Our Newest Addition

Nope - we're not making the house bigger. Even though we need too. LOL Our newest addition just happens to be another critter. A baby squirrel! He's about 4 weeks old, maybe closer to 5 weeks old. He is the cutest little thing too. Just look at him!

I had planned on Sleeping In when this little guy was introduced to me. He is between 4 and 5 weeks old, and his eyes haven't opened yet.

His favorite place to be is in a shirt pocket. This picture reminds me of a tree frog. You can see that he is pretty strong by the way he is holding on to my shirt.

PetSmart has the bottle, syringes, nipples and formula to feed him. It's not very expensive either. I spent less than $20 on the things I needed for the baby squirrel, 5 Comet Goldfish and a live plant for our aquarium. Not bad.

Freedom! That's what we call this little guy. Why Freedom? Because that is what he will have once he gets old enough and mature enough to be set free. Just like we did with the Baby Blue Jay. We don't try to save these critters so that we can keep them. We want them to survive so that we can enjoy them in their natural environment. The experience of raising the Blue Jay is one that the boys will never forget. There are many times that we see a Blue Jay feather and it reminds us of the one that we saved and returned to Mother Nature. It just makes for wonderful memories.

Is This Where I Live

Is this where I live? I had to ask myself that question today between 4pm and 5pm. The house was so incredibly quiet that I thought that I may have come home to the wrong house. Have you ever felt that way? I think this is a first time for me.

After our wonderful Home School meeting today, we all cleaned the car out and once we got inside, we put everything away. How cool is that?! Once that was done, I sat down to read a few emails and I started supper too. The phone rings and someone knocks on the door. Yes - all at the same time. That said to me - Welcome Home! It took me less than 5 minutes to answer the phone and the door - all at the same time. The knock on the door was one of the boys friends wanting to know if they could go over and swim. OH YES! Of course they can. The phone call was Superman saying that he had one more delivery and he was less than 2 miles from the house and he wanted MJ to ride with him. What a joy that was for MJ.

Now no one is home but me. Ok - me and 3 cats, 3 dogs and 3 horses. And the critters are so quiet. It was all I could do to keep from sneaking into my dark and cold bedroom for a quick nap. I resisted! I finished supper, WW and JD came home and started studying for their Science test. Superman and MJ were walking in the door about the time all of that was happening and the quietness was over. What a pleasant and relaxing hour that was. And I add - very much needed.

Today on the way to our Home School group meeting I was busy thinking of ways to make the ride a learning thing for the boys. So I started asking what the road sign that we just past had said. The boys had no clue. Then I started giving points and they were interested really quick. Talk about competition! Then I had to get more creative. Now was this a learning trip for me or was it for the boys? Ok - both! Now I try to make it real interesting. We start looking for road signs with US Highways on them. Oh yeah! US 27 and US 41 and on and on... They loved it. JD saw a solar panel and ask me what was it and then he ask what was it for. Without me really researching that particular solar panel, I couldn't give him a 100% answer. My answer was that it could be used to power the lights for the train engineer. Then they all ask about lights for the train engineer. Which lead to the question of what is in the cars on the train.

There was coal in the cars on the train. We talked about how coal is used to make power for us to use everyday. I am always telling the boys to please don't use the lights in the house during the day. Please open your curtains or your blinds for natural light. They just could grasp the concept of why I don't want the lights on during the day. Well today was an eye opening experience for them. The conversation about the coal lead to the miners that were trapped in the coal mine. I had to explain what miners are and what they do. Our boys had no idea that there were men and women that actually worked underground so that when we turn on the light switch we can have power and make the light work. WW said to me "Mom, why didn't you tell us about the miners? Now I understand and I will try harder to help the miners." What a wonderful think for WW to say.

Explain things to your children. Don't just assume that they will understand. Everything that you tell your children is not because you say so.

The Story of Rocco

About a month ago we had to have our big German Shepard put down. We hated it so bad and we still miss him a lot. So I have been thinking the last couple of days about getting another outside dog. I was thinking on the lines of getting one from an animal shelter that would otherwise be euthanized. I had even began to look online at some of the shelters in our area. I must have been sending some really heavy thoughts because Superman said night before last that he missed having an outside dog. ESP? I don't know - maybe we just know each other. And get this, I had even called and ask about a dog but she had already been adopted - that's when the shelter told me about Rocco. Last night we talked about it and I showed him a picture of Rocco. I told him the adoption fee was $30 and he told me just to go over and get him. I did! Me and the boys picked Rocco up today at about 11am. The boys fell in love with him when they first saw him and were ready to load him in the car right then.

The paperwork was completed and Rocco loaded right up in the car, laid down and every once in a while I could see his face in my rear view mirror and I swear he was smiling. Once we got home the boys opened the back of the car (actually an SUV) and out jumped Rocco and off they all ran to play. Now Rocco isn't too fond of the horses. But having herd dog in him - well, he's supposed to herd. I'm sure with a few little lessons about getting along with others that Rocco will work out just fine. He gets along wonderful with our little dogs.

Rocco was found at the animal shelter by a lady that loved dogs. She adopted him and took him home to play with her Peekapoo. They played together and had a great time. The lady and her husband started the process of a divorce and he would not let her have the 2 dogs when she moved. One day she went to the house where they lived and she took Rocco and the Peekapoo. Why? Because they were chained, thirsty and starving. She knew that she could not care for the dogs so she took them to the shelter in hopes that someone would adopt them. The Peekapoo was adopted within a few days but Rocco's time was running out. His status was urgent! He was to be euthanized this morning. Not any more - not him!

