Learn about The House

Today, i will be teaching you about The House, and mainly the things that The House has outside, because inside, the house is just a house. The first thing that is out side, is a huge amount of lobster traps that Uncle Art keeps outside. There is a huge wall of lobster traps that he keeps, and then he also has the place where he works on his traps, with a lot of buoys, and lobster traps stacked up right next to him.

Wall of traps

This is where Uncle Art works on his traps.

Another thing outside, by the wall of traps, there is a shed, just for storing things. There is also a chicken coop, that holds the chickens that we have. We get about 6-8 eggs every day, and Levi, loves to go and collect the eggs.

Shed

This is the chicken coup, there is a whole area of space behind it with a fence around it so the chickens can play.

Their is another bigger storage shed, by the cloth line, and the huge willow looking tree. That holds all of the big things, that we only need for special occasions, like tents and other stuff. Behind the house, is a big outside balcony, that has a table and chairs, and its really cool. There is also the screen room, which is kind of outside and kind of inside at the same time.

This is the shed by the cloth line,and the willow looking tree.

This is behind the house, the balcony,and the screen room.

This is the screen room, where we have a little table and couch, and there is a lot of cool things here, like found bottles, cool crab shells, cool shells found, pieces of driftwood, and anything cool that Uncle Art, or Aunt Pennie found, by the beach.

Behind the house, we have a huge back yard. There is an area of water that connects to the sea that me and Uncle Art fish at. There is also a cool wooden pine tree made out of driftwood. There is a small pond, with a row-boat, and also a playground, and a baseball diamond.

This is the backyard of my house in maine, with a pond, and the area of water connecting to the sea (left)

This is the area of the back yard that has the playground, the pond, and the baseball diamond, if you walk back really far!

This is the cool pine tree that is made out of driftwood.

This is the area of water that comes around the land, and is connected to the Sea.

I hope you enjoyed this learner post!

-August 17, Monday

Easy Day! (seal was following our boat)

Today, was a pretty easy day. I got up at 5 again, and had another bagel. We then drove down to the wharf, and it was really foggy. It was so foggy, that we could not see the water from the road by the wharf. Uncle Art, looked out on the water and said "This is as foggy as it gets" and it was really foggy. Uncle Art needed some more rock-fish to load onto the lobster-boat for today, so instead of just sitting in a chair while he went to go get the boat, i helped get the rock-fish into the trays, by getting each box of rock-fish, and getting the rock-fish out of the box, and then putting all of the boxes in the trash bin. I got some pictures of the wharf this morning.

Its really foggy at the wharf!

ITS REALLY FOGGY!

I cant even see the water off of the docks!

It started to get a little bit better.

During the day, it started to get better because the sun came out and it got really hot. On the boat, the first part of the day, we were not getting a lot of lobsters. Yesterday, I had filled a lot of bait bags so i would have them to use today, and this morning, i filled a lot of bait bags, while we were cursing out to our first trap, so during the majority of the day, i did not have to fill the bait bags, which was really nice. We didn't get a lot of lobsters the first part of the day, so i had little breaks in-between traps. The last part of the day, we started to get more and more lobsters.

One time, we saw a seal, following our boat, eating the rotten fish that we dump over the side of the boat every trap we get. Seals like that rotten fish. I got a picture of him, or at least, i tried to. We also got a lot of conch shells in our lobster traps sometimes. They have snails living inside of them, and they are about the sise of a golf ball. I have a picture from online, compared to the picture that i took.

This is a picture of conch shells from online!

These are the conch shells found in the lobster traps.

We got all of these conch shells in one trap! I just had to take a picture of them! Here is the picture of the seal following our boat.

This is the seal under water.

This is the seal popping its head up above the water following us!

Since the first part of the day, we were not getting a lot of lobsters, i was able to do my system where i do the trap, then the lobsters, then the bait bag, in that order. That system does a good job of getting everything it needs to get done on time every trap that we pull up. We were able to get through a lot of traps, in a smaller amount of time than usual. We got done around Noon again. We got home at about, one because we needed to re-fill the boat with more bait for tomarrow.

