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.

The Weekend Roundup: G

This weekend's prompts from Tom the Backroads Traveller are: Starts with G, Green, and Favourite.

Starts with G

Goldfinch starts with G.  This is a picture of an American Goldfinch at the feeder last week.  It is, obviously, wearing its winter plumage, not its bright yellow summer outfit!

I don't see them every day, but I do see them with some regularity.  In 2017, the finch populations of Atlantic  Canada were decimated by a very contagious infection called trichomoniasis, caused by a parasite.  People were advised to take down their feeders all summer because the parasite is spread easily between birds.  With the onset of winter, feeding could occur again because the parasite doesn't live very long in the cold, so it seems to have abated now.  I hope that the finch populations will rebound this coming spring and summer.

Favourite

Early this week we had a first egg from my cream legbar hen, Lady Charlotta.  She lays pale blue-green eggs.  The very first one was very thin-shelled and it broke when it was gently cleaning a bit of dirt from it.  She laid her second egg today and it seems to be a more solid shell.  I am sure you can see which egg is hers.  The blue-green coloured eggs are my favourites!  They taste the same but they are just so pretty.  I love all the different colours of eggs we get from our flock.  Today was also our first 6-egg day since having chickens here at our current home.  How eggciting!

Here's a "bonus" favourite shot.  Yesterday was a lovely day - much warmer than normal for February at 6 Celsius, or about 43 Fahrenheit.  I could not help but go for a quick walk in the middle of my day so I went to the local waterfowl park.  I didn't see many birds - just a few chickadees and a crow, but I did see beautiful blue sky and the lovely trunks of the birch trees.  This particular point on the boardwalk is one of my favourite spots with all the trees making a kind of living tunnel to walk through. It will be a while before anything begins to turn green, but it was still nice to be out on such a sunny day that was, comparatively speaking, warm(ish).

Green

Things remain mostly white (or brown) around here, but of course, the evergreens are still green, although a less vibrant green than they are in summer.  Here's a cone on one of the trees in our yard, with lots of green needles.

The Weekend Roundup: E

This weekend's prompts from Tom the Backroads Traveller are: Starts with E, Evening, and Favourite.

Starts with E

Eggs start with E.  We had a scarcity of eggs over December and January, despite having nearly 20 hens of laying age.  I choose not to provide supplemental lighting in the coop, believing that my hens' bodies deserve a rest that nature orchestrated for them.  The past week or so has seen a small uptick in egg production though, as the winter day length slowly starts to increase.  This week, we actually had a 4-egg day, which is quite egg-citing!  

I am charmed by the daily experience of going to the coop to collect eggs.  The range of egg colours provided by the hens is quite lovely.  At the moment, we have a very dark brown egg coming from one of the maran breed hens (not sure which one).  You can see one of them on my counter-top "egg skelter" below, which keeps my eggs in order of collection so we always use the oldest ones first.

The small pale cream coloured eggs are from a silkie hen, and then there are eggs in various shades of brown ranging from pale tan to an almost pinkish-brown.  The silkie eggs are about 1.4 oz, whereas the larger pinkish-brown eggs are 2.7 oz.  

Favourite

Well, sticking with the egg theme, I'm always particularly fond of the speckled eggs.  I do have a couple of hens that may be blue-egg layers, and those are a competitor for favourite egg.

Evening

I don't often take pictures in the evening....I suppose because most of my pictures are of birds and other things in nature, which aren't easily photographed in low light.  In addition, at this time of year, it's far too cold (in my opinion) to spend time outdoors photographing in the evening.  At the moment, for example, it's -24 Celsius with the wind chill...that's -12 Fahrenheit.  I just don't enjoy being out in those temperatures.  I thought about using a photograph from an evening at another time of year, but looking at them just made me grumpy because it's such a contrast to now, and spring is so far away...at least another 2.5 to 3 months.  At least the day is getting a little longer, as the chickens can attest, and so here is a picture from my living room window, at 5:18 pm, today.  I'd call that early evening.  It's just bleak and cold and everything is white or grey.  I don't even get pretty sky views because the house is surrounded by trees.  I look forward to the weather change when I can once again sit out in the screened porch in the evening.  Until then, I'm stuck with this.  Winter evenings are for knitting on the couch instead of taking photographs!

