Something Fowl for Thanksgiving - Carolina Waterfowl Rescue

I stopped by a local shop called Backyard Birds a few days ago. When I got there, Carolina Waterfowl Rescue was there with chickens. I grew up on a farm, and we had chickens, but I’d not held one in years!! Living in the middle of Charlotte, NC means I am not around livestock much anymore.

The volunteers were walking around cleaning up the residual effects of having chickens in a public place. I chatted with them (the Waterfowl volunteers, not the chickens) for a few moments and found out that a percentage of the sales in the store that day would be donated to Carolina Waterfowl Rescue. They are an animal rescue and, even though their name does not mention it, they have rescued more than just waterfowl. It is my understanding they have an interspecies love affair between an emu and a donkey happening on their grounds right now. (I suppose anything is possible and who are we to judge?)

I am glad there are those who take care of the animals of the world and have compassion for them. I wish I had the ability of Dr. Doolittle and were able to talk to the animals and have them talk back to me. The stories they could be telling, I believe, I would find interesting.

As we are celebrating Thanksgiving, let us be thankful for those who take the time to care for the world around us. No one can do everything, but we can all do a little bit to make the world a kinder place.

Have a wonderful holiday!!

For more information on Carolina Waterfowl Rescue click here!

Family Celebration Time

This has been a crazy, crazy year! Family members have been in very serious, life-threatening situations. There has been chemo, surgeries, loss of jobs, medical emergencies, car accident, emergency birth…I won’t keep on going with that, although I could.

There have been challenges, but there have also been victories. I am hanging on to that.

In a couple of days, my family will gather together for our annual Turkey Treat Holiday. We will eat too much, laugh a lot, tell stories, play games, enjoy a craft festival and celebrate the fact that we are all able to gather together once again. It is gonna be a great time!

And then the day after the gathering is over; I will come back to face another challenge. That means there will be another story to tell and another victory to celebrate!!

Hang tough everybody!!

No White Shoes after Labor Day

When I was a little girl I had two pairs of “church shoes”. They were both patent leather; one pair was white and one pair was black. The rule was you wore white shoes from Easter to Labor Day, and after Labor Day until Easter you wore black. It is funny how I relive that memory every Labor Day. Year after year on Labor Day I announce, “Put your white shoes away”, to no one in particular.

As time goes on so do fashion trends and the rules of many years ago. I now have several pairs of shoes that I can wear to church. They are in lots of different colors and certainly not patent leather. I wonder, what stories would you be able to tell about the rules in your house when you were little? Do you still hold true to those rules or are they just a memory?

Happy Freedom

Last week was July 4th, the day we celebrate freedom. I enjoy history; mostly I enjoy the trivia that is in history. The little tidbits make it real to me. So I thought I would share a couple of historical tidbits with you. 

• You probably do not know the name Richard Henry Lee, but he is important to American History. He is the guy who made the motion for the colonies to declare independence from Great Britain. That was on July 2, 1776. It was on July 4, 1776 that the Declaration of Independence was formally accepted.
• The Revolutionary War did not end on July 4th, 1776.  It started on April 19, 1775 and ended on September 3, 1785. The war lasted for 20 years. Declaration is just the beginning. If you really mean it, you have to take a stand for it. 

So  there you have it, a couple of thoughts concerning the War of Independence. Oh and here is one more interesting tidbit.

• John Adams felt that acknowledging the Declaration should happen on July 2nd, so when he was invited to attend a July 4th engagement, he declined.

Now you have it, a little bit of our nation’s story. Happy freedom to you!!

Groundhog Day

Last week Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow.* 

I've never met Phil, but I've seen lots of his kin in my lifetime. A groundhog is a woodchuck, a rodent, a ground squirrel. I grew up on a farm in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York and there were woodchuck holes all over the fields. The critters liver underground, where they dig long tunnels with several openings on the surface. When I was a young girl, I my father stopping me from galloping a horse through the field. He took me out to that field, showed me a groundhog hole and said, “If that horse steps in one of these holes while running, it's gonna break its leg and we’ll have to put ‘em down.” I never ran a horse through the field again.

In Germany, hedgehogs were the animal of choice to predict the coming of spring. But when German immigrants came to America, there were no hedgehogs to be found — so they called upon the woodchuck to predict the weather. It works like this: if the groundhog sees its shadow, it will be scared of the shadow and run back down the hole to sleep for another 6 weeks. But if the groundhog does not see its shadow, it means spring is close at hand. Now, mind you, groundhogs are only 40% successful at actually predicting the coming of spring, but still the ritual happens every year. Oh well, what can you expect from a humble rodent that never went to college.

*If you aren't happy with Phil's prediction, here are 8 other groundhogs that predicted spring last week.