Another Visit to Feederbrook Farm to Learn About Lambing

The were brand baby goats to feed and lambs to vaccinate, tag, and cuddle. Twins were born about 15 minutes before we arrived and needed to have their umbilical cords treated and their sex determined. The latter is easier than one would expect; rams are born with horn buds. Twins are common because each ewe's uterus has 2 horns. Single also occur. Triplets and quads are less common, but Lisa had one set of quads this season with only 3 surviving. Quads are generally the maximum, but some breeds regularly produce litters. We learned about the signs of approaching labor and the birth and delivery process. Lisa also discussed the requirements for tagging and registering, as applicable. She keeps detailed records on lineage to help maintain the genetic health of her sheep. Once again, it was a fascinating, relaxing, and utterly gorgeous day.

Signs of the Changing Seasons

 

Feather Details

Thanks to the EyeClops Bionicam. It is a bit challenging to focus and to keep in focus while you snap the photo. It is a cool tool; just take a bunch of photos and hope some are clear. These photos are taken of 2 flight feathers. One was tiny, only about 1.5" in length. It was also blue in color.

Future Babysitter

 

Ava Takes a Hike: Her First!

 

Birds at SERC

Complete with sock ovaries and clay feather construction.

 

http://www.audubon.org/educate/kids/This is a neat website with some fun games for all ages, migration fun is hard but neat. They also have song matching etc..(I had a bit of hard time with the quick time player on the bird song game, but the rest were OK).

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/robin/index.html American Robin tracking project. This website also has tracking you can join in with humming birds, cranes, butterflies, worms, tulips, whales, eagles, and more. Very neat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y&feature=related This will amaze you! It is a clip of the amazing Lyre bird, he's a beautiful mimic of everything from cars to chain saws. I have actually witnessed local mocking birds mimicking car alarms and backing trucks.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1189 this is a great website for introductions to birds and birding. Cornell is a great resource.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/studying/feathers/  all about bird feathers and adaptations.

http://www.thewildclassroom.com/biodiversity/birds/aviantopics/feathersandPlumage.html the first part of this web page has great info on the structure of feathers.

Ships of the Imagination Set Sail

...with one aspiring figurehead.

Making Camp...

Near a nest of dinosaur eggs.

Reality or YouTube?

Okay, we're eating clementines, which we understand are actually small mandarin oranges, and Reece decides to plant the seeds (2) that he finds. After poking them under some soil, Google (consulted to see if our anticipated outcome is at all likely) leads us to the following youtube video:

We decide to test out the process and attack the remaining clementines (affectionately known as sweethearts in our household). The 6-7 that had been jiggling around in the bottom of the carton prove to be "seedless" as advertised, so we are left to improvise. While popping the plastic container filled with peeled and sectioned sweethearts in to the frig, we unearth a lemon, which yields 8 lovely seeds.

Four, we optimistically proceed to peel as suggested in the video. This is not too difficult if you strip the skin off starting from the pointy part. Next, we plant 2 of the peeled and 2 of the unpeeled directly into a 4:1 mix of organic potting soil and worm castings. The remaining 4 are soaked for about 24 hours in water from the rain barrel. Finally, all 8 are in the soil mixture, contained in a paper egg carton, and enclosed in a green house made from an old salad mix container. They are on a window sill in a warm part of the house, and we are waiting to see what (if anything) happens.

A Bit Under the Weather

 

2nd Attempt: Successful Graham Cookies (But Not Really Worth the Effort)

 

Growth & Observation Continue

The trays as replaced...

And after 1 hour!

Observations, Reactions, Additional Experiments to Date...

2/25: The covered growing material stays wet much longer than the uncovered. As a result, we decided to cover all trays, using opaque material (tin foil) on the previously uncovered trays (which complicates the grow light treatment a bit).

2/26: The growing material in the plastic trays stay wet longer than the paper, but both remain moist over night.

2/27: The first seedlings emerge: plum and beef steak tomatoes, basil in various paper vs. plastic, clear vs. opaque, warm vs. grow light conditions; and one mixed pepper (warm, paper, clear cover). No grape tomatoes or parsley are evident.

2/28: The germinated seedlings are hitting their respective covers, and those under opaque covers are yellow. All covers are removed to allow free growth.

3/1: Seedlings previously under opaque covers are now as green as the others. All the grape tomatoes germinated overnight and are already nearly the size of the other tomatoes. So far there are no parsley and no additional peppers. All seedlings, thus far, are dicots.

3/2: All seedlings grown without benefit of the grow light lean toward the window of the sill they are located on. Kallan thinks this is because they are growing toward the light. To test this we decide to replace the trays in the opposite orientation and see what happens. Kallan wants to watch, but forgets. In only 1 hour the seedlings have turned and are once again facing the window (See photos). We are beginning to think that we might have actually be able to watch it.