My Bucket List and Taking Something Back

A year ago, I wrote in this blog post:
Josh Bleill's Book: One Step At A Time, Good/Bad Medical Care, War Trauma, PTSD, and Child Abuse Trauma
and revealed some of what I deal with after having my hand/arm seriously injured, not taken care of properly by the medical community, ultimately leaving my hand/arm with limitations, pain, and disabled. What I didn't reveal was how much was taken away, as far as what I did, but in this post I am going to state that I have taken something back fourteen and a half years after being injured.

I wrote about having to rehome my horses, one I had for eighteen years, the other, a miniature who kept my Tennessee Walker company, I had for eight years. It broke my heart to have to go through this, to watch them leave in a trailer, to never see them again! My horseback riding activities ended.

Also, I am a very creative person, with a need to express that creativity. I had done leather tooling, even entered items into contests. I also did Native American style bead work. All that came to a stop.

There are other things that stopped as well, but I am not here to write about all of these things. I am here to tell about taking something back. Being an active person, I have searched for something I could do, despite my hand limitations.

I have watched, with fascination, paddle boarding on TV. I have seen Brandon on Lucky Dog train a dog to ride on a paddle board. With that, my desire to try this sport grew.

I couldn't sink money into something without knowing whether I could do it or not. I had searched online to see if there was any places that rented, but found none. While hiking with my co-worker/friend a few weeks ago, we went to a park and found out that they rented paddle boards. I was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning.

Plans were made twice to go, but cancelled due to the weather reports, which ended up being wrong. They say the third time is the charm, and we finally went last Saturday. That's the reason for no blog post last weekend.

All the time I had watched and waited, I had a plan in place on how to deal with my hand situation. I would keep my left hand on top of the paddle, which would help with balance. It wouldn't have to do the work. I had a guy tell me, this might not work because I would have to shift my weight to paddle on the left side, and this could cause me to fall into the water.

I was determined that I could do this. I needed to be able to do this! I needed to "take something back" after all that was taken away from me with the hand/arm injuries! Can you say victory to me, and check one off my bucket list?! I did do it. I paddled off, with Alane in her kayak beside me, and her husband watching from shore, telling the guy who helped me with my paddle board, "She's never done it before. They will probably stay in the idol zone for a bit to practice." I didn't stay. I paddled off, kept my balance well, and felt pure happiness and joy flow throughout my body!

My idea for paddling did work. I didn't have to adjust my weight or footing to paddle on the left side, like the one guy thought. The only problem I had was the paddle handle couldn't be adjusted. It was stuck. It was actually too long for how I needed to paddle. I did endure pain, but knew that if I had my own, I would be able to correct this problem.

Yes, I did fall off, but due to some bigger waves from the boats and jet skis that were close by. I did find that if I stopped paddling when waves came in, and just stood on the boad, I enjoyed rocking on the board as the waves went by. Towards the end of four hours, I was clowning around when Alane said I should do a trick. I tried to stand on one foot while waves from a boat came in, and I went in for a dip. It made for a funny video!

A very grateful thanks to Alane Lovell, who went with me and took these photos, and her husband Pat, who was official chauffeur.

Take a Look at Nature's Charm & Critters on Our Small Farm - August 5, 2017

These aren't actually pictures from the farm. I was able to go on a day hike with a friend, in the hopes of seeing and photographing eagles. We did not see any eagles, but I did get some photographs of nature's charm. Enjoy!

All pictures are copyrighted © to 

Tracey R. Simmons, creator of Paws4Hearts Rescue, 2017.

Second Chance & "Bee" Hives Updates July 2017

Second Chance Hive showing increase in population.

I have had people asking about my beehives, especially the Second Chance Hive, so here is the update.

When my beekeeping teacher came to bring the new queen for the Second Chance hive, we looked through it to double check for a queen. He said because of how dark the honeybees were – mostly black bodies, that they were probably Russian honeybees. These Russian bees were quite the workers!! The comb they drew out without a queen was amazing. The unfortunate part is that now this hive is an Italian cross honeybee hive, and they are not working as good. (The Russian bees died.) Oh, how I wished this hive had had a Russian queen still alive and producing brood. 

