Daniel Boone

A few days ago I was learning about Daniel Boone in my school; so my awesome mom found a really fascinating lap-book here. The lap-book was very neat and I learned lots of information about Daniel Boone such as the following:

• Daniel Boone did not wear a coonskin cap like the legend says instead he wore a felt hat. 
• He was the sixth child out of eleven. 
•  He helped an old Indian who was left to die by finding food for him.
• His indian name was Sheltowee, which means "big turtle."
• Daniel Boone was adopted into a tribe as a son of Chief Blackfish. 
• Daniel Boone and his wife had ten children. 
• He died at the age of eighty-five, seven years after his wife died.
• His parents were Quakers until their children married non- Quakers and were treated unkindly by the other Quakers.

A helpful site I used to learn about Daniel Boone is here.

A video of the movie Daniel Boone is here .          

Walter Farley

Mr. Walter Farley 

I haven't done many posts about books so I've decided to do a book post today. But it was really hard to pick a book so I'm going to do a series of posts on favorite authors instead. My favorite authors are Walter Farley, Jean Craighead George, Will James, Ralph Moody, and Robert Lawson. Since I like them all for different reason I am going to put a biography and my favorite books written by each author.

First is Walter Farley, He was born on June 26, 1915 in Syracuse, New York to Walter and Isabelle Farley. The Farley family lived in Manhattan, New York along with there newest son,William who was 2 years younger than Walter. His father worked as a assistant manager in a fancy hotel called the Roosevelt Hotel which is described as one of the classiest hotels in New York. Walter's love for horses started ever since he was a little kid. He once said that "My greatest love was, and still is, horses. I wanted a pony as much as any boy or girl could possibly want anything—but I never owned one. I tried selling subscriptions to win a pony, which was offered as a prize to the kid who sold the most subscriptions. Then my uncle with a flock of show horses and jumpers moved from the West Coast to Syracuse, and I was deliriously happy. I was at the stables every chance I could get.” *     

Walter started writing The Black Stallion when he was in High School and Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania. When the book was completed and published in 1941, he was an undergraduate at Columbia University. When he had finished school he went to work as a advertising copywriter in New York. Later he joined the United States Army and served in a tank with the Fourth Armored Division. During the war he met Rosemary Lutz whom he married. When he was discharged he and Rosemary decided to trasvel abroad. After that, the young Farley family purchased a horse farm in Earlville Pennsylvania. Once they had bought the farm they had four children Steve, Tim, Pamela, and Alice.Walter started writing other children books and the sequels to the Black Stallion. The Farley family also had a place in Florida where they would stay during part of the year. Walter Farley died of cancer in October 1989, after a television show came out called the Adventures of the Black Stallion.  He wrote 21 sequels to the The Black Stallion plus several other books. His son Steve helped the series.

I would give The Black Stallion ten stars out of ten because I really enjoyed it and had a great time reading it.

* Quote taken from here .

To learn more here are a  few sites I used.

http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Farley__Walter.html 

http://www.newreleasetuesday.com/authordetail.php?aut_id=192

http://www.theweeweb.co.uk/public/author_profile.php?id=710

Rabbits and Ducks

The ducklings are hiding between the duck and the wood pile.

  Baby bunnies and ducks at last! Our mother bunny had third litter and her first living litter of surviving babies. The mother rabbit is named Sherry after my Mom. We got Sherry the rabbit at the Livestock show last year she was somebody's show rabbit that didn't make the sale. The father rabbit named Buck after one of our best friends was given to us at the Livestock Show last year also. Sherry had five kits which are baby rabbits. Two of the kits passed away but three of them lived which is our record. We used pillow batting for the nesting box and some got wrapped around one of the babies’ foot and it cut the circulation off so it lost the use of its paw. It is very healthy and not in any pain but we are still going to take it to the vet so it won't get infected. The baby bunnies’ favorite food is greens from our garden.

 We have not been as blessed with the ducks as the rabbits. Two of our ducks had laid twenty eggs in a nest and were trying to hatch them but a snake got a few and some were rotten so only five eggs hatched. Three of the ducklings disappeared and we don't know what happened. The next night we put the two ducklings in the building. They survived a couple of days and learned how to swim but then 

they went missing. I think a turtle might have ate them but I'm not sure.

