Mercy Otis Warren: A Mighty Pen

     Mercy Otis Warren was born in Barnstable, Mass. in 1728. Mercy received a typical education from her mother. She learned cooking, sewing and soap making. Unlike most girls, Mercy was taught literature, history, politics and other subjects by her brothers tutors. Through her education Mercy realized that there is a lot of power in written words.
     Despite being married and having five sons, Mercy found enough time to write a play call The Adulateur, which was a play that made fun of the British government. Her work was published in the Massachusetts in 1772. Mercy was concerned what people would think of her writing plays so she published it with anonymously. She didn't need to worry, her plays were very well received. Her next two plays, "The Defeat" published in 1773, and "The Group" in 1775, were also very well received.
     Mercy's plays were more that just jokes about the British government. They were powerful a propaganda for the patriots. In  a lot of her plays she correctly predicted wars or other events. Sometimes she would you curse words or harsh language, but that was to get across how the soldiers talked. John Adams said that she had been "entrusted with powers for the good of the world" and that "it would be criminal to neglect them"

Sybil Ludington's Midnight Ride

  
  Everyone knows the story of Paul Revere's midnight ride, but very few have ever heard of a young girl named Sybil Ludington. Sybil's midnight ride was probably the more impressive of the two.
     Late one April night in 1777, there was a loud knock on the door of the Ludington house. There was a price put on Col. Henry Ludington's head placed by the British, so they were worried it was someone trying to capture him. However, it was a courier from Danbury. When Col. Ludington opened the door for the exhausted man he found out that the British had set fire to the town of Danbury.
     Col. Ludington needed someone to go warn the other towns and tell the Militia to join up at his house. But the courier was to tired to go on such a run. Without hesitation his daughter stepped up to take the challenge. Sybil was as comfortable on a horse as she was on her own two feet so she was confident she would succeed. By the time the night was over Sybil had rode over forty miles, and when she got home there roughly 400 men at her fathers house. They were all there because of Sybil Ludington

Essay Questions

Why was the location of the First Continental Congress so important? What did Carpenter's Hall represent to the delegates?


     Carpenter's Hall was the town hall of Philadelphia. The colonial leaders chose Philadelphia because at the time it was the biggest and most comfortable city in America. It provided the colonial leaders a welcoming place to go and if it was to be a lengthy process they were in the perfect city for an extended stay. Carpenter Hall represented a meeting house where the leaders could come together, sit down, have conversations, and make decisions.

First to Defy, First to Die

      This story is about a man named Crispus. He was born in 1723 when there was a big demand for slaves. His father was Prince Yonger, but even he couldn't escape the slave trade. So Prince Yonger was shipped to the new world. He worked for a man named Colonel Buckminster. While working there he found wife, he name was Nancy Attucks. Their son was name Crispus.
      Crispus hated being labeled as someone elses property and he always dreamed of being free. Crispus was sold to Deacon William Brown. After ten years working for Deacon William Brown, Crispus had a chance to be a harpoonist on a whaling ship. He decided not to return to his master.
       As Crispus was hiding in Boston when he heard a commotion, he rushed over. It was the start of the Boston Massacre. Crispus ended up at the front crowd. He heard the cry of "FIRE" He felt a pain in his chest. And he died. Crispus was the first man to die in the Boston Massacre.

Jamestown, Captain Smith, and Pocahontas

This a very well know story so I won't dwell on it too much.

Captain John Smith was one of the head honchos at the Jamestown settlement. He, unlike many others, believed that the Native Americans were not ignorant savages but highly developed people just like himself. He helped build a fort protecting Jamestown. One day while he was out scouting he was captured by the Powhatan Indians and taken back to their camp to go on trial. The chief of the Powhatans decided to kill Captain Smith but before he could, his daughter Pocahontas rushed forward to protect Captains Smith and saved his life. Captain Smith and Pocahontas would go on to become very close friends and there was peace between the Natives and the Settlers

Economics of Tobacco

    In the early 1600s, the settlers in the new world were frantically looking for a comodity that they could trade and use to provide for the. A Jamestown farmer named John Rolfe had the idea to create a new kind of tobacco by breeding the tobacco used in England with the tobacco found in America. After Rolfe succesfully traded his first crop, excitment grew in America and lots of farmers made tobacco their primary crop. And due to the rising demand for tobacco, there was also a rising demand for workers. And so slavery started in America. As they were able to sell more and more tobacco, the price began to drop and so they had to make more tobacco. Finally England put a monopolly on tobacco. No one in England was aloud to grow it, and the tobacco grown in America had to be sold to people in England.

