Today was a catch up day for the Maxwells. Many things needed to be done after being away for a month! The big job on the agenda was cleaning out the shed that was built last year. We needed to completely re-organize it so we could optimize our space for all the books and other items that need to be stored out there. Team work is an amazing thing.
Our garden produced bountifully while we were away. Here’s our crop of jalapenos! We do enjoy spicy food :-). Mom said there are more flowers on the plants, although with the cooler weather coming, I don’t know how much longer they’ll produce.
BTW – we have just a few more openings for the marriage retreat, November 10-11th. If you’re interested, please see this link.
Little Chippy (the orphaned squirrel we’ve been raising the past few weeks) was finally released on Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. It was quite the event. All of us were in the backyard, along with Grandma and Grandad, to see what would happen.
We had been working to transition Chippy to his new home. It started by buying a little rubbermaid shoebox and drilling a hole in the end of it. We then filled it with wood chips and put it inside his larger cage. The idea was to create a safe home that would be inside his cage and would keep him dry and protected from cats once we had moved his cage into the tree. It took him a day to adapt to his new “shoebox” house – but he did great.
Next, we moved his cage (with the shoebox in it) out onto our back porch so he could enjoy the sunshine and get used to being outside.
The final step was to put the cage (and shoebox) up into a tree. This was a big step for him because we actually installed the cage upside-down in the tree (the cage has a wire mesh top and a plastic bottom). We wanted the plastic part at top so he would have even more rain protection. We took all the wood shavings out and put newspaper down so his feet wouldn’t get caught in the wire mesh. Jesse helped with drilling some boards to install as a base for the cage, and Grandad helped Joseph attach the cage to the tree and the boards:
Chippy seemed to quickly adapt to his new surroundings.
Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. was the time for the “opening of the cage”. Joseph and Anna opened the cage:
It did not take long for Chippy to come out of the cage and begin to enjoy his freedom! What a blessing it was for us to watch as he began exploring up and down the tree – venturing out on each limb. We rejoiced in his freedom, in much the same way the Lord must rejoice when we are willing to surrender our sin and live in wonderful obedience (freedom) to Christ!
Very soon, we found ourselves staring up into the tree to see where Chippy was at (yes, this does put a bit of strain on the neck):
It has now been several days that he has been enjoying his freedom. We haven’t seen him leave the tree yet, but know that he will be exploring more and more as time goes by.
At the door to his cage (the wooden slats across the opening to the cage which are visible in the background were designed by Joseph to keep cats out of the cage and also hold the door open):
Enjoying a snack on his “front step”:
For some reason, he enjoys hanging upside-down in his cage to drink his water!
We’ve enjoyed watching Chippy in the tree – and wonder if he will be around when we return from our upcoming trip in early October (today is a big packing day!). While we’re gone Grandma and Grandad will be filling up his water and leaving food for him (he – as any good squirrel should – enjoys nuts).
We’ve been amazed as we have watched Chippy naturally "be" a squirrel – following the instincts which God has given him. While we will miss interacting with and caring for him, we’ll definitely notice and appreciate the little squirrels that are around us much more!
Yesterday was the first day of our twenty-second year of homeschooling. I have five completely different students than I had on that original first day of homeschool in 1985. First-day-of-school photos have been a yearly tradition. Joseph is in 12th grade, John in 10th grade, Anna in 8th grade, Jesse in 7th grade, and Mary is in 4th grade.
We have also learned that we have our first-day-of-school the week before we want to begin our academic work. I spent all my scheduled school time meeting with each child, going over his schedule, looking at every book, setting up school notebooks, and evaluating if there was anything else to be done in order to begin our book work.
Sunday afternoon found Jesse outside in Grandad and Grandma’s backyard. In the heat of the afternoon, Jesse strolled across the lawn when he noticed a little creature in the grass. He looked down and there was a little baby squirrel. Jesse hurried inside and sounded the alarm that there was a little squirrel outside. We walked out and sure enough it lay in the grass. Every once in a while it tried to crawl around, but it seemed very wobbly. It had a noticeable face of an adult squirrel, and was covered in reddish/brown fur. It also had a tail that was about 4 inches long. After observing it for a little bit, we decided to take our Sunday afternoon naps. We thought that maybe his mom would come and carry him back to the nest [which was up in the tree].
Once we were awake from our naps we decided to check on the squirrel again. It was still there. After getting permission from Dad, Joseph went outside to pick him up so that he could be put into a little box. While trying to get the squirrel in the box he (meaning the squirrel) decided to go for a little run. He raced down Joseph onto the tile floor. Thankfully, he didn’t have enough traction to run fast and we were able to catch him. We decided to give him some Pedialyte in a syringe to see if he could recover from sitting outside all afternoon in the heat.
Monday we got him some milk, which he loves. We decided to give him the name Chippey. John called several places and the best advice they told John was to keep him until he could climb a tree and fend for himself. That is what we decided to do.
Posted by: Anna
The Maxwell family and ministry blog of Titus2.com.
