Winter break is almost over, already....

It's hard to believe that my winter break is almost over. It's Friday and school starts Monday! I want to get back into a schedule. I'm am glad though that I don't have to worry about money right now for school because I am a PSEO student. PSEO--Post Secondary Enrollment Options allows High School Juniors' and Seniors'--like me!--to take college courses instead of the typical High School courses. That means that my tuition at RCTC is paid for with state taxes! That's two year's worth of college payed for! It's a cool program and surprisingly there aren't as many High School students as you would think.

My schedule this is going to be a little more hectic than the last. Since I live 45-50 minutes from school my counselor made last semester's simple. I went to classes four days a week for three or four hours then would come home. This semester I scheduled all my classes around one class--which was in the evening--that I had to take. I was so happy, I only had to drive to school three days a week! Then I found out that the one particular class that I scheduled around was canceled. I freaked a little. But luckily I found one other time that the class was offered. Only problem was that it was a nine o'clock morning class! It also makes it so I have to go back down a forth day, which really doesn't bother me too much. What bothers me are the long days. Like on Tuesdays I have that class at nine in the morning and then I have an evening class from 5-8:40! Now that is going to be a very long day.

I am pretty happy with the classes I do have. I have:

>English--our reading material are graphic novels!
>Spanish--continues from my Spanish class from last semester.
>American Cinema--that one sounds fascinating!
>CPR/First Aid
and
>Sociology

It really doesn't look like a lot but it's over full time.

I only have a text book for Spanish and Sociology. I'm so HAPPY!! The rest look like really good books! For English, one of my books is Maus and it looked so good that I already read the first book! Talking about school is slowly starting to get me excited again!

4-H Holiday Barn Dance

Here is a picture of my brothers--the one on the right and left--with their friend in the middle.

School!

It has officially started! It is my third week into school at RCTC. Right now I am at the school's computer lab. I don't have to much time to write anything decent.....not that I can really think of anything anyways! ;] I'll tell you what classes I have though! English, Spanish, Psychology, Self Defense, and Biology!

Well I have an essay to go finish!

Studying like crazy!

Again I feel bad. I'm such a bad blogger! I have been getting ready for the fair and studying for a test. The reason I'm even doing this post is because I am procrastinating. Should be studying instead of being online.

Dairy Camp Day III

The last day of the camp we looked at the more gross stuff...so if you have a very low tolerance of slight icky stuff you might want to skip this posting. We started the morning with the head of the Animal Science Department. He talked about what, when, and how you would feed your calf through different stages of growing. When a calf is born you would immediately take the calf and put him/her into a hutch and feed him/her some colostrum--the mothers first milk. Colostrum is very important to the development of your calf because calves are born without immune systems. They get their first antibodies from the mother's colostrum.

After calf health we moved down the hall to talk about the stomach of a ruminant. Note I said stomach not stomachs. Ruminants have one and four 'compartments'. The compartments work together to digest the food. The first three part the rumen, the reticulum, and the omasum. The abomasum is the fourth and is closest to our stomachs. In the rumen and reticulum the food mixes with the saliva. The liquid, solids, and gas make three layers. They demontrated this be taking a large clear jug and filling it halfway with water. Then adding a large handful of hay. The jug was shaken so everything was mixed. The jug was set on the table and we waited. The water stayed at the bottom, the solid stuck together on top of the water and the gas went to the top. The solid clumps become the cud and is regurgitated.

Hardware disease was discussed also. I do mean hardware like bolts, nails, wire, and other objects like that. To help prevent these objects from poking holes and ripping the inside of the cow, magnets are placed in the cow.

The picture above shows one of the instructors holding up a preserved cow stomach. It is all four compartments. They filled up the stomach with air and after it dried they covered it with something so it would keep it's shape. In the white pan to the right of the stomach are pieces of the inside of each stomach compartment. It was really cool because the inside of each stomach is different! One looked like green pepper seeds clumped together!

The last part I went too, we looked at the U's bull. The yellowish-tan thing on the bull's side is called a cannula. Where the man's hand is there is a hole that is normally plugged. The hole goes to the rumen. It was kind of gross but interesting at the same time! He pulled out a handful of the digesting food for us to see. In the bottom picture you can see the inside of the hole a bit better.

