Tuesday, April 27, 2010

It's Magically Delicious!

Double rainbow in Lovely Laconia this past weekend.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

See us on the internet.

I released the wild baby bunny yesterday afternoon, in spite of the rain. Once his eyes opened, he knew he was different from his adopted family, and usually sat apart from them. Somehow, he shimmied through the cage bars last week in a bid for freedom, only to be chased by Millie, who was in turn chased by Zander. It was pure luck, I think, that he ran at me in the kitchen instead of away from me, and I was able to capture him.

He did the same thing yesterday, and although I had hoped to keep him for just a little while longer until he was a bit bigger and more able to deal with the great outdoors, I decided it was time for us to part ways. I let him loose underneath the great forsythia bush out back, which is a good eight feet across. As safe a place as I could find.

I'll never see him again, but I am glad to have maybe helped him live a wee bit longer.

And today, I picked the third tick off of my body. I have not been anywhere but in my yard and walking the dogs, but still those little fuckers find me. I hate, yet admire, them. They are survivors. But I hate them.

The teenage pullets are thriving. Two are Barred Rock, one is a silver laced Wyandot, and one is an auracauna who will lay blue and green colored eggs. She is adorable, with cute little ear tufts. Still have two that I can't remember/don't know the breed. I'll figure them out once they are older.

Omelet and Henny Penny are fine. Baby follows mom all over the back yard, and I love to hear them communicate with their peeps and throaty hen noises. Henny is such a good mom. When the rain arrived yesterday, I was on my way home from an errand, and all I could think about was mama and baby. It was pouring when I got home, and I rushed out to the back yard enclosure where I found Henny, very wet, but protecting Omelet, who was bone dry. I put them into the coop and they rode out the bad weather in fine mettle.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Insert card.

I am almost free. The last of the bunnies, and several more cages, were delivered to the new owner of Fuzzarelly Fibers yesterday.

The weight on my shoulders is nearly gone, as is the remnants of the horrible bruise on my left cheek. There is still a small, hurting hard place even after almost four months.

Maybe today, I will bring the two bunnies I kept into the backyard enclosure so I don't have to go upstairs in the barn daily. Yay.

Henny Penny and Omelet are doing swell. I placed them into one of the corral, mainly so mama can move around some and teach the baby the fine points of eating and drinking. A minute after I took this shot, baby was back under her wing.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Can I opt out?

Sweetie on his new ride, a 2004 Honda Shadow, 2300 miles.


Saturday, April 17, 2010

The sky is falling!

I'm as happy as a little girl!

The lone egg that Henny Penny, the Buff Orpington banty, has sat on forever, (only three weeks actually,) hatched today!!!

Once or twice a day, I made Henny get off her charge to eat and drink, and today when I checked on her, I saw a broken egg in her nest.

Horrors! She broke it! There must be a mess underneath her. Or so I thought. I picked her up and there was a tiny wet blob of chick under her!

That's the good news.

I went back a little while later, and the chick was out of the nest and getting cold, so I did what I do when bunny moms push their babies out - I picked it up and put it in a bocks on the stove top.

I don't know if this was the right thing to do or not. If it had been warmer, (forecast low is 38ยบ tonight,) I probably wouldn't have done so.

I'm still just so delighted!






Added Sunday morning - I put the chick back with momma last evening. Just checked on them and both are fine! She literally has the baby under her wing.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

I hate Cat Bordhi

This must not be the time to be knitting Cat Bordhi socks. Argle Bargle! Puddin' and Pie! And other assorted bad words. #$%@#! Motherflipper. Fatherdoper. Sons of Canute. Ding Dong Daddy!

I cannot follow her patterns. At all. I ain't stupid,just maybe a little distracted, but still? I have screwed up big time.

Therefore, I have ripped out the previous current socks and have begun another pair of entrelac ones. A fussy but readable pattern.

I mean, I spent $50 on two books by her and I am so disappointed and unhappy. I'll try them again in a year or so, to see if my brain can comprehend her by then.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Not Safe for Children Under Twelve

So.

I mentioned to Sweetie the other day that I thought my mood had improved with the longer daylight hours, and had he noticed? "Hell yeah!," was his reply.

Apparently I am more perky and happy, less with the sad and morose. Even though my allergies are acting up like hell. Sinus congestion and little bumps on my arms and wrists and the eggzima going rabid.

Also? He brings home things, besides books, from work. Like big ass crates. For free.

We made this one into a coop for the new chicks, using only things that we had on hand. We think maybe people might buy them.

But what I think would be really commercial, is making the crates into road-side trash storage for country people bedeviled by raccoons and wild dogs. Just put a hinged lid on top.

The weather has been a delight, and I have already mowed twice. I like mowing. It's a good time to think.












And then there are the baby bunnies.

And here is one of Blue Jean's babies and the wild one. Two buns, one hand.

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Sign up today!

I have begun a new pair of socks, having finished the the last pair which I am not so thrilled with, but they are serviceable. The new ones are from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book One.

And I am in love with the stitch pattern of the sock I chose. It is slip 1 with yarn in front, knit one; one round plain, then knit one, slip 1 with yif; follow by one plain round. (I am knitting Bartholomew's Tantalizing Socks.)

The stitch was awkward at first, but I have since gotten my groove going. As the author comments, it really shows off handpainted or self-patterning yarn to great benefit. The cuff is first knit flat, then after an inch and a half, is joined onto double pointed needles and knit in the round.



It rained briefly this morning and now the air is all clean and everything looks so delightful outside.

Blue Jean's babies, all four of them plus the adoptee, are doing well at about 11 days old. Some eyes are open and most ears are upright. I have concluded that the adoptee is a wild rabbit. He is smaller than the others, but his eyes opened before any one else's. Also, his coloration in unmistakable.



I am so glad to only have 9 bunnies left in the barn. Jodi will collect her last 8 in the upcoming week. I am keeping Sugar and Oscar Wilde Hare, but she is also taking Eeyore from the backyard, aka Cyclops.

The chicks are thriving. I put them outside last week in the coop/tractor and I am always tickled that they know how to scratch at the ground for food, even though they have no hen mom to teach them.

The banty hen is setting on one lone egg, and I am letting her. Wish she had laid more than one, but what the hey. Discovered the hard way, though, that she was infested with Northern Mites, probably acquired from the sparrows. She has been dusted with Sevin dust, but not before she shed hundreds of the little bastards onto my hands and arms. And most likely, a few of the teen einsty buggars escaped my attention and then bit me on various parts of my body. Not hazardous to my health, but itchy and annoying.