How Many Eggs?

Welcome back!

Last year the first graders enjoyed making a graph of how many eggs I collected. I thought you might like to do that, too.

Every week I'll let you know how many eggs I've collected. After 6 weeks we'll both make graphs to see which color eggs I collected the most of.

Here's a video of what happened on Sunday.

That is a lot of eggs! Silly chickens!

We find eggs in lots of different places.
We found these eggs under the wagon!

We find eggs in the feeders in the stalls, too!

• Sunday I collected 14 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and 14 duck eggs
• Monday I collected 3 brown eggs, 1 green egg, and 0 duck eggs
• Tuesday I collected 5 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs
  (I think the duck is hiding her eggs again!
• Wednesday I collected 7 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 1 duck egg
• Thursday I collected 11 brown eggs, 2 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs

That's a lot of eggs!

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Yes, we have a chicken coop.
It's not a fancy coop, but it keeps the chickens safe from raccoons and mink.
Some animals like to attack chickens while they are sleeping so
we have a coop that is strong enough to keep predators out.

Our chicken coop is a big wire cage with a locking door.
It's covered with two tarps to keep the wind out.
There are wood boards along the bottom to keep the
cold wind from sweeping underneath in the winter.

I don't know!
We try to make sure all our chickens are in the coop at night
but some of them are sneaky and sleep in the rafters of the barn.
I'll take a video of the chickens coming out of their coop and you
can count the ones that sleep inside.

Our chickens eat something called, "lay mash."
Lay mash is a specially prepared food for chickens that has
the right amount of protein for the chickens to be able to stay healthy
and lay eggs.
It looks like corn meal.

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This is a funny video because Scout likes to herd.
That's his job!

What is herding? Herding is what a dog or pair of dogs do with livestock. They can gather up a bunch of sheep or cows and move them where the shepherd wants them.

Scout thinks I want Xander to follow me into the barn. He guides Xander carefully from the gate to the barn. Did you notice that Scout made sure that Xander didn't trip on the wood on the right side of the video? That's a good dog!

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Look! All the hoops are up for the greenhouse!
There is still a lot of work to do, but this is a great start!

Animal Teeth!

Welcome back!

Your teacher told me that February is Dental Health month in First Grade.

You learned a lot about teeth this month. Strong teeth are very, very important for people and animals. Keeping them clean is an important part of keeping them healthy. Eating properly is also an important part of keeping teeth healthy and strong.

Matt used to work at Timpanogos Animal Hospital in Pleasant Grove. He used to help the techs. One of the things he got to help with was cleaning dog's teeth.

Did you know that it's important to clean your dog's teeth? Most people don't like to brush their dog's teeth because dogs hate it! We use a special treat that cleans the dog's teeth called Dentastix.

Dentists like to clean people's teeth twice a year. Dogs should get their teeth cleaned once a year.

This dog has dirty teeth. Some of his teeth are infected and broken. Dogs don't take good care of their teeth. Do you see all the yellow stuff near the dog's gums? He also has a broken tooth on his top jaw near the red plastic tie.

Are you wondering what the tube is? It goes down his throat towards his lungs and carries a special gas that keeps the dog asleep. Dogs don't like getting their teeth cleaned. People can sit in a chair and have a hygienist clean their teeth, but a dog won't do that.

Here is the other side of his mouth. Can you see the teeth that are flat towards the back of his mouth? They shouldn't be flat. Sometimes dogs chew on rocks. If one tooth breaks other teeth wear down. All the brown and yellow need to be polished off his teeth.

All clean! Can you see the spot on the right side of the photo that is missing teeth? How many teeth are missing? Check the photo right before this one.
If you look closely you can see stitches where the teeth used to be.
Those teeth were infected and needed to come out.

All clean on this side, too!

The next thing that happens is that the tube comes out of his mouth and then the put the dog someplace comfortable while he wakes up.

Here are Mile's teeth.
He's such a good dog to let us hold his mouth open so you can see his teeth!

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Misty has all her adult teeth.
Misty's teeth look different from Miles teeth.
What is different?

Miles's teeth are pointy because dogs eat meat and dog kibbles. He needs sharp teeth to chew.
Miles has teeth on the top and bottom of his mouth so he can chew his food properly.

Misty has flat teeth because she eats grain, grass, and hay. Sharp teeth wouldn't chew hay very well.
Goats, sheep, llamas, and cows only have teeth on the bottom of their mouth in the front. They have top and bottom teeth in the back of their mouth. Bottom teeth help them graze and eat hay easily. They don't chew it right away, they just bite it and swallow it. They chew it later. I'll post about how they 'chew their cud' another time.

This is Penny. We gave her to some friends so you won't see many pictures of her.
She is 1 year old in this photo. She has her "1 year old teeth" in the center.
Every year she will loose two teeth. The first two new teeth are the center teeth.
Next she will loose the two teeth on either side.
She will loose two teeth each year until she has all adult teeth in the front of her mouth.
We can tell how old a goat is until they are 4 years old by how many adult teeth they have.

Children have 'baby teeth' that fall out. Adult teeth take the place of baby teeth. You've probably already lost at least one tooth!

