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It’s been a while since my last post. I left off with
the upcoming Crippled Critter Benefit hosted by Dixie Thunder of Aiken
County where I am a member and have lots of great buddies.
Riders on the Crippled Critter Benefit Run
The economy has hit everyone and this years event was a little
slow. The regulars who show up every year were there, Karen and
Richard who always work really hard for this event. They are both
animal lovers and have been to my kennel and know what kinds of needs
we have. Both took part in the wheelchair ramp build and when
they were here were eager to get started on the kennel expansion.
Richard (Red Ball Cap) at the Iron Horse where the run ended.
Karen and Rick at Hozes where the run started from
I had seen Donna at GoodWill the day before the event. I was
there trying to find some new clothes since every picture always has me
wearing the same clothes, either my Green Word to your Mother tee or my
Brown Love the earth one…I wanted something a little
different…anyhow she was looking forward to seeing Ginger the
elderly doxie and I let her know the old gal would be there.
Gingers tail went to wagging when she recognized Donna coming in from
the run and it was a nice reunion.
Donna and Ginger at Iron Horse where the run ended
Rick was in town and wasn’t expected to be here for the event
as things turned out I got to hug my sweet Rebel Troll, he came to the
event, spent some time with Ginger and it was just cool to hang out
with him again. Rick has always been a great help to me, he and
my son have tackled a few projects together, they built the kennel
wheelchair gate and made a huge dent in the ramp build before the rest
of the crew got here. Rick has helped my son wire up some out
door lights so I could get around the yard safely and has brought me
truckloads of savaged things like insulation, some filing cabinets
desks for my office…oh my this a salvage King for me to
worship. I love the reduce/reuse/recycle and salvage ways of
doing things. The wheelchair ramp, gate and 99% of my repair and
rebuild projects have been done with salvage and recycled items that
friends of Dixie Thunder have helped me obtain.
Rick (Rebel Troll) Becky and Ginger, Sidney is in the cage. At Iron Horse where the run ended.
Fred brought his 3 legged pup Misty. This was the first time
there was another crippled critter besides the ones I bring. This
was awesome and I hope Misty comes again next year. She is a
beautiful gal. Fred rescues reptiles and always supports the
Crippled Critter Benefit.
Beautiful 3 legged Misty and her family. Misty went on the Crippled Critter Run and enjoyed the day.
Judy came in from the run tired as one could be, but she made it as
she always does. Father Time and Bubba of course came, they have come
every year and it was great to see them. Many others whose names
escape me came for the event and we thank everyone for their time and
help. While we can’t start the kennel expansion project
there are many smaller things we needed to tend to and are able to take
care of before winter.
Judy had rescued a
little kitten with a paw injury and brought him to our shelter last
year. He grew up nice and healthy and was rehomed as a rural cat
where he would have room to roam. Kennel confinement was not his
satisfaction.
We immediately went out and bought a good supply of the much needed
high quality natural canned cat food for some of our special feed
cats. Got Ginger into the groomer to have her claws tended to and
ears cleaned. Ordered a back up supply of our dehydrated raw pet
food so we will not run short between shipments. Picked up
another carrier to use as a solitary feed cage for one of our cats who
is on special feed. We have some repair projects we need to tend
to to get the kennel office ready for winter so we got a reciprocating
saw on sale at Harbor Freight. We need to finish one more wall in
here then we will apply some epoxy floor resin to the floor and bring
the resin up several inches onto the walls so we can get use better
kennel cleaning products and get a good flush of the floor without
risking damage to the wood.
The existing kennel needs some repair, we need to get some guy wires
to support one of the kennel walls and need to replace a few cross
beams because they have collapsed and the cats are finding the gaps to
tear open the netting and get out. They love to get out and get
into the woods in our back yard where they have room to run, climb and
do what cats do. Where I live though, this is illegal. Once
we have the yard opened up they will have two trees they can
climb. They can’t climb the tree that is in here now as the
kennel wall is close to the tree and if we allow them to climb the tree
they will get out of the kennel. Once we expand the kennel walls
will be too far from the trees for them to jump out of the kennel so
they will have their trees again.
As for our ongoing projects, my son completely rebuilt the utility
room floor. This time we have a layer of plywood as the sub floor
and a layer of OSB on the top and it’s is sealed up. We are
going to put an epoxy floor covering in the utility room. After
we finish the office there should be enough left over for this tiny
room.
Boys did a good job
installing the new utility room floor. We used some recycled metal from
an old appliance to sandwich between layers of flooring to give
strength to the areas that hold the washing machine and the water
heater. This floor is now solid enough to hold anything. Next step is
to apply seal it against future possible water damage and put the
appliances back in.
The left over wood from the utility room repair was just enough to
allow us to completely rebuild a bathroom floor. Picking up the
reciprocating saw to saw out some of the bad beams in the kennel helps
us in the area because now we can properly cut that horrid particle
board out of the bathroom and lay down some real plywood in there.
