Woolybuns

Is It Too Early To Cry Uncle?

Holy crap.  Not only snow in October, when we don't usually see any until December, but S N O W.  Wiped out all kinds of records.  The forecast said rain in the afternoon, snow starting at night into early morning.  What I got: snow right from the get go, and 2 hours later a whole lotta scraping sound at the front of my house.  I ran to the front door to check it out and this is what I found.

One third of my 60 foot  Sugar maple knocking on my door.  And not just my door.  Here's the view from the family room.

 

There was no crash.  I didn't even here a large C C RRRR AAAACCCKK, as I would have expected.  Just the scraping.  After enough dumbfounded staring, I pulled on some boots and a jacket to venture into the mess.  Here is what I found.

 

 

 

That's my son's car under the branches.  At that point, the branches were just drooping.  My son with his keys was a couple hours away.  I started searching for the keys to my other son's car and stumbled on the spare set to the car in the droop zone.   The tan car moved easily but not so much the silver car.  Took me ten minutes of rocking it drive reverse drive etc but I finally moved it far enough forward to keep it out of harm's way. 

About 20 minutes after the tree slide, my power died.  I called my daughter who still had power and she suggested I come to her house, an idea I immediately embraced.  But as I gathered stuff, I realized I would spend the entire overnight worried sick about the rabbits and my house.  I decided to stick it out at home. The worst of the storm was still to come, according to forecasts. I couldn't stop anything from happening, but if something happened, I wanted to be able to at least attempt a rescue.  So I pulled out my lantern, lit some candles, and armed myself with pattern, needles and yarn.  I allowed myself about an hour and a half of iTunes on my laptop.  Once I turned that off, I spent the night listening to limbs around the neighborhood cracking.  Boredom and sleepiness combined enough by 9 pm that I just packed it in and went to sleep.  I chose the couch instead of my bed because a big old pine tree leans toward that corner of my house.

I didn't sleep much past midnight, cat naps and in and out sort of sleep.  Snaps and cracks still going on outside.  I peeked out at the rabbit hutches a few times.  Moonlight reflecting off snow let me see the hutches were intact and not whacked with limbs.  By 6:30 am, I gave up, got up and started checking windows to see what nature wrecked.  Then I heard that long loud scraping again, only this time, from the back yard.  Back into boots and jacket, grab the camera and go look. 

Sigh.

Big old limb off big old pine tree no longer just leaning toward the house. 

And yes, that's the corner of my bedroom with the brand new gutters and soffits ripped off.  (BTW, I just haven't gotten around to painting the shed to match the house - it's not intended to stay that way). 

Out front, the driveway was totally blocked with dangling broken limbs.  On the other side of the house, my neighbor's Magnolia tree is massively broken and blocks access to the front yard from the back.  All told, only two trees in my yard are not broken.  My entire street is a disaster, although no one else has a tree on the house, let alone two.   And we still have no power in town.  I heard today it might be out for a week.    But.  The rabbits are fine. CC is fine.  And I am tucked in snug and well fed at my daughter's and almost-in-law's house next town over. 

And You Think Kids Grow Up Fast

Bibbi is not a junior anymore.  She's all growed up.  Bibbi, a self blue, is the survivor of last March's lost litter and she's now 7 months old.  Just about ready for her second haircut.  Right now, she's out on the deck having a good romp, hopping along with a binky here and there.  For a while, she sat at the table, looking for her breakfast, I guess.  Then she stretched out to survey her kingdom.  

Bibbi's little sister and brother are now 5 months old, still juniors, and both of them need names.  Li'l bro is a lilac chinchilla, quite a handsome dude who is a bit less independent than his sisters, a bit shy but enjoys his attention.  He presents his head in some fairly goofy poses sometimes.   He lived with his brothers for a while so his coat got pretty matted up and I just hacked it off.   Little sister is an opal doe, with nice ring definition in her coat.  She's still living with mom, and is a bit stand offish from lack of handling.  We'll be working on that.  Little sister only lost the tip of her coat to matting so she's looking pretty glamorous at the moment with an opalescent shading to her coat, which is how the coat color came to be named. 

Honey's little girl who is staying here, a chocolate torte, is also in need of a name.   She is three months old.  I trimmed the matted tips off her baby coat, too, and I'm very pleased with both the color and the density.  I expected good color but I didn't really think I'd get much in the way of density from this litter.  It's not the best I've bred but better than I expected, and she's got some crimp to it, too.  Her brother and sister, both also chocolate tortes who look pretty much the same as this girl, are still available.   I will be traveling down I-81 through PA into southwestern VA soon, so transport is possible along that route.

I'll be having lots of color to play with in the coming months!

A Quick Knit

I'm loving the warmth of wearing my Gwennie shawl but my hands stay cold.  So I gathered up the leftover yarns from Gwennie, searched Ravelry for a mitts pattern and found Peekaboo Mitts, a free download.  It's a 2x2 rib cuff and fingertip, stockinette hand, which is great for showing off colorway.  If I'd been sure of the yardage in each leftover skein, I'd have done the color change more gradually, as I did in the shawl.  But now I have a better idea of how little yarn it takes to make these mitts so will do a better job with the color change in future versions.  Because there will definitely be more mitt knits.  It's possible I even have enough of the Gwennie yarns still to make another pair.  I like the way the thumb gusset works up but I do need to work on no gaps.  Anyone have any tips on that? 

