Woolybuns

Morning Madness, With A Touch of Just Mad

Sheesh.  Blog, it's been a long time.  So glad you are still here.  Many of you readers already know what I've been up to since last I wrote here, so not gonna rehash it.  If you have any questions, email me.

Living with a few species of critters means morning wake up is all about the animals, not me.  Dogs have to go out 1st thing, especially with a young puppy in the family now.  House Bear's sensitive tummy requires feeding at regular intervals or it gacks up that green frothy stuff in inconvenient places.  So outside, back inside, feed the dogs, start tea water for me.  That wakes up the cats who yowl "myyyyyyy turrrrrrrrrnn, foooooooooood now hooman!"  If it's light enough, I run out to give rabbits morning hay while dogs and cats eat.  Next I clean litter boxes.  And little FluffMuffin needs to go out again.  I sneak in a first cuppa tea while House Bear parks his butt in my lap for a thorough scratch.  FluffMuffin doesn't really eat much until about this time, so back in his crate he goes while I take House Bear out for about a mile walk.  When we get back home, both dogs are ready to wrestle, with some wild house wide zoomies that threaten to break big things like sliding glass doors.  This is the point when I might be able to knit without a big slobbery head dropping into my lap and sharp little teeth grabbing my ankles.

I decided to start a new knit project during this morning's dog wrestling. Youngest granddaughter's Susie's Reading Mitts are more a dressy wear, not really geared for playtime. I promised her mitts that will hold up better to play. It's a project that fills a need for me, too: simple mindless tv knit. I pulled out some yarn I dyed years ago which was already divided into 2 balls, and yes!  I had enough brain power that early in the day and before breakfast to give TAAT magic loop another go. (non-knitters: that's 2 at a time using long circular needle).  Starting was pretty fussy but I got it done.  And then I got a phone call requesting a Hail Mary, so end of morning knit.

Someone I know had a brain fart when scheduling an appointment, and suddenly realized at 8 am this morning the need to be in 2 places at the same time.  Could I help?  As it happens, yes, I could.  Dropped my knitting, crated the dogs, grabbed my keys, jacket and mittens, out the door in 3 minutes.  Forget that I hadn't yet changed into "out in public" clean clothes nor brushed my hair.  I just scooted.  I ended up in the company of a woman I only met recently, have only seen a few times.  As we chatted, she reached over and casually pulled one of my errant hairs off my cowl.  

Ummmm... people, NO.  Do NOT pick things off someone else, unless you know you have permission.  I hate that, especially near my face.  It takes great restraint on my part not to react with a defensive Tae Kwon Do arm block.   Putting your hands on someone else for any reason is a big invasion of personal space.  If you can't handle an errant hair or piece of lint or whatever, that is YOUR problem.  Leave it the fuck alone.

And now I'm gonna go back to my peaceful place and knit.  

Half Hour At A Time

“Gardening requires lots of water – most of it in the form of perspiration.” ~ Lou Erickson

Oh so true about my yard.  So much tearing out, cutting down, chopping into fire pit size.  This is my 3rd summer of actively ridding my yard of all the invasive stuff eating it up.  I want instant results, of course, but that ain't gonna happen.  I don't have enough perspiration to tackle all that stuff in one big effort.  But I can do half hour a time.  I've mentally divided up my back yard into small, manageable spaces, and alternate between ridding stuff wherever needs gone the most, and slowly planting those small spaces.  This little shady spot is my current focus.  I transplanted hosta and astilbe last year but something ate a lot of the hosta leaves.  The plants survived but I'm rethinking that spot, and picked out some deer resistant plants.  It's the 2 steps forward, 1 step back approach to garden design.  

Early morning, I wander the deck for about half hour visiting with my potted plants.  Who is growing, who needs a little attention, who needs defending?  Right now, the dahlia stems are just beginning to emerge. Rebecca's World, a new variety for me, is the precocious one.  Tubers from last year that I divided about a month ago are just opening their eyes, and 2 that arrived with Rebecca's World aren't showing any growth so far.  Hmmmm.   As early spring chill lingered, I really wanted dahlia blooms, so bought a new to me variety, Dahlia Dalaya, already in bud.  It's sold as an annual, though a couple websites say it too can be propogated by tuber division after 1st frost.  I gifted one to my daughter that bloomed right after Mother's Day and wow! Gorgeous bold pink bi-color and yellow center.  1st bloom on mine is a bit more conservative with the pink.  I also have a mini herb garden on the deck, thyme, sage, and rosemary, a delightful blend with onion and and garlic in a wet rub to roast chicken, and  a pot of cilantro for making guacamole.  

