The Endangered Beauties under the Sea

                                               

             The majestic giants under the sea used to live 

              in an amazing peace but, once discovered, the whales' 

                   population dropped. We'll tell you all about the fascinating whale and how they became near extinction.

                                                         Sperm Whale 

This image is a monstrous sperm whale which can weigh up to as much as 32,000
pounds!  Its length is, for an adult, up to 40 ft.  This whale has over twelve inches of  subcutaneous blubber which
is why whalers wanted to hunt this creature.  When the sperm whale was butchered, the whalers got
a double reward because inside of its head, the whale had up to 500 gallons of spermaceti surrounding it's 17 lb brain.
Spermaceti is special oil in the head that was prized because it burned more cleanly than regular whale oil.  Do you want to  get thousands of dollars easily?? Well, here's how!
Search for ambergris along the beaches. Ambergris is a rare substance that comes from a sick whale's stomach in the form of
feces haha!!! Funny right? You could earn $180,000 depending on it's size and quality. Ambergris is so valuable because it is a fragrance and preservative that is used in perfume.


Southern Right Whale

Weighing 88,000 to 150,000 pounds, the southern right whale is a baleen whale
which means it does not have teeth but instead, has long wiry strands of a substance like cartilage that filter the krill from the water. The baleen was used for women's clothing in corsets in olden times and was also used for men's hat bands and collars.  It was also used to make buggy whips. The right whale got its name by being the correct whale to hunt for using its blubber and baleen.

                                                      Bowhead Whale

The bowhead whale can weigh up to 150,00 to 200,00 pounds and has a length of 45 to 60 feet.

It can have a blubber thickness up to 20 inches! The bowhead got its name by having a curved  lower jaw that represents the shape of a bow.  The bowhead is also a baleen whale and surprisingly, its baleen can grow up to 15 feet long!

The oldest mammal recorded is the bowhead whale, living up to 245 years old!  The female bowhead is slightly larger than the male whale.

   

                        A POEM OF THE BEAUTIFUL CREATURES UNDER THE SEA.

   Drifting silently though the sea,
a beautiful creature without a noise
except an occasional call,
piercing the depths of the
ocean, almost extinct
but having survived the humans
beastly ways. 

                                     -Karis

                                  A WHALING VOYAGE 

                                                               

                                         A whaling adventure would always be dangerous and scary but men would go on them because it would provide them and their families with money even though sometimes they didn't earn any money at all!

When a whale is spotted the first man to discover it  shouts "There she blows!" Immediately the crew lowers the whaling boats (which are small boats with whaling equipment inside) and charges after the whale silently. Once in striking distance, the first mate harpoons the whale. The harpoon is attached to a rope and aggravates the whale which makes it dive and try to swim away.  The crew is pulled along on a "Nantucket sleigh ride." This is the action of an angry whale schlepping the crew along in their small boats at VERY high rates of speed.  While on its sleigh ride, the whale is gradually tired out and then slows down. The whalers then lance the whale in one of its organs until blood gushes from its blowhole.  This is the signal that the whale has died.  Depending on the whale species, its carcass will float making it much easier to drag back to the main boat.  After they drag the whale back, everyone starts to dismantle the large creature. This is a stinky, gory. and greasy process. Surprisingly, the blubber strips off really easily and is called blanket pieces. After the blubber is peeled away, it is thrown into trying pots in which it is boiled into oil.  The remains of the blubber are skimmed away from the top and are tossed into the fire as fuel. The oil is then put into barrels which are kept under deck until the whaling vessel arrives at its destination to sell the oil. The oil sold for $1.77 a gallon which, in 1845 to 1855, was a huge amount of money.
After returning back to their homes, the sailors got a sad 1/400th of the ship's earnings and the
voyage usually lasted several years.

 Over all, whaling voyages over the sea were scary and exciting trips for all the sailors that went on them and lastly they got to see what the ocean was like.

                                                              

                                                               THE END 

                                             The House of Tudor

                              This is a remarkable                                                                               and fascinating era 

                             that is filled with interesting facts. 

                               Henry VII 
                                                      ( 1485 to 1509 )

                        Up first in the Tudor period is Henry VII. He started the Tudor age by combining the houses of Lancaster and York by defeating Richard 111 and marrying Elizabeth of York the niece of Richard 111.  Gutenberg and the printing press became more popular leading to a mass production of books and poorer people read and bought books more often.





