My lad and I continue reading through a variety of books at night.
Currently we are reading about temperate forests, a novel (just finished Weekends with Max and his Dad), my boy's read out-loud book (Currently learning about zebras), Mammals and a book on railroads.
Sometimes we read about items that spur on our interest. Tonight we had to look up what the oldest trees were and discovered that most old trees are from the conifer family. The oldest being over 5,000 years old, this news stunned my my lad.
We have also recently learned about Caracals and the 8th wonder of the world (built in Canada.. a railroad bridge). Both of these items intrigued us, so I told the lad I'd research them a bit and see what else we can learn.
Currently we are reading about temperate forests, a novel (just finished Weekends with Max and his Dad), my boy's read out-loud book (Currently learning about zebras), Mammals and a book on railroads.
Sometimes we read about items that spur on our interest. Tonight we had to look up what the oldest trees were and discovered that most old trees are from the conifer family. The oldest being over 5,000 years old, this news stunned my my lad.
We have also recently learned about Caracals and the 8th wonder of the world (built in Canada.. a railroad bridge). Both of these items intrigued us, so I told the lad I'd research them a bit and see what else we can learn.
First up, the Caracal. For those of you who don't know, a caracal is a type of wild cat. Check out the sheer beauty of these cats.
click on image to go to source: zoological society
Caracals are a wild cat living in Africa and Asia. They eat a variety of local game such as Hyraxes, medium-sized antelope and deer, birds of all sizes, rodents, and reptiles. In our mammals book we learned that they eat A LOT of birds, to the extent of killing ostriches. It is a very versatile and agile hunter and the size of the animal does not deter it from using it as a food source. It prefers to live in dry woodland and savannah.
Even though it has ear tufts like the lynx, the caracal is most closely related to the serval and the African golden cat. Other than it's facial markings, the Caracal is a reddish brown cat with no other markings.
The agility of these cats has had them trained by nobility to be personal hunting animals. You can see the caracal's agility in the video below.
Even though it has ear tufts like the lynx, the caracal is most closely related to the serval and the African golden cat. Other than it's facial markings, the Caracal is a reddish brown cat with no other markings.
The agility of these cats has had them trained by nobility to be personal hunting animals. You can see the caracal's agility in the video below.
Next we move along to a bridge in Canada.
Click on image to go to source: History of Victoria Bridge
Once known as the Eighth Wonder of the World the Victoria Tubular Bridge was built in 1859 over the St. Lawrence River at Montreal.
In it's day the bridge was considered an engineering marvel. It's an industrial bridge, not designed to be pretty in any way. As such, it is still in use today... still providing safety for rail cars trundling over the river.
In it's day the bridge was considered an engineering marvel. It's an industrial bridge, not designed to be pretty in any way. As such, it is still in use today... still providing safety for rail cars trundling over the river.
Originally designed for rail traffic, it confounded all the skeptics … and there were many of them in 1850 who doubted that a structure this size could be successfully built..... Whatever the cost, this city surrounded by water had to be linked to the vast U.S. market. The Grand Trunk Railway launched a gigantic construction project, and the celebrated engineer Robert Stephenson drew up the plans for a tubular structure made of riveted iron plates.
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