This is a bad "head" day

We've all heard of bad "hair" days. This is a bad "head" day for a horse. This poor filly got her head stuck in a tree for real. It is not photo-shopped! Read on . . . the article follows . . .
This young filly needed to be freed from the tree after curiosity got the better of her. The horse, "Gracie," was unable to free itself and could have been in danger were it not for a passer-by who came to the rescue after he heard the horse whinnying. Jason Harschbarger, a neighbor in the town of Pullman, West Virginia, USA, arrived at the scene, which resembled the image of Winnie the Pooh getting stuck in the honey tree. Mr Harschbarger collected his tools and was able to carefully set the horse free by using a chainsaw to slowly cut the wood around its neck. Fortunately for Gracie, she was able to escape her ordeal with only a few minor injuries and, according to Mr Harschbarger, is on the road to recovery. Following his rescue operation, Mr Harschbarger told a local television station: "She has a few cuts on her face and ear."

It remains unclear why Gracie put her head into the gap.

Codes to link a Circle C graphic from your blog

I'm slowly moving posts from the old Circle C blog over to blogspot. I found this post, which gives the codes for a couple of fun graphics for anyone who would like to link over from their blog to Andi's blog.
Hint: Use the "select all" button to make sure you get the complete code from the box.

<a href="http://www.circlecadventures.blogspot.com/" _fcksavedurl="http://www.circlecadventures.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/9351/runninghorses2qx4.gif" border="0"/a><br/>

<a href="http://www.circlecadventures.blogspot.com/" _fcksavedurl="http://www.circlecadventures.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/2941/ccisv8.jpg" _fcksavedurl=""http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/2941/ccisv8.jpg"" _fcksavedurl=""http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/2941/ccisv8.jpg"" _fcksavedurl=""http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/2941/ccisv8.jpg"" _fcksavedurl=""http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/2941/ccisv8.jpg"" _fcksavedurl="http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/2941/ccisv8.jpg" border="0"/></a><br/>

It's never too early to begin!

It's never too early to learn how to rope your little "dogies." (Motherless calves). Here are a couple of small cowpokes learning how to rope the modern way. And the calf? Isn't "he" cute? Oh, by the way, you're never to OLD to learn to rope either. I roped that "calf."

Can a cattle rustler "fake" a brand?

I got a great question from my friend Kendra. Here it is:

"Hey, Andi,
Could a thief who wanted a cow brand his own name over it?"

I think you mean could he put his own brand over the original brand?

You bet those thieving rascals could do that! Of course, some brands were pretty detailed, so it would be hard to make a branding iron that could change the brand easily. But some simple brands could be messed with. For example, say your name is Larson, and your brand is a simple "L." A rustler could easily make a branding iron in the shape of an "E" that would completely cover up the original "L."

Hope that answers your question!
Here are samples of some real brands from the 1800s. How would you go about changing them if you were a cattle rustler? Good luck!

Roundup Time: branding

Do you know what a roundup is? Well, the simple definition is: an activity where you gather up the livestock (either cattle or horses) so you can brand them, count them, and sell them. In this post, I'll talk about branding the new calves.
On the Circle C, the cattle are usually rounded up in the spring, so the new calves can get branded. Ouch! First off, the ranch hands have to separate all those babies from their mothers. The calves don't like it much (and neither do the mama cows). There is so much noise you can't think straight. Cows mooing, calves bellowing. But it's exciting.

Once the calves for that day have been sorted out, the ranch hands rope the calves (their back legs) and drag them to the fire. Yep, a fire is going out in the open. Once the calf is being held down good and tight, a ranch hand takes the branding iron (a metal rod with our ranch's brand on the end: A "C" with a circle around it), makes sure it's good and hot from sitting in the fire, and then pushes the hot iron into the calf's backside.
It smells terrible, but it doesn't hurt the calf as much as I used to think. They've got thick hides.

Then, quick as a wink, that little calf is let up, and off he races--you wouldn't know he'd even been branded--back to his mama. But how he can tell which cow is HIS mother I've not figured out yet. When there are hundreds and hundreds of cows standing around bawling, they all look alike to me.

So, why go to all this trouble once--or maybe even twice--a year? A burned mark in the cow's hide is the only way to tell who it belongs to. There aren't any fences way out on the thousands of acres of rangeland, and sometimes all the ranchers' cattle get mixed in together. But that's OK. Come fall roundup, the ranchers sort everybody's cattle out and give them back.

