Author: laurie

We had our annual 4-H awards banquet this weekend. I was awarded Junior 4-H member of the year. I have worked really hard this year! I gave a demonstration at archery club on how to make an atlatl then B and I taught everyone how to use them! Our homemade atl-atlsWe also worked on our holiday wreath for Festival of Trees at the ARC Center. I think it came out pretty good! Mom signed me up for Young Eagles and this time I was brave and stuck with it. I got to ride in the front and even  fly the plane. I dont know what took me so long to try it but I LOVED it! 

The red tide has been horrible lately. Something like over 100 days with bad water. Today wasn’t too bad and the wind was blowing so we visited Honeymoon Island for a few hours to look for shells and enjoy the not as stinky air!  We got home and sorted through the huge coca-cola bottle of change for wheat pennies. No luck! Mom thinks we are all lazy! Maybe she was just mad she didn’t get to sit down too! 

We took a week long cruise to the Western Caribbean on the Disney Fantasy. The weather was beautiful when we left port but we hit some big seas when traveling. Mom was a little green a few days but survived. I had lots of mac and cheese. Grandma Susie and her friend Nina, from Boston, joined us. It made mealtime fun to have extra people. We didn’t see them much on the cruise but found them daily to check in and say hello! I loved going to the shows each night. Some of the comedians and magicians were amazing and some not. One guy tried to see how many times he could climb through a toilet seat, memorable but really honesty not funny. I loved my freedom this cruise. I got to go to the tween club this time and if B was hanging with his new friend I just went and wandered the ship by myself. This was HUGE! I made sure I was at every animation cell class. These were my favorite. We got dressed nice for dinners. I loved all the halloween decorations on the ship. One night B was grumpy and wanted to go hang with friends so I rode the aquaduck 10 times in a row! It was empty! Probably because it was chilly out! The ports were all fun, except Grand Cayman, it rained and we didn’t get to go snorkeling. I became a shuffleboard pro! If you didn’t finish your dessert there was no worry. I would do it for you! Grandma Susie and NinaB being nice for a change. Just kidding he is always nice, we just love to torture each other. Silly fun! I also lived on Mickey waffles. More halloween decorations. In Jamaica I found cool plant parts. I never did figure out what it was from but I really liked it. I bought a wooden scorpion! I even talked to the vendor myself! Pirate Night Mom and Dad went to Remy for dinner and we went with Grandma Susie and Nina. Nina made us these cool bandanas. Halloween night! Well, not the real Halloween, but the ships Halloween. We dressed in our Steampunk costumes since they were easy to pack. The last day at Castaway Cay! The water was warm and the snorkeling was superb. Our tradition of watching the towels come back on the ship! That’s a LOT of towels!

Today our 4-H group with out with Coastal Marine Education and Research Academy out of Dunedin. Alan and Moriah provided an excellent education experience full of hands on learning and amazing experiences. We learned a lot about the research and field experience they give to college students. We boarded the research boat and headed out to Anclote Key for some research of our own. 

I didn’t want to touch the bait. So I watched as all my friends helped bait all the hooks for the long line. I did bait the squid on the bait rod eventually. After some waiting we got out first catch! Alan landed a wonderful nurse shark. We got to work with our research. We had to measure, tag, sex and release the shark. All the data is recorded and linked to the tag number on the shark.  B and I got to help release the nurse shark. I was so excited! I absolutely loved the feel of its scales. Back to fishing for bait while we wait for more sharks. I held that pole for an hour and never caught a thing. Whenever Anastasia took the pole she would catch fish after fish…me…nothing! Everyone jumped in for a cool off. I didn’t to. Eventually a friend pushed me in. I wasn’t happy but realized it wasn’t so bad and just dealt with it. I was about to jump back in and the “shark on” call came again. Everyone scrambled out fo the water and to the safety zone. Alan reeled and Moriah netted and brought in a juvenile bonnet head shark. We worked fast to collect the data and get it back into the water. B got to tag the shark for tracking purposes. We finished with the pole fishing and went to get the 2nd long line out of the water. We didn’t think we had anything but the very end of the line we had caught a black tip shark! Alan landed it quickly and we waited a few seconds for it to talk down before we got to work.  Maleah was on water this time. Dominic, because of his strength, got the tail! Miriam was in charge of stabilizing the upper body and pectoral fins. Alan showed us the sharp teeth! Wyatt tagged it. Then Liberty took the tail with Dominic to turn and release it off the boat! We all worked together to get the job done quickly! What a great 4-H group we have! A LITTLE GOOFY TOO! Thanks Alan and Moriah with CMERA for a wonderful and educational day!

We had a blast with our little 4-H Entomology club. We learned all about mouth parts and leg types and then went and collected insects to compare what we could find.

We had a great fun morning with the Farm Bureau building bee-hives that will be used in a display at the Country Fair at the end of October in Pinellas Park. We had over 70 nails, BIG NAILS, to hammer in to build our boxes! Now we have to decorate it and return it for the display at the fair. We have started our paining. There is more to come.