I'm impressed

Oh,  if only I'd known about the possibilities while Phoebe was alive !  I can't stop watching this ... and laughing !



My husband's cousin,  Vicky,  sent this along to him and he shared it with me.  I love this!

Gone, so soon

 We've had a sad few days around here.  Sweet Phoebe died suddenly,  early this week.  I've been conflicted about whether to share that news here,  especially in this season of celebration.  I finally decided that silence was,  in some way,  being dishonest.   She was such a joy and I'm finding it difficult to believe that she is already gone.  Every time I have gone to feed,  her empty cage has been a shock.  This morning,  I disassembled it and put away all of her food and toys.  Life and death are so much a part of living on a farm with animals,  but sometimes it just feels worse than others.

Meanwhile,  I have no time to sit around and dwell on it,  which may be just as well.  I'm so far behind in my baking,  cookie and candy making and present wrapping that I cannot stop long enough to wallow in bad feelings.  So,  I'm making a strong effort to remember how much fun she was and I how much I enjoyed her while she was in my life.  

Phoebe meets Sadie

 

There was a ( very ) small meet and greet in front of the barn on Saturday afternoon.  The Bun was introduced to Sadie,  our itty-bitty barn cat.  Phoebe was in an exercise pen taking the air,  when Sadie decided to check her out.  Sadie is a bit of a wild child.  She's three years old now ( still so tiny )  and she only tolerates your affections when she wants to.  She's a fierce warrior when it comes to protecting the barn from critters who don't belong there,  so we're happy to have her,  even if she's not a lap kitty.  The Bun was interested in getting to know Sadie,  but I think Sadie was put off by the sheer size of her.  It's funny to look back at the pictures I took when I first brought Phoebe home.  She's definitely a big girl now.

Phoebe has "graduated" to living in the barn now.  About a month ago,  she developed a bad habit of flinging litter out of her litter box and it was landing all around the kitchen of the studio.  Not good.  She still has visitation privileges and comes in for grooming and play time.  I felt bad about putting her out,  but honestly,  I think she is just as happy in the barn where there is always something going on.   I do think starting her out inside the studio was a good thing,  because she's still very friendly and loves to be held.  She's due for shearing soon and I'm close to having enough angora to actually spin up some yarn.  Not sure what I'll make with it.  When I raised angoras before, I began by using some of their fiber to knit a hat for my first grandchild (who is now 21 years old ! How did that happen ? ).  It was a sweet little hat with the fair isle patterning done in the angora.  Maybe this time I should knit a big girl version with The Bun's fiber.

They all grow up so fast !

Anyone else, but me, having difficulties with blogger uploading photos today?  There were better pictures, but blogger kept putting stripes through them !  I give .............

On the lam

Her new name is Houdini.  She's the escape artist of bunnies.  Several mornings lately,  I've opened the door to the studio and,  there in the hallway,  I'm greeted by The Bun.  She always seems pleasantly surprised to see me and hops over to be picked up.  There's absolutely no indication of guilty feelings on her part !

Obviously,  I've created in her this sense of entitlement and being confined to her cage all night is not how she thinks her life should be.  I've even tried wiring her cage door shut and she's managed to get that undone several times.  To her credit,  there have been no accidents.  She's still using her litter box all the time and there have been no new electrical wire chewing episodes ( though I have tried to rabbit proof most of the plug-ins that are within her reach ).   I do get the feeling that,   when she has freed herself during the night,  she probably sits on the couch thinking about how she has outsmarted me,  once again ! 

I fully expect that next on her list is learning to use the remote control for the television.

Reform school

One of us needs to go to reform school.  Either she's going to stop chewing on everything she can get her mouth around or I'm going to become a neat and tidy person, who never leaves anything on the floor ( or tabletop or chair or sofa ).   No stacks of books.  No baskets of yarn.  No knitting projects.  No magazines.  No glasses of iced tea.

Want to place any bets on which one of us changes our ways? 