Gardens may demand a lot of perspiration, but I can't imagine my world without them.

 

 

Getting Out From Under the Dark and Cold

Spring this year feels like we're coming out from a lot more than just winter's dark and cold.  I'm still isolating, not sure yet whether I can get fully vaccinated, so my annual focus on yard and plants is more heightened.  If I'm still gonna have to stay home a lot more than I like, then the yard is gonna be filled with flowers.  Forsythia's gold has now given way to green, and my beautiful bleeding heart so gracefully stands watch as hosta and astilbe emerge.  The hosta has already been nibbled so I have to rethink that garden.  My lawn is glowing with dandelions. I pull them out of garden spaces but embrace those in the lawn. Food for the bees! And since there is such a bounty of them, they also provide healthy treats for the rabbits.   Last night, each bunny got a whole clump of dandies thanks to weeding a garden.  That's my Hoppy Hooligan enjoying another dandie clump this morning.  Knowing how much they all enjoy the snack makes weeding a much more pleasureable activity for me.   I like pairing chores with another purpose. Getting rid of stuff is a big, unpleasant chore way too easy to put off, which is why I still have saddles hanging around in my garage.  Seeing them reminds me, with a big ol' jab in the heart, I no longer have a horse.  But I do have dogs, and having a fenced area accessed from the deck is good for them and me.  Right now, that area is a bit on the small side, given the size of my big goofy House Bear.  Another problem with the fenced area is my cat Fiona sees it as a litter box.  Dogs having access to a cat's litter box is just gross.  Fiona's been stuck in the house while I figure out a solution to that, and she's not one bit happy about it.  The answer lightening bolted into my head last week. Sell my western saddle, and maybe my English saddle too if it has any real value, and use the money to buy some fencing to match my neighbor's along our property line.  That would double the dogs' yard space and free up my chain link panels to line the outside of the deck.  That would then block the cat's access to the deck and the dogs' yard space.  It also gives me a safe spot to set up a bunny play yard, something I've long wanted to do.  And a new bit of fence would also give me a space to set up a garden spinning spot.  Not only solutions and motivation all the way around, but ideas to ponder and dreams to finally fulfill.  

Anybody want to buy a good Arabian trail saddle, pretty much never used?

 

 

Rabbits, Ducks, And Strawberry Gardens

The summer I had a pet duck, I also had a strawberry garden. It may have been Daddy's garden but I remember it as mine (and siblings, let's allow me that, m'k?). My duck loved strawberries. She'd stick her head and that long neck through the fence and gobble up strawberries as often as she could get away with it. It was kinda funny gross to watch because she swallowed the berries whole and I could see their progress down that long neck. I'm quite fond of the memories of my duck, and also my strawberry garden.

I haven't grown strawberries since then, until this year. Daughter and granddaughter gifted me a strawberry pot so I added strawberry plants. But I failed to read up on growing strawberries in containers so I only got a few berries, lost the 1st couple to a squirrel, I think.  Only thing I had quickly available to protect the berries was an unused rabbit cage, so that's what the plants sit inside.  It worked on squirrels, but I think a bird was able to munch a bit.  Now at the end of the growing season, there are a few more berries developing, but I'm more interested in how to properly winter the plants. My big mistake this summer was not cutting off the runner plants. There are a ton of them. I hate tossing thriving plants. instead, I'm going to try to root a bunch before it's too late (anybody local want a few?).

 

This assumes, of course, that next year, I'll have a better set up for raising strawberries. I have to work on critter proofing. That's one of the 2 big reasons I didn't plant in the ground. The other is not having a raised bed. I've often pictured a strawberry garden in my back yard set up like a 3 tiered wedding cake.  I think I'd be better served with a strawberrry tower on my deck.  My mouser cat Fiona is now at the older edge of middle aged and not quite the hunter she used to be.  She likes lounging on the deck though, and generally the only rodents, other than squirrels, that show up on my deck are there because of Fiona.  They are not at all interested, let along capable, of eating my berries.  My rabbits, however, would love to get into a strawberry garden. And they are not afraid of Fiona, which could be a mistake, but in Fi's 8 years living here, she's never once gone after one of my bunnies (wild ones are a different story).  If I set up a strawberry tower on the deck, I'll have to factor in squirrels, my rabbits, and birds in the design.  Figuring it all out sounds like a good winter project to me.

