Off to Caseville.....

Brinks and I...and little Mini Sue....are off to Caseville tomorrow. I figure I will be gone over a week and decided that Mini can come with us. Pepper likes to stay home with my husband and I don't trust Lucky around Brinks, especially in close quarters like my jeep driving for 3 hours! Brinks would be so stressed out if Lucky was there barking and clawing at his crate that he would probably lose his new feathers. His feathers are growing in really nice, and he is even getting new tail feathers. I didn't even realize that he had lost his tail feathers too....no wonder he couldn't fly. I think by next week, all his feathers should be in good enough so he should be able to fly, but I don't want to release him in Caseville, so Brinks will have to stay in his cage another week until I get back (the first week of November). Anyway, an extra week will just help make him stronger. He not only has to be able to fly again, but he has to be able to maintain flight and SURVIVE.

He is so spoiled now though....I hope his instincts take over and he knows what to do. I've been putting him outside every day even if it's chilly cause he has to get use to the cold. And we've been leaving him out there for a while after it gets dark so he gets use to the dark. But then I bring him inside for the night and cover his cage. I always know when he's ready to settle down for the night, cause he huddles down. He like to play "get mom's fingers"...haha...he coos and makes these sounds when I wriggle my fingers at him and he tries to beak bite them.

I'm going to be so sad and scared for him when he does fly off into the blue yonder. I'm going to leave his crate out on the patio with food for awhile in case he needs a place to sleep and eat.

So anyway, we're off to Caseville for the Halloween stuff and the Holly Berry Fair the following weekend. The Holly Berry Fair is a Xmas kick-off with lots of craft shows and a Xmas cookie walk...different cookies at the different establishments....free cookies to taste!! I thought hubby was going to come too. I wanted him to go to the Eagles with me Halloween and have "Boo Stew". I had it last year and it is really really good. But he says he'll go for Thanksgiving and doesn't want to go now. So I'll just go myself and do things with my friends there. And I got more yard work to do. I need to get the rest of my flowers out of the garden and clean up. I'll let the mums stay til Thanksgiving.

I hate Fall!! Too much work.....between Caseville and home, I am overwhelmed with it all. We have a 1/2 acre lot here with lots of trees and the fall leaf raking is killing me....I hate it. I wish we could hire someone to do it.

See ya when I get back.....

Mrs. Davis' Chair

Did anyone catch the article in Sunday's paper on the photographer Curtis Krueger? He use to live next door to an elderly lady, Mrs. Davis. She had this old wrought-iron garden chair sitting in her garden. He borrowed it one day, took it to the beach with him and photographed it at the beach. He had the photograph framed and gave it to her for her 98th birthday and she was absolutely delighted with it...got a real kick out of seeing her chair sitting at the beach. He called the photograph "Mrs. Davis' Chair Goes To The Beach". She gave him the chair and his mission was to go to all 50 states and photograph it. The photos are beautiful and unusual. In some of the photos the chair is obscured in the background but it is there.

My grandmother's last name was Davis and I have a couple of her old dining room chairs that are over 100 years old. I was thinking I should do that with one of her chairs...course I wouldn't get out of Michigan, so her chair would have to basically travel within the state...haha.

Anyway, check out his website and click on Mrs. Davis' Chairs and you can click on every state name and see all his photographs of Mrs. Davis' chair.

Recently, his truck caught on fire. When he escaped his burning truck, he saved his dog and cat, and when the firemen got there he begged them to get the chair out which they did. But everything else was lost in the fire. He travels to art shows with his photographs and everything was burned. The story is also on his website.

I thought it was interesting. BTW, Mrs. Davis died when she was almost 102!!

Off to see the dentist.....