One other thing, when you haul a trap, sometimes there is a skeleton of a rockfish still there, because the lobsters did not eat it, and sometimes there is just a skull, or just a body, but i found a whole part, and it looks really cool!

Leftovers of the rockfish found in the trap.

 -August 17, Monday

Day off today! (went on a boat ride with my family)

Today, I had a day off, so I could sleep in! I slept in until 7:25 A.M. It was awesome not waking up at 5 A.M. When I got up, I played some xbox until 10 A.M. when i had breakfast. For breakfast, i had bacon, and 4 scrambled eggs with hot sauce on them. They were really good! After breakfast, i read 2 chapters in The Scarlet Letter for school, and then me and Oma discussed it.

Later in the day, at about 2:30 P.M. me, Uncle Art, Aunt Pennie, Oma, Grandma, my dad, my mom, and my brother Levi, went on a boat ride on the lobster boat. My brother really wanted to band a lobster, but unfortunately, it was Sunday, which means we could not haul any traps today. We rode around the islands, and we saw some islands with houses on them with amazing views.

This has a house that has a light house, and you can rent this whole place! It even comes with a boat and a driver to get to shore!

This is an island with a few houses on it and they own a ton of land on the island, and have a ton of trails in the forest!

My dad got a picture of me standing on the side of the boat. I also took a selfie on the front of the boat, because i love to go onto the front of the boat while were going because its really windy. My oma was also brave enough to go onto the front of the boat with me and Levi. We took pictures!

Me standing on the lobster boat!

Me and my brother, and my Oma on the front of the boat!

Selfie! My bro looks confused. 

While we were on the boat, we passed by a small island, that had only one small cabin on it, and you could go out on the island, and spend the night on the island in the house, with no running water, for a night. It looked really fun, and we might do that next Thursday night! We passed by some rocks, with some seals on it. We were able to get REALLY close to the seals, it was so cool! On the way back, the engine started to make a funny noise, and it turned out that we got a buoy and its rope stuck around the propeller of the boat. Uncle Art did not know how this happened because he has a gate around his propeller so that nothing gets tangled up in it. We put the boat in reverse, and were able to pull some of the rope out of the propeller, but we eventually, just had to cut it off, and we were going to have to call a diver to go check it out later.

We caught a buoy!

Levi likes the buoy!

We saw seals!

After the boat ride, we got to go home, and we were going to have a huge dinner of scallops, but i just decided to have a sandwich, because i do not like lobster, or scallops, or any seafood really. 

-August 16, Sunday (Learner Post tomarrow!)

Learn about the Tides

The tides, are when the waters of the sea, rise and fall, because of the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun. The tides usually happen twice a day. Gravity is what makes everything stay on the earth, but since water is just a liquid, the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun, can actually make the water rise and fall. The moons gravitational pull is just enough to raise the water of the seas, but nothing else.

The moon pulls the sea water up a little bit, that kind of makes a bulge in each side of the earth. This is high tides.

One side of the earths high tides is caused by the moons gravity, and the other side of the earths high tides is caused by the principle of inertia. It is really complicated to explain, but imagine that you are spinning a rope with something fairly heavy on the end of the rope. Imagine that the earth is in the middle of you and the heavy object at the end of the rope. Since you are spinning, you need to lean back to balance out the heavy object at the end of the rope, and your spinning. This is the same with the moon and the rotation of the earth. If the earth is spinning, and the moons gravitational pull is pulling the sea one way, the other side of the earth needs to have the same effect as the moon, but on the completely other side of the earth.

The moon is what mainly causes the tides, but the suns gravitational pull, can very the tides by either making them a little higher than normal, or a little lower than normal. The sun can only affect the tides a little bit, because the sun, is way farther away from the earth than the moon, so the sun can not effect the tides as much as the moon can.

When the sun and the moon are aligned in a straight line, so that they are on-top of each-other, the tides are a little larger than normal, because the suns gravity is helping the moons gravity by pulling the water bulge from the earth, making the tides a little bit bigger than normal. These tides are called spring tides, and they happen on Full, or New moons.

