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Tween Boy Gift Ideas

By: Gage5 Comments

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Hello! So you are looking for gift ideas for a tween boy…. Well I’m a tween (actually I’m 12) and a boy, so I figure I am an expert on tween boy gift ideas!  I cannot guarantee that the boy you are shopping for will go dancing around the room screaming with joy. But, I can say that I have two brothers (a ten year old … well in two weeks and a 13 year old) and they love these items too.

Tween Boy Gift Ideas

As I’ve gotten older, I started getting more into technology, things like RC helicopters, RC cars, and other things, but I still like my Legos, although now I am becoming more attracted to buildings and architecture.  Note: these are not in favorite to least favorite order, they are just random.  

Disclosure

1.  LEGO Architecture sets.  I have the White House but really want to get the Imperial Hotel!  It is huge! 

Imperial Hotel Lego 

 2.  LEGO Minecraft.  I have the Micro World set but would love to get The Village, and the Nether.

 

3.  RC helicopter (for beginners).

RC Helicopter

 4.  RC car.

RC Car

 5.  Yu-Gi-Oh Trading card game.

Yugioh

6.  Risk board game.  Our best friends just gave us this game and we love it!  

Risk Game

 7.  Cannon EOS Rebel T3i.  I know this is a big gift, but I have been showing maturity and have been taking really good care of all my electronic equipment.  We just got one for me and my brothers.  I do recommend if you get your tween/teen something this expensive, get the drop insurance too!  My mom did 🙂

Canon T3i

 

8.  Raspberry Pi (just search it)… and a guide to go with it.  This is a way to get tweens / teens programming.  My Dad is the Director of Applications for a college and they have a whole room of Raspberry pis for there students. I.Want.One!  

Raspberry Pi

9.  A subscription to a technology education site like Lynda.com.  We took photography lessons there last year and LOVED it.  We want a new subscription.  

Give lynda.com

 

10.  A friendly pet. (A turtle, cat, dog, hamster, guinea pig …  I have two turtles, 30 chickens, 3 cats, a dog and would gladly take more.  It is a great way to teach teens responsibility.  I have to feed and water my chickens and put them up every night.  My dad lets them out in the morning.  I also feed our cats.  My younger brother gives them water daily.  We also have two turtles that we both feed and take care.  We love our animals!  

Sunny Bear

I hope this list of my favorite items will help you choose a gift for the tween boy on your shopping list!  Be sure to check out my other articles… especially all my articles about my chickens!  

See ya’ soon! 

This post is linked at http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/

Meet the Chicken Snatcher

By: Gage7 Comments

 

Hello and good afternoon!

See, I told you I would be writing on Tuesdays… here I am!  I thought I would update you on Les and let you know he has been moved out to the big chicken pen and is fitting in quite well.  There are a few ladies hogging the food from him, but we are making progress. Do you remember back in August, when I told you something was getting our chickens?  This post will give you all the details and you will get to Meet the Chicken Snatcher!!!!! (cue: dramatic horror movie music here).

Meet the Chicken Snatcher

It all started back when we allowed our chickens to free range.  Regularly, we started finding piles of feathers and another chicken had vanished. One day mom walked outside and came face-to-face with a coyote (it was only about 10 feet away). So, we assumed the coyote was our culprit.  In order to protect my babies, I decided to put them back in the pens. The attacks stopped … but only for a short while.  

Disclosure

About a month ago, it started all over again but for some reason the snatcher was only going after my big chickens (Rhode Island Reds) not my round little basketballs (Bantams).  I got really serious about catching this chicken snatcher.  Dad borrowed a live trap, and we put it by the chicken’s door with cat food in it.  For several days… nothing.  No food gone.  No trap triggered.  Nothing.  Then, one evening as I was putting up my babies, I happened to catch a glimpse of a large bird flying away. The next afternoon, I decided to bait the snatcher!  I was going to leave the coop door open for the snatcher to get in… but with a twist.  

