Kate's Adventures

We ordered 20 Coturnix quail eggs in January and started designing and building a moveable quail tractor shortly after.

The Coturnix Quail eggs arrived the week after Spring Break and we let them sit for 24 hours before putting them in the incubator.

I loved making this quail tractor with my mom and I am so excited it’s working! there are somethings we could have done differently but I love it! 🙂

The Rio hen laid 12 more eggs in her nest. She began incubating them on Easter (April 9th). We were excited to see the poults she hatched on May 6th but sadly we found most of her poults trampled. There were only two survivors.

The turkey poults are currently living in a rabbit hutch in our dog run at home. Soon they will move into the turkey pen at the ranch. The adult Rios have been set free but they have chosen to stay near their old pen.

My family and I went to Costa Rica for Spring Break on March 14^th and we stayed for 6 days.  We stayed in three different places.  The first place we stayed was Tamarindo.  In Tamarindo it was really crowded and there were a lot of tourists.  The beach was flat and wide with large rocks in some places. The sand was a pretty shade of white and it looked beautiful at sunset.  

We stayed at Sunshine Condos and the reason I loved it was because it was very close to the beach!  My favorite thing we did in Tamarindo was surf.  I had never surfed before so this was a new experience for me.  I was very bad in the beginning but after a while I rode my first wave in all the way to the shore!  We all ended up surfing for about two hours and we were tired. We ate lunch at a burger place and then me and my mom went back to the condo and my sisters and dad stayed at the beach. 

Later that day we tried to go to dinner early.  The  restaurant  we wanted to go to was 30 minutes away in Salsalito.  But on the way we ran into some problems.  The first problem was heavy traffic on a narrow road. Then we pulled up to a huge hole in the road with a yellow construction cone in front of it so we turned around and went another way.  Next we pulled up to a road with a river running across it.  My dad wanted to cross it but the rest of us didn’t so we went the last way we could which was also blocked with a water so we headed back home and ate at Patagonia in Tamarindo for the second night in a row.  I got the grilled chicken which was delicious! 

The next day we drove three hours to Upala.  In Upala we stayed at the Origins Resort.  It was fancy .  The rooms were circular huts with grass growing on top and a sunroof.  Each of the huts deck had a jacuzzi, a fire place and a couch. The best part was the view of Nicaragua!

There was also a view of a volcano! My favorite part about Upala was the nature hike we took to see a beautiful waterfall and many different cool plants and animals!  

After our two hour hike to the waterfall, horses were waiting for us to take us back to the resort.  The ride back only took us about an hour or less.  Once we got back to the stables we drove in a golf cart back to the restaurant. We ate lunch and there was gluten free key lime pie for dessert which was yummy.  After lunch we went to go chill out in our huts.  Betsy and I went to put on our bathing suits and got in the jacuzzi.

A little later we went lagoon fishing and caught a lot of fish.  There were three different types of fish in the lagoon: Rainbow Bass, Spotted Bass, and Tilapia!  Betsy caught the most fish (six) and beat the resort record for how many fish you can catch in one hour.  I caught five fish and Leigh caught three.  

The next day we had a farm tour and we saw lots of cool things like sugar cane being pressed (which looks like green juice and tastes very sweet).  We also saw chickens and quail.  Then I was very surprised to see that the resort raised their own shrimp and prawns for the restaurant!  

After the farm tour we drove two hours to Las Catalinas and as soon as we arrived I knew this would be my favorite place.  Las Catalinas was a cute town on a hill with a grocery store and restaurants within walking distance.   The food we ate there was very good.  Once we were checked in and our bags were in our rental house we headed down to the beach.  

I was surprised when I saw black sand!  It was hot for bare feet because the beach was dark.  My dad, my sisters and I went down to swim while our mom walked on the beach.  The water was chilly at first but it got warmer and eventually it felt normal.  My dad rented a boogie board and Betsy and I shared it.

