Abdi on This American Life!

 http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/560/abdi-and-the-golden-ticket

On July 4th our friend and newest family member Abdi Nor was featured on This American Life based on ongoing interviews with Leo Hornak from the BBC.

The story is a wonderful reminder about why people want to live in America, the value of incorruptible police, how difficult life is for refugees, and how much is added to America by it's "outsiders".
The comment section on Twitter and on the Facebook site for TAL are a heartfelt outpouring of goodwill just in case you need a boost for your faith in humanity.

One of my favorite lines is from Hassan Iftin Abdi's big brother, a university student, refugee, and wise fellow. He says "sometimes luck is fair".  It was echoed many times in social media in the days that followed.

Thanks to all who have supported Abdi and Hassan in small and huge ways over time including Dick Gordon, Paul Salopek, Cori Princell, Ben Bellows, Nene Reiley, Margaret Caudill-Slosbeg, Mark Yarnell, John Hiley, and Pamela Gordon. These are just some of the people in our particular Abdi support circle.

Leo reminded me of a message I sent to our Abdi team over a year ago as we were all fretting over his upcoming interview with the US embassy.

Because of the radio …. We met Abdi and started a thing.

What we all have in common is the ear tuned to a good story, a voice over the wire.

I was cleaning the chicken coop today, a job I like better than you might think. It's all real in a chicken coop. All the metaphor is concrete and amusing. I treat these chickens well — not extravagantly but decently. I cannot save the world of suffering chickens through these particular chickens but I can acknowledge that they deserve it and do my part in the ecosystem. One of my parts in the ecosystem.  There is something in how this all adds up in my mind that speaks to why it makes any sense to pick one Somali refugee and say "come" we will try to help". It is not a programme or even a project, it is just one live being that would be better off secure and able to work within his capacities and nature.

Abdi goes to the US embassy tomorrow for a 7:30 am interview. I am restless and alive with anticipation. Can so much and so many people be bound together by one civil servant sitting in an office for a 15 minute "interview"?  If you had 5 or 15 minutes to decide someones fate what would you ask them?

Please listen and enjoy. You may also want to listen to his interviews and shows on BBC and The Story from Dick Gordon "Messages from Mogadishu".

May you feel the love and support of your own circle. 

Grandmothers revenge & a lovely grand-daughter

This is from one of Gay's photo files.
I have come to know my mother-- after her passing-- as a careful but ironic keeper of records. This photo was in a file called "Kids with guns".
My heart leapt at the possibilities.


This is Michelle McDonnell at 6 years of age looking pretty fierce.
She is at her grandmothers house where grandpa would let the kids shoot guns
while their parents would smile fixedly and ultimately join in.
Now she is a college graduate and more even beautiful and fierce

A friend (with 5 children) once said
"Socialize them as fast as you can before they can get to the knives and guns"
We were in Pakistan at the baby shower for my own son & now it seems
as good a rule as any for new parents

Pictures for facebook indeed! Watch out grandchildren Grandma had a camera.

An all horse birthday again

Photo of model horse by Natalya McDonnell

Natalya is turning sweet 16 and her mind remains firmly fixed on all things equine. She is a beautiful rider and loves horses intellectually, aesthetically, and passionately. She is now taking lessons to be able to teach riding and horse care.  She spent this winter trail riding through deep snow and freezing cold exploring every inch of Peacham.  Despite what seemed like a hardship she had a huge grin on her face the whole time.  Her horse Shadow is the best (yes, yes, we admit it).

So, to engender a little birthday pizzazz and we were hoping you could help us. We found a great website for horsey accouterments called "Back in the Saddle" and there are many things she liked.  Among the t-shirts she really liked two in particular and we decided we would have the community of Natalya supporters vote on which to pick.  So, Vote here and we will sign her birthday card from you too on the big day March 18, 2100. No, it doesn't matter if you vote for the winning shirt or not.

Which T-shirt do you prefer?

#1: I do not need another horse

A mantra we have her say daily

 OR #2: How do you make a small fortune with Horses? Start with a LARGE Fortune.

A sentiment most horse-loving families know well and a T-shirt they find very funny.

So just leave a comment with us here in the comments section -- you don't have to log in or anything just leave your vote and your name. Or you can vote on facebook and tell us which one you prefer. 

If you also want to include a comment or wish for Natalya feel free to do so and we will write or print it  out for her with a birthday card from all her friends far and wide.

As part of her celebration, I am going to put a gallery up of her photography.  Natalya has been channeling her grandmother and spending hours with the camera. Her theme these days is, predictably, horses and model horses. She has a great eye for it. So, for her birthday I hope to put up a Featured gallery made by Natalya of her life-like images of model horses.  I will send out the link when its finished and you will be able to leave comments too. In addition, we will update the Horse gallery of pictures in Mother daughter Press-- this is one our most visited galleries and will in add pictures and scans so stay turned

Vote now and thanks for your help. If you have any birthday suggestions let us know.

Sharon and Gib

This is Jim Bumgarner Sr with his loyal friend "Bugsy" the wild (watch) turkey.  Jim wrote a short piece about discovering Bugsy that I include below.  This picture comes from the gallery "Humanimals: family" and you can jump there to see what it is like to grow up in a wildlife conservation rescue area.  Click here for:  Gallery of family and fauna in the valley

 For several years my wife and I raised wild orphan animals.  We raised several squirrels, several raccoons, four foxes, four fawns, one coyote and one wild turkey.  We enjoyed them all but if I had to pick a favorite it would have to be Bugsy, our wild turkey.