Well, that's done for another 6 months!....the dental cleaning. But I made the original appointment 2 weeks ago cause then in 6 months I would be able to get that one done before tax season is over and I leave for Caseville. Course, now with all the screw-ups I'm 2 weeks behind which now makes my next 6 months April 22 and I will be in Caseville then doing my spring cleanup....that's why I made the appointment when I did and now it's all screwed up. Maybe I'll go ahead and make the next appointment for April 16 and insurance better damn well pay for it...close enough. That's if I even have dental insurance by then. Right now, we have cobra and I don't have a clue when that runs out or what happens when it does....guess I'll find out.

Hubby is finally going to fix the fence that got wrecked when the neighbor's tree fell on it like almost 6 months ago. Basically all it needs is to take the fence off the bent part of that long top metal thingy and replace it with a new top metal thingy and then restretch the fence up onto it. Of course, I could simply call the fence guy and he would have had it done in 1/2 hour 5 months ago, But hubby wants to save a few bucks. So now he has this long metal thing that needs to be cut and he doesn't have anything to cut through it....and I'm thinking how simple it really is....JUST CALL THE FENCE GUY!!

LUCKY ME!!

I won $100 when I was in Caseville! At the Eagles they have these pull-tab/rip-off things. They are like lottery tickets. You get them from a machine and you pull off these 5 tabs and hope you get a winner. Usually you might win a buck or two but you always hope to win more like 5 or 10 bucks; and of course the big one is what you're really hoping to get. Well, I put $2 in the machine and got 4 50cent tickets. Three were nothing, but the fourth one had a winner and at first I thought I won $5, but when I pulled the tabs completely off it said $100! I couldn't believe it....so I turned it in to the barwaitress and she gave me 100 bucks.

Brinks and I drove back from Caseville today so I can go to my dentist appointment on Monday....what a waste of gas....cause then I'll have to drive back up.

I got a lot of yard work done, but mainly I got the grass cut. Brinks had fun, I think. I put him outside during the day and the neighbor thought he was pretty for a pigeon....well, handsome anyway. He's walking really good on both legs now although he still has a bit of a limp. He looks so damn cute when he walks around. I started putting newspapers in his cage instead of towels which makes it easier for him to walk on. Inside I put the cage on the floor in front of the door wall and he liked that. Then at night I put him in the living room with me and cover his cage with a blanket. He loves his mirror. In the morning I woke up hearing something banging and it was Brinks pecking at the mirror against the crate. He sure eats a lot. I hope he doesn't gain weight and be too fat to fly. I did let him out of his cage in the garage to see what he would do. He didn't do much. He flaps his wings and maybe gets a few inches off the floor. I sure hope he remembers how to fly. In a few days I'm going to put him outside in the yard and see what he does.

Hubby thinks he will be okay, but I'm so worried about him. What if he doesn't make it out on his own. What if a hawk gets him. What if it storms and rains and he gets scared. What if he can't find food, cause he's use to his food being in little dishes now. What if he gets scared when it gets dark and he's all alone. What if he can't find a flock of pigeons to fly with or if he does, they are mean and won't let him be part of their flock.

When I was in Caseville it stormed really bad one night and I was thinking how it would be if Brinks was outside in that and I cried for little Brinks. He is safe in his crate.

Brinkydinkydoo....I love you!!!

Another Dental ****-up

I can't believe this. Remember how I already missed my dentist appointment cause of the road construction traffic and I had to reschedule. Well, I know for a fact that the incompetent broad on the phone simply said "we have a 3:00 on Monday", so today is Monday, right?? So I drive all the way there and they tell me that the appointment is for NEXT MONDAY!!....the 22nd. I told them I was never NEVER told the 22nd, only for Monday at 3:00. IDIOTS!!! I told them that I have better things to do than waste my gas driving down there TWICE now for nothing.

