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

Our dog Max

Max as a puppy.

 We got our dog Max at Canton Trade Days (which is a flea market) in the animal area. We weren't looking for a dog.We were there getting rabbit cages for our rabbits, when we were leaving a man came and asked if we wanted a puppy. He showed us a pen where he had Max and other puppies penned. While Dad was coming ( he had fallen behind), Mom had picked   Max up and was walking to the car. A few minutes later, we were at Walmart buying puppy food, a collar and a new food bowl. One of our neighbors had told us that if the people at Canton Trade Days couldn't sell or give the dogs away they would  drop them of by the side of the road.

Now almost a year later, I was bathing Max to prepare him for the 4-H Dog o' Rama which is where you bring  your dog and trainers show you and your dog how to do skills needed to show your dog. The classes included Rally, Obedience, Showmanship,and Agility. Max got into a fight with another dog, so I got to use one of the trainers' dogs. One of them was a Schnauzer mix. It was hard to do showmanship with it, because it was little and you had to kneel down to set it up. The other dog was a Shetland Sheep dog named Bubba. It was super easy to do agility with it because it was already trained. In between classes, there were individuation classes where you had to name dog breeds and items used for
showing dogs. I had a great time and look forward to
doing it again. 

Henderson County Livestock Show

    April ninth to the fourteenth has been the Henderson County Livestock show. Here at the Livestock show I showed several of my animals and projects which I've been working most of the year on. April tenth we brought all of the animals we were showing (we didn't bring the broilers as they came another day). After we got all of the animals in their pens with food, water, and bedding we went to look at the other chickens, goats, and lambs. 

The next day when we were done with taking care of the animals my sister and I along with our friends showed goats. I got DEAD last with Houdini (because he didn't weigh enough). But I got fourth place in my class with Rusty. My sister did pretty good with her goat Hearts also. Then we went to look at the rabbits we ended up taking two of the Grand champion wining rabbit’s babies’ home. That night we got to see the results of how our projects did. I got two red ribbons, nine blue ribbons, four best of selection ribbons, and two best of show ribbons.

The next day after taking care of our animals, we showed our broilers. I made the second cut but then I lost. There were tons of broilers this year. Soon as the broilers judging was over, the poultry judge started his judging. Then, we looked at the rabbits again and bought two more rabbits. After that we ran and brought all of the projects home that we weren't selling. Next, we went back and saw how I did with my chickens. I got Reserve Grand Champion for my breeding poultry, Reserve Grand Champion for my quail, first place with my bantam rooster, and third & fifth with my bantam hens. Lastly, I got second place with my large hen. 

Then, after everything we went to help get the projects that people were selling ready for the auction. After hours of waiting, (we were on one of the last pages) my sister and I auctioned of our items. I ended up selling my cactus planter to a man who owns one of the feed stores that we use for three hundred and  seventy-five dollars. I sold my cross mosaic picture for thirty-five dollars. Then after feeding the animals we went home.

The following day, after feeding the animals their breakfast we had to sadly take Houdini and Hearts to the floor which means I had to sell him to a meat processor it was extremely sad. Then I sold my quail to a man who said he was going to release them. After that, we met some of Andrews’s friends that we haven't seen in a long time. Next, we showed them around and when the tour was over we ate lunch. To end the day I sold my goat rusty for six hundred dollars plus add-ons. Lastly, we took our animals that we have left home. 

                                         

Legos

This morning I built this super cool Deep sea fish Lego which I got from my cousins. The fish is a creator Lego which means it can be made into different things. The things you can build with it besides the deep sea fish are a dinosaur and an alligator . It was one of the easier Lego items to build because it’s smaller. The hardest was the alligator because he is the biggest. The deep sea fish is one of my favorites to build out of all of them because I can use it with my Lego boats and light house. One reason why I don't like it is because you can only build one thing at a time since there aren't enough pieces to build all of them. Out of one to ten I'd give them an eight.



















   

Redtailed hawks

  We went to the John Bunker Wetlands Center for a field trip, while we were there we saw five red -tailed hawks get released at the  Wetlands. The lady who released the birds had a rehabilitation center called the Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center where she and staff doctor  release wild birds and other animals. After she released the hawks, she told some interesting facts about hawks. Here is what I learned.

• The male hawks are smaller than females
• A Red -tailed Hawk can spot a mouse from a height of 100 feet.
• Red-tailed hawks live in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
• Red-tailed hawks usually live 6-7 years in the wild.
• The female lays one to five eggs each year 
• They are most common hawk in the United States 
• The scientific name for the red-tailed hawk is Buteo jamaicensis.
•  The Red-tailed Hawk is known in the United States as the "chickenhawk," though it rarely preys on chickens. 
•  When threatened by a human intruder, a Red-tailed Hawk will generally flee rather than defend its nest.  
• I hope you learned alot of interesting facts.                                                                                                                                          

4-H Project show

A buff laying hen,

My siblings an I have been working on our Project show entries. The 4-H Project show is where you can show animals and you can enter something you made like a food, model, collections,and other cool items. This year I'm showing goats , broilers , Quail Bantams, buff laying hen, and 13 projects. Rabbits you show in 4-H fall into two categories, market and breeder. Last year my sister and I showed Castor Mini Rex breeder rabbits. This year I had to get rid of our rabbits. So I was hoping to get some market rabbits because if you win you can sell. them. The rabbits sell pretty high so I could cover all my cost with all the animals I'm showing.  Sadly, I wasn't able to get any to show.  But there is always next year.  My 4-H chicks have been growing a lot. These are some pictures of how they've grown. We got some more chicks that we will raise for eggs. They are Buff Orpingtons too.   

My black bantam hen.

Buff chicks.

East Texas Arboretum

     

   Why I love the East Texas Arboretum.

The Arboretum has more than one hundred acres of gardens, historic buildings, play areas, and wooded hiking trails. The historic buildings include the Woffard house which is an 1850 house that was moved to the Arboretum and there it was restored as a museum. Also they have a replica of an 1870 little red school house. The East Texas Arboretum has 2 miles of wooded walking trails which are fun to walk. Another reason why I love the East Texas Arboretum is that I can take lots of pictures there. ALL these pictures on this blog post I took there. The top two pictures I entered in the 4-H photo contest.