SPCA

I am fostering for the SPCA!!!!!
Pic 1 is Tiny. She is 3 weeks old.
Pic 2 is Milly she is 4 weeks old.
Pic 3 is Mumma cat.

Project number 3

How to build a worm farm

Make your own worm farm
Here is one easy way of making a worm farm. You may need to set up several of these tyre worm farms in a school situation where you want the worms to break down a lot of waste.
There are many other options for worm farms, from raised old baths and wooden box structures to covered rows on the ground. For any of these options, you need to keep the worms' world cool and damp, so covering it is important. Old carpet and canvas are ideal for covering a ground-based worm farm. There are also many commercial types of worm farms available, from the Tag-G Digesters to the smaller black plastic worm bins of various types. Talk to your local council about which is the best option for your school.


Below are instructions for making the Tyre Worm Farm.
Built entirely from reused & recycled materials.
You will require:
Old carpet or sack if available (optional
Phone books or old bricks
1 piece of corrugated iron - 600mm x 600mm
Small piece of silage wrap or similar
3 car tyres of similar size
Something suitable as a lid
35 Saturday newspapers
1 container such as an old pot or bucket

Operating Instructions for your Worm Farm
1. Soak the newspapers in water and stuff all three tyres full, one sheet at a time
2. Place the corrugated iron on top of the bricks or telephone books, wrap it in silage/ heavy plastic so that the liquid doesn't touch the metal.
3. Put the first stuffed tyre on top of the corrugated iron. Put an old sack or carpet inside to make a sort of nest for the new worms
4. Fill this bottom tyre with bedding material (ie horse manure, rotting peastraw, compost) and then tip the worms in. Cover immediately with a thick layer of wet newspaper. Now put the other two stuffed tyres on top.
5. Feed regularly with kitchen scraps by lifting up the newspaper. Make sure the farm is kept moist to the touch. Always replace the newspaper to keep it dark.
6. Keep the worms and bedding covered with damp newspaper, plus an old sack or carpet (also damp). Place your lid on top of the tyre stack to prevent fly problems.
7. As the tyre stack fills up you can slide out the bottom tyre and empty it of worm castings/ vermicast. The paper in the tyre will probably be full of worms and can be replaced as is, used in your garden or compost heap or given to friends to start new Worm Farms.
8. The empty tyre is now ready for reuse - stuff with fresh, moist newspapers and place on TOP of the tyre stack.
9. Regularly empty the pot of worm rum - dilute 8-1 with water and spray or pour on to and around your special plants.
10. The nutrients from your kitchen scraps are now available for you to use in your organic garden and your worm population will have increased remarkably.
11. Worms suitable for worm farming can be found in animal manure or rotting pea straw.

Graffiti

Graffiti in Hamilton

HamiltON

HamiltON Here are some web sites that will give you more info on HamiltON!!! http://www.v8supercar.co.nz/ http://www.whatsonhamilton.co.nz/events.aspx?category=1 http://www.whatsonhamilton.co.nz/events.aspx?category=2 http://www.whatsonhamilton.co.nz/events.aspx?category=3 This is not very many but i hope that it helps in some way!!!

