A few weeks ago we were looking for a billy goat on craigslist. We wanted one so that next year we could hopefully be milking our goats and have more baby goats. We found one and my dad immediately called the guy who was selling it, even though he was at work. The guy said that we would be able to pick him up in about two weeks. Two weeks later we were going to pick up our new goat. My mom, McKinley, and I all went because my dad had work and Kennedy had gymnastics. 
Today I’m giving you a different type of update. Normally when I update you I tell you about the animals and the garden but there are other projects we have that I haven’t talked about on here.
I mentioned that My mom has decided to home school us in one of my previous posts. We needed an area to actually do the homeschooling though. We decided on our basement that was currently being used as a toy room. We are going to keep part of it a toy room, but honestly we never used it. The walls down there are a yellow color. My mom said that she couldn’t stand the color so now we are in the process of painting it a very light blue. As of this morning we are going to move our desks by the window. But as of yesterday we were going to put legs on a shelf that we took down. We had several Ideas before that, so I will let you know when we have actually done something. I’m still planning on posting an article on curriculum but it might be a little while.
Since my mom is going to be home schooling us she won’t have job so we are trying to find something we could use as a second source of income. We don’t really have any reasonable ideas but we are working on it.
Before we painted the basement we painted my youngest sister, McKinley’s room. She love pink and Minnie Mouse so we painted on wall of her room pink, and we added glitter to the paint. The other walls we left the same gray color they were before.
My little sister also has a chair in her room. We got it and one other one that is in my room for free because they didn’t sell at my grandmas auction. They both are from the 90’s one is orange and one is yellow. I am planning on reupholstering them but I have no idea how or what fabric I should use.
I think that’s all the things we are doing around my house so that’s all I’m writing today. I will have another post up on Thursday!
In last Mondays I mentioned that the ducks got out of there pen AGAIN. Today I am going to elaborate. A few months ago me and my dad built a chicken (duck) tractor. It has a rectangle base made of PVC pipe, with 8 thinner PVC pipes arching to the top on each side. On the top we connected each PVC pipe with a connector in the shape of an x or a +. In the front we used some wood to make a frame for the door. The door is actually a sliding door also made of PVC pipe. Then we wrapped the whole thing in deer netting in way that would give some people a heart attack. We fastened the deer netting to the PVC pipe with zip ties.
After we thought we completed the chicken (duck) tractor we moved it off our driveway so we could drive on it. As we were moving it we realized quickly that it was getting torn on weeds and the deer netting wasn’t going to work. We didn’t want to get rid of the deer netting though so my dad just wrapped the bottom in steel mesh. Problem solved.
With our chicken (duck) tractor completed we caught the ducks with a net. This net was made of left over deer netting, a branch from our sumac trees, and some zip ties. I think we chased these ducks around for over an hour before we eventually caught them all. A day goes by and everything is going smoothly and then one of our ducks, Mia escaped. We checked the tractor and there didn’t look there were any holes. Then it turns out Mia had a nest she was sitting on so we figured she got out from pure determination.
The next weekend my parent had to both leave town. (this was actually the weekend my dad went to get the bees) Since my parents were gone my grandma stayed with us. This weekend happened to be rainy and windy, but we still decided to go to a few greenhouses. When we got back we saw ducks all over our backyard. I went to go look at the chicken tractor and it had moved a few feet. This led us to believe that the chicken tractor had blown in the air long enough for 10 ducks to run away. After my dad got back we moved the chicken tractor back to it’s original spot. Because we never wanted it to blow away again, we staked it down. So now it won’t tear and it won’t blow away. So now the ducks can’t get out.
It took us a few months to catch the ducks again. Long enough for three of the ducks to hatch more ducks. But after we did finally capture the ducks once again, we woke up to find that some had escaped. My dad inspected the chicken tractor and as he did so he witnessed one of the ducks break free. That is how we learned that they were getting out where the deer netting ended and the tarp began. To fix this problem we added chicken wire everywhere we put the deer netting since that wasn’t working. ( I know we should’ve noticed that when it tore on the weeds) Now we are in the process of adding a bunch of zip ties to secure the chicken wire, steel mesh, the tarp, and the PVC pipes. I hope that the ducks will not be able to get out of the improved chicken tractor and I will let you know if they do.
When you go to the store you see lots of meat from cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys. You never see rabbit meat though, and rabbit is actually better for you than all of the other four. I know some people may think it’s weird or cruel, but in reality it’s just like eating stake and chicken wings. Except rabbit meat is better for you. Compared to, cow, pig, chicken, and turkey rabbit has the most protein and the least amount of fat. If I haven’t convinced you already rabbit also has several vitamins including E and B12. My family is considering raising meat rabbits next year which is why I decided to write this post. This is a really short post but I don’t need to say anything else. This was simply to inform you about rabbit meat.
You’ve probably heard by now, bees are dying. We recently got bees at my house, if you would like to read more about that I have another post about them. There are over 20,000 species of bees, 4,000 of them are native to the United States. Today I’m going to talk about why they’re dying and why it’s important that they don’t. I also will address how you can help.
There are many reasons bees. One of them is fire. In some places we are intentionally burning areas of land to get rid of growing plants so we can plant new plants. This has many benefits but it can also destroy bee hives. Pesticides used on farmland also kill bees. Because of global warming bees are dying from high heat as well. There are many more things that kill bees, but I could only talk about a few.
The answer to this question is simple, they pollinate our food. As you most likely know the earth contains several intertwined ecosystems. When one part of an ecosystem is endangered or extinct it throws off the whole system. The same is true for bees. Bees are the main pollinators in the United States. If they go extinct our food will not grow as it would if there were still bees. If there were no bees more of earths population would go hungry.
The most obvious answer to this question is plants. Certain flowers are really good for bees, and can help them get the pollen and nectar they need to survive. Some of the best flowers for bees are bee balm, echinacea, black eyed susan, and even dandelions. I have a whole other post about how great dandelions are. One other really important thing you can do is learn more abut bees and what they need, and then share it with others. If you really want to protect the bees you can start your own garden. This will help because then you won’t be using pesticides that are used to grow vegetables form the grocery store.
Where I live there are a lot of dandelions. In the summer some people’s lawns look more yellow than green. My mom and I have arguments over if these yellow flowers are good or bad. Like my mom many people find these flowers annoying, and while they are a weed they’re actually really good for you and your lawn. Dandelions are very nutritious, and almost every part of the dandelion is edible. The only part you would want to avoid is the flower stem, This contains latex. They have a lot of vitamin K, vitamin A, and vitamin C. They also have folate, potassium, and calcium. There may be some side effects to eating dandelions so I strongly encourage you to do your own research. You may have too many dandelions to consume though and that’s fine, because these actually help your lawn in several ways. The roots spread out a lot which helps to prevent erosion and because they are perennials they don’t have to establish new root systems every year. They also release calcium into the soil for other plants to use. Calcium is essential for all plant but it really helps a lot of plants you would find in a garden. Then again there seeds spread fast and they will come back year after year, so you may not want them.
My sister, Kennedy wanted to post one of her pictures every Tuesday. This week is the first official week of Kennedy’s Weekly Photo.
