Back on May 20th I posted an article, , about my experience of finding a baby buzzard in my old barn. As tempted as I was, I did not go back into the barn because I didn’t want to disturb him. I’m going to call this critter a him, although I don’t have the slightest idea if it’s male or female. It wasn’t long I started seeing what appeared to be a younger buzzard hanging around with an older one – maybe the mother buzzard? It’s been interesting to see that both of them will perch on top of my house, and will sit on the patio outside my bedroom window. The older one tends to be a little more cautious. The younger one, which I believe to be the hatching pictured in my earlier article isn’t all that shy – he seems pretty curious.

If you’re wondering why I think the one on the right is the younger, from what I’ve been able to find on the internet (Google is your friend) younger buzzards, or vultures have smoother skin on their faces and heads, and their beaks are darker.

I was able to snap several photos of both sitting on top of the barn before the older one flew off to land in a tree a little distance away. The younger one seemed to enjoy the photo shoot. Once I turned around and walked away he flew off and landed in the tree occupied by the other one. His flying seems a little shaky still.

On the day I took this picture, I had cut my grass earlier. I’ve cut it multiple times since I discovered the baby buzzard so the noise wasn’t something completely new to him. That day, however, something different happened. As I approached the barn, a dark shape came hurtling, literally out of the window and very clumsily landed on the ground not far in front of me. The time he hit the ground he took off running, not flying, running, and ran into the breezeway of the barn. Then he just sat there and watched me. I got a good laugh at his expense – I have to say, a buzzard running is quite a comical sight to see. Still you would have thought he would have run away from the sound, not towards it.

I’ve really enjoyed the little I’ve been able to see of this bird growing up. I’ve gotten to see the older one take the younger one to feast on a rabbit run over in the road – shooing him out of the road when a vehicle came by. I wish these were turkey vultures instread of the black ones, though. Turkey vultures have red heads and are more shy. Black headed buzzards are reputed to be much more aggressive and have been known to kill baby animals. As much as I hate to do it, once I’m sure this fellow is old enough to “run with the pack” I think I will put wire over the window to keep them out. A few aren’t likely to be a bad problem but they may have friends and relatives move in.

Young Buzzard

The hay loft door was unlatched, so I believe someone had been in there. I latched it, was getting ready to look around when I was told to not make any sudden moves, that something was growling at us and moving around in the hay. Our first thought was a fox, coyote or possibly a feral cat. It wasn’t making much effort to get away from us, which in itself was a little disconcerting. It was fairly dark inside and we had no flashlight so we decided to ease away until we were better prepared.

Not knowing what might be in there, we went back armed with flashlights and gun. We had no intentions of shooting anything unless we had no choice – like it trying to attack or being sick or rabid. From a distance and from the angle we were at and the fact it seemed to have it’s back towards us, at first it looked like a hunched over monkey of some kind. We looked closer and were surprised to find a young buzzard, still with down on it. I have no idea how old he is, but he’s a whopper – I’d say already the size of a chicken. The sounds he made were quite interesting. Although the photo looks as though it was taken close up it wasn’t – I used a zoom in order to not upset him.

Although I was born and raised in the country, I’d never seen a baby buzzard (some people call them vultures) before so it was a treat. For now we’ll avoid the area he’s in and hopefully he’ll be flying around in a few weeks.

As a young child I would sometimes pick honeysuckle flowers, pinch off the stem end and suck out the sweet nectar. My parents showed me that trick – BUT they also made a big production of teaching me the difference between harmless honeysuckle and potentially deadly yellow jasmine.

Both flowers smell wonderful, although the scents are different. Both may be yellow (honeysuckle can be white, too). An adult should be able to tell the difference at a glance (although with some many “city people” moving to rural areas these days I wouldn’t bet on it). But how about a young child? People need to know the difference. If you aren’t sure leave it alone.

ALL parts of yellow jasmine are poisonous. Ingesting any part of it can make you extremely ill or even kill you. Even deer don’t eat it. Allergic reactions have been reported from simply handling it. Since the entire plant is poisonous, if you do handle it I suggest you wasn your hands well after.

Yellow jasmine is the state flower of South Carolina. It’s beautiful and has a wonderful smell but it’s best to enjoy it without touching. Enjoy it but stay safe.

You should never, EVER declaw a cat. I suppose there could be a rare medical reason – if a toe is crushed, has some kind of growth or cancer, that type of thing, but it is wrong to declaw a cat because they scratch your furniture, you or your kids. If you’re that worried about your furniture, might I suggest that a cat is not the pet for you. Get a fish.

When a cat is declawed, they don’t simply remove the nail as a doctor would a human’s ingrown toenail. The entire last joint of the cat’s toe is removed. It is the same as removing the tips of a human’s fingers at the joint below the nail. It’s painful, dangerous and has the potential to cause physical and behavior problems for the cat. For example, common sense says if a cat has no claws to defend itself with it may turn to biting instead. I’m not posting a picture but you can Google it and see how horrific the process really is. Those who say it’s not a big deal are full of crap.