The Raid on Deerfield

     This raid took place on a February morning in 1704. Native Americans and a few French soldiers raided Deerfield, Mass. They killed almost 50 people and burned the town to the ground. The Native Americans took many captives and took them to New France. They thought they were being chased so the Native Americans drove them at a pace that would kill many of the captives. The story of the Deerfield Raid has been told for many years. We know no, more than 300 years later, that this wasn't mindless slaughter. But none the less a terrible event in history.
    

Hard Labor

     This is a book I was reading for school. It was a very short book and easy to read. Even though it was short I thought it had a lot of good information in it and I was able to get something out of it
     The book was about slavery and how origionally it had nothing to do with race. A black man could have a white man as a slave, and a white man could have a black man as a slave. Also slavery wasn't what we think of now. It was properly called indentured service. And it didn't last for your lifetime. A normal indentured service lasted 4-7 years.
     It was in 1633 that a few rules were made that caused racism to come into play and you could be seen as the "wrong color" A slave born into slavery was automatically a slave. And,  a black man could not have a white slave.

Around the World in a Hundred Years #11

Ferdinand Magellen was in charge of one of the most important sea exhibitions. he was the captain of the first boat to sail all the war around the world. He set out with 5 ships but 4 of them mutinied and turned back along the way. When he was only a few months away from home Magellen was killed by natives at an island they stopped at. His crew would continue without him and make it back home alive, but only barely

Around the World in a Hundred Years #10

This was about Vasco Nunez de Balboa (to make it easier on myself I will just call him Rocky) Shortly after Columbus returned from his third voyage to the new world, lots of people were crossing the ocean looking for fame and fortune. One of which was the fencing master Rocky. On his way there Rocky's ships crashed on some rocks near land. They were able to save all of their jewels at the cost of their slaves. Rocky became a settler and lived in the new world. Somehow he kept getting in debt and the rule of the island was that nobody who was in debt was aloud to leave the island. Randomly in 1509 a ship turned up on the island and Rocky sneaked on to the ship in order to get off the island. After they were far away from the shore Rocky came out from hiding and pretty much took charge of the ship. He kept exploring and then later settled again. He had some native Indians take him to "new water" and he claimed it as a new Ocean.

Around the World in a Hundred Years #9

     Perhaps you've heard of the man Juan Ponce de León. He is famously known for trying to find the fountain of youth. While on his wild goose chase of a search he discovered, claimed and named Florida. After not finding it for along time he took some people and resources and tried to settle in Florida but he was killed by the natives who didn't want him there.

Around the World in a Hundred Years #8

I just have a short post this time, my sister and friend are trying to kick me off the computor.
        Today we will learn about Amerigo Vepucci. Despite the fact that Christopher Columbus was the first to discover America. Amerigo Vespucci was the first to title it as a new continent and claimed the discovery of it by saying he had found it the year before Chrisopher Columbus. Because of that the new world would be named after him which is how the name America came about.

Around the World in a Hundred Years #6

This chapter is about Pedro Alvares Cabral.

     This was a pretty short chapter, basically what happened was that Pedro Alvares Cabral was going to Clicut similar to Vasco da Gama. On his way there he was blown off course and found Brazil. He then claimed it for Portugal.

Around the World in a Hundred Years #5

     This chapter was about an expedition organized by King Manuel the Fortunate, the king of Portugal. The king was looking for a man who would sail around the Cape of Good Hope and then up to the port of Calicut to acquire valuable spices and stuff like that. He found his man in Vasco da Gama. On June 8th 1497 Vasco da Gama set off on what was expected to be a 3 year trip. Many people gathered around to see him and his crew off on their expedition to gain great treasure for Portugal.
       Off Vasco de Gama went because of storms he was unable to make it around the cape until November 22. Three days after that he landed at Herdsman's Bay (Named by Bartholomew Diaz) and was greeted by many happy Native Americans. He and his crew were invited to dance with the natives and they took the offer. Vasco da Gama over stayed his welcome and as he left the natives tore down the stone marker he left there. After spending some time in Malindi, Africa Vasco da Gama set off again for Calicut on April 24, 1498. Just under a month later he dropped anchor in the Calicut port. He was not welcomed and his gifts to the king were not well recived. This didn't make Vasco da Gama and he decided that the only way to trade with the people of Calicut was to conquer it. And in 1502 that's just what he did. Just outside of Calicut he stopped a large passenger ship that was on its way back from Mecca. He took all the cargo and valubles on the ship, locked the passengers in the hold and set the boat on fire. Despite the cries for mercy Vasco da Gama showed no pity. He then had a few more displays of cruelty and sailed to a near by port called Cochin, made friendly relationships with them, filled his boat with treasures and went home.
      A few years later Vasco da Gama was appointed as viceroy to go and set India in order, but he died before he had a chance to return to India.

