Our garden

Today we are working on a garden. Last year was a drought and all of our plants died. This year our pond came up and we got lot of rain. So we are trying to plant another garden. My awesome Dad has been discing and tilling our garden which means that he is breaking up the dirt and getting lumps out. This year we have already got tomatoes, eggplant, squash, peppers (bell peppers and jalapeno), cabbage, lettuce, onions, cucumber, spinach, and strawberries. Also we got watermelon, radish, and gourd seeds. Lastly we got a few pear, peach, and apple trees not counting blueberry bushes. I can't wait till the garden starts producing vegetables. So far we planted our onions and eggplants. I hope we can plant the rest soon.




A garden disc which hooks on to a tractor.

Dad tilling.

4-H broiler chicks

On leap day my sister and I got 26, one day old broiler chicks.  We had to dip their beaks in water and chick starter feed because they were so young they had not eaten or drank before. Broilers are meat chickens that grow much faster than regular chickens, because they are raised for meat. One of our chicks (band number 32778 ) had a had a problem with it's leg. We could tell it had a problem because the other chicks were picking on it. When we checked on it we found out it had part of the egg sac twisted around its leg. My dad was able to cut off the sac. When the operation was over we put in a separate pen so we could watch it heal and to make sure the other chicks wouldn't pick on it. It has been a few days now and the chick is doing well. He is learning how to walk again and acting like the other chicks.
  
   When raising chicks, you need to put them in a large box or a container lined with shavings. We are keeping our chicks in a small plastic kiddie pool. Over the container that their staying in, you need to keep a heat lamp on them at 90 degrees and lower the temputre by 5 degrees each week. You should always give them cotstant feed and clean water. Every chick has a silver band on their wing so they can be indentified properly. I hope you learned how to raise broilers.

 My brother Andrew with his favorite chick.

Game chicks

Guess what's in this picture?   
They were 5 to 6 days old when I got them and only about an inch and a half tall. Now they are 15 days old and have grown an inch. They are very fast growers. In fact, they start laying eggs when there are only 8 weeks old! I got my chicks to show in the 4-H  Henderson County Livestock Show.  These are Jumbo Brown Coturnix quail.  


Quail are game birds. Too show quail, you get 1 male and 3 or 4 female adult quail and put them in a pen together.  The judge will come and  judge them. So they're fairly easy to show. The main work you have to do is keep them fed and watered. You need to keep their pen clean and warm. I work with them daily to get them tame and check their health. We were keeping them in our laundry room but they started to try to fly and jump out. Whenever they got out, they would start cheeping loudly. Now we moved them to a bigger pen in my dad's building.

I will keep putting updates here as they grow.

Huddling together in the box we brought them home in.

Where did everybody go?

District Food Show

When I went to district with my Applesauce Oat muffins , I won 1st place. There were 10 to 15 people that had won at their county  and moved on to District I competed against them and won First place with a perfect score. Also, I entered Ag  Id which is a new 4H contest where you have to identify agricultural

products from Texas and know information about them I won 1st place in that too. To find out more about the food show click here .

4-H Photography

Each year 4-H has a Photography Contest and my sister and I both entered it this year. After looking through hundreds of pictures that I took I found these. The hard part about the photo contest is you can only enter one picture per category so I wasn't able to enter all of mine. These are the pictures I entered. Which one is your favorite? 

Tyler Post office

My Mom organized a field trip to the Tyler Main Post Office on Martin Luther King Blvd. During the tour, I learned that each of the mail carriers get up at 4o'clock in the morning and leave at 7p.m. When the mail carriers get there, they have this orange cart with mixed mail from their route that they sort by putting the mail in little boxes in an area like a cubical. Once they get all of the mail sorted, they take it to their vehicle to deliver it to peoples' mail boxes. The strangest item they have delivered was a snake. When they receive chickens in spring they keep them from crowing by putting them in a dark room. I also, learned that they've raised the price of stamps up to 45 cents. I had a good time and learned a lot of information. My Mom found a Postal Pack which had lots of information about the history of the post office. I learned a lot and had a good time. 

Veterinary Science Program

I'm in my county's 4-H Veterinary Science Program. Which is a 5 year curriculum-based program that includes 100 lessons and 50 activities to get kids interested in veterinary medicine with the opportunity to work with professionals in the field. In the program you can get to tour veterinarian's practices, after you tour the vet's office you have to write a report about what you learned and answer some questions. If you want to read my report about are tour to Morton Small Animal Clinic read on.

        Our tour to Morton’s Small Animal Clinic.

      

                                                                                

              During our tour to Morton’s Small Animal Clinic, I learned about the different rooms in a small animal practice. The first room we saw was the waiting room.   They had separated the room in half one side for dogs and the other side for cats. They had a scale on the dog side so they could weigh the dogs when they came in. Second, we saw the examination rooms where the veterinarians and the veterinarian assistants would treat the animals for illnesses and give check-ups.          They had two rooms for dogs and two for cats. In the first dog room, the exam table could lower and raise heavy dogs. Also, we saw the otoscope for checking the ears, the ophthalmoscope for checking the eyes, a stethoscope and the thermometer for taking the temperature. Then, we went to a hallway that was connected to the exam rooms so the vet could easily enter them. Also they keep medicines here in the cabinets.

   Next, Mrs. Vicki took us to see the kennels where they keep patients and boarders. The first room had small cages, which they keep small dogs and cats in. In the big kennel there were bigger cages for big dogs. If you wanted to board your dog you would have to make sure your dog was up to date on his shots. The staff walks each dog twice daily, they check to see if your dog has fresh food and water. Then, we toured the X-ray room where the veterinarian Dr. Morton Jr. taught us about X-rays. We got to see an X-ray of a dog who had got stepped on by a horse.  X-rays are important because they help the vets see where the animal broke or fractured a bone. Next, we got to see the surgery room. After they told us a little information about the surgeries that they perform, I found out that they do around four surgeries a day. I also learned that there most unusual patients were a pet tiger, and a fish from the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center. Lastly, we went and heard Dr. Morton Jr. tell us how he became a vet. Before we left we got a bag with pamphlets and dog treats in it. I had a great time and enjoyed the tour.

BY Christopher