Woolybuns

Bidding War

Enough folks have contacted me about that sweet little calico that I could probably get a bidding war going!  But, I hope a rescue group will be taking the kittens soon and it won't be up to me who gets which kitten.  As sweet as these little babies are, they are a lot of work. Feeding takes at least an hour, between preparing the food and clean up after, the actual feeding, the cleaning the kittens (they don't pee and poop unless someone takes over mom's job of stimulating that action and my kids might be willing to feed kittens, but that part of the job - no), and of course, since these are babies of a feral cat, the kittens need taming, which means lots of cuddling (yeah, yeah - quite the hardship, huh??).  And they need to eat a few times a day, so at least 3 hours more of animal care per day.  Certainly they are worth it!  But, it's not what I want to be doing these days.   Though I confess, if I were to keep one, it would be that calico.   Although... the orange fella is quite the dude. And the pastel calico has such waif appeal.  Of course, the male gray is very loving, and always climbs to the top of my shoulder, snuggling under my hair and purring up a storm.  And the female gray is very sweet!  Yup, I'll miss them when they are gone, but I still hope they won't be here much longer.  After all, they are starting to try to play now, which means they are just going to get cuter and cuter every day! Much as I love cats,  I just can't keep any of them.  Two of my kids are allergic to cats, so we can't have cats living in the house.  And raising them outside is just not an option where I live now.  We've lost the last two kittens to a boisterous mad dash across the street - into the path of cars driving much too fast on a residential road.  I will not do that to another one.   I do have a good mouser here now (essential for anyone storing animal foods!), but Corky is 11 years old, she came to us as a one year old pregnant girl who was already used to living on the street.  That's the only way I will take a cat anymore - one already proven to understand about cars, and one that has no other option.  Certainly there are many adult cats that fit that story.  And speaking of mousers, these kittens are unlikey to be good mousers.  They tend to learn that skill from their mothers and I'm just not planning to take up mouse hunting to train these little cuties!

Word of the Day

The link on my sidebar to www.dictionary.com word of the day works!  Yay!  It shows the word lionize in the link but goes to the updated page.  I haven't had any answers to the question "what is a warrener" so I will just tell you: I am a warrener - someone who keeps a rabbit warren.  A warren is a colony of rabbits or an area where rabbits live.  A warrener is also a gamekeeper.   Now, how's this for a word?  kakorrhaphiophobia - it means fear of failure, and comes from the root word kako meaning bad, evil though I do not find the language that comes from.  Anyone know?

Accccckkkkk!

Yes, kittens.  They arrived last night around 10 pm.  Seems an employee at a department store at the local mall saw a cat bolt out of the store's trash compactor.  The employee had the good sense to check inside the compactor and discovered 5 kittens.  Were they born there?  Did last night's thunder storm make her move them there?  I dunno.  But, seems everyone who finds kittens in the area of the mall thinks the pet shop is the logical place to dump them (note: pet shops are not allowed by law to take kittens born to a cat without documentable rabies shot).  My stupid darling sucker daughter doesn't see any option but to take them.  "If you don't take them, I'm leaving them at the door of the humane society."   Overnight.  In the rain.  Unprotected.  Sigh.  Yes, she did the right thing, but doesn't mean I'm happy about this.  I think these poor little babies are about 3 weeks old, as they are walking a bit (lurching, stumbling motions that get them from one spot to another spot kind of indirectly).  They appear healthy but I haven't been able to get much formula into them yet, only a little less than 1/2 ounce per kitten per feeding so far.  DD is trying to feed them now.   Yes, I know how to take care of their potty needs and that's going well (sorry, couldn't resist that wording).    My preference: go back to the mall and find the mother cat!!!  And then find a new home for them all - they cannot stay here.   I've got  in the garage a cat who hates other cats, rabbits in the back yard, rabbits in the shed, dogs in the family room, a dog in the kitchen (yes, only 5 pounds still counts as a dog), a rabbit and some birds in the dining room, and one spouse ready to abandon ship.  He's got a good heart, but enough is enough.  I can't fault him for that.

Please, spay and neuter your cats!!!!

Word of the Day

Ok, I will now demonstrate just how hopeless I am when it comes to technology.   Midnight Bunny has so nicely sent me the info on adding dictionary.com's word of the day feed to my blog.  I tried.  I read the instructions and my eyes just crossed at least three times over, causing the old brain to go Kablooey!  So I put the link on the sidebar (and you don't want to know how long it took me to do that!) but the way it looks, I worry it will stay at the same word forever.   We'll see tomorrow.  Hmmm... I have a newly graduated graphic arts/web design person living in the house.   This should be easy to remedy, right?  But I'm sure you all remember the shoemaker's wife???

Anyway, I think I want to manually add something word geeky once a week, even if the word of the day link does update. 

