Amy N-K

I have been instructed by my nibling (who is in college overseas) that I must post new raccoon content regularly and that I must keep the water feature available to the critters forever. I am happy to comply so long as the raccoons don’t eat the camera (attempt 1 here, fortunately unsuccessful). 🦝💕😂

Between one and four of them were at it all night! They were hilarious. 💕🦝

Once this was a small pond with fish and miniature water lilies (my favorite) and a gentle fountain. The fish and lilies became raccoon supper (I decided to not sacrifice more) but even just with water the fountain pump had teeth marks and kept getting displaced and muddy. Rocks seem to work. 😂

Garden with a variety of dahlias blooming (pink, purple, white and yellow) as well as ripened cherry tomatoes and salvia in bloom.

Dahlia season! 🌸

Raccoon party in my yard (specifically, in my garden water feature) a couple of nights ago… ⛲️🦝🦝🦝🦝

Hopefully this mother and child then went over to the tiger enclosure to test this theory. 🙄
The entitlement is insane.

What amazes me is how often those who know better say so right before they do the wrong thing. “I know I shouldn’t pet him, but he is just so cute…!” Yeah, please don’t. You have clearly been educated about this, and yet you think you’re the exception.

In case you need more reasons to de-Amazon your life. There are cameras out there that store data locally only, with no subscription fees. Stop enabling authoritarian surveillance. Get rid of your Ring cameras.

I installed a camera to see what was going on with our water feature that kept being taken apart at night (I recently filled it with rocks with a central fountain so it wouldn’t be constantly muddy), figuring I’d see a raccoon. I hadn’t expected an all-night pool party! 😂
Mystery solved! ⛲️🦝🦝🦝🦝

I’m really curious what church has loaner snoods? The simplicity of not having to do one’s hair on Sunday mornings is religiously appealing.

I love both of my husbands and we have been together for 16 years. Maybe this reaction explains why I seem to get double the hate for it? 😂

Support Bird Alliance of Oregon: Donations, Gifts, & More The Bird Alliance of Oregon promotes the understanding, enjoyment, and protection of native birds, other wildlife, and their habitats. Inspiring people to love and protect nature since 1902.

Please consider donating to Bird Alliance of Oregon - the wildlife veterinary care and rehabilitation work is always done free of charge, and the organization was already trying to fundraise for a new wildlife hospital due to strained capacity before this event. birdallianceoregon.org/ways-to-give/

Birds in the rehabilitation enclosures at Bird Alliance of Oregon were released by an intruder yesterday, including several recovering kestrels, northern flickers, and a crow. The enclosures were damaged, and the birds are less likely to survive because of early release. www.msn.com/en-us/video/...

Sea otter floating on its back among the seaweed, looking right at the camera. Prince of Whales Whale and Marine Wildlife Adventures logo in the lower right corner.

Humpback whale tail above the water line right before a dive. Prince of Whales Whale and Marine Wildlife Adventures logo in the lower right corner.

An orca leaping out of Puget Sound.

The whale watching boat we were on 2 years ago in Victoria, BC sends “hey, remember how great this was” emails each year with pictures of the wildlife we saw. Best marketing ever because, yeah, it was amazing. (Also loved one from the previous year out of Port Angeles - orcas and blueberry buckle!)

Everyone who knows Yosemite is watching Untamed going, “uh, you can’t run directly from Glacier Point to the valley floor like that,” and “there is definitely not a cabin in that spot,” and “it’s a 20 mile strenuous hike to the top of El Capitan,” and other anomalies… but the scenery is lovely. 🏞️

Square pond water feature filled with rocks with a single water fountain coming out of a rock in the middle. No standing water is visible.

I’ve been having an ongoing pond war with raccoons over the past year and a half. They kept eating my water plants (and fish, which I decided not to replenish since I expected they would be too enticing) and tearing apart the pump and muddying the water. So far, this new strategy has worked. 😂🪨

Without downloading any new pics, where are you mentally?

As a grant writer, yes. Ultimately I don’t have much time to dwell on the question of whether a proposal will be rejected before I have to move on to the next one, but when so much rests on your words all of the time, it can be a lot of stress. Hope everything is good for your deliverable!

Posted by someone who knows me, loves me, and who has listened to me describe my journey out of my church of origin (and the loss of everything and everyone I ever knew). “You are not too much, not behind, and not broken. You are in the process of becoming authentic, and authenticity requires time.”

I love trees and I still hate the Portland tree code.

Sprocket with the Columbia River and a dam behind him

Sprocket sitting in front of a petroglyph

Sprocket sitting by some old railroad wheels, a piece of the Cascade Portage Railroad used in the 1800s

Sprocket sitting in front of the gravestone marker for Thomas McNatt, an early settler to the area.

In this week’s edition of Sprocket Sits In Front Of Things During Walks, I present: The Columbia River! A petroglyph! A piece of the old Cascade Portage Railroad! And a gravestone marker for Thomas McNatt, one of the early settlers to the Cascades area. 🐕‍🦺🌲🪨🚂🪦 #ServiceDog

Stargazer lilies

Oriental poppies

Dahlias

Echinacea (coneflowers) with a bee friend

Pretty pink blooms from my garden. 🌸

Is It Time To Stop Snubbing Your Right-Wing Family?

This is @markakille.bsky.social coming back from the Powell’s warehouse book sale this weekend the day after I put up additional wall shelves for the books we already had. (To be fair, it was so I could use the old bookshelves for my yarn stash… so I have no ground to stand on here.) 😂

I got that response when I told a realtor we were looking for a more accessible home to accommodate a disability (including room for my service dog); I was honestly just thrilled that we were finding the best fit and could choose. Only thing better would be if every house was already accessible.

This Parrot Accuracy is insane.

A doctor who can’t understand the nuance of gender identity and ignores science on the topic is probably going to lack nuance and be ignorant of science on a lot of things, despite having greater opportunities to learn. I wouldn’t want them as my doctor for anything, honestly.

We’ve lived in houses that are 110+ years old for a while now (current and previous homes); I prefer the old houses! The one we live in now has had mysterious deaths, even (neighbor found the previous owner dead in the driveway, bleeding from a head wound). She seems to be a friendly ghost. 👻💕

We have tried to convey that society tends to respond in certain ways and that it’s okay to pick your battles. It’s also okay to have preferences for hair that happen to coincide with society’s ideals. Mostly, we have aimed to help our kids be comfortable with whatever they want for themselves.

That there is no shame in having it, keeping it, or removing it - that it’s part of having a body and the chalk-colored patriarchy doesn’t get to dictate what to do with their bodies. They know about their options, from there, it’s all about their autonomy and personal decisions. ❤️