Squirrely Antics

The squirrels in my yard are busily gathering and hiding food for the winter.  They use my rabbitry as part of their elevated highway.  They, like me, are highly focused on the task at hand out there.  So we frequently surprise each other.  This morning's little bit of squirrely entertainment came from what I suspect is an adolescent squirrel still figuring things out.  I came around the back end of the rabbitry which startled the critter on the ground about 4 feet away.  She/he leaped to the closest tree, one of this year's errant saplings not yet cut down, so the sapling is a bit of a highway to nowhere.  Which the squirrel apparently realized quite quickly.  Because, ya know, it ended not even as tall as me.   The critter stopped and stared at me.  I stopped and said hello, which seems to embolden the cheeky things.  This one then hopped down off the sapling and took a tentative step toward me.   When that was not rebuffed, the squirrel took another, then another.  Then it buried its face in the dead leaves, as if to pick up whatever morsel it had dropped.  Instead, the crazy critter - right there in front of me, barely four feet away - started digging, then pushed with its nose, then carefully gathered leaves and patted and scattered them with its front paws, stealing glances my way.  As if I couldn't see where that treasured morsel now lay "hidden."  And then she/he carefully crept away underneath the rabbit hutches.  Ha!  Fooled me right good, now didn't she/he? 

Or perhaps I read too much into things.  Heh.

Wednesday Walk

For years, I've had an appointment with my chiropractor on Wednesday mornings.  As often as possible, I like to walk to the appt because that means I'm walking after the appt, too.  And walking after an adjustment definitely augments the benefits of the adjustment.  So it just makes sense.  Last week, my after appt walk was to the coffee shop to knit (and do errands along the way).  I'd just sat down with knitting, tea and breakfast when in walked a group of women who took one look at me and said "A knitter!  And she's alone.  We can't have that.  Come join us."  Without waiting for me, they scooped up my stuff and moved it to their much bigger table.  We had get to know you conversations based mostly on knitting/fiber stuff, so I mentioned I was knitting hats for Warm Hats Warm Hearts, and they all expressed approval.  They also told me they meet every Wednesday at the library usually, and invited me to join them.  So this morning, I got my adjustment, walked to the coffee shop, then to the library for knitting.  One of the knitters handed me a bag full of 6 hats for the WHWH project! 

Warmed my heart right up!   Another one is now helping me learn continental purling.  I can do continental knit stitch but that purl has just twisted my fingers (and stitches!) all over the place to the point it's just faster for me to knit American.  The knit teacher this morning (I really need to learn their names!) showed me a tip on holding the yarn to improve my purl pick up.  I need a lot of practice, but it looks like it will be an important tip for me.   Who knew walking would be good for my knitting as well as for my health? 

Nose Pics

Someone on Ravelry started a thread on pictures of bunny noses.  My sweet Smudge is perfect for that and he is enjoying romp time on the deck this morning, so I pulled out the camera.

                      

 

 

                      

 

Just A Hoppy Moment

Hop Smudge Sundae.  He makes me smile.

Bunnies For Sale

11 week old Satin/German/French crossbreds.  2 chocolate torte does, 1 chocolate torte buck, 1 (possibly 2) self chocolate bucks.  Email (link in the sidebar on the right) me for details. 

 

                                                         

Fibery Fun

With this long run on wet weather we've had lately (lately - ha! seems like all year), the bunnies have  been cooped up.  It depresses them.  This morning it's only overcast, with hints of clearing skies and the deck is only damp, so I just gave Southern Star play time.  Star is an adult doe, but she's so tickled to have romp time.  She's out there cavorting like a young colt, binkies and mad dashes to no where.  Freedom.  It does a bunny good. 

I know how she feels.  I got out for fun this weekend.  On Saturday, I presented a program about bunnies, including how to spin angora, for spinning guild. Star's son, Southern Comfort, was the "volunteer" for shearing demo.  He is a bit over 4 months and this was his first shearing and his first public appearance.  I had him in my lap for probably 2 hours, because shearing in public while explaining what I'm doing and taking questions is not as fast as shearing at home, where it takes me about 45 minutes.  What a good boy he was!  Sometimes he was almost asleep, just hanging out in my lap.  Other times, he was looking out at the audience, curious not scared.  I like that in a bunny!  He spent the afternoon grooming each and every hair back into the spot he wanted it, while we humans spent the time  playing with angora and wool.  My audience was terrific!  I very much appreciated their attention.  For anyone reading this who doesn't already know it: fiber folk rock.  There was a lot of camera action but none of it from me cause I was kind of busy. I did get photos here at home of the samples I spun up for the program. 

 

On Sunday, I demonstrated spinning at The Big E in the Fiber Nook.  Lots of interested and  interesting people wandered through and watched and asked questions.  So much fun to see people's faces light up when they feel a fist full of bunny fiber.  And how relieved they are when they find out the bunny gets hair cuts, not death.   I used left over fibers from the guild program, blending white angora with dyed cormo.  The cormo by itself is kind of a screaming yellow, not to my liking one little bit (at least visually - touch is quite satisfying), but blended with the white angora, it softens to a cheery thing.  I'm spinning it about worsted weight, I think.  Once I fill the bobbin, I'll ply it from a center ball.  Then it will become a hat, a warm fuzzy to send to Warm Hats Warm Hearts. 

Another volunteer at Fiber Nook on Sunday brought with her an outfit she knit.   Wow!  After oohing and ahhing over the knit, I asked the knitter if the pattern was available.  She kind of looked at me like I was from outer space.  The  pattern doesn't exist.  She made it up as she knit.  All that shaping and she did it on the fly.  Wow!  Something I aspire to. 

So I've sort of been immersed in fibery fun lately.  It's been a wonderful antidote to all the grey and wet weather.