Friday's Hunt, v 4.23

Another busy week has passed by - as I say every week!  I didn't even have time to visit other blogs for a couple of weeks, which is sad.  But here we are again for Friday's Hunt, and I'm scrounging to put together a post for this week's prompts from Eden Hills:  Starts with W, Dense and Texture.

Starts with W
As those of you who have been reading my blog for a while will perhaps remember, my father is a woodworker, and he has a lot of interesting tools. Among those tools are these very small "finger planes" which are also called "whale" planes because of their shape.  Aren't they cute?!

They are called finger planes because they really only fit one finger when they are being used.  They are called whale planes because they look like tiny whales.

The whale's eye is the end of a thin steel rod that holds the wedge in place.  These planes are most commonly used by violin and guitar makers for planing the inside surfaces of the instruments.

Dense
The chicken flock is producing eggs despite the short day length, which makes me happy.  It's always fun to go out and collect eggs from the nest boxes.  I'm only getting 2-3 per day, but that's enough!  This egg is particularly pretty - it is covered with a dense pattern of darker speckles on the lighter brown shell.

I took this picture of the spruce trees that surround our house today.  They are also quite dense because they are very close together.  Unfortunately, the spruce only have live green needles at the top of the tree canopy, meaning that the lower parts of the trunks are bare.  It might be good to thin these out a bit.  The trees on the far left side are a different species.

Texture
Back to the subject of eggs, some eggs have more texture than others.  While some have very smooth shells, others have shells with little bumps on them.  This is particularly the case with the eggs from my hen, Sienna.  I don't know her breed mix but she is a bantam hen that lays white eggs, and they always have little bumps on them.  Here is one of her eggs - you can really see the textured surface in this close-up shot.

Fabulous Fleecy Fun

This past weekend, Marc and I had a wonderful trip to Prince Edward Island.  My in-laws treated us to a night at a lovely little cottage in a place called Point Prim.  It was a wonderful night away - quiet and comfortable - and I think we might go back to the same place next year.  Of course, since I am a fibre fanatic, I was thrilled to notice that we were going to be quite close to the Belfast Mini Mills location in PEI, and then I saw that on the same road, there was a new fibre destination called "Fleece and Harmony" (clever name!) that of course warranted a visit.

We left New Brunswick on Saturday morning and wanted to pack as much fun as we could into our one night holiday.  I'll do another blog soon about the places we visited on our way back on Sunday. Saturday afternoon was fibre day though, so we'll start with that!

We set off to the Belfast area to visit the two fibre destinations I'd identified as worth a visit.  I was really excited to see what new treats awaited me at Fleece and Harmony, and I was not disappointed. The owners are sisters who gave up life in the big city to start a sheep farming and fibre milling operation on the island, and now they have a wonderful shop that sells an array of their own yarns, as well as a well-curated selection of yarns from other Canadian sources.  I had a great time chatting about all things wool, and of course couldn't resist some new yarns for my stash.  For example, I had to have a couple of skeins of this stunning tonal spruce green wool - I love the depth to the colour and the bounce in this yarn is pure energy.  It was hard to choose from all their beautiful  colourways.

I grabbed a couple of skeins of their "fiddlehead" variegated wool, and another skein that made me think of our holiday - sea and sky and fields and sand.  The shop had some lovely knitted socks made from the fiddlehead colourway.  Maybe that's what these skeins will become!

Several unexpected bonuses arose from our visit to Fleece and Harmony (do check out the lovely sheep pictured on their website)! First, they have the most unusual cat named Smokey.  This cat (I apologize, I didn't take a picture of him) is one of the longest cats I have ever seen.  He also has a rather unusual face that is very endearing.  He's a Persian cat, but he has a different look.  Anyway, the best thing about Smokey is that when you pick him up, he puts his front paws around the back of your neck and shoulder area and starts massaging with his paws. Yes, his little claws are a bit prickly, but seriously, this cat gives you little kisses while he is massaging you, licking your neck and ear while he's at it.  It's the most adorable habit I have ever seen in a cat.  I seriously wanted to kidnap him! A picture next time, I promise.

Second, we were able to visit with the sheep!  They have a beautiful flock that is mostly white, but there are a few other colours in the mix including a deep chocolate brown and a silvery grey.  The sheep are well fed and happy on their pasture.  Look at all those cute little sheep bums!

