Cindy-- I had forgotten about those twin groups. My sister used to trade a lot of clothes that way when her girls were small. They are in their early 40s now and buy their own clothes! :lol: I do love waiting to see what "your" twins will have on in each new picture. They are so darn cute! Thanks for the new pictures of our other precious West coast baby! BobCat is truly gorgeous. I do really miss my 3 furry girls while I am up here in Michigan. Last year when I got home it took them a week to be nice to me!! :lol:

$9 peanut butter??? OMG!! That's awful!! I'm glad that you decided Pete was worth the cost though. Our fur kids ask so little of us don't they? San Antonio had always had pretty cheap groceries but the prices have been creeping up on everything there too......BUT...when I got up to Michigan I couldn't believe the prices. I really shop the sales here and that's what I eat. I will say that fresh fruit and veggie prices here are way less here than in Texas. I find that a bit I will say that peanut butter hasn't reached your heights!! Good thing because my husband's favorites are peanut butter AND sandwiches....almost anything woth PB---pickles, onions, tomatoes,,,you name it!!

Jan, Diane, Elaine, and Vicki----HI to all of you!! ( or all y'all!)

:hello: Morning Everyone :hello:

Mary ... I can't imagine a summer without my 'babies' ... we were only gone for a week and I was in withdrawal ... I always have my dog and cat radar on when we are away ... kitty and dog alerts are common coming from me ... If I should miss one, my husband always gives me a 'you missed one' remark ...

Yes, the twin groups thing has been wonderful as far as clothing goes for the girls. There is also a huge sale that happens twice at year the local fairgrounds that is called Just Between Friends. It's a huge sort of 'garage sale' ... but all kids stuff. I've never gone, but both of my kids have and gotten some great deals. They will both go when they have completed their families and sell the things they no longer need. Most people that go sell quite a bit. She also belongs to a forum, and they do 'exchanges' through the mail, and she also buys things 'used' ... she's learning how to really save with two to outfit constantly. :nod:

Groceries prices here are sky high ... but then I've been told that we have the highest gasoline prices in the nation as well. WA has so many taxes ... I've lived here almost my entire life, but this is getting crazy. We buy the generic store brand peanut butter for Pete, in the largest size as it is the best deal, and it is still so pricey. It seems odd that your produce would cost less in Michigan than Texas, but I suppose it depends on where it comes from?? Transportation costs add on $$. Seems everything thing is going up, up and up. I don't know how some families and people survive, as our wages stay the same or go down ... I took a 35% pay cut last year myself ... with this being my last year of teaching, I'm hoping to be able to pull in at least what I did last year. Time will tell. Being self employed can be pretty scary sometimes ...

Got those carpets done downstairs yesterday ... heading upstairs today ... may as well go for it as long as we are headed jor another nice day weather wise ... lots of

Oh .. the trikes do convert from a stroller type contraption all the way up to a regular trike. They will take the girls to the point of the little two wheelers with training wheels. Good for 10 months to 3 years old. That was the only way I could justify the cost, as they will use them for the next couple of years. And I love the red color!! If they should ever have a little brother, it will be easy to pass down verses the pink or purple colors ....

Oh ... the girls and their parents went to pick up their newest family member last evening. A little,cream colored poodle mix named Cooper. He is two years old, and a rescue from a high-kill shelter in CA. I told my daughter she must be nuts to take on a dog now too, but they figured it was a good time as her husband is home until the first week of September when school starts again. Her cats were unimpressed to say the least. First babies, and now a dog ... poor little cats.

Hope that everyone has a good day ... off to get busy here ...

