Chickens!

We got chickens! We got 4 Araucanas , 2 Cornish and one polish. They are just chicks right now. We are taking care of them. They eat and drink. The polish is named Gustavus after Gustavus Adolphus. They have a heat lamp keeping them warm. 90 - 95 degres. We will get our own eggs from them when they grow up.  

The viking sword and Exploration

The Viking sword +ULFBERH+T
 We recently learned about the +ULFBERH+T sword. It is a sword that has crucible steel in it. It is a steel that has very few dots and slags as they call them in it. It is better then other steel of its time. To make it you would have to heat the iron and coal to a very high temperature, and in Europe it seemed that no one could do it. But in the middle east there was swords made with crucible steel. This means that the Vikings must have gone to there and got the Crucible steel. Historians think that they went on the Volga trade route. This is a route from Sweden to Iran it is mostly on water. It goes along the Volga river and lakes. Then it goes to the Caspian sea and past it into modern-day Iran and Iraq. Vikings might have got Crucible steel from here. I think they did and so do others. Then they would have gone back to Scandinavia in small rowboats. There they would shape the steel into the sword. But the inscription of +ULFBERH+T is still a mystery. No one knows who Ulfberht was. Christian Abbots and Popes put a cross in front of their name. Maybe this was a Christian Abbot who had made it. But the Christians were forbidden to Trade with the Pagan Vikings. Maybe a Christan viking had made it. Or maybe just a Viking had made it. Or it was a brand name. But it showed that the sword was made with Crucible steel. Other Ulfberht swords were made but they did not have Crucible steel in them. They were fakes. They had the letters +ULFBERHT+ on them. Someone was trying to copy +ULFBERH+T. If you had a +ULFBERH+T sword you would be highly honored as a great and rich warrior. +ULFBERH+T Swords were like the best kind of weapons. 

Exploration
The Vikings who originated in Scandinavia, explored from North America to Pakistan.
They were great explores on sea. They were not the best on land though. Proof that they had gone to North America and Pakistan is real. A viking ruins was found in North America and Statues of Buddha were found in Viking graves. The Vikings also went to Greenland, Iceland, Newfoundland,  Israel, Constantinople, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Russia, France, England, Ireland,Greece, Iraq and Iran. Like you probably know Vikings did not have horns on their helmets and there are also peaceful and economic vikings.

Favroite contries and raptors

                                     Countries                                   Raptors
                                   1 U.S.A                                      1 Golden Eagle : Aquila chrysaetos
                                   2 Sweden                                   2 Harris's Hawk : Parabuteo unicinctus
                                   3 Spain                                      3 The Black eagle : Ictinaetus malayensis
                                   4 Poland                                    4  Steller's Sea-eagle: Haliaeetus pelagicus
                                   5 Scotland                                  5 Wedge-tailed Eagle: Aquila audax
                                   6 Ghana                                      6 Spanish Imperial Eagle:Aquila adalberti
                                  















Sources:Wiki

San Diego

We Just got back from a trip to San Diego. It was fun and Educational. Here is what we did and where we went :



                                          First we packed...
                                         
                                   ...Then we went to the Airport..

                        ....Got on the plain and flew to San Diego ( 6 1/2 hours )                                              
             rented a car and got in a hotel. When we woke up we went To the Wild Animal Park.
   The Wild Animal Park was Awesome!!! Here is what we did at it : We walked around The place Eating
food that we had got from Trader Joes. We saw Lots of Animals My favorite was Harris's Hawk. We
saw lemurs,Gorrilas, lots of birds and others. we fed the Parakeets that was fun. But I would have liked it if I had a Leather glove on and Instead of Parakeets there would be Raptors.  Then we got on a Tram
 and went around the The African Safari. There we saw lots of Animals like Giraffes, Antelopes ,
 Wildebeest , Rhinos( One of them was almost extinct It had 7 more Rhinos of its kind ) and A cheetah. 
All around The Park were Cathartes auras or Vultures. They Also had Lions . We went and saw The bird show. Then we went back to our Hotel. We went to Balboa park . It was fun and I got a Swedish flag there. We learned about Balboa. I liked the International houses. We went to The beach and had fun by the Pacific. There was a nice Grassy place to play soccer on . We played there. We also went to the Temple and the Mormon Battalion. We Went to Eat at a healthy Mediterranean Restaurant. We visited some friends. We cooked quail eggs there and Then Packed up . We got food at trader joes.  Then went on the Plane back**. We thought this Flight was going to be canceled Because of the Snowstorm . Most of the Other flights to the East coast were Cancelled. But When we were to land It would be Rainy and windy , no snow. Since Jet-blue did not cancel the Flight to Boston , Many people that were going to New England went on that flight. So it was full. We read books Ate and Watched Sochi. When We landed we got our bags. Then Found out that The bus was not coming. So we Got in a Cab and Drove to a station where our car was Parked. Then got in our car and came home.