Around The World in a Hundred Years #3

            In this chapter we will delve into an adventure with the great Bartholomew Diaz. In the lovely month of August. In the, at the time, record breaking year of 1487 Bartholomew Diaz set off on his daring expedition with two ships called Caravels and a simple storage ship. As they were sailing along disaster struck, they were caught in the middle of a huge storm off the shore of Africa. Without anyway to tell where they are or where they are going the crew struggles to stay alive. After 13 days filled with terror, pain, anguish and desperation the storm subsides but not before it has taken the storage ship as payment. Diaz decided it was time to go home so with a little help from the sun and high tech location finders. He set off in the direction home only to find that he was on the wrong side of Africa! During the storm his ships had been blown all the way around the bottom of Africa! As Bartholomew Diaz went back around Africa to go home he was able to draw the bottom of Africa for mapping purposes.

Around the World in a Hundred Years #2

     This chapter was about Prince Henry the Navigator.

     Prince Henry was very passionate about making the unknown known. He went on a trip to Africa trying to figure out what the bottom part of Africa looked like. This led to him taking back slaves so it wasn't such a good thing. But his map did look better! For one of his expeditions he and a man called Master Jaime designed a new boat that had three triangular sails and could turn into the wind when they needed to come home.

Around the World in a Hundred Years. #1

I will be reading a book called "Around the World in a Hundred Years" and writing a little summery of each chapter.

     The first chapter was about maps and how for a long time they were very inaccurate. This was because they wasn't a very solid trustworthy way to know exactly what all the world looked like. And because maps weren't used for directions then the same way they are now. Instead they were more used as artwork.

New Blog

I have recenlty started a blog with my friend Amy English. We are reviewing all the ice cream places in Dubuque Iowa. If you want to view the blog you can go to the link below.

dubuqueicecream.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Summer plans for 2015

Over the summer I have 3 main things I want to do.

1. Get a job
2. Stay fit for soccer and cross country in the fall
3. Do a lot of things with my friends


GET A JOB
         I have currently applied to the Dubuque Country Club, but I haven't heard back from them yet. The draw back of working there is that it is a summer job so they would want me working almost everyday of the week which wouldn't leave me much time to do anything else. If I don't get the job there I'm not entirely sure where else I would apply. But I am keeping my eyes open for anyone who is hiring.

STAY FIT FOR SOCCER AND CROSS COUNTRY IN THE FALL
          I will hope to go for runs 4-5 times a week, I will probably try and run with some of my friends who also run cross country just because I enjoy running with other people more than running by myself. I will be getting together with a few guys to play soccer as much as possible. I am going to try and work out with my friend Willie probably 3 days a week as well.


DO A LOT OF THINGS WITH MY FRIENDS
         I definitely want to do more things with my friends this summer, and it doesn't always have to be something planned in advance, I'm gonna try just if I'm not doing anything for a few hours calling up one of my friends and seeing if they want to do something. I've already started to make some plans with some of my friends so that's a bonus.

Into the Sea of Darkness

             In the 15th century Portugal was becoming a big name in the maritime economy. They had a unique location that looked west and south across the Atlantic Ocean. This helped Portugal build a maritime economy based on trading, shipbuilding and sailing. The Portuguese monarchy supported ship owners which helped the growth of oversea trade.
              For a long time sailors in Europe had only knowledge of the ocean that was gained form personal experience such as tides, currents, wind, weather and the coastlines near their home. But in the 14th and 15th centuries technological developments were made that vastly changed the world of seafarers, shipbuilders and mapmakers forever.
              The people of Portugal had maritime knowledge, a good location and a lot of seafaring experience. But what really united the nation in a mission of exploration was a man named Prince Henry the Navigator. Prince Henry was born March 4th of 1394, he was the third living son of his family. When he was 19 he went on a crusade against a port city in Northern Africa. In 1415 the Portuguese attacked and defeated the port city Ceuta. Henry would then go on to explore Africa by way of the

Thoughts on Robin Hood

So today for history I read a paper about whether or not Robin Hood was a real character in history or if he is a fictional character created for stories.

I think that Robin Hood himself is less likely a real person than, the stories are real and are all given the same character to create the legacy of Robin Hood. Perhaps Robin Hood was a real person and maybe he just didn't do all of the stories that we know today. In the original book of Robin Hood stories, there is now mention of either Frier Tuck or Maid Marion. Also the setting and times differ from the original stories to the stories we now know.  Either way I'm not particularly sure it matters, we all love a good Robin Hood story, and finding out that he wasn't real wouldn't take away from the story at all.