Baby goats have 'milk teeth' that fall out. Adult teeth take the place of baby teeth. 

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Guess what? Last week I noticed that the tan turkey was getting bigger, and bigger!
One day when I went out to the barn, this is what I saw!
The tan turkey is a Tom turkey! He's a boy!
What is different between the brown turkey and the two black and white turkeys?

Do you see the new pavers under the gate?
That's because Miles has been naughty!
He dug a big hole under the gate so he could take himself on a walk.
We live near a highway and it's dangerous for dogs to wander around by themselves.
Matt put pavers under the gate so he can't dig under the gate anymore!

What do your parents do to keep you safe?

Have a great week!

Poor Dog!

We have no idea what happened to Scout! He came in one night with a huge wound.

It was a holiday so veterinarians took the day off. Our farm vet would have come, but she was out of town as well.

We think he may have caught himself on a fence, but we don't know where because we haven't found any fencing that would have caused this. If it had been fencing, surely the goats would have wounded themselves on it long before now!

Matt cleaned it out and trimmed the hair all around the wound. He kept it clean and bandaged until we could get him to the vet on Saturday.

I was surprised that it only cost $160 to have him stitched and stapled.
He's such a good dog that he hasn't had to wear the "cone of shame" much. He only wears it at night when we can't keep an eye on him. He is very good about leaving it alone!

I'll be posting photos of the healing process as it goes along. Bryon mixed up some antibacterial spray that he has been developing in the lab. We're pretty sure it will help it heal more quickly and that Scout won't get an infection.

Photos from the Farm #24

Welcome back!

Did you enjoy the snow earlier this week? We did! We are very grateful for all the water it brings to the mountains! We have a big puddle on our driveway, too! The birds are coming to get drinks from the puddle, and the ducks visit it in the morning for a little bath.

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Here are the photos and little stories for this week.

Do you remember our barn cat, Midnight?

She likes Clover's coat, too!

We have seen her ride Clover a few times. Midnight only rides Clover when she is wearing a coat.
Matt was finally able to get a photo of her! What a funny cat and goat!

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Matt works at Timpanogos Animal Hospital in Pleasant Grove. He gets to help the techs and the vet do different things.

Last month you learned a lot about teeth. Dogs need to get their teeth cleaned just like people do. Dogs should get their teeth brushed, too. Most people don't brush their dog's teeth because dogs don't like to have their teeth brushed. Dogs don't care if their teeth are clean or dirty.

Do you like to brush your teeth to keep them clean?

This dog has dirty teeth. Some of his teeth are infected and broken. Dogs don't take good care of their teeth. Do you see all the yellow stuff near the dog's gums? He also has a broken tooth on his top jaw near the red plastic tie.

Are you wondering what the tube is? It goes down his throat towards his lungs and carries a special gas that keeps the dog asleep. Dogs don't like getting their teeth cleaned. People can sit in a chair and have a hygienist clean their teeth, but a dog won't do that.

 

Here is the other side of his mouth. Can you see the teeth that are flat towards the back of his mouth? They shouldn't be flat. Sometimes dogs chew on rocks. If one tooth breaks other teeth wear down. All the brown and yellow need to be polished off his teeth.

All clean! Can you see the spot on the right side of the photo that is missing teeth? How many teeth are missing? Check the photo right before this one.
If you look closely you can see stitches where the teeth used to be.
Those teeth were infected and needed to come out.

All clean on this side, too!

The next thing that happens is that the tube comes out of his mouth and then the put the dog someplace comfortable while he wakes up.

Thank you Matt and Timpanogos Animal Hospital for taking photos for us!

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Questions!

We don't have any new animals right now.
We'll have new animals when the goats have their kids. Annie and Penny will have kids this year.
Do you think it's funny that baby goats are called kids?

We don't get any milk from the cows yet. Echo will give milk next year after she has a calf. Remi will never give milk because he is a boy.

Thank you for your questions!

I hope you have a great week!

Photos from the Farm #22

Welcome back, First Graders!

Welcome to America, Tarcio! We are so glad you came! This post is especially for you. This post is for Tarcio because he is learning a new language, English!

I hope this post will help Tarcio learn to speak English, and I hope it will be a post that you can read without your teacher's help. I heard that you are all working hard learning to read!

Reading is like learning a secret code! All the funny, squiggly shapes on the page are like a secret code that you are figuring out this year! Once you learn to read you can learn anything you want to learn!

First, I wanted to answer a question that your teacher told me you had been asking.

Some of you are wondering why I haven't answered your questions. There are three reasons why I don't answer questions.

1. I couldn't read what you wrote.
2. Someone else asked the same question but their handwriting was neater.
3. I already answered the question in one of the other posts.

I also heard that you are measuring your paper to make sure I can fit it on my scanner! Great job! Thank you!

*     *     *     *     *

This is a goat.
She is brown and white.
Her ears hang down.
Her tongue sticks out.
Her name is Clover.

This is a goat.
She is brown and white.
Her ears stick out.
Her name is Penny.

This is a goat.
She is white.
Her ears stand up.
Her name is Annie.

