Bird Rescuing

I don't have time to proof read this. I hope it's okay.

I was working on the stone project at the Galson's last Tuesday and saw a bird on the ground next to the porch. It wasn't moving so I had assumed that the bird was dead and continued to work. After putting three or four more stones in place I took a short break and suddenly noticed that the bird was actually moving. I remembered that birds were not supposed to be handled with hands and gloves should be worn. This was no problem because I needed gloves to work with the stone anyway. Beyond handling the bird with gloves I was not sure what to do.



I ended up calling Nirelle (household wife, not to be confused with housewife) at the island. I did not get her on the phone but I did get her sister-in-law Eva (Ed's wife; Ed is Allen's brother). Eva had asked if the bird had hit a window or not. She said that if a bird hit a window it. could be in shock from hitting it. Unfortunately the bird did not appear to be in shock. It was moving around in fright when I was handling it, and one of it's leg's appeared to be injured. Later upon further inspection I noticed that one of the bird's claws was able to grab a pencil, the other claw didn't seem to want to grab anything. The claw which did cling on to things was close to the bird's chest and the leg seemed as though it could move. The other leg was stretched out and didn't really move at all.



Eva's advice for me was to give it some sugar water. I think she said a quarter cup of water for a quarter teaspoon of sugar. I diluted the sugar even more then that and then tried to feed it to the bird. The bird regretably refused to drink my sugar water I had made for it. The next thing I tried to give to the bird for energy was bird seed which it also rejected. After the bird seed I tried to feed the bird a worm. This was particularly difficult for me because I had been saving all the worms that I found while I was digging by relocating them. It was tough to feed the bird a worm when it was alive and still wiggling for dear life. But in the end the bird rejected the worm too.



I wasn't sure what to do at this point. The bird rejected everything I tried to feed it. The next step that I took was to call Nirelle's daughter, Betsy. She also said that there was not much you could do for birds but recommeded that I call an animal rehabilitation service. So I then pulled out the phone book and looked up animal rehabilitation onle to find that there was no service mentioned in the book only animal control. I called animal control on the offchance that they would give me another number to call which they did. I then called the new number and a lady picked up the phone. She told me that she had too many cases for that night and asked if I could possible bring the bird by in the morning.



I agreed to her request but asked how I should keep the bird overnight. She instructed me to get a box and put paper towels in it and keep it in a dark, quiet place. I couldn't find a box so instead I grabbed a basket and put paper towels in it. This bothered me becuause I was also told not to use a particular material for the basket because the bird could get its tallons caught (I don't remember what specific material it was); why wouldn't the bird get it's tallons stuck in paper towels? So I also put some hay in the basket. I put my fingers in the center of the basket and spread them out towards the edges of the basket to make something similar to a next.



At this point it was getting pretty dark, so I didn't bother with putting the bird in a dark place. I then waited until morning to bring the bird into town. I woke up around 6 and figured it would only take me about 20 to 30 minuets to get ready and about 30 minutes to deliver the bird. This would then give me another 30 minutes to get back to work and I would half an hour early. Unfortunately on the directions that I had printed out There was a road listed called "Swamp Rd.". This road didn't really exist, it was simply call "Swamp Rd." by the locals. So while going there: I passed the road, figured I went to far and turned back, and didn't see it on the way back. Figuring I missed the road twice I decided to stop and ask a local about the road. They told me to go back from wense I came and it would be on the left. What they neglected to tell me was that the road was simply called swamp road by the locals and was actually called Peter something.

I ended up driving for another 30 minutes before I found the place. I had to ask another person for directions. He also gave me directions to Swamp Rd. and not Peter something but in his directions he directed me to the road I needed to be on in the end. I delivered the bird to the lady and drove back to work. I was 30 minutes late, not 30 minutes early.

Love
Thomas

I'm Still Learning

Hi Everyone,

I have spent the last hour trying to connect my picture with my draft.  Sorry I sent the picture three times.   Happy, Happy Birthday Marie!!!  Here is the rest of my draft.  Laura left for Mongolia about 1 pm today.  She met most of the people in her group in Chicago and said that they all seem great.  The flight to China will be 17 hours and then another 3 hours to Mongolia.  Please keep her in your prayers.  If she is able to send emails I will be sure to forward them to you.

