Answering Some Questions

I missed the Weekend Roundup cutoff, so I'll do Q and R next week.  This week, I thought I'd answer some questions.

Sometimes readers ask questions in their comments on my blog, and I'm not always very good at responding to those. This is a post that responds to a whole lot of previous questions.

Regional Questions:

"Do you travel to Halifax very often?" asked Jim.

Yes, I travel to Halifax numerous times throughout the year.  It's about a 2-hour drive.  Since my parents live there, I try to visit on a somewhat regular basis when my work schedule allows.  Next time you and Mrs. Jim are visiting, let me know and I'll come and have a coffee with you!

"Because your place is so wooded, I thought you lived in more forested country." said Michelle.

This isn't exactly a question, but I thought I would add more to this point.  We do have a home that is surrounded by woods.  Our home is on the edge of an agricultural area though, so there is a mix of wooded areas and open pasture areas.  Here's a satellite view of our general area.  As you can see, the left side is largely wooded (the darker green) and the right side is largely agricultural, and there is a lake in the upper middle area that kind of separates the areas.  When I go for my walk, I transition between those two zones.  The agricultural area is actually a floodplain, and it's where I get the hay that I feed to the sheep and goat!

Critter Questions:

"Does Pippin like to be groomed?" asked Michelle.

I think that he doesn't mind short periods of grooming.  He stays quite still on my lap for a while, but he has a time limit.  He doesn't like more than about 5 minutes.  When he's shedding heavily, I may hold him firmly for a bit longer to get more of the fur off.  This is in his best interest because GI stasis and intestinal blockages caused by hair are very serious in rabbits.  I try to limit the time while also avoiding these potential problems.  He always gets treats post-grooming!  

"Can you spin rabbit fur into yarn as you can other fibers?" asked Porkpal.

You can spin rabbit fur from angora rabbits, which typically have 2.5 to 3 inch (or more) fibre length.  Spinning rabbit fur from our domesticated short-haired mini-rex rabbits would not be easy, because the length of each fibre is only about 1 inch.  You could blend it in with other longer fibres, but it would have a tendency to work its way out of the yarn because it's so short.  

"When Pippin misbehaves, do you call him Pippin or Sir Pippin of Dazzlewood Hill?" asked Tom.

Pippin....misbehave?  Now when would that ever happen?!  Actually, he sometimes chases Epinette, which he should not do, and that usually results in me clapping my hands loudly and saying "Pippin!" in a fierce voice, which stops the chasing and makes him think twice.  

"Since you never mention the dog, I assume it is Marc's?" asked Michelle.

Yes, Timber is Marc's dog and she is mostly an outdoor dog.  She is a part Newfoundland dog we think, and maybe part lab.  She is about 13 years old, which is surprising given her age.  She is a long-haired, heavily shedding dog.  I am more of a short-haired dog fan, or a very small dog fan, so I guess she just isn't quite my kind of dog, but she's very sweet.

"I didn't know you had so many hens!" said Michelle.

Not exactly a question, but yes, we currently have 22 chickens.  Our 3 roosters are Willoughby, Fancy Pants, and Wellington.  Our hens are Cream, Jellybelly, Whisp, Licorice, Dazzle, Marigold, Poppy, Paprika, Juniper Moon, Sienna, Marble, Onyx, Little Grey Hen, Amelia Henheart, Dove, Shadow, Star, Maple, and Buttercream.

"I didn't know you had rats - more photos please!" said Lin.

Unfortunately, as you know, Ivy died earlier this year, but we still have Violet.

"Do you just fry up those little eggs?" asked Lin

This is in reference to the small sized (1 to 1.5 oz) eggs from the silkies and seramas.  I tend to use those little eggs for egg custard.  My recipe calls for 4 large eggs, so I use 8 little eggs and it turns out perfectly!

"I notice some sheeply artifacts in the background..." said Porkpal.  "Even though they don't begin with D, I'm curious about them."