 

Pictures above are taken by Laura Ashley ,my sister; Pictures below are taken by Dad. 

 

Baby ducks are wet when they hatch.

Ducks

One morning we saw two wild Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks that flew in to eat and visit with our other ducks. I'm ashamed to say that our fat ducks chased the other ducks away  from their food. Since these ducks are so neat looking I decided to look them up.Click here to see better pictures and click here to learn more. I learned that

• These ducks are so different than other ducks, one bird watcher called them the most un-duck-like.  

• Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks eat lots of plant material, but also eats water bugs too. 

• Most of these ducks look alike.

• Whistling-Ducks pairs stay together for life. 

• Females share nest and lay an average of 13 eggs.   

Sorry this picture didn't turn out well.

Chick and Garden Update

I'm writing this post since I promised to keep my blog updated with the chicks and garden growth. My Quail have grown up and have started laying eggs. They have laid almost forty eggs in nine days. I'm hoping to get a incubator and try to hatch some of their eggs.  The broilers are fat and lazy, they have grown a lot. Dad has been butchering some of them and we've been eating them. The Buff Orpington chicks have gotten bigger and have became free range. Our garden is over grown with weeds and has lots of grasshoppers. We've been getting LOTS of squash, a few zucchinis, one cucumber, lots of okra, and about twenty tomatoes. I love having a garden, the produce you get from a garden has lots more flavor than the kind at the store. I would really recommend 
having a garden. 

Broilers 

Cucumbers 

Old Mill Pond Museum in Lindale, Texas

My Mom, who is the wonderful field trip coordinator for the TACHE group in Tyler, scheduled another field trip, this time to the Old Mill Pond Museum in Lindale, Texas.  After everybody arrived, they split us up into two groups. The group I was in went to the Mill Pond Museum first. Inside it was designed as an old-timey watermill. First, we got to see an old drug pharmacy and doctor's / dentist's tools. Next, we saw an area with a lot of old axes, saws, and blades. Then, we saw the cooking area, here there were many old fashioned cooking instruments used long ago.  My favorite part of this area was the nut crackers. They were in the shapes of parrots, alligators, and squirrels. When we were done with this part, we saw the cleaning section.  In this area they had a huge collection of old irons that were really heavy. Here they also had washing boards and other laundry utensils.  After this area we saw musical instruments such as zithers, banjos, and a 115 to 120 year old organ. 


Since the place is called Old Mill Pond, we got to see the water wheel and learned how it ran. I was surprised when they told us that the big wheel did not take much water to make it run. But I was sad to learn they do not use the power from the wheel any longer because it is too much work. Next, we saw the farming section, here there were old gardening tools, a long metal pole with spikes which was used for drying corn (you would stick the corn on the spikes and later you would have dry corn for seed or feed).  Dry corn can be kept longer because it will not spoil as fast.  Also, there was a board with little pegs sticking out of it you would stick the pegs in the ground and it would leave holes for planting tomatoes. These along with many others were some of the tools in the farming section.


Then, we went up into a little loft area and saw a train replica of old Lindale. The train was not running the day we were there, I hope to go back and see it running sometime.  After that we saw old school books and desks. We saw tools they would have used a long time ago for building, like saws, hammers, and wrenches.  Next we were shown nesting houses for chickens. 


We got a tour of the property that the land was on; here I learned that there once was an old brick factory where the museum is located. We saw several buildings that had old tractors and farm equipment inside. We were shown a replica of a old church. We had lunch at the picnic area.  After lunch we got to spend more time looking around in the museum.  I had a really fun time and I'm looking forward to going again.  


If you have not been, I suggest that you go.  You can tell by how many pictures I took, I really liked the trip.  Thanks Mom!

        

The old Pharmacy 

Old food processor   

Saws and axes 

Old bottles and cooking utensils. 

Old pans and muffin tins.

Nut cracker 

Nut cracker 

Nut cracker 

Old-timey irons 

Old irons

Old-timey fans

The old water wheel

The water wheel

Tomato planter

Corn dryer