D20 Update

Per SOAR: "Update on the 22 June admit, yes, the Decorah juvenile eagle - he and the Boonesfork juvenile (admit date of 1 July) are still in the small ICU room. The Decorah juvenile's wing is still stiff, but the joints all work and function. He will be receiving physical therapy and having that wing gently worked through the range of motion to decrease stiffness. (Raise your hand if you've ever had a physical or occupational therapist help you recover from an accident or surgery!) The good news on the maggot front is that the wound from the maggots at the base of his tail near his oil gland (used for preening) has healed nicely and those fuzzy feathers close to the body are growing. Nope, no change on the tail feather front.

D20 Update

The bandage on the Decorah juvenile eagle's right wing (admit date 22 June) will be coming off today. He will remain in the ICU room for at least one week. He will be able to stretch out, exercise his wings, but he won't want to attempt actual flight in this smaller room. This is step one in his "strength training" program. Yes, the Boonesfork juvenile eagle (admit date 1 July) will still be in the same room. These two "siblings" are good for each other's appetite -- eating the chicken or fish, not each other!

Happy Birthday Hermione Grace

My oldest turns 14 today.

D20 Update

SOAR - Saving Our Avian Resources
~The tale of tail feathers - Decorah juvenile admitted 22 June~
I'll do my best to explain what might or might not happen with the Decorah juvenile eagle's tail feathers. Kay reports that no tail feathers are growing back yet. He had some nasty damage from those maggots that has to heal.
...

Dr. Dirks did give the tail feathers a good look and said that the remaining shafts are in too bad of shape to hold replacement feathers. The process of replacing feathers is called 'imping' and is where the bird has good feather shaft firmly in place and a replacement feather from the same species of bird and same type of feather is carefully aligned and glued in place. So... eagle tail feather to imp into an eagle tail... Without a good shaft remaining... this just wouldn't be an option.
The juvenile eagle may well preen out those old shafts himself which would start the new feather process. The other possibility is that he may have to molt out the old shafts and then grow new feathers. Unfortunately, this is a wait and see what happens process. Time.

Two Americas

A friend of mine sent me this and said she was not sure Lou Holtz really said it but it is true no matter who said it:

Two Americas - Lou Holtz: (Leo "Lou" Holtz (born January 6, 1937) is a retired American football coach, and active sportscaster, author, and motivational speaker.)

 

The Democrats are right, there are two Americas. The America that works, and the America that doesn’t. The Americathat contributes, and theAmerica that doesn’t. It’s not the haves and the have not's, it’s the dos and the don'ts. Some people do their duty as Americans, obey the law, support themselves, contribute to society, and others don't.  That’s the divide in America.  It’s not about income inequality, it’s about civic irresponsibility. It’s about a political party that preaches hatred, greed and victimization in order to win elective office. It’s about a political party that loves power more than it loves its country.  That’s not invective, that’s truth, and it’s about time someone said it.
  
The politics of envy was on proud display a couple weeks ago when President Obama pledged the rest of his term to fighting “income inequality.”  He noted that some people make more than other people, that some people have higher incomes than others, and he says that’s not just.  That is the rationale of thievery. The other guy has it, you want it, Obama will take it for you. Vote Democrat. That is the philosophy that produced Detroit.  It is the electoral philosophy that is destroyingAmerica.  It conceals a fundamental deviation from American values and common sense because it ends up not benefiting the people who support it, but a betrayal. 
  
The Democrats have not empowered their followers, they have enslaved them in a culture of dependence and entitlement, of victim-hood and anger instead of ability and hope. The president’s premise –that you reduce income inequality by debasing the successful –seeks to deny the successful the consequences of their choices and spare the unsuccessful the consequences of their choices.  Because, by and large, income variations in society is a result of different choices leading to different consequences. Those who choose wisely and responsibly have a far greater likelihood of success, while those who choose foolishly and irresponsibly have a far greater likelihood of failure.  Success and failure usually manifest themselves in personal and family income.  You choose to drop out of high school or to skip college – and you are apt to have a different outcome than someone who gets a diploma and pushes on with purposeful education. You have your children out of wedlock and life is apt to take one course; you have them within a marriage and life is apt to take another course. Most often in life our destination is determined by the course we take. 
  
My doctor, for example, makes far more than I do. There is significant income inequality between us. Our lives have had an inequality of outcome, but, our lives also have had an inequality of effort.  While my doctor went to college and then devoted his young adulthood to medical school and residency, I got a job in a restaurant.  He made a choice, I made a choice, and our choices led us to different outcomes.  His outcome pays a lot better than mine. Does that mean he cheated and Barack Obama needs to take away his wealth?  No, it means we are both free men in a free society where free choices lead to different outcomes.   It is not inequality Barack Obama intends to take away, it is freedom. The freedom to succeed, and the freedom to fail. There is no true option for success if there is no true option for failure.
  
The pursuit of happiness means a whole lot less when you face the punitive hand of government if your pursuit brings you more happiness than the other guy.   Even if the other guy sat on his arse and did nothing.  Even if the other guy made a lifetime’s worth of asinine and short sighted decisions.
  