So, fellow logophiles, we'll start off easy: what is a warrener?

I just read Leslie's  answers to the interview.  How can you not love her mountains after reading that???

We Have Sun!

What a glorious day here in the land of Sog.  I'm not sure how long we've had the cold, rain, and wind of March in this not so merry weather month of May, but long enough that the lawn shot of my back yard is not so inviting.  Grass and weeds reaching for my knees!  I hope all this sun will shine enough to dry out the grass so I can get it mowed before another storm (possibly this afternoon). 

First of course, came bunny chores.  Puff's babies are old enough and starting to move around enough that the family needs more room.  Given the chilly weather, I had Puff in the shed for kindling purposes.  A standard size cage, which is all that fits in the shed, is ok for delivery, but growing bunnies need room to roam. So today was moving day. Here they are settling into the new digs.The babies left the nest box a couple days ago, and I had already turned the box on its side so they could have free access to its snuggly safety but freedom to come and go.  Puff was not amused.  Like many human bunny moms, she was content to have them corraled.  She spent the past couple days teaching them she's not a snack bar, meals are at her discretion.  As you can see in the photo, one of them thought she/he could sneak a bit of a sip while Puff was distracted. Puff quickly educated the little imp and he/she headed over to join the others.  They are 15 days old now.  My first gender peeking suggests an even split: 3 bucks and 3 does.  Identifying bunny gender is not always an accurate process at this age, so that is just a guess at this point.  I'd be quite happy with that split, though, as it suits the bunny waiting list.   Of course, that's a very good way to ensure my first guess is wrong!

And for bunnies in color:

While we are on the topic of bunnies, I have been asked to teach the owner of a fiber farm all about angora rabbits, and of course am quite happy to do that.   She and I are wondering if there is enough interest around here to offer this as a workshop at her farm.  So, any of you interested?  If so, email me and we'll discuss it.

I'm also finding there are a lot of word geeks out there.  Whooopeeeee!  :)  So, how about a word of the week?  Haven't thought this out yet, so I don't know how I will structure it, but I'm game for exploring words!  For instance, did you know that the word knit as a verb is a synonym for the following verbs: embroider, entwine, fold, heal, integrate, join, knot (is that the past tense of knit???).  The etymology of knit: from Middle English knitten, to tie in a knot, from Old English, cnyttan.

Etymology

A computer geek I ain't.  I'm fairly hopeless with technology.  But words - well, them's my buddies!  I confess, as a kid I used to read not only books that a lot of kids read, but also the encyclopedia.  Not just for homework or long term projects, but for fun.  It gets worse.  I also read (yup, present tense cause I still do it) the dictionary.  I love knowing how words evolved.  So yesterday's discussion about angora rabbits vs angora goats got me wondering.  As Anne so correctly points out, the term angora is generally thought to have come from the city Ankara, Turkey, which is where both animals may have originated.  But why is fiber from the angora goat called mohair?  A quick check in a dictionary, which generally lists the etymology of words, offers this: "[Alteration (influenced by hair), of obsolete Italian mocaiaro from Arabic muayyar, choice, select, mohair, passive participle of ayyara, to prefer derived stem of ra, to choose. See yr in Semitic Roots.]  So there you have it - mohair is the anglicized version of an Arabic word for choice or select. 

Of course, I think that's wrong - hair of the rabbit is really the choice fiber.  Hey, it's my blog.  I get to say that here without dispute.  :)  Feel free to offer your own preferences but here at Woolybuns, there is no question about the favored fiber.

Of Bunnies and Goats

Patti raises a good question, one commonly asked so I'll answer it publically.  And coincidentally,  this question came up tonight at Stitch n Bitch, too.  Angora rabbits are the only animal to produce the fiber we know as angora.  There are fiber goats.  Some of them, the cashmere goats, produce the fiber called cashmere.  Simple so far.  Now here comes the tricky part: there are also goats called angora goats.  Cute, with long curly locks like Shirley Temple as a child made famous (roll chunks of wet hair in rags the right way, let dry, and voila!  Shirley Temple curls!  Mom used to do that with my sisters and I, just not too often - not with 7 daughters!).  Angora goats do produce a spinning fiber that makes a lovely fuzzy yarn but it is not called angora.  The fiber from angora goats is called mohair.  Why?  I dunno.  Interestingly, I found a a UC Davis web page explaining about cashmere goats (they are a type, not a breed) that refers to angora goats as angora producing goats, yet their page on angora goats specifies "Angora goats, which do produce mohair, do not produce Angora hair. Only rabbits can produce Angora hair."  So even the "experts" don't always get it right.

