Hi all,

Filming for the Chevy Hometown Kid program at the FWNC&R

This is Kari Kirkham (Joe’s mom). Joe does not like me to brag, but he is being featured on a program called Chevy Hometown Kids. It airs tomorrow at 10 a.m. (CT) on Fox Sports. It’s usually held in conjunction with the Texas Rangers games so if there is a rain-out tomorrow, I do not know if the Chevy Hometown Kids show  moves with it.

Suzanne Tuttle, Director of the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge, arranged all this. MANY thanks to  her! We hope that this  will add to the JoeBites exposure and help with our fundraising efforts for Joe’s favorite animal conservation causes.

This is the promo on the Chevy Hometown Kids Facebook page:

 “On tomorrow’s Chevy Hometown Kids show it’s Team USA vs. Team Japan in softball, North Oak Cliff Football kicks off their  season, we take the field with the largest marching band in Arlington and meet a teen dedicated to preserving mother  nature — that’s Joe!

The fun starts at 9:30am on Comcast SportsNet Houston and 10am on Fox Sports Southwest!”

 Hope you can catch it! If you miss tomorrow it will be posted on the Chevy Hometown Kid’s Facebook site and on  YouTube (https://www.facebook.com/hometownkidstv

Joe kayaking at the FWNC&R during filming of the program

Joe with Chad Etheridge of the FWNC&R. Chad is in charge of all the riparian stuff at the Nature Center.

Most everyone has submitted a shipping address so that I can send the items that you won from the auction to you. I have about TWO people outstanding that have not contacted me, so please check your junk mail folder or your Facebook to see if you are the person we are trying to reach.

Thanks, again for your participation in this auction. We raised over $1200!

My mom and I want to get it all the money part finished so that we can get some checks to the Nature Center and to CARE — so get that $$$ to us as soon as you can.

Checks payable to:

JoeBites

2316 Ashland Avenue

Fort Worth, TX 76107

THANKS again for all your help and participation!

//

Most of the money from the JoeBites First Ever Online Auction is in! We say “most” because you nice people keep giving extra money and telling me to add it to the auction donation. This is REALLY, REALLY nice of you.

THANK YOU for SUPPORTING JOEBITES!!!

I also really want to thank all the vendors who gave me stuff for the auction, especially to Dale Roberts, Shellie Metroka, the Artful Bead, Sharon Dooley, Laura Hunt, The Import Store, Friends of the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge, the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge and CARE. I also want to say thanks to my mom for inputting a lot of this stuff while I was at work this summer. I could not pull this off without your help.

Here’s the total right now:

Online Auction — $500

Private Donations — $739

Collection Jar at my dad’s store — $35

T-Shirt to my cousin-in-law — $21

GRAND TOTAL: $1295

I’m just waiting for a few more checks to come in and then I can get the money to the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge and to CARE. Don’t worry — I will give the money as you instructed (to the Nature Center, to CARE or split between both).

If you still need to receive your items, contact my mom at kari.kirkham@charter.net. She needs your shipping address.

All payments and donations can be made to:

JoeBites

2316 Ashland Avenue

Fort Worth, TX 76107

i accept cash, checks and money orders. Sorry — Word Press won’t let me do Pay Pal on my blog.

Remember that both the Nature Center and CARE are 501 (C) 3 non-profit organizations, so your contribution is tax deductible.

Thanks again for ALL your help and contributions!

Joe

//

  Thank you to everyone who participated 

in the

First Ever Online Auction on JoeBites

  We raised over $600

for the

Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge 

and the

Center for Animal Research & Education

I will be notifying the people who won.

Well, really my mom will. She will let you know where to send a check, cash or money order.

She will also ask you to send a shipping address to her so I can send out the item straight to your door.

THANKS AGAIN for helping me raise money for these two great places !

-Joe

Who is looking out for me?

My family went to Chicago and Madison, WI for summer vacation. We visited the Brookfield Zoo and the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. And YES — we were there for the rally and parade of the Blackhawk’s Stanley Cup win.

I learned a few facts at the aquarium,  like penguins can actually be pretty ferocious fighters with one another. Once they catch hold of each other they do not let go! I also learned that a starfish can be cut in half and then that missing half will totally regenerate. I don’t suggest you cut a starfish in two to check this out, though. Let’s just trust what the experts told us!

I also learned that there are less than 3,000 California sea otters left in the wild. They started dying off as a result of the Exonn Valdez spill many years ago. It’s good to know that there are places like Shedd Aquarium trying to take care of them and bring back their numbers.

JoeBites Auction

Don’t forget to bid at my auction starting Monday, July 8 at 8 a.m. (CT). All proceeds go to my pet projects, the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge and the Center for Animal Research & education (Big Cat CARE). You can link to each organization’s websites from my blog.

I try to raise money money for them and this is my big fundraiser for the year, so I hope you will join in the fun.

It will be real easy to do: starting July 8, place your bid in the “comment” box under each item posted on this blog. In your first “comment” bid (in case you are the highest bidder) please indicate if you would like your money to help the Fort Worth Nature Center, Big Cat CARE, or split evenly between both organizations. You only have to make this specification one time in your first bid. You may come back to this post and add incremental bids in a new “comment” box under this post as many times as you wish.

THANKS!

I hate to brag about this kind of stuff but my mom is making me write this — 360 West Magazine interviewed me about JoeBites. You can see the article in the June issue of the magazine (http://360westmagazine.com). I’m on page 115.

Thanks to everyone at the magazine: our friend, Babs Rodriguez, Meda Kessler who was the person who interviewed me – she is real nice. My mom used to work for the publisher, Jerry Scott. She has lots of friends who work there, too, like Kim and Bernie.

If you are not a subscriber to this magazine, check it out. It’s pretty cool.

Thanks again!

Joe and Meda Kessler, executive editor of 360 West Magazine

Thanks for taking the poll of who did NOT originate in Australia. If you said the dingo, you are correct. According to research dingos showed up in Australia from China about 18,000 years ago (http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/the-dingo-came-to-australia-from-southern-china.htm.). Who knew that crazy dog was so old?

The platypus was a good guess. Although it has many relatives found in fossil records in places like Wales and Argentina, platypus fossils have only been found in Australia (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platypus). The platypus is a monotreme, meaning it is a mammal but it lays eggs instead of having live births.

The question most often asked was what an echidnas was. It’s sort of like a cross between a hedgehog and a porcupine (http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/animals/Echidnas.htm.). It is also a monotreme.

OK, wombats and wallbys were easy — but they are fun to say, especially together.

Thanks for taking this poll!

JoeBites Silent Auction, Summer, 2013

Summer Fundraising, coming soon!

Since I will have a real job this summer I cannot go from company to company or send out lots of letters for donations like I have for the past few years. I still want to raise money for the Nature Center and for CARE so I decided to hold an online auction for my fundraising this summer.

I will hold the auction on this blog site.

Keep checking back to this site. I’ll have more information and very soon some STUFF to auction off, too.

The answers to the poll, “Which Snake has the Deadliest Venom?”
1.The answer would be the Belcher’s Sea Snake. Funny thing about these guys is that their venom is the most potent (according to ListServe.com, a few milligrams is strong enough to kill 1000 people). But these guys don’t always bite with their venom. Maybe only ¼ of the time. They’re pretty docile, too. Maybe because their venom is so strong, that’s why they are so laid back? List Serve does not say these guys are #1, but I’ve seen on specials on Animal Planet that Sea Snakes have the deadliest venom – so I still say they are #1 in my book.

2.The Inland Taipan is listed as the #1 deadliest snake. According to ListServe.com, “the maximum yield recorded for one bite is 110 mg, enough to kill about 100 humans.” They get listed as the deadliest snake on dry land. They are also sort of laid back, and there has never been a recorded fatality by the Inland Taipan.

3.It’s the Aussie Eastern Brown Snake that is listed next. They are not real aggressive, either but you may run into them more (in Australia). They seem to like habitats that are pretty well populated. They react to movement so if you see one you’re supposed to stand real still.

4.The Asian Krait is listed next as having the deadliest venom. Even anti-venoms don’t really work if one of these guys bites you. They are pretty timid and try to hide rather than fight, though. They are mostly nocturnal, though. Yeah – I can see my Aunt Sharon traipsing around in Indonesia at night and running into one of these guys. That’s REALLY going to happen!

5. Another kind of Taipan is next in line as having the deadliest venom. This one is also found mostly in Australia. The thing about this guy is he’s sort of aggressive – so he may ONLY be #5 – but I think I’d rather run into a Sea Snake or Krait than him.

6.We FINALLY get to the Black Mamba. I bet a lot of people think he has the deadliest venom, or at least would be higher on the list. The thing that is deadly about a Black Mamba (aside from his venom that can kill you in 15 minutes) is that they are fast, aggressive and very precise. They bite with venom MOST of the time. And, these jerks will bite the same thing several times, not just once. This is why they get the reputation that they get. All I know is they are very long and scary.

7.The next on the list is the Australian Tiger Snake. Why are there a bunch of really dangerous snakes in Australia? What did the Aussies ever do to us? They have really cute bears, Australian Shepherds and (I hear) good beer and wine. My mom says the guys are pretty cute and good surfers, too.

8.This may sound strange but it is the Philippine Cobra that is more dangerous than the Indian Cobra. In fact, things like a Rattle Snake, Viper or Adder are more dangerous than an Indian Cobra.

9.Vipers and Adders beat out a Rattlesnake on deadliest venom. The Vipers are found mostly in areas of Asia and the Middle East. The Adder that is on the list is called a Death Adder. Where does it live? AUSTRALIA!

10.Finally we get to Rattle Snakes on the list. Well, the USA may get more deaths by gunshots, have lower standards of education and a lot of pollution than other places but at least our snakes are not more deadly than in other countries. Especially Australia.

Thanks for taking the poll!
SOURCE: http://listverse.com/2011/03/30/top-10-most-venomous-snakes/