the waterfalls at Bear's Mill........Greenville, Ohio

BEAR's MILL

gratefulness....

the moon this morning around 5:30 a.m......

taken with NO flash......NO tripod......with my Lumix camera.......nothing fancy but I thought the moon looked incredibly filled with craters....much more so than usual.....and so bumpy! AND the angle almost made the moon appear oval instead of circular. Very odd but very nice. The morning was cool and crisp...with frost on the ground and 2 large bunnies in my front yard.

clouds.....

CLICK TO SEE FULL SIZE

Opie in the plastic file cabinet drawer........

not sure how he managed to squeeze his big body into that little 12 x 12 drawer.......

but he did........he is double jointed I think!

chipmunk and red-winged blackbird through my kitchen window......

these were taken THROUGH my kitchen window at 40X zoom so they are not ideal or very clear......this chipmunk came up and started to shove the bird seed on the ground into his pouches so fast and so much he was like a sweeper. His little pouches were filled and his head looked HUGE by the time he was done. I don't know how he could move let alone lift up his head and keep walking around. He pretty much laid on his belly the way it was with his head to the ground and sucked the seeds up into his pouches like a sweeper!

The red-winged blackbirds make appearances in my backyard every so often. I found that very interesting as you usually only see them out in the country on fences, or at least that was the only place I normally would see them until I started putting seed out in my backyard and they started showing up here too. Only a couple or handful come at a time...sometimes only one as in this shot.

Opie lying on his new camouflage mini cat afghan Grandma C. made for him.........

Not the best pic in the world.....and I think he looks sad.

He is a stinker.....biting me hard again today on my arm above the elbow inner side..for no reason. Through my shirt...made me bleed and a bruise/knot. Not sure what sets him off other than I think he really would rather just be OUTSIDE all the time. Noah wants to keep him in...I am ready to let him OUT.

sigh......

Tom-Kat

none of us looked too thrilled in this shot did we?

this was in my backyard when I was a kid....dad took the shot. I can remember being that age and those times as if they were yesterday though. I am on the end, right side looking at the picture. In fact...there is something black sitting beside me on the bench.....can you guess what it is??????

OLD SCHOOLS THAT HAVE SEEN BEEN DEMOLISHED.......

WHY WOULD ANY CITY DEMOLISH SUCH A BEAUTIFUL OLD SCHOOL IN THE PAST INSTEAD OF TRYING TO MAINTAIN IT AND KEEP IT AS PART OF THEIR HISTORY/HERITAGE? THIS SCHOOL WAS ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS AND I WISH IT WAS STILL THE SAME SCHOOL HERE TODAY....BUT IT IS NOT. IT WAS REPLACED WITH A MORE MODERN SCHOOL BUT THAT WAS A LONG TIME AGO SO EVEN THAT SCHOOL IS NOW OUTDATED, AND OF COURSE IT LOOKS NOTHING LIKE THIS OLD ONE. I LOVE THIS KIND OF ARCHITECTURE AND WHILE THERE ARE STILL MANY PLACES AROUND TOWN SIMILAR TO THESE OLD SCHOOLS TODAY....I WISH THERE WERE MORE. I WOULD LOVE TO LIVE IN ONE WOULDN'T YOU?


HERE IS ANOTHER SCHOOL IN THE SAME COUNTY....ALSO BEAUTIFUL..ALSO NOW GONE. SO SAD TO ME.



THIS ONE REMAINS TODAY BUT HAS BEEN MODERNIZED...ALL THE FANCY ARCHITECTURE IS MISSING...AND THE SCHOOL HAS BEEN ABANDONED. IN FACT..IT WILL BE AUCTIONED OFF SOON. I PRAY THEY ALSO DON'T JUST DEMOLISH IT. I HAVE SEEN THE INSIDE AND IT IS STILL VERY USABLE AS A SCHOOL...OR SOMEONE COULD TURN IT INTO A LARGE HOME I SUPPOSE. I PERSONALLY WISH IT WOULD BE TURNED INTO A SPECIAL SCHOOL FOR SPECIAL NEEDS KIDS.....BUT DOUBTFUL THAT WILL HAPPEN.

Daylight savings begins Sunday.....set those clocks up 1 hour!

Opie checking out the birds outside the window.....

Mr. Hawk was looking right at me!