Nathan and I went to Indy to pick up a few birthday gifts for Chris.  It was one of Nathan's last days of summer vacation.  Football two-a-days start on Monday.  When I talked to Dad this morning he told me he went to exercise class from 9:30 to 10:00 am.  Way to go, Dad!!!  You are a real inspiration to us all!!!    

I love you all.......and Happy Birthday Marie,

Betsy

PS   The picture was taken last Friday right before Laura left for Chicago.  We were celebrating          her 24th birthday which will be Sunday the 3rd.

ABC'S

We spent a wonderful weekend with our friends and Sophia's godparents in Noblesville, IN. We did some initial neighborhood searching and determined commuting wise what will work for us. We also want to check out some neighborhoods in Fishers. I updated our family website with lots of pictures so feel free to check it out: www.xanga.com/aandbmiller

Happy Birthday Marie

Hi Everyone,

First off I want to say......Happy Birthday Marie!!!  I hope you are having a GREAT day and that it is the start to an extra special year.  WE LOVE YOU

1st one from Libby.

Hey guys!

Its Libby, and I just got the link to the blog and figured I should try it out. Nothing is too special tonight. The most interesting part of the day so far for me was listening to my mom put the twins to bed. Its funny, that always happens to be the best part of my day b/c the twins always come up with new excuses as to why they shouldn't go to bed. Todays was the best.

Annie is over at a friend's house right now, so I plan to watch an "Indiana Jones" movie, though I haven't figured out which one yet.

<3 Libby

Yarra's 1st Birthday

Hi everybody!!!

Above are a couple recent pics. Yarra (our dog who is named after a beautiful wine valley in Australia) just had her first birthday. She spent literally hours chewing that bone! The last pic is a pic from our trip to Muncie - where Bob took us to late night dinner. Thanks again Bobo!

Jim & Kirsten

Getting a little closer to Indiana

The last week and a half has been almost as crazy as the rest of the summer. We had an inspection of our house and there are some things we have to fix but no deal-breakers (we think). For any homeowners in the family, the inspection uncovered a rot problem with Anderson windows (vintage 1993) that is no longer covered by the warantee (of course). Email me if you need any more info. Luckily the inspection on the new house was not a problem, just a couple of relatively minor things.

Jim got a placement at a large high school outside Indy. The teaching fellows program decided to share the wealth with other schools that fit the profile of their mission. He will be teaching chemistry at Ben Davis High School in Wayne township (I didn't know he had a chemistry minor until a couple of months ago, either). He is really excited, and the district has been very professional and organized so far. He drove home Sunday and back today (Tues) so that he can meet with HR tomorrow and go to the new teacher orientation on Thursday. We had hoped he would have more time at home this trip, but knowing that he is getting settled with a job makes it a lot easier. Luckily he has a few more days off before the in-service, so we decided to fly him home Friday and back again on next Tuesday. We really miss him around here!!!

We are set to close on the MD house on Friday, Aug. 8 at 1 and on the Fishers house on Monday, Aug. 11 at 10 or 11. The movers are scheduled for a lunchtime move-in. Let's hope and pray all goes smoothly - we're scheduled pretty tight.

The schools in Fishers have been pretty accommodating so far. They have some stringent rules about residency but have an appeals process that we were able to take advantage of. The kids will be starting on the third day of school and a full two weeks before their friends out here.

I'll keep you posted as things develop ...

Love,

Peg and crew

Biking from Canada to Syracuse

I had planned accouple weeks ago to go on a bike trip which would have been about 130 miles from Pumpkin Island which is near Gananoque to Syracuse. Due to scheduling conflicts I was not able to get a ride up to the island. Now sometime in the next three weeks I should be able to go on this biking trip. In terms of mechanical/repair equipment I'm planning on bringing a spare innter tube, a tool to take a tire off of a bike, and a bike pump which can use either CO2 containers or can manually be pumped. In terms of nurishment I'll be bringing a 1.5 liter Camelback filled with water, protein shake mix, an electrolite formula, and some dehydrated foods. These things will most likely get me through the journey. I'll also bring a tent, should I need to stop half way at some point, and a cell phone for emergency purposes. For navigation I'll have to aquire maps and a compass. I have a cyclometer for distance and pace.

This will be an interesting ride. I'm told it should be mostly flat with the exception of one area. I may be riding alongside lake Ontario for some of the distance. The most important part about this ride is that it will give me a good idea of what I will be capable of accomplishing. I will also be able to use this ride as a reference point for when I plan my biking trip across the country, which I have already started planning for. Thus far I've done some reading on the necessary steps which need to be taken. The more I read about it the safer it seems to be. Currently I plan on doing the tour with between 15 and 25 lbs of luggage. I am also going to make plans for this trip as if I were going alone; but, would be more then willing to go with a small group if people show interest. I should have more on these plans in the future.

