Saturday, January 19, 2008

Use Adequate Ventilation.

Must admit that I am still in the bunker - avoiding the silent, hovering, WalMart-sized bats. The ones with the flashing lights.

Sometimes I am so ashamed of my lack of ability. This time it was the lack of ability, and common sense, to keep Percival and Floppy separated, up in the barn loft. She had babies and are we surprised? Because bunnies never have a tendency to reproduce like, what, rabbits? Do they?

So I found her babies one morning, which had scattered. Two were cold and one was chilled. I took that one and held it to my chest for several hours until it warmed. Mom is now in the kitchen but the the kit is kept separated from her, as she seems to have no mad mothering skillz whatsoever. I have been loathe to even acknowledge the kit, as it reflects so badly upon me and my husbandry skills. Also, I wasn't sure that it would make it.

But it has! Ten days so far. Little Wednesday has finally started to put on weight - it's up to 3 oz. and is brown like its daddy. Little babies never cease to amaze and fill me with wonderment.



A note - At first, I placed mom on her back and placed the little one one her belly to feed. Which it did, but it didn't put on any weight. Grew fur, whiskers, and bigger teeth, but did not gain a gram. A few days ago, I sat mom on a chair and let the little one feed from underneath, as in nature. That's when Wednesday began putting on the tenths of ounces. Floppy appears to acknowledge that this thing is hers, sort of, as she stands quietly for the process.

And Hi!, it's fucking cold here. The furnace is balky. It works, sort of. Some part needed to be ordered to correct the problem so the thing will not be fixed until Monday. Tonight is forecast to be 6 degrees. I'm not worried about me (we still have a wood stove and a shed full of fire wood for just such an emergency) or the bunnies (who take the cold much better than the heat of summer) except that their drinking water turns into ice blocks. Bunnies won't eat if they can't drink.

So - we are all fine. Sweetie has been working lots and I miss him. He has tomorrow off - in order to catch up on his sleep.

Being the book slut that I am, I ordered the first and second books of Modern Lace Knitting by Marianne Kinzel. Using the belly button cast on, I have successfully started the Azalea pattern from the first book. I am using the purple cashmere - again. I gave up on the last shawl effort. I seemed so unable to do a simple two-row repeat - but this time all seems to be going just fine. Go fig. And I have begun a pair of socks for Sweetie, from the book he gave me in December.

This site is too funny. That is, if you are a news junkie.