Garden Friends

That would be the plants themselves.  Ever since I was a little kid, I've loved visiting with plants.  In March coming home from school, I'd stop at Mum's garden to search for 1st signs of crocuses.  Those little tips peeking out from receding snow promised months of glorious gardens ahead.  I could count on that.  I still can  in my ... ahem... maturity (not that anyone accuses me of maturity). Forsythia, too, is reliable, it's signs of imminent bloom my reminder to attack crabgrass before it germinates.   But only in the front yard.  The back yard sprouts all kinds of good bunny snacks and I don't interfere with that.  

This year, I'm continuing the Very Big Project I started a couple years ago: reclaiming my yard from the several years of neglect.  I moved a Nikko Blue Hydrangea as probably my 1st reclaiming project a couple years ago.  It had merely survived about 15 years in a spot it clearly didn't like, didn't bloom for years, and the few times it did, never gave my that lovely blue in spite of the pine needles I fed it.  Now a couple years into it's new spot it's about twice the size it was, and it not only bloomed, it bloomed blue.  It's a type of hydrangea that blooms on old wood.  We had a killing frost as buds were forming this spring so I didn't expect blooms but there they were.  And as an extra reward, this plant friend decided to gift me at summer's end with a couple extra blooms on new growth that apparently has to go back to old nodes somewhere.  And they are that lovely blue of it's name, even if my camera won't share that.  It's finally a happy plant.  

This is another hydrangea I made very happy by moving it.  I fetched it out of someone else's woods where it had been tossed because it refused to grow without water.  Sad little thing had no leaves left, but the wood was still pliable, so I figured the roots were still alive.  I took it home and tended it carefully, quite tickled when it did indeed sprout new growth and leaves.  I intended to return it as a surprise to it's rightful owners.  But ... well... life, and the plant really wasn't welcome back.  I cleared out some weeds and planted it.  And now for the 1st itme in it's life, it's blooming.  I don't know exactly which variety of hydrangea it is so I don't know it's size range nor even it's light requirements, but it's got plenty of room to grow if it wants to be big, and it gets both sun and shade, so I think it will be ok.

Another of my favorite garden friends, the Morning Glories got a slow start this year of near  drought.  They usually cover my lamp post and spill over the top.  They're more like anklets this year, though.  But they are spreading out away from the post and I can't bring myself to mow down the errant plants.  I'm thinking I might put in some lattice as a low fence to define that corner of the yard, and let the Morning Glories wander to their heart's content.  

And of course, every meander through my plants includes a visit with my Dahlias.  They've mostly come back from their traumatic experience with bugs and spray. My 2 favorites, a red spikey type and another spikey one in lovely dark lavender, both celebrated with several blooms at once.  The red currently only has one flower, but the lavender still has several, and more to come.  Two of the Dahlias have yet to bloom, though there are buds.  I failed to label the tubers last fall when I put them to bed, so I don'tk now what they will be like, but one is hinting it could be a split off the lavender Dahlia.  That would make me very happy.

Oh, Blog, How Do I Miss Thee?

Let me count the ways.

I miss you for your promise of fulfillment

in this so empty time of fear and frustration.

I miss you for the understanding you help me find

when I wander my thoughts and concerns.

 

Ok, Elizabeth Barrett Browning I am not.  But at heart, I am a writer.  And I really need to settle into a blogging routine.  Writing to my mind is like hitting the road to a runner.  When I reach that magical point of engagement, that point where it's working, I get my writer's high.  It's been too long.  I want it.  So here I am, looking for it.  It's gonna take some practice.  I hope you'll bear with me.  (Anybody else get the giggles when people write "bare with me?")

The biggest change in life since last I came here to the blog is, well, big.  Kodi Hagrid, House Bear, goofy good guy, is around 120 pounds now, more than a hundred pounds bigger than when he joined my household last October.  And still growing.  How much bigger will he get?  I dunno.  He's 11 months old now, and in his 1st few months here, he gained about 11 pounds a month.  He "slowed" his growth a couple months ago, to 10 pounds a month.  Over the last 3 weeks, he grew half an inch, and is now 29 inches tall at the shoulder.  He lowers his head to rest it on the table.  He only has to lift his snout a little to grab things off the front of the kitchen counters.  When he stands on his hind feet, he can reach almost anything on those counters, and possibly even the lower shelves of the cabinets.  I know this because he has developed a taste for onions and apples.  I can't keep them on the counters anymore.  Nor paper towels, mail, plastic storage containers - the list is long.  Genetically, House Bear clearly favors the St. Bernard side of his St. Bernard/Golden Retriever parentage.  Saints continue to grow until age 18 to 24 months.  The food bag says to decrease his food starting about now, so presumably, his growth will slow soon. Whatever size he ends up, he will still be a big ol cuddly lap dog.  If I disappear, I'll likely be squashed under him in our chair.  

