Rolling Plains Bobwhite Brigade



Bobwhite quail female on left the male is on the right

Recently, I have been in Coleman County, Texas; attending the Bobwhite Brigade. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Texas Brigade camps, they are a five and a half day camp that teaches about conservation, management, habitat evaluation, and leadership skills.

I chose to attend the Rolling Plains Bobwhite Brigade; because there used to be quail in our area and since I show quail in 4-H. In this post, I am just going to tell by favorite parts that way future cadets can be surprised.

Mock Stakeholder Group.

My favorite activity at camp was a mock stakeholders meeting, where different coveys (groups of cadets) were assigned a organization to represent that would be speaking at a stakeholders meeting. My covey represented Quit Underwriting All Inhumane Leisure or Q.U.A.I.L. for short. Our main points were that only little of quail is eaten, they will soon become threatened like the buffalo and horned toad (we found out that this was false later on), and that hunters were barbaric butchers. What made our topic fun was that we could be fake extremists and could try to get kicked out of the meeting. We made posters, tied ourselves to chairs, and rocked back and forth chanting. The purpose of this was to see different people's opinions on quail hunting, and conservation.


Learning about trail cameras

Learning about trail cameras

 



Another activity I enjoyed, was taking a pretest and a posttest on quail, plants, and information on quail. This really proved to me how much I learned. On the pretest, I only knew the names of two quail plants, mesquite and croton. On the posttest, I was able to identify all of the plants in the test.

If you raise quail, hunt quail, like quail, or if just want to learn more about wildlife, I would highly recommend the Brigade program. It is really fun, and it provides you with information that will come in handy when discussing quail. Also, the brigades help you become a better, speaker as well as a leader. If you have any questions, please let me know.

 

Quail picture taken from http://portfolio.jeffwendorff.com/quails/h37DE2BDB

 

 

 

 

LBJ Presidential Museum




The First Exhibit

When my sister and I went to 4-H Day at the Capitol, my  family decided to make a trip out of it. After, touring the capitol in Austin, we drove into the enemy's headquarters. In the darkness a small light shone, that light happened to be the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Museum.



 

Lady Bird's Office

When we went, the museum had a seasonal display about the march to Selma in celebration of the civil rights anniversary. The exhibit was educational and had some good pictures, but it was really basic.

 On the 1st floor, there was a time line that went all around the main room, a seasonal display, short movie, gift shop, and an area that showed political cartoons about LBJ's life.
For me, the highlight of the1st floor was the timeline. The time line showed what was going on in LBJ's life as well as what was happening in the world.

On the 2nd floor there was an area were you could listen in on LBJ's phone calls while he was in the office, pictures and short biography of each President and First Lady. A summary of LBJ's accomplishments, and a walk through of what LBJ achieved in office.  My favorite part was the Vietnam war memorabilia because I was able to learn about what caused the war.

The last floor, was mainly about Lady Bird Johnson and their time on the ranch. One of the interesting parts that I enjoyed, was seeing Lady Bird's office. Before she died, she was using the office in her museum to work. When she passed away, everything was left the way it was, which was pretty neat to see. Also, we got to see items that he used to promote his election. One item was a razor with his name on it; LBJ chose this so that men could see his name every morning when they got ready.

Over all, I really enjoyed the museum and would recommend visiting it if you have the opportunity. For me, it wasn't as dated as some of the reviews said and I would give it 8 stars out of 10.

 

A great video about LBJ'S life.

Australian Shepard

Mollie's first day home

A few months ago, I purchased an Australian Shepard puppy from a lady who has shown Aussies for a long time. I bought Mollie (that's my puppy's name) to show in the 4-H dog show. She is to young to show this year, but I plan to enter her agility and obedience next year. Since it is very hard to find a purebred Aussie puppy at the Humane Society I bought my dog from a breeder.

One of my favorite things about Mollie is that I was able to pick her out of the litter and watch her grow. I knew that I wanted a female because all of our other dogs are girls, so I was able to find the three female puppies and chose from them. Two of the puppies looked exactly alike but Mollie had a patch of white on her head where the others didn't also, on one of Mollie's paws she has one white toe and the rest black. At first we kept her inside but as she grew she wanted to be outside more and more.


Asleep at the dog show

The first dog show training that I took Mollie to
she fell asleep at before I could practice with her.
I think that by the time I register for the next training, she will do pretty good. If Mollie sees anything in the tall grass, she will try to hop over the grass so that she can find it easier.