England's Greatest Playwright

                 As you probably guessed, I'm referring to William Shakespeare. When he was young he worked with a theater group that moved around from town to town performing anywhere the town had room for them. Then as he got older Shakespeare and some of his friends decided to break off from the main group and start their own theater company.
                He kept getting older (as all of us do) and he started not only performing plays but also writing them. He wrote all kinds of plays, drama, comedy, tragedy, historical and many other styles. Some of his famous shows are The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer's Night Dream, Hamlet, Richard III, Henry V, Macbeth and those are only a few of his plays.
                Something you may not have realized is that many common phrases used are actually lines from Shakespeare's plays. "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" "To be or not to be?" Those are both lines from Hamlet. "A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!" is from Richard III. "You're going to eat me out of house and home!" This line is from the show Henry IV, Part 2. And if you have heard of jealousy being called a "Green-eyed monster", you are hearing a reference to Othello.

Swiss Neutrality

In the 1400s Switzerland was a strong military country and they entered into several wars to try and expand their country. They won quite a few territories during this time, but in 1515 the Swiss suffered a big defeat at the hands of the French. This caused them to think twice about their policy to expand. They decided to adopt a policy of permanent neutrality and they have stayed out of foreign wars ever since.  At the beginning of World War 1 Switzerland announced neutrality and because of that they were not invaded. I do not believe that they have ever been invaded since they announced permanent neutrality



P.S.
My dad wants to know about "the real Swiss army"

In Euro cup qualifying Switzerland was placed in Group E along with England, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania and San Mariano

Englands Greatest Queen

          King Henry VII had three children, 1 son and 2 daughters. The oldest was a girl named Mary, when she was born she was named the heir to the throne of Henry. But when her younger sister Elizabeth was born she that title was taken from Mary and given to Elizabeth. The same thing happened to Elizabeth when she was 4, her brother Edward was born.
           Edward ended up taking the throne when Henry died but he was a sickly child and died  when he was 16. Mary won the fight for the throne and had Elizabeth under close watch to make sure she didn't try and take the throne from her again. One day while Elizabeth was sitting under a tree reading the Bible in Greek. A rider came up to her and told her that her sister was dead and that she was now the queen.
             Now that she was Queen everybody tried to get her to marry some man so that the country was not in the hands of a women. She said that she was married to England and would not marry a man. Despite what the country thought, Elizabeth became the best ruler England had ever had. Her people called Good Queen Bess.

The Changing English Language

              Over the years the English language has been changing. Slight things like pronunciations or syllable but the most obvious one is silent letters. A man named William Caxton noticed that the English language had changed and that it would continue to change. People have been able to figure out how people who spoke "Middle English" sounded and how it sounded compared to "Modern English"
               The change from middle to modern English is called "The Great Vowel Shift. Some words elongated, or two part vowel sounds called diphthongs became shorter. For example, Said was pronounced "say-id" but it is now pronounced "sed". And rude was pronounced "rew-ed"
               Other words/pronunciations that changed were Beet became Bite. Hoose became House. Leek became Like. Ohk became Oak And Uhks became Ox. The English language is still changing today, a lot of words have been added and a lot of words are pronounced differently than even 50 years ago.

Copernicus

              Copernicus is one of the most know astronomers, he was one of the first people to suggest that not everything in the solar system circled around the Earth and that it in fact went around the Sun in ovals. He made a book with his opinions and comparing them to the opinions of other people. He refrained from publishing his book for quite a while because he didn't want to get in trouble with the Catholic church.
               His ended up publishing his book, it was called "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres" The first printed copy was given to him on his death bed. He died the same year his book was published. As it would work out, he did get in trouble with the Church and his book was banned from the church because they believed that this new theory was saying that because the Sun was the center of all the solar system, that implied that people on Earth were not the center of God's plan in making the world.
               Despite his works being banned by the church, people slowly started to accept Copernicus' theory and others started to believe that the Sun was the center of the solar system. He would eventually be called the "Father of Astronomy".

Grass

This is a paper I did for the week about grasses.

GRASSES

What is a grass?

Grass is a plant that grows, but not just the green stuff that grows in your yard. It is also wheat, rice, sugarcane and bamboo.

What does graminoid mean?

A fancy word for grasses. Something that is grass like

Are grasses Monocots or Dicots? What characterizes them as such?

Monocots, they have single .

Where are grasses found?

Pretty much everywhere.

How much land is covered by grasses?

Roughly 20%

What are the 3 types of grasslands?

         1. Savanna

         2. Plain

         3. Farmlands

Define cereal as it pertains to grasses.

It is the grains of grasses that have been made into an edible delight.

Make a list of the subset of grasses called cereals.

1. Rice

2. Maize (Corn)

3. Wheat

4. Oats

5. Sorghum

6. Barley

Which ones are the most important cereal crops?

Wheat, Oats, Rice, Maize, Sorghum

What is turf grass?

Turf is grass used in lawns, grass that is maintained.