Love
Thomas

update from Rick and Amy

Hello there all!

I wanted to add one great photo of the McEvoys. I though it was very cute!

Abby and Chrissy took swimming lessons last week and the week before. We were amazed at how they grew in their confidence in the water! Chrissy didn't even like to put her face in the water in March, and now you will see pictures of her jumping off the high dive. She is a high dive maniac! She is also swimming really well under water now. :)

Abby was tentative on the high dive, just like her mom at that age, but she conquered her fear and jumped off anyway, several times! She still perfers the low dive, but can do the high dive too! She can also now swim about 1/2 a lap without having to touch! Way to go Abby!

Tim loved the water too! The pool allowed the sibblings to "swim" in the kiddie pool during lessons. He still asks to go to "swimming wessons."

The last picture is of the kids with a bunch of thier friends that they swam with . It was great that we could have them learning together!

Update from Laura

Hi everyone!

Well I am done with my summer internship at Beasley & Gilkison law firm in Muncie. I cannot believe how fast it went! Although I wasn't sure how much I'd like working in Muncie, the internship and summer turned out much better than I ever expected.

I'm in Chicago now--in a recording studio listening to Eric and his band, called MacGuffin, record a demo CD. They are actually really good! To me (and I'm sure Eric will disagree) they sound like a mix between Modest Mouse and Radiohead. Eric plays the drums and comes up with a lot of the ideas for music. His older brother and his brothers two best friends also play in the band. As soon as I get my camera plugged into the computer, I'll get pictures up of the studio. Their motto is "If it sounds good, play it."

On Thursday morning I'll be heading out to Mongolia! I fly from Chicago to Beijing (17+ hours) and then from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (3 hours). The trip is 18 days and I recruited 11 other people. 3 are from Canada, 1 woman from Singapore, 2 from North Carolina, 3 from Boulder, 1 guy from Chicago, and 1 guy from Portland. I think we'll bring a lot of hard work to the people of Darkhan, Mongolia and have a lot of fun at the same time. Pictures to come after Aug. 18th.

Hope all is well the Woehlke family!
Laura

Outing to Ivanhoes!

Betsy, Dad and I went to Ivanhoe's in Upland for dinner and ice cream this afternoon and evening. We tried to be moderate in our dinner choices in order to leave plenty of room for one of the LITERALLY one hundred choices of sundaes or one hundred shakes. True to his German heritage, Dad chose the Black Forest sundae - chocolate ice cream, crumbled chocolate cookies, a lake of hot fudge and a man's handful of cherries! By the way, Coke didn't pay us nearly enough for the product placement in this picture.

The next time you are in central Indiana, be sure to remind us to take you to Ivanhoes.

Moving Stones is Hard

Today I probably spent about 5 hours: digging a trench which was about 6" deep, filling it with gravel, putting a weed barrier on, putting black sand on top of the weed barrier, putting a guard in where the stones are suppoed to lean against, placing stones on top of the sand, checking the pitch of the stone slabs, picking the slab back up, readjusting the sand to allow for the slabs to sit with the proper pitch, placing the stone back on the sand, checking the pitch of the stone slabs, picking the slab back up, readjusting the sand to allow for the slabs to sit with the proper pitch, placing the stone back on the sand, checking the pitch of the stone slabs, picking the slab back up, readjusting the sand to allow for the slabs to sit with the proper pitch, placing the stone back on the sand, checking the pitch of the stone slabs, picking the slab back up, readjusting the sand to allow for the slabs to sit with the proper pitch, placing the stone back on the sand, checking the pitch of the stone slabs, picking the slab back up, readjusting the sand to allow for the slabs to sit with the proper pitch, placing the stone back on the sand, and checking the pitch of the stone slabs.

On the plus side I got to wear a really cool straw hat.

I'm tired.

