Alpacas & Ducks

Last year's babies are still with their mom's at the Ziraldo's alpaca farm.



I dropped by for a visit and to help walk the alpacas.

[Sorry, this post from back in the winter didn't go live so I'm posting it now.... but since we've had such hot weather I can now view the snow thinking I'd like to stick my sweaty feet in it....]

We put halters and four of them and lead them down the driveway and around the house, making the circuit 4 or 5 times until they relaxed and got used to being lead.



It was a cold and windy day but it was still nice to get outside and get some fresh air.


As we stood at the fence the alpacas, though shy, couldn't resist coming over to sniff us, especially the alpaca scarf that I was wearing.


After getting home and looking at the photos I always struggle to remember all their names.



Their fibre is unforgettable. About 4 inches thick, you can part it with your hands and see the lovely crimp and the warmth of the animal underneath.



They certainly aren't cold outside in the snow.



The males must be kept away from the females because they would constantly be wanting to mate with the females, or fighting amongst each other.


They've got lovely eyes, that are very large and dressed with long lashes.



At the Ziraldos, everyone is well taken care of.



Even the ducks have a heated water dish and a home, er a dog house.

Progress ... at a Snail's Pace

A few days ago I had an unexpected opportunity to evict Jeremy squirrel.


The day before I heard him gnawing on the wood inside and I knew that it was time to get him out. He wouldn't deliberately make trouble and do damage, but a squirrel's teeth are like a rabbit's and never stop growing. He's got no choice but to chew on things to file his teeth down and that can make for some real damage to the real estate.


I'd entered the garage when he wasn't in his nest and caught him by surprise. As I approached I climbed the ladder he was hiding behind which left him not much choice except to go down to the floor and then out the cat door.

I had been thinking how to get Jeremy into the new squirrel house that dad built for him. That way when he was evicted he'd have a place to go. The house was too big to attach to a tree and the ground was too frozen to have a pole put in. I did a little brainstorming.

This is what I came up with: The squirrel house stuffed with alpaca fleece, angora fibre combings and a few sheep's skin scraps I had on hand. Then I bungee corded the whole thing to the top of my ladder. Then of course I seeded the whole thing with peanuts, one on each rung of the ladder, a few on the stand and two or three lobed inside.


That should be a real luxury for a squirrel that was living in a nest of leaves and chewed up plastic bags... and one set of cotton curtains.

When I got home that evening, all the peanuts were gone. No one has moved inside yet, as far as I can tell without disturbing it. Time will tell.




Other progress is my knitting. The Heather Hoodie Vest is coming along but slowly - a row here and there in between other projects is about all I can accomplish. The pattern has cables and it's pretty easy to follow, no complaints.


I haven't mastered the technique of reading and knitting at the same time. At least not yet.

On the kitten front, Whisper has been adopted and the family is very happy with him. George is still waiting for adoption but in the meantime he's enjoying the other cats in his foster home.

I still miss them all very much.

The Heather Hoodie Vest

I've always loved jeans and denim. I always will.

So it wasn't much of a stretch to fall in love with this roving.

These shades of gray and blue will go with just about anything. I just love the winter blue sky colour blended with the white and darker blues.

And we've had lots of the blue up in the sky lately while the ground is covered in snow.

It's Northern Lights roving called Icy Winter sold by the company Louet. It's sheep's' wool top and it's lovely to work with on the spinning wheel.

The project I'll knit with it is the Heather Hoodie Vest that was originally in the fall issue of Interweave.

I bought the magazine that it was listed in which I see is now sold out at Interweave. If interested, you can also buy the individual pattern on Ralvery.com.

I used to knit 10 sweaters a year and now I can't wear them. It's not just the weight gain, it's the hot flashes. That's where wraps and vests come to the rescue. They're not so hot and yet they keep you from freezing.

(I'm also currently knitting the February Lady Sweater with the roving Picasso from the same company).

The challenge this time for me was to spin it as a bulkier yarn. Most of my spinning lately has been for finer yarns for lace shawls so this time when spinning I had to relax more and let go.

No problem. A glass of wine can help with that too :)

How the roving is painted will often determine the appearance of the spun yarn so I made sure to show photos of the roving prior to spinning.

I did a double ply and my Wraps Per Inch is about 11 so it's not a true bulky yarn. Currently I'm knitting swatches to try and get gauge so that I can begin my project.

My spinning method is really a mix between worsted and woolen, but probably leans more towards worsted.

Before I spun my own yarn I never did gauge swatches. Instead I bought the yarn sold by the pattern company or I had the yarn store help me get the substitute yarn.

Now I need to check that the yarn I've made will work for the the intended project.

Picture here on my spinning wheel bobbin is the single ply of this yarn.

It was an absolute pleasure to work with. I don't even care that the cables in the vest won't show up so well with a variegated yarn.

I can see myself also making a shawl or hat from this yarn because the colours are so nice.

I never got tired of spinning this one.

Three Little Kittens and One Heart Lost

Three little kittens and one lost heart. Mine.

Tragedy took their mother when they were three weeks old and then I stepped in as Mom. I didn't ever have children but these little fluffs quickly became my fur babies.

It's so true that kids change your life. Even my blogging decreased significantly while I played Mom.

They were sick. They got better. They got sick again. They got better.

The roller coaster went on it seemed forever. Finally, Whisper and George seemed to turn a corner and gained weight. Little Angel, always the tiny one, struggled to flourish. He didn't give up on himself though and never did we.

Last week though a couple other cats in my home got sick. Because cat illnesses can be so contagious we didn't want to risk the kittens getting sicker. So we moved them to another home.

It was a sad but wise move. Now the house is much quieter. The cats remaining are recovering with medicine and soon the house will swing into a routine, a much quieter routine.

