A Tree Planted in Honor of my Twitter Friends

To all my Twitter friends who care about the Earth, animals, people...regardless of which holiday you celebrate...a tree will be planted in your honor.

With love and respect, ~Kasey

They're Back!! Happy, Happy, Happy!!

Pair of Blue Jays by *kbcollins on deviantART

It's near the end of the year...I start thinking...

I am no activist. I am no one.

Growing up, we travelled, several times a year. I am so fortunate to have had to opportunity to visit so many of the National Parks and historical places. At 17, I became a foreign exchange student, to Australia. I spent a year in the public school system and helping to raise animals on my host family's farmette. Like my own parents, my host family also took me travelling. After coming home to graduate from high school, I went back to Queensland, for another year...most of which was spent on horseback with my best friend and her parents. What I learned from my childhood, was that I loved nature...all nature. I loved the sameness and the differences.

When I came back home I intended to go to college. But, my mother, a talented surgical nurse, couldn't agree with me on a career that she would be willing to pay the fee for. I didn't want to be a nurse. I wanted to study nature. She felt it wasn't a financially sound choice. So....I went to work. First, at a donut shop, then a baker at a restaurant, a waitress, a line cook...who cares. I got married, but my husband didn't work very often. Finally, though, I was making enough money that with a small student loan, I could afford to go to school at night, while working full time during the day. I chose to take Madison Area Tech's Recreational Resource Management program. Near the end of my second semester, I got pregnant. Sara was born in August, so I was still able to continue into the next semester. But, she died, a few months later...and I dropped out. I found out later, that my loan had immediately come due, when I dropped out...and then, the last straw...MATC dropped the Recreational Resource Management program...there was no reason for me to go back, anyway.

I took off for NYC...lived there for several years, doing nothing useful with my life. I spent every free moment at the Natural History Museum in Central Park...must have bought every book in their gift shop. Then at last I came back to Wisconsin. Here I am, at 40 years old...no one...uneducated...unsure what, if anything, I can do about it.

I am no activist.

Pair of Baltimore Oriole

These are from last summer and I'm just getting around to posting them!


Mr Oriole looks pretty proud of himself, at the feeder. But his lady...seems a little confused.






She eventually did figure it out...!

My Dogs...

This is Phoebe, my adopted dog. She and her sister Thea were found, as puppies, abandonded at a high school basketball game. Thea died shortly after being rescued and Phoebe came to me as a foster. She was adopted, but the family sent her back, saying she was "untrainable." In other words, she was smarter than they were. I fostered her again for about a week, before I adopted her, for good. She is so sweet and loving...just the best dog...




Here is the dog I'm sponsoring from Soi Dog Foundation (http://www.soidog.org @soidogphuket on Twitter). His name is Sure. Isn't he a beautiful boy? You should sponsor one!

Practice Has Not Made Perfect, When Photographing this Chickadee

These are my rejected photos, from this morning. This chickadee is too fast!

My nephew Joe has been living with me for 11 weeks, now...

Here's the original post, from my LiveJournal account:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"There is going to be a huge change in my life, as of today.....

My niece died suddenly a couple of years ago, leaving her two sons to live with my brother. But, one of the boys, Joe, hasn't been doing very well. He doesn't get the attention that he needs. He's only 10 years old but is now close to 50 pounds over weight. My brother just doesn't have the time or patience to help him learn better eating and exercise habits and he has asked to come and live with me. I agreed. It's going to be a challenge, there's no doubt about that. But, I'm hopeful that I can make a positive difference in this boy's life. Tomorrow, we go to register him for school. One thing that he does have going for him is that he has above average intelligence and last year, even with his unhappy home situation, was on the honor roll at school. I want to help him keep that up, make friends and of course, be healthy.

Wish us luck."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friday, he had his first doctor's appointment, since he's been here. He's already lost 8 pounds and I could see the excitement and pride in his face, when he realized it. On the way home, we stopped and splurged on a Wii with the Sports package, and he's been playing hard at it. I think the rest of the weight is going to fall right off, now!

There's only 1 more week of school before the end of 1st Quarter and Joe has all A's with a B in Gym and Music. Though I was hoping he would take after me and play an instrument, I'm so happy with the grades...how could I not be?

On top of all of that, he's out-selling me, using my Amazon sellers account! Reselling his games and movies and reusing packaging. Nothing's getting wasted!

I'm kind of excited about the holiday season, probably for the second time, in my adult life. My own sweet baby girl only had one Christmas... I expect this one to be special.

Why I Volunteer

I volunteer a few hours at the Wheelchair Recycling center, every month. While there, I think about my father, whose memory inspired me to choose that particular volunteer opportunity.

My dad was a paraplegic. But, before you say "Aw, that's sad..." let me tell you that he was the strongest, most "able" man I've ever known. He was successful in business, and an avid sportsman. But, what I loved most about him was his desire to help those less fortunate than himself. I remember one day he received a telephone call from someone searching for a chairlift. People called him often about equipment, as he had a lot of sources. This lift was needed for an elderly woman who had no way to pay for one. We had one on our basement stairs, there in case of tornado...literally the only thing my dad was afraid of. But, the next day, I helped him take it down and drive 100 miles to install it. He wouldn't take any money for it and I don't think I've ever seen such gratitude as I did on that woman's face. I think I was about 11 years old, at the time. That was just one of so many acts of kindness I grew up witnessing.

This is where I learned compassion and the true spirit of giving...and this is what I want to pass on to as many people as possible.

It was the first day it didn't rain, in four days. I was beginning to worry that I wouldn't be able to get out, before the leaves were off the trees. But, Joe and I went out for a long walk and I didn't want to come back in! I love Autumn. If I could follow it from place to place, I probably would...