                                        *Route : Flew west Through New york , Canada and Michigan To Minnesota,
Flew southwest through South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado And Arizona to San Diego CA. 

 
 **Route: Flew Northeast. When Got to Boston Circled. Much Wind and turbulence. Landed.                                                        

The Northern wars ( a story )

One day in a city in Montana ,there was a governor in a skyscraper. He was the governor of Montana . His name was Olsen. Olsen was from Sweden. He had become a citizen of the USA. In the sky scraper it smelled like peppermint. Olsen hated Peppermint. It was coming from some ruby slippers . He threw them away in a garbage truck that was passing by his window. Suddenly he heard someone shout his name in the Lobby. He ran down stairs. A red head was standing in the lobby holing a letter. He asked Olsen if he was the governor . Olsen said yes and the red head handed him the letter. Here is what it said:

 Komma Vid en gång det är en akut !

  Guståvüs

It was written in Swedish . Here is what it said in English 

Come at once it is a emergency !

Gustavus 

Olsen knew Guståvüs, he was a friend of his in Sweden . What could be happening ? He decided to find out . He asked the people of Montana to elect someone to replace him while he was gone. Then he packed his and left early in the morning . He arrived at Stockholm in the night. He rented a hotel and went to sleep. When day came he rented a Saab and went of in the direction of Guståvüs's house. When he arrived  Guståvüs's house was in ruins. It was as if a whale had been dropped on it . Olsen searched the grounds but could find nothing except a bloodstained rifle. He knew Guståvüs had kept an old rifle that belonged to his ancestor Gustavus Adolphus the Great . He was one of the Greatest kings of Sweden and many say he is the greatest .  Guståvüs was one of those . Olsen hoped Guståvüs was still alive . He got into his car and drove around asking people if they had seen him. The day was wearisome and uneventfull. The next day he found a letter in his mailbox . It said : Norrbotten .  Norrbotten ? It was the largest and most northern county of them all. How was he going to find Guståvüs in Norrbotten ? Well he should at least try. So he got in his car and drove to a gun store. He bought a sniper . With his gun he drove all the way to Norrbotten . It took him 10 hours. When he got their he stopped in Galligen hoping that Guståvüs was there. When he rented another hotel and got to his room he saw Guståvüs there!! " how did you get here ?!?!" Olsen asked. " I asked where a governor from Montana was and they said here " replied Guståvüs . He was a blond bearded man . He had a bleeding shoulder. " what is happening here ? Are you okay ? " asked Olsen. Guståvüs collapsed on the floor and told him to call the swedish ambulance . Olsen did and then he helped Guståvüs down to the lobby. They put him in the ambulance and Olsen waited to hear more . When Olsen visited the hospital he asked Guståvüs his question again. This time Guståvüs answered it. " I am getting better and the Russian maffia was trying to rigg the winter Olymips that were to take place in  Norrbotten . The Russians had wanted the winter Olympics in their country not Sweden. So they were trying to make it fail. But I  have some allies in the russian army and they were trying to stop them. I told the Swedish government and they are trying to help us. But if they announce it publicly then Russia will declare war on them. They can not afford this. So I need you to tell the US government to help us." Olsen pondered this. He went to a phone and called the US goverment. He was at once admitted to the President. They talked and talked until Olsen got him to send 100 soldiers to help on a top-secret mission. When Olsen arrived back at his hotel he saw his room was Ransacked. Some one had come here! He saw that his sniper was still there in a secret compartment. He grabbed his sniper and ran downstairs. When he got in his car he drove to the eastern coast of Sweden. He wanted to see if the coast was being guarded from Russians. It was heavily guarded. He asked a Coast guard if the Sky was being guarded . The Guard said it was. Olsen drove to Sweden's northern border with Norway and Finland. It was getting late and cold. When he got to the border he saw most of it was guarded. But one part was guarded by sleeping guards! Olsen ran to the border and woke them up just as a shot rang out BANG! The guards returned fire with Olsen. BANG! BANG! BANG! All the firing had brought Finnish and Norwegian guards to the site. Russians ran over the border in the dark and ran into Sweden. The Cold was unbearable. With the icy wind in his face Olsen Ran after the Russians trying to get Some Swedish guards to come with him . But the Swedish guards were talking to the Finnish and Norwegian guards. So Olsen ran on with his Sniper Firing into the darkness where he thought the Russians were. When he got to the place where his car had been it was gone. He ran on hoping to find some police. He was freezing in the cold and black night. Olsen thought he would freeze. He walked on and saw an outpost when he got to the door he Froze. When Olsen woke up he was in a wooden room with a fire and a hearth . He had Unfrozen and was now up. He gave the Outpost man some money and walked on Until he found a city . The city was called Kiruna. Olsen went to a police station and told them about the Russians . They sent some police to the border and getting in a police car ,went after them. They did not know where the Russians were. They asked around but no one had seen them. Olsen rented another car and went back to his hotel. He needed to find out how to make peace with the Russians . When the 100 Americans arrived Olsen decided he would combine 50 Swedish soldiers with the 100 Americans. 150 soldiers to search the 173,745 sq mi of Sweden. So he started in the North going South. 1 month and 29 days later They found the Russian base. It was in Strömsund. The middle of Sweden. Olsen asked the Swedish government to send more soldiers because the Americans were leaving on the morrow. Strömsund's police had been jailed and killed so no one had heard. A 7th of Sweden's army Surrounded the city. They sent a person to order the Russians to surrender. There was a shot followed by a scream. The Swedish soldiers brought in tanks The Stridsfordon 90 , the Stridsvagn 122 and others. The Tanks fired and the soldiers ran and shot. The Russians were holding. But then The Swedish Air-force came and bombed the city. The fighting went on and on . But in the end Sweden won. Guståvüs came and Congratulated the Swedish General on his victory. The Swedish had eliminated the Russians and the Olympics were played in Sweden.       