These are ducks.
One duck is white.
One duck is black and white.
The small ducks are ducklings.
You can't see duck ears!
The ducks don't have names.
What names would you give the ducks?

This is a cow.
She is orange.
Her ears stick out.
Her name is Echo.

This is a cow.
He is brown.
His ears stick out.
He has a big nose.
His name is Remi.

This is a cat.
She is brown and black and white.
Her ears stand up.
She lives in the barn.
Her name is Midnight.

This is a cat.
She is grey and black and white.
Her ears stand up.
She lives in the house.
Her name is Stinky.

This is a dog.
He is yellow.
His ears hang down.
He has a big nose.
His name is Miles.

These are dogs.
They are black and white.
One dog has ears that stand up, one dog has ears that hang down.
Their names are JJ and Scout.

This is a chicken.
She is orange.
You can't see chicken ears.
She doesn't have a name.
What name would you give her?

This is a rooster.
He is orange.
You can't see rooster ears.
His name is Charlie.

These are mice.
They are grey.
They have small ears near their head.
They don't have names.
We don't like mice on our farm.
They eat the bags we store the food in.
They make a mess.
We hope they find another home.

*     *     *     *     *

I hope you could read all the words I wrote!

Your teacher told me you have been so nice to Tarcio. That is wonderful! I think Tarcio will love living in America because he has new friends in school.

Next week I'll send something to the classroom for you to see and smell and touch!

Have a nice week!

Photos from the Farm #14

Welcome back!

It has been a strange winter so far. It hasn't been as cold as it usually is in December.
It is colder than spring or fall so we have the water heaters in the buckets, and we put our coats and boots on when we go outside. But we don't have to dress quite as warmly as we usually do in December.

You asked very good questions last week. I'm sorry I didn't have time to answer them this week. I promise to answer them next week.

After I give you an update on the chicks, I'll show you how we keep the water from freezing overnight.

Good morning, chicks! You can see how much they have grown this week. It's almost time to move them into a bigger brooder.

Since the chicks are in a brooder, it's easy to pick them up and let you see them.
This is the chick that has a Ameraucana mother and Charlie, the Buff Cochin rooster for a father.

Here is the Buff Cochin chick. Her mother is a Buff Cochin and  Charlie, the Buff Cochin rooster is it's father.

The next two chicks look almost the same! They look like twins. They both have
 Charlie, the Buff Cochin rooster for a father and their mother is a Barred Rock.

If you can tell some differences between this chick and the one in the picture above, you are very smart! The only difference I can see right now is that the chick in this picture has a few fluffy feathers behind it's neck.

 *     *     *     *     *

 I thought you might like to see the chickens as they come out of the coop in the morning. Can you count how many come out? Can you see Charlie, the rooster, come out?

I counted 17 chickens as they come out of the coop.

Guess what? Three chickens didn't want to come out yet. Maybe they are afraid of the camera. Don't worry, they came out later and ate breakfast with the rest of the chickens.

 *     *     *     *     *

Even though it's warmer than usual it still freezes overnight so we need to keep the water heaters in the buckets. This is what our water heaters look like.

Do you see the funny piece of metal that is sitting on the bottom of the water barrel? That is a water heater for farms. This one keeps the chicken water from freezing. Some mornings as you come to school or on the playground you probably find puddles that have frozen. Animals need water every day, just like you do! If their water is frozen they can't get a drink.

Here are two barrels that have water for the cows (on the right) and the goats (on the left). They plug into an outlet on the post behind. You can't see the heater, it's covered in plastic at the bottom of the barrel.

Oh, no! Something is wrong with our water barrel! Can you see the ice on top? It's time for Matt to fix this barrel because the plug was broken. Animals are big and rough. Sometimes they pull on things that they shouldn't pull on. This time they pulled on the electrical cord and broke the end off.

Here is the other type of water heater we use. It is like the one we use in the chicken water, but this one is flat. I like this one better than the one in the chicken water because it lays flat along the bottom. The ducks like to get in and have a bath once in a while and this one stays out of the way.

Did you notice that the duck and the chicken waters are on top of some wood pallets? When they drink they make a mess, especially the ducks. Having the water on top of a pallet keeps a puddle from forming under the water. We don't want the chickens and ducks to slip on the ice or get cold feet while they are getting their drink. Farm animals don't wear shoes to keep their feet warm like you do!

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Here are The Twins! This is their favorite spot in the morning. They aren't really twins. They aren't even brother and sister. They are the same color and they go everywhere together so we call them The Twins. The one in the back is Scout. The one in the front is JJ. JJ loves to put her nose through the stall door and watch the animals.

The Twins and Miles get brushed every morning. They have their winter coats now. That means they have more hair to keep themselves warm when they are outside. It also means that they shed their hair in the house, too!

If Matt or I brush them every day we have a lot less hair in the house so I don't have to vacuum as often. One of the reason most moms don't want a dog in the house is because of all the hair! It's a lot of work for moms if the children don't help. 

Next week I'll be sending some eggs from our chickens for you to look at! I have some duck eggs and turkey eggs to send, too!

I'll also answer the questions you sent in last week. I'm sorry I didn't have time to answer them this week, it's been a very busy week getting ready for Christmas.

Have a great week!