Young baby bees working to take care of the brood - lots of
capped brood here. What looks like holes are open cells
which have worker bee larva still being fed, and which will
be capped soon.

After re-queening the Second Chance Hive, it was getting so depleted in population, that I had to do something to help, or I was going to loose it. (In the summer, worker bees only live about 40 days, unless something causes their death sooner.) To help this hive, I did what I call - “a jump re-start.” I pulled two frames of brood from my other hive, which is my “Bee Hive” because of the bee decorations on the front. I put those frames into the Second Chance hive to help increase the population quicker.

Close up of capped and uncapped brood. You can see the
uncapped brood - little white larva in different stages of
development. Some cells have a very small white dot.

There was another problem that occurred – I lost the queen in the Bee Hive, but I realized she was gone fairly quickly before the population dropped. That hive was re-queened successfully; and there is a lot of capped brood once again. Still hoping I might get some honey this year from this hive. It would be the first time getting honey since I started in 2013.

Take a Look at Nature's Charm & Critters on Our Small Farm - July 22, 2017

It is really cool when I can get photographs of pollinators on my flowers. I have some to share in this group of photos. In addition, I was able to get two really nice photographs of dragonflies.

Lots of flowers are still blooming, providing food for the pollinators. The summer's heat is increasing, while the day's light is decreasing.

Lastly, my bluebird couple are raising their third group of babies this year, and I captured a photo. Enjoy!

Baby Bluebirds just a couple of days before they flew on their own.

All pictures are copyrighted © to 

Tracey R. Simmons, creator of Paws4Hearts Rescue, 2017.

Hash Brown Egg Scramble

The ingredients for this recipe are for one person, adjust as you need for your appetite, or the number of people you are preparing this meal for:

2 Organic Farm Fresh Eggs

Organic Cheddar Cheese or cheese of choice

Organic Frozen Hash Browns

Organic Olive Oil

Himalayan Salt (Healthier for you)

Organic Pepper

I use an oval shaped cast iron skillet with a cooking surface 9 inches long and 7 inches wide at the middle width.

1.  In a cast iron skillet, add olive oil and *frozen brown hash browns, cook using low heat, stir as needed. (The amount will vary depending on your desires. I fill the whole surface of the skillet, which may seemed to be a lot, but as the hash browns cook, they shrink down.)

*I have tried making my own fresh organic grated shredded potatoes to make the hash browns, but they do not crisp up like I enjoy.

      2.  In a bowl, scramble the two eggs.

     3.  Once hash browns are cooked to your liking - I like them to be somewhat crisp, then pour scrambled eggs over the hash browns.

      4.     Add cheddar cheese, or cheese of choice. The amount will, again, depend on your taste.

      5.     Add salt and pepper to taste.

      6.     Continue cooking on low heat and stir ingredients until cooked through. (I do not like “wet” scrambled eggs, so I cook them until they are “dry.”)

      7.     Serves 1.

(This is my basic recipe, which I like just the way it is, but you could add other items.)

Take a Look at Nature's Charm & Critters on Our Small Farm - July 8, 2017

First, I want to share pictures of my Ameraucana chicks who are a month younger than the Mystery chicks. The first chick is my favorite. I named her Miss Cricket after she made a cricket chirping sound in my ear one day while holding her. She now has the most and coolest feathery face than the other Ameraucana chicks.

Miss Cricket

Miss Cricket's feather face. Too cool!

Five of the Mystery chicks are below, but they are no longer a mystery. There are two New Hampsire Reds, one Columbian Wyandotte, one black star, one red star, and the two not shown are Pearl White Leghorns - which are too flightly to get out and try to photograph.

New Hampshire Red

New Hampsire Red

Columbian Wyandotte

Black Star and the smallest of the Mystery Chicks.

Red Star

 Now for some flowers in bloom.

All pictures are copyrighted © to 

Tracey R. Simmons, creator of Paws4Hearts Rescue, 2017.