heed the sign

For some reason, this sign spoke to me................

Can you believe, that I didn't even get into Ward D last night? I was in Ward C that was divided into 2 areas. The back area had 5 ducks and 1 goose. The front area had 2 gulls and 1 green heron (seen above). It was beautiful and adorable. I think Ward C is the room that I need to muster most of my brave energy for. It was the Swan, the Turkey, the Flying ring billed gulls, hissing geese... wow.

After I worked on Ward C a bit, I went to clean and care for 37 turtles, a frog and a toad. Yes there were hissing and jumping snapping turtles there still.

But now, I am a pro at lifting them!

No injuries or attacks this evening. But I still have my bite mark from last weeks attack to remind me of my job.

Happy birthday to me. It's SUPER cloudy and stormy here right now. Hmmm.

K~

working together

I know it's not so good when Puff and I need to sit down and write all the things we need to be concerned about. I feel very overwhelmed. So I need to get organized!

After I wrote my list I glanced at Puff's just to see what he feels his needs are at the moment, it went as follows:

Not enough super worms

Not enough blanky time

Not enough butt soaking time

This blanket I am on, is NOT my favorite blanket!!

And then it just repeated it's self????

Not enough super worms
Not enough blanky time
Not enough butt soaking time
This blanket I am on, is NOT my favorite blanket!!

Not enough super worms
Not enough blanky time
Not enough butt soaking time
This blanket I am on, is NOT my favorite blanket!!

Not enough super worms
Not enough blanky time
Not enough butt soaking time
This blanket I am on, is NOT my favorite blanket!!

That's a bit scary? K

sigh

Thanks for keeping my dad, our family and me in your prayers. It is colon cancer. It has been officially diagnosed. Now the testing begins and the waiting. We have no idea of the prognoses yet or what type of surgery is needed and follow up therapy. It is a bummer that they are so far away, as I know that they/we will need support as my dad works his way through this. I know that I probably be going to Arizona quite soon. In August anyway.

My plate is full, I just need to remember to take it one full day at a time.

K~

Prayers

Grapefruit tree that has been in our family for about 34 years. I pruned it early this summer and WOW. It looks happy and healthy now.

Pray for my dad and for all of us today and tomorrow....please.

He is going in for tests on colon cancer that was found a week ago.

I seem to have so much on my plate these days, as far as concerns go, that I find it hard to keep it all from spilling over sometimes.

But, that is what towels and washing machines are for, right!

Thanks much for your prayers. K~

Bingy "helping" again

I was taking this photo for my strip afghan for Ravelry. And of course, look who felt he needed to be a part of the photo shoot. Little Bingy. He is in all my photo sessions. If you see a weird shadow on a picture, that's probably Bing's nose. K~

Biting the hand that feeds??

I tell ya! I started out in the mammal - turtle room. Another volunteer and I tag teamed the 38 turtles we have at the center now. 7 or so were snapping turtles. And They wanted a piece of us! I don't know if this is a fact, but they like to not only throw their heads back and snap, but jump up too. I have all of my fingers and my nose this morning, but last night, I was unsure I was coming home with any!

Then into Ward D! The lady mallards were wanting to take it out on someone, so I guess it was me. One bit both of my hands over and over again. She would snap at them and peck at them. Another one, just got a hold of the top of my hand and clamped down on the skin. She twisted in a circle and left a round mark on the top of my hand. Ouch.

Otherwise, more of the same. Woodpeckers snapping. Squirrels chattering. Me humming another tune. K~

Spiders and Spain

A summer season of baseball and soccer has ended.

D at bat.
D in the field.
The Spiders.
S working hard at soccer.
S talking to the coach. Team Spain.

The summer was busy with both playing games on Tuesday and both having practices on Thursday. But, they really liked it. I am glad we have HGRA. K~

training for the BWCA

Here is Bing in his new life vest.
Here he is exercising and practicing his swimming.
Notice the handles on the top to lift him out of the water from a boat.
enough. all done. he kind of looks like a seal. K~

Rainbow Unicorn

Every week I have a song that gets stuck in my head. I obsessively sing or hum it when I am at work. I know that some day, some where, someone will over hear a bird at their feeder and wonder if they just heard this song of a number of others. I really like the first line in this song. It makes me laugh. This song is from the Mighty Bee. K~

I'm a pretty pretty princess.
It's a full time gig.
Everybody wants to be my friend
and it kind of makes me sick.
When I'm not in my canopy bed
I'm filling my diary with stickers.
My mom screams "Get down here Porsha"
and I just say "Whatever."
'Cause I'm running with the rainbow unicorn.
Don't you wish you were me?
Running with the rainbow unicorn
and I want everyone to see.
I'm running with the rainbow unicorn.
Don't you wish you were me?
Running with the rainbow unicorn
and I want everyone to see.
Hey, look at meeeeeeeeeeeee!

Golfing with Childress

Rick (far left) was able to have a day of golfing, lunch and beers with Minnesota Vikings head coach Brad Childress ( in Vikings hat) yesterday.

His brother (right of Brad) won the event at a church silent auction. He took the guy who set it up with Brad and Interlachen Country Club in Edina (far right). This is the same place the U.S. Women's Open Championship played at the end of last month.

He has been a giddy as a school girl all week. I am so happy for him. He deserved a wonderful day out on the links.

The club house.

Rick and his brother had lockers with "Mr. Walsh" on the it.

Just a quick lunch before golfing.

The links.

I am so happy for him! YEAH!

K~

all rabied up and ready to serve

Well, I finally got my rabies titer from the Mayo clinic yesterday. I am filled with the rabies vaccine. - is this why i am so crabby?-

So I got to care for a fellow like this one. This is a baby woodchuck. Too cute.