This was on my letter D post back in March.  I had posted a picture of my new mug warmer on my desk.  In the background was this adorable sheep hooked mat, which Marc gave me for Christmas.  It was locally made and sold at the craft shop located at the waterfowl park.  I use the mat on my desk for hot plates (I often eat lunch and supper at my desk).  I also just like to look at it and smile at the cute design!  

You might also catch a glimpse of these sheep coasters on my desk, a gift from my mom, who always has her eye open for sheepy-themed gifts!

The other artifact in the background of that D-post was my sheepy pajama leg.  

I have a bit of a thing for sheep pajamas...

....and sheep sheets.

Don't tell the sheep, but I also have alpaca pajamas.

The Weekend Roundup: P

The prompts for The Weekend Roundup from Tom the Backroads Traveller are: Starts with P, Purple, and Favourite.

Starts with P:

Our rabbit, Pippin, starts with P.  His full name is Sir Pippin of Dazzlewood Hill, but we just call him Pippin and he doesn't mind.  

As you can see, it is moulting time of year for Pippin.  Notice how the fur on his side, at the bottom, is puffier and longer than on his back. Rabbits all moult, but they don't moult as heavily every time.  Sometimes they just shed some of their fur, and sometimes they have a full moult when all of their fur is replaced.  That is the kind of moult that Pippin is currently having.  Here's a picture from a couple of weeks ago.  You can really see the patchy nature of his coat as the long old fur is coming out and being replaced by new fur.

When domestic rabbits moult, it is important to keep an eye on them to ensure they don't have digestive problems.  They can quite easily ingest a lot of hair due to self cleaning (licking) and end up with hairballs.  Rabbits can't throw up like cats, so the hairball has to come out the other way.  I give our rabbits some papaya, which helps prevent hairballs.  I also spend time grooming Pippin to get as much of the loose fur out as I can, preventing him from ingesting it.  Here is the result of a recent grooming session.  That's a lot of fur!

Purple:

A few months ago, well....maybe a year ago...I don't really remember....I spun this bobbin of purple and pink merino fibre.  I loved the colours, but couldn't decide whether to ply it back on itself to make a 2 or even 3 ply yarn, or to ply it with something else.  

Recently, I acquired this new-to-me fibre from another spinner's destash of items she was selling, and realized it will be the perfect match.  It is East Friesland wool, which is a breed of dairy sheep from northern Germany.  They do not have a very long fleece length but it is still very easy to spin and I think that it will be a lovely match for this merino fibre.  So, I will be taking the time to spin this new fibre, and then I will ply the two bobbins together to make a 2-ply yarn.

Favourite:

A favourite picture from the past week - this one of Pippin and Epinette.  Very comfortable rabbits who feel safe in their environment will sometimes lay on their sides like this.  It is sort of "dead rabbit pose" but don't worry, she is very much alive!  She is still battling pneumonia though, and has another vet appointment this coming Thursday.  

 A bonus favourite for this week - I now have two young hens who are laying green eggs!  This is because they have Isbar genetics.  Isbar are a Swedish breed of chicken.  I love the gentle green and blue eggs that appear in my nest boxes now, along with the lovely browns and creams.  I took this picture on a lovely wooden platter made with bird's eye maple, which my Dad polished for me on their recent visit, which really brings out the grain.

Friday's Hunt 4.20

Another busy week has come and gone.  This week's prompts from Eden Hills are:  Starts with T, Black and White, and Paper.

Starts with T
A tender moment between our two rabbits - Pippin in front and Epinette behind.  They groom each other a lot, and I always think it's rather sweet to watch how they interact and care for each other.  When treats are involved, then it's every rabbit for him/herself!

Black and White
I see a lot of woodpeckers in my yard at this time of year - they are especially interested in my suet feeder.  Most woodpeckers here are exclusively black and white, with touches of red on the head of the males. Here is a hairy woodpecker (male) I photographed last week who is removing the bark from a spruce tree in the yard - probably finding insects underneath the bark.

