Even more BOB JOBS that I'm figuring out! I had a snapping turtle in my garage, and a recently deceased Carolina wren, both on the same day. #TheWiddaKevoian is getting things done.
My Bob died yesterday and the loss is nearly unbearable. I’m so overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and condolences. All you guys LOVED my husband. What a joy that is to me! I wish I could reach out to thank each of you personally, but I see you and thank you for loving my Bob.
Frank Newell spent 38 years in the military. When he came home to his family farm in North Carolina, the bluebirds were gone.
When Frank was young, the fence posts around the pastures in Warrenton were wood, and Eastern bluebirds nested in them by the hundreds. When he came home decades later, the posts had been replaced with metal. The bluebirds had nowhere to nest and were disappearing.
Bluebirds can't excavate their own nest cavities. They depend on old woodpecker holes and natural rot in dead wood, both of which vanish when a landscape gets tidied up. So Frank started building them nest boxes by hand, 25 a week, with donated lumber and a Sears table saw that lasted him 33 years.
The word spread, volunteers joined, and businesses donated wood. The Eastern Bluebird Rescue Group, which Frank founded in 1996, has now built and distributed more than 500,000 bluebird houses, sold at or below cost. Warren County is now believed to hold the largest concentration of Eastern bluebirds in the United States.
Frank Newell has since passed away, but the group he started is still going, run by his daughter and son-in-law and a few dozen volunteers.
@LovinBlue I saw somebody call Gen X "hose drinkers", and laughed at the notion. We drank out of hoses because we were thirsty. (No fancy gallon jugs purchased by Mom & Dad to carry around!) I could go on...hahaha
I got "by with a little help from my friends"! The #Indy500 was one of my "firsts" without Bob. I admit to crying as I walked the final steps to our regular seats. But my nephew and my seat-pal helped me through the day. And what a race it was! #TheWiddaKevoian