Mollie does have a couple of faults though,
 she likes to nip at your legs when you run, and she isn't friendly enough around other dogs.
I think that she nips because herding cattle is in her blood, and she is just trying to move us to where she wants us to go.

Waking up after a nap

If you have an active dog I would highly suggest that you train it  for agility contest because it helps your dog stay active and keeps it busy. Agility also allows for you to bond with your dog. 4-H has a non-profit program that teaches dog agility during the 4-H year and you can take you dog to the state dog show if your dog can
 meet the requirements.
I plan on showing Mollie next year so she has more time to learn what she needs to compete.

If you have any questions about the Aussie breed or the 4-H dog show, please feel free to comment with any questions. 

Mollie - my little angel

An Apology

I want to apologize to all of you for not posting anything in the last couple of months. To make it up to you, I plan on doing a post a day for the next week. If you have anything that you would like me to post about or anything I could do better please comment and let me know.
Thank you for for bearing with me,
          Christopher C

Agricultural Products Identification Contest

Recently, my siblings and I went to the Heart of Texas fair to participate in Ag Id. Ag Id stands for Agricultural Products Identification Contest which is a contest where youth go to different stations and have  to identify a produce item and answer a question about the item. Station 9 had a picture of grapes and asked which of this product is not a variety grown in Texas? The answer was Edelweiss so you would bubble in D. on your scantron. It sounds easy at first, but you have to study a long list of products and facts about each one. Also there is a lot of competition; we were competing against 45 other teams. The team that I led won 1st place senior team, my sister placed third place high point individual, and I placed high point senior individual and a scholership as well.

Texas Waterfowl Brigade

A few weeks ago, I attended the third battalion of the Texas Waterfowl Brigade. The Texas Brigades is  a four and a half  day camp where you learn almost everything you need to know about five different topics. Those topics are Buckskin Brigade (deer), Bass Brigade (Bass), Bobwhite Brigade (quail), Ranch Brigade (cattle), and the Waterfowl Brigade(ducks and geese).

This building is where the cadets slept.

The stomach/gizzard contents of a duck

The first day that I was at camp I took my hunter's education quiz and attended a short orientation. We also broke up into flocks. Then I participated in a get to know each other activity, which was very fun. After that we went outside and took a quiz on ducks, wetlands, feather types, hunting laws, plant species and much more tricky information that I did not know about. If I was scored on the test, I would not have passed. Luckily for me though, that test was just to show how much you didn't know and at the end of the camp you would retake the quiz to show how much knowledge you gained.

After that, each flock went out on the porch and performed necropsies on ducks. The importance of this was to study the duck's anatomy, learn what they ate, and their age. The duck that my flock and I worked with had been eating seeds, millet, and small pebbles. Other ducks had eaten corn, peanuts,and fish. The purpose of knowing what they eat is so that we know how to attract them and how to help them survive. After that each flock took turns visiting different stations. One station talked more about duck anatomy,one about duck breeds, one about wing identification, and so on. My favorite station was when we got to learn  about the bones and skeletons of ducks. After that, we listened to a few presentations inside and ate dinner. After we ate, we cleaned up, and went outside to participate in team building activites. After that we listened to
another talk, and went to bed.

Even though the Waterfowl Brigade was only four and a half days long, it covered too much information to explain day by day. Instead I have posted more of a summary of what I did on my 1st day at the camp. If you are interested in attending any of the Brigades you can go to their website at http://www.texasbrigades.org/  

I would highly recommend this camp to anyone who enjoys nature, animals, biology, ecology, watefrowl, public speaking, or hunting.

Colton, my assistant flock leader and I. 

Being mocked interviewed for media practice.

Car Show

My thoughtful mother knew that I have an interest in older cars and trucks, so she found where there would be would be an antique car show; which we recently attended in a neighboring town. I really enjoy vintage vehicles because of their unique style and background. If you enjoy antique cars the next car show is October 20th at  5 to 8 o'clock pm at the Seven Points Dairy Queen. Proceeds from the event will go to support the Humane Society.



My favorite antique model is either a 1954 Chevrolet truck or a 1948 Cheverolet truck. I like these model since they are both rounded on the roof, fenders, and hood. Also, they are not "rare" trucks and you can still find them for sale.

Thanks for reading this post, and feel free to comment.