These shots were taken with my Lumix zoomed 40x but through my kitchen window so they are not super clear. BUT I was so happy I got a pretty good shot of the hawk staring right at me taking his picture! I don't think he got any of my birds this time...he was watching this one squirrel that came up....but he did not attack it.
CLICK TO ENLARGE PHOTOS.....

me and dad.......I was about 1 year old........

about 1 year old....with my mom and older brother and sister....


and another year later....I was 3...my brother 4...my sister 5

(yeah..mom and dad kept pretty busy)


and along came sister #2....

oh...let's not forget the surprise baby.......my youngest sister.....

wow...we moved into the Wonderful World of Color!

Swan....

this little guy is the only swan at our local park. I am not sure why they don't give him a mate....or companion...or some of his own kind to keep him company. Maybe swans do better alone? I will have to do some researching on this I guess. I do know they usually mate for life....so maybe he originally had a mate but it was killed. AND this may be a female...I am not sure. I have never seen 2 swans at this park though...always only this one.

I have NEVER seen him get out of the water or eat anything other than what he finds in the water till the other day when we stopped at the park. He not only got out of the water but came over to see if we had anything to give him. The only thing I had to give him was a potato wedge from my son's chicken dinner. The swan gobbled it up like crazy...so I gave him another one. Must be slim pickins right now in the pond. I think he would have climbed into the car with us if he could have!

Dogs Deserve Better......hopefully HELP for Joe.....

I have been doing research online about city ordinances and such trying to find other means of tackling the Joe the dog situation via the dog feces issue. SURELY that is a way I can get him help.

BUT meanwhile during my search I came across this wonderful site......Dogs Deserve Better (CHECK MY SIDE BAR FOR A LINK)......and they may be able to help. They are a nonprofit organization dedicated to freeing chained up and penned up dogs. They do amazing things for these animals...get them help and in many cases new owners and living situations. They can help build a nice fenced in area for the dog that is appropriate for them....etc. They can place the dogs in foster homes until they are adopted out into new loving homes. The information on their site is tremendous and they have many helpful links to help out dogs such as Joe.

SO I have forwarded them all my information on Joe and am hopeful they will be able to step in and help him in another way entirely since I have not been successful in getting him any help via the Humane Society.

PLEASE check out their site...link on the right.....

I will keep you updated as I find out anything.

This is a place I would like to get involved with as I really believe in what they stand for.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Update on Joe the dog..........

well my efforts to help finally resulted in a confrontation with myself and one of the owners of Joe. To SPITE me and keep me or my son Noah from having contact with the dog......seeing into the pen easily......touching him......feeding him treats....or anything.....they took down the one end of the picket fence on Joe's pen that faces my grandmother's house....and put up a large privacy fence piece instead.




SO now Joe cannot see out of this end of the pen.....to see what we are all doing on this side....we cannot easily even see him at all unless we go to the backside of my grandmother's garage area or come down the alley the other way....as that side of his fence area is still open to "view" things. My uncle still went over to pet Joe the other day even though the owner said if she catches any one of us on their property they will call the police. I feel so bad for Joe. I was there last night and would normally have gone over to hug him and talk to him and kiss him and give him treats. This was all I could see instead. I did YELL over to him "HI JOE!" and I heard him bark. This makes me incredibly sad and upset. I feel really badly for Joe....whose sad life probably has become even sadder now as he has limited gaze upon the outside world or any signs of affection toward him with this big fence section up.

I doubt these owners even got a permit to put this fence piece up. SO..instead of doing what was right for Joe and making the pen livable for him.....and spending any money on HIM.....the owner out of spite.....spent money on a fence section and put it up instead.


I think she is a wicked bitch. Sorry.....but it is what it is.

For reminders of what Joe looks like and his conditions check these photos out...and the movie clip link below.......











here he is last year after the blizzard......after most all of the snow had melted.....again....he was outside....the entire f'n time.







Here is a clip of his conditions as they have been pretty much ever since I moved back to the area 3 years ago....the owners did finally put some straw down, but have yet to ever clean up dog poop in the pen.

Click here to watch 'neglect-of-a-petpoor-Joe'

AND to make matters worse...Tom the cat I have been taking care of with the help of my grandmother...until I can take him to MY home in the future that allows cats......seems to have either been shot in the face with a BB gun or pellet gun or got into a fight and bit by another animal or cat. I am not sure..I did not think to take photos of his face last night. The wound does not seem to bother him much and it looks clean and dry and not infected.....he can eat okay. I will have to go back and take photos and monitor the situation and take him to the vet if he needs treatment. I hope these neighbors have not done something to Tom. I may have to bring Tom here to live in my house or backyard before I am in a place that allows pets...just for his safety.

a red fox drawing I did with color pencils years ago.....

Opie is double jointed.......