List some ornamental grasses:

         1. Indian Grass

         2. Blue Fescue

         3. Japanese Blood Grass

         4. Pampas Grass

List some woody grasses:

         1. Bamboo

2. Hay

3. Straw

4. Corn

What are sedges?

They are flowering herbs

Are they a true grass?

No they are not.

List some sedges:

1. Pineapple

         2. Western Inflated

         3. Slough Sedge

         4. Sawbeak Sedge

How do grasses reproduce? Make a list with examples.

         1. Tillering

         2. Rhizomes

         3. Seeds

         4. Sends off shoots

         5. breaking apart and replanting

Grass is really important for animals, there are quite a lot of animals that eat grasses as their main source of food. For instance, Cows, Sheep, Horses, Goats, Rodents, and also some birds.

A Middle Ages Meal

I am going to give you a menu of a few middle age dishes.

Oat Cereal with Almond Milk
        This is basically oatmeal with whole almonds in it, it also has a bit of salt as well.

Sallat
     What people in the middle ages called a salad. It would have lettuce, carrots, turnips and walnuts.

Currant Cake
     This is just a cake with some spices in it, such as nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and a bit of mace

Jobs in the Middle Ages

I am going to post this post as if I was a person from the middle ages telling you about an average day of work as a Messenger.

         Hello my name is Ralph, I am the go to messenger where I come from so the work is good.  I enjoy my job, sometimes its not the best set up though. You know the phrase "Don't kill the messenger"? That can apply in literal terms to me! Now, I've never been killed for the messages I deliver, obviously or else I wouldn't be talking right now! But I have known people who have not had the best experiences delivering a message.
         For the most part I deliver messages for the local nobles, sometimes I will deliver to someone with a lower status and sometimes to people with a higher status. It's the higher status people that you have to look out for! I once delivered a message to a high ranking knight, he didn't like what the message said so he had me imprisoned for a few weeks!
          But overall it's a pretty good job, it pays well enough for me to be able to put food on the table for my family everyday and that's what really matters. I need to put some money aside though, it's about time I get a new horse, my current horse just isn't quite as fast as he once was.

Gregor Mendel

Gregor Mendel is a man who made a major break through in the study of genetics with his study of peas. He found out how to predict recessive and dominant genes from the parents will be distibuted to the children.

Math

In math I am currently learning about radicals and square roots. How to add, subtract. multiply and divide them. It's a little confusing at times but for the most part I understand it quite well. The hardest part for me is problems that have square roots in fractions. But even that I have mostly figured out.

Interview of King Harold

My assignment for today is to write some questions as if I was a reporter in the time of King Harold and ask him some questions.



Q: I learned that you were injured in the Battle of Stiklestad. What happened to you? How long did it take to recover?

Q: What made you want to learn how to fight with two swords at the same time? How long did it take to master the skill?

Q: Why did you want to become part of the Varangian Guard?

Q: Once you became head over a troop for the Guard, why did you invade Persia?

Q: Why didn't you give your hair to Empress Zoe?

Q: Were you involved in the death of Magnus the Norwegian king?

Q: What went wrong at Stamford Bridge?

Q: Was your death painful?

Norse mythology in Lord of the Rings

          Today I learned that there is quite a lot of comparison between Norse mythology and the famous book series by J.R.R Tolkien. Tolkien was very knowledgeable of the Norse Sagas, which are also called Northern Sagas. While writing Lord of The Rings Tolkien tried to recreate Northern Sagas for a modern audience. Middle-Earth is like Midgard which is the realm where the humans live and is in the middle of the eight worlds of the Norse universe.
           Tolkien's world is inhabited by the same types of creatures as there are in the Norse universe. The trolls, dwarves, wraiths, dragons and more. Similar to the Norse universe, Tolkien's world is torn apart by different kingdoms fighting against each other in order to survive.
 Tolkien instilled Northern values into his characters. The most important of these values, one that you can find in almost every Norse Saga, is fellowship. having loyalty to one's friends and ruler. The importance of loyalty is seen very often in both Norse Sagas and Tolkiens books.

The Tiny Ice Age and the writing of Frankenstein

Today I learned about the tiny Ice Age and I learned that Frankenstein was written because of the Ice Age.

Mary Shelley, her husband and a couple they were with would go to Geneva for vacation. They usually would go boating and swimming and lots of other stuff outside. But the year they went it was very cold due to the Tiny Ice Age and so they decided to have a competition on who could make the best horror story. After a few days Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein

Hnefatafl: A Viking Board Game

This is what a Hnefatafl board looks like.

Hnefatafl is a game that is very similar to both chess and checkers. The board is normally a square made by 11 squares on each side, the game can still be played with any number as long as it is odd. The point of the game is for the attackers to try and capture the king while the defenders try to escort the king to one of the corners of the board. Whichever team competes it's task wins the game. The way you capture a piece is you have to have one of your pices on two sides of another piece, except for the king, you have to be on all four sides to capture him.