The day after we arrived we went down to the beach and we hopped on a boat that took us to the middle of the sea and we fished!  First we were looking for Blue Marlins, Mahi Mahi and Sword Fish but then after a while we started looking for Grouper.  We caught about 10 Grouper!  While we fished we spotted at least twelve sea turtles and dolphins swam next to our boat!

We headed back to shore and my parents said that they would make grouper for dinner but I had chicken from the other night instead. Our last day there was a half day. We all spent the morning catching minnows, crabs, and sea slugs!  We also found a lot of very pretty shells and brought them home. My favorite things I caught were: a huge crab, minnows, little crabs, and I even saw some sea urchins! 

I loved coming to Costa Rica and I hope to do it again next Spring Break!

It was a Saturday and I had just won my jiu jitsu tournament.  My dad had promised me that I would get to invite anyone over that I wanted to and I chose Amelia.  Amelia couldn’t come for a Saturday play date but she could come to the ranch on Sunday if that worked and it did. We picked her up at 8:30 and when we arrived at the ranch we stuck our heads out of the window while my mom opened the new gate.  Once it had closed behind us my mom drove up to the ranch house where we saw two cars parked out front.   When we got in the house Amelia and I said “hi” to my Uncle Jud and little cousin Porter and then Noni. 

After we greeted them and had gotten a snack we headed to the turkey coop with my uncle and Porter.  We had left some food inside the turkey coop to encourage them to go in but sadly we saw that they had just eaten all the food from the outside.  When we left the turkey coop my mom got the Can-Am out while Amelia and I caught grasshoppers.  When my mom had pulled around Amelia and I hopped in and stuck our heads out the door windows.  After a few minutes suddenly my mom jolted to a stop and said “Get out! Get Out! Get out!” It scared Amelia and I so we jumped out quickly. My mom ran towards some bushes and we saw a turtle!  Amelia picked it up and my mom took some pictures.  At first I was a little scared but eventually I picked him up and he was a nice little guy.  I put him down after a few minutes and he scurried into the brush. 

Once we got to the other side of the property Amelia and I jumped out of Can-Am  and ran towards the chicken coops.  I could not believe my eyes!  One of the bantam hens was running around the coop and the other one was with the bantam roosters in their tractor.   It’s like they can’t make up their minds where they want to live!  Amelia and I chased the hen that was out and finally I pinned her to the ground, took a deep breath and put her in with the other bantams.  The chickens in the other coop were making a huge racket but when Amelia and I brought over some chicken scratch they quieted down.  While all of the chickens were eating we grabbed their eggs from the nesting boxes.  The bantams had laid ten eggs while cash had laid three.  

Amelia and I decided that we would go see Dancer and grab her food and water buckets.  When we had gotten back to the shed we were panting because we had run the whole way there and back.  When we got Dancer’s food ready we gave her a lot so that she could have dinner too.  Once all of Dancer’s stuff was in the back of the Can-Am we drove out to her and her friends.  While my mom had gone to take care of the chickens’ water, food, and fresh bedding, Amelia and I decided to explore.  We walked across the property until we got to a gate but we didn’t want to go any further.  So we started to look for stuff when we found a hole and figured it was probably where the neighbor’s bull got out.  We decided to dig in that spot just for fun but a few minutes later we were not very far.  A few more minutes later we fortunately found a glass bottle and a brush and that helped us dig deeper. Suddenly my mom came and said that Dancer needed some love so we ran back to Dancer, leaving the brush and glass bottle behind us. 

Once we had brushed Dancer we started to mash up her food and when we were done it was almost gone and our hands were very dirty.  We headed back towards the chickens hoping that Dancer would lay down so we could get her new cloud boots on her.  Cloud boots are boots for horses that help the horse walk if they have severe laminitis in the front feet.  Luckly Dancer was laying down.  Quickly my mom put some Equi-Spot on Dancer while Amelia and I tried to get a boot on.  Sadly we could only get one boot on Dancer and that was because she was laying on her other foot.  Hopefully the boot we managed to get on her will still be there next time!