Paper
It is not uncommon to find paper wasp nests attached to various places on our house.  I don't actually see that many wasps, but I do see their homes.  I try to remove the nests when they are small, but sometimes I miss one.  This one was under the balcony deck that is outside our bedroom.

I like bees but I am not a big fan of wasps, although I recognize they have their place in the ecosystem.  That said, I find their ability to form these "paper" nests from wood fibre to be absolutely amazing.  They are talented insects!  I also love looking at paper fragments from the nests - there is so much variation in colour and texture.  It is like artisanal craft paper - quite remarkable.

Bunday Blog Business

Hello everybody, it's Pippin here!  The female hoomin bean (FHB) finally let me use the computer. She has been really busy, or so she says.  Today she and the male hoomin bean (MHB) went out for a long time and came back complaining about hard work.  Something about scraping wallpaper off walls in another house.  I think it is a house the FHB used to live in.  They are "fixing it up" I think. I don't know why they are so slow.  I fix my house up all the time just by chewing on a cardboard box and leaving the pieces in an artful display.

Anyway, I'm sure you are wondering about my new companion, the Lady Épinette Nutkin of Dazzlewood Hill.  The FHB and MHB certainly made some very significant efforts to ensure we would be friends.

First, we began with the bathtub sessions.

No, we didn't get washed.  It was just a "confined area" for us to get to know each other.  The thing is, we rabbits are a bit fussy about our companions, and we tend to either ignore potential companions, or attack them.  The hoomin beans have determined that by putting us in the bathtub (not with water or rubber ducks), they can monitor us closely and separate us if necessary, but it also sort of forces us to pay attention to one another.  I admit, they might be right about this.

Then, we graduated to the "small bathroom" sessions, when we went from the bathtub time to the small confined room time.  During this time, we were still monitored, but not as constantly as we were while we were in the tub.  It turns out that the Lady Épinette Nutkin is rather nice, and most of the time, I'm quite happy to have her around.

The hoomin beans made a lot of cooing noises when they caught us grooming each other.  Honestly, you'd think they had never seen how to properly lick your partner's ears before.

Finally, the hoomin beans put us into a shared cage, once we were regularly grooming each other and not chasing or biting (which I may have done a few times in the first few sessions, because I was agitated, you know, at the disturbance to my routine!)  We now share one crate and the litter box in the crate and most of the time, everything is just lovely.  The hoomin beans haven't had time to put the other crate away yet, but we just stay in one of them.

They did try allowing us to have shared time in the home office, but that space is too large for us at this point, and I totally forget what she is doing there and sometimes I chase her and try to bite her because I forget that I'm supposed to be nice.  When they put us back into the confined space, I remember, and I calm down again.  It is still going to take a little time and getting used to this whole "being a couple" thing, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.

The FHB says we are "successfully bonded" whatever that means.  I don't see any glue.  Anyway, until next time, keep your ears clean.  Or have your partner help you with it.

Bunday Blog Business

I am very pleased to be able to blog to you about my new custom-designed furniture piece.  It is befitting a bun of my status to have custom-designed furniture, don't you think?  The male hoomin bean (MHB) decided to take on my order (well, it's not as if he had a choice, but let's make it sound like he did) for a specialized hay buffet and integrated restroom facility.  What a fine craftsman he is!

The hay buffet is a very important part of my daily life.  It gets my digestion going and that helps me think deep thoughts and contemplate my plans to dominate the universe.  Until this point, the female hoomin bean (FHB) has been providing the hay buffet in an empty tissue box.  Her logic (a wee bit faulty, but she does provide the hay, so I'll try to be nice) was that the hay would mostly stay contained in the tissue box, and this would keep things tidy.  I laugh my rabbitty little laugh in her direction.  Did she not realize that I would amuse myself by repositioning my hay box as and when I please, and that I would leave a long trail of unfinished hay pieces as I went?  Seriously, no floor is complete without a good scattering of hay.

