A Bright Idea . . . by Caleb, 11

A few days ago, I got an idea from one of my favorite books, Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things, by Cy Tymony, who also wrote Sneakier Uses for Everyday Things, and Sneakiest Uses for Everyday Things.  (They’re available through Vision Forum.)  There is a project in his book where you use a string, toy dart gun and camera to take a picture of a thug, (or anyone) who opens your door too far.  I thought of a similar idea where you use the same concept to turn on your room light.

I took an old spiral-bound notebook and cut out a piece of the cardboard cover (the shiny side.)  I taped this to my door and then stuck a suction cup to it.  (Without the cardboard, the suction cup wouldn’t stick to the door.)  I tied a string to the suction cup as seen in the next picture:Then I wrapped the string around the hinge of my closet door, which is right next to the main door:

Finally, I tied the string in a loop and looped it around my light switch, so that when you open the door, it pulls on the loop, which pulls on the switch, which flips up, turning on the light.

The only problem is that every time you leave the room, you must reset it, by looping the loop around the switch, and then squeeze through the door, without turning on the light.I hope to be able to improve this, by running the string through stick-on eyelets, stuck on the wall.

Maple Syrup …by Caleb, 11

We put this syrup on our pancakes this morning, and it was delicious!

Two days ago we went on a mini field trip just down the road where a family makes maple syrup.  Mr. Cash took us into the building where he makes it, and told us everything (I’m pretty sure), about making it.

First, he takes the maple sap and puts it in the evaporator that has a big fire in it (he burns wood).  When the sap goes in, it is 2% sugar.  It gets hotter and hotter and more water evaporates and when it is almost syrup, he strains it.

By the way, it really becomes syrup at 219° under normal pressure.  But if he could make the air pressure smaller, there would be more empty space, sucking the water into the air, so it would become syrup faster.  But when he strains it, it’s not yet syrup.  Then he takes it to place where it gets to 219°.  The reason for this is because in the evaporator, there is always cooler sap mixing in with the soon-to-be syrup.

Also, the way syrup gets to be light amber, medium amber, dark amber, or Grade B, is the amount of bacteria in the sap.    The bacteria like sugar too, and the more they eat, the darker the syrup.  But they are all killed at such high temperatures.  When it is syrup, so much water has been taken away, (it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup) that it is 66% sugar!

As a side thought, how do you think the American Indians figured out you could make maple syrup?  Or maybe they discovered birch syrup first!  Yes, you can make syrup from birch sap.  It is runnier than maple syrup, and tastes kind of like root beer!

Then Mr. Cash took us for a tractor ride into the woods, where he showed us the three ways he taps trees.  The first way is with a bucket.  He drills a hole about 1-2 inches into the tree (it has to be at a good distance away from last year’s hole) and puts a spile in the hole.  He hangs a bucket underneath it and the sap goes through the spile and falls into the bucket.  When the sap comes out of the tree it is clear, and the reason it turns brown is because the sugar caramelizes.  It is pretty easy for bugs to get in this way.

In the second way, he also drills a hole and puts in a spile, but this time he uses a bag to catch the sap.  He likes this method because if you use clear bags, you can see how full they are from far away.  But, they still let bugs in.

The third way keeps out just about all critters.  It also uses a smaller hole in the tree, which heals faster than a big one.  He takes a tube and runs it from the hole in the tree to a kitty litter box (a new one) with a small hole the size of the tube in the lid.  The sap runs down the tube and into the box.

He sells the syrup, so we bought some and we really liked it!    Here is a link to mom’s recipe for Sourdough Barley Pancakes.

Celebrating 100 Posts . . . by Caleb, 10

100 Posts on Wright Blog

Yea!  We finally have 10 complete pages with 10 posts on each, which is 100 posts in total.

History

Mom organized this blog last June.  The first post was entitled, “Daily Adventures” and was written by Mom.  Since then, we have all written one or more posts, with the exception of Dad and Elisabeth.

Reminders

Remember, if you wish to receive notifications for new posts, click “sign me up,” located on the right of the screen.

If you wish to see all the posts in any of the 15 categories, click on the category located in the “categories” section.

