Hello and welcome to my blog. My name is Sam & I'm 15. This is where I try to post of everything going on in my crazy life all on one neat website. I'm living the good the life in the middle of nowhere on a farm that we call Jacobs Farm.. We hunt, fish, farm, drive all over the state and have a lot of laughs about what happens to us in the middle of nowhere.. While your scrolling & clicking around you can read my current entry I've posted, leave me comments, visit sites I've linked and other stuff too, and don't forget to enjoy yourself. Sam A. Jacobs http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:09:00 -0500 Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:09:00 -0500   The 18th Annual Augusta Greek Festival has come to a close for this year. It was the biggest Greek Fest our church has ever had… The Greek Festival made the front page of the Friday Augusta Chronicle Newspaper which has never happened, we had news and media coverage all 4 days, and we have sold more food and merchandise then we have ever sold at a Greek Fest. So y’all are probably thinking what goes on at our festival. Well I’ll start with: We have a lamb on a rotating spit. The two most popular foods of the festival are probably Gyros (Year o) which is grilled lamb packed in grilled pita bread with vegetables and Tzatziki sauce which is like a cucumber sauce and Feta Fries which are French fries fried at the festival and topped with Greek Seasoning and Feta Cheese. Once you’ve gotten your food you can stop by the Entertainment tent where you can see Greek music and dancing.   Throughout the Festival we had for entertainment was: Our DJ for the entire festival was Jimmy Economos who has been a DJ since he was 16, The Traditional Greek Music and most of the entertainment put on by a group called A Night In Athens featured: singer and bouzouki player Nick Trivelas, George Antonopoulos who is also a singer and bouzouki player and is also called a entertaining extraordinaire, and Joanna Kartsonis who did most of the Greek singing to go along with the two bouzoukiest.   We had a total of four dance groups: Eleftheria who came from Marietta Georgia and they put on quite a show Saturday night, the Hellas Dancers who came all the way from Clearwater Florida to perform at the Greek Fest, Zoe who came from Columbia South Carolina, and finally our own dance group here in Augusta which our dance group is called The Odyssey, we performed four times at the Festival but it feels like 6. But we all had a blast and can’t wait for next year. The Odyssey Dance group of Augusta GA   Sam Jacobs http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/408755/ Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:09:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/408755/   Hey everyone did y’all miss me? I’ve kinda been in a fog for the past 2 months with school, church, and 36 acres of chores at least I have time to breath because this week our church is hosting it’s 18th annual Augusta Greek Festival we will have: lots of great Greek food and pastries, with the options of dine in or take out our festival even has a drive thru… There’s also: Dancing and Entertainment, a raffle where you can win multiple prizes and a variety of vendors. Starting this Thursday at 11:00a.m leading up to Sunday at 6:00p.m. I encourage all HSB in the CSRA of Augusta to stop by and see all that is Greek.     For more info on the festival click on the logo below this entry or you’ll find it at the top of my blog and the right side of my blog as well.       Sam Jacobs http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/404841/ Mon, 8 Oct 2007 10:00:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/404841/ This is a separate page on my blog that I call the Braggin' Board this is where I post pictures of my family and other people too with fish they've caught and hunting game they've taken. If you have any hunting and fishing photos of you, a family member, or a friend that you would like to share, just click on the link email me under the title on the right side of my blog the title is: Other Blog Pages and just email me with the picture attached with your name, the people in the picture, the date the picture was taken, what fish you (or the people or person you were with) caught, or the hunting game you (or the people or person you were with) took, and finally a description of what and how it happened. I'll put your photo on the Braggin' Board. I look forward too all that are willing to share their fishing, and hunting experinces.   Sam Jacobs http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/389089/ Sat, 1 Jan 2005 21:17:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/389089/ Hey everyone I've finally had time to post, school has been rough... Well this morning once I was done with all work and chores my parents asked what would be goood for dinner. Well I suggested fryed fish and fried okra. We already had some fried okra battered and put away in the freezer but we didn't have enough fish for all 4 of us to eat so I decided to get more with the only possible way... So I grabbed the things I needed and got down to the pond at about 2:30 and started fishing with a chicken liver on the end of my line hoping to get a catfish but I had no luck so I switched to lures and at the end of the day I had caught 4 largemouth bass on a white plastic worm. Once I was back home I gutted scaled and filleted the fish and my Mom battered and fryed them that night along with the catfish and okra we had leftover from another night. Well got 2 go     Sam Jacobs http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/387313/ Fri, 7 Sep 2007 21:18:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/387313/   It has been blistering hot down here…. Yesterday was a new record in heat temperature. 