Birds and Beaks Rescue and Rehab

02/08/2025

Product Photographers!

Question for you.

I am finding it exceptionally hard to take reasonable product shots of shiny granite.

Do any of you guys have a foolproof solution for this? We have a Lightbox, but that is crazy reflective in there. Research is showing me soft boxes at a 45 degree angle and some poster boards to dampen the light? Is there a durable tool for this that's an all inclusive set of things I can order at once?

I'm trying to figure out a vibe for the site with images, and I'd like to come up with like 4-5 shot formulas that we can use to take pictures of each memorial as its made. Here's some images so you can see the challenge.

Thoughts? I'll get the right equipment for it if necessary - I'm just not sure what to get.

02/08/2025

It looks like some of you guys had some questions about the memorials and the plan.

Let's discuss!

Introducing Birdiebye: BYLINE PENDING
(A new project by Birds and Beaks Rescue and Rehab)

We’ve had some great questions lately - so here’s the what, why, and what’s-next:

✨ Yes, we’ll be offering custom memorials. Beautiful, long-lasting Absolute Black Granite, sealed for outdoor use or paired with a 3D-printed easel for display on a shelf, mantle, or memorial nook.

📏 We’re launching with 3 sizes:
• 6x6” – $60
• 6x12” – $90
• 12x12” – $150
Shipping not included

These are geared toward pet memorials, because, that’s our tribe. But we’ll absolutely be offering roadside memorials and can do custom engravings for people too. We’re just starting where we know our community lives—with their animals—and as we grow, we hope to market human memorials more broadly as well.

As for glass, mirrors, or other mediums—maybe later. For now, granite gives us the quality and permanence we want to stand behind.

And yes—we do offer engraved tumblers and other custom gifts!
You’ll still find those on our Etsy shop, alongside our 3D-printed goodies. But Birdiebye for memorials is its own thing—a space for remembrance, healing, and honoring the ones we’ve lost. We want to keep it clean, respectful, and focused on that website, and it feels weird to offer F*X Figures and 3d printed toys and stuff with something so somber and respectful.

I think we need to stay under the Birdiebye LLC for both - but they need to be separated. Maybe we do a DBA for a secondary site later for the bird stuff and 3d stuff but I'm still working out how to separate it. Right now all the gift stuff will stay on Etsy, and the memorials will live on it's own website with Shopify.

100% of proceeds support the parrot rescue, either on Etsy or on the new upcoming website.

When you order from Birdiebye, you’re helping us save lives.

If you’ve ever loved and lost—this is for you.
Stay tuned. We’re just getting started.

If you have other questions, post away. I'm happy to answer them!

Send a message to learn more

02/08/2025

So as you guys might (or might not) know, we're about to launch a Memorial business. It will be part of the LLC, which will hopefully fund this rescue.

It will be a FOR profit LLC - but its job (which it already does) is to fund the rescue. The printers and laser are already under it.

For the memorial site, we're looking for a byline. I'd love it if you weigh in.

The business is called Birdiebye. The byline - to describe what we do, will be one of these. I have my fav, and the team has theirs. We wanted to see what you guys think.

TO VOTE: Use the corresponding reaction to the one you like.

Thumbs Up: “Etched in stone. Echoed in kindness.”

Heart: “A beautiful goodbye that gives back.”

Care: “Etched with love. Powered by rescue.”

HaHa: “For every soul remembered, another gets rescued.”

Wow: “Granite that remembers. A mission that heals.”

Sad: “Love remembered. Birds rescued.”

Anger: “Memorials with meaning — and a mission.”

Send a message to learn more

02/08/2025

Why, yes. That IS birdsh*t on my steering wheel.

01/08/2025

So if you have your bird microchipped , through Avid or any of the other companies, you have to actually reach out to them and register your bird after they have been injected.

I thought I should tell you guys that just in case you didn’t know.

If you don’t have your chip number, you get a hold of your vet and they will give you the number and then you get a hold of the company using the contact information that your vet gives you and you register.

With Avid it’s 39.99 one time, for lifetime access.

So, now if anyone takes Brax to the vet, he is registered as lost/stolen. Anytime an animal goes to the vet they’re supposed to be chip checked.

If he’s taken in he should be flagged and we will receive a call.

❤️

01/08/2025

 Reality in Rescue: update on the Brax situation, and what we are up to this weekend with the Rockstar Rescue Tour!

31/07/2025

One thing I forgot to tell you guys, we blew the power supply in the laser yesterday so I had to order another one. When we came in the breaker was flipped and now it won’t turn on, so it’s probably the power supply. The new one will be here Sunday or Monday.

That will give me a little bit more time to work on the website and figure out the ordering logistics for the memorials for the website.

