Belle playing with Ben and Nikko (Ben's cousin) in the snow.
Carrizozo snow the day after Christmas. About 20 miles outside of town the snow just disappeared. That was nice for our drive home!
Amber and Benjaman. It was so good to see you!
I finished another afghan. This is a shell stitch and is super easy even with all the color changes. It took me about 3 months.
We're finally getting eggs! Right now I'm getting between 8 and 11 eggs a day. I have 16 new layers, but I don't know if they will all start laying this fall. Usually production drops in the winter because the number of hours of daylight tell a chicken what time of year to lay and when to go broody so she can raise chicks. A chicken lays an egg about every 25 hours unless something upsets her or she's sick. Chickens are born with all the eggs they will lay for their entire life. Once a chicken starts to lay there are always eggs in various stages of growth inside her!
I haven't posted pictures or the chickens in so long! The one standing tall is my rooster. The jury is still out about whether he gets to live or not. He attacks Ben every chance he gets and he attacked the neighbor boy. I'm trying really hard to tame him because I want the chickens to be able to hatch eggs this fall and raise chicks themselves. The chickens spend hours everyday on the back porch huddled up against the glass door. Sometimes they even peck at the door! I sure enjoy watching them run around the yard!
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Jeremy Conklin, May 26,
1991 to October 15, 2008
WE
LOVE YOU JEREMY!
Funeral Chapel
Benjaman started
6th grade this year. In our
school district that is middle school.
This was our first week of school.
It turns out it was a bad week to start because we had a playdate with
friends who just back from Alaska, 2 doctor’s and 1 dentist appointments.
night after football practice. Needless
to say we didn’t get everything on the schedule accomplished.
the work to next week. Even so we had
school one night until 10:30 and 2 nights until 9:30 because we finished up
after football practice. Maybe if I
didn’t let Benjaman take so many reading breaks we’d get more done during the
day. We’re calling it a week though and
realize that next week will be better. I’m also going to be smarter about playdates and appointments.
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Ben working
Here’s our line
up for 6th grade work:
Saxon Math 6/5
Languague Arts:
Latina Christiana I
Building Spelling Skills book 6
Winston Grammar Basic finish then begin Word Works
Write Source
Social Studies:
Geography – Ultimate Guide to Geography
World History – Story of the World III
American History – A History of US
Science:
Exploring the World Through Botany
Exploring the World Through Zoology
Literature –
Battle of the Books (www.nmbattleofthebooks.com)
Art – Mark Kistler’s
Draw Squad
We also do daily
Bible reading, verse memorization and read from William Bennett’s Book of
Virtues. Later in the year we’ll be
doing a comparative world religion study.
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Botany-
form of worksheets or oral recitation and reading.
Monday: Ben
completed his Bible readings, the DVD Latin lesson, completed a Saxon lesson,
began Spelling, wrote Geography terms in his Vocab notebook, and we read part
of The Shadow Thieves by Anne Ursu.
We also visited with our friends who spent the summer in Alaska and Ben
had Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (www.abqbjj.com).
Tuesday:
lesson before his doctor appointment.
He had a yearly physical and had to get a chicken pox vaccine
booster. We were at the dr. office for
over an hour, plus the 1 hour round trip drive, it really ate a whole in our
day. We did get some reading for the
Battle done though. After football
practice Ben finished his math lesson.
I am so proud of him for doing it without complaining.
after bedtime working on school work.
Wednesday:
a Spelling lesson before we had to leave for my dentist appointment.
taking 17 x-rays! We got home about an
hour before football so Benjaman just did his first art lesson, which consisted
mostly of terms. We scrapped the rest
of the schoolwork and just watched the Olympics after football.
Thursday:
lesson, part of a Spelling lesson. We
did a Latin lesson together. He started
his Botany notebook and did some grammar and did a writing lesson.
Friday:
lined out schoolwork that he can work on independently.
Latin lesson and introduced a new Saxon lesson. While I’m gone he’ll do his Saxon work, Spelling, Grammar and
Writing. When I get home we’ll do
American History and read for the Battle.
It was a
productive week, even though we had to scrap part of the schedule.
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Football –
highschool). They had a scrimmage last
Saturday and I think they learned a lot!
They have their first game tomorrow.
Benjaman loves football! That’s
good since he has practice 4 days a week for 2 hours at a time.
October.
So, there’s our
first week of school. So far so good!
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Ben’s work area
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Bookshelves, board, supply shelf, Nintendo
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Game Shelf, computer
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Supply Closet
We just converted a
long bedroom in our house for the schoolroom.
I try to keep enough room clear in the middle of the room for the Aerobed
in case we have company. I’m so glad I
only have 1 to homeschool! Otherwise I’m
afraid I’d go nuts in this small room with more than 1 kid!
homeschooling. When we were in VA I
hated having to school at the kitchen table and pack up everything at every
meal and find a place for it!
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This is my Silver Laced Wyandotte.
shoulder. When I pick her up she walks
up my arm and settles on my shoulder.
Today was the last time.
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Apparently, my watery allergy eyes were just too much temptation
for her to handle. I actually got
pecked in the eye. I don’t think she
did any damage, but her days on my shoulder are through.
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This is Roo, my Buff Orpington rooster.
make sure he’s friendly. If he turns
mean then he has to go into the stew pot and we won’t have a roo to fertilize
eggs. He comes right up to me every
time I go in the pen and I pick him up and hold him. HE’s never pecked me!
WARNING: GROSS
CHICKEN EGG PICTURES COMING UP. THOSE
OF YOU WITH WEAK STOMACHS WON’T WANT TO SEE THIS.
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After not laying for about a month this is what Gimpy laid
today. There was also a normal, but
broken egg under it. She’s been laying
2 eggs at a time for months; she used to give us double yolk eggs.
she would go in the nest box every day.
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Benjaman and I wanted to see what was in the “egg” so we
smashed it. I tried to crack it, but
you see how thick the shell is. All I
can think of is that Gimpy is at the end of her laying cycle and several eggs
just bonded together and came out at once.
Pretty gross, huh?