I saw this lovely Nuthatch, playing around the bottom of a tree.

Here is one view, along the road...

...and this sweet mare acted like she hadn't had visitors in days, she was so happy to see us...prancing up and down along the fence line.


It was so great to be out, finally. I hope there are a few more days like this, before it gets cold. A neighbor told me where to go to photograph wild turkeys and I want a chance to get there!

About Children...

*This entry was actually written on May. 20th, 2009. I'm posting it here, so you can learn a little more about me.

I guess I have to give a little background information, before I can really tell this story. So, here goes...

My only child died in infancy. As happens to a lot of people living with that grief, my marriage soon after fell apart. I dropped out of college....and things just went down hill from there. After hitting total rock bottom, I found this house. It's 150 years old on 3 acres of land, in an unincorporated farming community.

The properties directly attached to mine are all between 1 and 3 acres. I supposed they were once a farm, that's now broken up. But, everyone makes use of what they have. There are roaming chickens (who, by the way, like to lay eggs in my driveway...) and people are often giving away vegetables from their gardens. Most everyone here is willing to lend a hand where needed.

There is one family with two school aged children. Their property touches mine just on one corner and I tend to stay clear of it. They like their lawn to be perfectly manicured and they have it sprayed for weeds. I'm sure they don't like my tendency to plant things randomly and to leave parts of my property growing wild...but, this is why I chose to live in the country. So, I could live a more natural life. I'm not sure why they chose to live out here.

Not long ago, my niece and her children lived with me. They didn't stay long, but while they were here, I had bought a trampoline and a basketball hoop and some other outdoor toys for the boys. They are still here and mainly unused. Though, I will admit to using the trampoline, at times. Who can resist bouncing?

Wow...this is a lot longer than I intended...oh well...I'll keep going.

Ok, now to the actual story. Yesterday, the two children from next door stopped by, while I was outside working. They asked me if it would be alright for them to use the trampoline, some time. I told them that it was, if I was outside to keep an eye on them and if they had permission from their parents. I have large trees surrounding my house, so unless someone actually walks up the drive, they don't get a good look around. So, they started looking around. At the time, I was working on a recycling station project for the shed. I'm making it out of...garbage. I make a lot of things out of garbage. The girl (Haley) asked me what I was doing. When I told her, she thought for a minute and then asked me why I didn't just buy one. My answer was, "why buy one, when I have all this perfectly good material right here and it's free?" She then asked me if I was poor. I told her that I wasn't.

I actually have two jobs. I'm an antique appraiser for an auction house, which only takes me away from home, four days a month...and on holidays I am the baker for a catering service. I am also a certified braille transcriber and copy childrens books into braille, using slate and stylus. Then, I have my newer hobbies of nature photography and garbage art...which I hope will turn into more than hobbies in time. Oh, and if I can get all that together, I want to learn piano tuning. My piano tuner died and there is no one who can take over his business. My piano NEEDS tuning, pretty badly.

Anyway, I walked around with the two of them for awhile. I showed them all the birds' nests in the trees...a robin, grackle, mourning dove and oriole all have nests that I know of. There are probably more. I showed them the hidden area where I put out food and fresh clean water for all the wandering farm cats, near an old shed where they can go to get out of the weather. I showed them the new little trees I planted for Arbor Day. The brother (Ryan) finally spoke up and said that they had been given trees for Arbor Day, at school, but their mother said there was no place to put them. They didn't "fit in." I said that they could plant them here, if they still had them. They're going to bring them over, this afternoon and we're going to randomly plant them....

Forgotten Land...

There is this odd area of land at the corner of my property. It's also at the corner of two other properties...and no one know exactly who it belongs to. It's become overgrown and full of skeletons of lawn mowers, weedeaters, wheelbarrows... The other day, we were all outdoors working at the same time and I decided to ask the question nobody had dared to ask: Who owns this space and what should we do with it? None of us know who legally owns it and we don't really want to find out. It's one of us...or all of us...but it doesn't matter. We're going to clear it, recycle all the metal and anything else we find there and plant fruit trees and berry bushes to share with each other and the rest of our neighbors.

I listened to two stories today that made me cry. This is one of them:

Helen is a sweet, 82 year old woman who leaves plant cuttings, tomatoes and baking pumpkins at the end of her drive, with a "FREE! Take What you need" sign. I went down to check on her today, as there was a heat advisory and I knew she was alone. She was out pulling weeds in her garden when I arrived and I asked if I could help. After working for a half hour or so, she stood up and looked around at the slightly overgrown lawn and said to me, "Maybe my daughter's right."

I asked what she thought her daughter was right about and she began telling me how her loving children had been trying to put her in a nursing home since their father died 3 years earlier. "They don't think I can take care of myself and they don't want to be bothered coming out here," she told me. "But, I don't want to go to one of those homes. I've heard stories."

I've heard them too...the stories about the uncaring and sometimes cruel treatment of the elderly in nursing homes and even in their own homes. I don't blame her for not wanting to go. Besides the fact that she is quite able to care for herself, with just a little support. After we finished with the weeds, I helped her bring in her laundry from the clothesline and we talked a while longer. She is an intelligent and light-hearted woman, with interesting stories and observations. Her children could learn a lot from her, if they would only stop to listen.

Why don't we want to care for our elderly? At what age does a person suddenly become an inconvenience? I don't understand.

I gave Helen my cell phone number and email address and told her to have her daughter contact me if she didn't have time to check on her mother and I would be happy to do it. She deserves someone who cares about and values her.