The sun helps the moons gravity enhance the tides just a little bit.

When the sun, and the moon, are at a 90 degree angle from each other, the sun, actually makes the tides a little bit smaller than they would usually be. This is because, the sun, is pulling the earths water towards itself, where the tides would be low usually, but the sun makes the tides smaller where the moons gravity is pulling. This happens on the quarter moons, and this is called neap tides.

The sun, is pulling on the low tide part of the earth, making the moons
effect of high tides, less effective, so the high tides are lower than usual.

The moon rotates around the earth 13 times a year, and this means that every day, the tides will happen twice, once every 12 hours and 25 minutes, (the 25 minutes makes up for the one year added extra to the moons rotation around the earth 13 times a year)


I hope you enjoyed this Learner post, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask!


-August 16, Sunday (blog later today)

Learn about Lobsters (Learner Post)

Lobsters, are some of the weirdest animals around! They taste with their legs, and they have teeth inside of their stomach. They also, don't have brains! Since the lobsters stomach, is right behind its eyes, the teeth of a lobster are located inside of its stomach. The lobster has 2 main claws, 8 walking legs, a crusher claw, and a pincher claw. The crusher claw, is made to crush objects, and is big and has more muscles. The pincher claw, is longer than the crusher claw, and is used for holding on to things.  The lobster has 8 swimmerets, located on its abdomen. The swimmerets, are like tiny fins below its body, used to swim.

The tail of a lobster, can curl up to its body, and then un-curl back out to its full length. If the lobster does this really fast, it can swim really fast with its tail.  The female lobsters eggs, are located under its abdomen, in-between its swimmerets.  The female lobsters, are the mean lobsters, and will try to kill other lobsters if they get annoyed.  The walking legs are small legs, that the lobster uses to walk, and on the end of each walking leg, is a tiny claw, used to grab stuff, and for defense.  

Lobsters do have nervs, but, lobsters do not feel pain. This part is very interesting; lobsters do have reflex's to what would be considered pain to them. When someone gets hurt, they instantly have a reflex to the pain, whatever it is, but the actual pain is what comes after the reflex when the pain reaches the brain. Since lobsters have no brains, they only have reflex's to pain, but can not actually feel the pain.

If a lobster looses a certain limb, or claw, the lobsters can regenerate them. It usually takes about 5 years for a lobster to regenerate a claw that had been chopped off, but they can do it. 

Regenerating Claw.

Some cool facts about lobsters:

1. We have found lobsters living up to 100 years!
2. Lobsters can grow as big as 4 ft long and 40-50 Lbs.
3. If lobsters desperately need more food, they can feed off of smaller lobsters
4. Lobster blood is clear, not red like ours
5. Lobsters, can not survive in fresh water
6. 
   

Working Day (i saw a sunfish!)

Yesterday, my Dad, and my Grandma Nancy, arrived to my moms house. We had pizza for dinner yesterday, and then, we watched Big Hero 6.  I slept at my Aunt Pennies, because i had to work today. Today, I had another bagel for breakfast, and then we went on to the boat. I did not bring my Bluetooth speaker today, because i thought that i wouldn't use it today! Today, was suppose to be a long day, and we were going to get done at about 2:30 P.M, but there was not a lot of lobster per trap, so we got through the traps really fast, and we got done before noon!

The first part of the day, i was getting really tired and was loosing all of my energy, and it seemed like i was always working, non, stop, and i didn't even have time to rest for like 10 seconds, but then, Uncle Art said it was snack time, and then i had a banana. Then, after that, i felt really good, and it was sunny out and clear, and i made a process in which i had about a 10 second break each time we hauled a trap.

Every-time uncle art hauled a trap, i would have a bait bag ready with a rockfish on it, ready to bait the trap. Every-time we hauled a trap, i would take the old bait bag out of it, and put a new bait bag inside of the trap. Then, i would quickly move to the lobster place, to band whatever lobsters we had gotten from that trap. By the time i was done banding the lobsters from the trap, the trap was going down into the water, and then, while Uncle Art was driving to the next trap, i would fill another bait bag, and put a rockfish on it to get it ready for the next trap. Then, i would have about a 10 second break between me getting the bait bag ready, and me baiting the next trap.