If you wish to see all the posts in a certain month, click on that month in the “search the archives” section.

Similar to the categories, there are even more narrow categories called tags, which bring up each post with that tag.

If you want to comment on a post, click on the “leave a comment” link at the bottom of the post.

At the bottom of the page, you will find a link that directs you to the page before that. When you are on a previous page, there will be a button to direct you to the next page.

We hope you have enjoyed this blog.

Just an Update . . . by Caleb, 10

This is just an update, and if no specific theme is in the title, you can guess that there is nothing too exciting or too boring.  Christmas is past and 2011 is just around the corner and with it comes healthy eating again.  The Christmas season is when we eat the most junk, so the new year should bring good food with it.

Winter Activities

We have been doing our usual winter activities (making snow tunnels, pulling each other on the sled, etc.), and some new activities.  Before this winter all of us kids had only ice skated once, but this year we skated on our neighbor’s pond and our Grandpa’s.

Animal Update

I don’t know if the chickens are hard to feed and water in the winter.  I’ll leave that up to Nathan, but the rabbits are very hard.  They aren’t in a coop like the chickens, so their water freezes more often, which is every day.  Because we don’t have spare water bowls, I must haul out a nearly overflowing watering can full of boiling hot water to melt the ice.  But… execution days are coming.  The last days of the year are going to be warmer, so that is when we will butcher our extra roosters (not Morgan of course) and all, yes, I did say all our rabbits.  We did sell the ones that we were especially attached to—Jessie, Cinnamon and Cider.

Hunter Safety Course…by Caleb, 10

Yesterday Dad, Nathan and I finished a hunter safety course.  It lasted three days, 6:30 pm to 10:00.  They teach you how to be a safe hunter, about certain types of guns, bows, shot shells, bullets etc.  Sound interesting?  Well, there IS a test at the end, and it has 100 questions, and you need to get 80% or more correct to pass.  You might be thinking, well, did you pass?  We all did.    Dad got 100%, I got 98%, Nathan got 94%.

This morning, we saw two deer by the woods, waiting for us.  We don’t have our licenses yet, but you don’t need a license to hunt on your own property.  But – they were on the neighbor’s property, and it’s not hunting season.  I’m waiting!

In Memoriam: Tricky Chickie…by Caleb, 10

Tricky Chickie

Tricky Chickie met his demise on September 13, 2010, and will be missed in spite of his menacing behavior.  He always held to the idea that human kind was inferior.  And he let them know by his flogging and pecking to show that he was the boss.  His last words were made while in the hands of his owner just minutes before his death.  He bellowed his famous old war cry, “Cock-a-doodle-doo”.

For those of you who have not heard this war cry, it is a beautiful slur of beautiful syllables.  It was hard to butcher him, even after he had so defiantly denounced human authority.  It was also difficult because he had a name.  He earned it when he was very young and escaped from a temporary cage and when he led us to think he was a hen.  So to all those who have animals to eat we say, “Don’t name the stock”.  He will always be in our minds as the cockerel with a grudge.

In his memory, we show the first time Nathan and Caleb caught him after he turned bitter.  The latter two pictures are of better times, when he was living in a box with his brothers and ruling happily in a peaceful kingdom with his hens.

Back Patio Butcher Shop…by Caleb, 10

WARNING: The following post contains graphic details as to how we butchered our rabbits.  If you are sensitive and do not like hearing about such things, I sincerely suggest you skip the following until you see this symbol:       Thank You.

Yesterday we butchered nine of our young rabbits.  We nailed two nails into two of the posts holding up the huge awning that stretches over the patio.  Then we hung a garbage bag on each post.  Then we were ready.  Daddy, Mommy and I went to the chicken run where the rabbit hutches are and got one of the biggest young rabbits, put it in a small box and took the box behind the chicken coop.  Then Daddy shot it.

Then we took the dead rabbit out of the box and carried it to the patio by its feet.  We put on latex gloves, got Dad’s hatchet and laid the rabbit on a butcher block Daddy made.  We took the hatchet and chopped off its head.  Then we chopped of its front paws just at the wrist.  After that, we grabbed its tail and cut it off with a knife.  We also used the knife to stab its leg between the bone and it’s tendon (Achilles tendon on us.)  We used that slit to hang it upside down on the post by putting the nails through it.

