Trip to the Beach

Trip to the Beach

In August, our family went to the beach in Sandestin, Florida. The sand was awesome and white. I liked to run in the sand, play volleyball, build sand castles, and play in the water. We also had a nice swimming pool at the condo. One time,  Erin and Joshua were in the hot tub.  I was going to get in and I startled Erin!  Lol  We had a great time!

 

Me in the pool

A Deer Named Rose

A Deer Named Rose

This summer we had a beautiful garden in our backyard.

Someone had been sneaking in our backyard and eating all our plants. They ate the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, zuchinni, roses, and others flowers. Guess who it was......? 

We discovered it was a deer that was jumping our fence and eating the plants. Her name is Rose. The other deer are named Bucky, Flower, and Bambi.  We have seen around 20 deer in our neighborhood this summer! We have also noticed that we have people that leave corn out for the deer.  The amount of deer is starting to become a problem. 

Bucky

 

~ Zhanna

~Flowers

This spring our yard is full of flowers!  Here are a few pictures I took of our yard.

~Zhanna

The baby birds hatch.

After 2 weeks, the eggs hatched!  At first, the baby birds were small and fuzzy.

As they grew, the birds got bigger and grew feathers.

The mom and dad bird came to feed them several times a day as the babies grew. When they came with food, the baby birds would stick their heads up and open their mouths. After 2 1/2 weeks in the nest, they all left the nest!

We now have a empty nest and are curious to see if they come back.

~  Zhanna

House Finch

I found a bird with a nest in a fern plant on my patio 2 weeks ago. After looking on the internet, we decide it is a house finch.  It laid 6 eggs. The bird laid one little, blue egg each night in the nest. 

When I come out on patio sometimes, the mother
bird flies away in a nearby tree and when I'm gone she comes back to the nest.  We learned it will take 2 weeks for the eggs to hatch.  I'm excited to see the baby birds.  More pictures to come.

By Zhanna Linscombe 

Painted Lady Butterflies

Painted Lady Butterflies

A couple of weeks before Easter, we received some caterpillars in the mail from a friend.  They arrived in a container with food for them.  After 7 to 10 day, they stopped eating and climbed to the top of the container. 

They hung upside down and turned into Chrysalides.

Unlike a cocoon, which had a silk covering, a chrysalis has a smooth, hard, outer covering also know as a pupae.

After another 7 to 10 days, the Painted Lady Butterflies emerged right before Easter in their butterfly habitat.  I enjoyed letting them fly away.

By Zhanna

Equine Sports Medicine & Surgery 

On March 12,  2013 about 20 from our 4H group participated in a tour of  Equine Sports Medicine and Surgery  in Weatherford. Equine Sports Medicine and Surgery helps about 75 horses a day and has several doctors on staff.

We saw a very cute foal that was one-day old.  Another foal we saw was about 3-days old and was walking and nursing on the mare.  We found out the mare was a surrogate.

In another barn, we observed a horse dentist pulling 2 teeth on a sedated horse that was standing up.  He had to put a different kind of bit in the horse's mouth to keep it open. The dentist's tools were very large!

The Equine hospital performs surgeries on horses. One horse we were observed had colic. First, the doctors put the horse to sleep (sedated it).  Once the horse is asleep, they need to get it on the table. This was very cool! They lifted the horse up with a pulley — by his legs, upside down! The pulley moved it over the table and lowered the horse down slowly. The nurses shaved and cleaned his belly really well, and then they put "gloves" over all his hooves! Then the doctor's started the surgery. I saw the first cut and I saw the doctor put his hand inside.  We had to leave at that point.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is offered there and they have been successful with treatments for horses. 

I learned a lot on the tour. Here is their website if you want to learn more about the center.:  www.equinesportsmedicine.com

~Zhanna