On May 24^th, I celebrated my 74^th Birthday, that’s right 74^th. Now some people might be depressed if they just celebrated their 74^th birthday, but I don’t. I feel blessed to still be here living my life one day after another.

I retired from full-time work when I was sixty-two. However, I continuted creating art, paintings and pencil drawings. In addition, I began writing short stories and memoirs. And I have written over two hundred stories in the last eight years. And one book.

We moved to North Carolina after we retired. And while we were preparing to retire, and deciding where we would live, we found that taxes in the South were much lower than home in the North, especially New Jersey.

So, we settled down in Willow Spring, NC. We have been living here for almost nine years. Unfortunateley, the people who live in ths development keep to themselves, Only one neighbor introduced themselves to us. I am a friendly person and I found these neighbors to be off-putting. It is a rare occasion when any of them wave at us. Not, a whole lot I can do about our neighbors. On the other hand they are quiet and take care of their properties, so I’m not going to complain too much.

Fortunately, I made the decision to find a volunteer job. In New Jersey, I worked for years in Social Services, I worked at Ranch Hope in Alloway, NJ with at-risk boys who had been adjudicated by the court to reiside at Ranch Hope until the age of 18 or 21. Depending on their behavior. I stayed there for five years. I came to love those boys, even the most difficult ones.

After we settled in to our new home in North Carolina, I started looking for volunteer jobs. I made the choice to work with animals instead of teenagers. I have been volunteering at Animal Edventure for the past nine years. I take care of Parrots, Macaws, pigneons and doves, and finches, and a few parrokeets. Who were given up by their precious owners. Over the years I have voluteered there I have adopted ten of these birds from Animal Edventure. And two dogs, who I have come to love like they are my own children.

There are over 220 animals that reside at Animal Edventure which is located on Live Oak Road in Coats, North Carolina, I only live about a fifteen minute drive from Coats. I voluteer three mornings a week. I have met many interesting people over the last nine years. Including, the owner, Cory Freeman, who owns and runs the Animal Sanctuary she has a tremendous knoweledge about all of these beautiful creatures.

I am quite busy with my volunteer work, and taking care of my family and our two dogs, cat, and ten birds, and most recently I adopted two kittens that had been left outside the gate at Animal Edventure. They have proven to be quite active, it has been a long time since we had kittens and I had forgotten how lively and rambunksious, they can be and adorable.

We live in a small development with about twenty other families. We had made many friends in our previous home in Pitman, New Jersey. In addition, I taught art in one section of our home in Pitman, for many years. And I made many friends in Pitman in the twenty-four years we live there. It was a wonderful experience. And I enjoyed teaching both adults and children. The house had been unoccupied for eight years. So, as you would expect it was run down. We had to have a new roof put on in the Spring, since it was winter when we moved there. We lived there for twenty-four years. It was difficult leaving Pitman after twenty-four years. But, there was not way we could continue living there after we retired and couldn’t afford the upkeep or the taxes.

And when we were preparing to retire, we found that taxes in the South were much lower than homes in the North, So, we setteled down in Willow Spring, NC. We have been living here for almost nine years. Unfortunateley, the people who live in this development keep to themselves, Only one neighbor introduced themselves to us. I am a friendly person and I found these neighbors to be off-putting. It is a rare occasion when any of them wave at us. Not, a whole lot I can do about our neighbors.

Fortunately, I made the decision to find a volunteer job. In New Jersey, I worked for years in Social Services, I worked at Ranch Hope in Alloway, NJ with at-risk boys who had been adjudicated by the court to reside at Ranch Hope until the age of 18 or 21. Depending on their behavior. I stayed there for five years. I came to love those boys, even the most difficult ones. I also worked for the Center For Family Services in Camden, New Jersey with the Antioch Church and Wilson Goode, the first black mayer. I matched at-risk kids with members of the Antioh Church as mentors to the boys.

After we settled in to our new home in North Carolina, I started looking for volunteer jobs. I made the choice to work with animals instead of teenagers. I have been volunteering at Animal Edventure for the past nine years. I take care of Parrots, Macaws, pigneons and doves, and finches, and a few parrokeets. Who were given up by their precious owners. Over the years I have voluteered there I have adopted ten of these birds.

There are over 220 animals that reside at Animal Edventure which is located in Coats, North Carolina, I only live about a fifteen minute drive from Coats. I volunteer three mornings a week. I have met many interesting people over the last nine years. Including, the owner, Cory Freeman, who owns and runs the Animal Sanctuary she has a tremendous knoweledge about all of these beautiful creatures.

I am quite busy with my volunteer work, and taking care of my family and our two dogs, cat, and ten birds, and most recently I adopted two kittens that had been left outside the gate at Animal Edventure. They have proven to be quite active, it has been a long time since we had kittens and I had forgotten how lively and rambunksious, they can be. We already had one cat, two dogs and the ten birds. As I said, I always loved animals and kids.

So, what will my next challenge be, I don’t know yet, but I look forward to new challenges along my life’s highways and byways. I have written a book, and at some point I will attempt to get ithe book published. So, perhaps that will be my next challeng getting my book published.

Thanks for reading my blog, I have many stories left to tell.