I need to get to Caseville. I need to cut my grass there. I have BETTER THINGS TO DO. With Halloween and the Holly Berry Fair coming, I figured I would drive to Caseville and stay a few weeks. I was waiting to get this damn dentist appointment done and over with. So now I have to drive there AGAIN next Monday. Okay, so what I'm going to do is this: I'm going to leave tomorrow and only take Brinks with me...(cause hubby said he ain't taking care of him), I'll leave the dogs home, and I'll cut my grass and stay a few days and drive back by Saturday. Then after the appointment, then I'll drive back up there for a couple weeks for Halloween and HBF. I am hoping that when I drive back and before I drive back up again, maybe Brinks will be able to fly off to wherever little pigeons fly....I'm hoping.

So tomorrow, I'm leaving for Caseville and taking only Brinks with me. I have a smaller carrying crate I will take him in and take his bigger crate for after I get there. He'll be fine. I'm sure he'll enjoy the trip and change of scenery. Haha

Pigeons and Eagles.....

Here's Brinks in a nice clean roomy cage. Before I had this box lid in there for him to sit in, but I took it out and he can have the whole cage now. Also notice how he is right next to the window so he can look outside, and we hung a mirror up for him. We catch him pecking at the mirror at himself...haha His legs are getting stronger and better now that he can walk around more. He eats great. He likes these little seeds that I have to pluck out of the wildbird seed, cause it's the only ones he likes. I went shopping and bought him sunflower seeds which he loves and peas and mustard greens. I found a great website for pigeons and they say that they need their "greens", but no lettuce or spinach. I also bought broccoli and cut up the little seedlings in the heads for him.

He is starting to get his new feathers in! There are all these little feather spines growing on his wings where he lost feathers from when he hit the truck and where my dog pulled them out. So I'm hoping he can fly in a couple weeks if the weather stays good.

He is so cute. He lets me pet him on the back of his little neck, but he also likes to beak bite me too....haha.
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Friday night hubby and I checked out the Redford Eagles club. It's not nearly as nice as the one in Caseville, and they don't have fish sandwiches/chicken strips like Caseville does on Fridays. So we just had a few pitchers of beer. But we met this guy there that also has a place near Caseville and he and his girlfriend go to the Caseville Eagles during the summer!! So I guess you just never know who'll you'll meet....it's a small world as they say.

One of those days.....grrrrrrrrrrrr

It really just wasn't my day....hell, it hasn't been my week. I have this partially working stereo system that I have on the free section of Craig's list. First this woman emails and says she wants it. I email a couple times with the address and the times she can pick it up and don't hear another thing from the bitch. I really HATE when people do that....and that is a major problem with Craig's list I hear....people saying they want something and they are coming to get it and then you hear absolutely nothing more from them....total asswipes. So this other guy emails with his phone number and wants me to call him..(damn, I'm assuming he was from the Craigslist ad and not the guy I met in the bar...haha...only kidding!!...gotcha) So anyways I call him and leave a message with my number. He calls me back and I tell him he can have it if he wants it. And he says "and what is that"? I say "the stereo system". He's like Oh Yeah. Then he tells me that he is at his daughter's volley ball game and he will call me later when it's finished. I'm like Okay. This is about 5:00 and so far I haven't heard anything more from the guy. Must be another creepo. Anyway, I have a few more people interested, so maybe I'll try again tomorrow. Tonight was garbage night, I should have told hubby to just throw the damn thing out. Only the radio works. Cassette doesn't work right and the turntable doesn't turn, and it's a little hard to play records when I have to turn it myself with my finger!! I have the new one I just bought from ebay now. I was playing some old albums the other night...which is so cool....

THEN....I had a dentist appointment today at 3:00. I left at 2:30. I made the mistake of taking Telegraph Rd to Michigan Ave. Telegraph Rd is a major road construction pain in the royal ass right now and I forgot. I haven't been down that horrendous part of town since July. So I'm creeping along and by 3:00 I'm not even close, so I called hubby to get the phone number. I call them and tell them my predictment and they inform me that if I can't get there by 3:10 then I will have to reschedule. By 3:10 I was closer but no way I was gonna make it, so I called them and rescheduled for next Monday. Damn, I was pissed!!