Barack Obama and the Democrats preach equality of outcome as a right, while completely ignoring inequality of effort. The simple Law of the Harvest – as ye sow, so shall ye reap – is sometimes applied as, “The harder you work, the more you get."  Obama would turn that upside down. Those who achieve are to be punished as enemies of society and those who fail are to be rewarded as wards of society. Entitlement will replace effort as the key to upward mobility in American society if Barack Obama gets his way.
  
He seeks a lowest common denominator society in which the government besieges the successful and productive to foster equality through mediocrity. He and his party speak of twoAmericas, and their grip on power is based on using the votes of one to sap the productivity of the other.  America is not divided by the differences in our outcomes, it is divided by the differences in our efforts.
  
It is a false philosophy to say one man’s success comes about unavoidably as the result of another man’s victimization. What Obama offered was not a solution, but a separatism. He fomented division and strife, pitted one set of Americans against another for his own political benefit.  That’s what socialists offer.  Marxist class warfare wrapped up with a bow. Two Americas, coming closer each day to proving the truth toLincoln’s maxim that a house divided against itself cannot stand.   "Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it." 
  
   Lou Holtz

Lizards and Bunnies and Cats

Not sure why the squirrel was heading down the tree and where he was going.

Little Bit:  my feral tom, he is 13.

Socks for my niece.

My sweet potato and mint.

My daylilies, they were huge this year.

More socks for my niece.

My aunt's birthday present, I know it is tomorrow but she will get the box soon.

Orange cotton puffs after the storm.

Little Bit and Smudgey, my feral cats.

The clover is plentiful this year, the bunny is surveying the crop.

A new dishcloth pattern:  sink mates found on  Ravely.  The pattern is $2 and the money goes to the Special Olympics. 

He was here last week and is back this evening, isn't he gorgeous.

My poor little rose bush is blooming with not much left.

the baby lizard

Electrocutions

http://www.aplic.org/Electrocutions.php

http://raptorresource.blogspot.com/2014/07/ewots-electrocution.html

Bear with me as I work through the death of D18.  There are many factors that don't allow animals to make it past their first year.  Eagles suffer from lead poisoning by eating meat killed with lead bullets (please don't use lead bullets).  They also suffer from landing on power poles and electrocuting themselves.  We need to see if we can get the power companies to do as much as possible to prevent this from happening. 

I know nature does it's thing and as humans we can't make nature a human "thing."  But there are things we can do to prevent our animals from meeting their maker before their time.

Meanwhile D19 continues to learn how to hunt and soar high in the sky.  D20 continues to improve while in rehab at SOAR.  If you feel like you have some extra money; RRP and SOAR are both dependent on donations and they sure appreciate it.  For all they do they deserve those extra pennies we might have.

D18 Wearing his BLing

I found this picture on facebook from Jody Naimo.  RIP little one and know how much we miss you.  Tell D12 and D14 we said Hi.

RIP D18

This was not an easy year on the Decorah Eagle nest.  There was much speculation due to the harsh and bitter cold winter if the eggs would hatch.  Well they did and the eagles grew daily giving us much to enjoy and learn to love this hatch as we have every other year.  D18 fledged first and was not seen for days, too much rain and other weather.  Finally  he was spotted.  He loved the mulch pile not too far from the nest.  Bob Anderson placed a transmitter on him just the other day to match D19 to see how siblings act once they finally leave the nest area.  This morning they found him electrocuted.  This year the eaglets went through so much and we finally thought all was well.  I can't imagine what Bob Anderson feels cos I know I am sad and crying.  We lost 2 in 2012 due to electrocution.  Nature just sucks.

Soar high D18, look up D12 and D14 and share your stories about mom and dad and your other siblings.  You gave us so much joy and some great information into the life of eagles.  We will miss you.

Lady Liberty

This was forwarded in email to me by a friend, I think it says it all.



Dear Editor:

So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statue of Liberty because the people now in question aren't being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other
ports of entry. 

Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like
Mr. Lujan why today's American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer.
Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States, people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground.  They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times.  They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home.

They had waved good-bye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture.  Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no  labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and  craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity.
 
Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My father fought alongside men whose parents had come straight over from Germany, Italy, France, and Japan. None of these 1st generation Americans ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan. They were defending the
United States of  America as one people.

When we liberated France, no one in those villages were looking for the French-American or the
German-American or the Irish-American. The people of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.
 
And here we are with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges. Only
they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules, one that includes the entitlement card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I'm sorry, that's not what being an
American is all about.
 
I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900's deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life. I think they would be appalled that they are being
used as an example by those waving foreign country flags.

And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty, it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill.  I wouldn't start talking about dismantling the United States just yet.

(signed)

Rosemary LaBonte

War on Women

http://krisannehall.com/war-on-women-acting-like-children/ This sums how I feel about the manufactured war on women. The Hobby Lobby case does not take away any of your so called rights. The real war on women is across the pond where women are stoned, murdered for doing what we think nothing about doing. This is the reason women aren't going anywhere, you want to be a man but you want the government to take care of you. You can't have it both ways. Your constant whining is making my head spin and I just want to slap you into reality. If you can't talk about the real problems in this country then just SHUT UP!