107 degrees! The weather forecast said it hasn’t been this hot since 1878… We have had global warming for quite a long time apparently…. We spent the entire day yesterday hosing down the dogs and chickens not the cats though I don’t think they would have enjoyed it as much as the other animals… But they lay on the back patio cement in the shade to stay cool. I’m almost tempted to get an egg out of the hen house and see if it will cook on the parking pad…. Our first flock of chickens has been through it all in the past 3 years:   4 Hurricanes Storms   2 Ice Storms   A Tornado   107 degree heat   Dodging Hawk attacks though one fell victim to a red tailed.   And a Coyote Attack where 8 fell victim to the coyotes.   Our chickens are now accustomed to living life on the edge. This is the new flock’s first extreme heat summer so we’re having to water them 4 times a day plus misting them. Did I mention the heat index was a new record. And speaking of water our well had a crack in the pipe a couple of weeks back and we had Plummer “Well Guy” fix the crack and he said our well has more water than most wells, he said we had 70 feet of water in our well and during a drought! So at least we have plenty of water.     Stay in the shade and have a great day.         Sam Jacobs http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/371655/ Sat, 11 Aug 2007 10:10:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/371655/   Attention readers and all HSBloggers…. My family and I desperately need your help now that our flock of 60 is almost grown. Now is the time that we start naming the hens and roosters but we just can’t seem to come up with 60 names so anyone who has any ideas please feel free to comment with your suggestions.. The new flock will be laying eggs by the first week of November so keep checking back and you might just see a hen or rooster with your suggested name…   Sam Jacobs http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/369328/ Tue, 7 Aug 2007 10:29:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/369328/   Today our chicken flock of 60 is 9 weeks old… We are very proud of how well our newest flock is doing. Everybody is healthy and thriving and nobody picks on anybody… Out of all of the stages of chicken care this part is the toughest. This is the stage where the chickens are most vulnerable to weather and predators, it’s when the flock starts establishing the pecking order, and when the roosters start doing what roosters do. It’s also when they’re too big for the heating lamp and too small to be in with the big flock. For the past couple of weeks we’ve been letting them roam around in the second chicken yard in the afternoon under our supervision in the event a wondering hawk of owl shows up, or if one of our farm cats decides too have a chicken dinner with a little cotton rat on the side. Anyway here are a couple pics of the new flock in their yard at 9 weeks old... Here's some of the flock pecking and scratching the ground in their yard.     This is our Buff Laced Polish Rooster (Try saying that 5 times fast); his name is "Boris" and he also has a Buff Laced Hen named Natasha..     Sam Jacobs     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/367824/ Sat, 4 Aug 2007 10:54:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/367824/   And I mean grounded! We finally have a chicken yard and I must say it’s a nice one. We’ve clipped all the big chickens’ wings and are confined in the yard as we speak. As for the chicks, in my last post I had pictures of the chicks in their cute little corral as my Mom said is gone. The hay corral lasted for about 10 days then the chicks all had a meeting and said lets jump.     And they did!!!     My Mom went out into the garage the next morning to see about 6 baby chicks on the garage steps looking up at her. But that’s not all they had demolished the hay bales from the inside out. Not to mention the mine field of their little droppings all over the garage. Once everyone had seen the garage the “cute” and “adorable” chicks had put us in quite a situation. Later in the week we had built two chicken coops to put the chicks in and after a long chick round up we split them up, 30 in one coop and 30 in the other. This Saturday the chicks will be 6 weeks old, we think when they’re 7 weeks old they’ll be big enough to run around in the chicken yard. After we clip their wings. :)     Here are some pictures of the new chicken yard courtesy of our fence man Mr. Jones and his grandson.             Here is one of our farm cats (Patches) enjoying the chicken yard.     Mr. Jones is working down the street at the Dairy but when he’s done he is going to add 3 lean-twos to the chicken house - just don’t tell my Dad.            Sam A Jacobs http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/355919/ Thu, 12 Jul 2007 16:59:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/355919/ Hey everyone sorry that I haven’t posted in a while… We’ve been real busy on the farm with the new flock and all. On June 4th our new flock order of chicks came in the mail… Y’all are probably thinking “What in the mail?” Am I right…? Well I’m right we order from Murray McMurray Hatchery which is a big poultry place in Webster Iowa where they send you the chicks you order as soon as they’re born by mail… This is the box the chicks come in…          And this is what’s inside the box….        