10/07/2025
Hello Friends and Followers,
We have not had an official fundraiser for quite some time now. The Park Lane Jewelry Fundraiser that my friend had for us did not do well. Thank you to the two people who did order something. We appreciate that.
Our animals mean the world to me and to our volunteers! We are all family here. The volunteers mean the world to me! Their love for all our rescues and their dedication is just amazing! Without them, running the sanctuary and taking care of EVERYTHING every single day would be a lot harder! I appreciate our volunteers so much, more than I can express in words. We have a fantastic team here!
As we approach winter we are preparing to make things better for our animals and easier for our volunteers. The winters are hard especially when it's cold and windy, raining, snowing or there is snow on the ground.
We have some projects going on that is taking away from our general fund which we use to feed and vet our animals.
We are having the pig's house insulated finally. Pigs are very susceptible to hypothermia in temperatures below 50 degrees. Although we do run a heat lamp in their house, it gets quite expensive to keep it on 24/7. By insulating the pig's house we should only have to run it during the night hours, if even that. Our pigs fit perfectly all snug together in their house. We chose to not have an oversized house for them so that they could stay warmer by using their body heat and being close together. They seem to like it that way also.
In addition we are having the drywall and insulation in the feed shed completed. We started that years ago, but I personally ran out of money to finish and the sanctuary didn't have the funds either. Having this shed insulated will keep Cloud's mush from freezing and so I don't have to run a heat lamp in there. Cloud is in his early 30's and his teeth are wearing down so he gets the majority of his nutrition from mush, which consists of Senior Pellets, Hay Pellets, Beet Pulp, MSM for his joints and salt, all mixed together and soaked in water until mushy. He LOVES his mush! (Most horse people call it Mash, but I'm weird and to me it looks mushy so I call it mush, lol)
We are having electrical run from my house to the chicken coop in my backyard. This will allow us to use a chicken water heater for the chicken and ducks waterer. We have a terrible time with their water freezing solid in the winter even when it's in their coop. This will also allow us to have electrical for a deicer in the duck pool so I don't have to run an extension cord along the ground. We had the duck pool next to my back deck, but we empty and clean the duck pool daily and all that water was going underneath my deck and over time has eroded the earth which can compromise the structure of my backyard deck. We will be moving their pool next to the chicken coop and then we can route the water out and away from my house and deck.
The solar motion light in our hay barn is no longer working so we are having a new one installed.
All deicers and water heaters will be plugged into thermostatically controlled outlet plugs that will turn on if the outdoor temperature drops below 38 degrees and will turn off once the temperature reaches 50 degrees to save on electricity. Our electric bill in the winter is astronomical now that the rates have gone sky high and they are going to be even more this year as the rates went up again. We are trying to conserve by using these outlet plugs and insulating.
Our Board of Directors approved all of these improvements with a vote, 5 voting in favor, one didn't respond yet to the email. We have 6 Board members and need a majority vote which we have.
The total costs for these improvements are the following:
Labor to insulate pig's house: $150
Labor to finish drywall and insulation of Feed Shed: $250
Total materials cost for these two projects is $603.12
Labor and materials for running electrical to chicken coop: $1,229
Total costs: $2,232.12
We would like to offset some of these costs so as not to take away from our animal rescue residents feed and vet needs, so we would like to raise $2,000 if possible.
We realize that times are tough for many of you. The costs of everything continues to increase, but we are asking you to please help us. NO DONATION IS TOO SMALL! It all adds up! We appreciate EVERY donation.
Our animal rescues, myself, the Board of Directors and the volunteers thank you for reading this long post and for considering making a donation.
Several people have asked about other ways of donation other than through Facebook so here are two other ways:
Mail: Grateful Heart Animal Sanctuary
P.O. Box 3313
Big Bear City, CA 92314
Website: www.GratefulHeartAnimalSanctuary.org
YOU ALL ARE THE BACKBONE OF KEEPING GRATEFUL HEART ANIMAL SANCTUARY UP AND RUNNING FOR THE PAST 6 YEARS!
I am grateful to each of you.
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