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