I'm Farming and I Grow It

I had to share this video that seems to be making its way around the rural blogging community. It is great to see young fellas showing off farming and being proud of it.

On Friday ...

I watched the sun rise.

We got to the end of our school holiday count down.

We had school assembly during which Miss S represented yr7 and told the school what yr7 had been doing this term.

We played 'Pass the Pigs'

The kids had a smoko picnic on the veranda with banana thick shakes, apple and fruit buns.

The kids did a bit of reading.

Then they did matchstick puzzles,

Played computer games on funbrain,

 

 

 

 

 

 

and made interesting shaped paper planes.

After cleaning up we finished the day with a few games of UNO.

Then I closed up the schoolroom and quarters, packed my car and headed out the main gate.

Of cause that was after I took a photo of these fellas.

I then headed off down the road.

Through many gullies and sandy creeks.

Over many grids and through many other properties.

Until I reached the highway, where is started to rain. I then turned North for two weeks of fun in the sun (hopefully).

Frosty Start

A few photos of from our frosty early morning start in the yards on Wednesday and the maiden voyage of the new cattle crate that Boss R and Boss H (mainly Boss H) built. That of cause was the whole reason for being out in the cold so early, loading steers onto the station's truck bound for the sale yards.

 

Schoolroom Sneek Peek

Yesterday got off to a frosty start with an early morning stint down at the cattle yards but more on that another time. We had a busy day after starting school late at the much more respectable and warm hour of 9am. We also had Mr T back in school. He hasn't been around for a while because he has been hanging out with his Mum (traitor) but he was back in full force yesterday.

I was eaten by bugs, lots of bugs...

 

 

...And the Titanic sank in our schoolroom. Pretty cool that a 3 and a half year old can tell me all about the Titanic.

Glug, glug, glug it's sinking

And it broke in half and is on the bottom of the ocean.

  Also happening in the schoolroom was a lot of measuring and comparing.

Measuring snakes on the computer.

Comparing the size of characters in a book.

Comparing playdough sizes.

And I don't know who stole my Yr 4s but don't send them back because these new ones wanted fact family triangle after fact family triangle to complete on the blackboard.

YES! I said wanted.

Fact family triangles - I gave two numbers from a multiplication/ division fact and they found the missing number then wrote out the facts.

Word Cloud Fun

Tagxedo, our newest found toy to use with words.

It looks cool doesn't it. The kids certainly thought it was.

Today to start off our spelling practise after doing a pre test and getting our look, say, cover, write, check lists ready everyone had a go at typing their words into tagxedo, an online word cloud maker. What made this tool even cooler was when looking at the finished product on the screen you can move your mouse over words and they are enlarged. Perfect for reading them as you look at them.

What we did was went to the Tagxedo web site here and then clicked on start now. What came up was a pretty blue word cloud and a list of actions on the left. We clicked on load at the top of the list right under the word Tagxedo. We then clicked on the box titled enter text and the kids put in their spelling list with each word separated by a space. After pressing submit to the right of the box we then clicked the X on the top right corner so we could see out creations. For mine I just put in the web page address for Grit and Giggles and submitted it. 

We then tried out the options on the left of the word cloud clicking on the arrows beside them to change the shape, font and theme (this changes colour). Then to finish off we clicked on the save/ share/ print and the kids printed a copy to take home with their new spelling list for the week. I also saved a copy as a jpeg so I could show them off on here. Look at the four very different word clouds that came from the kids ...

Mr Yr4

Miss Yr4

Mr Yr1

Miss Yr7

... pretty cool. Go on have a go. It is a tonne of word fun.

Calves

Part of yard work is separating the calves from their mothers so they can get their brands, be ringed (castrated), be dehorned and get their tags. Working with the calves would have to be my favourite part of being in the yards. Honestly who can resist all that cuteness. Just be warned that underneath it is a fair bit of fire that likes to come out when least expected as Miss S discovered when a tiny calf smacked her one in the chin with the highest kick I have ever seen from such a little fellow.

One of the best things about calves is that they are naturally curious; so are the cows actually, bulls however like to give off this "I don't give a rats" thing. If you you ever get the chance to crouch down around a mob of calves, to just still and quiet and watch them (with a camera) you will see what I mean. It is then that the littlies will cautiously get closer to check you out and it is then that you get a close up view of all their silly antics like this ...

Here are some more photos of the cuties and the rascals from today. Enjoy.