Re: What are you doing today?

by Peachy Mon 05 Jun 2017, 9:39 am

Oh, I love your room. Super cute! Unfortunately for us, we're smack dab in the middle of the Midwest, so it was just a river beach. Razz

by MesaMouse Tue 13 Jun 2017, 5:13 pm

I hope that there are a lot of fans of Explore.org, the website with all the nature cams. There are cameras that track animals on African preserves, follow brown bears feeding on the salmon run in Alaska, cover osprey nests in Montana, Maine and Maryland, a puffin burrow nest and guillemot rock nest in Maine, etc, etc, etc. All of the camera operators are volunteers who work from home on their own computers. As of today, I am officially CamOp Bee, assigned to the Farm Sanctuary cameras...all 7 of them! As I've always an absolute fool for farm animals, especially goats (no chance to own one growing up in New York City Laughing

), Farm Sanctuary has been my favorite since it went online in January so I was delighted to be assigned there. Just a warning, though: once you start nosing at the dozens of cameras offered...you're hooked and will be spending more time than you thought possible watching them! For those of you with children, it's an engaging teaching tool but can be scary and heartbreaking, too. Last season, one of the Maine osprey chicks was snatched from the nest by an eagle and the stronger of the two guillemot chicks, in essence, killed its sibling to ensure that it received more food. The cams provide an excellent glimpse into the lives of animals many of us will never see in person (farm animals excepted, heh heh) so check 'em out.

by AnonymousMouseOwner Tue 13 Jun 2017, 7:33 pm

MesaMouse wrote:I hope that there are a lot of fans of Explore.org, the website with all the nature cams. There are cameras that track animals on African preserves, follow brown bears feeding on the salmon run in Alaska, cover osprey nests in Montana, Maine and Maryland, a puffin burrow nest and guillemot rock nest in Maine, etc, etc, etc. All of the camera operators are volunteers who work from home on their own computers. As of today, I am officially CamOp Bee, assigned to the Farm Sanctuary cameras...all 7 of them! As I've always an absolute fool for farm animals, especially goats (no chance to own one growing up in New York City ), Farm Sanctuary has been my favorite since it went online in January so I was delighted to be assigned there. Just a warning, though: once you start nosing at the dozens of cameras offered...you're hooked and will be spending more time than you thought possible watching them! For those of you with children, it's an engaging teaching tool but can be scary and heartbreaking, too. Last season, one of the Maine osprey chicks was snatched from the nest by an eagle and the stronger of the two guillemot chicks, in essence, killed its sibling to ensure that it received more food. The cams provide an excellent glimpse into the lives of animals many of us will never see in person (farm animals excepted, heh heh) so check 'em out.

Yay, congratulations! Is it as hard as you thought it was going to be?

And aw, poor little Spirit, I was really into the cams when that happened Sad

by MesaMouse Sat 17 Jun 2017, 1:12 pm

AnonymousMouseOwner wrote:
Yay, congratulations! Is it as hard as you thought it was going to be?

Yes, Anonymous, it can be very hard at times, particularly when there are tour groups at the Farm as we're not supposed to show people on camera (other than Staff or Volunteers and they are aware that the cameras exist -- don't know if visitors are aware, though). Nowadays, people will sue you at the slightest provocation so I imagine we (or Farm Sanctuary) could get hit with a lawsuit if someone didn't like the way their butt looked on camera or if they were having a bad hair day and we caught it! There were 2-3 tour groups this morning, first at the Turkey Barn then the Sheep Barn and then again at Turkey. At least with the Turkey Barn, you can try to swing the cam to the interior of the barn if the tour is outside or to one of the far reaches of lawn if they're inside; however, with the Sheep Barn, there's nowhere to go when people are wandering around, petting sheep and goats, squatting or sitting down by an animal, etc. I was exhausted within the first 30 minutes this morning! The third group came through just before my shift ended so I forewarned the next CamOp and she moaned 'Oh, no! There's nowhere to go at the Sheep Barn!" so I'm not alone in my lack of joy at seeking tour groups. Much quieter during the week but that will probably change now that school is out and families are taking little day trips. The best shift is the last one of the day, 2-4pm Pacific time, 5-7pm Eastern time (where the Farm is) so I look forward to my Sunday shift-- most of the animals are enjoying the waning sunshine and are heading back to their barns after spending the day grazing, tours are over for the day and the lighting is absolutely gorgeous over the fields!

by Peachy Sat 01 Jul 2017, 10:56 pm

Listening to all the people taking advantage of our new, lax firework laws. And crying. Edit: Ah, apparently our city only allows them on the 4th. That's good news.

