Happy Thanksgiving

                                        Happy Thanksgiving. 
Everyone came to our house this year, and I had a lot of fun! My cousins' younger cousins came with them this time. Their names are Charlie, Evan, and Corbin. Corbin is 1, Charlie is 6, and Evan is 8. Evan and I went and fed Benny, the horse, and played Blongoball. Also, my older cousin Steven and I went exploring and we had a good time, but we found a water moccasin!  Then after we ate Thanksgiving dinner which consisted of homemade turkey, ham,wheat rolls,crescent rolls, cheesy olive cakes, relish trays, mac & cheese, and tons of other delicious, homemade things!  We also had turtle cheesecake and apple cake for dessert. After we ate, my grandfather, Dad and I worked on stringing barbed wire on the pasture fence.

This year, I have decided to share what I'm thankful for. 
                                                        God and His Word 

                                                                      My family

My siblings and I 

                                                                   
                                                                      Wildlife

My family's pets 

                                                   

        Activities that I'm in such as 4-H, Teen Court, theater, 

Vet science program, and volunteering at the library. 

Me at the food show.


Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!
Please tell me what you  are thankful for.

    God's word http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/jefferson-bible-1.jpg
Top picture link
here

New Arrivals

My incubator was one of the best Birthday presents I have ever received, with this present I have hatched over fifty quail and chicken chicks in less than six months. I have been very blessed for almost all have been healthy. Every time a chick hatches it’s a wonderful reminder of God's amazing abilities. Yesterday evening and this morning eighteen Buff Orpington chicks have hatched out of their eggs. Over all I have hatched twenty eight chicks of this breed.  If you would like to learn about this  breed read on: 

• The Buff Orpingtons are one of the best egg laying breed of chicken.
• A breed called the Lavender Orpington lays lavender colored eggs.
• They were named after Orpington, England.
• They are one of the most docile breeds of chickens.
• Because of their build they do fairly well in very cold climates.

Thanks for reading

Cookies

Yesterday evening I made this delicious cookie recipe. My Mom found the recipe on the back of the Peanut Butter Chips package. She loves chocolate and these cookies deliver that taste and are moist and chewy. Be sure to set the timer and cook them only eight minutes. If you they look soft don't worry the cookies will harden. One of my favorite things about baking is when I can give the baked goods to friends and neighbors. I hope you have fun baking this recipe.

INGREDIENTS: 

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/4 cups (2-1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1-2/3 cups (10-oz. pkg.) REESE'S Peanut Butter Chips

DIRECTIONS

1. 1 Heat oven to 350°F. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; set aside.
2. 2 Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with mixer until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well. Stir in peanut butter chips. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.
3. 3 Bake 8 to 9 minutes. (Do not over bake; cookies will be soft. They will puff while baking and flatten while cooling.) Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 4-1/2 dozen cookies

I took the cookie recipe and the top picture from here.

Halloween at the Hatchery

For Halloween my family and I volunteered with our county's 4-H to pass out candy at the  Halloween at the Hatchery. Halloween at the Hatchery is where organizations can pass out information about their organization and candy for trick or treating children who come through the fish hatchery for candy. This year 4-H decided to dress up animals that you can show in 4-H. This idea was a big success. My family brought three of our Buff Orpington chickens to be the Dixie chicks and two of our rabbits. The rabbits were called Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood they of course were named by Laura Ashley, my sister. We had a great turn out, and had to leave because we ran out of candy half way through. It was really fun getting to  pass out candy to all of the trick or treaters.

Also, for Halloween my family and I volunteered at our church's Hallelujah Festival. Our church had bounce houses, a cake walk, free food, candy, face painting and a lot more activities for trick or treaters when they came in. I worked the punch and tea booth along with our deacon. Mom and Andrew, my brother worked the cake walk while  Dad and Laura Ashley monitored the bounce houses. Our church had a lot of kids with their parents come so we had a good turn out.  The Hallelujah Festival was also lots of fun helping with too.   

