Hawks and owls species are natural predators to rodents,Not the domesticated cat,Domesticated cat kills for sport (watches the law protected bird suffer then walks away) kills rodents then does not eat them, therefore taking food from our native hawks and owls mouths,Domesticated cats that are allowed to roam unsupervised are unwanted pests within communitys,Cats destroy property,kill for fun,and pose health and safety issues within a community period.Just because you don't have laws that hold you accountable and responsible for your cats don't make it right for you to take advantage of it,which is exactly what you are doing when you come up with ignorant statements such as our state or local town we live in don't have no type of laws for cats,we have more important issues, well if it's not important to you that your neighbors protect there investments,I must question your logic as well as who you really are.Your mentality way of thinking is hindered when you devalue your neighbors by not respecting boundarys.It is in the best interest of Humans-wildlife-Cats health and safety that you control your cats,if not you become a burden to society.You will find individuals who allow there cats to roam, come up with excuses to justify there cats behavior,the truth is these people live by how they feel and this is how they make decisions,the irresponsible cat owner does not make decisions based on what is in the best interest of everyone involved, The cat controls them with the crying to go out, the owner cant take control then says oh he is so unhappy,the reality is the irresponsible cat owner is unhappy and intolerant of his own cats whining, so they let it out unsupervised,he is neglecting his own cat as well as devaluing his community.Domesticated cats do not spray for territory,Cats spray to send a signal to all other cats in the area that this is neutral ground,then they congregate,which in fact irresponsible cat owners don't understand this either because it's not happening in there yards,because Cats are extremely territorial around there own property.We will continue to have irresponsible cat owners as long as there are no national laws to hold cat owners accountable and responsible for there cats, we know if there are no consequences people don't learn nor do they care.Have you ever heard this one,You draw the predators such as the cat to your yard when you feed wildlife? well for starters domesticated cats are not a natural predator of north america's wildlifes, so now having this knowledge ... keep your pest cats in the house safe.Birds that come to feeders lack food and nesting sites due to habitat loss,therefore allowing your cat to roam contributes to the wildlifes decline and struggle to thrive and survive.Don't ever knock someone who gives back to wildlife,these people are doing good and what is right and productive,unlike the irresponsbile cat owner who could careless about the damage and defecting his cat does in his neighbors yard,it is disrespectful and should not ever be tolerated.Irresponsbile cat owner what have you done good today? I will say it again it is in the best interest of everyone involved,keep cats supervised for health and safety issues.Be responsible.

Cathy, thanks for the link. After I posted this, I started googling and found a lot of negative material on this company and this type of sales technique. There are a lot of complaints about the hard sell, the scheduling difficulties, and the poor accommodations (bunk beds! Yikes!). Even if the company is totally above-board and things go smoothly, it doesn't sound like the right kind of vacation for our lifestyle and our finances. Next time, I won't be tempted by the thought of doing something so inappropriate for us just because it's "free." I sent my kids the link to this post. My DD said: "Even if you don't drink cocktails or go to fancy shows, there are hidden charges, and you can bet on paying more than the base amount that's been quoted. Since you're on the boat every night, you will wind up going to the shows, because the state rooms are too small to hole up in. On the plus side, it's a readymade vacation so you don't have to do tons of planning to make it happen, and you deserve a treat for your 40th anniversary. If you wait to plan the perfect itinerary "someday," it might not happen... so there's a certain benefit to grabbing an available opportunity if it's good (even if not absolutely perfect). It's been a lot of years since your last vacation!" And my DS commented: "If you're prepared to spend any money at all for a trip/vacation, what do actually want to do? If not a cruise, then what? Would you rather travel somewhere else? Would you rather embark on some sort of event or activity? Also ... could you find a better deal without the obligations?" Wise kids! Thanks, everybody, for your thoughts! Sue