                                                   The End

Info: Wiki 

A Made Up Legend And A Poem

The Guardians of The Misty Island
 One day long long ago a fodragobear ( a mix between a fox a dragon and a bear ) was walking along in its forest habitat when it saw a group of geese flying east.It asked the geese where they were heading. The geese honked back a reply " to the Misty island. " " wheres that ?" asked the fodragobear. " in Sweden. Some men who lived there give us food to stack up for the flight south in the fall." Honked the geese. " bye now HONK!!"and with that the geese flew away east ( they were in Scotland ). The Misty Island, Sweden sounded like a good place . So the fodragobear flew away east with his dragon wings . On his way to the misty island he saw many Scottish people . As he flew overhead the Scottish they yelled " A'ch the'r go's th' fod'agobea'Aye'!" When the fodragobear came across Loch Ness he hailed his friend, The Loch Ness monster or Nessie' fe'r short. " whe' yo' be ahe'din' ?" asked Nessie'. " ta Sweden !" replied the fodragobear. And with that he flew off to Sweden. When he got to Norway he knew he was almost there . He saw the vikings preparing to raid the English coast. When he at last made it to Sweden , he landed . When he found an elk he asked it where the misty island was. The elk said it was a bit farther north . The fodragobear flew there and found the Misty island. When he Landed close to the human village he saw the geese getting fed. 
But when the humans saw the fodragobear the ran back inside their huts to get armed. The fodragobear  
tried to tell them he just wanted food but the humans can't understand fodragobearian. Most of the humans charged him but one named Gustav Goldbeard jumped on the fodragobear back and flew off with him into the sun. Gustav Goldbeard  was a Man with a Battle axe , a blonde beard and mustache. He had a iron cap on and was wearing brown cloth kilt and shirt. He had chain mail under his kilt and shirt. Gustav Goldbeard quickly befriended the fodragobear calling him krigare which means warrior in Swedish. They came back to the misty Island and quickly became famous . They protected the misty Island from invaders.
That is how they became known as the guardians of  the Misty Island.  

A Poem 
Poem 1
sea and wind against the Scottish shore
Sea a'n wi'n againts th' scottish sho'e

The raging wind and the sly water
 fiercely fight the rocky coast. The
 coast will die , But now it stands
 firm and strong at the most. They
fight in the laughing moonlight of day.