One of the sheep was clearly on vacation on shearing day, or was hiding really well in the long grass when the shearer was there, because it still has a lot of fleece in comparison to the others. (turns out this sheep is actually just a champion at growing fleece!  Wow!)

Such beautiful natural colours in those fleeces!

Third, they also sell fresh eggs!  I had to go back on our way home to buy a dozen, and they are very good eggs.  I've already enjoyed several of them.  Fleece and Harmony also sells lamb meat, if you eat lamb, which I don't, because I don't eat animals that I also have as pets, but a lot of people like it, so now you know.  Anyway, when I went back to get the eggs, by happy accident, they had some freshly-dyed yarn that was not quite the right colour for a custom order they were making.  Naturally, it was in my favourite colour family, so even though it wasn't quite dry yet, having just come out of its rinse, I had to grab a few skeins to take with me.  Score!

I highly recommend a visit to Fleece and Harmony if you're in PEI for a visit - well worth it!  They also sell products from their website if you can't make it to the island!

Next, we drove a few minutes down the road to Belfast Mini Mills.  Their primary business is the manufacture and sales of small-scale mill equipment.  No, I am not going to start a mill.  They do have a shop there with some lovely yarns and fibres, as well as a delightful collection of farm critters, including goats, silkie chickens, guinea fowl, donkeys, sheep and more!  This goat was one of my favourites.

They also have a pair of enormous Flemish Giant rabbits - just look at them next to Marc's feet. They're huge!

I had hoped to see the daughter of my Cotswold cross ewe, Twilight.  Unfortunately, the owners were away so the employee tending the shop didn't know which one was Twilight's girl.  Maybe next time.  Here's Twilight though - I am sure her daughter is just as lovely.

I was delighted with the felt sheets they had for sale that have a thin but vibrant coloured layer applied to the white background felt.  The sheets are 18 inches long - a great size for some needle-felted landscape work.  I have some ideas already!  I also bought some matching coloured wrapped yarn that is just beautiful.

Going outside my usual colour range, I couldn't help but pick up a couple of skeins of this scrumptious mohair blend.  Will I knit it, crochet it, or weave it?  Not sure yet...

I also picked up a couple of skeins of a silk blend made with silk that is produced without harming the silkworms.  It's a soft and supple yarn - I am looking forward to using it in a special project.

All in all we had a fabulous vacation, even though it was only one night away.  I'll write another blog soon about where we stayed and show some pictures from our time by the water.

The return of a hen, and her re-disappearance, and a funny egg

I really need to get rid of 4 roosters - they are big and bold and taking out their hormonal angst upon my hens.  In particular, they've been targeting my two Rhode Island Red hens.  I'm not sure why they do this, but the RIR hens are losing far more feathers than the other hens and the other day, I noticed that one of them had her flanks completely torn open on both sides.  I inspected her wounds and she had really huge openings - about 1 inch or wider - on both sides, but the blood was dried and the skin was peeled away and I wasn't sure what to do.  I decided to let her try to heal on her own.  A couple of days later, she disappeared.  Just clean disappeared.  I searched high and low, but no sign of her.  I decided she'd been taken by a hawk or another predator or something similar.

It's been about a week since she disappeared, and today when I did the afternoon feeding, I did a double take when I looked at the flock running over to the feed grains.  She was back!  I went out immediately and looked her over.  Her wounds have healed a little, but not that well, and I still have my doubts as to whether she'll make it, but she was eating heartily and holding her own.  I had no idea where she had been, but she was back.

Just before dark, I went out to close up the coop.  Was she there?  No.  She'd disappeared again.  I searched yet again, but no sign of her.  Clearly, she has taken to sleeping elsewhere.  I don't know where, and I don't know why I have only seen her with the feeding group that one time today.  She must have made herself a little hiding place where she can heal without the roosters constantly hassling her.  I really must get them processed soon - it's just not fair to the hens.

Anyway, when I closed the coop and picked up the eggs, there was this funny little hiccup egg.

I've never seen one quite this shape before.  It's my first hiccup egg from my Nova Scotia hens.  Couldn't resist sharing the pictures.  I think I've got 5 or 6 hens laying now - one has just started laying these small white eggs recently - this is the third one so far.

 Such a cute little egg!

I have more to blog about, and I will write soon, but still finding it hard to find my writing muse.  Time heals all wounds.