May cause health problems.

Today was Bunny Clipping Day, as there are four bunnies on the waiting list. I did shear Zero, one of the three babies born this past June-ish. He was a handful and so I was looking forward to clipping Spot. Magnificent Spot.

She was next on the list. The clipping was a little late, but the weather has been cold, and so the clipping has been postponed.

Spot was one of Fuzzarelly's babies, born in February of 2004. She has always been special to me, being the only broken (read - spotted) angora I've ever had. She was good natured and always friendly.

So today, as I took Zero back to the barn after his haircut, I intended to bring Spot in for her slightly overdue clipping. But she was dead. Newly so. Damn diddy damn damn. And fuck.

God damn it!

Her body was warm and my tears were, too. Don't know what I could have done for her, yet I still felt so responsible. Still feel. God damn it.

What to do?

I pondered for a short while. Should I let her go? Take her to the family cemetery and be done? Or reclaim her pelt, which was long and special to me? Could I manage it?

I could, but it was hard. Then I took her remains to the resting place.

I am still rather distraught.

But as I pulled up into the driveway, I saw four little baby bunnies grazing in the front yard. Two black and two brown.

Merge Ahead

Back to what passes for normal around here. Yay.

That's one of the reasons that I don't much like any holiday; it screws up the routine. If one is borderline freaky, routine disruption is not to be scoffed at. There is different shit on the radio, and on the tv - if we actually watched it anymore. Sweetie was home for five days and bless him, he is back to work today. Again, yay.

The brown bunny, still unnamed, is thriving!



So is the white baby, who will be four weeks old tomorrow. He is as big as, but younger that, the brown. We call him Sluggo. Both he and brown are very sweet natured. Sweetie even thinks the brown could serve as house bunny. He only slightly pisses off Heizen, who is never pleased with company or competition.




To add to our menagerie, Good Neighbor Nancy gave us the very little brown bunny she captured last week. Seems like Nancy's Miss Cleo cannot abide another bunny in Her House. At all. Imagine biting, clawing and general acting out on Cleo's part. At least Heizen only loses bathroom manners.




So we have a new, very small brown baby. Yay!

Friend Betty Bob and MarkL drove away with two bunnies yesterday, Hattie and Mildred; aka The Girls who were born of Sheila last January. I got my second bunny from her several years ago, and so, now that she is ready for some small fiber animals, I returned the favor. I'm glad for everyone, as the girls get to stay together and Betty gets two bunnies that like living together in one large cage. I think everyone is happy.

Also, at Shakertown, I spoke with Lisa who had bought one of my buns at Greencastle last April. Caramel is their family delight! And, And! Caramel was used in a photo shoot for the Kentucky Opera which is staging Of Mice and Men in '09. With luck, we may see him on billboards this year. Lisa, her kids and her sweetie are still totally enthralled with the light brown bunny, and that makes me smile Big Time.

Claudia's lump is healing well. I am not able to express any more pusgoop, and the scab looks normal. A few more weeks and she'll be good as new.

Wash Hands Often.

Brrrrr Rabbit! It is cold here at the Bunny Palace. 8 degrees last night and today it has stayed in the 20s. The worst thing is the bunny watering. Their water freezes quickly, so I take them hot tap water and hope they get their fill before it turns to ice. Of course, I have to first duck their bowls in hot water to get that old ice out and it is mighty hard on the manicure, let me tell ya.

Some bunnies, though, don't have to worry. Here is the baby who was so comfortable on Sweetie's chest that he rolled over on his back and went to sleep. He'll be three weeks old tomorrow (already!) and he's a-growin' like a weed.



Claudia is also inside, much to Heizen's dismay. It had been growing for a short while but I only noticed it today, this lump of infection on her head. Bunnies don't have liquid pus but rather something that resembles rancid toothpaste, so it is very important to get rid of it.

I got out the trusty X-acto knives and lanced this huge (on any rabbit but especially on a dwarf) lump o' pus. I'd say it was the size of a pecan and at least a tablespoon of goop squooshed out. She behaved very well because I know it must have hurt like hell and I tried to squeeze every last bit out.

I decided not to take a picture.

Mix Thouroughly

Hanukkuh Bunnies.

War is Over. If you want it.

I miss John so much these days.

If ingested, do not induce vomiting!

Happy Solstice! This pretty much sums it up:

Length of Day 9 hours 31 minutes
Tomorrow will be 0m 2s longer.

We are keeping tabs on Milly, while she is keeping tabs on the little brown.

Water Resistant

I read several blogs and I am reading a lot about knitting for Xmas. Not me. I have more sense. I hope.

Since I am not whacked out about this upcoming holiday, I am spending these days as if they were any other days. Nice. Take care of bunnies, pet bunnies, and clean up after bunnies.