That night, when I put my babies up for the night, I put the live trap inside the coop right at the chicken door! So, when the snatcher walked into the coop, it actually would walk right into my trap.  We returned to the house to help mom get dinner ready.  It wasn’t too long before we heard Molly, our Australian Shepherd, barking up a storm and the chickens raising a fuss. We go out to investigate and my little brother, Blake yells “Oh No! We caught Nipper”.   But, as it turns out, it was not Nipper… it was a much larger bird.  

Nipper the Rooster

Chase and I grabbed a hoe and fished the trap out of the coop … but it was so dark, we really still couldn’t see what we had caught.  We yanked out our flashlights and shined them on the cage.  There it was … the Chicken Snatcher and it had the most beautiful eyes staring back at us.  This bird was huge. It was a Great Horned Owl.  

We raced back to the house to tell mom and to do some research to confirm that it was indeed a Great Horned Owl.   Once we determined that it was, we quickly realized it is on the endangered species list! So we were very careful not to hurt it… we would never want to hurt an owl anyway!  However, we had to do something to keep it from killing our chickens. So dad relocated it about 4 miles down the road from our house.  No birds were harmed this evening… not my chickens nor the owl!  

Beautiful Eyes Staring Back at us

 

One of the harder parts of being a chicken keeper is dealing with the loss of chickens precious to you.  These chickens are my pets. Being on a farm, you do get half-way used to it, but it still hurts.  

Thanks y’all  for reading all my posts!!!  See ya soon!

 

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Manic Mother

Fowl pox in the Pen

By: Gagecomment

Disclosure

Good Afternoon! Sorry I have not posted in a while.  But I am going to be catching up and starting to write every Tuesday, so be watching for my posts.  Five weeks ago when I fed my chickens I noticed one of my frizzled red roosters standing out in the middle of the walkway not going after the food. This was strange since when I feed them they normally go straight for it.  As I approached him to see why his behavior was not normal, he turned his head to look at me, and I noticed a bunch of odd lesions on his comb and wattle.  Oh no, it looks like we have Fowl pox in the pen again.

Fowl Pox in the Pen

I immediately went to create a “sick pen” for him in the garage.  I reformed the small pen out of book cases and feed sacks that we made months ago.  I filled the floor of my makeshift pen with the normal pine shavings then I added a small roost, food and water feeders and a door. Then I worked with my brothers to catch him. I gingerly put him In the temporary pen and put the wire covers on top.

Chicken Sick Pen

I had been researching this virus and it is transmitted through mosquitoes which have the disease, the only other way it is transmitted is by getting in contact with another bird with the disease. Although it is not transmittable to anything but other birds it is still reasonable to to wear safety gloves when touching or treating the bird. At first my research brought up “If you leave it alone in about 1-2 weeks it will go away” after two and a half weeks I knew that my big boy had caught a severe case of it. By then it had covered both of his eyes and he could not see to drink or eat.  We regularly set him on a plastic bowl similar to what he regularly ate out of so he just knew what was in the bowl so he pecked down and ate food. But after it had come to three and a half weeks he mostly slept.

But then I discovered something scary… if his eyes stayed closed for too long, he could go blind.  The only treatment for the pox was to put drops of Saline solution on the pox via q-tips (being very careful not to get it in or around his eye) and Triple Antibiotic ointment for his eye.  I also started spoon feeding him yogurt. After about a week his pox started shrinking!  

Then we started the wait to see if his eyes would open.  In three days one of his eyes opened and he could see out of it!  Then the lesion fell off his other eye, but the eye had remained closed. Today when I went out to check on him, his closed eye is cracked (as in cracked open, barely)!!  Hallelujah!  So he might not go blind after all! He only has a few more lesions but it is still there so he will stay in his temporary pen a bit longer. Please pray for my rooster to get better 🙂