Bunnies are still here.  This is Hayley Hopdoodle, one of last year's babies. Her coat is not quite what it should be because several months ago, she developed GI stasis, stopped eating, and nearly died.  But I brought her out of it and she's now back up to good weight.  She was just starting to grow in the lovely undercoat but it's too hot to leave her with that much coat.  She got a haircut this morning.  Her next coat should have more of the soft floof than this one does.

Nope, didn't reach that giddy good high, but hopefully, this marks the return to more regular blogging.  Hope you find your high today.

 

Hops N Socks

Tonight I say goodbye to the the last baby bunny of my latest litter to leave, the opal buck on the left in the photo.  He's 3 months old, and has been promised for a while, but cage space and vacation plans left him with me for extra time.   He's been sharing a hutch with his brother all this time and surprisingly, that has gone well.  No beating each other up, no destroying each other's coats.  The 2 of them, so foofy and always looking for petting, have been such a delight to visit every morning.  Yes, of course I have gotten attached to him.  But his brother and 2 sisters are staying with me.  I sheared his coat a couple days ago and he looks so different, especially next to his brother.  His foof is agouti banded and that always looks so pretty.  Once it's spun into yarn, it can end up with the yarn being one color and the foofy "bloom" angora is famous for being another color.  That can change with each coat, as it depends on where the band colors are distributed. Little opal boy wasn't quite thrilled with the hair cut process, but for a 1st time shearing, he did pretty well.  Good boy!

My current spinning project is a blend of merino and silk, which I am blending on my hand cards and turning into rolags.  My little granddaughter has watched me knit socks pretty much her whole life.  She is right: it's time for Grammie to make a pair of socks for her.  She wants them to be yellow, so I will be dyeing the yarn.  This morning she watched me carding the fibers, so she spent time petting the wool top and silk sliver, then I had her help me load the cards, then card the fibers.  She loves the texture.  Not sure she loves the process though.  Time will tell if I am creating a little fiberista or not.  

And Now There Are Two

Several years earlier, I took a silk fusion workshop and discovered milkweed fluff can add a delightful touch to a piece of silk paper. Fast forward a number of years.  I hadn't been able to find a ready source for that lovely fluff, so I tried to raise a milkweed plant on my deck.  It did not go well.  Someone I met via fiber adventures posted about her efforts on behalf of monarch butterflies.  I was intriqued, and no longer just because of the fluff.  It had been easy to not notice dwindling numbers of butterflies.  Bees get most of the attention.  But helping earth recover is pretty damn important.  Saving monarch butterfliess is one part of that.  So when that monarch mama offered me some seeds, I happily accepted, and planted them in seed trays, then when they obligingly sprouted, transplanted them in my back yard.

I admit, I've been lazy with my milkweed project, but they grow in spite of me.  And I've been seeing more monarchs flitting about this year.  Yesterday they rewarded me: I found a little bitty catepillar in those milkweed buds.  Made me kinda giddy.  Catepillar = success.  And also hope.  Each catepillar that survives is one more step for survival of the species.  And that's good for all of us.  I picked a couple leaves and nudged little 'pillar onto one for transport into my house.  And because catepillars are no safer on the loose inside the house with cats and a dog and human feet, I set up a catepillar habitat using a mason jar, pantyhose, and a folded paper towel to make for easier cleaning of the frass (butterfly poop - see: I'm learning the lingo!).  Yes, apparently I don't have enough animal poop to clean up with dog, cats, and bunnies.  hahaha

After feeding bunnies and watering potted plants this morning, I wandered out to the milkweed to fetch fresh leaves.  And looky there: another little bitty catepillar.  

 Yeah, I'm kinda hooked.  