Shearing day - again

Yup,  it was one of the hottest days of summer so far, and what did we do here on the farm?  We sheared sheep.  ( And,  by the way,  around here that's what we like to call the "Royal We".  I didn't actually shear anything. )  The lambs were still wearing their baby fleeces and, in my experience,  they eat better and grow better if they get shorn while we are in the heat of summer.  Plus,  it cuts down on the likelihood their fleeces will have weak tips when shearing time comes around next spring.  I felt bad for the shearers and the lambs, but all I could do was pass out cold water and keep the big barn fans pointed in their direction.

( That's Birdie there on the right.  Think she'll ever grow into those ears ? )

The lambs sired by Henry have the most gorgeous fleeces.  Henry is a Cotswold-Wensleydale crossbred and he passed on the length and luster that are characteristic of those two breeds.   I'm so impressed with those fleeces that I'm planning on keeping many of Henry's daughters for replacement ewes.  I'm afraid Henry's breeding days are over.  It appears he has done permanent damage to one of his back legs and having two strong back legs is an absolute necessity for a flock ram.  I'm grateful that I got such wonderful offspring by him and now wish I had exposed more ewes to him last fall.

Getting those fleeces off gave me a good look at my lambs and there were some I was not happy with.  We've been having the same issue as most other sheep breeders lately.  This hot, humid weather is causing an unusually high parasite population,  which seems to have developed resistance to the de-wormers we use.  Two years ago,  we switched from Ivomec to Valbazen and now that no longer seems as effective.  There is apparently a new de-wormer being used in New Zealand,  but things move very slowly in the world of sheep medicines here in the states,  so we will be waiting a while for that.  Luckily,  our adult sheep aren't as susceptible to internal parasites.  It's only some of the lambs that seem to be suffering.   Next up in our arsenal is Levamisole,  which has become difficult to find because apparently drug dealers are using it to cut cocaine.  Turns out that when humans ingest it, it starts eating away flesh.  Lovely.   

On that note,  I'll leave you with some gratuitous pictures of the Bun.  She is allowed out to run around the studio two or three times a day now.  Still no "accidents".  She is using her litter box all the time.  ( I'm so proud )  Anyway,  sitting on the treadles of my loom is one of her favorite activities.  My loom is a Glimakra and the treadles hang from the lams,  so there is some movement when she's walking around on them,  which she apparently does for the thrill of it.  I guess she's more easily entertained than even I am.

Lunch and a bun report

It's that time of year.......the zucchini avalanche has already started and the yellow squash is not far behind.  This morning on the way to the barn,  I cut through the garden and found 8 good sized squash that I swear were not there last night.  I love zucchini bread, but let's face it, if I bake enough zucchini bread to use up all the squash, I'll end up as big as the side of a barn.  So, as a proactive strike against that thought, this was my lunch today and it was so good, it will probably be lunch tomorrow and the day after.  ( I used the Alice Waters method: a little olive oil, plenty of salt and pepper and roasted it for about 40 minutes. )  At the moment, I'm feeling just a little proud of myself for resisting the urge to bake zucchini bread.  

 It's hot and very humid here.  The heat index was 109 yesterday.  I started filling the pool for the alpaca boys and they went right in before I could get more than a few inches of water in.  Kinda wish I had a bigger size just for me.

The bun is doing quite well.  She is still in the studio and I expect now that she will stay there for some time.  That was not my original intention, but it is mostly working out well to have her there because it's much, much cooler than in the barn and it gives me a chance to handle her and socialize with her often. I've hesitated to mention it, for fear I would jinx it,  but it's been more than 2 weeks now and she's been very consistent in using a litter box.  I noticed that she was urinating in just one corner of her cage, so the next trip to Tractor Supply, I bought a litter container made specifically for rabbit cages.  As soon as I put it in her cage,  she hopped right in and used it!  I'm so proud!  Not all the poop goes in there, but that is not such a big deal and hopefully she will get better with that.   I've been letting her out to run around freely for several periods each day and this morning I got a reminder of something I knew and had forgotten.  My new wireless printer is not working at the moment because Phoebe chewed on the cord.  Thankfully, she wasn't hurt.  Rabbits are notorious chewers.  Sometimes I get just a little tired of having lessons to learn  ( or re-learn ) all the time.

(Phoebe - resting after one of her sprints around the studio)