Poem 2 
The Swedish Battle.

In the Singing sun of
a new day. Armies
advance. Then all in
one they cry their 
battle cry. The armies
thunder across the 
forest . The axes 
and swords swinging 
up and down. the
raging battle goes 
on till Night swallows
it up. The battle
ends by the traces
of the moonlight. 

 

Thirty years war

the Spanish general  Don Ambrosio Spinola

Ferdinand the second holy roman emperor  

The thirty years war was a conflict between most of Europe .it started out as a religious war and ended out as a war for power and land .here's how it started . There were many German states in the holy roman empire and some of them were Protestant or Luther and some were Catholic .so there started to be tensions between the states and it seemed they were going to fight each other .so the holy roman emperor ( a devout Catholic ) quickly made a law that said all states can worship whatever they want. but that didn't work because in 1618 the bohemian ( now part of the czech republic ) revolt began. the Protestant bohemians did not like there Catholic rulers and a group of them threw two catholic noble men or prague castle window ! what they did was called the defenestration of Prague which means throwing someone out the window . after that the bohemian noble men chose Protestant Frederick to be there king and he became allies with the ottomans by sending Ambassadors to Istanbul . The ottomans in return send ambassadors to prague . The ottomans attacked Poland won a few battles then lost one and withdrew from the war after that they stopped there alliance with bohemia . Catholic holy roman emperor Ferdinand became emperor in 1619 and send his army to bohemia . in 1 year defeated the bohemians .Frederick fled to Protestant Netherlands .now bohemia was Catholic . Spain entered the war in 1621. (Here are the reasons they enters the war . #1 because Ferdinand the II war a member of the Hapsburg family which included Spain and Austria #2 because they wanted power and they thought if they helped the holy roman empire he would give them some power ) on the empires side and attacked the Netherlands in 4 years Netherlands asked Denmark and England to help the English could not help much because they were in the middle of a civil war . Under Christian IV Denmark attacked the northern holy roman empire and took some land .Then Denmark asked France to help even though France was Catholic it helped Denmark because it's enemy's were the Hapsburg's the combined army of the French and the Danes took more land . So Ferdinand the II holy roman emperor made Tilly and Wallenstein his generals and Tilly marched towards the Danes while

Gustavus Adolphus

Wallenstein marched towards a Protestant German army . The Danes were defeated because France were in a civil war ( the war with the Protestant Huguenots ) and England was also in the middle of a civil war . The Germans were also defeated at the battle of Dessau bridge . The swedes enters the war under Gustavus Adolphus  ( here are the reasons the swedes entered the war • Gustavus wanted to become Holy roman emperor
• the swedes thought that the Hapsburg's were to powerful
• the swedes wanted to help the Protestant cause ) and won many battles there biggest victory was the battle of Breitenfeld but at the battle of Lützen Gustavus was killed and the swedes withdrew a year or so later . After that the French kept fighting they lost to the Spanish at the starting but defeated them later the .Danes helped the Spanish fight the French after they were conquered by Tilly . The war ended with the peace treaty of Westphalia . after the war France became the most powerful european nation . Many people died during the war not only the soldiers but civilians to . The war nearly halved the population of most German states .

Cardinal de Richelieu of France 

Wallenstien the Catholic  general 

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden

Gustavus Adolphus was the king of Sweden during the thirty years . war he was a great military general Napoleon of France thought that he was one of the greatest generals of all time ! His army's cannons were not big and cumbersome but lighter and movable and his Calvary ( called Hakkapeliitta ) were very good at charging . Gustavus Adoulphus was the only Swedish monarch to be called the " the Great " . He was king during the golden age of Sweden he was killed at the battle of lützen . He was probably the best swedish king . In Minnesota there is a college named after him .

Gustavus Adolphus on his horse

Gustavus Adolphus the II of sweden

Gustavus Adolphus the Great

Hakkapeliitta

Hakkapeliitta's were light Finnish Calvary . there name came from there battle cry " hakkaa päälle " which means " cut them down ! " they were under command of the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus and used during the thirty years war and led to most swedish victories . They were very good at charging and guerilla attack they were also used to fight the Danish heres how they charged first they fired there pistol then rode towards the enemy full speed and when they were close to the enemy they fired again and when they were super close they drew there sword and fought hand to hand combat . they also used there horses to trample enemy intrantfy