                                                          Henry VIII
                                                               ( 1509 to 1547 )

                                             

                                                                                       

                    Henry VIII is most well known for having six wives.The first wife, Catherine of  Aragon , was pregnant seven times but only one child survived to become an adult.  Her name was Mary Tudor.  Because Catherine of Aragon did not provide him with an heir, Henry asked the church for a divorce but no permission was granted because Catholics were not allowed to get divorced. Henry, who was angry, concluded that he should start a new church, with himself as the head. He granted himself a divorce. This church later became known as the Protestant church.  

Henry's second wife,  called Anne Boleyn, started out as a lady-in-waiting for Catherine of Aragon. She had a daughter named Elizabeth 1 who we will talk about later. Since Anne did not have a son, she was falsely accused of treason so Henry could get remarried and have a son.  She was tried and beheaded. 

The third wife, Jane Seymour ,was Anne Boleyn 's lady-in-waiting.  She bore a healthy son named Edward but, sadly, she died after giving birth to him.  She was also Henry's favorite wife and he requested to be buried beside her when he later died.  

Anne of Cleves was Henry's fourth wife.  She lived in Germany so Henry's advisers had an artist, Holbein, do a painting of her so Henry would know how she would look.  The artist made Anne look more attractive then she really was . When Henry first put eyes on here he thought she was ugly and smelled bad and he divorced her not long after.

 Catherine Howard was Henry's fifth wife.  She was accused of treason  because she was having a relationship with one of Henry's favorite advisers, which was really true this time and she was beheaded with her lover.

Henry's last wife was Catherine Parr. She was married to Henry because he was sick and lonely and wanted a companion.  She was married to four men before Henry.  Now, how do we memorize all of his six wives? well with a poem of course! The poem is divorced,beheaded,died,divorced,beheaded,survived.

                                         

Edward VII

(1547 to 1553)

After Henry VIII died his son,Edward, became king.

he was only nine when he became king.Unfortunately, when Edward VI was 15 years old 

he died and handed the throne to Lady Jane Grey who was a strong Protestant like himself. 

Lady Jane Grey

( July 10 to 19 1553)

Lady Jane Grey aka "the nine day queen", earned that nickname because

she ruled for a short nine days. It happened because a rebellion came up 

and the people wanted Mary Tudor, the so called "rightful heir", to be their queen.

Also she was forced by her greedy parents to become queen. When Mary had

Lady Jane Grey killed by beheading. Lady Jane was only sixteen. Although,

Elizabeth 1 was a  Protestant too, Edward VI believed that Lady Jane was a stronger 

Protestant than his half-sister. 

Mary Tudor

(1553 to 1558)

Did you ever wonder why this queen was nicknamed "Mary Bloody, Mary" ?

Queen Mary was a very strict Catholic and she wanted everybody in England to convert to

 being a Catholic but many refused. She had many innocent people burned at the stake because of their stubbornness for refusing to change their religion . That is why she is now known as Bloody Mary. Also she imprisoned her younger sister, Elizabeth, believed that she planned to overtake her.

Luckily Elizabeth was not beheaded although she was kept at Tower of London , a prison. Queen

Mary wed a Spanish king, King Phillip, who was several years younger than herself. She became falsely pregnant several times, though the last time the "pregnancy" was actually a cancer in her belly from which she died . That leaves Elizabeth to become Queen of  England. 

Elizabeth 1

(1558 to 1603)

Elizabeth never got married although, her advisers argued for her to get a spouse so she could have an heir. Cleverly, she left all of her suitors on tender hooks never agreeing or disagreeing to their proposals.  England was weak from Mary Tudor's reign and if Elizabeth refused a proposal there was no reason why a prince or king couldn't over-take England. Also she never married because she knew that if she wed, then her husband would rule and she didn't like that way. She was the first queen to rule alone.  The state of Virginia was named after this virgin queen.  At the time she was the longest ruling monarch.  Since she had no heirs, the Tudor period came to an end with her passing.

  

                        

A

WONDERFUL LITTLE 

                            FAIRY HOUSE!!

                                                                                            

A COUPLE DAYS AGO WE DECIDED TO CELEBRATE THE 

REMAINING DAYS OF SUMMER WITH CONSTRUCTING AN ADORABLE 

FAIRY HOUSE.

WELL AS YOU CAN SEE, HERE IS A POUCH OF DIRT THAT WERE
STRAINING THROUGH THIS BUTTERFLY NET IN ORDER
TO MAKE IT MORE FINE.

Here is a sample of the sifted dirt

Now we are combining the water and the dirt together. then
 fold them together until it forms a ball.

Look! here's the finished project... for the mud anyway

It's so fun to get your hands all messy with this
playdough-consistency ball of mud.

After a lot of  shaping the mud and adding
the stick roof we got this.

Just another  picture of the house
but this time we have mini acorn flowerpots
that's dotted with petite flowers.