While I was on Telegraph Rd I witnessed this accident and I wanted to turn around and see if the cop needed my statement but since I was trying to get to this damn appointment I didn't bother. Now I wish I would have. I see this cop on the side of the road as I pass. In my rearview mirror I see him pull out into traffic, and I'm thinking that he better not be coming after me, cause even though the traffic sign said 45 I knew I was going more like 50. So I'm watching in my rearview mirror. This was before the road construction hit and traffic was progressing at a good rate of speed. Then I see the cop go into the other lane on my left side....and this car in front of me abruptly pulls into that lane also. That's when I drove past this car in that same lane sitting there with it's hazard lights on and I immediately thought that maybe that is why the cop pulled out and got in that lane cause he had a call about a car in trouble. So I'm watching in my rearview mirror and everything happened so fast. That car in front of me that pulled into the lane saw that the hazard-light car wasn't moving and slammed on his brakes and rammed into the car and the car behind him rammed into him. The cop was behind that guy and he pulled quickly into the next lane and stopped. I figure that the car in front of me that pulled into that lane was at fault. First of all, he didn't use his turn signal...and he didn't look and see that there was a car in that lane immobalized with hazard lights on. The other guy that hit him was just driving along and this schmoe pulls right in front of him in his lane and then slams on his brakes. Well, hopefully the cop saw everything since he was right there.

I guess my day wasn't all that bad cause if it was then I would have been the one to get slammed into. I'm glad I stayed in my own lane.

Little Brinks is getting tired of sitting in that crate. He keeps flapping his wings. I can see his wings are getting stronger. It was too cold today to put him outside (even though he is a bird and would be out there anyway) But I think he's getting spoiled. I did try to put him out but I thought he looked like he was shivering so I brought him back in. I hope tomorrow it warms up a bit and then I will let him play on the grass and see if he can get a little airbourne with his wings. The only trouble is, I told my husband, is that he still has this gimpy leg and even if he can fly again, then if he tries to land on a wire or something, he'll probably fall off. I told hubby that I think he is missing the boat as far as flying south for the winter and he may be with us all winter and he can try flying in the spring. I didn't like the look on hubby's face. I asked him how long pigeons live and he said "probably 50 years!"....hahaha

Help help, there's a mouse in my house.....

Holy Mickey Mouse!....we are getting mice in our house again. They keep getting into the utility room and into the big plastic container that holds Pepper's dry food. They even chewed a hole in the corner of the top to get inside. Recently, when we go to get some of the food out, there's a mouse inside. Today, there were THREE....3!!....mice eating away like they were at a banquet. I keep dumping their little grey butts outside, but I think they keep coming back in. I set a live trap tonight and caught one....I have it set again.

The American Red Cross keeps calling me, so I told them I'd come in this afternoon. But since I hadn't prepared myself..(eating spinach and taking my iron pills)...I didn't pass the iron test. I'm not anemic, but too low to give blood. The minimum reading has to be 38 and I was a 37. So I went shopping and bought my spinach and I'll ironize myself and try again.

Brinks is holding his own, but he gets scared when he hears the dogs barking....can't blame him for that though. I bought a small pet carrier in case I have to take him with me to Caseville. Luckily, I found one at a garage sale cheap. Nobody that I left messages with still has not called me. Idiots. They call themselves Wildlife rehabilitators, but guess I'm all little Brinks has til he grows back his feathers and learns to fly again.

I found this blog by this woman who had an experience with a pigeon (The cat, a pigeon and a middle-age woman). He couldn't fly very well and spent 8 months in her backyard living in some pallets next to her garage. She has a lot of great stories to read. I'll have to put her link on my blog. Her blog site is www.topofmyhead.blog-city.com. A list of titles of her blogs are what I click on and read. Also she is a major cat lover. I think she has 8 cats, and has stories about her cats too. Plus, she is a nurse and has a lot of patient stories. Anyways, I'm only starting to read her stories.

