New!

How does everyone like the new look??

I'm curious to hear your thoughts, 'cause I'm not sure If I like this new background enough to keep it.....

So comment away!!

Nicki

Book Meme

Rules:


1. Pick up the nearest book(of at least 123 pgs.), Little Maid of Newport -my sister was reading it-





2. Open to page 123.





3. Find the fifth sentenc, which is; " This is your seat, Faith, and happy birthday to you," said her uncle, as he lifted the packages to the table and drew out the chair for the surprised girl who, with a gasp of amazment, repeated: "Birthday!" as the little group cirlcled about her exclaiming laughingly over her failure to remeber her owm natal day. ( this is kind of a run-on-senence, which may be because of the age of the book, but that's ok--plus there are so many run-on's that in order to get to the fifth sentence I went to the next page!)





4. Post the next three sentences, which are; "Don't open the packages until after dinner," her aunt suggested, noticing Hallie's gestures toward the table. "Mark will take them into the living room." Faith, now smiling happily, readily agreed,and took her seat between Letty and Mary, confessing that she had wondered at the whispers and glances she had seen them interchange with Ellen; and gazing admiringly at the shining damask tablecloth, "that Aunt Cynthia only uses for real company," she proudly remembered, and sent a radiant glance toward her well-pleased comanions.







5. Tag five people....Amy, Julia, Ella, Ellree, & Zac....

More Book Reviews~

"Ransom's Mark":
This book, from the "Daughters of the Faith Series", is based on the life of Olive Oatman. In the year 1850 Olive and her family head out West on the Santa Fe Trail to settle in California. When the Oatma family turns desperate and disbands from the wagon train, unexpected and unfortunate things occur. Resulting in Olive's captivity by the outlawed Yavapai Indians and eventually brought into the hands of the Mohave Indians. Will Olive be able to adapt to such a strange and new way of life? Will she see God's love and deliverance in the midst of her circumstances?

~Here is last of our fall color...

...painted on our pretty pear trees~

Horse Fact

Did you know....

That when a horse has blue eye(s) it is called glass eye or wall eye??

Having a horse with glass eye was once looked down upon because it was thought that a blue-eyed horse was vision impared (or couldn't see as well as dark-eyed horses).--This was also the reason for the second name "wall eye". Sometimes when a horse was being sold and had one glassy eye the sellers would put "the bad side" of the horse to the wall trying to the make the eye "invisible" to possible buyers, earning the name wall eye.

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

By: Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch the woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

I really like this poem, it paints such a beautiful picture in your imagination of all the loveliness of winter.

~Nicole

The Owl Critic...

About the poem "The Owl Critic", I'm so sorry about all of the stanzas being clumped together. For some odd reason my spacing wouldn't work right on that particular post.---sorry again, if it is hard to read---

Nicole

Books, Books, and more Books...

The Horsemasters
The Horsemasters is a total "horsemen-flick" it is a story set in England about a group of young adults who are pursuing their assistant riding instructors certificate. To do this, they have to go through a sort of "horsemen's boot-camp". They are responsible for caring for a single horse the whole six-weeks they are there and do a series of monotonous chores each day.
A very interesting book(especially for the horseman/woman)!

Brady

This is a historical fiction book on the underground railroad.

This is a good children's book, that has a little suspense and a little history.

The book starts out with a young boy named Brady, who has trouble keeping secrets. When Brady finds out important information about the "underground" it's even harder to hold his tongue! Will Brady's father trust him to help in a critical situation?

The Inheritance
This is a lovely story. It was the first novel written by Louisa May Alcott when she was only seventeen years old. The scene is set in England at around the 1800s. This book is about Edith, a young french girl who is a well-loved companion to a young lady and her wealthy family. When the unexpected happens, because of her humble and sweet spirit, Edith tries to hide the truth. ~I'll let you find out the rest! It is a must read!

Young PioneersThis story takes place in the west, where to newly-weds from the east start a homestead. This book is very much like the "Little House" books by the author's mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder; it is filled with many situations where the main characters go through the hardships of the wild west. Read it!

~I hope you enjoy these books!!~

Captin Zac

Hey everyone check out http://www.zacsunderland.com/ (where you can also click on his blog).

Zac Sunderland is a home schooled(boat-schooled, actually) 16 year old who is trying the to become the youngest man to circumnavigate the world. ALONE!
Please check this out it's such a neat thing.

Nicole

The Owl Critic

By: J. T. Fields, 1880

"Who stuffed that white owl?" No one spoke in

the shop:

The barber was busy, and he couldn't stop ;

The customers, waiting their turns, were all read-

ing

The "Daily", the "Herald", the "Post", little

heeding

The young man who blurted out such a blunt

question ;

Not one raised a head, or even made a suggestion ;

And the barber kept on shaving.

"Don't you see, Mister brown,"

Cried the youth with a frown,

"How wrong the whole thing is,

How preposterous each wing is,

How flattened the neck is, how jammed down the

neck is-

In short the whole owl, what an ignorant wreck

't is!

I make no apology ;

I've learned owl-eology.

I've passed days and nights in a hunered collec-

tions,

And cannot be blinded to any defections

Arising from unskilful fingers that fail

To stuff a bird right, from his beak to his tail.

Mister Brown! Mister Brown

Do take that bird down,

Or you'll soon be the laughing-stock all over

town!"

And the barber kept on shaving.

"I've studied owls,

And other night fouls,

And I tell you

What I know to be true:

An owl cannot roost

With its limbs so unloosed ;

No owl in this world

Ever had his claws curled,

Ever had his legs slanted,

Ever had his bill canted,

Ever had his neck screwed

Into that attitude.

He can't do it, because

'T is against bird-laws.

Anatomy teaches,

Ornithology preaches

An owl has a toe

That can't turn out so!

I've made the white owl my study for years,

And to see such a job almost moves me to tears!

Mister Brown, I'm amazed

You should be so gone crazed

As to put up a bird

In that posture absurd!

To look at that owl really brings on a dizziness ;

The man who stuffed him don't know half hie

Business!"

And the barber kept on shaving.

"Examine those eues.

I'm filled with surprise

Taxidermists should pass

Off on you such poor glass ;

So unnatural thay seem

They'd make Audubon scream,

And John Burroughs laugh

To encounter such chaff.

Do take that bird down ;

Have him stuffed again, Brown!"

And the barber kept on shaving.

"With some sawdust and bark

I could stuff in the dark

An owl better than that.

I could make an old hat

Look more like an owl

Than that horrid fowl,

Stuck up there so stiff like a side of coarse leather.

In fact, about him there's not one natural feather."

Just then, with a wink and a sly normal lurch,

The owl, very gravely, got down from his perch,

Walked round, and regarded his fault-finding critic

(Who thought he was stuffed) with a glance ana-

litic,

And then fairly hooted, as if he should say:

"Your learning's at fault this time, any way ;

Don't waste it again on a live bird, I pray.

I'm an owl; you're another. Sir Critic, good-

day!"

And the barber kept on shaving.

~Readers,

If you have noticed some of the oddly spelled words

and the different form this poem is written, I copied exactly from

an old book of ballads and verses from 1880.

Also, I hope You enjoyed this poem, it is a very comical story

and I can seem to read again and again without tiering of it.

Nicole