Super into "international" movies lately (ones in English anyway, I look away too often to follow movies with subtitles and foreign languages Rolling Eyes

). Mostly because of the accents! My husband and I like to ask each other (and our kid and our cats and whoever happens to be around), "Have you checked your twitter?" in all the bad accents we can think of. Neither of us have a twitter, but twitter is the best word to practice with. Giggling

by CallaLily Sun 02 Jul 2017, 10:14 am

My husband and sons went around for months talking in (really bad) British accents. Everywhere. It can be embarrassing for me. I much prefer to get in and out of public places unnoticed but my husband especially seems to like drawing attention. Bad accents, crazy dancing, singing, etc. Once when Twilight had recently come out, he created this loud scene in which he screamed and started sobbing happily while clutching the Jacob and Edward dolls at Target. All an act. He was never into those books/movies. I kept walking. Laughing

by Peachy Sun 02 Jul 2017, 1:01 pm

Lol! I keep my goofy out of public too. They sound like a fun bunch!! Rofl2

My dad liked to pull his pants waaaay up over his shirt and take up a drawl every time we went to the store. Rolling Eyes

by CallaLily Fri 07 Jul 2017, 5:18 pm

Today's the last day of caring for some of my MIL's animals. I did the rabbits, cats, birds, fish, and watered the plants. She had someone else doing the horses, sheep, goat, and dogs. It's been fun but I'm glad it's not my every day routine. Razz

One of the buns has been sick, so I brought him home with me so I could keep a better eye on him. Boy do rabbits poop a lot. Laughing

And I can't tell if he's annoyed with me or excited about the extra attention. He makes quiet noises when I pet him (the same he makes when he eats) and snatches things from my hands. He goes home tonight. I'll miss him but I won't. Laugh

by scaredymouse Fri 07 Jul 2017, 5:46 pm

i love animals so much, i just want all of them. But obviously that would be a little too much work. on the top of my list are guinea pigs, rats, and fish. I love a rabbit but they shouldn't be housed near chinchillas because they carry some type of bacteria that is deadly to chins.

Alex from the pipsqueakery invited me to visit, so I am going to be in animal heaven for a weekend later this summer. I'll be up to my eyeballs in hamsters, rats, guinea pigs, chinchillas, gerbils, and mice. I'm so excited!

by CallaLily Fri 07 Jul 2017, 6:00 pm

Me too, but I knew before this that buns arent really for me. Neither are guinea pigs. Both absolutely adorable and I'd never mind pet sitting either, but that's it.

I'd love to one day have gerbils, a hedgehog, land snails, some sort of frog though preferably not the aquatic ones I had before, and a roborovski hamster. GOATS! Yes definitely goats one day. I love them so much. Rats have been on my mind occasionally but from what I'm reading they sound even more fragile than mice. Undecided

I'm pretty well set at the moment though with pets. Maybe some day....we'll see.

That sounds fun! You'll have to tell us all about your trip!

by AnonymousMouseOwner Fri 07 Jul 2017, 6:08 pm

Scaredy, that sounds so neat! The Pipsqueakery is great, I follow them on Facebook, their hamsters and rats are just too cute! Hope you have a great time!

I want a lot of pets too, but I'm limited to only hamsters and mice right now for several different reasons. When I can though, which will probably be many, many years from now, I want ratties, rabbits, and I've always wanted an African soft-furred rat, but I need to move to another state to do that, lol. Guinea pigs sound like neat pets, but they are a ton of work too, they poop a lot lol.

I loved my rabbit, even if I only had him a few months. Rabbits are sweet, he was a little feisty at times though. I hear male rabbits that aren't fixed can be like that. When I opened the hutch and put a frozen water bottle in, he would go crazy scratching it and biting it, lol, I don't know why. One day I got him in the rabbit playpen (really a dog pen), and I sat in the pen with him, he laid down next to me and I petted him Love

How could anyone abandon such a sweet rabbit.

by Peachy Fri 14 Jul 2017, 1:27 am

My neighbors were moving today and I had my guinea pig out in his playpen while I cleaned his cage. The movers closed the back of their trailer and the pig flipped! He thrashed around and broke open his pen, then darted across the yard to hide under the pine tree. Those guys are quick when they want to be!

I've also started packing for vacation. It's still more than a week away, but it feels like I have so much to do! I want to get my clothes packed so I won't wear them so I won't have to do laundry again. Gonna wear my husband's clothes for the next 11 days. Razz

by scaredymouse Fri 14 Jul 2017, 5:20 am

guess what... i'm getting another hamster! lol. there is a very special hamster with a pretty profound disability that needs a home and when she was offered to me, I couldn't say no. provided she makes it though quarantine where she's at and isn't pregnant, I should get her at the end of the month. her name is Lidiya and she's an eyeless white Syrian. she doesn't have any eyes (she just looks like she's sleeping all the time), she's deaf and may/may not have some serious dental problems and she's albino. she's frickin adorable and she'll have a good home here.

by CallaLily Fri 14 Jul 2017, 7:39 am

Yay vacation! Yay new hamster! Cheer

I'm guessing you were able to catch the poor piggy, @Peachy? How scary!

by Peachy Fri 14 Jul 2017, 9:46 am

Another new hamster! How exciting. Bouncy

Thankfully Pigsly stopped running once he hit a pile of leaves. I guess the hides, boxes and "fleece forests" weren't as safe as a pile of leaves under a pine tree across the yard. Laughing

When we went back out to try the playpen again he spent the entire time hiding under my legs and eating grass instead of exploring.

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