Update:  ~~A week later~~ Les is now free of fowl pox! Another small issue arose when we put him back in the pen.  All the other chickens wanted to pick fights with him. After being around him for a few hours, everything seemed to calm down, and was able to be around them without being picked on. Then 2 days ago, I went out to find him with a bloody comb and acting very shy toward the other chickens. He was all by himself standing in the chicken house door instead of out with them. I dropped what I was doing, grabbed my baby and ran back to the garage (where his makeshift brooder pen was) I gave him clean water and more food immediately. Then, when all was taken care of, I had to sit down and think of what to do, he could not stay in the sick pen in the garage, nor could he stay in the big chicken pen because Rocky our rooster didn’t want him in there. Nor could he stay in the little chicken pen with the newly nicknamed “rooster attack force”.  Then yesterday my answer came as our oldest rooster who was in the big chicken pen passed away.  He was over 6 years old!  Now my big boy Les can move in and take his spot as “the boss”. Thank you all for praying for my big boy!!!

I decided to name him Les because of a man named Les Stroud who is best known for his television series Survivorman.

Survivor Man / Rooster named Les

 

See ya soon!

They are Laying!!

By: Gage6 Comments

Hello! Sorry I have not posted in a while I have been busy with ALL kinds of stuff from chicken accidents to school to a friend’s birthday party!  So I have not been keeping you updated on my babies.  

I have a surprise… They are laying!! Our baby chicks and teenage chicks are laying eggs!  YAY!!!  If you remember, a friend of ours, Mrs. Pamela, gave us the teenage chicks. They are Red Sex Links and White Leghorns and there are four of them. We bought the bantams from Welp Hatchery.  There are probably 15 hen bantams laying eggs. With another 15 or so roosters… anybody want some roosters?

 

Hens are a' laying

 

Here is a picture of the variety of eggs we are gathering daily. The eggs vary in shape, size, color, and weight. The biggest ones are from our Rhode Island Reds that we have had for several years. The next brown one and the two white ones are from the teenage chicks. The cute little bitty ones are from my baby bantams… but they are not babies anymore!  I have not found any itsy bitsy eggs from our Dutch, Blue Bantam chicks yet… but am expecting to find one of them soon! Can you imagine how little they will be? The smallest eggs so far are about 1.5″ x 1.25″ to the big eggs that are 3″x 2.5″. The color ranges from a white/cream color, to a reddish-brown and then just plain tan. And the shape of the eggs can range from a normal ovular shape to a pointy bullet-shaped egg. I now have to check all the boxes every day, not every 2-4 days on the bantam side, since they were not laying yet.  

My mom loves the little eggs, she was so surprised at how small they are. Speaking of small eggs… my brother, Chase, loves omelets. My dad has been joking around with Chase saying his next omelet will be a three egg omelet using the littlest eggs. We have not cooked with any yet, but we are having breakfast for dinner tonight… I’m sure my mom will have me comparing eggs and photographing our dinner.  I’ll post those pictures soon!  I am sorry I left you all waiting for another post, while all these things at my house were going on. From now on I will try to post more often. 

One final note, we have a possum or raccoon attacking our chickens, and we have lost 3 chickens including two of my favorites… Cuddles and Sunny and another barred rock, Checker, who I have not talked about before. We just borrowed a live trap to try to trap the animal. Please pray we catch whatever it is getting my babies! I’ll update you on that soon too!  

See ya soon!

My Precious Cooker

By: Trish Corlew2 Comments

 

DisclosureI’m not sure when it happened exactly, but yesterday I suddenly realized my nine-year old son is no longer just a “kid inchef hat the kitchen”, you know… being my assistant. Blake has been interested in cooking with me for years! He has always wanted to be in the kitchen helping me make anything and everything that is on the stove or in the oven! When asked what he wants to be when he grows up, for years now he has stated a “cooker”.  

This week Blake and I were cooking a Broccoli and Chicken Stir-Fry recipe (which turned out fabulous I might add)… anyway, we were in the kitchen getting everything ready. We regularly double or triple recipes because we love leftovers in our house and we have three growing boys to feed, so besides learning a life skill, Blake gets a great fraction and measurement review every time he cooks with me.  But as I was watching him gathering the ingredients, I realized he not only knew exactly where to get the ingredients from, but  he knew the tools he needed to use and how to use them and he knew how to follow the recipe.  