On Monday my mom and I started to drive to the ranch. Sadly only a few minutes after we left home my mom’s tire started hissing so we drove to the tire place and asked my dad to come get us.  Once we got home we waited for an hour and we were just about to change plans when we got a call from NTB (National Tire and Battery).  They said that our tire was fixed so we asked my dad to drive us back to NTB.  When we arrived my mom and I hopped into the car. Then I remembered that we had the turkeys with us too!  The turkeys are a wild breed and are about 6 months old.  We had two Rio Grande poults in the back of the car, a jake and a jenny, which my mom had gotten the day before.  I had been too busy thinking about the ranch and I had totally forgotten about them. 

Finally we were back on the road and I fell asleep. I woke up again and we were at Cowboy Headquarters (which is in Athens). I decided to stay in the car while my mom went in but she was gone for a very long time. Then she came back and said for me to go in with her and we ordered 100 pounds of sand, turkey feed and some hay for the turkey nesting boxes. 

Time had gone by so fast (it was already 2pm) and we were just getting started. Once we got to the ranch, we unlocked the ranch house and got to work. By then it was lightly raining but I could tell we were going to get SOAKED. First we caught the chickens and put them in a run-down dog kennel that fell apart three times before we could get it in the back of the Can-Am. The first load of chickens that we caught was our rooster Lavy, who’s light purple, then Debbie and her two babies.  Once we got to the other side of the ranch, we put the chickens in one of our two new chicken tractors. The second group that we brought over was all of the bantams and Easter eggers. The Easter eggers, Cash and Ravy, went into the tractor with Lavy’s flock while the bantams had their own tractor.

Once we had put the chickens in their tractors, I went into the barn to get out Dancer’s food, Equispot, treats and water. I had just put all of Dancer’s stuff in the back of the Can-Am when I saw a horse waiting at the cattle guard.  At first I thought it was one of the neighbor’s horses but then I saw her feet/hooves and knew it was Dancer.  Quickly I grabbed her stuff out of the Can-Am and brought it over to her.  By now it was pouring and I was soaked but I didn’t care because Dancer came all that way to see us when it really hurt her feet.  I gave her practically the whole bag of treats (which had like 30 treats left). 

We left to go change and get the coop really cleaned out for the turkeys. The reason we cleaned out the coop was because chickens can carry a disease called Blackhead which doesn’t hurt chickens but can be deadly to turkeys. We were in the coop for about an hour and I was proud of our work.  We raked out all of the chicken’s wood shavings and threw them outside the coop.  Then we moved the smaller coop to the side of the chicken run so the turkeys had more room to run and play.  We then put 100 pounds of sand in the smaller coop and made the nesting boxes bigger for the turkeys.  We scraped all of the chicken manure off the top of the small coop and put a branch where we thought the turkeys could roost.  We washed and refilled all of their food and water tubs then hung them up.  Finally we put the turkeys in the coop and slowly introduced them to their food and water. Once all of that was done we gave the chickens food and water and picked up Dancer’s food buckets and made sure she was doing ok.

When we got back and everything was locked up we walked back to the ranch house and went inside to change but right before I opened the door my mom said to come back. We both heard a big truck motor coming down the rocky road to the house.  We decided that it was the oil guy.  I changed clothes, stuffed my face with a marshmallow and jumped inside the car.  My mom locked the house and hopped into the car too. 

On the way home I slept the whole way until we stopped at Starbucks and mom got me a drink.  Then a few moments later we were home and I was so happy I jumped out of the car and was about to go inside when the door slammed on my finger.  First I tried to go away from the door and I heard a popping sound.  Then I just stared at my thumb.  Finally I opened the car door and came to my mom crying.  She took me inside and got me to ice my finger.  The next day I could bend it because the swelling had gone down and my dad said it wasn’t broken.  It still hurt really bad so we went to CVS and bought a thumb stabilizer.  Hopefully my finger will feel better in a few days.

