like enchanted fishing poles, lily pads, salmon, and other things I can't remember. Plus fish, of course. What I tend to do while fishing is balance on the ledge, holding shift, and slowly moving around the edge of the biggest square while fishing. Then when I get to the waterfall part, I jump over that and go around again while shifting. If I don't shift... well, let's just say it does not end well. Anyways, I do that because just standing there gets boring.
This (the right picture) is my house. I know, I should make it nicer. I am thinking of rebuilding it into wood with windows because I have piles of wood but very little stone. Actually, no stone. I have a generator, but it takes super long to get cobblestone from it. And since I am in Singleplayer, I have no one to help me. Anyways, inside the house there are torches, a supplies chest, and an "achievements chest" which is where I store ongoing achievement items.
This picture (the left one) shows my infinite water source and the beginnings of my farm. I have some wheat and potatoes right now. I actually made two infinite water sources by mistake. Well, three if you count the pond. The second one is the water strip behind the wheat. I added that thinking it helps the plants, but I forgot the square infinite water source gives all the plants water. Anyways, long story shot, I own a lot of water supplies.
Here (the right picture) is my cobblestone generator, sugar cane farm (which I already extended since I took this picture), my cactus plant, and part of my tree farm in the upper-right corner. The generator works, but it takes forever to get even a little bit of stone. Especially since it often falls into the lava... But either way, here it all is. I do have plans to extend the cactus farm.
This picture (the left one) shows my portal to the Nether (made using a lot of wood and my lava bucket to light it) and the "mob grinder". The Nether, as shown in the next picture is only a small room. I had it is a little island, but expanded it trying to make a Pigman farm. The Mob Grinder really does not grind yet, but it will. I have no door because it was letting in too much light from the daytime and nearby portal. But I do get lots of mobs in there, including too many creepers.
This is the last picture (the one on the right) and it shows my Nether Farm. See, I went into the nether and forgot there would not be an island like the downloaded map. So I made the island just the right size out of glowstone like the map. I added the chest with the birch sapling, the other piece of ice, and each of the mushrooms, if I remember correctly. Then I went on to expanding to make a pigman farm. But I sort of need help. For one, I can't get any pigman.
This leaves me with a question: Is the Nether Farm too small? Can the pigman not spawn on wood? What am I doing wrong here? I would like to know, so please leave any suggestions you have in the comments, thanks.
Sorry for so many pictures and slightly confusing paragraphs. I had a lot to show, and I know the island does not look nice, but I am still working on it. I mean, when you start with few things, staying simple is the key - for now. Anyways, I would like it if you left any suggestions in the comments. I would have made a video, but I still have to set up the webcam and get some things ready. So for now, all I have is screenshots. Also, I apologize for making this post so long. Again, Skyblock takes a while to show. And yet, this is not even all of it.
Keep an eye out for the next posts coming up! I should have one tomorrow, and my Portal into the Past one on Wednesday. The next Minecraft Monday will be on the 4th, so be ready! I hope the webcam will be ready by then so I can do a video. If it is, I am thinking of doing either a Hunger Games, or showing a mod such as Orespawn or Lucky Block. Either way, next week's Minecraft Monday should be better organized than today's. Thanks for reading this!
As you probably know, tomorrow is the first Minecraft Monday since I have restarted my blog. I know you must be wondering, what will this Minecraft Monday be about? Well, I have a cool surprise for tomorrow. Have you ever played Skyblock before? Well, since when I downloaded the Skyblock map and it was glitching really badly (I kept on suffocating in dirt), I built my own map in Single Player. It started out as the standard-sized Skyblock map with a tree, an L-shaped land area, and a chest with a lava bucket and a block of ice. Well, I managed to expand that into something pretty cool. I will post a little bit on the island, all the places, interesting and/or funny things that happened, and some screenshots. I would like to do a video, but I don't have a video camera yet. So be prepared for tomorrow's Minecraft Monday!