Well, the FHB and I do not see eye to eye on this matter.  Something about hay clogging the vacuum hose and not having time for this mess and blah blah blah...


So, the MHB and I had a business meeting about it, as we do from time to time, and we decided....well, I decided and he agreed....that I should have a custom hay buffet with integrated restroom facility.  The integration was necessary because although I am inclined to use the HB- mandated restroom box with fluffy litter, sometimes when I am very engaged with my hay buffet, I forget.  Well, after all, I am a bun with many important things on my mind.  The restroom box fits into the wooden frame and can easily be emptied by the slaves HBs as needed.

As you can see, the hay buffet is clearly designed to offer me maximum access to my favourite hay, while tending to keep it all in one spot, to appease the FHB.

Bits of hay that fall out, or that are dropped while I am eating, fall into the integrated restroom facility. Furthermore, I can be completely focused on my hay buffet without having to remember to go find the restroom box.  It's already right there!

I have carefully explored my new furniture and I did taste it, but I have decided I prefer the hay to the wood. The MHB put a nice hinged lid on the hay portion, for frequent refills.  This also makes a good perch from which I can survey all the kingdom that is mine.

I can eat from the top, if I want to.

I can also keep a watchful eye on those shady guinea pig characters.

I can do my stretching routines to the left...

...and to the right.  It's very sturdy and doesn't topple over when I do my exercises.

All in all, it's an excellent addition to my domain.  Thank you to the MHB for making it.  Until next week, as always, keep your ears clean!

Friday's Hunt v 3.11

Yet another busy week and a day late on Friday's Hunt.  We actually went out for supper last night, and I forgot that it was St. Patrick's Day, so we had to wait 1.5 hours to get a table, and by the time we got home, it was too late for blogging.

Our prompts from Eden Hills are:  Starts with K, Week's Favourite, and Drink.

Starts with K
My father recently took on a restoration project of one of my mother's well-used kitchen knives - one of her favourites.  It is a good quality Sabatier knife, so it was worth fixing.  It was so well used that the wooden handle finally gave up and cracked.  My father began the project by removing the blade from the broken handle.  You can see the blade has been sharpened many, many times by its rather tapered blade angle.  It's a very good steel so it has held up to many years of sharpening and is always as good as new!

My father then shaped most of the handle, and drilled the hole, before cutting the handle to length. He had to purchase a special bit to accurately bore the hole into the end grain of the hard-grained wood he used for the handle.  That type of bit is usually used for making hand-crafted wood pens, such as fountain pens.  Here's the handle before being cut to length, and you can just see his planned shaping line.


He the put the blade back in the new handle with epoxy putty to glue it into place, and made a small hole at the outer end of the handle so that any excess epoxy had a place to squeeze out. He later filled that hole.

The final shaping and sanding was followed by 3 coats of polyurethane.  What a great job he did! My mother's kitchen knife is ready for many more years of reliable service!

Week's Favourite
Marc did some repairs to one of the bird feeders - the plastic perches had broken this winter - probably a combination of bitter cold making the plastic brittle, combined with squirrel activity!  You can see in this shot where the squirrels also chewed around the feeder openings.  Marc glued some new wooden dowels in place for new perches, since the birds couldn't perch any more.  I took this shot of a squirrel back at the repaired feeder.  I think the wood perches will hold up better than the plastic ones.  I love this shot because it really showcases the red coat of the squirrel - he just gleams in the sunlight.  I enjoy their antics at the feeder.

Drink
Pippin and Mitten share the same water bowl, although they don't drink at the same time.  Pippin also has a water bottle in his crate, but he seems to prefer the bowl.  I've noticed that he sometimes puts a foot into the water first - not sure why he does that!  I doubt it makes the water taste better!

We used to use a plastic orange water dish for Mitten, which worked well until Pippin joined us.  He thought the water dish was a fun toy.  He began picking the dish up by the edge, and dumping the contents.

Not very helpful!

Now they both drink from a heavy glass dish - Pippin can't tip it over and they both drink happily from it.