My mom and I pulled up to the barn and I hopped out because we were a little late.  I was expecting to ride Gracie but instead my trainer Debbie had me grab a brownish gray chestnut with a multicolored mane out of his stall.  I had ridden Ice before loads of times but there was something special about this time: Debbie said that I was going to ride with no reins today!

After Debbie and I tacked Ice up, I walked Ice to the arena and stepped on the mounting block to get on.  I put my foot in the short but light stirrups.  I put my hand on the pommel and swung my leg over the horse’s haunches and gently sat down in the saddle. It was a little easier than with Gracie because Ice is shorter and doesn’t walk away when you are half mounted. Once I had mounted, Debbie said that I would have my reins for the first half of the lesson and that she would put me on the lunge line when she thought Ice was warmed up.  Once we had walked around in the arena two or three times (switching directions each time), Debbie had me trot. While trotting I FINALLY learned about my posting diagonals.  When the horse is trotting they are either on the left lead or right lead and you as the rider should always rise and fall with the leg on the wall.  This way when the horse’s leg goes forward the rider will post. Then a few minutes later Debbie had me walk and she put Ice on the lunge line.  With the lunge line Debbie was able to steer Ice in a circle from the center so that I wouldn’t have to worry about steering.  We started to walk around Debbie.  Then we stopped and I tied my reins in a knot. This way if I felt unstable I could grab the reins and still kind of use them.  Then we started to walk again.  Debbie had me bring Ice to a trot and then to a canter! 

Next I practiced the most difficult jumping position without hands! Afterwards I trotted and then even cantered without hands.  Debbie had Ice and me flip directions and we did the same thing but going to the right.  When I was in jumping position without hands it felt like flying – really flying – and I loved it!  

After the jumping position the rider is supposed to put their seat right back down once they are over a jump. After a few more circles around Debbie, Ice and I walked around the arena going in all the corners.  I hopped off, gave him a sponge bath, and put him back in his stall.  I absolutely LOVED this lesson and can’t wait to do it again!

“Mary of the Mayflower” by Diane Stevenson Stone tells the story of the pilgrims’ journey across the Atlantic Ocean from the viewpoint of the author’s ancestor, Mary Chilton, an English pilgrim girl. This book is historical fiction and based on documents and oral history.  This book is full of friendship, sorrow and adversity and Mary keeps up a good attitude through the rough journey at sea. Her true friend Constance stays right beside Mary helping Mary in any way she can. Mary and Constance have many adventures in their small cramped quarters on a ship called the Mayflower.

 Mary is the main character in the book. She is shy and barely stands up for herself when she is in trouble. She wears a lot of skirts and a coat on the ship. Her hair is matted and she smells horrible because they could not bathe nor did she have a brush. Constance is a minor character but is always right by Mary’s side helping her or crying with her when Mary is sad. Johnny is a minor character but plays a good role in the book by being there for Mary when she is in deep trouble. He is kind to Mary and if she is weeping will hug her until she is feeling better. Goodwife Chilton is Mary’s mom. She is kind hearted and when Mary is feeling doubtful she reassures Mary to just trust God. Sometimes she gives Mary some of her rations when Mary is starving. All of the characters on the ship pray and sing for hope that they might land in the new world.

In the beginning Mary was sad to leave her little room in the windmill in Holland and to think that she might never see her beloved sisters or her furry little friend Master Albert again. She was also sad to leave her Dutch friends and broke out into tears when she found out that none of them were coming on the Mayflower. Towards the middle of the book Mary still has a good attitude when she meets a girl her age named Constance and they become friends, but soon after her father dies from illness.  In the end I think Mary is disappointed about landing on Cape Cod because they decide to keep sailing because they could not build houses on the land.  Then shortly after they landed on Plymouth where they could build and she was excited and Captain Jones allowed her to go on the land.  Mary was the first woman to step foot in the new colony but shortly after she got back to the ship her mother died of illness and left Mary a 12 year old girl with no parents and a few friends.

