Author: Mom

I had to co-lead a lesson at our 4-H club on knot tying. I picked out all the supplies and stayed un my budget of $10. We used paracode and screw eyes instead of fishing line and hooks so no-one got hunt when practicing!

Teaching our club. 

I finally caught a fish this year! It has been a rough time with cooler temps and stronger winds!

My pal Dominic caught several fish too!

I have been hard at work on my insect collection for 4-H. I have a lot of work to do to get it ready for January’s contest.

Our 4-H club hosted a booth at Farm City day. We taught kids about fishing, fish parts and even had an arts and craft fish printing.

I liked running the fishing pond and giving out prizes to the little kids when they caught a plastic fish! We only had one kid jump into the pool! It was bound to happen! We had a fun outing to the roller derby. I liked it a lot but it was really loud! I want to go back but next time with ear plugs.

We also went to Venice Beach to look for sharks teeth with Grandma Susie and her Cousin Marilyn. We found a lot of shells and sharks teeth. My friend Zoe came down for the day too and we had fun splashing around in the water.

We had lunch at Red Lobster after all the beach fun!

We helped Dad build a new grill this week too! It is neat and runs on little compressed wood pellets.

E is chasing me with the camera again for his class. I am hamming it up for him!

We had a great time at La Nauba in Disney Springs. We saw the holiday decorations first and then laughed and laughed at the show. I really liked the clowns the best!

Mom found a GIANT bag of the pretzels we use for chex mix!

We had a fun shoot at archery for 4-H. What a fun treat for Thanksgiving!

I spent a lot of free time working on a lego village that I promptly destroyed with my tiny nerf gun. I need a bigger nerf gun someday!

We all worked on decorating the Christmas Tree. Yes it is tiny. Since we won’t be home for Christmas this tree will travel with us in the motorhome. We had to tie all the decorations on really well so they don’t brunch off as we go down the road.

I am enjoying my new longboard I got as an early Christmas gift.

We are all set up for Halloween at the Fort. We love this tradition and look forward to it every year. I was grumpy and Mom was trying to cheer me up. She kept making funny faces at me until I couldn’t help but giggle.

We had a great site this year and had a blast decorating and maki it look all spooky for Halloween. Disney spooky that is. 

We all enjoyed carving out pumpkins. I made Chernabog.

I enjoyed scootering around with Mom without Emmerson. We had a lot of fun exploring. It was all fun until she asked me to take the annual photo on the hay bales. 

Oh how embarrassing! 

Back at the campsite and Dad and Emmerson were still working on their pumpkins. 

All ready for trick or treat! I am going as a steampunk person along with Emmerson. We had candy for 1000 trick or treaters but sadly didnt get that many this year. 

I enjoyed the golf cart parade but I was embarrassed to be sitting with Mom and Dad. 

We had a great Halloween with lots of treats. We spent the next few days in the Disney parks. 

I think I was victorious making Emmerson dizzy on the tea cups.

One morning there was no water pressure and we found out there was a break in the line. We enjoyed watching them tear up the road and fix the leaking pipe.

We had a great time at the FWC Marine Quest this week. We were lucky to get a spot as the event is very popular! We killed some time before our 12:00 rotation. We learned about phytoplankton and got to use some amazing microscopes. I have learned bout microscopes in science class but this was my first hands on experience with 3-D and SEM ! I was absolutely fascinated!

We learned about the Florida Duck and how it is interbreeding with Mallard Ducks and making Hybrid F10s! (weird name). 

We learned how they use cameras with laser spots to measure characteristics of the birds like wing pattern, band width and color. The lasers allow for more precise measurements at a great distance. I took a Cool Shake Investigators pledge and helped solve the crime of illegal harvesting of sharks in the Gulf of Mexico!

We learned about invasive plants and how they out compete natives for food, water and space.

We saw some really cool underwater photography equipment that is used to monitor research projects. My favorite was the lab on eastern oysters and how they are indicators of ocean acidification. I thought it was cool to learn that research like this goes on at FWC. Over the weekend we drove toCedar Key for the Mock Marine Event. Since there was no state contest this year this was the next best thing. There were only two counties at the event, us and Alachua. SO we knew a lot fo the kids at the event. I missed two overall. One was a really tricky sea lavender. I never studied the leaves to the was my mistake. I know for next year though. I also missed one crab. I guess we need to review the crabs again! :0

We worked on putting a box together to send to 4-H kids in Kenya, Africa! This is part of a larger outreach another youth is organizing. We were so excited to add seashells, fidget spinners and other science items! 

We made cards to add to the box. 

This week at archery it rained almost the entire time. We only got to shoot 3 arrows each 🙁 We did get to make targets to shoot at next week! 

We wrapped up marine Team for the year with a fun day of fishing, not catching. We had a blast collecting seaweed from he floating dock and finding all the sea life living in it.

We had our state mock contest for 4-H Marine Ecology this weekend. We drove up to Crystal River. It was a small group of kids but we had a great time testing out knowledge. We all earned a golden scallop for participating. I am eager for the contest to come back next year! 

I helped work more on the 4-H box that is going to Kenya for our pen-pal exchange program. 

Emmerson is taking a photo class and he loves to make me his subject. I am trying to be a good sport about his multitude of photo shoots lately.

Some down time with Star Wars. Even Thunder watched the movies with us.

This week as been back to back events and activities. E and I ran a critter catching outreach program through 4-H. We taught kids how to dip net and then helped them discover what species they had caught. There were a LOT of jellyfish (sea nettles) in the water.

We had about 30 kids show up. 

The next day was 4-H NYDS Incredible Wearables/SteamPunk. We got to make recycles insects, dress in period costumes and learn how to made a heart rate monitor. 

My costume tied with Emmerson for the blue ribbon! 

I also got a blue for my long legged insect. 

Our team made a really good fitness tracker. 

We started up 4-H archery! I am so excited to be part of this new club.

We competed in the Old Salt Sea Wall tournament. We didn’t catch a single thing but we had a lot of fun trying. I am starting to see a theme this year. I just want to catch ONE fish! JUST ONE! 

Our marine club visited Honeymoon Island and learned about the different ecosystems on the island. 

I had to go to the dermatologist and have a wart frozen off. I handled it like a trooped and DID NOT kick the doctor like I did when I was 5. 

We helped with some programs at Weedon Island. We learned about macro and micro trash in the marine environment. 

Then we made art out of items found during the cleanup! 

The next day was out 4-H Mock contest for Marne Ecology. I didn’t study as hard as usual but did well enough to earn the blue ribbon for the county.