Sat. May 14th...Time For A Formal Update For All You Dedicated Readers...

Well, we’ve been busy here...far more busy than we should be, yet not enough to be as close to finished as we wished. I say far busier than we should be, because we are traipsing down that same long (or short) road we did last summer, thus missing many activities in lieu of building (always building)... yet wanting to be further along with the “seemingly” easy projects. We are making great headway with fences and gates, the garden is coming along, but the soil...we just found out...needs amending, with the addition of Moo Grow and Peat moss to become as Vick wants it. Anyway, Vick can now amend the soil and fill the perimeter boxes to plant everything by the end of May... and everything at the garden will look nice!
We finished the fence boards last evening and will install the wire today, moving on to the gate by the dog walk and if possible, sink a few fence posts down the property line behind the Wilson (storage) house and on to the dirt pile near the back corner of the yard. Vick thinks we can stretch fence ribbon temporarily along that side and release the alpacas to browse in this section without fencing the wooded perimeter. I won’t be too comfy with that, but we’ll give it a try. We can always secure more rolls of the ribbon fencing temporarily around the perimeter on temp stakes.
The gift shop is coming along...and when all the art is received, we’ll set the opening date.
Below are pictures...lots of them! There are pictures of the alpacas...the wild geese with their little ones...the fencing and the “non-stop” vegetative, trafficking of Mary and Marvin Muskrat, as they run to and fro with large clumps of fresh grasses, obviously feeding a litter of young. All this is downloaded below!
Hopefully soon we will have pictures of new bunnies to show. Lucy, our German Angora, has been pulling fur for the last three or four days, preparing a soft warm and cozy bedding for her litter when she finally decides to have them. Hopefully they will be healthy and she will care for them correctly, since it is her first litter.
Anyway, we’ll get pictures of them when it happens and some of the hatched chicks. We’ll wait until the ducklings start hatching for those pictures. That should be about this coming Thursday or Friday...hang tight and keep watching for updates and new pictures.
Also, we want to thank the one person for their donation of $25.00 for Matthew Rosiello, which we immediately forwarded to him and below, before the pictures, is an updated report from one of the local media reporters.

Supporters fund raiser for 21-year-old Staten Island man in need of liver transplant
Published: Thursday, May 12, 2011, 10:21 AM
By Mark D. Stein

Matthew Rosiello, second from left, was the guest of honor at a fund-raiser held for him at the Old Bermuda Inn, Rossville. Standing with him, from the left, are Janine Materna, president of the Pleasant Plains, Prince's Bay, Richmond Valley Civic Association; Rosiello's father, Ken; his mother, Randy, and his brother, Jason. (Staten Island Advance/Mark Stein)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - ROSSVILLE - At just two months of age, Matthew Rosiello was diagnosed with Biliary Atresia, a liver disease that has affected him his entire life.
Twenty-one years later, Rosiello, of Prince's Bay, needs a liver transplant. Since the waiting list in New York is so long, he and his family must travel to Ohio, where the list is much shorter.
Friends and neighbors wishing Rosiello the best provided assistance to the family by helping to offset some of the travel and health expenses involved.
A fund-raiser was held for the young man last Thursday night at the Old Bermuda Inn in Rossville. More than 35 guests were on hand to support the South Shore resident in his fight for a liver transplant along with a representative from Donate Life, to help educate people and hopefully sign them up to become Organ Donors during the event.
The event was coordinated by Janine Materna, president of the Pleasant Plains, Prince's Bay, Richmond Valley Civic Association. She learned of Matthew's condition through the Advance and NY1.
"I was really taken back to see the heartache this family was going through," she said. "This is something he was born with, and he's so young. And he has so much potential."
She was happy people came out to support Rosiello.
"It's a great opportunity for the community to come together and support somebody in the community. He's one of us," added Ms. Materna.
She urges others to do what she did recently: Check the donor box on the back of their driver's licenses.
"The cure is around us. Nobody knows, God forbid, if they're going to get into a car accident or anything like that. To have your life live on in somebody else is a wonderful opportunity," Ms. Materna said.
Rosiello arrived about 30 minutes into the fund-raiser. Folks weren't sure if he'd actually attend because of a fever that developed earlier in the day.
"There's a lot of support for me," he said. "I'm fighting."
The 21-year-old was joined by his parents, brother and girlfriend.
His mother and father, Randy and Ken, were humbled at the response.
"We've run into a tremendous amount of great people. A lot of people have reached out to us from all over," said Mrs. Rosiello.
Anthony Ginetto, of Annadale, who's known the Rosiellos for 10 years, said it's nice being able to help somebody.
"If you can't help anybody out, you're just wasting everybody's time," Ginetto said.
He said Rosiello is a great kid.
"He's unbelievably optimistic for the situation he's in. It's amazing," said Ginetto.
As of March 5 this year, New York had 1,767 people waiting for a healthy liver. In Ohio, that number was far lower, at 443. Kidneys and livers are the most sought after organs, according to information provided by the Transplant Support Group (TSO).
For someone to be able to accept a donor organ, the provider and the recipient must have the same blood type, a similar body size and matching tissues. In addition, organs are provided depending on how ill a person is.
Carolyn Bernet waited eight years until she received a liver transplant earlier this year.
"I couldn't stay out of the hospital," she said, but she remained positive.
"You can't give up hope," she advised. "Just hang in there. Sometimes it's tough and sometimes it looks really disheartening."
Ms. Bernet said if Rosiello finds a donor match, his life will be 100-percent better.
"I hope the best for him. He's young," she said.
For information on how to donate money to help out Rosiello, contact Ms. Materna at janine.materna@gmail.com.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HkL8GuU9_0&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

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