As much as I have looked forward to and celebrated the arrival of cooler weather, we must also remember to be careful. I just found out that a woman I used to work with and her 6 yr old son died early this morning when their home burned. With cooler temps@ night, firefighters see a spike in fires caused by space heaters, etc. Fatalities are especially common when there are no smoke alarms in the home.
Please heat your homes carefully, and have heating systems checked. Please be sure to install smoke alarms in your homes, and be sure the batteries are good. Be careful out there.
Cool weather, a word of caution
That is why we got rid of all the spaceheaters... to easy to have issues with fires (and added smoke alarms everywhere)Most firedepartments will give you a free smoke alarm and even the 9volts to keep your up and running (at least ours gives them out - no excuses for not having them in working order!)
Had to double check all our systems after reading this.. off to double check.
Mitch
Oh, Maggie. I am so sorry to hear about this tragedy. Thanks fo r the reminder to have my heater checked.
What a horrible thing to happen.I am so sad for you to lose someone that way.The gas company in my town will be raising rates this year to a staggering price!I have decided to bite thebullet and really keep my house not as warm as I usually do.Unfortunately since I have lived in this house I have converted the kitchen to gas.Love it for cooking but know now it will cost more to operate. Gabriell
Yes, this winter will be interesting. I really don't like very cold weather and I've heard this is supposed to be a very cold winter. That info came from DH who was outside on the patio one day and thought he heard somebody walking on the roof. He looked up and it was a really fat squirrel. He figures if the squirrels are that fat already we are in for a cold winter.
BTW Hello everybody. I haven't been posting much this summer, but I have been reading posts from time to time and haven't seen as many as I saw in the spring. Was it so hot that everybody just had no energy? I was having tooth problems, but I assume others had others reasons.
The squirrels round here are thin this year... ummm but the coons have started coming in really close to the house to use the pond all look on the big side to me - not that I know . . .
Mary Lee! I was thinking the other day that I hadn't seen a post from you in a while. I know that usually summer is a lighter time of posting in general for DG - many people actually out working in their gardens (instead of posting here, lol), and lots of folks traveling for vacation. Personally, this summer was so darn hot and dry, I was partially disabled because of my back, and the gardened sufferred so, it was a real struggle not to just sink into depression! Then came Katrina. :-(
Anyway, it's cooler now (though still pretty dry), and people will be revived a little. Good to hear from you! :-)
That is a tragedy, a heartbreak at any age, but six years old, so young. My prayers to the family.
I have to chime in also on the squirrel topic....
Here at our house we usually have two squirrels at a time in the yard, but this year I have seen as many as seven at a time. I can't keep bird food in the feeders or corn on the tree, they act like they are panicked that they won't have enough food for the winter. The pecan trees didn't make this year around here. Also about two months ago, I had seen baby squirrels tossed out of the nest by the adult! A couple fell at my feet, one survived and I took it to a lady in Arlington that does rescue work. Three others died that day. Several days later in a neighbor's yard I saw another that had died, had to be a different nests. They were all too young to venture on their own, their eyes weren't even open. My DH and I think that they somehow know this winter is going to be a lean one for them and the more squirrels in the area the less food for each.
Sheila
Edited to add this link on baby squirrel care. It was a huge help to me. http://www.mary.cc/squirrels/foundababy.htm
This message was edited Oct 19, 2005 10:30 PM
jWe found a squirrel on the ground under one of our oaks one day. We picked it up and put in a cat carrier. It was a baby and it had two broken legs. I called the vet and he told us to feed it pureed pecans and water. So we did that until we could take it to the animal rescue place in Boerne. We got some incredible pictures of it, but they are not digital. They are also buried in the one of the four boxes of pictures we have in the livingroom. It was a really interesting experience for the kids.
That's a horribly tragic story. :( We just replaced a couple of batteries and tested all of ours last week. A few days later the fire dept. brought a trailer to my 6 yr olds school and showed them how to handle being in a fire. He came home telling us to check our smoke alarms. Oh, this reminds me that I was going to teach him how to unlock the windows and raise them, which is not an easy task. Thanks for the reminder.
If you have gas or use a fireplace you should have a carbon monoxide tester inside your home also.
My friend in Arlington that rehabs baby squirrels recently said she heard/read that it was going to be a very warm winter here. ?? That's a real chore, rehabing those babies but she loves it and they grow up loving her, and recognizing her.
let's hope for a warm, WET one
jackie
Amen to WET!
Well, it's very wet right now here. I thought it was supposed to rain this morning, but I'll take it whenever it comes. It needs to do this for about 12 hours. It's one of those very slow soaking rains. It should be very good sleeping weather tonight.