A really close up image of the flowers.

Here is our leaf pile and broom(it's supposed to be a fall
fairy house!)

We also constructed a little cute garden, mostly out of berries.

A side view of the garden (this time it has a berry
skin for a rug).

This is the only thing that doesn't have pure nature in it;
the pond completed with a log (stick) for a seating area.

We have here a bitty berry stew on a mud table.

This is a bug's eye view of the house, flowerpots, and moss rug.

The finished project! We also wanted to include a bird's eye
view but unfortunately all the images got blurry.

Eye am always 

                             watching YOU

 EYE DISSECTIONS AND POLICE DOGS

We got together with some friends 

and dissected a cow eye. Below are some 

random photos during the process. 

Here is a picture of the lens floating in the jelly-
like substance called the vitreous gel. Usually, the lens is clear
although the process of preservation makes it foggy and hard.   

This is our dad teaching us about the eye and showing us how to
dissect it. 

In the first picture we talked about the gel and here it is in this
picture getting separated from the  Retina.

Here is a whole eye  being held and the optic
nerve is chopped off. 

                                             EYE guess that's it for the dissection .

                                     

                                       the police dog 

Here is the policeman and his police dog, Bayne. Sergeant Aaron
explained the steps of becoming a police dog as well as
what the dog's role is in times when a police dog is needed.

 

During the speech Sgt. Aaron
explained that not too many German Shepherds
are purebred because they have too many health concerns
so Bayne is only part German Shepherd.

This image is a demonstration when Aaron told Bayne to attack the
''suspect''. He is in a puffy protective suit while Bayne knocked him down.
This is how they train a police dog.

Bayne  here is trying to sniff out a coin and as well 

a hair clip. He was SUCCESSFUL!!!!!!!!!!

That was only a little bit about police work and  there is so much more to learn.

Our Trip to Philadelphia

       

                                                               We traveled to Philadelphia

                                                                  on a day trip and went to the

                                                                The Franklin Institute to see

                                                                     The Art of  the Brick

                                                                  designed by Nathan Sawaya .

                                                            This is all statues made completely  from 

                                                                                      LEGOS.

This is one of the most substantial pieces of  his work
It has approximately 75,450 bricks and is titled
Moai.

Adding up to around 4,573 bricks, the  Mona Lisa
''Lego painting'' truly appears to be the
real masterpiece 

The Great wave off Kanagawa
is practically rolling with motion as
would a real wave.
It holds 2,877 blocks

This monstrous cat, the Great Sphinx of Giza
is constructed of  2,604 Legos.

Swimming in a sea of blue Legos,
The Swimmer is a real eye catcher
made up of 10,980 bricks.

This gigantic pencil writing ''Fun''
was dedicated to school being just that.
It takes up 9,800 bricks and is just adorable:)

Labeled ''Disintegration,''
this 3D Lego man is being deconstructed by the winds of life
and slowly disintegrating into nothing.
It is built of 10,124 pieces.

This is probably the most well known
sculpture of Sawaya's artwork.
This man is tearing out his yellow heart and soul,
earning the name Yellow.
He has 11,014 bricks.

                                                 After our wonderful time at Art Of The Brick,
                                                            we went to Marrakesh for Moroccan food.

Doesn't this look delectable? Although this looks
like a kind of cake it really is
honey, almonds, and egg chunks encrusted
in flaky phyllo dough and dusted with powered sugar.
It is one of the many dishes served here.

Here we are, enjoying ourselves (sorry,K wasn't ready for the camera).

This is one of the rooms.  They all look similar to this one.
This picture looks much brighter than it really is as it is
very dark in the restaurant, lending to the atmosphere.

CAN

WE

 SAVE 

THE

   CAT ?

   

Lexi discovered a stray tabby cat amongst the bushes in our

backyard.

                       

 

In this picture, we are in the midst of trying to
''make friends'' with the cat in order to
capture it.  We were hoping to rescue it by taking it to the SPCA.

We named it Tusken, and although it was friendly, it didn't want anything to do with being captured and going into Dahlia's crate.  Finally, after a week of trying, we were successful!  

Wahooo!!!!!
We finally caught the cat!!

After a uneventful car ride to the SPCA, we bid it farewell and  dropped it off.
We hope Tusken was adopted and has an excellent home to live in.


BYE BYE,
Tusken!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Introducing ourselves and our pets

  

Introducing.....

We are Lexi and Karis 

and these are our pets.

DAHLIA
our cute, always tired, dog

                                                                 

HAZELNUT
a little puff of joy

                                      
                                               
                                                                      DOMINO
                                                                      a little black fluff ball of a hamster