And finish the Afghan that Grew Like Topsy. Yay! It must weigh two pounds, but it is done and I am thrilled.



I have also been snooping around the InterWebs and found these InterLinks:

The Scientific Guide to Gift Wrapping

Blue Christmas. Sung by Porky Pig. (My All Time Favorite xmas song.)(Ever.)

A little something from Monty Python.

Here there be Monsters.

I have finished the plying of the Bunny and the Beast handspun. I used what I think is all silk from Yubina that I bought almost a year and a half ago. I want to get the same fiber only in a gold yellow color which is my all time favorite plying choice. The silk is uppermost in the photo.








By the way, I had good service from them. Shipping took about 3 or 4 weeks, and the package came wrapped in brown paper with my name and address handwritten.

Found another great blogtoday, fiber related. Check it out.

Take every four hours.

Warning: photos of Wet Beavers.

Not Responsible for Any Damages

Bunny Update

Here's the white baby one week ago.



And today at two weeks old.





Li'l brown is going to be a small guy, but he is so sweet! He's grown used to the indoor comforts.





The sun won't set much further south this year than this. Pretty, huh?

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

My life. So far.

Still snuffling and coughing from the Creeping Crud. Me and Sweetie both. This virus has really wiped us out. (Not that I need an excuse to do nothing, or that Sweetie needs a reason to sleep all day on the couch.)

I have been clipping bunnies as the weather allows. I try not to denude them when the temps are below freezing, but today has been near 60(!) so clipt Kelly Bob and Tutu. The angora cup runneth over.

Inside, Virginia and her kit are doing well, as is the sibling to the little black guy that I tried to save last week. I caught him about a week ago, to much squealing on his part, but he is now acclimated to the safe, warm, and well-fed indoors. He's a cutie - brown with the darker nose of his mother, Jackie Brown, and small like his daddy. All three of them are in the big cage in the living room.

Heizen is also fine and really loves his own little space in the pantry. Although he comes out to pootie near the big cage every so often. Men.

I finished the scribble scarf, and have worn it, but think it will be frogged. The corn fiber ribbon yarn mixed with silk thread just will not behave and is worming like crazy. The technique needs a more grabby yarn to work right. Oh well, live and learn.

Began spinning some of my Bunny and the Beast today. There is not much left from all that I carded in October - and that's a good thing! It has sold well everywhere. But now I need to get access to the Patrick Green Super Carder again in order to crank out some product for the next couple of months. All my fiber profits have been set aside in order to buy one for my very own, but I am only half way to the needed total of about $2600. (Yikes! That is more than we pay for our cars.) But it is the coolest damn piece of equipment that I have ever seen, and worth every penny.

On the knitting front, the current afghan is nearing completion. I had to order more Lorna's Laces yarn (from Loopy Ewe) and dye two more skeins of KnitPicks worsted weight because this thing has apparently gotten way out of hand. But I am only two blocks away from sewing the damn thing together and I can't wait to be shet of the knitting of it. I am looking forward to the snuggling beneath. That last afghan is my favorite cozy maker. Sweetie's too. It is soft, light weight, warm, and not too big.

My next knitting project will be a scarf from the handspun Bunny/Beast. The last IK had some nice designs and I may consider knitting a sweater from it. Consider. Don't hold me to it.

See your dentist regularly.

I think I have all the diseases in this video.


Except the anal teeth.

Replace all batteries.

Quite funny blog I just found
Sometimes I Make Lists

Made to Measure.

Notes from Shaker Village

There was a powdering of snow on the main avenue. Before restoration, this was the Lexington Highway.



Sweetie was enthralled by this big guy, a Highland bull.



The story as to why this creature ended up at Shakertown was that the bull was pastured in a nice rich neighborhood. One day he escaped and ate thousands of dollars worth of a neighbor's landscaping. Ooops! Bull had to leave.

I won the first drawing of the raffle. From 6 items available, I chose a dozen woven kitchen towels from the Weaver's Corner! Hot dog! Twelve!

replay

Please excuse me while I catch up on 10 years of Interweb videos. Ha ha, Sneezing Panda. Play it again! Again!!

No, really, I have been doing an inordinate amount of surfing since we got the high speed thingie. I am totally amazed. Still.

Otherwise on the home front, I have a Problem Cat and her name is Millie. While Sweetie and I attended the Friendship Spinners meeting at Shaker Village, Millie took the opportunity to kill the smaller of the two neonates. I know!

I have left the bunny cage door open for the last several days. I had no fear that anything would harm the babies; especially not our kitties.

We got home Saturday night at eleven, and I attended to the barn bunnies, the Buster, and the cats needs. Then I checked on the babies. When I found only the one, I tore the nest and cage apart looking for any sort of sign or body part that would explain the disappearance. Sweetie and I were both flummoxed. But like Sherlock Holmes said, Even if it is improbable, it has to be that thing. (I paraphrase.)

