Holly, I am very sorry for your loss, my condolences to you and your family.

HollyAnnS said:Lin, Aunt Emmy hasn't been well but not what we thought of as life threatening. She went in the hosp. a few days after we left for what we thought was a 3 day diuretics treatment. Turns out that her poorly working kidneys had stopped working. She didn't want to go on dialysis but decided to at least try it. It was just too much for her and after a couple of treatments she decided to come off the dialysis and let nature take it's course. She was a wonderful person lived life to the fullest. Very active in her church, community and family. Oldest of 6 sisters, in a very close family. When I was growing up she lived just a few houses away. Here children where my playmates. She died on Sat morning, Ric's overnight driving got me home to see her one last time and be there with my Mom.

Holly, my sympathies on your loss. I am glad you got to be there in time (yay Rick!) & to be with your mom. You have your wonderful memories of her and you also have the comfort of knowing she made the decision. That's better than most get. And all that doesn't matter while you grieve so

Thank you.

Old thread, lots of good pictures and experiences. Second couple this year failed (House Finches). It was a bummer, you hope for success. The male was a noisy, bossy dude and the female was diligent at her duty just the same. I dunno, with 4 cats staring out the window and a feline porch visitor, stress? The male made a huge, noisy display of the failure. 2 Days worth of squawking and fluttering around the empty nest, dude made some noise. The nest was a mess, still is and I assume the work of a youngster? Time to rake the nests out and hang the porch swing. I'll shoot a "before and after". As for the House Finches, pretty birds, they're welcome next spring.

We started the feeders, diligently about Thanksgiving, I'm still wondering why? There are even still bugs about for the birds that need them and meadows of seeds for those that don't. Such a mild season so far. The only feeder getting much attention is the Black Oil Sunflower. I think most of the BOS activity is squirrels. I think I need to harvest about a dozen and make potpie, and that's not going to happen.

I got confused for a minute, how funny that we were talking about gators back in May... and we're talking about them again in December.

Eric4home, come join us on current chat thread here ~ The thread "Backyard Birds - December 2015" in Gardening for Butterflies, Birds and Bees forum