I was mowing at my farm one spring day and I scared up a wild turkey.  I found her nest.  It had eight eggs in it. I had been told that if a nesting turkey was disturbed like this, they would never return to the nest. I left this area for several hours and then walked back to check the nest.  There was no mother and the eggs were getting cold.  I took four of the eggs home and put them in a small-borrowed incubator.  My conscience was clear when I returned to the nest the next day and found it destroyed.

I was really quite surprised when two weeks later two of the eggs hatched.  One baby died in a few hours.  The second one was quite healthy and was drinking water and eating poultry food quite quickly.  For the first few days we kept her in a cardboard box in the garage but she took to the outdoors quite quickly and was soon finding bugs and half jumping and half flying up to the lower tree branches.  I was afraid of predators at night so every evening I would walk her to the shed.  She would jump and fly to the rafters and stay there until I opened the door the next morning and when I return she would immediately fly down and spend the day in the yard and garden.  If I would go out on the deck and sit on a bench   she would come up and sit beside me always on my left side and stay there as long as I remained.  Bugsy liked to follow us on our walks along the paths through the woods-- always looking for bugs.  She would fly off from us but return in a few minutes. We’d see her fifty yards away or so from the house with other turkeys but she never went with them.

When she was hungry she would peck on the picture window until someone fed her.  In the spring she would still come sit by me on the deck. She would accompany my wife to the garden.  One day I heard a yelp from the garden and my wife said Bugsy pecked her on the rump when she was leaning over.

I guess Bugsy liked the response she got because this act was repeated many times.  If I heard a yelp from the garden, I knew that Bugsy had gotten her again.  Bugsy also started the habit of pecking on my pant leg and shoes.  I assume this was her attempt to play. [Editors note: This was his generous interpretation—the rest of us felt were far less charmed and believed we were being warned and thus, tried to steer clear of Jim’s “watch turkey”].  

That summer, Bugsy ate all the bugs around the house so I had to start bringing her grasshoppers from the farm.  I would catch hundreds of them with a butterfly net while driving my ATV. I would put about dozen in plastic bags and keep them in the refrigerator. She soon knew the meaning of the plastic bags and when I’d come out with one she would come running.

We were surprised when Bugsy stayed with us through the winter.  By now she was putting herself to bed in the shed and eventually she started sleeping high in the trees.  We would feed her and give her a bit of grain every day.  After sixteen months with us, Bugsy left for good.  We never saw her again but later we learned a bit more.

In an area that lies to the northwest of us there is a neighborhood called Timberhill.  One day a woman living there heard a tapping sound on her picture window.  She looked up and was amazed to see a turkey on her deck pecking on her window.  She opened the door and the turkey ran toward her.  She evidently was frightened by this behavior and ran to the phone and dialed 911.  When she calmed down, she reasoned that this was someone’s tame turkey so she threw some birdseed out.  She and her next-door neighbor fed Bugsy for several weeks   - James E. Bumgarner 

Check out other wacky photos of otherwise respectable people living with animals and for my family-- I just had to share. No one will recognize you guys, really.

 See image in website

Cairn- Built by Gay McDonnell Bumgarner and Patrick C. McDonnell

This was one of two cairns built by this energetic (fidgety) artistic duo.  They were also responsible for numerous wooden arbors, garden benches, and brush piles.  

Based on my quick review of the definition, cultural, and historical information about cairns it seems they are built by almost everyone and for purposes ranging from the trivial to the supremely important. If you see a Cairn, depending on the place, the time, and a myriad of other cues it might be saying to you.

-- "There are too many rocks here so I will pile them all up in this one place"
--"Wow"
--"Go here"
--"Don't go here"
--"I bet I can make a bigger more amazing pile than you can"
--"Buffalo (or Reindeer) run this way (toward cliff)"
--"Someone is buried here"
--"This is the top (summit) of the mountain"
--"I am (or wish I was) Andy Goldsworthy"
-- "There was a very important battle here that defines our national pride, or, a cart carrying fruit tipped over around here last week.

As we all know few forces are more compelling than the urge to pile rocks one on top of the other.

Fortunately, as an act of reverence the cairns built by Gay and Pat were collected and now adorn the gardens of good friends.  Cairns make great garden art, we would love to see yours too.

 

Red is the color of love, 

the color of blood, and the light of the day as it rises and sets

What a beautiful jacket!

Wear bright colors!

Oh, and notice the necklace, her daughter made it for her :)

Thanksgiving a few years back with Ila Irwin and Karl Krause + friends. I miss her.

 

Natalya McDonnell and Shadow

January 31, 2010

Announcing the newest member of the McDonnell Parrish menagerie

Yes, we said "NEVER, NO HORSE EVER"

From never to ok is route that is hard to explain

but here we are

Natalya is ecstatic, speechless, squealing, joyful, over the moon

Fortunately, she (Shadow) will stay at her home barn with Patty and Bruce where she will be happy healthy and well cared for and we can stand firm on our final line in the sand, 

"NO HORSE IN THE HOUSE"

Hello, Merry Christmas or whatever midwinter holiday you celebrate. This is a video of my son Morgan (yes, he has grown) juggling the new luminescent balls his uncle gave to him for Christmas. We decided to have our festivities a day early and skip on the wrapping and have more time to play. We were so pleased to give ourselves permission to do this. Despite Morgan's attire it is not warm here. There is feet of snow and way below freezing. I think he does it to taunt his mother-- old ice hands -- as she is known around here.