SOTW 32

This time I will be writing about the Native Americans.

Around the time that Columbus found America the Mayans empire was very powerful. They were described by Columbus as black hair, short in front and long in back, they had painted themselves with black and white paint. The Mayans started building great cities around the same time that Rome was falling apart. Worshiping the gods was very important in the Mayan lifestyle, they would also do things to their bodies to make them look more "godlike" Mothers would strap planks of wood to their sons heads so that the head would grow in a strange shape. Also they would tie toys in front of infants eyes that they would become cross eyed. Eventually the Mayan empire became too big to be controlled and it started to fall apart and the Aztec empire took their place. The Aztecs built there city on an island that used to be swampy, but they brought rocks and dirt to the island. The island became bigger and the Aztecs were able to build a huge city on it.

SOTW 31 Christopher Columbus

Today for history I read a chapter from my Story Of The World book about Christopher Columbus and I am now supposed to write a few paragrahs out the chapter.

         Christopher Columbus was an Italian sailor who wanted to find a sea route to get to india. He believed that if he sailed in the oposite direction he go all the way around the world and end up on the coast of India. He pitched his idea to a couple people trying to find someone to pay. He first tried the king of Portugal but he warned Columbus against the idea. He then tried to convince the kings of France and England but they also wouldn't help. Finally Columbus went to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, Ferdinand showed very little interest but Isabella was very interested. She saw that if she helped Columbus Spain could become very rich and powerful from the trading route so she decided to help him. Spain was in the middle of a war so Isabella couldn't help Columbus for 7 years. But she held to her word and 7 years later Columbus set sail of three ships filled with a crew and supplies for many months.
          After many days the crew started to complain about the trip, the food and water was running out and they were suffering from scurvy becuase they hadn't eaten any fresh fruit or vegtables in a long time. They started to say that they would never reach any land so Columbus made them a deal. He said that if they didn't see land in three days they would turn around and go back home. On the morning of the second day land was spotted. Columbus thought for sure that he had made it all the way to India but he had acutally landed on the coast of Florida. He called the people there Indians with out knowing where they were. It was later determined that Columbus had found a new continent by a man named Amerigo Vespucci and the name of North and South America are named after him.

Indoor state champions!

Last weekend my soccer team participted in the Iowa Indoor state tournament and won! We went 5-0 for the whole tournament.

Our first game was against Vision Soccer Academy we started pretty slow but picked up as the game went on, we went ahead twice but both times VSA socred to tie the game. With very little time left our keeper Ian McDonald kicked the ball forward and in a series of strange happenings the ball ended up in the back of the net! We won the game 3-2

Our second game was against Iowa Soccer Club U15 which means that they were a year younger than us, we pretty much had our way with them and won the game 7-0, it was a good game all around for the team.

Our third game was agains Ceder Rapids Soccer Association U15 again, they were a year younger. We started the game as if we were still asleep and CRSA went up 2-0. The combination of that and some fresh subs, we quickly woke up and went on to win the game 5-2. Which advanced us into the semifinals of the tournament!

The semifinals were played against the CRSA team our age. They are always able to give us a good game, but they didn't have their star player today who is ranked one of the best U16 players in the state of Iowa. Despite the fact the game was tied 1-1 at the end of the game so we went to a penalty shootout. Our first to shooters made their shots and then Ian made a save, I was the third shooter so if I made my shot we won the game. I placed it in the back of the net and we were on to the finals!

In the finals we again started really slow and went down 2-0, Then Nick Raley socred 3 straight goals to take us into the lead! We would go on to win the game 6-4 and win the tournament!


Overall it was a great tournament for the whole team and it was great to come out on top!

The Cuerdale Hoard

The treasure is displayed in the British Museum

The Cuerdale Hoard is a chest of treasure found in 1840 by a group of workers

Not everything in the chest was coins there were also chains and clasps

Most of the chest was filled with coins

Silent Trade

          The silent trade is a form of trading that was used between Ghana and northern African kingdoms that had salt. Because Ghana had an abundance of gold but not much salt so they were willing to trade pound for pound. There was a problem though because the people Ghana was trading with didn't speak the same language so they participated in what we know as a silent trade. One of the sides participating in the trade would set their goods in a specific area, then they would leave and start beating drums so that the other party would know they had set their goods out. Then the other party would come look at what was set out and put what they thought was a good trade out next to the other parties goods. Then they would leave and beat on their drums. If the first party thought it was a good trade they would take the goods but if they didn't they would leave and beat their drums again. this went on until a deal was made.