Today, we didn't have to bring the lobster boat into the dock to get bait, because Uncle Art had already gotten bait the day before, so we just got into the rowboat and got into the lobster boat, without having to come into the docks. I took a picture of the stairs right before we went out on the lobster boat, and then i took a picture of the stairs after we were done lobstering that day, to compare the tide at 5 A.M. to at Noon.

This is a picture of the stairs at 6 A.M.

This is a picture of the stairs around Noon!

As you can see, the tide rises during the day, and i will be doing a "Learn about the Tide" page, tomorrow, and the lobster "Learner Page" later today! The stairs are built so that when the tide comes in, or out, you can still access the floating wooden platforms. The bottom half of the stairs is usually covered with sea-weed, because that part of the stairs, is covered by water, half of the time.


During the last hour of me and Uncle Art being on the boat today, we saw a sunfish. A sunfish is a fat fish that looks like a big fat bullet with fins at the back of it.  This fish lives in tropical and warmer waters around the world. It can weigh between 300-1000 KG. as an adult! It kind of looks like a short, fat shark. I got a picture of it, but i will also show a better picture of it from online,

This is the picture of the Sunfish i got with my Ipod

This is a better picture of a Sunfish from online.

We got done around Noon, then, we got home, and i had a sandwich, and started to read the first 2 chapters of The Scarlet Letter because I need to read it for school, and my Oma is reading it with me at the same time. Then, my mom got here to bring me and Levi to her house, while they went to look at houses. (My mom wants to buy a house out in Maine, so we can use it if we come out to Maine in the future) Levi also got a potato gun, from the toy store with my mom. You basically stick the end of it into a potato, and then, you pull it, and the air, forces the potato piece out of it, and its awesome!

This is the potato gun.

You stick it into the potato, and then it pumps out the potato piece.

When you pull the potato gun grips together, it compresses the air until that air, shoots the potato piece out the end of the gun, and it goes really far! Its cool, because you can use it with crab apples also, and those are everywhere, so you have unlimited ammo! 

-August 15, Saturday

Summary of Last Night, Thursday

Yesterday, for dinner, me, Levi, my mom, Oma, Aunt Pennie, and Uncle Art went to dinner at the "Lobstah Shack" It is spelled funny. The "Lobstah Shack" reasturant, is right across from the wharf, where me and Uncle Art go out on our lobster boat every morning. The Wharf, has an area where the lobster boats can come in on the water, and on the other side of the water, is the "Lobstah Shack" I took pictures of the wharf, and the "Lobstah Shack"

This is the Wharf, where the lobster boats come in to get their bait and supplies.

Right on the other side of the water, is the "Lobstah Shack"

Lobstah Shack

The lobstah shack, is just a small building, made into a reastruant. All of the seating for the reastruant, is outside on picnic tables. There is a tent just in case it rains. The lobster shack has a lot of different foods like lobster, clams, muscles, and i got a cheeseburger. It is right on the edge of the island, so you can see out into the wharf. That is where all of the lobster-men keep all of their boats.

The view from the "Lobstah Shack"

Us at the reastruant

After we ate dinner, we went to this ice-cream place, called Harjula's. It was a big truck, turned into an ice-cream shop, and you order your ice-cream from the back of the truck. They had a lot of different flavors. I got toasted coconut, and strawberry. They were both very good. The strawberry ice-cream, had frozen pieces of strawberries inside of it. We got our ice-cream, and sat at a picnic table. The view was great, because we were sitting on top of a huge hill. We got a picture of us sitting at the table, but only our shadows.

This is where we sat

Our shadows

After we had ice-cream, i went to spend the night at my moms house with my brother Levi, and Oma. I brought my Xbox so that i could play Xbox after Levi went to bed. I was sleeping over there because i didn't have to work the next day!

-August 14, Friday (this blog is a summary of Thursday night)

-"Learner" post on Lobsters later today