RAK #29: Jason Benjamin Josaphat

This one was a three birds with one stone (sort of) RAK. This is the twenty-ninth of 49 random acts of kindness that I’m doing to honor the victims of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting. Hopefully each small act puts a little bit of happiness back out in the world!

I bought a set of three Starbucks cards, taped them to each of these cards and picked three random vehicles in the Safeway parking lot to leave them on. It was so much fun!

This RAK is in honor of Jason Benjamin Josaphat. He was young – only 19 years old – and known for being soft spoken. He called his mother from the bathroom of the club, where he was hiding from the gunman. Friends and family say his laugh was infectious and unforgettable. Rest in peace, Jason.

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RAK #28: Joel Rayon Paniagua

This one was a three birds with one stone (sort of) RAK. This is the twenty-eighth of 49 random acts of kindness that I’m doing to honor the victims of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting. Hopefully each small act puts a little bit of happiness back out in the world!

I bought a set of three Starbucks cards, taped them to each of these cards and picked three random vehicles in the Safeway parking lot to leave them on. It was so much fun!

This RAK is in honor of Joel Rayon Paniagua. He worked in construction and always tried to send money home to his family in Mexico. He was always willing to lend a hand and loved to dance. Rest in peace, Joel.

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RAK #27: Jonathan A. Camuy Vega

This one was a three birds with one stone (sort of) RAK. This is the twenty-seventh of 49 random acts of kindness that I’m doing to honor the victims of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting. Hopefully each small act puts a little bit of happiness back out in the world!

I bought a set of three Starbucks cards, taped them to each of these cards and picked three random vehicles in the Safeway parking lot to leave them on. It was so much fun!

This RAK is in honor of Jonathan A. Camuy Vega. He was a hero during the massacre – he died trying to save someone else. His body was found covering that of a young mother, Yilmary Rodriguez Sullivan (she will be RAK #41). He worked for La Voz Kids, a show similar to the Voice. Rest in peace, Jonathan.

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Baby Parakeets!

One of the most beautiful things in having so many animals here at the ranch is the chance to see the circle of life. This last year we lost our Shadow to cancer, found Jenny, and got to witness the birth of seven beautiful, healthy puppies. You may or may not know, but I’ve had two parakeets for the last 6 or so years – Ceelo and Lucia. Ceelo was a male, and unfortunately, passed away in early 2017. Lucia is female and, to my knowledge, has never procreated.

When Ceelo died, I worried that Lucia would get lonely, but didn’t want to buy just one more parakeet, knowing that she was pretty old. Enter Green Bean (boy) and Sky (girl). They were named by my 5 year old niece, but their names will give you an idea of their coloring.

Apparently, Miss Lucia is a bit of a cougar. She never showed signs of interest in Ceelo, but Green Bean seems to do it for her. Suddenly, there were eggs EVERYWHERE. I did what every good pet owner does when their animals do something like this – I took the eggs away so they wouldn’t hatch bought a nest box. I thought there was no way we would end up with babies, but here we are, 14ish days later with TWO babies! That’s right, for those of you who were following along on Facebook, we had a second one hatch yesterday! There are still a couple more eggs in there… not sure if they will hatch, but we’ll see!

Lucia is a fierce little mama – when you open the roof on the nest box she squawks like you would not believe (you can hear a little bit of it in the video below). The babies are now both making very quiet peeps when they’re hungry (I’m assuming) that you can also heard below. It’s so amazing to watch life!!!

Happy 2018!

Wow, the older I get, the more time seems to fly. Seriously, where did 2017 go?

We held our 14th Annual Blankenheim New Years Pig Roast last night – the first in our new home! It was a great time with a lot of old faces and some new ones too! The dogs were in their element – they hung out all day in the yard and made a lot of new friends. I’m sure the fact that they were being fed all sorts of people food helped too!

Every year is a bit different, and as we’ve gotten older we’ve done less of the shots at 2am and more of the 9pm New York new years. This year, everyone left around 11pm and by midnight it was just us two:

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I hope you all have a wonderful 2018 – I’m looking forward to everything it brings!