I watched as he gathered the cloves of garlic from the garlic/onion bin, and as he moved to pull out a cutting board and knife and proceeded to cut the ends off and slice the garlic to fit inside the mincer.  And as he leans over and re-reads the recipe to be sure that the garlic goes in at this point, my eyes follow him to the stove where he minces the garlic into the skillet and uses a knife to scrape the mincer clean! He read the recipe, knew exactly what to do, where to find everything, how to use it and without any assistance whatsoever from me! None. 

Being Montessori homeschoolers, we have always put an emphasis on practical life skills from an early age so seeing him in the kitchen is not particularly surprising… realizing he could do it without me, WAS!! I was so proud of him expertly navigating the kitchen, putting his ingredients in at the right time, and in the right amounts. Yet, to be honest it was a tiny bit bittersweet! We have now morphed into being cooking partners where we both have our own roles when working together in the kitchen! 

So, it’s official… Blake is now a cooker, my “precious” cooker!!  I am so very thankful for the opportunity to homeschool, for these times that I am fully here, in the moment, engaged and am really able to savor these experiences with my children! What an amazing blessing!! God is so good to us! Thank you Abba for these precious blessing you have given us!  

My Precious Cooker

The Cat of Bubastes A Psalm onenineTEEN Book Review

By: Chase5 Comments

The Cat of Bubastes Review

Disclosure

Hi, Chase again. Today I’m writing a review on George Alfred Henty’s The Cat of Bubastes: A Tale of Ancient Egypt.  First, I want to start off saying this book review will be a bit different from my normal reviews due to the fact that The Cat of Bubastes was written in 1888. This makes it more challenging to read and understand what the characters are saying, but if you have ever read any old books, this one should not be a problem. And, it is worth the challenge of getting used to the writing!

When Egypt conquers a faraway country, the prince Amuba, is forced to hide among the prisoners going back to Egypt. Amuba and his personal servant and friend, Jethro, wander through desert wastelands and sand for months, picking up the Egyptian language and dialect along the way.  When they are chosen to be house slaves to the high priest of Osiris, their life begins to start looking better.  The high priest does not treat them like slaves, rather like family members. His son becomes friends with the prince and they spend several happy years as a family. But when the priest’s son, Chebron, accidentally commits a terrible crime, worthy of death, the family must flee the raging country.  

This book has a great plot, but it is long, however, once you get into the meat of the book, it’s well worth the wait.  The book actually starts in a battle, and like my previous review of the book Secret of the Scribe, it also starts at a sad point for the main character Amuba. Throughout the first half of the book, you are constantly wondering why this or that little bit of random information is important. And you don’t actually figure it out until near the end of the book.  Then you finally see where each piece fits in. The whole book is like that, a puzzle, and you don’t start to see a portion of the picture until about halfway through.  At that point, you can’t stop saying “Oh, now I understand why they did that!“ or “Wow, so this is why they had to do that!”. By the time you have read to the middle of the book, you can not put it down!!  All the events up to this point in the book all funnel into this section, with a thousand individual things all pooling at once. It’s at this stage that you’re up until three in the morning, reading until you can’t even process what you just read but you can’t put the book down (which, by the way, is exactly what I did)!  

Like the first of the book, the middle is also filled with chaos, sadness, death, kidnappings, everyone being angry, basically the whole country of Egypt was in turmoil.  It reminds me of modern Egypt with its riots, mobs, leadership shifts, changes and confusion. A certain very important biblical character from Egypt makes an appearance during the middle of all this chaos. You need to read the book to figure out who!  

By the end of the book all the sad parts are behind you. I must admit, there is a small section that is not very eventful. But near the very end, the action picks back up and is just as visible as it was in the very beginning. Aside from that, there is also a happy ending, after the last bit of action passes.  Honestly, although there is a battle near the end, I still don’t think there was enough action.  I think the end was just too quick, it was too easy. Although that statement might be a little vague, it’ll make sense once you read the book. And you might not agree with me. You’ll have to read the book and let me know what YOU think and I hope after reading this review that you WILL go and read The Cat of Bubastes. When my mom first said I had to read it as a school assignment, I really hated the idea because I read mostly science fiction, and the idea of reading an old book about Egypt was NOT very appealing to me! But I have to admit I actually thoroughly enjoyed it, and I believe you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I did.  

