Category Archives: Home & Family

My daughter Jessica leaves home to become a Freshman at Carnegie Mellon
University (CMU) in about a
month. We are working through all that needs to be done before she goes.
Jessica already passed her weaving loom along to an 8th grader from Peninsula
School and in the space where the loom was are now three big boxes for her to fill.
She wants to fly to Pittsburgh, PA to go to college by herself with just two
suitcases. We will ship the boxes a week in advance so they
will be there soon after she arrives.

Our friend Laura sent her son Timothy off to New York University last year.
She said he came home at Christmas and left about half of the clothes he had
taken to school in September. Dorm rooms are very small and Jessica
will have two roommates. We are trying to think through her needs and
plan carefully. Jessica has a full time summer job as a software developer
for Stanford University so all of our preparations need to happen at night
and on weekends.

CMU and other vendors have sent us three or four mailings offering sheet,
towel, and toiletry sets for new Freshmen. We already bought extra long
sheets when Jessica was at U.C. Santa Cruz for 8 weeks last summer taking Spanish.
I don’t think we need to buy new bedding for CMU. However, the refrigerator
and microwave units CMU rents look like a very good idea. Also, Jessica needs to talk
with her two new roomies and see if anyone plans to bring a printer.

We have been shuffling money from college savings funds into ready
access accounts to be prepared to pay tuition. The first semester invoice for
$24,569.50 arrived – payment is due 17 August 2007. 18 years of planning and saving
for college and here we are getting ready to spend the money. Exciting!

My husband’s family has a 75-year-old cottage on Loon Lake in Wisconsin. I wrote
about our recent visit on
June 27, 2007. Part of the charm of the
cottage is its collection of loon
stuff of all sizes and materials purchased or made by the family
over the years. Here is a selection:

Loon Sign on tree outside Cottage:

Loon Sign on Garage:

Loon Sign on Cottage:

Big Loon Sign on Cottage:

Cottage with Big Loon Sign:

Micah’s Drawing of Loon Lake Cottage:

Paul’s Loon Drawing:

Painting of Loon Lake Cottage:

Metal Loon Sign in Cottage:

Wood Loon Sign inside Cottage:

Little Loon Heart:

Ceramic Loon:

Bathroom Loons:

Framed Loon tea towel:

Loon pillow:

Another loon pillow:

Loon rug:

Saw blade with loon head:

3 loon dish towels:

Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson

We were on vacation with John’s family at the cottage on Loon Lake in Wisconsin
last week.
The 75-year-old cottage still has more boats than bedrooms even after it was
expanded last year. As always, we spent the week in and on the water: fishing,
paddle boating, canoeing, sailing, and being pulled in an inner tube behind
the speedboat (“tubing”). Mornings at the cottage are for cleanup and chores
but afternoons are mostly spent wet.

This year was notable for the great number and variety of large birds. Loon
Lake currently has two loon
families, including a new baby, and three nesting
osprey pairs in addition
to the resident bald eagles, herons, hummingbirds, pheasants, wild turkeys, and
songbirds. The half-drowned island in the middle of Loon Lake is called
Osprey Island. We even went to dinner at a restaurant which had a family
of peafowl.

Six of us spent an afternoon white water rafting down the Wolf River where it
runs through the
Menominee Indian Tribe reservation (between Otter Slide and Smokey Falls).
My camera survived the trip in a zip
bag that almost got washed out several times.

One of the delights of Loon Lake is
going pontooning at sunset. After 5 p.m., all boats must go slow enough
to create no wake so the lake gets quiet. After dinner, my Mother-in-Law
Naomi makes coffee. We take our cups and dessert out to the pontoon
boat and make a trip around the island as the sun goes down. The loons are
often out making their strange moaning or laughing sounds over the evening waters.

2006 Loon Lake Voecks Cottage:

2007 Loon Lake Voecks Cottage with Addition:

Loon Sign Voecks Cottage:

Loon Sign Voecks Cottage:

Loon Sign Voecks Cottage:

Loon Sign Voecks Cottage:

Voecks Cottage Boat Dock:

Wisconsin Pheasant:

White Peacock display:

Wolf River WI Rafting:

Wolf River WI Rafting:

Wolf River WI Rafting:

Wolf River WI Rafting:

Wolf River WI Rafting:

Wolf River WI Rafting:

Wolf River WI Rafting:

Wolf River WI at Smokey Falls:

Shotgun Eddy’s Rafting Map:

Loon Lake, Osprey Island at Sunset:

Loon Lake Pontooning:

Loon Lake Pontooning:

Images Copyright 2006-2007 by Katy Dickinson

I was able to talk with the
Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley (WCSV) today about Biff, the wild baby
bird we found by our back door on Friday. After looking at the photos
I posted in my
3 June 2007 blog entry, WCSV said they thought Biff was a House Finch, not a
European Starling. European Starlings are not federally protected in the U.S.
(some states require a special permit to keep one). House Finches are protected
by U.S. law and cannot be kept as pets.

Biff’s eyes were not opening properly so John and I just drove him to WCSV. They will care
for him and give him antibiotics for what they diagnosed as a contagious eye infection.
If Biff survives, he will be raised with other House Finches who will teach him his
proper behavior and songs. (WCSV calls this rehabilitation.) Eventually, if he grows
up and can care for himself, Biff will be released to the wild. WCSV gave us a
tracking number so that we can check up on Biff and see what happens. Biff was
ugly and demanding but I miss him already.

Friday afternoon, we were adopted by a baby bird. My son Paul saw a ball
of grey brown fuzz on the bricks outside of our backdoor and realized it
was a half fledged baby bird. Because we live on the Guadalupe River, there
are a great many cats in our area so I put the little guy in a box and we went
to look up wild bird care on the web. I think he is a European starling and I found
an excellent website:
Starling Talk on how to care for them. We have not been able to contact the
wildlife rescue person for birds in our area so we have been taking care of the
baby as best we could. For now, we are calling him Biff.

Biff probably fell from the big ash tree over where we found him but we haven’t
been able to locate any nest. His feathers were only starting to come out of the
sheath and he was very red and unresponsive when we first found him. The website
said first to get him warm and rehydrate him. We followed the
instructions and put drops of Karo corn syrup and water with a little
salt on top of his beak until he sucked it in. He eventually started begging
for food. He is eating smashed up cat food, eggs, and applesauce (with a drop
of bird vitamins once a day). Biff eats every hour for half of the day but sleeps
at night. He looks like a drab ball of fuzz except when he opens his yellow
beak so that you can see down into his big red mouth. He feet look like
delicate pink threads.

Biff is doing fine for now. We took him to church with us this morning (since he
needs to be fed regularly no matter what our schedule is) and Biff got blessed by
our priest. He was 0.4 ounces the first day, 0.5 oz. the second day, and 0.6 oz. today.
Biff now weighs as much as 3 U.S. quarter coins. He sleeps on a half sheet of crumpled
paper towel in a plastic bowl on a heating pad in a small cardboard box. Biff poops regularly
and tries to back up each time so that the poop goes outside of his nest. His white baby
fuzz is mostly gone and his new feathers are almost out of their sheaths. He cheeps
when he is hungry, even when he is asleep.

Our 12-year-old grey cockatiel, Princess Birdie, does not seem to mind Biff. She observes
him from her big cage above my desk. Biff’s box is on the file top next to the window
so he can get some sun and listen to birds outside. My daughter Jessica has the first day
of her summer job tomorrow but if she gets permission, she is going to take Biff in to work.
Biff is going to work with me tomorrow.

Here are some early Biff pictures:

Biff the starling on hand:

Biff the starling eating:

Biff the starling wanting more food:

Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson