Big Cats from Elmira's Wildlife Refuge

These bird pictures were all taken either on our property outside Tampa, or close to it.

This was held at the train museum. We took our grandson, mainly because he loves trains and then we found out about the re-enactment of a Civil War battle the next day, so we had to return and see that! We took the train ride, there was a skirmish before we left, then the train was attacked by Yankee soldiers (of course, WE won!!), then another battle was scheduled when we arrived back at the station. However, by then, it was just beginning to rain, so we didn't stay for that part.

A collection of photos of doors and entrances.

One picture a day for 2007

Pictures of my family

Drawings done by my son James.
James is also a writer and is currently completing a trilogy.

Just a collection of some other photos of nature, critters, plants, etc.

I think Silkies are the most beautiful chickens in the world. They are small, gentle and make the most wonderful mothers. Chickie Chick (CC) and Sugar were the first two we got, then came Cindy Lou Who and finally Buddy, the rooster.
Buddy's best friend was a duck who was killed. We brought him home hoping that some hens would cheer him up. That worked just great until his hens all retired to sit on eggs, now he's lonely again. Our neighbor rescued some mallard ducks and we're getting two to be his friends.
Chickie Chick was sitting on eggs and I suspected that everyone was still laying their eggs in her pile. Sure enough, she had 24! Sugar was jealous and tried to sit on everyone's eggs, they kept running her off. She would watch until she thought no one was looking then she would run as fast as she could to the eggs and sit down on them. I felt sorry for her and also for CC for when her 24 eggs started hatching. Since they were laying them daily, I thought she may have one hatch per day forever, so I divided the eggs amongst the three silkie hens. Now they are the happiest little hens in the world.

My first real contact came when one of the wild red hens showed up with 12 chicks. We thought they were really cute, then they started to disappear. One night she had 5 chicks and a possom came and attacked her. He got one of the chicks and did some damage to her too. She was so frightened, I was able to put a box over her, slide a board underneith and transport her and the chicks to a pen. After a two week confinment, she would take the chicks out during the day and bring them back to the safety of the pen at night. One of the chicks eventually killed one of the others, and Ma returned to the wild, but the three surviving chicks come back every night to sleep in our chicken pens.
One morning while my mother was visiting, she asked me what was that "white thing in the yard with all the little white things around it". Another wild chicken with 13 chicks. We made the mistake of only confining her for a couple of days. She took the chicks back to the wild and now there is only one survivor, which I carefully pen up every night. I believe he/she? is lonely because I found him sleeping on top of one of the other chickens last night who was sitting on eggs. The mama to be looked pretty squashed, but otherwise didn't seem to mind.
Then.... not finished yet... another brown Mama with 13 chicks showed up. Her babies at this time are about two weeks old and will be confined to the pen for a few more days before she is allowed out during the day.

When we first moved here, I was amazed to find chickens in my yard. I always wanted to have a chicken that would lay eggs and would let me pet her. We found out these were wild and lived in the trees on the neighbor's lot. (They did NOT like being petted, and I never found any eggs), so I bought 6 baby chicks. They turned out to be 5 hens and a rooster. They are my dream come true. They lay eggs and I can pet the hens anytime I like. The rooster has an attitude problem that I can usually resolve with a broom, but the hens come and sit in my lap, they love it when I pet them and sing to them. But....... I found that contrary to the math they taught in school 6 baby chicks plus 7 wild chickens = approximately 32 chickens all living in my yard. And this was before they had babies!

These are some of the cats we have had bestowed on us since we moved to the country several months ago.