Good Morning Everyone, :hello:

Cindy~~~It's wonderful to finally hear from you and that you and Don are healing and having fun. :nod: Gosh you sure have posted some really nice pictures also. That sure is a nice one of you, Don and the twins. Little Andrew looks like he was having a good time also. Darn, but Pete and Don look like they are ready to go in that Dune Buggy. That is really a sharp looking piece of machine there. I sure could go for one of those myself. :nod:

I can remember awhile back in the year where they said that peanut butter was going to go up. I had Greg buy some extra back then. That sounds like a terrible price that you paid. Of course with all the rotten weather everyone is having the prices will continue to rise. I'm now stocking up on canned goods when they are sale only. I have the storage space so I might as well get the things I know I'll use. I'm also watching my pennies as I am not sure how long my unemployment will last. :dunno:

Mary~~~Do you have any farmers markets up there? Things seem to be cheaper at those. Are you finding anything in those dumpsters or out by the road? My husband and I both like peanut butter as well as Sadie and Ginger. Like Cindy, I get the generic brand for the dogs.

My daughter is in Seattle right now and has really been seeing some wonderful sights. She even seen a eagle soaring around the other day. Well, I asked Greg yesterday if we could maybe go to this town south of us where we tried to find an eagle nest a couple years ago. We went there this morning and got to see three of them soaring around the sky. I just wish they would have come closer. Their nest is in the middle of a swamp, marshland type place and is on a little Island, so there was no way you could get closer. But all and all I really enjoyed watching them.

Well, I had better go see what I'm going to make for out lunch today. Wishing everyone a fun filled day.

:hello: Hi Elaine! :hello:

After my little about the cost of peanut butter, coffee, groceries in general and gasoline here in WA, it was just on the news last night that groceries will be going up at least another 5% soon :!::!: So double for that tidbit of information .... Of course it is blamed on the weather woes and transportation costs .... blah, blah, blah. Oh well ... guess maybe I'll lose a bit of the unwanted pounds just because I will refuse to pay the price for some of the things that I really don't have to buy .... However, the Petey will continue to get his peanut butter :nod: ... I simply must draw the line at cutting that out of my budget!!

I hope that your unemployment lasts until you head back to work ... you are going back to the apple packing plant, right??? I've been so out of the loop for so long, but maybe I missed something along the way here ....

We have local farmers markets here, and some of the fruits and vegetables are less expensive, but not all of them. Some of the markets are so popular as tourist attractions that they have fairly high prices in some instances. I put in tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and some pepper plants this year, but it was so late (after the 4th of July) that unless we get a nice warm September I may not get much ... but every little bit helps.

Seattle has had beautiful weather this past week or so ... your daughter hit the jackpot for that! We don't get much of a summer here in comparison to other parts of the country....they don't call us the Evergreen State for nothing It's all that rain and marine air ... makes for lush landscape for the most part, but people that like it dry and hot don't like it here at all .... We always say that our summer is two days long, and starts after the 4th of July ...

Had the opportunity to spend a few hours with my grandson this morning ... he is growing and changing so very quickly!! Just got home, have a few things to accomplish, and then it is off to figure out something quick and easy for dinner as I have my PT again this evening ... They really worked that knee over (trying to work on the tendons and breaking the scar tissue loose beneath the scar ) on Monday, so I'm sort of dreading going, but it will be the assistant this time, so maybe it won't be so brutal ...

The granddaughters are both sick right now ... terrible colds. But hopefully they will start feeling better soon. Oh ... they got a new little dog at their house two days ago! Cute little poodle/bichon frieze (sp??) mix about 2 years old out of a high kill shelter in CA. Cutest little guy, and well behaved, too. His name is Cooper. The girls (especially Katelyn) love him! And he loves them; constantly wants to kiss them, and will jump right into the stroller when they all go for a walk. Obviously has been around kids before. He doesn't even care much about the two cats in the household ... They, on the other hand, are a bit miffed. First babies, now a dog ... I think that they are wondering what they did to have their space invaded....

Take care, everyone!!