Free Rice

In this post, I am going to tell you how you can feed hungry people and supply people with a daily meal, all while learning and improving your grades. All you have to do is go to freerice.com. Once, there you can choose from 8 different school subjects and it will start asking multiple choice questions for that subject. For every question you answer correctly, 10 grains of rice will be donated to people in need. For an example, I answered questions for about 45 seconds and won 120 grains of rice. That rice will go to whoever needs food. Currently, Free Rice is aiming to feed 2.5 million people in Syria each month. It doesn't get simpler than this, do you want to help feed the needy of not? Don't make any excuses for yourself, help the hungry today.

Dallas World Aquarium

Recently, we drove to Dallas and ate at one of the Pappadeaux restaurants.
 After that we went to the Dallas World Aquarium. I don't know about you, but when I think about an aquarium; I picture fish and other aquatic animals. If you come to the D.W.A. just wanting aquatics then you're in for a surprise! As you walk up to the entrance, there are cages that hold exotic birds, fish ponds, and turtles. When we got to the entry booth, we were in for another surprise that wasn't so good. This surprise was the price; it was seventy-five dollars for two adults and two children. After my family and I walked up a set of stairs felt we were transported to a whole different country.
The room we were in was huge and there were several stories. There was a waterfall going all the way down and a pond that housed a manatee, fish, and turtles.  

The first stop was kind of like the canopy of a rain forest; we could see all the way up and down. In the trees we got to see monkeys that were playing and grooming each other. You could see all types of  exotic birds which were flying around.

As you walked down a little way there was a station where you could feed birds blueberries and on the other side you could see a small type of monkey.

At the second station there was an enclosed area that had different types of birds and Golden Tamarinds. Next to this enclosure, they had a little store where you could buy inexpensive food for an expensive price. In front of this little store there was a tree that a sloth was sleeping in.

Before you got to the third station there was a insect area, and an otter pool with no otters inside.

The third station was at the bottom or the waterfall and you could see crocodiles and turtles in the pond. You could also see ducks, swans, and other birds.

When we had reached the bottom of the rainforest  we followed the map down to a different part of the aquarium. Before we walked down to our destination, we got to see below the rainforest's pond. Here, there was a full glass wall where we could see fish and a white manatee.

As we continued our walk we passed the restrooms and a theater that was not active. Next, we entered a room that had large aquariums on the walls that held  the fish from different countries. Each tank had the name of a country above and the fish that lived in that country below. In a large corner of the room was a cafe area where you could eat and watch the fish.
It was kind of hard to take pictures in here because of the lighting, so I apologize for the quality of fish photos.

After touring the Fish of the World exhibit, we moved on to the penguin exhibit. The penguin exhibit was in an outside area that had a pond with a stream for the penguins to swim in. There were only three to four penguins out so we didn't spend a long time over there. Next to the penguins was a large group of reptiles that we observed. 

Our next destination at the aquarium was the shark tank. The tank that held the sharks was a huge pool which had a tunnel that was going through the middle of it. It was an extremely neat opportunity because there were many different types of sharks that we could watch  up close but safely. The exit of the aquarium came out at the gift shop, so we looked around a little before we left.

Some of my favorite parts of the aquarium were the signs that they had telling in sharks and the open rain forest area.

Advice- 
If you are homeschooled I would recommend not visiting in the summer because it was busy the day we went. Also, I would look for discounts or coupons before going.

Garden

 I realized that I had not done a garden update recently so that is what this post is about. Here in East Texas the weather is as unpredictable as the future. Due to late spring freezes,we had to replant our garden so it's a little behind than other gardens. The produce that we have been harvesting include Collard Greens, radishes, jalapeno peppers, and soon zucchini. Some of our friends who have gardens gave produce to us so we have a wide variety of fresh produce. Mr. Doc, a former Marine has given us red onions, garlic, and spinach which we are eating in soup for lunch today.  

Two of the main benefits I enjoyed of raising a garden include fresh produce and good picture opportunities... 

4-H District Photography Contest

 At Round-Up this year, I found out how I placed at the 4-H District Photography Contest.
This year the specialty theme was 4-H so I used a picture I had of my sister's team Window Wow display last year. I took a picture of a fire my mom made for the catch-all category. A picture of my chickens in their nesting box was entered in the domestic animal category Orange roses from Fresh won in the Dominant color group. A picture of bread also at Fresh placed in the food category. I entered a picture of a petrified fish in the marine aquatic category to be different than the competition. An owl at the zoo was entered under Night Photography group. Next year if I place 1st with my pictures I will be able to advance to State with them.