The reason for this is for research mostly. The U can control everything the the bull eats more easily. If he is being a picky eater the plug can be taken out and the food placed in to be digested. Here is a wiki link. I came away with a lot more knowledge on dairy cows and had fun at the same time! I would really enjoy going again next year. Maybe one of my brothers--I think he will be old enough next year--will go with me!

Dairy Camp Day II

Social networking is not the thing I anyone really thinks of when thinking about cows--at least not me! That's what we talked about on the second morning! How website's like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and blogs can affect the way people think about dairy. Some may post inaccurate info, giving a negative image. We were told how we could help change that.

The person giving the presentation was from Midwest Dairy. She explained that just going on Google and clicking on a few like Explore Dairy, and the U's Dairy Extension will be put higher on the Google page so it will be one of the first links people see. Also on Facebook you can become fans of things--like movie star, candy, or really anything else you fancy--and whoever you'r friends with will see. Then your friends might decide to "become a fan" and it continues through to all of their friends. It' s a nice, easy, positive chain reaction.

Workshop II. Before being able to work with our heifers we learned how to fit them. Fitting--is where you cut their fur and make them look as nice as possible. Just like you would do for yourself before going someplace really special. I was amazed that the man who showed our group how to fit traveled the world to give cows hair cuts! After wards my partner, Julia, and I got CC so we could start fitting.
We started by taking a blow dryer along her top line--the hair along the spine--and trimming it so it was as flat as we could get it....which wasn't very much since neither me nor Julia had done the top line before. Julia cut most of the fur on CC's right side and on the top of her head. I did the left side, the bottom of the legs, and the tail. It was fun but when it's over you start moving around and there is tons of cow hair everywhere! It was in my shirt, my arms looked so gross. At least I wasn't the only one!

There I am with CC. Not the best pic of me but probably the only one that really turned out well at all.

Showing was so much fun. I haven't done anything like it before. Maybe I can find someone in the area that would let me show their cows.....I would like to show for 4-H if I could. I'm not sure what else to say about this. I followed what the other kids were doing since I didn't really know what to do.

Last Workshop of the Day. Princess Kay of the Milky Way came to talk to us in the evening. She kind of talked about the same thing we listened to in the morning. About spreading the facts about dairy, dairy farming, and dairy farmer. It was hard to focus on this last workshop that day for most of us because we were on our way to a waterpark!

Dairy Camp Day I

Two years ago I went to a Pre-Vet camp in Plattesville, Wi and this year I wanted to go to the U's (U of Mn) Gopher Dairy Camp. Three days and two nights all about Dairy Cows! After mom dropped me at at Bailey Hall--I was so excited to stay in a dorm--all the kids split into groups and met with their counslers. I was in the red and white holsteins (pictured below).

For our first workshop we watched a showing demonstration. Afterwards everyone picked a heifer (a virgin female cow) to work with. I picked one of the few red and whites. Here is one I was with--isn't she adorable!

We rotated to two other sessions before dinner-- Sire Selections and Ag Olympics. In Sire (the father of the calf) Selection we listened to a presentation on how to pick the best bull for breeding. What charactoristics you want like Or what you don't want like super short teats because you need them to be able to fit into the milker.

Ag Olympics was fun because we played some different games!

During that afternoon we were able to earn Moo-ney depending on our participation and other factors. In the evening we combined our Moo-ney with our room mates to buy a heifer from the earlier workshop. My room mate--Julia--and I planned on getting the red and white that she had worked with. 439 was near the end of the list to be auction. So we waited and waited. Finally when she came, someone else (who must have borrowed some Moo-ney from a friend) got her. :( We got one of the last heifers. She was a Holstein (like the one below). Mostly black but her feet and tail were white with black speckles that reminded me of cookies and cream ice cream.

Julia and I named her Cookies and cream--though I just called her CC. It was so funny half way through the auction there was a break and during the break people repeated a butter related tongue twister. These people were critiqued by Idol judges "Simon", "Randy", "Paula", and "Kara". Towards the end of the auction there was also Jeopardy music.

The "Banker" above.

One of the last set of partners got to participate in a version of Deal or No Deal--making everyone have a good long laugh!