I wonder what it will be like to not have my faucets licked right before I need a drink? How will I sleep without little bumps wondering around under the blankets at 5:00 a.m.?

My little fur babies have moved on and so must I.

I'll take a break from more fostering for a while, just to let us all settle down and to get any illness firmly behind us.

I'm sure the adult cats are sighing with relief.

Reports are that they are doing well in their new foster home. I will be fine too now that I have a lot more free time... it's just taking a while for the heart to remember to let go....

What the Heck?

Okay. Remember the other day when I said the "truth is stranger than fiction and I believe it" statement? Uh huh. I remember it too.

So this one is going to blow your mind. Well, it blew mine.

It's Christmas eve and I get home from my usual work day. Finally I get to my emails and there's a message from my Dad. The subject: What Ever Happened???

I open the email and read.... then I sit back? What the heck? I went outside to confirm. Yep, Dad was right.

He'd been to my house earlier in the day to drop something off and noticed something not quite right. Something was missing.

If you look at the photo above you'll see on the left is a black metal pole. At the top of the pole is a wooden bat house. It's been there for about six or seven years. The pole sits inside the hollow part of an old lamp post - about 4 feet of which is still there.

The email was asking where my bat house and pole had gone, including the lamp post because they were no longer there.

I went outside and checked. Stolen? Whatever for and why? Prank? Seems like a lot of work for a prank.

The lamp post has been cut off at the ground. None of the parts appear to be around. Dad says people are stealing steel right now all over the city. Really?

That's just weird although I'd prefer to think someone valued my bat house and pole rather than just vandals running off with it.

We know it was there 3 weeks ago so this 'crime' is recent. I have to wait for daylight now to look at little closer.

Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

Jeremy Squirrel - Who Exactly Is the Boss Around Here?

There's a saying: If you can't beat them, join them.

We're hoping we've resolved the Barbara vs Jeremy debacle, especially since Jeremy was kicking my butt and winning the battle.

So I called Dad for help. He made Jeremy a Squirrel Condo, lined with nothing less than carpeting. It sits in my kitchen waiting for a couple coats of paint.

We're hoping that Jeremy will be so in love with the condo that he'll opt to live in it instead of inside the garage.

I just need to find some time to do the painting.

Saturday morning I slept late. I'd been on duty with Red Cross as a Personal Disaster Assistant. We are on call throughout the night and weekends in the event of a disaster in our city. It can be a huge incident like the flooding in New Orleans or it could be the pipes breaking in an apartment and flooding the occupants out.

Red Cross is there for those people who don't have insurance or a place to go. We'd had a call at 4:00 a.m. and when I got home I got a couple hours sleep and then had to work all day. So I was catching up on sleep.

Jeremy noticed that his breakfast was late that morning. When I finally showed up in my kitchen he was there outside the window. Waiting. He perched himself on the top of the trellis so he could do surveillance through the kitchen window to see when I finally got my lazy self out of bed.

He saw me. I saw him. He twitched his tail. He was sending me a message. Unfortunately, I knew exactly what he wanted.

I put my hat on and went out. I gave him some peanuts and watched while he stuffed sunflower seeds into his face like me with the chicken balls at the Mandarin buffet. I noticed he was looking a little bit heavy....

He was tilting his body a bit from side to side while sitting up. I've seen this before in older squirrels. I don't know what it is. It could be old age, neurological issues, or injury, but I have seen this balance issue with squirrels a few times in the past.

Don't worry. It won't slow Jeremy down. There was an old black squirrel years ago that had a balance problem. He lived for years laying down to eat his sunflower seeds. He was a little bit heavy too....

Maybe I'll put the new squirrel house inside the garage. That should make it more tempting for Jeremy.

Keeping in Touch

Have you ever noticed how when cats and kittens sleep they are always touching?

Sometimes it's just a paw, like in this photo where kitten Angel is reaching out to touch the big old Tom cat while they sleep (he's not related to Tom in any way).

They do it with big old Tigger too.

I watch as the kitten starts off sleeping a few inches away. Slowly they maneuver themselves closer and closer until they are sleeping right with the adult.

It shares warmth. I think it provides the kittens with a sense of security too.

When the cats sleep on the couch next to me they always sleep next to my leg, or on me if they can. They want that touch or I should say they want to suck heat from me.

Because the kittens were underweight they'd feel the cold more and they wanted their mother. I spent a lot of time over the last 3 months cuddling with them.

You know you're a personal furnace for a pet when your cat is letting you know it's time for you to go to bed because he wants to. He wants me to warm up the bed for him.

Another point about keeping in touch, I haven't blogged much about the 3 kittens I've been raising. Their mother was hit by a car and died when they were 3 weeks old and I've been Mommy Cat to them. They had been pretty sick for the last while and needed to be medicated.

They were surviving though but not well enough to be thriving. So I apologize for the on-line quietness.

It was in part because I was so busy and in part because I feared there might be bad news. The last few weeks they've really turned a corner and are finally packing on some weight.

It was touch and go whether or not they would have one of the feline diseases which would mean they'd have to be euthanized... so I was worrying about them.

Two are healthy enough for adoption now and the little runt, Angel, just needs to put on a little more weight and he'll be ready for his new forever home too.

Soon I'll have an empty nest again. Well, not completely empty. What will I do without the poopy bums and dirty feet?

Like the great cycle of life, Whisper, is now at the 'interested in water' stage, just like Jay was a few months back when I reported on him. Now Whisper is fascinated with the sink and the shower. The cycle repeats itself and it's only a matter of time until he too falls into the tub :)

[George: Mommy opened the secret door to the furnace room --that place we were never allowed to go, and she let us play in there. So I snooped everywhere. Now I'm cleaning the dust bunnies from my whiskers]