Once it was hung there, we used the knife to cut around its ankles all the way around, but the cut was only skin deep.  We grabbed the skin below its ankle and pulled.  Because of the ankle cut we made, it pulled right down.  Once it was halfway down, we made a few slits in its belly so it wouldn’t tear and have the intestines fall out.  Then we pulled it all the way down.  Then, because the skin was inside out, we slit it between the arm and head, so we could pull the arms out.  After they were out, we pulled the skin all the way off.  Even after you pulled the skin off, there was still a little bit where the tail used to be, and we cut that off too.

Then we then we slit the belly from its bottom to its neck and pulled out the intestines, bladder, kidneys etc.  We also jammed our pinkie finger down its bottom to push the very last of the intestines out.  Then we yanked out its diaphragm, lungs, and heart.  There was usually another little bit of goo that we got out too.  Then we took it off the nails, put it on the butcher block, and chopped off its hind feet.  We put it in the cooler filled with ice water after that.  Then Mom took them inside, washed them and cut them up.  I butchered two all by myself.

  If you did not read most of this post, in short, we butchered 9 of our young rabbits.

We had breaded rabbit legs tonight!  They were delicious!  Here is a picture:

Our New Pet…by Caleb, 10

We have another animal!  Can you guess what it is?  It’s a praying mantis! 

I found it on our van yesterday, and we caught it.  We put it in our butterfly cage, and caught some bugs for it.  We even got to see it eat a moth!  It ate it with the moth’s body in its claw and just munched away.   Then today we saw it catch another moth.

Percy (what we’ve named him) twists and turns like a contortionist!  We muse that it might be to crack his exoskeleton or to get exercise.  We don’t know if he is a male or a female, and if he’s a male I don’t want to let him go or his mate might eat him! 

We had another one a few years ago, named Pete, so we knew what to catch for his food.

More Info on the Poll…by Caleb, 10

For some reason, our poll doesn’t tell us what you list when you vote “other”.  We’re very curious about your choices, so please leave a comment and let us know what your “other” pick was.

If none of us likes the winner, dad just might pick one.  If you have not voted yet, you might want to vote for one of the first five choices, because at least one of us likes those.  Thanks!

The Pride of Evolution…by Caleb, 10

Nathan has been talking about animals and creation, so I decided to talk about the reason behind most people’s evolutionary beliefs — pride.  Yes, modern evolutionists base their beliefs on pride.

Romans 1:20 says,  “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

Without excuse for what?  Unbelief and pride that there is no God, no rule from God, and no higher intelligence than the terrible dullness of men.

Some evolutionists once caught a black man and put him in a zoo.  They believed that because he was black, he was less human, but really it is just extra pigment (what makes freckles darker) in black people that makes them darker.

You probably know that Adolf Hitler was an evolutionist and believed the Germans were the higher race and slaughtered millions of non-Germans because of it.  Adolf Hitler had pride, rooted in evolution, in thinking that that his nationality was higher than other people.

The Bible tells us that we are all one race, because we all descended from one man and one woman, Adam and Eve.  We are all made in the image of God, so we should never have pride that we are of a higher race than other people.  Genesis 1: 27:  “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;  male and female he created them.”

Some believe that men will, in a very long time become “super men” (people that believe in new age, for example) and solve all problems perhaps by joining an alien intelligent race.  Pride.  “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” says Proverbs 16:18.  And we, as Christians know they will fall — fall into the lake of fire.  But I would really wonder, if evolution were true, if perhaps the frogs we came from thought they would become, in many years, a “super frog.”  But even frogs know that isn’t true, because everything, except sometimes people, recognize that there is a God.  The 12 disciples said of Jesus in Matthew 8:27: “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

Concerning the whole “Super Man” idea, Christians believe that there will be a type of  “super men”.  The believers will live with God forever, live sinless lives and so you could say we will be super men.  But this not of ourselves, because we know we deserve eternal damnation, the Son, interceded for us and took that punishment for us.  This is not pride, but thankfulness.  John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”