POE Columbus Lesson 2 Our Sailboat Adventure

By: Blake4 Comments

Disclosure

For Lesson 2 of the Columbus Unit of our Paths Of Exploration study, we are learning about explorers and their ships. Mom assigned me the project of writing about our sailboat adventure a couple of years ago. This is my report on our sailboat trip.  

Our NC Sailboat Adventure

In 2010, we were visiting our granddaddy in North Carolina and rented a beach house on the beach in Emerald Isle. Close to the end of our trip, we rented a sailboat called the Good Fortune for the day. It was docked in Beaufort NC. We left Emerald Isle and traveled to the dock. There we met Captain Ron and his dog Rudder. It was his boat we were going on. We talked a little and then he had to get the ship ready. While he was doing that we explored the waterfront. Once the boat was ready, we left the dock.  Good Fortune

On the way to Cape Lookout, we saw many sea creatures like jellyfish and dolphins and red algae. We tried to get pictures of the dolphin, but we never got a good one. Captain Ron told us that this dolphin was released from Disney World and was tagged. The ride was gentle and calming I actually fell fast asleep with his dog, Rudder. When i woke up it was only a few minutes till we got to the island.

Apologia Swimming Creatures and Rudder, the dogAs we were anchoring, we were surrounded by pelicans! Captain Ron said they were looking for an easy meal. We had to ride in a dinghy to get to the island, once there we saw tiny black ovals everywhere! When we got a closer look they were actually snails… TONS of them! Then we starting exploring the island and saw an under water lizard, some crabs and a conch shell with another mollusk. Mom even brought the Apologia Swimming Creatures book for us to look up creatures we found!  

We hiked to the other side of the island and found a huge tide pool. We investigated the tide pool and swam in it… and saw that there was a sand shark in it with us! Luckily sand sharks don’t bite people. Mom spent her time shell hunting up and down the beach. She found beautiful whole conchs and many unusual shells. Dad, my brothers and I investigated some large boulders along the shore. When Captain Ron told us it was time to leave, we all were sad. We were all having so much fun on this island. 

On the way back, I stayed awake the whole time and we got to see wild horses. We were going to go to the island where the wild horses were, but we stayed on the first island too long. Once we docked back at Beaufort, i was glad to be on land again.  

I found out I LOVED sailing and want to go back again!   

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Secret of the Scribe – A Psalm onenineTEEN Book Review

By: Chase1 Comment

Psalm onenineTEEN Reviews

Disclosure

Hi, I’m Chase, I’m thirteen and I write the Psalm onenineTEEN book reviews for our homeschool blog. Today I am discussing the Secret of the Scribe – A Psalm onenineTEEN Book Review.  This book is part of the Brimwood Press Christian Theology and Ancient Polytheism curriculum that compares and contrasts ancient Near Eastern myths with Old Testament stories to teach Christian theology. This is one of four books in the “Historical Novels for Engaging Thinkers” series.  

Secret of the ScribeIn the book, Secret of the Scribe, by Jennifer Johnson Garrity, a slave girl, named Tabni, living in the palace of Ishbi-Irra lives a life of luxury and happiness, until things go horribly wrong and she must flee from her master.  She travels to Ur, where she will be safe. Once there, she has more troubles than she initially thought. Hungry and living in a hole, she must figure out how to make some money… and fast! She puts her only skill to use: her ability to write. Hiding among the male scribes, Tabni might manage to have a few customers a day, but soon, she will need more help than her wet clay and stylus can offer. When Tabni’s world begins to fall apart for a second time, she believes it’s all her fault. Her gods are angry at her, her people are gone, and all she has of a family is falling apart. Will she be able to set things right?  

