Kala's Journal~Newest Project :)

[Kala]

Our neighbor sat out on his porch with his gun the night after he lost a couple hens. He fired at the raccoons when they started heading to the coop and they haven't been back since - been about a year now.

I think that is a great strategy. In a handout from a local source, they were discussing how to deal with wildlife. They said many have a "territory" and if you remove one from the territory, a new one will move in.
They said it was better to scare off or "train" the current population that your livestock is off limits rather than continually having new ones to deal with, less work. We have taken that approach (although we liberally use a BB gun, not a real gun) and it has worked well except for a stray dog who has learned to be sneaky.

Hmmm...I'll have to research that. I really hate killing them and would definetely love if there was a good alternative.

 

[savingdogs]

The idea is to TRAIN the local wildlife that either your place is off limits because of something scary or nothing is there to eat, one or the other. You'd think having one of their "friends" go away would be scary but I suppose they are not that smart.

We felt best about the BB gun approach. We don't want to be shooting a real gun when there could be our own livestock in the vicinity or pointing towards neighboring property. I'm not saying we would never shoot anything, but BBs seemed a little safer. I've seen dogs that were just FINE walking around with BBs in them so I'm sure wild animals are not going to suffer a cruel and horrible death or anything inhumane. We aim for the butt to make them run AWAY from us. We also trained ourselves to never leave anything outside that would be attractive to them and we secure the trash real well, that seemed to be the biggest wildlife draw, the trash.

 

[abifae]

My mom keeps any food trash in the freezer until trash day. Although, I think everyone here makes pretty good use of most food scraps Why fertilize a land fill?

 

[Kala]

So if you could keep our family in your prayers, good thoughts and vibes and such I'd appreciate it. My aunt is taking over the care of my 2 small cousins (one is 3 and the other 1) and she is really nervous. She has some health issues. We live close by so we'll be helping out as much as we can. But I'm nervous because I don't know how much help she'll need so I don't really know how involved we'll be (and I want to help as much as we can/they need).

And I'm super nervous because I have like nill experience with kiddos. <-------- me when they come to visit

This has been in the works for a little while, but nothing was concrete yet so I didn't want to share until I was for certain.

 

[Wannabefree]

It'll be fine. Those ages, you'll get attached to them quickly

 

[Kala]

It'll be fine. Those ages, you'll get attached to them quickly

Lol. I'm sure we will. But that's also the thing I'm kinda worried about. I don't know how permanent this will be. One day the bio parents could just come and say, hey we want them back! They're really unstable right now, in more ways than one unfortunately. :/

As soon as I heard this was for sure I kept thinking about you WBF!

 

[Kala]

Is it possible to be in love completely with two little girls? (If your confused read a couple posts back.)

I'm not gonna lie, if you had asked me a few weeks ago I would have said that I wasen't even sure I wanted children. And now, these little girls have literally become my world. They are just so hungry for love and attention it makes me very sad to think of how much they were neglected and cast off before coming here. When I leave my aunt and uncles house and come home I feel like its so empty inside compared to their house now. Even with the tantrums and screams. And trust me, there are alot b/c these children have never had rules before. They pretty much ran the show.

I don't think I've ever loved someone (beyond DH of course ) so much that even through all the frustrations I've just had this overwhelming love. This need and desire to help them grow and overcome this hurdle and become more than the awful circumstance they are coming from. Sigh. Cheesy and corny I know but I think I finally had a breakthrough as far as why some crazy people choose to become parents,

 

[miss_thenorth]

I know thta love. It is awesome

 

[gettinaclue]

What she said.

Kids are AMAZING. They aren't fake, love unconditionally...and I'm seriously considering the possiblity that little person drool has the magical powers to entwine us around their little baby fingers making us give them cookies while making goofy faces and farting noises.

 

[TanksHill]