I learned some cool facts in this book.  Once the pilgrims landed in Plymouth they did not move off the ship for 2 months because the houses had to be built first.  The Mayflower sailed for 66 days and the pilgrims only had pork fat, cheese, onions, and porridge to eat.  Also Mary was the first woman to step foot on Plymouth Rock.

I loved “Mary of the Mayflower” and it kind of made me want to go and sail on a ship like Mary but just for a few weeks. Overall I give this book a 10 out of 10 because it had adventure and sorrow but most of all braveness and love.  My favorite quote in the book is “ Sweet are the uses of adversity.” 

As usual my mom and I drove out to our ranch to feed and let out the chickens and to check on Dancer.  We went to check on the chickens first so we drove to the right side of our ranch through the gate.  Something was off: the gate was wide open!  We drove up to the house and saw that an ATV was out.  We left the ATV alone. My mom opened the house while I got our dog Sallie out of the car.  My Uncle Jud’s dog Mac was right there! He bolted out of the house and mom and I had to call him 10 times to come in because he was so excited to see Sallie.  In the house, we saw that there had to be someone there because there were things out of place.  My mom contacted my uncle and we found out that he was in Athens too.  

We went to feed the chickens and let them out of the coop.  When we got there all of the chickens were there plus two baby chicks!  There was one black chick and one yellow chick. Our brooding hen, Debbie, was off her nest.  Debbie and her two hatched chicks were inside to coop rolling in the dirt and looking for bugs.  It made me smile to see them playing around in the dirt but again something was off. There were supposed to be 20 eggs left in the nest but there were only nine. We looked around the coop and everything seemed fine.  So we left the chickens outside of their coop and went to check on Dancer.  When we got there Dancer was laying down on the grass in the sun sunbathing and resting her sore feet.  When she saw us she stood up and I carried the food to her out of the ATV.  The next door neighbor’s horses were there next to her so I gave them a treat and I gave Dancer four.  

When we came back to put the chickens up into the coop, my uncle was back from town so I gave him a hug and said “hi”. My mom went back to the coop without me because I was talking to my uncle. A few moments later…. my mom came running from the coop and said there was a snake! Quickly I pulled on some boots and my uncle grabbed his gun and we ran out to the coop.  My mom lifted the wooden pallet where the snake was hiding. My uncle said that the snake was a rat snake because of its brownish gray color. My uncle took care of the snake then moved the dead snake with a shovel.  He picked it up and held it in front him and I couldn’t believe my eyes!  The snake was longer than Uncle Jud! 

The snake was about 6 ft long when my uncle held it up to him.  My uncle set the snake down and flipped it over so we could see its belly.  I could see large lumps in the snake’s belly and we decided to cut it open.  Sure enough, there were eggs and baby chicks inside its belly.  Most of the eggs were crushed but one egg was whole!  This made me sad but I was glad we solved the mystery of the missing eggs.

On Monday we went to see the chickens and Dancer. We have one adult rooster named Lavy and five little bantam chickens. Three of the bantam chickens are roosters. We also have two big hens named Cash and Debbie. We recently added two little Easter Egger chicks that we got from Tractor Supply. Debbie and Cash are both egg layers and Debbie usually doesn’t sit on her eggs but this time when I walked in she was sitting on a clutch!

When I first went into the coop I did not see Debbie but when I got closer I found her in the nesting boxes. Debbie was sitting on a nest of about 22 eggs. I did some research and learned that hens usually sit on 10 to 12 eggs.  Debbie was sitting on 22 eggs!  Seven of the eggs were Cash’s blue eggs and the rest were Debbie’s a reddish brown eggs. Cash isn’t brooding yet and doesn’t sit on her eggs. She hangs out with the bantams.