  Thanks for Reading,

  Christopher

Rabbits

Yesterday when we purchasing cages for my quail, my wonderful Mom was able to get this bunny free with the purchase of the cages. he is a male of the Mini Rex breed. Mom decided to name this rabbit Velvet because his fur was so soft. Recalling the moment she said,"I felt sorry for him because he was all alone. I really liked Velvet because he was so soft and handsome. Also, I wanted Christopher to be able to show Velvet at the local livestock show."

If you are wanting to know how to show breeding  rabbits, hear is how. First make sure you are registered.  When you get to the show with you rabbits, make sure you bring everything you need to make to them comfortable. You will be able to put your rabbits in pens provided by the fair grounds. In most shows you leave your rabbits at the fair grounds until the judging starts. Most of the time the rabbits have to stay over night.  When the judging starts, you have to wait until your rabbit's breed, gender and age is called. For an example, if I was a showing Velvet, I would wait until the judge or his helper called out; Senior male Mini Rexes. Then, I would take him up to the rabbit judging boxes and place him inside on of the boxes. Next, the judge would go and take velvet out of the box and position  him so that he would look like half of a basket ball. While he is judging him he will ask me questions such as how old the rabbit is and how many teeth a rabbit has. After that, the judge will look at the other rabbits and will come back to your rabbit again to compare him with the others. Lastly, the judge will hand out participant ribbons all the way up to first place. If your rabbit places first it will compete with the other breeds of rabbits there. Hopefully your rabbit will get a grand or reserve grand champion ribbon or belt buckle.
     Thanks for reading

Rabbit judging boxes.

Picture taken  of the rabbit judging boxes here: http://texasangorablog.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html

Marguerite Henry

One of my favorite authors is Marguerite Henry. I like her works because they are educational and most are based on true stories. Also, I love horses. Her works include: Album of Horses, Black Gold, Born to Trot, Brighty of the Grand Canyon, Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley, 5 o' clock Charlie, Justin Morgan Had a Horse, and the Misty of Chincoteague series.        

 Marguerite Henry was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on April 12, 1902 to Anna and Louis Brithaupt.  Marguerite was the youngest of her five siblings. Mr. Brithaupt was a well respected publisher. When she was six, she was diagnosed with rheumatic fever. As her seventh Christmas present, her Father gave her a red table and writing supplies. Until she was eleven which was when she recovered from the rheumatic fever she spent a lot of her time writing on her table. Her first published story was called "Hide-and-Seek in Autumn Leaves". Later in Marguerite Henry's life she said ,"At last I had a world of my very own -- a writing world, and soon it would be populated by all the creatures of my imagination." Marguerite loved to read and got a job at the local library mending books. Ever since a young age she had always wanted to be a writer but deiced that it was not a practical career. She Graduated the Milwaukee State Teachers College and became an English teacher. During the summers Marguerite and her sisters went on a trip to a fishing camp. There she met Sidney Crocker Henry her future husband. Later, Marguerite and Sidney got married on May 5, 1923. 

During their sixty-four years that they were married, they didn't have any children instead they had numerous pets. Marguerite wrote her first children's book called Auno and Tauno it was about her friends stories about their native country, Finland. When she had finished writing Justin Morgan Had a Horse, she wanted to get it illustrated. She said,” I had just finished writing Justin Morgan Had a Horse, and wanted the best horse artist in the world to illustrate it. So I went to the library, studied the horse books, and immediately fell in love with the work of Will James and Wesley Dennis. When I found out that Will James was dead, I sent my manuscript to Wesley Dennis."  In 1945 Justin Morgan Had a Horse was published. Over all Wesley Dennis illustrated fifteen of her books. Sadly, her husband died in 1987. Just after she published Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley, she passed away on November 26, 1997 at her home in Rancho Santa Fe, California. Overall she had written fifty-eight books. 

Helpful websites I used are http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marguerite_Henry

Also I used http://www.yourlibrary.ws/childrens_webpage/j-author42001.html

           Thanks for reading 

          

The picture of Marguerite Henry with the horse is taken from this website.     http://horsesforliteracy.com/about/

The picture of Marguerite Henry is taken from this website. http://www.yourlibrary.ws/childrens_webpage/j-author42001.html0