I can't save them all but I can do my fair share. Do your share and help an animal in a shelter. Make a donation, adopt a cat, dog, ferret, rabbit or whatever there is to adopt. But once you adopt them, take care of them.

Bloggers Against Abuse

On September 27th, join thousands of bloggers around the world in BlogCatalog’s Blogging for a Great Cause Challenge.
This Month’s Blogging Challenge:
Bloggers Against Abuse September 27th, 2007
The Outcome we are after is to be part of the largest group of bloggers to ever blog about an important cause, all on the same day.
So how do you participate?
On Sept. 27th, blog about putting an end to some sort of Abuse (you decide what kind of abuse to blog about). In the meantime though,
Spread the word among all the bloggers you know. Perhaps even give them a link to this Discussion.
If you are a graphic designer, perhaps you can come up with some small badges announcing the event, that we can then place on our blogs. To share the badge, place it on this thread.
Let other members know of any organizations who are involved in putting an end to abuse.
What do you get?
You will receive a link to your Blog Post from the Blogcatalog blog when we list everyone who participated.
You get to use your blog for an important cause.
You get to create blogging history.

Recent Things I Found Online

I sure know that I can spend hours and hours online. I have got to start limiting the time that I spend in front of the computer and get outside more. It seems like I get a lot done while I am online. Why? Because I have dial up. LOL I click on several links and I wait for them to open. While I am waiting, I have a chance to check a few emails, open a few more links from our local newspaper, take something out for dinner, turn the horses out, put on a load of laundry, hang out a load of laundry, do a few things with the kids, run a few errands and so much more. Once all of that is done, I can finally sit back down to look at the links that I have opened. I save a lot of them to my favorites, so that I can go back and look at them later. Later when I have more time.

Our latest update is that things are going really well with the boys. They have settled in really nicely and our finalization for the adoption is approaching rather quickly. We still don't have a court date but we expect to have one any day now. It will be exciting for all of us. We plan to invite some family and some friends to join us when we go to court to sign all of the final paperwork and the judge can put his/her final approval on our adoption.

Now back to my online adventures. Well I did say ramblings from a country family...LOL
Ok - here are a couple of things that I have come across lately that I think you might like. And hey - if you don't like them, remember you have control, just click on the bright red box in the top right of your screen and close the window.

Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary
If you are interested in posting a flyer in one of your local businesses, you can get the PDF flyer here Flyer
I was amazed at what the Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary is doing for the animals.

I wanted to invite you to join me on Gather. It's FREE. And best of all when you join and get five friends to join, you'll get a $20 Borders Gift Card!

Gather is a social network where people like us can write about and share our interests. The content is great and ranges from politics to cooking, plus you can publish your own articles or photos and comment on others' contributions. We even earn Gather Points just for using the site! You can exchange your points for great stuff like books, CDs, wine, and vacations. Check it out! Hope to see you on Gather.


The Awareness Garden. Honor the women in your life & help grow breast cancer awareness. You can plant an e-flower at The Awareness Garden.

Lowes has a great Money Saving Energy Guide that you can get for free.

Well I guess that is it for now. I am off to bed (finally). I have an early appointment in the morning so I best be getting off line.

Good night everyone - hope to see you around.

The Day Has Come

After finding our little Blue Jay and nuturing him along, the day has come to set him free. Some people have ask if we would be able to set him free and return him to the wild. Our answer...Of course we will. When we rescue any critter from harms way, our long term goal is to return them to the wild. Our short term goal is to nuture them to the strength that they will be able to survive on their own, the way Mother Nature intended.

This picture is just a few days after we found the baby bird. There are just a hint of tail feathers.

This is the day that I opened the bird cage with the intention of releasing him back to Mother Nature. There certainly are a lot more tail feathers now.

Once I took him out of his bird cage, he wanted to fly around the room. It wasn't easy holding onto him to get these pictures. All of us were so happy that the baby Blue Jay had survived and was able to be released.

Little Baby Blue Jay, how beautiful you have become.

These pictures were taken during the time that we had the Blue Jay. He loved to sit on our shoulders while we walked around the house. For about the first week that he rode on someone's shoulder his grip was almost non-existant. After the first week you could really feel the strength in his feet has he gripped our shoulder or our finger. We didn't let him ride very much on our shoulders because we have cats and dogs in the house. One little leap could have been fatal.

It was a beautiful day when we released him. We released him at the spot where we found him. I held him on my finger and when he was ready to go, he just took off. He flew into a section of woods that fronts our property. He perched on a tree limb and we watched him for about 10 minutes. After all of the kids walked away, I walked over close to the fence and I told the beautiful little bird that if he thought he was not ready that he could come back to me and I would keep him safe. He leaped from branch to branch and seemed very happy. I was sad when I walked away, because I would miss him. I was also happy that I had saved his life and I could return him to the wild where he belongs. Saving and raising the Blue Jay was a very wonderful experience for our family.

9 Firefighters and Their Families

As I opened our local paper today, I held my breath when I saw this article S.C. warehouse fire kills 9 firefighters.

It always saddens me when anyone that helps keep others safe loose their lives. My family will keep the families of these Firefighters in our thoughts and prayers.

Baby Blue Jay Alive and Well

We have had our little Baby Blue Jay for 5 days now. He certainly is growing and doing really well. I was concerned the first day that I found him because I really didn't think that he would

make it. His little feathers are growing so fast it seems that I can almost watch them grow. It won't be long now and off he will be flying.

Here are some pictures that I took of him today. While I wait for the pictures to upload, I just went in to feed him. He was on the bottom of the cage and when I opened the door he jumped up to the opening in door. How awesome! I put him on my shoulder and took him in to my husband. The bird tried to leap/fly onto my husbands desk. He is really making progress!