Simple Pleasures

The past several years have been shadowed by my mother's declining health, intermingled with struggles of other family members.  You know, life happening.  I think in retrospect I didn't realize just how much stress by extension that was for me.  I neglected lots of things, simple pleasures like tending my yard.  The property lines out back in particular suffered, invasives planted by birds or wind gobbling up what I planted years ago.  I knew it was happening but just didn't have the oomph to deal with it.  Following Mum's death last fall, I've been processing a lot of that stress, coming to terms with things.  And now, hacking back all those undesireables like this lovely but way too hungry wild rose turns out to be just the ticket.  So far, I've turned 2 of those side by side bullies into a withering pile of I'm done with you, get out of my life.  It's quite satisfying.

 

After yesterday morning's assault on the undesirables, I gathered up spinning wheel, fiber, and left over punch (what Mum used to serve on summer occasions: lemonade, cranberry juice, and ginger ale, except I used selzter instead of soda) and headed out for an afternoon of spinning with friends.  We meet once a month at various locations all about 40 minutes from my home.  Yesterday we gathered at Olympia Farm, home to some lovely Romney sheep, dairy goats, a cow or two, a cat named William, and the folks who manage it all to produce both lovely fibers and delicious foods.  We sat outside under a canopy, looking out over assorted pastures while lambs gamboled, sheep ambled, goats nibbled, and William wandered through our circle. We humans reveled in the perfect weather under bright blue sunny sky, spun yarn and tales, and attempted to solve the world's problems, nibbling on assorted flavors of farm fresh chevre, newly harvested strawberries, and home made lemon bars.  If deliciously tactile fibers weren't enough reason to spin, these social gatherings are.  Added bonus for me: at the end of our get together, I visited the farm's store and picked up fresh eggs and humanely raised and slaughtered beef.  Yummy hamburger on tonight's menu.  

Back home, I headed back outside, putting 2 bunnies in separate pens for grass and dig time, with little bitty mutt Mickey  long leashed for his own wander, sniff, and roll time in the grass.  I attacked the shrubbery again, and found behind both wild rose and a bountiful crop of wild black raspberries the spirea I planted about 15 years ago.  Those raspberries aren't so bountiful anymore.  I will enjoy spirea bloom ever so much more this year.  

Then I heard a bunny thump.  Both sets of ears and eyes focused intently behind me.  I looked.  Oh, hello, baby fox.  Curious little critter not only didn't run off when I turned in it's direction, it cheekily moved in closer.   And was noticebly staring at the rabbits, not me.  Demonstrating the art of discretion, I quickly scooped up the bunnies and put them back in the safety of their hutches.  And since Mickey is even smaller than the bunnies, I put him in the house.  Did the fox leave with all that activity?  No.  It called in reinforcements.   After staring at me for a bit, they started to play.  And then answered the question I only idly wondered about on occasion: why does the dog rope toy abandoned in the back yard move around?  The foxes play with it.  

Simple pleasures are such treasures.

🎵 Oh, The Weather Outside Is Delightful. 🎵

Comfortably cool nights, pleasantly warm sunny days.  These are the days to savor.  And I am.  Puttering around the garden, sometimes planting, sometimes ripping stuff out, sometimes just ambling around enjoying just being, embracing the fresh air, trees, and all manner of green stuff.  Early mornings are the best, so peaceful and melodic with only twittering birds filling the airwaves, and a nice hot cuppa tea to sip.

This morning, after feeding inside critters and doing a few household chores, I headed out to the bunnies with that lovely cuppa tea.  Mama Mocha and Cookie both got time in the exercise pen, while I visited with each bunny, serving up fresh water and food with a healthy side of petting.   Then I took a bunny for a walk.  What?  Walks aren't just for dogs.  

Cream Puff is a 2 year old REW doe, sister to Mocha.  Puff right from the nest box has always been kind of an introvert, hangs back, runs from petting.  I've tried putting her in the pen for fun time because bunnies really enjoy time on the ground to be rabbits.  But Puff sits there.  She analyzes the pen, probably doing geometry in her head.  Then - BOOP - she jumps out.  She's quite good at it.  Fortunately, I am wise to her way and grab her before she makes her great escape which will just serve her up to the fox.  So I've tried giving her run time in the house .   She just looks for the best hidey hole.   But she accepts the harness.  Puff still questions the limitations of leash length, but she gets to hippity hop around the yard.  I can practically see feel good chemicals bathing her brain as she almost smiles,  just enjoying being, embracing the fresh air, trees, and all manner of green stuff.