Branding also discourages rustlers from being too brave. If somebody is caught with a cow, one look at the brand will let the sheriff know who the cow really belongs to. This also works well with horses. And since horse-stealing is a hanging offense, it keeps most horse thieves either honest or very, very careful about which horses they try to steal.

Here is a sample of some different types of branding irons and the "mark" they make when burned into livestock:

Dime Novels. What fun!

I love to read Dime Novels! For one thing, they are full of excitement, Indian scalpings, captured settlers, adventurers, and all-around colorful places. The trouble is, most teachers and parents (like my mother) think Dime Novels are trashy. They don't contribute at all to kids' literary skills, so it's hard to get away with reading one. (Even though I tried to tell her that all sorts of adults and famous people read Dime novels . . . . like President Lincoln).

Mostly, my mother would prefer I read books like Robinson Crusoe and Little Women. I don't have anything against reading about a fellow marooned on a desert island, but he doesn't have anybody to talk to until his man Friday comes along. And I liked Little Women the first time I read it, but one time is definitely enough. (I told Mother that Louisa May Alcott wrote dime novels, but I don't think she believed me. But it's true!)

When I found one of Mitch's dime novels lying around, I snatched it up right away! I mean, with a title like Crack Skull Bob and an Indian fight on the cover, how can you go wrong? I sweet-talked Mitch into letting me read it, and when Mother saw me curled up on the settee, she just shook her head and sighed. I guess that means I can keep reading it. And a good thing, too! I was just getting to the part where the Indian was getting ready to scalp the settler, and I would have died if Mother had taken it away.

They call these paperback books "Dime Novels" because they cost a dime to buy. Mitch has a whole slew of them--he likes to read these kinds of books. Justin, he doesn't read anything but his law books and the newspaper. Chad . . . well, I don't think he likes to read at all. But Melinda and I? We both like Dime Novels.

But Mitch warned me not to ever, ever, ever take it to school. The schoolmaster will snatch it right out of my hands and tear it up in front of me. Then I'll probably get stuck writing a thousand sentences about only reading books that improve my mind. I want to read books that improve my imagination!

If you want to learn more about the famous Dime Novels of the late 1800s and early 1900s, go here: DIME NOVELS

We Have a Winner!

One Desert Rose has won Andrea Carter and the Long Ride Home and the corresponding lapbook.

Congratulations, Desert Rose! I'll be mailing it off to you this week.

Thanks for joining me, everyone, and stay tuned for another contest in the coming months . . .

Ready for a Contest?

This contest has ended. Thanks for playing!

First of all, I'm going to show off the cover Kregel decided on for Book 5, Trouble with Treasure! Want to learn more? Go HERE.

And now . . . drum roll . . . A Journey Through Learning, a Lapbook company, has spent the summer creating delightful Lapbooks for all of the CCA books.

If you're not sure what a Lapbook is, it's a hands-on approach to learning, made from 3 file folders and a packet of colorful booklets students cut out, fill out, and paste into the constructed file folders. The study guides and booklets tie in history and writing/literature with the novels. I wasn't familiar with Lapbooks before this summer, but I'm impressed with AJTL's professional look and full-color booklets. Here is an example from the Lapbook for Long Ride Home.




And now for the contest! I am giving away a Lapbook AND a copy of one of my CCA books. YOUR CHOICE!

Here are the rules:
1) Leave a comment here, telling me which book and matching Lapbook you would like to win. Here are your choices:
#1- Long Ride Home
#2- Dangerous Decision
#3- Family Secret
#4- San Francisco Smugglers

2) Leave your E-mail address so I can contact the winner (if I can't find your contact info, I will draw a different name from the "hat")

3) I can ship only to U.S. or military addresses. Sorry!

*** Contest ends August 30 ***

If you would like to learn more about the Lapbooks for the Circle C Adventures, go to A Journey Through Learning, where you can buy them as a download to print out yourself!

Or you can see them on my website's Lapbook page and order a book and a Lapbook from there.

Good luck with the contest!

The 2009 WHO homeschool convention!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Real-Life Photos from the Past

It's great fun when you can find pictures of real kids from history and can use the pictures without worrying about copyrights. Going through old family pictures, we found these real-life relatives that work well to depict a couple of the characters. First, here's Andi at age 9, courtesy of my real-life great-aunt Nada. And a great picture of Chad, courtesy of my grandfather Hubert (Nada's brother).
Just for fun!