It is indeed a long term commitment, Nancy. One of the benefits of participating in parrot-owner groups is finding someone who can take your animals should life conditions change. Sometimes it is not death, but economics which force a rehoming of a parrot.....like large noisy macaws especially are rehomed when folks in recent years lost their homes and moved in with family or into apartments etc which did not accept such noisy pets. Of course, once night comes, parrots are quiet and asleep, but still, a macaw is a wood-eating machine and to consider what is fair to the bird is also important. They need space, and time out of the confinement. So, having someone who can permanently or temporarily care for the birds is a big issue for parrot owners. And as you say, they can life as long a life as human beings. I discovered parrots late in life, maybe when I was 45, and so any young birds I take will outlive me, given a normal longevity. My adored African greys are just now sexually mature, around 15 for one, and my big boy Kimali turned 14 on March 18.....I had him from the time he was 5 weeks old, fell in love with the little dinosaur when he was hatched only 3 days. So he's known me all his life. We have a special relationship. One of the major concerns with most people is the long term care of the parrots after we pass on. So, the parrots are in my will. I am a fan and supporter of Iowa Parrot Rescue near Muscatine Iowa, and have taken several parrots to them for my vet when folks cannot keep them. IPR is a 401c3 or whatever it is, tax deductible etc, and it is a great place out in the middle of huge expanses of corn fields, with an outdoor aviary, and a large permanent care facility along with an active adoption program. Parrots coming from a home frequently need a new family to love, and prefer to be touched and handled. Yet others have been so badly abused for whatever reasons, that they are custodial candidates. Mike and Abi evaluate potential homes before and after an adoption, and I trust their judgement with this. I have a bequest to the IPR in my will, and definitely support them during the present time. In most cases, family members are not inclined to share legacies with a bird, and in my mind it is not an optional commitment. Before everything else, my animals, dogs as well as birds, are to be provided for. My external hard drive with 10 years worth of photos on it failed, and it also contained the backups for the whole computer. So, now I must send it off to be salvaged if possible. All I have left are albums on Flickr. I might have a couple of pictures accessible but what a sad thing. I took 10 gig of photos of just my hosta garden last year, so those are gone too. Real bummer. Dolly and Dixie. Dolly is the puppy. Keno, a male eclectus parrot adopted when his mama died of esophageal cancer Kimali male African grey in the dining room Rumbles, a tiny female African grey adopted last May when her mama was diagnosed with brain tumor and lung cancer

Often new gardeners desire to have raised beds and wonder what would be the best, cheapest, or longest lasting material. They are also sometimes faced with ugly concrete slabs that they want to remove. The following is a way to deal with both issues and all you need is the desire and a strong back. If you spaced it out over a few weekends it is well within the capabilities of most folks. The main things you need are the aforementioned strong backs, some simple tools and the vision to see the finished product. If you find that your slab has embedded wire mesh or rebar in it all bets are off. The hassle of cutting thru the mesh/rebar and the inevitable raw metal sticking out of the edges will make this project MUCH more difficult and the chunks will be for the most part unusable. You wouldn't want a wall full of rusty, raw metal edges anywhere near your garden. If you find this is the case call someone in to remove the concrete slab for you and start with a blank slate. The term for this is Rip-Rap. I had a link with a detailed how-to on doing this but I can't find it so I'll try and explain the process myself. Some other advantages to this are, you are getting free material that will last a very long time, you are recycling, and you don't have to pay a large disposal fee to remove the slab. You will need to remove some debris, but with planning it will be much less than the cost of hauling away the entire amount. The first thing I'd do is sketch out the future locations of the beds before the demolition. This will allow for you to plan the beds to use up as much of the slab pieces as possible, minimizing the amount of debris you need to remove. A very rough estimate would be 1 running foot of 12" high wall for every 4 Sq. Ft. of slab you are removing. This will depend on how thick the slab pieces are and how wide a wall you are building. Use a pinch bar and a heavy sledge to smash the slab into pieces. You can try for uniformity of size with the pieces but this is very much hit and miss in practice. Start at a convenient corner and pry up the slab a bit with the pinch bar. This allows the cement to break fairly easily with just one or two hits from the sledge. Just work thru the slab using the busted pieces as fulcrums for the pinch bar. If you try to smash up concrete without lifting it up a bit you will find it VERY hard going. The sub-base absorbs most of the force of the blows and you will quickly wear yourself out. You could rent a jackhammer but in practice the "Lift and Smack" method works much faster on most average slabs you will find. Once you have the cement reduced to manageable sized pieces clear it from the areas you wish to the have beds in. Clean the debris down to the soil. Prepare a level trench as wide as needed and a few inches deep to define the edges of your walls. Place a layer of leveling base in this trench (stone dust, coarse sand, or if you are so inclined, mortar). If you are lucky you may be able to reuse some of the existing sub-base for this step. Use some of the larger pieces of broken cement as a base course and carefully place and level them is whatever material you have chosen for the leveling course. Continue to stack the busted up pieces staggering the joints as you go. You can mortar the pieces together or dry stack as you desire. Use the straightest edges as the face of the wall. If you use mortar you needn't be fussy about it. Just a couple of fist sized dollops under each piece would suffice to adhere them together and will serve as a cushion to level the sections to each other. You may need a small 4 lb. hammer and a wide stone chisel to shape and "dress" the pieces to fit but cement is fairly easy to work in this way. You could also rent a wet saw if you desire much tighter joints. Ideally the wall should SLIGHTLY taper back as you go up but for short walls of say 12-18" this is not crucial. Cut long strips of heavy landscaping fabric and drape them inside the walls to contain the soil from washing thru the joints. Use dots of construction adhesive to hold it in place until you get the final top course in place. This top course can be made from the same concrete pieces or use some other material for a more finished look. You can then gather up all the unused debris and whatever substrate was under the slab for removal and begin the process of amending the soil that was under it. For the soil inside the raised beds I would look to purchase good topsoil or better yet, a topsoil and compost to fill these areas After the wall is built you can spray or brush on a concrete stain or paint to disguise the grey concrete color. A deep brown blends in quite well and camoflages the utilitarian nature of the material well. Hope this helps and Good Luck