Snoopy statue in the entryway of the student life center.

Game night included going to the student life center--next door to Bailey Hall--to bowl, play spoon, pool, or just hang out. I really like the St. Paul campus! If I go to school at the U (it's most likely the one I will go to) I would like to live at that campus. Maybe even stay at Bailey....even though the rooms were kind of small--even for dorms!!

Here's a video tour of the hall. The bathroom they show is next to the room I was in. Not that anyone will care. :D

Barn Dance!

RideAbility had it's annual Barn Dance. It was fun although this year I didn't help a lot this year. I sidewalked (walked next to the person riding the horse) for a short while. I took a few pictures of wagons. We had three wagons going for a while. One which was pulled by the RideAbility Fjords DeeDee and Merit, the second pulled by horses whom I don't know, the third was a hay wagon pulled by a tractor. Here a few pics!

Above: Dad standing next to DeeDee.
Below: The Fjords hooked up to the wagon
DeeDee on the left and Merit on the right.
(Merit is my baby girl!!)
During the last few wagon rides Randy Krahling gave a demonstration on natural horsemanship. I the photo below Randy is showing how he gets a horse to move without physically touching his horse!
At the Barn Dance was CrossFire but we left right after they started. A long but very fun day!

The next fundraiser is *drum roll* the Ride-a-Thon in July!

Summer Plans

Mom and I have been putting together a list of things that we are/wanting to do. Hopefully having so many new things to write about will help inspire me to finish more post!

Kitty goes to the Doctor

Our kitty who is called Kitty has been having some boy problems... We let Kitty go outside on a leash (we don't have a fence and live in town) when she wants with the exception of when it is raining and the few times she has been in heat.

There is a new boy cat in the area not that has not been fixed.

He came over and messed with Kitty. I heard her make a horrible sounding noise. I went out a made Scruffy (the neighbor kids name all the stray cats) go.


We decided that the cat would not go out for a while unless someone sat with her. But apparently my brothers weren't
listening to well because a few days later I heard a meow from outside. I opened the door and
there was the cat sitting under the doorway. She wasn't soaked but she was pretty wet! Scruffy must have come by again that time because she had a cut that went across her nose.

Mom brought her to the vet a few days later to get spayed. When we went to pick her up she was so pathetic. We used a basket with a blanket in the bottom because we do not have a pet carrier. Since she's come back from the vet she has been in our laps a lot more then usual and has been purring nonstop!

Pheasants Forever

One of the projects my brothers and I are in for 4-H is Shooting Sports and Wildlife. The last several meeting we have been working on the wildlife part. Our group is talking about prairie restoration and food plots. To make the project stand out our group is focusing on the controlled burns aspect. At the last meeting the guest speaker was a man from Pheasants Forever. Pheasants Forever is a group that burns local field for native plant restoration. In this program fire=helpful or good. They know to burn because the natives burned the prairie. The Native Americans burned the prairie to attract the buffalo. Today we burn to kill the invasive plants and helps the native seeds that have gone dormant.

Dad, Collin, Kyle and I went out to get a before soil sample and take pictures. We wait for everyone with Pheasants Forever to arrive but by the time they all arrive it was too windy to burn. Normally they aren't too worried about the wind but this was along highway 52. They didn't want to blind drivers---that would be a bad thing right? So we went home.

The next day Collin, Kyle, and I were not feeling well so dad went by himself to get the pictures. He got some pretty neat ones!
The fields get burned about every 3 to 5 years! For the group project my brothers, dad, and I are supposed to take photos of the field every week. So we can see the grow progress.



They burned a total of 20 acres. There was so much burning that mom, a friend, Collin, Kyle, and I could see the glow about 6 miles away! It was pretty amazing!

Oh no!

I am such a bad blogger! It takes forever to upload pictures so I tell myself I will do it the next day and do you think I do it? No. I should work on doing catch up posts!