Get or make a scratching post for kitty. They are commercially available and there are plenty of instruction online for making your own. If nothing else, a piece of firewood will do. While I’ve never used them or done serious research about them, you can also buy vinyl nail covers for kitty’s claws. Do some research. Find alternatives to declawing. Or accept the fact a cat may not be the right pet for you. Just don’t even consider declawing.

Would it ever cross your mind to cut off the tips of Juniors fingers because he picks his nose and eats it? Or because he scratches bug bites? If Junior bites other children, would you pull all his teeth so he can’t? Of course not! Pets are part of your family. Don’t abuse them, and in my opinion declawing a cat is animal abuse. What if kitty sneaks outside? How can he/she defend themselves? How can they climb a tree to get away from a dog or other animal?

Sorry if what I have to say offends anyone. On second thought, no I’m not sorry, not at all. I’m using extreme examples here to make a point – and if any readers are unable to comprehend that is what I’m doing, well, I feel bad for them. Yes, comparing declawing a cat to pulling a kids teeth or cutting off the end of their fingers may not be realistic but it makes the point.

Desperate situations call for desperate measures. The top of my stove – the flat part above the knobs and stuff – tends to serve as a holder for salt, pepper, spices, etc. As a result it doesn’t get wiped down very often so turns into a grease pit. (Come to think of it, I’m usually the only one around here capable of wiping anything on the stove but that’s another story.)

This morning I decided to clean it and boy oh boy was it nasty. I first tried using rubbing alcohol on a paper towel, which didn’t even smear the mess. I thought the stuff used for removing stickers and such from things might work but of course I couldn’t find it – that would make life too easy. So, rummaging through cabinets I came across a very old bottle of Orange Glo Wood Cleaner and Polish. Now, I wasn’t about to just spray that stuff everywhere, so I poured a small amount in an old jar lid, grabbed an old toothbrush and tried a spot and quickly saw it had great potential. So, I kept putting small amounts on the toothbrush, covered the mess, waited a few minutes and woot! Just light rubbing with the toothbrush worked! After that I wiped it down good with rubbing alcohol. Sometimes one just has to improvise.

Disclaimer: I’m not sure this is an acceptable use or if it’s safe. Try it at your own risk, I’m not responsible if anything bad happens as a result. Just because it worked well and safely for me doesn’t mean everyone will have the same experience. The bottle does say keep away from heat and flame, so I’d definitely NOT use it on a gas stove or range. 🙂

My cats love crawling into my bed and are paricularly fond of curling up to sleep on my pillows. My favorite fleece jacket is also their favorite – anytime I forget to put it out of their reach they hop right on it. As a result things around here are sometimes get a little hairy (pun intended.) If you’re like me, you’ve found cat hair isn’t the easiest thing to get rid of – that stuff can really cling. I’ve tried a lot of things – and while a lot of them do help, there is no surefire solution. I’ve found one thing that does a pretty good job, though – provided the item needing fur removal can be run through a clothes dryer.

BEFORE I wash a furry item, I toss it into the dryer with a fabric softener sheet. If you don’t have any, no problem, dampen a paper towel or washcloth and pour on a little liquid fabric softener. If you don’t have that either I suppose just something slightly damp will help. To be honest, I’m not sure the damp and or fabric softener is even necessary but it seems to me to work better. I run the dryer on timed setting for an average of ten minutes then check the filter. It should show quite a bit of fur/lint. Depending on how much cat hair is on the items, you may need to repeat that several times. If something is really nasty beyond cat fur, though, I’d go ahead and wash it, then do the multiple runs through the dryer part. Be sure to check your labels. If an item says do not machine dry it may still be possible to use this process only with no heat.

The sticky rollers you wash and reuse help, too, but I usually reserve that for quick emergency situations. In a pinch, take some sticky tape and pull fur off with that. Both of these are a lot
more time consuming that using the dryer but if you’re on your way out the door and notice a few cat hairs here and there it will help.

I hope this will help. Just remember it takes a little patience.

I’ve used O-Cedar products over the years and until now I’ve been satisfied with them. No so with this mop. It will be going back to the store.

The first issue I had with it is that it doesn’t squeeze enough water out of the sponge. The “easy pump wringer WAS easy to operate – until it decided to not work at all, which ended my opportunity to try it a little longer in order to give a more informed review. One of the rubber rollers jumped out of the plastic holder, and although I slipped it back in, it would no longer wring at all. That ought not happen within ten minutes of starting to use the product.

I do not believe this is a case of someone messing with it in the store, either. It was well-packaged in plastic and impossible to try to wringer until that plastic was removed.

I will say that after using the wringer multiple times, I was still able to squeeze more water out with my hands than the wringer did in the first place. Even then, due to it being difficult to wring out this type of mop by hand, it was extremely wet. It might could be considered functional if one used no pressure at all when mopping, but that rather defeats the purpose of mopping, in my opinion.

On a scale of 1-5 I have to give this mop a 1. Would I recommend it to anyone? No.