Aviculture Obsessed Homeschooler Badge

Okay, I have a Musings From Neville's Navel badge, so I decided to make my own.  Put it in your sidebar or wherever you want on your own blog.  Here it is.

My Badge (Yes, It Says Aviculture Obsessed Homeschooler)

Chrysalis Cam

Today Big Dog, Little Thing and I found a chrysalis.  It has a butterfly or moth in it.  You can see through the chrysalis and the butterfly/moth is orange.  We're going to keep it in this butterfly habitat we have until it hatches.  Then we'll release it.  I'll try and add a new video of the chrysalis each day.  To see the videos click on Chrysalis Cam tab at the top of the page or click here.

Frist Center

Yesterday, we went to the Frist Center.  The two exhibits were "Woman On the Run" and "A Divine Light".  "Woman On the Run" was a very interesting.  The exhibit was a sort of three dimensional art.  You went around this "hotel" and you actually got to go through one of the rooms.  It was meant to sort of be like a 50's or 60's thriller movie.  There were little videos and things like that in the windows of the faux motel.  It was really cool.  You can check out the "Woman On the Run" blog by clicking here.  "A Divine Light" was a Renaissance art exhibit.  Of course, it was Renaissance art, so it was all religious.  It was really cool to see such old paintings, though.  They were really realistic.  Okay, so the Frist Center's children's mascot is Swifty the eagle.  On their website, it used to say Swifty was a baby eagle, but baby eagles don't have white heads and tails.  Bald Eagle eaglets are spotted as babies.  They don't have the plumage of a grown eagle like Swifty.  I'm glad they removed the baby eagle thing from their website.  That was bugging me.  Now it just says Swifty is the mascot.

A Painting From the "A Divine Light" Exhibit

"Woman On the Run"

Swifty the Eagle

My Red Hair!!!

Okay, so my hair has dried, and the red looks fantastic.  We washed the dye out of my hair with cold water, and I could already see the red.  Now that it's dry, the red is really bright.  While I was looking on the Manic Panic website, it continued to say that the best results are on bleached hair.  Well, guess what?  My hair isn't bleached, and it looks wonderful.  The ends of my hair are ultra bright!  I love it!!!

My Hair (While Wet!)

Before

After



Big Dog Shooting His Dart Gun

Okay, so this is an interesting video.  Big Dog had me take a video of him shooting at a beach ball with his dart gun.  If you watch the window in the background, you can see Kenai pass in front of the window (he had run off).  It's right before Big Dog says, "Oh, a screwed up shell."  By the way, if you're having trouble seeing the video, press the button that has arrows pointing in four different directions.  That will make it full screen.



Red Hair

Okay, my blue streak is pretty much worn out, so now I'm doing the ends of my hair with Manic Panic Rock 'n' Roll Red.  Originally, I was going to do Vampire Red, but decided otherwise.  Currently, I'm letting it sit.  M used a hair dryer to heat my hair once she had it in the foil, so the color will be brighter.  The red should be brighter than my blue was.  Well, heres a picture of me with my hair in pigtails, with the ends encased in aluminum foil.

There's a Hummingbird in the House!!!

Oh my Darwin!  The hummingbird that often frequents our feeder, we call him Creepy, flew into the house.  We had the door open so that Kenai could go to and from the backyard whenever he wanted to.  Creepy flew inside and tried to go to our Butterfly Bush.  He had one problem, though.  The window was in between him and the bush!  He kept running into the window, thinking he could get through.  "Boys, there's a hummingbird in the house!" I called.  The boys came running into the dining room.  Little Thing and Big Dog got M and D, while I ran upstairs to get my video camera.  D caught Creepy in a green net and released him outside.  Amidst the chaos, I took some pictures and a video.  Here they are.

Creepy





Water Column

M has found an interesting curriculum to go along with the A Dolphin's Tale movie.  There are different experiments, and the one we did yesterday was about bouyancy.  We made a water column to see whether different objects float or sink.  Canola oil, meringue, apple, bark, and butter floated.  Honey and a rock sank.  It was interesting.