And a little fellow like this. He decided to chew a hole in his kennel and fall from the top shelf. I found him on the floor just sitting there. After a vet check over, and a taped up kennel, I tucked him in with some fresh hay and food for the night. He was SOOO adorable!But it wasn't going to be only mammals last night. Sadly, for me, Mr. Swany has gone to sew his wild oats in Iowa. In his place is this giant not so friendly looking Large wild turkey. He turned out to be pretty sweet. I have to admit, stepping into a 8x8 room and having the door closing behind you with one of these is a bit intimidating.
A young Canadian Goose was the heart warming dude of the evening. When I came into Ward D, there he was in his kennel. His water bowl with duck weed was spilled all over the floor and he had it tipped on it's side. He had a broken wing, and could not swim (for now) So, we needed to let him out to exercise and walk around. He made a small chirping like noise the entire time and the only place he stood was right in the pathway of the food and kennel area. The other volunteer and I had to spend the next hour going around him, almost bumping into him and having him seem upset at us for getting into "his" way! When we got his kennel all cleaned up and some new food and a large filled water dish with duck weed floating in it, he got to go back in. With in a few minutes, he was standing in his duck weed. By the time we left for the night (10:15), he had spilled it all over and basically had about a 1/2 cup left in his dish. He was so very endearing.

It seems odd that getting bitten by a few woodpeckers is not the highlight of my night anymore. I tell you, those little guys wanted to snip my fingers off, if it was the last thing they did.

After literally sitting in the gulls kennel, with the gull, to wipe the sides down, I realized, that I have finally arrived as a Wildlife Rehab Volunteer.

K~

Done and Done

All done. I started this baby afghan for my sister in laws friend in mid June. It is all done and ready to be delivered. Yeah! It was fun to make and is very heavy and warm. I hope the mom and babe like it.

My flower pillow is all done too. I have had the front and back finished for about a month now. Just dug out the pillow form last night. I think it turned out kind of cute.

Here is our buttons Bob! I just loved working with them! K~

Good to the last drop

I know it may be hard to see from these photos, but this has happened more than once.

As the sunlight fades on the porch, where I have my zoo in the day time, the little people scramble to the last specks of sunlight. I think it is quite sweet. There must me a metaphor here somewhere. I have also noticed that the turtles don't seem to sun all day until there is about 3 inches of light on a rock for all of them to hurriedly cram onto.
Odd.
K~

my bobbles

This is a beautiful bracelet that I got from Flatware - Thanks Kristie. It feel great on an is just so delicate!

This is an all glass pendant. It totally looks like a sea anemone.

This is a woven bracelet that has about 1000 beads on it. It reminds me of a millipede.

This is a glass and silver ring. It is quite sizable. The colors are stunning.

Yeah!

K~

All wrapped up

Well we got that LOVELY weekend wrapped up and it made me very HAPPY!! I had such a good time. I will post my purchases tomorrow some time....Amazing!

Marsha and I had a great time getting home. We enjoyed the weather and chatted and chatted.

We also did some wonderful bird watching too.

We saw:
American White Pelicans - flying in a group and on the water
Blue birds
A male pheasant
A yellow headed black bird
Killdeer
barn swallows
An American goldfinch
cormorant

Now it is bed time for the kids and I think I am going to go too.
K~

Girls weekend

Off to Brooking we go.
We leave at Noon(ish)!! YEAH!
I have had a hard time packing up my crafts and getting ready for 2 -4+ hour drives. If it weren't for that, I would probably have one small bag.
OH... I better pack some clothes and stuff too.
K~

Please just stay where you are supposed to!

Last night was another night of escaping!! 2 woodpeckers, one downy woodpecker in the flight room. This one got out of the door (of the pen) immediately. There was about 20 birds in there and it was hard to wave them all off. SO.... I spent a number of minutes trying to catch that little bugger with a net! Then the old pileated woodpecker got out on me again! Sheesh! I swear it was just waiting for me planning his escape. I had to catch him with a net as well, however, he can't fly due to a broken wing. Then he got all caught up in the net, beak, feet, claws, feathers.....Man. I had to gently and VERY carefully loosen him. It was also the night of the naughty, unruly ducks. It was funny at one point a female rouen who would not return to her quarters, was standing outside chatting with and male rouen. I imagined them making plans on meeting up after they get out!

I have also decided to dub Ward D as the new Bermuda Triangle. Once you go in there, no matter the time, you are in that room FOOORRREEEVVER. It is odd. It is like one automatically goes in slow motion. Or it could be that we have about 40 birds to individually feed and clean.

Mr. swany is still there, hissing away at me. Last night you could see was trying to hold his ground towards me. At a few points he just started walking towards me until I stood straight up. Then, he just pretended that he forgot something and went the other way.

K~

painted turtle square

Finally finished my painted turtle square. The outside edge (black and yellow) represent the head, legs and tail. The rest of the square is the painted turtle shell. The colors were hard to chose. The top of the shell is not as colorful as the bottom. K~

strep for everyone!

D - strep...yes

C - strep...yes

S - strep...yes

Kirsten - strep (pending, I'm on meds and feel like crap)

Rick - no strep, but eats from every one's dish before serving....ever heard of typhoid Mary.....how about strep Ricky??
K~

What you won't find when you clean

I was cleaning out my nest...again, and I came across some finished items. This one in particular was a fun one to find. I made it, and like usual, I put it in my done pile (which is quite large). It is made from that stuff that comes on large spools, what is that called anyway? It's like 1 ply DMC floss?? I used #10 seed beads for the bead section (I think :-)). I really like the way this feels and it is a nice size 3- 3/4 inches high. I wish I had a venue to sell some of my items. I just make them and set them aside.

But, I really only make them because I love to.

K~