hello. It's nice to meet you all.

[Norbie]

Hello members,

My name is Kim.  I live in Upstate New York.  I'm posting to introduce myself to the group, although I'm quite sure I'll spend much more time reading and following your threads than posting myself.  I am just very happy to find like-minded people to converse with because I live in a very rural and isolated area where being an atheist is commonly thought of in a negative way.  It has taken me a long time to get to the point of embracing my freedom to be myself, but other than discussions with my husband (a devout atheist) I find it sometimes difficult to keep my head above any judgements and to remember that I don't have to allow others to define me.  So thank you for providing a place where those of us who feel this way can strengthen our ability to express ourselves.

My husband & I live just north of the Adirondack Park in upstate NY.  We love to go camping & canoeing.  We adore our family of fur-folk, which includes 9 cats, 6 dogs (mostly weiner dogs), and many raccoons who have made our farm their home.  We used to be wildlife rehabbers, and many of the released animals on our property came from the rehabbing network and they now live happily in our woods.  We live off the grid on solar and wind power.  We are musicians- well, my husband is... I'm just his bass player; but music is something that we love to share with each other.

I hope you are all well, & I look forward to reading what you have to say on this forum with deep interest.  Thank you in advance for letting me "lurk" about!

Peace,  Kim

[Tank]

Hello Kim

Welcome to HAF!

You are the first new member to introduce themselves since we changed forum software, so it may be a little fraught around here until people get used to the software. You may also find loads of dysfunctional links and at the moment I can't find a way to embeg YouTube videos. But I'm sure there issues will get resolved in the coming weeks.

I would love to see some photos of all those furry companions!

Regards
Chris

[The Black Jester]

Welcome to HAF!

[Maria]

Hello Kim.
Welcome to HAF.

[Norbie]

Hi you guys~ Maria, Black Jester, and Chris- thanks for your kindness. 

Chris, I'm trying to attach a picture of Moonpie & Gizzy- two of our sweetest furry companions.  But I'm not sure if I did this correctly.  I read about attachments in the help section (and even called an Apple support line), and it appears that I need to open my photo first in my computer's software, and then hit attach image.  But I can't tell if it really attached... I hope so.  If it works, this is our spoiled weiner dog-baby, Moonpie (I say baby, but he is now nearly two) and one of our orphaned raccoons, Gizzy.


I have a couple of http links from my facebook photos.  I hope it is OK to post them.  They are a public link.  The first is a wild raccoon who was hit by a car and needed rehabbing.   He is now healthy and returned to the woods; and the next is Moonpie & Gizzy again, swimming.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.1504629335715.2068564.1233699400&l=66279c2f2b
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.1504587374666.2068550.1233699400&l=286e062309

Kim

[The Magic Pudding]

Hello Norbie

You should meet KDbeads, she is the only person I (kind of) know who can actually set her own pack of hounds on you.
Some of them look pretty slow, but still I'm always careful to be nice to her.

[Whitney]

welcome to haf.

Running a wildlife rescue sounds like fun.

I'd also like to be off the grid at some point....or at least making enough power so that the grid pays me.  I think the payback time on solar and wind power should get shorter in the near future making it more practical for throw away society that can't see the point of investing in a building for 30+ years without gov tax breaks.

[McQ]

Welcome to the forum! Interesting lifestyle and if I may say, very enviable. I'd love to be off the grid. Hope you enjoy the forum.

[xSilverPhinx]

Welcome Kim!

[Tank]

I have a couple of http links from my facebook photos.  I hope it is OK to post them.  They are a public link.  The first is a wild raccoon who was hit by a car and needed rehabbing.   He is now healthy and returned to the woods; and the next is Moonpie & Gizzy again, swimming.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.1504629335715.2068564.1233699400&l=66279c2f2b
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.1504587374666.2068550.1233699400&l=286e062309

Kim

They're so cute! I'm a sucker for small and furry!

[Stevil]

I didn't realise racoons are so big.

Welcome.

[Cecilie]

Welcome!

I have a couple of http links from my facebook photos.  I hope it is OK to post them.  They are a public link.  The first is a wild raccoon who was hit by a car and needed rehabbing.   He is now healthy and returned to the woods; and the next is Moonpie & Gizzy again, swimming.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.1504629335715.2068564.1233699400&l=66279c2f2b
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.1504587374666.2068550.1233699400&l=286e062309

Kim

They're so cute! I'm a sucker for small and furry!

I never thought raccoons were cute.

[KDbeads]

Hello Norbie

You should meet KDbeads, she is the only person I (kind of) know who can actually set her own pack of hounds on you.
Some of them look pretty slow, but still I'm always careful to be nice to her.

I knew my ears were burning...........
I do have a pack of 4 bassets, the worst they'd do is lick you to death though..... or maybe lay on you or drool in your general direction.  I have 7 cats as well.  Nice to see someone with more animals than I have!!!!! 
Our goal is off grid, getting there very slowly.  Right now I can/dehydrate/etc all our food for the year.  Or at least all I can possibly get my hands on.  I need more jars....  We have chickens and right now I have 6 chicks that look like they are going to be cockerels when the get older.....  Roo stew anyone?  Thinking already about canning them after we process them.

Welcome to HAF

[Lizarda]

Hello Kim, just got on here myself, its weird i didnt think of this before lol

[Norbie]

eek!  I just lost my post trying to attach a picture.  I'll try again.

Hi Lizarda~  nice to meet you.  This is fun, it's nice to chat.  Since we have these 50 posts to do it gives us lot so chat time, although I really am enjoying reading the other threads.  Please tell me (us!) about yourself!

Hi KDbeads!  I've been meaning to reach out to you ever since you were mentioned in the thread. On another thread I saw that you were a basset person.  LOVELY!    As you see I am a weiner dog person, or as we actually say at home, a weenah person.  but bassets, oh my goodness, they are gigantic hilarious weenahs!!  I guess everything great about a weenah and more!  I see you are a rescue person.  Please tell me the stories of the individual bassets you have in your home now.  I know each rescue is a special story in and of itself.

Our most endearing, although horrible at the time, story is of Huddy.  While my husband was snow-blowing at the end of our driveway he thought he saw a "clump" moving down the road about another quarter of a mile.  He went to see and found Huddy, apparently run over by a sled.  He had been desperately calling to Eddy.  Huddy's body was badly injured.  His leg was open from the hip to the foot, and the bones were smashed to pieces through-out.  The lower half of his body & his tail were completely embedded and frozen into the snow pack.  The freezing was the only thing that saved his life actually.  It was about 20 below at the time.  Eddy couldn't dig him out with his hands.  He left a marker stick with a glove, and ran 3/4s of a mile home to get me and tools to save him.  Our vet had to take his leg off from the hip, and sadly, later he also lost his extra long charcoal tail.  The rest of him is pure white like a snow hare.

I'd love to attach a picture, but I can't figure out how to do it yet.  I'm going to look into that, & hopefully in the meantime I'll hear a hello again from you and Lizarda.

Hugs to the fur-kids,  Kim