Waco

Friday, we took a short day trip to"The Buckle of the Bible Belt" city more commonly  known as Waco. The first thing we did while we were there was go to the Cameron Park Zoo which I had read about in one of my   animal magazines for having a great reptile habitat. It was also one of the first zoos that started having natural habitats for the animals.  The zoo is on 52 acres near the Brazos river. The Cameron Park Zoo has a big Aquarium that has all kinds of fish and a special tank of fish that can be found in the nearby Brazos river. Also, they have animal exhibits from North and South America, Africa, Asia and Europe. Also, the zoo had a night exhibit where there were all kinds of owls, a pair of raccoon, a pair of skunks, a pair of porcupines, and fruit bats. The owls that were there are Barn owls, Great Horned owls, Barred owls, and Screech owls.    Besides the Caldwell zoo in Tyler, this zoo is my favorite. Each of us had our favorite animals: Andrew's was the snakes and the bats, Mom loved  the bears;  Laura Ashley adored the big cats, I enjoyed seeing the leopards and the giraffes, and Dad liked the owls best. 

Then we went to the Baylor Heath Camp and ate hamburgers and onion rings for lunch.

When we were done eating lunch,we went to the Mayborn Museum Complex on the Baylor campus. The museum was really fascinating. It was divided into three parts; downstairs which was the main part of the museum and the natural science part, second was the traveling exhibit about the Maya culture, and  third is the upstairs which is more hands-on.  My favorite area was the downstairs because it had allot of  unique items found in nature such as an octopus, whale skull, monkey skeleton, pangolin, mammoth head, and a stuffed sloth. Not to mention the neat, old timey medicenes, skeleton of a relative to a turtle and tons more. My favorite part of the upstairs would be the bubble room


I loved this this museum and I would give five stars out of five. 
I'll post more pictures later of the trip.

Credits 


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Baylor health camp picture taken frrom here http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&rlz=1I7GGLR_enUS261&biw=1024&bih=611&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=itYtpbAEzw7ZeM:&imgrefurl=http://blog.chron.com/cookstour/2007/03/spring-road-trip/&docid=7cuRfzOTYnIsVM&imgurl=http://blog.chron.com/cookstour/files/legacy/archives/Health%252520Camp,%252520Waco.jpg&w=640&h=480&ei=uWYIUPynOYfC2QW-z-DxBQ&zoom=1


Mayborn museum picture taken from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mayborn_Museum.jpg


zoo pic taken from here:http://jsbyers.com/2007%20Pages/waco_zoo.htm

How I spent the 4th of July...

                                     
        I know this is kind of late,but I thought you might want to know how I spent my 4th of July.
 I spent my 4th of July by going to a bike parade at Purtis Creek State park.  The park rangers had a booth that held streamers, ribbons, bows, pinwheels, and lots of other neat decorations that you could use to decorate your bike.Then we rode around the park on our bikes. Once we were done riding we went back to the booth and ate hot dogs. After we ate our hot dogs, we went to Lowe's and got some P.V.C pipe to fix our sprinkler system. On the way home we stopped by a small roadside stand called Caribbean Ice snow cones. My siblings and I love coming here because they have a ton of flavors to choose from "Purple Rain" to "Ninja Turtle". That day Mom got a cherry, Laura Ashley got Dreamsickle, Andrew got watermelon and I got a banana flavored snow cone. To end the day we set off a few fireworks such as Roman candles, sparklers, smoke bombs, poppers, and a few others.   

Getting ready for the parade

I took the image of the American flag from here http://www.nachi.org/forum/f13/happy-fourth-july-all-73106/

The eight Beatitudes

I've been reading about the eight Beatitudes from the book of Matthew and now I have tried to memorize them and I thought I would share them.






"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure of heart,
for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called children of God.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." 

My incubator

My quail chick.

For my birthday I received a circulated air incubator and an egg turner that fits in the incubator. A little later in the day we set the incubator up and we put thirteen duck eggs, three Buff Orpington eggs, two Old English bantam eggs and fourteen Coturnix quail eggs in the incubator. All of the eggs we got from our farm. Yesterday my first quail chick hatched! He is doing well. Right now as I type, another chick is trying to hatch from its egg. It is a slow process as he chips away at the shell.
 These chick's parents are the ones that won Reserve Champion at the fair.I hope to be able to show their chicks at the next fair. All of my quail eggs will have hatched  by the fourteenth of this month.
It's really neat to see the quail hatch and it's a great
reminder of how amazing God is.

Quail's eggs

Duck's eggs

State Fair of Texas

Even though the State Fair of Texas doesn't start until September 28, I have to already have my show animals that I want to show there so I can work with them and train them. My Dad and I purchased a steer from Dr. Richardson who is a local vet in town and cattle rancher who opens up his clinic for the Vet Shadowing Program. My steer is a Maine-Anjou and a Black Angus crossbred steer. He weighed about four hundred and fifty pounds when I brought him home now he weighs over five hundred pounds.


I feed him ten pounds of show steer feed a day (five pounds in the morning and five pounds in the evenings) from Mill's Feed in Malakoff, Texas. I also give him free choice of minerals and cool, fresh water. Equipment needed to show and raise a steer include the following, a polypropylene work rope, combs and brushes, leather show halter, show stick, feed pan, water bucket, hose, neck rope, show box, hair coat dressing and saddle soap. You will also need a shelter for him to stay in.

I’ve told you how to care for your steer so now I will tell you how to show your steer. Steers are meat animals so they are being judged by their meat quality. First after you lead him around the ring you set your steer up by putting the front feet about two inches apart from each other so they line up with his shoulder blades. Once your steer is placed, make sure your calf is square and have the leg closest to the judge back just a little bit. Then the judge picks out the worst ones after that he keeps eliminating until he finds the top one out of that class. At the end of the show the winners from each class compete until they reach Grand Champion and Reserve Champion.

My 4-H show steer, Champ.

He's a very messy eater and knocks his bucket down sometimes.

Your steer needs plenty of fresh water.

If you are interested in being in the beef project or showing a steer here is a helpful site: http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/extension/beef/beefu9.pdf