My mom had set out a bag of minnows, one of the chicken’s favorite treats, outside of the coop.  When we came back out of the coop, Lavy had made a huge hole in the bag (probably from his spurs) and was eating out of it.  Lavy is a light purplish color and is very protective over his ladies (hens) and he will chase you even if you have a stick of some sort.

Debbie got up once from her eggs when I tried to take some pictures. She got up to go get her food which was outside of the coop but she went right back to sit on the eggs again. This time she faced the wall so she couldn’t see anyone and so that she would be alone. This made me and my mom laugh out loud!

Debbie will be sitting on her eggs for a total of 21 days.  To hatch them she needs to keep the eggs the right temperature that ranges from 95 to 104 degrees. If the temperature gets below 80 degrees the eggs will not hatch. It makes me overall so happy to see that Debbie is sitting on her eggs and hopefully we will have baby chicks soon!

P.S. Dancer

After we went to see the chickens we got in the car and went over to the other side of the ranch where Dancer lives. When we pulled in I saw her out the window next to the oak tree she likes. My mom opened the garage so we could get all of her equipment like treats, food, Equispot, etc. When we pulled up in the field, Dancer was still under the tree next to her friends so I opened the back of my mom’s car and got out the treats, her food, and some brushes. I gave Dancer her food and tried to comb the parts of her hair that weren’t matted while my mom was putting the Equispot on her back and neck.  Dancer’s friends (aka the neighbor’s horses) came over and I gave them each a treat and some grass. I left the treat bag open when I was getting the grass and Dancer started to eat all of the treats right out of the bag!  So I closed it and later she picked it up and shook it around like crazy and I could tell she was having a good time! 

About a year ago, our family bought a ranch and soon after we got a go-cart. I was driving my mom and we saw a horse next to some cows by a tree through the neighbor’s fence. My mom said,“WAIT STOP!”  At first I didn’t see the horse. Then I pressed the go pedal a little bit and I saw the horse. My mom said, “Maybe next time we come on the go-cart we could bring the horse an apple.” Later that month my mom and dad talked to the neighbors and they sold their ranch to us and let us keep the horse who was named Dancer. But they told us she was being fed once a week and that she was in the pasture full time just eating grass. When I finally got close to her she was so skinny I could see her ribs, her hair was matted and she walked like she was in pain. Just looking at her made me want to cry.

After we met Dancer up close, my mom talked to an equine vet while I was riding at Chantilly stables. Dr. Adcock said that he would come to the ranch in three weeks. When he arrived I had her halter off so he put that on. When he inspected Dancer he said that she had laminitis (lam-on-ite-us) , sore feet mostly in her front feet from not getting them clipped. To cure laminitis we need to put medication on her feet once a day but we can’t do that until we find someone to live on the property. We need a ranch hand because we can only go out once a week  due to the long drive.

Dancer also has a cist under her tail and Dr. Adcock said that it doesn’t hurt her. The shots she got were: Eastern and Western encephalitis. This is one shot for both diseases and you will usually inject this shot on the side of the horse’s neck. West Nile is a shot that was also given. Rabies is a disease that can spread to humans and this was given to her. Dancer also got a deworming liquid inserted  in her mouth. Dr. Adcock vaccinated Dancer for tetanus by putting the shot in the other side of her neck. 

Dancer was fine with the grass after it had rained because it was so green but we still gave her a senior feed mix just to get her something special that she liked and to hopefully help with putting on some weight. Dr. Adcock said she did not need baths. Dancer had a bunch of flies on her back, so he recommended Equi Spot for the flies. It is a cream you rub on her back and it lasts for multiple days.

Dr. Adcock said that Dancer has a lot of fight left in her and that she would make it through the winter! This made me so happy and overall I loved having this experience. It was so fun to meet Dr. Adcock and I am very happy that he came to check on her!