Different types of farm irrigation

There are multiple different types of irrigation

Surface
            This is where you cover the surface of you crops with water, it is also called flood irrigation

Localized
            This is where water is distributed through pipes to specific locations, there are a few sub catagories of localized irrigation

        Drip
             The water is in a tube that drips water out through small holes in the hose.

       Sprinkler system
              Sprinkler system is pretty self explanitory but there are even more sub catagories of the sprinkler system

                 Center Pivot Sprinkler
                      The hoses come together in one place where the water sprays out and circles around so as to get water everywhere


                Lateral momvent
                     These sprinklers move along a black hose and spray of to the side, so if you put the black hose around the parimeter of your crop it will go around the edges and water everything    
      

More Viking stuff

I am here today to tell you 10 Facts about Vikings

1. Vikings did not wear horned helmets


 2. Vikings actually kept themselves quite clean


3. Important vikings were buried in boats


4. Viking women had some basic rights


5. When viking men weren't raiding they were most likely farming at home


6. Viking men would die there hair blonde because that was the prefered hair style


7. Vikings would go skiing for recreation


8. Vikings didn't really intereact with other vikings outside of their village


9. Viking were active in slave tradeing


10. A big viking meeting was called "The Thing"

Pros and Cons of eating Legume

According to the paleo diet one should not eat Legumes (beans, peas, lentils etc.) because they have high concentration of anti-nutrients like lectins and phytates which apparently reduces their nutritional value to very little. Research has however shown this to be untrue, it has been proven that the benifits of beans outweighs the anit-nutrient content.

Beans have lots of healthy nutrients that our bodies need.
B vitamins
Calcium
Potassium
Folate
Protein
Fiber

Interviewing a farmer

My assingment for the week was to interview a farmer so I picked my friend Bevan Messiner.


Here are the questions I asked and his answers.  Q = Question     B= Bevan


Q What resource do you produce the most of?

B For consumers: Eggs For self use: Rabbits


Q What made you decide to be a famer?

B It was forced upon me


Q How much work is done by machines?

B Very little to none. The only thing we use machines for is bailing hay


Q How much land do you own?

B 50 acres


Q How long has the farm been in your family?

B 2 years


Q What is your favorite part of farming?

B probably the horses


Q How do you chose which products to grow?

B Out of necesity, last winter we didn't have enough feed hay for our horses and cows so that got expansive so now we grow our own.


Q Do you use herbicides/pesticides?

B No sir


Q Do you use fertilizer? What kinds?

B Yes, if you count manure.





That concluded my interview.

The Wars of the Roses

           The wars of the roses was a civil war in England between reletives in the royal family. The Lancastians who had a red rose on their flag and the Yorks who had a white rose on their flag. The war of the roses started when Henry VI was the king. Henry VI was a very good man. However after being the king years, he went mad. He wouldn't talk to anyone, he would sit in one place looking at nothing for hours he didn't seem to hear when people came and talked to him. It is beleived that Henry VI inherited the maddness from his grandfather who had suffered from fits of insanity his whole life. Since Henry VI was in no state to rule a country his family asked his distant cousin, the duke of York, to temperally take the throne until Henry VI got better. But, when Henry VI's health started to improve the duke of York did not want to give up the throne. So Henry VI and his wife got an army together and attacked the dukes army. The York army was defeated and Henry VI took the throne back. But the York family was not done trying to get the throne. The dukes son Edward raised an army, defeated Henry VI, threw him in jail and took over the throne. Edwared was a good king but he decided to marry a girl from another family, he also gave her brothers positions with power. People didn't like that so they let Henry VI out of jail and attacked Edward. Edward found out about the attack and ran away. Henry VI had the throne yet again but Edward wasn't finished, he raised up another army and came back for the throne. He defeated Henry VI put him in jail, and then Henry VI was murdered while he was in jail. Edward reigned for 12 uniterrupted years until his death. After he died the one who was next up for the throne was his 12 year old son, but he was too young so his uncle Richard took the throne and named himself the king of England. Richard was king for only 2 years when he was attacked by his cousin Henry Tudor. Henry beat Richard and the wars of the roses were over.

Mystery Women Burial

I am telling you today about a burial ship that had two women burried on it. It is the same one I was talking about the other day so this is going to mostly be old information.

In 1904 archaeologists found a boat burried near the city of Oseburg. Inside the boat were two women, one was around 60-70 years old when she died and the other was between 25-30 years old. They were able to determine that the older of the two ladies suffered from arthritis and that the two women were burried between 835 and 850 AD. Based on what they were burried with which was beds, weaving looms, kitchen utensils, buckets, shoes, cloth, a wooden cart, four sleighs and the bodies of fifteen horses and four dogs. Archaeologists think that either the old woman was a queen and the young lady was the serving maid, or the younger was the young queen and the old lady was her old nurse.

