Then they flew the nest...

Boy do I feel guilty!  Right as I say I want to start blogging regularly, I take a 4 day hiatus.  I have legitimate reasons and will be back in it, starting today. 

Have you ever seen a baby bird from the time it was 2 days old till the time they have feathers and are flying around?  

This has been one of my life's greatest accomplishments.  I put my heart and soul into caring for these birds, they received hours upon hours of care and attention.  I spent hours upon hours reading blogs and bird websites to make sure that I was doing everything correctly.  I had my share of negativeness from people, "you need to take them to a wildlife rescue, you are not experienced enough to give them what they need".   Some of those comments hurt, struck me right in the heart and some days when the comments came flooding in like that I would think "am I doing more harm than good"?  My husband was a great support system throughout this process, without him I may have thrown in the towel, but I am glad I did not....for the full journey go to Fledgling Four.

Up until June 23rd-September 28th I have never seen life change so rapidly.  On June 23rd I received a text from my father in law,  "a nest of baby sparrows fell from the gutter, I will care for them tonight, will you take them?


2 or 3 days old, my "pinkies".

A little back story to how it all unfolded.
The nest was initially located at my in-laws house, up on a gutter at the very top of the house. It was a large nest, momma bird went in and out through a hole. After the baby birds hatched the nest must have been to large and it split in half and fell to the ground.... Two baby birds landed outside the nest and the others were still inside. My father in-law put the 2 that fell out back in and left the nest be, in hopes that momma would return.

She did, but back up to the gutter. Sparrows make their nests up high and after the babies hatch that is where they return. They will not look for them anywhere else. Momma bird returned all day to that gutter with worms for the babies, she never did find them.

The baby birds went unattended, with no food for about 6 hours. Then my father in-law stepped in. He did some online research and then ran to the store. He returned with cat food, the baby birds were fed mushed up cat food for the first 24 hours, it is full of protein and vitamins.

The baby birds were offered to me, Roy had to work on Monday and the birds need to be fed every hour throughout the day. This was a big decision for me. Do I want to dedicate myself to these birds for the next 21+ days? With obvious proof the answer was "yes". I picked up the baby birds at 7:15am Monday June 24th.....

 

....And that is where my journey began to check out the journey from the beginning check out the Fledgling Four a page I created to document the journey.

 

The first 3 weeks was grueling, time consuming care.  They were fed from a syringe every hour from 6am to 9pm sometimes, every 45 minutes based on their intake.  I enjoyed every minute of it though. 

I weaned them from formula to bird seed at about a month or so but continued to do one feeding a day of the formula. 

 

 

I kept the birds a bit longer than I should have, when you put everything you have into making sure they survive it is hard to open the latch and swing the cage door open to let them go. 

 

Yesterday was one of the hardest things I have ever done when I let go, I knew it would hurt but not as much as it did.  They are around my house, I am sure they have eaten with the neighborhood sparrows from my bird feeder already.  They were greeted with open wings yesterday, one by one as they flew out a group of sparrows would follow it and greet and they would come back and wait for another one to fly out.  It was an amazing thing to see as the birds were greeted by the other sparrows.  I will miss them but I know that they are here and I know I did the right thing yesterday as hard as it was to see them fly out the cage door, I knew it was time.  I will leave you all with some pictures

 Forever my "bebies"!

 

 

LIfe as I currently know it-

Blogtember; Life Lately Whoa, where to start?  It has been so crazy here in the Draino household, some days I wonder "what house have I just walked into"?  Then I realize, it is my house, it is what I have going on....craziness!  

I babysit our niece(4yo) and nephew (11mo) 5 or 6 days a week from 7:30p-11:30a it makes for long nights and even longer days and about 5 days a week I watch our other nephew (5yo) that lives with us while his mom works.  My hands are full, I enjoy it though, I love kids and always have and can not wait for Billy and I to announce one day, that finally it happened, until then I get my fix with our niece and nephews. 

Meet Collin one of our nephews, 5 yo.   He is little cutie, with the biggest brown eyes you will ever see.  He loves playing soccer, minecraft and going fishing with his dad.  He is my littlest best friend.

 

This is our niece Brooklynn, 4 going on 14.  A little spit fire, full of energy and attitude.  She is super active and loves her Barbies.

 

Now Brandon 11 mo.  He is learning to walk, feed himself and getting ready for his big Mickey Mouse birthday party.  He is one of the quickest crawlers I have ever seen and is so happy.

Brandon's 10 month "photo shoot".  Photos taken by me, with my point and shoot.



 

Now that the kids are out of the way, on to life!  Billy left today for the week to work out of town, we have not been away from each except for two nights since we have been together, even during all his health stuff, I was by his side in the hospital.  I miss him and it will be a long week and an empty bed.  

 

I have had an extreme interest in starting up my photography, pursuing the dream of having a studio, being able to provide quality photographs without charging an arm and a leg to do it. Few things need to happen first; I need to purchase a camera, take some classes and learn a lot before I can even call myself a photographer.  I have always loved to take pictures, there is something about capturing something that is right there, in that moment that you will never be able to get back.  I have my eye on the Nikon D5200, now to pull the trigger and purchase it.  I have been saving and am waiting for my next payment for babysitting to buy it.  I have spent countless hours comparing, holding and playing around with different brands of cameras, reading reviews and making sure this is the one I want.  With some guidance from a photographer friend, she swayed me from the D3200 to the D5200 and when I purchase it I am sure I will be very happy with it. 

 

 

 

 

September is what month?

Did you know that September is Ovarian cancer awareness month?  Did you also know that the color for Ovarian cancer is Teal? 

I knew for the longest time that the color was Teal, I never thought too much about it though.  Until I came across a great friend from the "September 2012 wives" group, Britt.  She fought Ovarian cancer and is now fighting to make more people aware of the "silent symptoms".

For the next week Britt is on a journey to Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise awareness for Ovarian cancer, for the Expedition of Hope I am so proud of all she has over come trying to get the word out about this specific cancer and she is so strong!  Before she left she posted a travel schedule for the climb. 

Map showing the routes that they will climb. Source of picture unknown.

 

Mon. Sept. 23 (Day 1): Moshi to Nale Muru to Simba Camp

Tues. Sept. 24 (Day 2): Simba Camp to Second Cave

Wed. Sept. 25 (Day 3): Second Cave to Third Cave...
Thurs. Sept. 26 (Day 4): Third Cave to Kibo Huts
Fri. Sept. 27 (Day 5): Summit Day! Kibo Huts to Uhuru Peak, reach summit after sunrise
Sat. Sept. 28 (Day 6): Horombo Huts to Marangu Gate

Britt and her husband Jano(he is doing the climb with her) and this is Mt. Kilimanjaro 

 

I live in a small town Coal City, IL and our town had hung up teal ribbons for "Turn the Town Teal".  To help bring the community together and bring awareness for Ovarian Caner. 

My nephew proudly showing off one of the neighborhood ribbons.

 

After seeing the support that my comunity showed for the month of September to try to bring awareness, I thought "could I get a couple Teal ribbons for myself"?  That I did, two of them.  I tried to hang them on the posts on my porch but I did not cut them long enough, so I tied them on my flower pots.

 

Until I met Britt, I did not even give this a second thought.  I now show my support for her and for all that have been affected by Ovarian cancer and for all that have fought this battle.  For more information on "Turn the Town Teal"  visit here.  Spread the word, this is a silent killer and we need to make more woman aware.