An Hour of Darkness

This our second year of turning out our lights for Earth Hour. A lot of the focus for Earth Hour is helping with the prevention of global warming. While I think that is good--I like how it makes you think about all the things you can do without your lights on. The less your lights and other electronics you aren't using are on, the less you are paying for your electric bill, so there's that too. It's so much fun to play hide and seek or tag in the moonlight.(Advise though don't play tag if you have a lot of things that can trip you. )

I read about someone who had their kids turn on Every device they had to counteract the efforts of other people. I thought that was rather ridiculous. If you don't agree that's alright but going out of your way to make people mad I thought was weird. They are teaching their kids intolerance but whatever. Plus if you don't believe in global warming what are you counteracting? Them being able to see the stars? Them getting into the habit off turning off lights to save money?

I know this can be a very controversial issue. If you have any thoughts feel free to post them!

--Alex

Last day of practice

My brothers and my theater class had it's last day--though we still have our rehearsal and the play. It was a lot of fun but I am petrified of the idea of people seeing me on stage. I'm hoping everything will go well.......There is also going to be an art show for those that are in art.

Lets hope everything goes alright!

2009 NARHA Region 6 Conference Brainerd, Minn

A few people from RideAbility drove up to Brainerd, Minn---which is only a four hour drive away and not nearly as long as the ride to Fargo last year---for the NARHA Conference. Narha works with different centers to provide equine assisted activities for people with disabilities. RideAbility is accredited through Narha.

This year they didn't have a lot of variety in their class sessions. I loved the '08 conference in Fargo. There were awesome sessions and a fabulous speaker if only I could remember his name......Micheal Richardson.....I think. I will have to double check that.

This year's conference was hosted at The Lodge and the Spirit Horse Center. The Lodge is a new hotel in Brainerd--very nice if your willing to pay that much. They have an indoor mini waterpark. The Spirit Horse Center is wonderfull! They house the Mounted Eagles Therapeutic riding program there. Upstairs at the Spirit Horse Center there is a dancing studio.

The first session had Connecting with the Horse Spirit--Part I, How Does It Feel?, Stable Contract. I later went to the Connecting with the Horse Spirit. I already knew the common sense stuff she talked about and the other part was spiritual maybe too much for me.

The second session I sat listening to a special ed teacher talk about the 10 senses which are: Sight, Hearing, Taste, Smell, Touch, Balance, Temperature, Pain, Internal Sense (like breathing, ect), and Kinesthetic-Proprioception (which is knowing where things are. Like if someone's hand is behind their head they should know where it is without having to see it). Parks also talked about some of her expiriences with people with different disabilities. Then she meantioned a few more and the different symptoms. Right before the session was up she had us do a few activities so we could know what it what like. This was my favorite session.

Jim was doing one of the Kinesthetic-Proprioception activities. Too bad this was done
inside because if it as outside I could tell people he was busted by the police! :D

Then came the best session! Lunch! It was really good, food wise but the Region decided to bombard us with the Region 6 meeting. Ugh! It was too much, we all needed a break to relax and not focus on anything. Most of our group left after they were done eating. I got up for twenty minutes at a not so interesting part. When I got back she was saying the exact same thing.

Session 3 Christina and I were not interested in the lesson planning so we went for a walk and looked a few stores. It was so nice to get out and move around. It seemed like we were out for an hour when Christina said it was only 20 or 30 minutes.

Afterwards we went to the Spirit Horse Center we toured their facility. There indoor area is 70-by-160 ft! It is also a heated barn for Minesota's winters!! They do lessons for adults, kids, and then the Mounted Eagles program. Later that night was the Dinner and Dancing at the barn. The dinner was yummy and the instructors from the dancing center showed everybody the swing and the rumba. It amazes me that anyone can dance that well.

The next morning there were some parents from the Mounted Eagles answering questions. It was nice to hear what they like the most, the benifets for their child/children and some other things.

This years conference was more of a fun trip then a learning one but that's alright. I don't plan on going next year unless they have things that I have never learned about or is something more advanced.

Visitors!

Wow yesterday I had my first visitors!! First ones I know of. They were from: San Fransisco, Edinburgh, London, a few more were from the UK, one from Melbourne, and Gainesville, FL. I wonder what they think when they read any of my postings and if they are even interesting to them at all. I love looking at other people's blogs--you can learn a lot about so many things!

I hope to eventually try to focus on certain things (so if you are interested in anything particular let me know!) so people won't have to guess what might be in the next posting.

-Alex