Today

So, today I found an old headband from a Halloween past, that has bats on it.  I tried it on, and, I must say, it looked kind of weird.

Me Wearing the Headband

Then I watched Big Dog shoot at a beach ball with his double-barreled dart gun.  In the midst of Big Dog doing that, Kenai, who had broken his collar, darted in front of the house.  We could see him through the window!  It was rather odd.





Remembering Alaska

Today, I have been thinking about all of the fun things that we have done in Alaska.  It is unlike anything you could possibly imagine.  Mountain trails, wildlife, beaches covered with 5 feet of ice, mud cliff climbing, making sand cities, and rock collecting were all things we did in Alaska.  Alright, here's some pictures.

Little Thing on an Ice Slide

M at the Beach (yes that is ice covering the beach)

Us, on a Mountain Trail Called Hope Point Trail (it climbs up Mount Hope)

Standing in Front of the Summit of Mount Hope

On the Gull Rock Trail

I hope you liked the pictures!

My Typical Day: Algebra, Grammarlouges, and...Bikejoring?

Okay, so today, when I finished my school work, I got to witness Kenai and D bikejoring.  It's this cool sport, where you have a dog and they pull you on a bike.  It's really cool.  Alright, here's a video of D and Kenai bikejoring.

Ready to Go

M's Finished Apple Pie

Yay!!!  Right now, I'm eating a slice of M's apple pie.  It's delicious!  I'm so happy!  Alright, I know it's kind of weird that I'm posting about a pie, because M makes us a dessert almost every night (key lime pie, red velvet cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate pie, etc...).  However, this pie is soooo good.  Mmm.  Okay, here's some pictures of it.

Yummy!

I want my slice!

Mmm.  Time to eat!

Wednesday Group

I went to this new group on Wednesday, which was really fun.  It was at a park with an interesting playground that's paint was peeling.  It was very cool looking, because it looked kind of like tie dye.  Anyway, I had a really good time.  We'll be going back next Wednesday, unless it rains.  Even then, we might still go!

Apple Pie

As of now, I am sitting here, typing and licking a brown sugar-butter mix off of a spoon.  It is sooooooo good.  If there were milk in this, it'd be caramel.  Anyway, M is making an apple pie!  Mmmmm.  I can't wait.  It's going to be very yummy.  Okay, she's almost done getting it ready, so I've got to take a picture.  Alright, I'm back.  Here's a picture of the pie, as of right now.

I'll post pictures of the finished pie, when it's done baking!  :)

FAQ's About Me

Okay, so I decided to do an FAQ for no special reason.  Here it is.

Q: What states have you lived in?
A: Alaska and Tennessee. Currently, I live in Tennessee.

Q: What did you do in Alaska?
A: Well, I climbed mud cliffs, made zen gardens in the sand, made sand cities, hiked alot, and collected rocks.

Making a Zen Garden

On a Mud Cliff

Q: What was your absolute favorite place to go in Alaska?
A: The Sealife Center, of course!

                                                        A Puffin Swimming Underwater

Q: What do you like to do in Tennessee?

A: I like going on cave tours, climbing trees, and hiking.

In a Cave

Big Dog and I are ready for some spelunking (caving)

Q: Is Avi your real name?

A: No, it's a pseudonym.

Alright, if you have a question I didn't answer, please write it in the comments and it will be answered.

Co-Op

Today M, Big Dog, Little Thing, and I went to our co-op.  It's at this park with a playground, tennis courts, basketball court, and baseball field, so we basically just played alot, but we'll be doing classes there soon enough.  It was really fun!  We played kickball, football, and tag.  I can't wait for next time!

Fun Outside

Today M worked on our path and weeded the strawberry garden, and D worked on putting supports in the chicken coop.  We took the chicks over to the strawberries and kept them out there all day!  We had lots of fun.  The chicks foraged, eating ants, dead bees, and grasshoppers.  Anyway, I just looked at the NaBloPoMo website, and today's prompt was If you could return to a place you once lived, where would it be?  Alaska, of course!  Only for a little while though, not forever.



