Almost Raccoon Season!

It is almost RACCOON season! Two years ago I began rehabilitating baby raccoons, that had for some reason had lost their mother. It could be due to her being killed, or people finding babies in the attic. They call animal control to have them removed. If you find that a mother raccoon left her babies in your attic you can put a radio up there and play it loudly over night.  The mother will come back from hunting and remove her babies. That should be tried PRIOR to calling anyone. Before calling animal control google to see if you have a wildlife rehabilator  in your area. That would most like be less stressful for you and the animals. 

Ezra 10:4

Arise, for it is your task, and we are with you; be strong and do it. 






We feed them, clean them, cuddle with them, encourage them to swim and climb trees and that's just a start when working with baby wildlife. I am working under my friend, Debbie, who has a federal wildlife permit; I am a sub-permittee under her. She has been doing it I believe around 5 seasons. 

In 2011 around mid April I was visiting her and she had several sets of babies. Her phone rang a few times with more baby raccoons needing to be cared for until they could be released. Se asked if I wanted to do it...and later that afternoon I drove home with three 2 week old baby raccoons! So cute, so needing my care for several months and then would be released back into the "wild".

A New Beginning

Where do I begin a new blog? I recently purchased a new website, www.simplyfaithtx.com . I am building it now and will publish it once I have something decent out there to share.

Simply Faith is based on the concept of working as hard as you can, doing all you can to be successful and then Simply have Faith in God that it goes well. I make natural products, using simple recipes that I can offer to my friends, family and hopefully customers. We are in the beginning stages of this new venture, and I thought a blog logging our journey may be interesting. 

We began with making homemade soap. We gathered supplies from the craft store, Michael's, and some essential oils from Sunflower. In no time we had made an oatmeal & honey soap with oats to help remove dry skin. We made lavender glycerin soap with lavender buds too. However, after using them I was not satisfied, nor was I willing to put my name on the product! Back to the drawing board. I wanted to create our own soap base, not purchase it. After much research, we decided to sign up for a class based in north Waco. They had an old recipe and taught a day long class in soap making. Bingo!

Saturday, we take the much awaited class. I am really looking forward to it even if I have to get up at the crack of dawn to drive almost two hours! 

More on that later.

My friend, Debbie, and I been learning, reading, and taking classes on many topics. In general, how to become self sustaining. Learning how to grow our own produce, canning jams, preserves and jellies. We are working on Cheese making, making our own bread, laundry soap, and learning how to make our own baskets. I am considering buying land in the Texas Hill Country (beautiful!) and moving out so we can really become self sustaining. Researching various farm animals, visiting local farms...how far can two women from Chicago take this interesting life challenge?

Debbie and I met in an serendipitous way. I had recently been RIF'ed from SuperMedia, the old GTE yellow pages. I knew I didn't want to go back to corporate America, but where would I find work? I was on unemployment, and searching. I had worked for GTE more than 21 years...I love animals, nature, art, and working with children. Could I really make an income with any of that? I began volunteering at places I thought I may want to work. The Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, Fort Worth Nature Center and looking for other opportunities. In googling wildlife in North central Texas, I found, Metro Wildlife Rehabbers. I called and before you know it I was speaking to various women who rehabilitated bunnies, squirrels, opossums...they were interesting but not quite what my heart wanted. Bonnie suggested, I speak to Debbie, she rehabilitates raccoons. Perfect! I had a lot of interest in those smart, curious creatures!

The day we met, we realized we had a bunch of things in common. We are both from Chicago suburbs, both raised Catholic, her ex-husband worked at SuperMedia too, and yes, I knew him. So much in common, it had to be a sign! Neither of us believed in coincidence...so came the beginning of a new friendship. She was holding, well they were climbing all over her, three baby raccoons. I KNEW I wanted to do this!

My babies: Willie, Diana, & Kate