Rain On My Parade

So I think I will mix my metaphors and make lemonade.  Every year, the lovely display of bearded iris is attacked by spring rains.  Some of the irises end up collapsed and sad.  I generally prefer my flowers in their  natural state, as natural as plopped between my garage and the cracking blacktop is.  But once the rain batters the flower stalks into submission, they look much better cut and in a vase.  So I enjoy them inside.  In a desperate attempt to convince you I keep a neat house, I cleared off space on the dining room table and set up the vase.  Not a terrific picture but you get the idea.  Maybe later, I'll pick up some complementary flowers and greens to flesh out the scrawny vase.  It will be a good antidote to all this dreary and unseasonably cold crap weather we've got going on around here.  Now, if you want a good weather, really cheery and uplifting post, mosey on over to Margene's.   I left with a smile on my face and hope you do, too.

My simple little brainless scarf is progressing.  It's a great little project for those odd moments of waiting when I really don't want to wait.  It's also perfect for an evening of stitch n bitchin.  I can concentrate on the chat without messing up a challenging pattern.  Lousy photo but the texture on this scarf is exciting!  It's pure angora, natural blue.  This is the first time I'm knitting pure angora just for me. I'm thinking an ear warmer to match is in order, too.  Interesting that the random grabbing of fiber in the spinning process is resulting in those areas of big stripe.  I'm still leaning towards dyeing this when it's done, something bright and vivid, probably cherry red.  While I very much like the natural color, I have enough silvery grey going on in my hair.  A cheery cherry will complement that well.   With this weather, I'll find cheery wherever I can!

How'd They Do That???

Rabbits like to surprise, frustrate and baffle, especially when it comes to breeding.   That familiar statement breeding like rabbits is quite misleading.  Sure, they can breed every 31 days or so, but will they??  Ha!  Not unless you don't want them to.  I've been trying to get a litter from one particular pair since December.  The first three breedings resulted in nuthin'.  At least with the fourth, kits did show up but did not survive.  I've got my fingers crossed for a litter in June.  Then, there was the buck Bunjamin Bratt.  He was movng on to a new family, so I clipped his coat just before leaving to deliver him.  First real good look I'd taken at his coat.  OMG!  I'd promised this guy to someone else???  Why??? So I popped a doe in with him.  Oh, sheesh!  The dumb bunny could only locate the doe's face.  After that frustrating half hour of never seeing any progress and just a grumpy doe, I pulled her out and put in a different doe.  Same thing.  For another half hour.  Grrrr - running out of time, but since both does and the buck were all inexperienced in these matters, I decided to try a doe who'd already had kits successfully.  Same exact result.  Dumb buck!  Fixated on faces.   I growled at them all and left in a huff, glad the dumb buck was leaving, gorgeous coat and all.   A couple weeks later, I bred a chinchilla color doe to an equally fabulous wild gray agouti buck and at least this time, the rabbits did what rabbits is s'posed to do! 

Last night, I went out to feed a bit later than normal.  Half way through feeding the herd, I screeched to a halt.  What is this????  Sure enough, a brand new baby crawling around the ground, slightly chilled but doing its best to find shelter.   I scooped the baby up, snuggled it in my sweatshirt and set about trying to figure out which doe threw this surprise.  Sure enough, there's Merry Hoppins with two more babies on the wire, no nest, no pulled wool.  Dang!  I scooped them up too, and they were also a bit chilled but alive and active.  Further scrutiny: under the hutch was a pile of placentas.  More than 3.  So I set about digging through under hutch debris.  There's one.  Oh, another one.  And another two.  All told, I found 7 chilled but active babies.  I scooted in to the kitchen, filled a shallow container with warm water and put each baby in a sandwich baggie to float in the warm water.   As you can sort of see through the plastic, there is one dark one and the rest are albino.  Not quite the color ratio I'd like but at least I found them all in plenty of time.    Mom Merry is pure German.  The only buck she's had access to is Bunjamin Bratt, back on the day he left.  DOB is dead on with that.   Hmmmm.... maybe, as one breeder laughs, they can breed through their noses!  I just wish Merry had given me a clue.  I would have given her a nest box and lots of hay.  She got the lots of hay but just ate it.  No attempted nesting at all. 

But, that meant I better check out the other two does.  Mysty, the first doe I put in with the Bratt, wasn't obviously pregnant but there was a bit of a bump that could be a baby.  Just in case, I moved her to a baby safe hutch and put in a nest box.  Sure enough, three hours later...  There are actually
4 babies in this litter.  Looks like one self color and 2 dilute agoutis, could be either opal or blue chinchilla, plus one albino.  Mysty is a blue chinchilla and either blue chin or opal babies would be grand!   This morning, both Mysty's and Merry's babies all appear to be doing quite well.  And fortunately, there is no third litter.  I say fortunately because I only wanted one litter out of that buck.  So of course I get two, a big surprise party!  And of course, there is that litter I bred a couple weeks later still to show up, which I wold not have bred had I known there were two on the way.   Bunny goddess has a lousy sense of humor, in my view.   I should also know to be careful with bunny names as the rabbits do seem to live up to them.  Bratt indeed!