NaNoWriMo

I have entered NaNoWriMo, which is National Novel Writing Month.  The goal is to write a whole novel in the month of November.  You set your own word count goal and everything.  It's awesome!  I can't wait.

My Newly Blue Hair

We finished dying a blue streak in my hair!!!  It looks awesome!  Even though my hair is naturally a very dark brown, the blue showed up great.  After shampooing my hair, and letting it dry for a few minutes, M used a tint brush to apply the dye to my hair.  Once she had gotten a good amount in my hair, M wrapped the strip in aluminum foil.  I already had saran wrap wrapped around my ears, and petroleum jelly on my scalp, so I wouldn't end up with blue skin.  After about 30 minutes, M washed my hair out in the sink.  Later, once my hair had dried, voila!  Blue hair.  It looks great, and I'll be quite happy to have the streak for a month!  Alright, here's a picture of me, all wrapped up in saran wrap and aluminum foil.

Letting the Dye Sit

Blue Hair



Blue Hair

I finally got tint brushes, petroleum jelly, and saran wrap, so I can dye a blue streak in my hair!  The dye in Manic Panic Shocking Blue hair dye.  It's semi permanent, so it only lasts a month.  Yay!

Even More Rain

The rain has continued.  Puddles are everywhere, and the ground outside has been turned to mush.  We had to reinforce the chicks set up with wood, and put straw inside, but that's not all.  Our Bradford Pear tree split!  The front half just broke right off!  Well, anyway, here's some pictures of the pear tree and the rain.

Our Bradford Pear

Big Dog Pointing to a Puddle

The Rain



NOVA Program Part 1

Right now (9:00 p.m. my time), I am watching part 1 of a three part NOVA program about how people have come to be.  It's very interesting.  Wouldn't it be neat if we could see what our relatives and other creatures no longer living, like dinosaurs, looked like?  Without being eaten or anything, that is.  Please leave your thoughts.

Chicken Project

7th grade is awesome!  Today I did a chicken project with Big Dog and Little Thing.  We watched a video from the Museum of Science and Industry Chicago of a chick hatching.  We had already read a Life Cycle of a Chicken book, so the video tied in with the book.  After the video, we made a little display out of two folders glued together.  Little Thing colored some chicken coloring pages that I got from http://www.first-school.ws/theme/animals/cp_farm/cp_chicken.htm, and we cut those out and glued them to the front and back of our display.  Big Dog researched four of our seven chickies, and I researched three, since he wanted to do the extra one.  We cut out pictures of our seven chick breeds (Buff Orpington, Australorp, Ancona, Dominique, Welsummer, Columbian Wyandotte, and Speckled Sussex) and wrote three factoids about each chick beside the pictures.  Finally, Big Dog and I made an egg flip through thing that showed the color of the eggs each chicken will lay.  We also made pockets that held a breed appearance card for each chicken.  I think it went together well.

front cover of the chicken project

inside of the chicken project

back cover of chicken project

Ah, Rain

Because of Tropical Storm Lee, where I am in Tennesse is getting, and going to continue to get, quite a bit of rain.  Usually, this would cause a problem with baby chicks, but, even though ours are only eleven days old, they have grown lots of feathers and are very tough.  We have been raising them outside in a big metal tub in our chicken coop.  I've been turning on a red heat lamp mounted to the tub at night, when it's cool.  We have a red thermometer to tell us the temperature (when chicks are only a couple days old, they are supposed to be kept at 95 degrees Fahrenheit), but we mainly just watch the chicks behavior.  They've gotten to where they are far more advanced than normal chicks, however.  We had to think of a new set up for the chicks, though, because Trooper and Dorable jumped out!  Our new set up is made for the rain, and lets the chicks decide where they want to go.  One corner of the coop has metal siding on all sides with a hole to enter, so we set up the brooder light there and filled the corner with bedding.

Fearless

Lello

Little Thing with Lello, Canoli, and Serene

Greetings

Hello, I'm the Aviculture Obsessed Homeschooler, or Avi.  This blog is about my adventures in homeschooling and aviculture.