A Little-Known Fact

I'm guessing that by now many people have realized that we have a push on to raise what we can towards the expenses for the coming year while the eagles - and all of us who watch them - are still in residence. After all, we all want to see next year's tiny chicks up close and personal (clicks bigger) -



And we all want to watch them grow into handsome young eagles like the ones we're watching now (also clicks bigger) -



And I'm also guessing that you might think that our biggest single expense for the coming year is the cleaning, maintenance and upgrades for the cams on our three active nests.

But you'd be wrong.

The costs for servers, storage, bandwidth and network supervision is budgeted at $31,500 for the next year, which is almost $10,000 more than the cost for cleaning, maintenance and significant upgrades in equipment at our three active nests.

Now you might ask what we get for that investment. Well, one of the biggies is this forum and website.

We moved to the current forum in late 2009/early 2010 - so we've been here a bit over 2-1/2 years - and there are already almost 400,000 posts!

I could rattle on about the costs for the sort of internet service needed to send the cam signals to WildEarth for streaming while simultaneously allowing us to be logged in to control the pan-tilt-zoom cams we hope to have at all of our nests next year, or the other technical details - but my eyes glaze over just thinking about that - and I'm a techie!

So I'll just say that without all the infrastructure behind www.hancockwildlife.org, we wouldn't have a place to post or share our pictures and videos (almost 40,000 items in the Media Gallery so far, and maybe twice that many pictures attached to various posts) or get to know other people around the world who share our interest in - and love of - wildlife in general, and eagles in particular.

Forum member terrytvgal has a line in her signature that I've always liked - "I came for the eagles, and stayed for the friends I made."



The collage above (which clicks bigger) is a sampling of the friends I've made and people whose posts I enjoy on the forum. 1128 people have posted at least once in the past 2-1/2 years - and if even half of those folks signed up to donate $5/month through CanadaHelps or PayPal - that would cover our monthly expenses for servers, storage, bandwidth and the like. You can click the picture below to see the Five Easy Ways to Donate to HWF, one of which is through monthly donations.



Our thanks to all of you who support our work in various ways - and a special thanks to all of you who make our forum and website such an active, interesting, entertaining and informative place to visit.

(Credits: Thanks to Raining22 for the s'cap of Linux; Cococat9 for the s'cap of Sky, Starlet and Sorrior; AnniesKatz and byline for the pics of Echo and Foxy; and the White Rock archives for the "little chicks" picture; thanks to terrytvgal for the use of her signature quote; thanks to the 69 members whose avatars I used for the collage - and I wish I could have found a way to use them all.)

I don't have much, but will be sending in my donation soon to HWF!!
I seeing our and !!

Judy B, for the reminder of all that we enjoy!!

Good Afternoon Everyone, :hello:

Cindy~~~Darn, I forgot to tell you that I hope you get some pictures of Cooper. We'd love to see them. I'm working only a few hours on Mondays to do payroll for four people. I will be going back to work full time when the next years apple crop comes around. Probably in August 2013. It sure is strange going past orchard upon orchard and not see an apple on a tree.

I hope your physical therapist takes it easy on you. That sounds kinda yucky breaking scar tissue.

My daughter is having a wonderful trip. She went back to Seattle and into Oregon. She really liked Mount Hood in the cascade mountains. She also went to a place in Washington where you could see about five mountains at the same time. I just can't remember the name of the place. Right now she is on the coast of Oregon and has seen some whales. We've been keeping in touch by texting, but she has also called a couple of times.

My son has taken his youngest step son camping with him so I am now watching their dog. She's still pretty much a puppy and has a lot of energy. Way too much for Ginger & Sadie. I've been playing with her with the lazer light and she has been chasing it all over the place. At least it will tire it out a little. My cats aren't too thrilled about her, but I have a gate I put up so she can bug them too much.

Thought I had better catch up here as my yellow wax beans are about ready to pick and I'll be freezing them. I have been told that you can freeze tomatoes so I thought I would try that this year as I still have some canned ones from last year.

Hope to catch up with everyone later. Wishing everyone a wonderful day.