Bugs

I have been doing some research about insects and I made a list of insects that are benifical and some that are pretty much just pests.


BENEFICIAL INSECTS                                                    PESTS
Checkered Beetle                                                                  Emerald Ash Borer
Black and Yellow Garden Spider                                         Fork Tailed Bush Katydid
Hover Fly                                                                              Formica Ants
Repetitive Tachinid Fly                                                         Flathead Pine Heartwood Borer Beetle
Two-Lined Spittlebug                                                           Yucca Plant Bug
Praying Mantis                                                                      Three Lined Potato Beetle
Northern Walkingstick                                                          Spur-Throated Grasshopper
Honey Bee                                                                             Squash Bug
Ladybugs                                                                               Spotted Cucumber Beetle
Chineses Mantis                                                                    Rose Chafer

Viking Burial Ships

Most vikings were not buried in our traditioal ways, they were sent out to sea in the boat they had had in life. Along with the dead viking would be everything they might need in the next life. In 1880 a viking ship was found and dug up in Norway. The archaeologists called it the Gokstad Longship, cause it was found near the village of Gokstad. They found the skeleton of a man, he was dressed in fancy clothes and had lots of gold and jewelry around him. He had been burried with several horses, dogs and a peacock. And also there were some extra household items. Another boat was found in 1904 and it had two women burried in it. It is thought that one of the women was a queen and the other was her serving maid.

How Vikings Navigated

       Vikings didn't have a GPS, they didn't really even have a map. They had to navigate useing experiance, instinct, stars and landmarks. If you wanted to get to Greenland from Norway you would start by heading due south until you reach Europe. Then you sail west along the coast until you come to Great Britain. You follow the islands east coast until you come to a group of islands called the Faeroes. You should then follow the curve of these islnds until you come to Iceland. You will replenish any food that you need and then sail due west from Iceland, Greenland is so big that you can't miss it.
     That is baiscly how Vikings got around, they would use the stars and the sun in order to know which direction they were going.

Hydroponics

          Hydroponics is a way to grow plants without using any soil. There are advantages and disadvantages to using hydroponics. Some of the advantages are that you can grow plants with out any space, you can grow them indoors and all year round. Hydroponically-grown plants can be grown inexpensivly. There is little wasted water and it doesn't require hard backbreaking work. Now that might sound great but there are also disadvantages to it as well. the intitial set up cost of of hydroponic-growing is expensive. If you have a power outage your plants will be effected, water based microorganisms can be intrudced easily and technical knowledge is requird to plant using hydroponics.

Vikings

     Yestereday I watched a history video about vikings so today I am going to recap it. The viking were considered the strongest warriors in their time. One of the biggest reasons they were so strong was because ever since they were teens young vikings warriers would row their own boats, they could row for miles and this built up a ton of strength. Young warriors were also taught to play the game "catch the spear" it started with a stick but as they got older it would progress to a spear. The game was to throw spears at each other and catch them and then throw them back as fast as you could. The vikings survived by forming raids on near by towns, they would sail up in their black longboats and steal as much as they could. Their are different guesses as to why the boats were black. But the reason is that they had to put tar on the boat to keep it from falling apart, and the tar was black. When vikings raided they would try and avoided head on battles. But when they were caught in this scenario they usually won. They started it off by having their champion challange any one of the enemies. After the champion won the enemy would start to become disheartend and scared, then the vikings would let loose their beserkers. Besrerkers were.... Crazy. There is no other way to put it. They would go in to a 5 step process called the beserkers rage. First they would strip off their clothes to show that they weren't scared of the enemy. Then they would start howling or makeing some other animal nosie. Third they would start danceing and biteing their shield which was lined in iron. At this point you have a crazy guy without any clothes on, foaming blood from his mouth and only then would he charge at you. When they went in to their rage, there were basicaly couldn't feel pain. You could shoot them but they wouldn't die. The only way to kill them was a loss of blood, a direct shot to their heart or a major blow to the head.

Photosynthesis

                 Photosynthesis is the process where a plant turns light from the sun into usable energy. During the process of photosynthesis carbon dioxide enters the plant through tiny openings called Stomata. The carbon dioxide cycles through and the plant dumps out oxygen as a waste product. The opening and closing of the stomata are controled by cells named guard cells. Guard cells open and close based on different variable in the plant. Heat, mositure, plant chemestry and more. Chlorophyll is also vital to photosynthesis, chlorophyll alows the energy to be used in the plant and it turns the plant the green. That is pretty much all the different things that need to be present in order for photosynthesis to occur.

A simplified formula of Photosynthesis is

Carbon Dioxide + Water + Light (Energy) = Glucose + Oxygen