Kakepuku Day 1- so far

Day 1 We were slowly driving along the cold gloomy road, heading for kakepuku. There was nothing to be seen ahead of us apart from the foggy peaks of Kakepuku. We pulled up in the empty car park and we got off the bus and sat in our groups. Our parents had set off from Hamilton in one car but they were no where to be seen. Mysteriously Mr. Woody had noticed that the bbq tables had gone and that the DOC signs had disappeared is well, but we decided to head on up the mountain leaving behind a group of kids who insisted on staying behind and waiting for the parents. As we climbed up the dark mountain we noticed that there was a lot more trees and bush. Not only that but the fences had gone and so had the cows that had been living here for years. We got to the first look out in the map but there was no platform in sight, suddenly we heard a bird calling, at first we thought it was a Kakapo but we later found out that it wasn’t. It was the sound of a Huia. I felt my heart beat faster as Mr. Woody told us that that the Huia is extinct. This made our trip even weirder but we soldered on up the mountain. As time passed it got towards lunch time so we settled down on a flat area and we ate our lunch. While we were eating Mr. Woody is acting a little bit weird I think he is going crazy. He is looking around at the trees and giggling at all the birds. He is not concentrating at the safety rules at all. OH NO!!! Is it just my imagination or has Emily.W wandered off, it’s not my imagination where has she got to? This just got even worse, while we were worrying about Emily.W Mr. Woody has diapered is well. This could not get any worse but of course it did. Ahead of us we saw a path well what we thought was a path but it was a track that was split into 3 different ones. But the far right one was just an animal track. Our class did the worst thing possible we all split up! Some when looking for Emily.W the rest of us split into different groups and we headed off down the paths. Savannah, Marissa, Emily.R, Ella, Ashley and I headed down the left path. We started heading down when suddenly we heard some voices but they weren’t your normal every day voices. It sounded like men’s, women’s and kids voices but they were speaking another language. Ella and I freaked out so we went back the way we came while the others carried on. It started to get damp and long black clouds were coming ahead of us. Then suddenly we heard some rustling noises they got closer and closer Intel we pulled back a fern and Oh my gosh sitting there huddled up was Emily.W and Cecelia. But wasn’t Cecelia one of the ones that waited for the parents and didn’t Emily.W walk off. They must have found each other and now we found them well at least were in a bigger group now. As night fell and it grew darker we started to get scared. Then Cecelia noticed something, there was a long tunnel right next to where we were sitting it was covered in mud and bush. We decided to leave it till the morning before we fully checked it out. In the distance we started to hear cries of help so we started to yell back we asked who it was and then soon enough the faces of Zac, Brenda and Joelle popped around the bush. I sied with relief, our group now had 7 people in it. It started to get dark and damp I started to get colder and so did the others so we decided to make a fire. Zac and Emily.W went looking for Bark off the Rimu tree and any small dry sticks or leaves on the forest bottom. They were slitting the trees with Zac’s knife so they know how to get back. Mean while Cecelia and I decided to go looking for the ferns of the Mamaku tree. They were just an ordinary fern that you could find in the bush. We collected them so we could put them on the floor of the tunnel where we were going to sleep. Cecelia and I returned to the camp first, this was weird because we left after the other group but we just assumed that they would come back soon. At the camp Joelle, Brenda and Ella had found some small rocks and made a circle where the fire was going to be. Me and Cecelia covered a small area in the tunnel with the ferns and covered the entrance with a small blue tarpaulin. Finally Zac and Emily.W returned with heaps of bark and leaves we put a small amount of the leaves and bark on the fire and stored the rest next to the tunnel. Joelle lit a match and placed in on the fire we now had our own fire. We sat round the fire and talked about what had happened and how we all found each other. There were some dark rain clouds that creped up on us and there was a small breeze so we all decided to go to bed. Zac found a possum hole near by so he decided to go and sleep in that but us girls slept in the tunnel. Ella crawled in first then me and Joelle, Emily.W hesitated about coming in but she came in, then Brenda and Cecelia follow and we all went strait to sleep. In my dreams there Is a lot of scratching noises an I could see shadows. Yawn!!!! I was he first on to wake up I had a small pain in my back but I stretched it out slowly. It didn’t tack long for the others to wake but wait a minute, where is Cecelia and Brenda they my have gone for a walk or maybe they had been kidnapped. We talked amongst ourselves deciding what to do. It would have been easy for them to walk off, but who would kidnap them? I mean it’s not like some one else in our class would sneak up and capture them in their sleep. Twenty minutes later we decide to carry on down the long, dark, dirty tunnel not feeling very faithful. We pull our bags on our backs and crawl down. Before you knew it Emily was screaming “help me, Ohh, Argh”. Ella looked back at me and rolled her eyes. I turned my head back and said “toughen up”. Emily grunted at me. Time passed. My knees were engraved with sticks and stones. I could hear the sound of my bag zip scraping on the top of the hard grey rock on the tunnel. Ella, Joell and I kept crawling thought that she was following us, until we came to the end of this one way tunnel it now split into two different tunnels. We decide to go down the left one. At the time we did not know that Emily had fallen behind us and scraped her knee. We kept on going down the tunnel. It started to get wetter and damper as we went along. It also got larger and larger until we could stand up in it. I yelled out to Emily and asked “what’s the time?” There was no reply so I turned my head and she wasn’t there. At this moment I realized that something weird was going on……………people had gone missing, weird sounds were being heard, and things had gone missing. But I didn’t let it get to me. Ella and Joell and I kept walking down the tunnel. It started to go down hill until a small patch of light shone ahead of us. It got larger and brighter the further we walked until a dark black lake with a rock in it stood ahead of us. And on that rock was a small woven basket. When Joell caught up with us we took a closer look at the dark black river and we couldn’t see anything dangerous so I pulled my bag tighter onto my back and dived in. I felt my bag pulling me down but I kept on swimming until I reached the rock. I pulled myself up the rock and rung out my hair. I then turned around and yelled at Joell and Ella saying “it’s all clear, come on”. Ella hesitated but they both eventually jumped in and started swimming. As Joell pulled herself up onto the rock I could see that Ella was struggling. All of a sudden I could see ripples of water coming towards her then long, fat, slimy eels broke the surface of the water. A high pitched scream came out of my mouth. I went into a panic. I grabbed my rope out of my bag and threw it to Ella. Just then the eels wound themselves around her leg and pulled her under the water. She came back and up and grabbed onto the rope and I managed to pull her in. I remember the scissors in my first aid kit so I cut the rope in half and secured it around the top of Ella’s legs. We wrapped her in a blanket and tried to calm her down. I took a step back, the water in my shoes squashed down but that wasn’t the only thing that I felt. It was the woven box. I lent over and opened the box