A day in the life of a bellringer: Types of donors

Over the years that I have been a bell-ringer one of the fascinating observation I have made the various rituals some of the people go through when they donate money. 1. The hidden donation. These are people that put money in the kettle but do their best to keep from being seen. They will either walk past me as they reach back to slip the money into the kettle or wait until I look over at someone else and slip money into the kettle. 2. The wait until recognized. These are people that will only donate if looked directly at and say something acknowledging that you see them. 3. The pay-for-play. These are the people that have their money ready to donate but they want the bell-ringer to do something in return. The favors they ask might to let their child ring the bell, have you sing all or part of a carol, or just say a phrase like "Merry Christmas" or "Happy New Year". 4. The teacher. These are the ones that hand their children the money to put in the kettle. These are usually some of the most amusing for us to watch. Some of the children will put one coin in at a time and wait for you to say "Thank you" or "Merry Christmas" in between each coin or some will just dump most of the coins in and hold back a few. 5. The story teller. These are the people that have some quick story usually to do with the Salvation Army or sometimes something amuse that happened during a holiday season. 6. The busy beaver. These are the people that just rush out of the store and you don't realize they donate until you see the money on top of the kettle and then the bell-ringer has to poke the money into the kettle without touching it with his(her) hands. Whichever one of these types a person is that donate it is joyous to see.

A book for anyone that loves animals

Back in 2006 I read a back about a fascinating person and his love for horses. The book is called "The man who listened to horses". At the time that I read the book it was already 10 years old and been made into a series that appeared on PBS. Monty Roberts grew up during the depression on a farm in California where his parents raised and trained horses. As a young boy Monty observed the horse out in the wild around and paid close attention to how they would structure their ranks. As much as he tried explaining to his father that instead of using the old methods of training, which he thought were cruel, and using the gestures that he learned from watching the wild horses the time and stress would be cut way down. Monty's father never listened too him and and stuck with the old practices. Eventually Monty did get his chance to prove his observations worked During Monty's career as a trainer, rider, teacher and performer he lead quite an adventurous life. He was a stunt double in "National Velvet", trained race horses, and even meet the queen and talked about horses over high tea. In the 15 years since that time Monty still gives talks, lessons, and sells horse carvings. Even though the book is most about Monty and remarkable career with horses it shows us just how much we can learn about animals by simple observing how they interact with each other.

A day in the life of a bellringer

I am sure all of you have seen the bell-ringers that stand outside of the stores this time of the year. I have been one of those bell-ringers for the past 19 years (except for a few year I took off for school). In all the years that I have done this job, which I enjoy doing, there have been some observations I have made that I would like to talk about. We all know that listening to the bell can get on your nerves but you only hear it for a few minutes and we have to listen to it 5 to 10 hours a days. We get just as tired of hearing it as you but it is part of our job. While I can't speak for all bell-ringers I try to keep it toned down to the point that I get more complaints from people that tell me to ring louder. I have had many people go all the way to the other side of a store and many other things to avoid us. I am not really sure of some of the reasoning. If it because you can't or don't want to donate we don't expect everyone to put money in the kettle. In fact we know most of you won't and for various reasons, such as, you already sent a check, you are broke, you only use plastic, and several other reasons. One example of something unnecessary that I witnessed someone do to avoid me was they loaded up their arms with their groceries, which there was too many for one trip, and walk out on to an ice covered parking lot. Just to have an excuse to not have a free hand this person risked their own safety when they should have just wheeled the shopping cart at a safe speed. We love hearing people tell us there stories about their experience with the salvation army but if it is something negative please don't take it out on us.

Gradening is for everyone

At various times I have talked to friends about doing some gardening and they tell me "I would like to but I have a hard time getting up and down", "I just don't have that much space", or "I am just not good at growing things". Whatever the excuse I tell them the same thing and that is that if you want to garden then we can always make the necessary adjustments for you. If someone tells me they can't get down on the ground then I suggest to them that we could get them a counter height planter that would be deep enough for anything they want plant. I tell them I will help you find what we need to set it up and if nothing else offer to build it for them. If their excuse is lack of space I will talk to them about either hang or going vertical with a planter. As long as there is a way for light to get to the plants you can stair step the planters to maximize the space that is available to you. You wouldn't want to go too high but to the point where the last planter is eye level. If the excuse is that they are just not good at growing anything I would suggest other plants and vegetables that don't need as much care. There are plenty of plants that get take drought conditions, shady areas, or whatever else the reason might be that you seem to have trouble with growing your garden. Sometimes it might even be that someone has too much space and gardening gets overwhelming. In that case it is a matter of marking off smaller areas to work at one time. I usually make 4 foot square boxes in my garden. It is much easier if you can just focus on a 4'x4' area and then move on to the next one when you finish.

Lawns and some of creatures that invade them

Ask anyone that has a lawn what the number pests and they will answer you moles and gophers. While they would be right that between those pest, that sometimes get lumped together, they can make a terrible mess of your yard both above and below ground. There are several varieties of both moles and gophers but which ever ones you have it all comes down to the same thing that dig tunnels in your lawn making look as though you just planted a mine field. The big question on everyone's mind once they realize they have one of these burrowing animals is "How do I get rid of them?". Sadly not that much. There have been many folk remedies and commercial products that say that they will get rid of all the furry little creatures but the truth is that most don't do anything but perhaps make the moles and gophers laugh. There are though two ways that are pretty well effective and they are: 1. Get rid of their food source, which isn't always practical. 2. Trap the fuzzy little critters. There is one big problem with the trap idea and that is that we voted against using them. So, that pretty much just leaves getting rid of the food source that consist of grub, worms, and vegetation. Using a good weed & feed combine with an insecticide is a good place to start but if you have small children or pest you need to really be careful to not get something harmful to them. There are more companies every year that are making products that are less harmful to our pets and children. Of course if that isn't the way you wish to go there are more natural alternatives, such as, beneficial insects that will attack the pests or repellents, that aren't always that effective, that you sprinkle down the holes and then bury the holes back up.

If you do get that problem under control then there is another creature that most people don't think of and that is racoons. Racoons will come out at night and search your lawn for any tasty little morsel they can get their claws on. They will dig holes to get down to the roots of your lawn to try and find insects and they will pull up your fresh sod. Most people that see the damage usually think it was the dog digging in the yard again and not that it could be a raccoon. There are some good repellents if you do have this problem.

The dreading yard fall clean up

For all of use that like to keep our yards looking nice this is our busy time. It is the time of the year that our lawns are covered in leaves and it is time to fertilize and seed those bare spots. First comes that one chore that no one looks forward to and that bringing out the rake and wheelbarrow. Even the people that raked up leaves to put in those pumpkin trash bags probably have newly fall leaves to rake. So, we must all pick up our rakes and make those leaf piles. What is that you say you have a leaf-blower, that really doesn't save much of the back braking work since you still have to get those leaves in the wheelbarrow and dump them or burn them, if you live somewhere that allows that. Now that we have those leaves taken care of the next step will be to over-seed those bald spots. So, if you have a small bag of lawn seed sprinkle a generous amount on the areas that need it and if you don't have any go by a small bag for patch work. Don't worry about getting seed with fertilizer since you will be fertilizing your entire lawn in the next step. Once you have done the necessary seeding it is time to fertilize. If you don't have any you will need to buy a good fertilizer preferably with weed control. Then you can sprinkle it light over your entire lawn. If you have a spreader it will make the job easier but if you don't you can use a plastic bucket with small holes in the lid so you can shake the fertilizer out just like you would with a salt shaker. If nothing else you can (remember to wear gloves) pour some of the fertilizer in your hand and spread it