A trip into biblical mythology.

So I've decided that Im going to re-read the bible and put my thoughts up here.  I wolnt get far until school settles down a bit for me, but I'm getting a start on genesis, and having reached the part where god gives Noah directions on how to build the ark and what to bring aboard, I have a few questions for the faithful...

1) According to some of the Christian websites I looked at to convert cubits to feet, the arc measured 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet tall.  How did Noah fit all the different species of animal on there?  That equals just over 1.5 million cubic feet... seems big, but compared to a China max cargo ship its rather small, and I have my doubts that you could keep all the animal species of the earth together on a China max for 40 days and nights and keep them all alive... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinamax)

2) If all Noah brought on board the ark were two of every creature, and "every sort of food that is eaten" (gen. 6:21) where did poison ivy come from and all of the other plants that an not survive under water for over a month, but are not food and thus did not make it onto the ark?

3) According to the English Standard Version of the bible (the one Im reading because its the one I have that isn't too pretty to mark in) Noah had his three sons in the year 1556 after the world was created.  if the world has been around for 6000 years, and its ~2012 years after Jesus was born, that means Jesus was born  2433 years after Noah's children.  Seems like we should have better archaeological evidence of this time if it was so recent.  Ill be running a tab on biblical years and lets see if the years add up to match the 6,000 year creationists idea, or the 10,000 year creationist idea... I dont know if we can get a good record of years to Jesus or not, but lets see how close the bible gives us and see how reasonable it seems.  ( I realize this isn't really a 3rd question but more a set of questions turned into statements but Id still like to see a Christians response)

Well that concludes this adventure in biblical mythology, Im going back to studying.