I can't believe how hot it has been here in Michigan in October, but I guess the weather will be changing here pretty soon and it will feel like Fall. I haven't even bothered putting up my Halloween decorations, cause it just doesn't feel like October yet. The newspaper was saying how weird it is on the lakes with the duck hunting season going on.....hunters dressed in their camouflage outfits with their guns and water-skiers going by at the same time....haha

Good-bye sweet summer....hello dreary Fall and yucky Winter.....

This afternoon I took Brinks outside and let him out of the crate and on the grass. I noticed that he had trouble walking, so we picked him up to look at his feet. His left foot isn't working....the same as his left wing. So that whole side must have gotten injured. But he was trying to walk anyway and spreading his wings and flapping them. He was moving but not getting off the ground. I think he enjoyed his time in the sun anyway.

I was hoping that maybe in time things will heal and with outdoor exercise he might be able to fly again. But I've been reading things online and there are other people with injured pigeons and months later they still can't fly right. Then tonight he got injured again on his good wing.

I keep the crate in the utility room on the floor with the doors shut. While I was upstairs on the computer I kept hearing my one dog barking his head off. Earlier we had a skunk somewhere and the smell was bad and my dog always barks like crazy when he smells a skunk. So I thought he was still barking about the skunk. My husband was in the family room right next to the hallway where the utility room is. After awhile of hearing Lucky barking and barking, I finally went downstairs to see why my hus wasn't shutting him up. My dog had gotten one of the bi-fold doors open in the utility room and was totally terrorizing poor little Brinks. He had his paws in through the bars and had pulled out the black feathers of his good wing. There were feathers all over the floor. Little Brinks was stuck in this corner totally helpless. And where was my husband....sleeping on the couch....totally oblivious to all the ruckus and barking. I started screaming! So far I have called him every name in the book....."fuckin asshole" being the main name!! What was he in....a coma!! Couldn't he hear the dog barking?? Why didn't he get his lazy ass off the couch and at least check and see what he was barking at???? I am furious beyond words right now.

All of his black feathers on his good wing are gone and his skin is red. I highly doubt if he will ever be able to fly again now. I don't know what to do.

I put the crate up on the dining room table. I feel so bad. I kept telling Brinks how sorry I was and I was sorry for not being there to protect him. Of course, I guess I assumed that since hus was right there he could have done something. But I guessed wrong. As usual, I have to do everything......

Meet Brinks....

....or Binks as I also call the little guy. He is a pigeon that flew into my son's Brinks truck windshield. My son got out of the truck and put him in some bushes hoping he would be okay. After work, my son went back and he was still there and it was pouring down rain so he brought him to MY HOUSE!! This was Monday. I was still in Caseville and had no idea. I just got home yesterday and noticed a big bag of wildbird seed and the utility room doors were closed up so I asked my hubby what's up. He just opened the door and told me to look inside. There on the floor in a box was this little pigeon with his broken wing. Poor little guy.

Today I got down the dog crate that I use to use for my dogs when they were puppies and put him in there. We got water in there and lots of food. He ate some bird seed that I gave him in a cup. Tonight he wouldn't eat though....maybe he's full. We had the crate outside on the patio table all day and he seemed to like that better than the utility room. At least he could see the trees and smell the air and hear the other birds. He's seems content.

We've been trying to find a wildlife rehabilitation place to take him to. I called my vet, and they gave me a number of another vet that does birds, but they only do domestic birds. Apparently you have to be registered with the DNR to nurse wildlife birds. There's a place in Howell, but the website says he is 15 years old but he knows what he's doing.....I have doubts. I called this one number we found on the internet and left a message but nobody has returned my call. There's another place I will call tomorrow even though it's far to drive. Who the hell takes care of poor birds with broken wings????

So now I have 3 dogs and a bird......not sure how I'm going to get the bird and the dogs all in one car for the next trip to Caseville in a couple weeks. I'm sure that feathers and fur will be flying.