The start of this book is a bit different than most books, it just jumps right in with the action already in motion and in a negative and extremely sad place. I did not like the beginning of the book much… but it does get better! My other complaint is this is a s-h-o-r-t  b-o-o-k and honestly all the author had to do was let the course of the book flow. Instead of having only one book that is one hundred pages long, she could have easily elaborated a little and made this a three book series that is several hundred pages long!  

After reading the book, I’ve come to an assumption about the author’s motivations for writing it. The author wanted to educate people about pagan religions of the past… in this case the religion of the Sumerians. The author didn’t stop there, she also introduced the language of the Sumerians to the reader. I have studied about Sumeria and Scripture, so reading a fictional book that takes place during this time, in this culture was interesting. While reading this book I learned more about the culture and religion of these people. It was a very easy read and therefore I finished it quickly so I didn’t get bored with the book. 

To summarize, overall this book is great, overflowing with interesting tidbits about the people, culture and religion of Sumeria! It’s only downside being it was only one hundred ten pages long, it was just too short. I believe the book could have been even better if the author had Tabni continuing her journey longer and with more twists and turns. But read it yourself and let me know what you think and if you agree with my review!  

BrimWood Press history and worldview curriculum for homeschool

The Ship’s Journey, a poem

By: Gage5 Comments

We are studying Paths of Exploration this summer.  We are in Columbus, Unit 1, Lesson 2.  As part of the enrichment study for this unit, my mom gave me the assignment of writing a poem about ships. So here is The Ship’s Journey, a poem I wrote for this assignment. I hope you like it! 

Cropped Sailing Ships (c.1886-1890) - Constantinos Volanakis

The Ship’s Journey By Gage Corlew

 

A ship at sea has a destiny,

whether It is to China or Italy.

A ship has no home,

it shall mostly roam.

From sea to sea they sail,

steering clear of strong gales.

 

A port sees many of these,

they sail in on the breeze.

Many travel to the Indies for trade,

of clothes from Persia, for emeralds or jade.

Many have dreamed of riches from the sea,

though very few find the mysterious key.

 

The ship’s sailors being so brave,

bob fearlessly on the waves.

And see so many beautiful views,

when out on a sunset cruise.

As the new day dawns,

They rise with stretches and yawns.

 

A boat at bay,

has a place to stay.

A ship at sea,

is almost completely free.

A ship at dock,

Will be still as a rock.

 

Many people who love the sea,

have a common silent plea…

of sailing away, 

for fun and adventures on the high sea!

 

 

 

 

Meet Nipper and Cuddles

By: Gage4 Comments

Barred Rock Cochin Bantam

Good afternoon! Today I’d like you to meet Nipper and Cuddles. They are some of my Barred Rock Cochin Bantams. Nipper is one of the most friendly chickens I have, other than… well he IS the most friendly chicken we have! He is a Big cockerel (a young rooster) compared to the other cockerels in his pin, and he has almost mastered his crow! He is quite young to have a crow that is as good as his is.  Nipper is very high on my ladies’ list of their favorite cockerels, probably 2nd, but at least 3rd. He is very protective of the ladies too! When I went out to get some pictures of him, he ran up to the door to greet me and see what was going on. Sometimes he and Rocky have crowing contests to see who is Boss. Rocky is our Rhode Island Red Rooster in the neighboring pen. But you can never tell who wins because they never get tired. His favorite lady is Cuddles, the deep black Barred Rock Cochin Bantam. I can regularly see him and her resting under their favorite maple sapling clucking to each other softly.

Barred Rock Cochin Bantam

Nipper will sometimes play hide ‘n seek with the other chickens and me. He likes to act like the boss around the ladies and will walk around kinda’ like he is patrolling the area. Sometimes he will leave bread scraps for the others and just eat the normal food. Other times he will bring some scraps to the ladies. When it is time to put themselves up in the evening, he starts crowing saying BED TIME!!! And in the morning he does the opposite, MORNING TIME!!! Nipper is my second favorite cockerel we have, and my favorite is… well that is another post. 

See ya soon!

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The Chicken Chick