Maria finished stack the last half/cord or so piled up in the yard. Our two wood stoves are ready for the winter, we have about eight cords of wood stacked up in the shed behind the farmhouse. Our barn is full of fresh hay.
All we need is to put some tarps over the wood and tie them down to keep the rain off the wood.
It is awfully hot in many parts of the country, but winter can come early and hard here, even with global warming. Thanks so much to Greg Burch (and his pug JD), their wood is good and seasoned and they always come when they say they will.
The soccer team players said it was the best trip they had ever gone on, they all went, thanks to you, to the Ramblewild Forest Adventure Park in Massachusetts where they spent four hours way up in the trees, walking on rope bridges, mastering obstacle courses, hanging over a 100 foot high walkway, with helmets, special gloves and and zip wires.
I met them at the park for lunch afterwards, and i took some portraits, which I’ll put up in the morning. Ramblewild has five or six different adventures, and I hope to get the team back there again in the Fall. It was special to them.
I had and important time talking with them about their lives back in Asia, their struggles to adapt in America, and their love of Ali and the soccer team. I’ll write about that in the morning.
Special thanks to Derek and Ramblewild for donating climbing gloves to the team, they can use them in soccer practice.
These trips and activities for the refugee soccer players are made possible by your contributions. I’d like to send them to the New England Aquarium and we have to pay for some soccer time and equipment. Your help is invaluable.
If you can contribute, please send a donation to The Gus Fund, c/o Jon Katz. P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected]. And thanks so much.
The readers of the blog just adopted their second dog this week, Albert, a handsome three-year-old chihuahua was adopted late this afternoon, according to Carol Johnson of Friends Of Homeless Animals. FOHA gets all kinds of dogs from different parts of the country, they specialize in heartworm and some hopeless dogs in great trouble.
These dogs all come with horror stories, most dogs in America are treated very well, but it is disheartening to hear the things some people will do to animals.
FOHA does the hard and dirty work most of us don’t like to think about.
I hope to highlight a different dog each week in need of a home, it’s a wonderful use of the blog and the many animal lovers who read it. I avoided doing this for years because I don’t want the blog to be limited to dog issues.
I hope we can keep our streak going.
I’m getting Bud from FOHA and I appreciate the group, their sensitivity and thoroughness.
I want my writing to range widely, but dogs are a central element of my life and writing and blog and it is foolish to help people but not vulnerable dogs. So I’ll be doing this regularly, and this week we are off to a great start.
They tell me Albert is a great dog, and I know that Jen, who a blog reader adopted earlier in the week, is also going to a great home.
This is shaping up as a great week of triumphs for the blog.
Tomorrow, I’m going to take a photo of Kelly Patrick, a certified nurse’s aide from the Mansion Assisted Care Facility. With the help of the Army Of Good, she is moving out of the tent she was living in all summer and into her double-wide trailer with her daughter and grandson.
More later.
Today, the refugees soccer team went to Ramblewild, a forest adventure park to walk among the trees. They loved it, I met them for lunch. Photos coming tonight. Tomorrow, a different group from the team is going to the Great Adventure Entertainment Park at Lake George.
Later on during summer break, they will spend time at the Powell House Youth Retreat, go bowling a couple of times, and swim and play video games at Lake George.
The Army of Good made all of these triumphs possible. To help continue all of this work, please consider making a contribution to the Gus Fund, c/o Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected]. And thanks.
I see the camera as windows into the lives of the animals. Here on the farm, the animals have their own lives, separate from ours. I love catching them unawares at these moments, I call them windows into their lives.
Fate often stands by the gate,locked onto the sheep which she loves to be around but won’t herd. Fanny loves to stand by the gate and observe the wider world. I love to stand in the yard and observe them.
My idea is to pick a dog each week from the Friends of Homeless Animals site or ask Carol Johnson which of the dogs on the site I ought to mention. She is honest and reliable and she mentioned Albert as a beautiful and loving dog available for adoption.
His story is that he was kept on a short rope in a front yard with no shelter. He escaped only to be trapped when the rope caught on a bush in the woods. He was starving when he was found, and also tested positive for heartworm, that has been treated.
He is Bud’s primary playmate in Arkansas, so I feel a bit guilty about taking Bud away from him. Carol says he’s a special dog. I have never been drawn to getting a chihuahua, but they are a very popular breed.
Albert weights ll lbs and is about three years old.
Carol says Albert has what she calls an “energetic” personality and she recommends a home with no small children (he is not aggressive, but sometimes play bites). Sounds like a live wire.
The adoption fee for this dog is $650, including the cost of transportation to the Northeast. He’s ready to go. If you’re interested in Albert, you can e-mail Caro [email protected] or apply on the FOHA/RI website.