Bathrooms should never have carpeting laid directly over particle
board! Ok that is just my opinion, but dripping bodies coming out
of a shower stall or toilets that occasionally overflow..where does
that go when you have carpeting in a bathroom? Uh…it seems
down into particle board where it stays forever. Well, now that
particle board is coming up, plywood is going down and this bathroom
will have a floor that will not absorb water from dripping bodies or
that never intended…yet always seems to happen…toilet
overflow. Whoever remolded this house for the repo sale evidently
did not consider that a real family would live here. The fix ups
were little more than itty bitty band aids designed to look good for
sale but fail miserably after purchase.
A friend sold us a lawnmower, well he didn’t actually sell it
we had to nearly twist his arm to take some money, but he eventually
gave in and let us buy it rather than accept a gift. My son
quickly tamed the front yard. Our weed eater is still out of
commission though. We had to get rid of all our weed eaters we
had on hand for spare parts…part of that ordinance that
doesn’t allow you to live within your means because it disturbs
your neighbors. So now we don’t have any spare parts mowers
or weed eaters and can’t afford to pay for repair so we are
saving up to buy another cheap one to handle the job this year.
Because we can’t salvage the discards of neighbors to use as
spare parts we wind up having to buy a new cheap one every year.
We just couldn’t afford to buy another one this year though and
the new mower needs a new blade in order to tackle the back yard which
is mostly brush, not grass.
We need to install Privacy Fencing!
This privacy fencing is very important, not only for the animals but
to allow me a wheelchair accessible space while we are working on
fixing the mobile home for handicap accessibility. Modifying a home is
not as simple as making doors wider and lowering cupboards. This will
take time and money and will happen very slowly.
I have an office where I spend 16+ hours a day, it also doubles as a
building where I care for animals. Dixie Thunder of Aiken County built wheelchair ramps
so me and animals can travel safely between this building and my
bedroom so I have a safe and accessible set of rooms to use but the
ramps seriously reduced the size of the kennel and there is no room for
anything else. Those who built the ramp are very interested in
expanding the kennel. We have the support and offers of labor, we
just need the materials.
We are mostly vegetarian by dietary restriction for medical issues,
due to many food allergies we must eat safe foods but the cost of these
foods are growing very expensive. We can handle this with wheelchair
accessible raised gardens but we need access to the entire yard to do
this. We can handle several major issues with a simple property privacy
fence, but the fence must be in compliance with county ordinances and
this raises the cost of materials. The benefits to full property
privacy fencing are:
– Handicap accessibility to a large space that can be used for growing food, cooking food
– Hand washing and drying laundry to reduce electrical costs,
– Collecting salvage building materials and other materials that can be used for repair projects
– Storing recyclables which is responsible and offers small cash to go towards other needs
– Composting, especially since we are a mostly green family
–Organic waste control of animals through natural decomposition
which is only safe and beneficial when there is enough space for the
animals. Bluntly put, animal matter in a small space is not healthy to
anyone. To control this we need to buy hay and shavings for organic
breakdown. Having a larger yard with grasses and plants and recycling
our own grass clippings is safer and seriously reduces cost and odor.
– Natural habitat for animals. We are a green family and we also
keep our animals as close to nature as possible. Cats like grasses and
bushes especially rescued hard strays and ferals who don’t really
care for buildings and in most cases don’t like humans much
either. Cats do eat some plant matter and we would like to be able to
grow cat friendly herbs since we keep them on as close to an all
natural diet as possible.
– Proper feed station for animals. Right now we have a raised
table for general population feeding but my caged feeders must be
inside a building to feed. We would like them to be a part of the
general population as much as possible by having an outside enclosed
hutch style feed station for those that require special foods. This is
something we can build on our own, but we do need land space to build
it on.
– Better exercise for the elderly or disabled. The current kennel
that was once large enough, is not longer large enough for adequate
exercise for elderly or disabled animals. Pavement is also not a good
place for animals to walk so we don’t walk them on the road. We
can of course have them walked outside of the kennel in the yard but
for an animal already limited these forced walks are not enjoyable and
are more stressful. An animal is happiest when they can move freely
when and where they choose to go.
All the way around,
a full property kennel which is also a privacy fence is beneficial to
all humans and animals in our household and will enable us to take care
of many other issues on our own.
If you are willing to give a hand we do have have a Chip In page set up.
If you would prefer not to give cash, offers of Lowes or Home Depot Gift cards would be of great help too.
If you wish to donate materials only we need 6 foot tall stockade
fence panels of the least expensive variety that will enclose an acre
of property and we need the posts and hardware to install this.
We have no issue with recycled fence panels if you know someone who is
tearing down a stockade fence. The idea is privacy, code
compliance and durable enough for large dogs.
http://rayhawk.chipin.com/kennel-modifications
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