Love
Thomas

An Inactive Day at Work

Well today has been one long, fairly boring day at work. Unfortunately I haven't had anything to do since 10:30ish. So as a result I typically read the NY Times online and browse the internet for things to buy only to find that there is nothing I want to buy (on the internet anyway). I also get huge eating cravings were I walk around the office looking for things to devour. So far today I've had a jelly donut, two muffins, a coconut donut, and a bagel (key words being "so far"). There is still one bagel left I could potentially eat. I didn't put any cream cheese on the bagel which is a plus I guess. I think what I should do is erect a sign saying I'm within half a mile of the office, leave my cell number on it, and go biking at my leisure. I have also though about constructing a poking stick which I could use to prod my bosses if they don't have any work for me to do; it probably wouldn't be very well recieved.

I did actually manage to adjust my front break on my bike, it still isn't entirely to my liking but I'll need to do some research on how to properly adjust breaks. Nate told me there are some good You Tube videos for maintaining and tinkering with bicycles, I'll have to check them out. I'm also starting to look at the toe clips on my bike pedals and am noticing that the straps which hold my feet in are starting to fray. I should probably fix that before I get into a horrible disabilitating accident.

Otherwise there is not much left to post today. I still need to post some pictures. I may or may not get to this later today. After I get back to the house I'll be digging a 5" trench and filling it with gravel so I can then put some sandstone on top of it; I think it's sandstone anyway, it seems to soft and unslate-like to be slate.

I guess on my way back I'll stop by the bike store to check and see what all they think I need to do to prepare for a 130 mile ride. I think in two weeks I'm going to ride from Gannnoque Canada back to Syracuse. Allan (the man of the house/host) doesn't seem to think the ride is a good idea; but if I'm going to ride across the country I certainly hope a 130 mile ride would be a cakewalk. I'll have to bring an extra chain, a tire tube (lube?), as well as the obvious essentials. I'll also need to find a detailed map of region 7 (I think it's region 7).

I hope this e-mail is relatively error free.

Love
Thomas

Driving Home

Well I've made it back to Syracuse safely. Unfortunately I lost my wallet on my way back for those of you who don't already know. I think I'm going to burn all of my pants that do not have pockets. Because of the wallet incident I decided to stay for a night in Cleveland. I got their on Monday night which is coincidentally the night that Leanne (I hope this is spelled correctly) teaches yoga. She invited me to her class which I decided to participate in. Yoga is very interesting and involved more strength then I originally thought. The stretching wasn't as painful or as difficult as I thought it would be but at the same time I did sweat a considerable amount. I should have thought twice about wearing a cotton shirt. After yoga we ate dinner and after dinner Leanne made me a homemade juice. It was very pulpy and very green. It was surprisingly good and apparently considerably healthy. Anyway I should probably get back to work.

My wallet was found by somebody who lives in Canada and should have been sent back to me in Syracuse via UPS. My cards were cancelled a few hours after I lost it and yesterday I realized I had a card in my wallet with my bank account numbers in it so I had the accounts frozen until the numbers changed yesterday. On the plus side of all this I found that my bank changed me $20.00 for the monthly advantage plan (which I can't really utilize at this point); so I had them refund the fee and take me off the monthly advantage plan. There were no attempts to access any of my accounts or use my magical goodies creator (credit card).

I'll hopefully post some pictures in the near distant future.

Thomas

Oatmeal Success!

We have recently conquered oatmeal with both the kids. Sophia is now eating baby oatmeal! Also, Caleb was curious about what Sophia was eating so we made him some "Big Boy" oatmeal of his own. He loved it! We've had a couple showings on our house this week so keep up the prayers for us everyone!

Love,
Andrew, Bridget, Caleb & Sophia

Caleb 19mo.
Sophia 3mo.

New Pictures from Betsy

 We had a great time in Chicago!




 The twins turn 6
I think the favorite memory for all of us will be the night of the 4th.  We went up to the top of the John Hancock building and had drinks and watched fireworks from the suburbs of Chicago go off BELOW us.  It was magical.  Thanks to Jim McEvoy for keeping Dad company while we were gone.

Here's Sophia's latest trick...

Matt & Meg Wedding/Honeymoon Re-cap

Meg and I can't wait to see you guys later this month for the open house. We took so many pictures in Aruba and are excited to share them with you.

The wedding went very well...as you might of heard we had a scare with the weather, but just as the ceremony was about to begin the sun came out and the skies turned blue. It made me think Grandma had something to do with it :)

Here are some of the best pictures from the rehearsal dinner and honeymoon.

Meg and I on our last night in Aruba

Me on the "cliffs" near our condo

Meg on our balcony overlooking the pool and the beach.

Our farewell sunset (actual picture)