Calling On My Compassionate Caring Friends!

My sister in law is trying to raise money to get medical treatments for some feral cats that live around her house.  For years now she’s been paying for it out of her pocket but anyone with a pet knows those fees can add up!

She’s working with a vet that gives her a break but still when facing major surgery she needs help, so please take a look here and if you can help please do!  Also, it’d be great if you could share the link the more people that know, the better chance there is that she can at least raise some funds to help with the cost. 

Her ultimate goal is to get all the cats fixed so that she can put an end to the vicious cycle of breeding that has been going unchecked in her neighborhood. 

Thanks, I know how wonderful the crafting community is and I know how much many of you love animals!

Legs Broken Needs Help!

B is for blessed and bunnies!!!!

I know that where I live is a blessing. I’m grateful for it everyday because I’m surrounded by nature, peace and tranquility.  Rarely do I have to endure sirens, traffic or noisy neighbors.  The most I hear are birds twitting, my neighbors Guinea hens “buck-wheating'” and the occasional squirrel fussing about whatever.  It is green here, lush really and even though I’m only a short distance from civilization most days it feels like it’s hours away.  So I count my blessings and often.  Today I got another blessing, one that while most gardeners would shudder at, well I embrace as a wonderful gift.
I was gathering up my plants that I’d purchased earlier in the week, loading them into my cart to haul around back. Something moved and at first I thought it was a chipmunk, but when I looked closer I realized it was a baby bunny!  A tiny little puff of brown fur no bigger than my hand sat looking at me with big dark eyes.  I put my hand over my mouth to stop myself from squealing with delight!!  I scurried into the house to grab my camera to get a picture of the tiny little critter nestled in among my flowers.

My next thought was what is it doing here?  I’ve seen one rabbit down here and that was a couple of years ago, I saw it twice in one week and then never again.  Was this baby lost?  I came inside and searched for information on baby bunnies and learned that mom leaves them, (them"?) behind for the day while she goes off to eat.  Them"?  I went back out and began to look around and sure enough there were other furry little bottoms under my front porch!  There is lattice that skirts the porch but it’s not enclosed entirely. It is however a very safe and dry environment for a bunny nest! 
For me this is another wildlife victory.  I know many will never understand my stance on this and that’s ok.  There are so few places left where animals can go and feel safe, have food, wood and shelter.  If my little place here provides that I’m happy to share, even if it means that some of my flowers won’t look perfect or that I might miss something blooming because someone decided it tasted good.  I’ve been living with the deer and we’ve come to an understanding, if I remember to spray they don’t eat it lol.  The flying squirrels, the raccoons, the foxes, the owls and the hawks are all a part of my life.  Just like the hummingbirds, the chipmunks and those nutty red tailed squirrels that make so much mischief.  We live here together, sharing this piece of property and I think that is one of the greatest blessings of all…

You think you own whatever land you land on
The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name
Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sun sweet berries of the Earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth
The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
The heron and the otter are my friends
And we are all connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends
How high will the sycamore grow?
If you cut it down, then you'll never know
And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
For whether we are white or copper skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains
We need to paint with all the colors of the wind
You can own the Earth and still
All you'll own is Earth until
You can paint with all the colors of the wind

A visitor...

I live in the woods and I have lots of animals around the house all the time. I'm not talking about my pets, I'm talking about the wild ones. Now our property is densely forested and so even in the middle of the day with the sun blazing, places in my yard can look dusky. That of course means that those furry friends that you don't normally see out during the day will occasionally show up in the yard. It isn't uncommon for me to see deer, fox and yes even raccoons mingling with the squirrels and birds.

So when I opened the door to let the dogs out and saw there was company in the yard I wasn't overly surprised. Though I suspect my asking of my visitor to please cease in eating my birdseed was a bit of a surprise to them. I didn't let the dogs out, but came back inside and grabbed some of the hot dog rolls that were destined to be critter cuisine anyway and took them out to my company. Below the inspection process is taking place, the weary eyes watched me as I tossed the bread into the vicinity, but quickly came to investigate as I stepped back to the porch.



My visitor didn't take long in deciding that the Martin's Potato roll was good enough to eat and wasted no time in taking their snack to a near by tree to eat, while of course keeping an eye on the strange lady that tossed something so delectable out!


I sat for a long time on the porch watching my furry company enjoying the snack. I'm so incredibly blessed to be able to live so close to nature and even more blessed I think, that I have the sense to appreciate what it is that I do have. I truly believe that all animals can sense when they are safe and I really like to believe that all of my visitors, furred, feathered and even scaled know that here, they are indeed welcome, safe and appreciated!

A snakes tale..

Elaphe obsoleta (a.k.a. the Black Rat Snake) is indeed a friend of mine!

I know, I know the creepy factor is too much for a lot of people, including the man that I am married to! However even he has developed an appreciation for this particular snake. See it has been living in the garage (I knew this he didn't) for a long, long time.

Each spring I go about planting up my flower boxes on deck and I happened to look down to see a tiny head poking out from between the door and the wall. I moved in for a closer look and it was a very small black snake. We looked at each other a bit and I went back to planting my boxes and it went back to laying in the sun by the door. I saw the snake in the garage several times over the course of the summer and duly noted that the mice droppings had ceased appearing near my birdseed. I liked the arrangement as I will never, ever poison anything!



The following years proved to be replicas of the past, first spring day I open the door and start to plant up the boxes is the first spring day my scaled pal would appear. The above picture was taken in 2006. This snake doesn't so much as flinch when I walk past it, it's pretty cool and well what can I say, I love snakes!

Randy however wasn't really brought up to share that sentiment and it's taken a lot of work on my part to convince him that snakes aren't bad and that they really don't want to be bothered by you. It took a major event though to seal this snakes fate! See one day Randy discovered my friend in the garage during the early summer of 2009 and promptly insisted that I remove it. I tried to explain to him that the snake was keeping the mice out of the garage but he wasn't buying it. So I had to relocate my pal down into the woods.

Well, it wasn't long after that, that the mice started getting into the birdseed again. It wasn't until they brought their furry fury onto his car or rather into it, that he realized the value of that snake! You see the mice decided to chew their way into his car and they filled his blower up with dog treats!
They also chewed some of the leather on his seats, ate part of his bluetooth headset and to top it all off one got stuck inside the venting and died and wow did that smell! He had to completely disassmeble the dash to remove the treats and the body!


Well a few months later he came into the house and asked me to come out into the garage. There sitting perched atop his tool box (and looking quite smug) was my pal. Randy asked would I please move him, making sure to let me know that I didn't have to relocate him, just get him off the tool box. So I ushered him away to the other side of the garage.

Needless to say I was very happy to see him again this spring in the garage.


Once my pal got warmed in the sun I was really impressed! The size alone let's me know that I won't have any problems with mice as long as this one is around.


It's a face that I love and one that will always be welcome in my yard and garage!!!!