Marching On

And so begins my Iris Parade. Bearded irises are one of my favorite flowers.  How nice that their easy care fits so well with my life.  I treasure my gardens but they are in serious need of work.  As Spring unfolds, I first must give all my attention to post winter bunny chores in a race to get it done before the dreaded fly season. Then comes a flurry of fiber festivals.  The gardens cannot get their spring attention until that is done, about mid-May.  Perennials are of course the perfect answer and these irises pretty much the perfect perennial.  My only complaint is the show is too short.  But a lovely bit of happystance occurs here around my house that takes care of that.  When we bought this house 9 years ago, I brought with me my prized perennials but didn't have time for any planned plantings.  I just stuck things wherever they would survive until I could put some thought into things.  What I discovered is this house has several mini climates: the east side blooms first, then the western front, followed quickly by the western back side, and eventually the parade marches on into the back yard.  My annual iris treat should last about 2 weeks but with this progression of bloom, I get closer to 6 weeks of show. The next blooms will be a rich blue, and then the yellows.  I have no idea what colors are in the back yard at this point as the gardens there are under reconstruction and I don't remember what I put where.  I like surprises. 

Proud Mama Moment

It's been a lot of years of hard work, indecision, more than a bit of money and evolving talent, but the kid finally did it!  My son graduated from college yesterday with a BA in Graphic Design (or maybe it's a BA in Art with a concentration in Graphic Design?  Details, details... all I know is there are no more tuition payments, at least for this one).  In the photo, my son is the fella sort of in the middle with the yellow ropes.  Yup, he graduated with Dean's Distinction (his GPA is high enough for Summa, or possibly even Magna, Cum Laude but he transferred to this college as a senior and needed 3 more credits  earned at this college to qualify for any of the Cum Laude designations).  I'm so darned proud of him!  The Procession in the photo is the Walk for the Wish or some such - they just gather behind the scenes then parade double file to the fountain where each grad gets to toss a penny into the fountain to make a wish.  Then comes the actual long boring Commencement ceremony, punctuated by that brief wild moment when his name is announced.  Did I mention how proud I am of my son???

Official Fiber Content

I have to toss in something fiber related and the euphoric "she's here!!!" email from Karen at Hunter Hill Alpacas fits in perfectly.  She's having her own very exciting proud mama moments.  Ain't that baby adorable??  Karen reports "She was born this morning around 9:30 am!  19.7 pounds!!"   Karen, her husband Steve, and their beautiful daughters had the daunting adventure last Christmas time of moving their alpaca farm to a new home.   Seems like this new arrival is proof positive of a good thing.  Congratulations, Karen and Steve!

I indulged in fiber activity at the graduation, as well.  First, while we  stood around orienting ourselves on campus, my younger son got to stand, arms outstretched with my skein of yarn looped over them so I could wind up a ball of yarn.  The yarn is my own handspun blue angora.  Then, I started another brainless knitting project, a simple scarf with seed stitch border and stockinette for the body.  The photo shows only up to two rows of stockinette, but I got a good bit more than that done before that crowning moment of pride.   I'm not sure yet, but I may decide to overdye this scarf in cherry red.  But then again, once it blooms, I may decide to stick with the natural color.  Time will tell.

Last night, to celebrate the graduation, we went to dinner at my new favorite restaurant, the one with a spinning wheel in one of the lovely old dining rooms.  This time, I arrived with camera in hand to show you the wheel.  Can anyone tell me anything about this wheel from the photo?  The treadle is not connected as you can see - it sits perched on top of the wheel.  The flyer is broken so the wheel definitely needs some loving attention.  I'd like to be able to bring some info to the restaurant to see if I can convince them to let me get the wheel refurbished but who knows if they'll go for it.  I'm thinking the restaurant would make a wonderful place for a spinning lunch!

Getting Nosy

Ok, Ladies, you asked for it.  It's interview time.  Don't forget: post the questions and your answers to your blog, include the instructions at the end of your answers and invite someone(s) else to suffer participate. Cori, your questions:

1. What      is attachment parenting and why do you choose it?

2. What      drew you to learn to knit?

3. Where      would you go for a second honeymoon?

4.  What’s the best thing about being a mom?

5. When      children are grown and on their own, what will you be doing?

And now, Leslie:

1. What’s      the best thing about being single?

2. Let’s      say money’s no object, so what do you do with the rest of your life?

3. You      say you enjoy the challenge of selling. Why?

4. You      obviously have great affection for your mountains. What’s so special about them?

5.  Who has been the most influential person      in your life?