Rinse thoroughly.

Oh my, how low have my fashion standards fallen since moving to the country. I compare myself to the recollection I have of Eliza Gant, in Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolf. She keeps a boarding house and generally has a red and runny nose. Her sweater has holes at the elbows and she wears fingerless gloves. Maybe the fingers have been worn off. She is not destitute, but in more interested in having money in hand than looking fashionable.

I thought of all this today as I drove to town for groceries. I wore, from bottom to top, a pair of Goodwill boots over a pair of hand-knit socks. On my legs were Sweetie's sweatpants, worn underneath a Goodwill denim jumper that almost reached my ankles. Above was a long sleeved t shirt that I actually bought new from Land's End several years ago, and over that was a gray wool sweater. From the Goodwill. On my hands were hand-knit barn fingerless gloves. I did sort of comb my hair and stick a few pins in before going out. And put on lip stick.

It is good to establish oneself as an eccentric before one gets older. I mean, my summer wear is not much better; there are merely fewer layers.

The weather today has been craptacular. Not particularly cold, as it is just above freezing, but it is windy and snowy and wet. The grocery store was not at all busy.

I want to share a freebie which is the audio books on The Gutenburg Project. I have been listening, while I knit, to Emma by Jane Austen. I read the novel many years ago, but I have enjoyed the sometimes clumsy reading. There are lots of titles available. Check it out.

Allow to rest.

My life. So far.

The so-called Festive Season (imagine "air" "quotes") is over for another year. Yippee.

Sweetie is back to work, even two hours early today. The day is my oyster. So I have been listening to this. I wanna play!




Actually, my day has plenty o' chores that need doing. The usual domestic goddess crap like laundry and dishes. Plus the more frontier woman kind of things like completing the sour dough starter and fleshing Spot's pelt.

The starter is going remarkably well. One is advised that it may take two or more attempts in order to capture the Elusive Wild Yeast. However, my loose sanitary standards seem to have helped. Added benefit: Sweetie and I hardly ever get food poisoning. Being a neatnik isn't always a good thing. Ha ha, you all.

Spot's pelt is soaking in the first brine of alum and salt, and it is over due for fleshing, (removing membranes, fat deposits, etc. from the inside.) So I really need to do that and then place the pelt in a stronger brine for about two more weeks. By then, it should be ready for conditioning and drying, which means stretching the pelt while it dries. One can do this with one's hands or rub the pelt over the back rail of a chair or even tack it up to the wall. The last step is conditioning with glycerine and oil.

The bunnies are all doing well. Good Neighbor Nancy told us that a hawk almost carried off one of the adult outside bunnies the other day. The hawk ended up crashing into Nancy's front door window and was dazed and confused for several minutes. The bun escaped but lost some back fur in the process. But with the Evil Cat and the Evil Dog gone, some of the babies are surviving. Yay!

Lastly, I am still sick. This shit has been going on since Thanksgiving and I am so tired of having my sinuses constantly clogged up. I have declined to go to the doctor for the anti-robitics so far, but I may break down this week.

Insult+injury=fever blister. Last week I woke up with a wad of angora stuck to the crust on my lip. (Geez. Wonder where that came from.) When I sleepily tried to pull the fuzz off, I discovered that it was firmly glued on. Hurt like hell. I had to work at softening the scab, slowly, before the fuzzwad came off. Raising bunnies is dangerous, I tell ya! Vicious!

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.