And here are some pictures of the chicks in their hay corral.               We ordered 60 chicks and McMurray always gives you a few extra so we have a total of 64 chicks…..  Here’s a list of the different breeds we have:   Breed                                     QTY Hen                     QTY Rooster      Description of breed   Buff Orpingtons                       6 Hens                         1 Rooster         Relaxed Chicken   Barred Rocks                           6 Hens                         1 Rooster         Fun Chicken   Black Giants                            6 Hens                                                Great Layer   Speckled Sussex                      6 Hens                         1 Rooster         Fun Chicken   New Hampshire Reds                4 Hens                                                Good Chicken                           Blue Andalusians                      2 Hens                                                First time w/ breed   Araucanas                               6 Hens                                                Blue & Green Eggs   Brown Leghorns                        2 Hens                                                Good Chicken   Silver Laced Wyandottes            2 Hens                                                Good Chicken   Golden Laced Wyandottes          2 Hens                                                First time w/breed   Partridge Rocks                        2 Hens                                                 First time w/breed   Cuckoo Marans                         6 Straight Run Only                               Chocolate Eggs   Sicilian Buttercups                     2 Hens                         1 Rooster          First time w/breed   Buff Laced Polish                      1 Hen                           1 Rooster          Rare Crested Breed   Sultans                                    2 Straight Run Only                               Rare Crested Breed     We care about our chickens a lot and come this November the flock of 64 will be grown and laying eggs. We have a total of 77 chickens we have Rare and Exotic breeds to the normal backyard breeds…. Below are some pictures of my favorite breeds of what our chicks will look like when they’re grown.                   This is a Buff Rooster               This a Barred Rock Rooster     This is a Sultan Rooster that comes from Turkey. This breed of chicken is one of the most exotic breeds.     This is a french chicken called the Cukoo Maran they are a rare breed that lay chocolate colored eggs.                                            This is a Araucana but some people call them the easter egg chicken because they lay blue and green eggs. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/346207/ Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:34:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/346207/   Call Me “Catfish Hunter”   No not the baseball player that’s just a nickname I have adopted for myself since this morning when I went fishing. This trip turned out to be a cat kinda trip, and this time it’s the wet kind. Well I got up at 6:30 a.m. this morning because I wanted to get an early start on fishing. I left the house at about 5 after 7:00 a.m.; the lure I was starting with got hung in a tree so I had to cut my line and start over.  I decided to cast out a chicken liver on a hook and bobber while I got the tackle that I a needed. I looked up from my tackle box to check on my bobber and it had pulled a Houdini on me and was gone! I grabbed my rod and jerked straight up and it felt like I was playing tug of war with a bull. After a 20 minute battle of non stop tug of war of blood, sweat, and jerking and pulling between man and beast, I had reeled him into shallow water and I could see him completely.  Then the next jerk the fish made toward the deeper water of the pond my rod snapped in half along with my fishing line! I was terror struck thinking “You’re not getting away now!”  I jumped into the water after him, as the water filled up my shoes and sprayed across my shirt I grabbed him by the mouth and brought him up onto the bank. I was the victor and I had reeled in a monster catfish, sort of. When you’re a dedicated fisherman and the one time one of your family members tag along and just happens to catch a monster fish, this fish was worth getting a little wet over. (Instead of coming home telling my story of how I had hooked the biggest catfish I had ever seen and right when I was reeling him into shallow water both my rod and line broke and he got away, I could just hear my brother, “Sure Sam…”) After a few minutes of “OHHHH, YAAAA” and “BOOOOOYAH” I called my parents and explained the situation and they came down to the pond with a not broken rod and with their eyes as big as their heads as they looked upon the monster mud cat that was attached to my stringer. They stayed for little bit and we took a few pictures and then right when they were about to leave my bobber goes under again and I reeled in ANOTHER humongous catfish. It was smaller than the first but it was still BIG. I didn’t catch anything for the rest of the day but I say this will do.   The first catfish weighed at 5 pounds.   The second catfish weighed at 4 ½ pounds And here's a group photo.   I’m the NEW record holder for the biggest fish caught on our farm.    Sam, “Catfish Hunter”, Jacobs   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/320905/ Sat, 28 Apr 2007 17:56:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/treehouseisland/320905/