In the meantime, check out this one Sam did for one of our adoptive families last week, and the one he did for my friend Rachel for her Bugsy and Capone.

We are solidly at three sizes and I think I can confidently say that he’s got the chops for just about any image now.

31/07/2025

Taking this yahoo out with Ellie and I this morning.

I ordered side mirrors, a blinker kit and a horn, safety flags and the bougie gps system for the BraxBuggy.

I also got the ORV and trail permits registered.

Because there seems to be some question about it lol I used Birdiebye money for that. That’s the LLC we have for the printers and the laser and all of that. That’s why the LLC exists. To pay for things that the Rescue can’t afford.  Sometimes that’s things like food and heat, but our adoptions are going decently well thanks to the revamp of our adoption pages.

We had 2k left in the budget for the side-by-side, and that’s going to plow and winch. I’m gonna have JT Power-sport install it before it gets cold.

Anything I do to pimp out the BraxBuggy will be on my dime. 🙂

Coby is unable to fly due to a wing injury when he was younger causing contracture where he cannot extend his wings all the way out. He uses them for this, and to hug me. Still pretty admirable ways of having and using wings.

31/07/2025

I don’t know how celebrities deal with the constant barrage of negativity and criticism towards everything they say and do.

I’m not a celebrity. I wouldn’t even consider myself an influencer. And yet the nonstop commentary from people here to cause hell and discontent gets on my last nerve.

I feel like I’m growing as a human. I used to just eviscerate them. Lately I’ve been trying to actually hear what they’re trying to say and look for what I can learn from what they’re saying.

I saw a quote a couple of days ago, and it said something to the effect of:

“First person: Why are you cool with people being evil to you?

Second person: We are similar, you and I. The only difference is when people say mean things to you, you internalize it, take it personally and think that you have something wrong with you. When people are ugly to me, I analyze it, and I realize that there is something wrong with them.”

I’m trying to get there.

I’m working on it. Healing my inner traumas.

But until then, one last time for the people in the back, when you raise money for a side-by-side for the Rescue, that’s actually what you have to to spend the money on. You can’t raise money for something and then do something else with it. That, friends, is a crime.

So you’re welcome to go expire loudly in a hole with a stick in your eye, that’s ablaze. Or just make like Digital Underground, and do the Humpty Dance in any old direction you’d like other than here. 🖕

30/07/2025

So part of the struggle with the search with all of this land everywhere is that we don’t know where we can go safely. I found a GPS system that gives you terrain and drop off and all sorts of cool stuff with satellite imagery even when we run out of cell service, which seems to happen an awful lot around here. It’s been one of the hardest parts of all of this.

So today, I ordered that GPS system for the BraxBuggy. I will feel better about going into places. I’ve never been on terrain that has not been tested with UTV’s, and if we get into trouble at any point, that will save us. It has SOS services and it does not require an extra subscription to be able to have the satellite on it.

 The one I got is a Garmin Tread 2 SxS.

I got to thinking if he could go for days without seeing another human, so too, could we. I was trying to just use my phone, but there’s never seems to be any Internet back in any of those places and it’s not particularly accurate.

Do you ever feel like Al Queda gets better Internet in their caves than we do here in the United States of America?

The other problem that we keep running into is all these damn storms. We keep having drone companies come try to help us and we keep getting thwarted by weather.

I made the webpage for him today. I’m gonna make one of the yard signs tonight and see how that looks and then if that’s a go, then I will make a bunch and get them distributed tomorrow.

We had two successful adoptions today. That’s a happy glimmer!

30/07/2025

I need your eyes.

Can you guys take a look at this page and tell me if I'm missing something? I'm going to use this page with a QR code, and I'm going to put it on waterproof vinyl stickers, and make signs for the intersections near the rescue.

Anything else I need to add?

https://www.birdsandbeaks.org/abraxos

30/07/2025

We have the BraxBuggy!

It’s a 2021 that had just over 800 miles on it. The gentleman we purchased it from for $16,000 used it to take garbage from his garage to his barn, which was less than a city block. It has never been off-road or off his driveway really and they wanted something a little less powerful for their young kids to drive and play with.

It has a clean title and we have the bank release for them paying it off and a bill of sale. The extra $2000 that we have left in our budget for this will pay for a plow and a winch. We will get that done before it gets cold outside.

Andrea and I figured out how to take the doors off tonight because it’s hotter than the seventh layer of hell today so we took the doors off and we will probably keep them off until it gets cold.

I regret to inform our haters that don’t think we deserve to have any amenities in this thing that it has heat, a Bluetooth radio, and gasp… Windshield wipers. :)

I cannot thank you guys enough for the love and support in getting this so quickly!

You guys are simply the best.

I’m just returning with fuel for it right now and if you need me, I’ll be out looking for the sweetest little yellow bird ever there was.