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.
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.
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!
Hello, I return today to give you the next Minecraft Monday. Now before I go on, one thing you might notice is that I added no pictures to today's post. Well, that is because I added a video I made instead. Yes, I know I said in the past that my camera does not work well for videos, but I still tried for a few hours yesterday. Well... I had some problems like these: 1st try I was too quiet, 2nd try the camera froze, 3rd try the camera shut off, 4th try there was a buzzing sound and the color was messed up, and for all the other tries there was still the buzzing and color problem plus Katie could not stop laughing for some reason (she was helping me with the video from 2nd try on). So once I showed my dad one of the videos, he decided to do the recording for us with his camera. Luckily that worked (first try) or else I would probably have to take 100 screenshots just to get some of the world shown. Anyways, down below I described my new Creative World if you don't want to watch the video or if you would like to read as well. Note: The video isn't too long, so I recommend watching it (plus Katie added some comments). The video is below, and it is also on Youtube if you are wondering.
This is going to be hard to do without pictures, but I might as well try. I made the new world, Creative World, when I was bored but it ended up becoming this week's Minecraft Monday. How? Well, I guess you can say it is because I liked the idea of an Ocean/Dessert house. And since this was on Single Player and not Multiplayer, no one besides Katie and me could see my new world. Considering I spent 2-3 hours a day working on the world, I really wanted someone to see it.
So... the first thing you should know is what update I used for this world. I used 1.8, but I once made the mistake of going on there in 1.7.10 and everything disappeared. The paintings in the main house were dropping to the ground, and even the normal items before 1.8 were gone (the ones in the chests). Luckily I was able to get it all back in 1.8. Well, sort of anyways. The paintings and items were gone but the building was not. With about 10-20 minutes that was fixed and then I went to creating the outdoor kitchen/seating area. Then I made the Small Pond Park deeper, added the Squid Machine, chickens, lily pads, fencing, and the entrance sign. Then I made the gardens, Rabbit House, Harry Potter Sheep Farm, the Farmer's Garden, and finally the roller coaster. Between the creation of these areas, I worked on improving the outdoor Kitchen/Seating and the main house.
One of my favorite things about my world is the bricks I used for making the main house. The flooring is nice, but I really like the walls. If you have ever seen a Wither and have a good eye for catching details, then you might have noticed that each brick for the walls has a Wither carved into it. If you are wondering, a Wither is a floating, three-headed boss you can create. They are considered the boss of the Nether because they can throw explosive, poisonous mini wither skulls at you or any other mob.
And, since my favorite movie and book series is Harry Potter, I created the Harry Potter Sheep Farm. There was already grass and normal sheep, but I fenced them in, raised the grass and stone so they could not go mountain climbing, and then colored and named them based off the Harry Potter characters and actors/actresses. I still have to add some more sheep, but I already have 8 sheep, 2 Iron Golems, 2 Horses, and 1 Shepherd (a villager).
The Roller Coaster is basically finished now because I spent about an hour and a half improving it, and after this post I will go and improve it even more. The roller coaster goes up, drops down like a cliff (looks like it is griefed) and then goes downhill underground. After that it falls down another cliff, goes forward through a natural cave, drops down a cliff again, goes on top of the bedrock, climbs upwards, turns a little bit (now on the surface), climbs upwards towards the sky, and zooms down a wooden track, cutting right through a tree and ends up next to the outdoor Kitchen/Seating area. Oh, and I forgot to mention, when it is underground, before climbing upwards, it passes over a raven filled with ores, water, lava, caves, and monsters. Cool right? Well, maybe I will make next week's Minecraft Monday about it...
I think this post is shorter than the average Minecraft Monday, but most of it is in the video. Keep an eye out for new posts and announcements, and if you have 5 minutes, 50 seconds to spare, please watch the video! That is all for this week's Minecraft Monday, but I will be back again soon enough.