It also explains the fate of the Wildie. I thought that he had slipped outside through the gap under the back door in October. But then Sweetie smelled something dead upstairs in the part of the house we use for storage. Couldn't find anything, so we thought maybe a mouse, a bird, even a squirrel. I did not suspect the cats because both Reeses and Millie have been around bunnies all the time and I have never seen either of them harm a rabbit at all. Try to play with, chase, slightly torment - yes. Injure - no. But there was disappearance. Then smell.

It has to be Millie. There can be no other culprit but her. She is a kitty, a predator, and in spite of our civilizing influence, nature apparently won out. She loves to bring us dead pygmy shrews and the occasional dead bird. She did chase the Wildie around and chases Heizen still.

Right now, cage doors are shut and she is being kept inside.

I have to wonder what influence the Evil Cat may have had on her. Maybe its behavior led her to believe that the really little ones are somehow fair game. I don't know.

But I do know that Millie has to go somewhere else to live. Any one need a good mouser?

WARNING! DO NOT TURN THIS WEBSITE UPSIDE DOWN!

So.

The neo nates are thriving. Fat and already getting fur. I cuddle them two or four times every day in order to socialize them to human contact.

The other little guy did well his first day, but yesterday afternoon, I could tell that all he really wanted to do was to go to sleep. And he did last night.

More bleak news is that the Cat Came Back. That beautiful, black, and feral feline was found in the live trap last night, which Sweetie had set near the front steps. Of course, Reeses and Milly were each caught first in it, gifting the contraption with a nice puss puss smell.

We gave that cat its opportunity to let bygones be bygones; you go your way and we will go ours. We took it miles away. Begone! Scat!

The cat will not be back a third time. It sucks.

But, hey! Look at these three Super Bunnies.

Quality Parts

Sail Away.

Enjoy responsibly.

The Babies have landed!

All that nesting fuss produced two healthy babies. Virginia is fine and seems to be doing excellent mothering.



I have been going outside to do barn chores through the front door because Buster is having a hard time making it down the back steps to come with me. This morning, if I hadn't gone out the front door, I wouldn't have found this little guy by the steps.



Hell, I saw spattered blood and thought he was dead. Picked him up and found him to be weak and scared but still kicking. There is a puncture wound on his neck and one front leg is useless. I tried to clip the bloody wool off, but when I got near the wound he let out that awful bunny squeal and struggled mightily to get away. I was able to put a little anti-robotic on him, and he ate several pieces of banana, so I'm thinking that he'll be okay if he makes it through tonight. I'll have to watch for infection. He might be a little crippled.

I don't know what got him. It wasn't Reeses, and I hope it wasn't Milly since she was raised by rabbits. Another cat? A neighbor's cat? Whatever tried to kill this one is probably the same thing that took all of the new babies next door. Every single one. So. Sweetie is on the warpath with the live traps again.

Keep out of the reach of children.

Still no babies! Virginia has made a beautiful nest from hay, newspaper and her first-hair-cut wool. (Which I saved for just such an emergency.) Last night, she began pulling her own chest wool (finally!) and Sweetie and thought that she'd deliver within hours. Or at least by this morning. Nada. I feel like I should be pacing in a waiting room, chain smoking, and with a five o'clock shadow. It can't be much longer. I calculated the delivery date from the first copulation, because you know - that is how it usually often works with bunnies, but she and Walter spent three weeks together. So. I'm not too worried, just slightly anxious. (As I post this, I have observed her sitting in the nest box. A lot. Time is getting closer.)

Thanksgiving was fine, I guess. Sweetie was sick with The Virus that has been going around. Everyone in Boone Township seems to have a cold or cough. And of course, I caught it, too. On Saturday. Sigh. I baked a nice turkey and made mashed sweet potatoes with green beans and rice. Leftovers have gone to live in the freezer.

Still nothing to show in the way of knitting. Shannon just posted about finishing a scribble scarf, not knowing that I had cast on a scribble shawl two weeks ago. Why are we on the same wavelength? Scribble and dogs.

We watched Fight Club on dvd, and I was quite taken with it. I remember seeing the ads and trailers for it back in 1999, and I thought it was about fighting. In a club. A guy kind of thing. But NO! Stupid Hollywood people. It reminded me of Being John Malkovich. In fact, I thought that John Cusak would have been great as the protagonist in Fight Club in stead of Ed Norton. Anyway. Interesting. Also watched four episodes from season 3 of Northern Exposure. Yum. Still in the at-home queue is LA Confidential.

The cell phone and wireless thing did not work out. There are no bars on the phones inside our house. Sigh. However, on Thursday, we may have hi-speed internet through our phone line. Or not. Once the Verizon guy makes sure our phone line/box/wire is acceptable and up to snuff.