Neglected Blog :-(…. July 29, 2004

Sadly my blog has been neglected as it has been a wild couple of weeks here. I think I need a vacation to recooperate from Summer..LOL. Lots of things have been going on………

PUPPIES!!!!
An unexpected litter of puppies, came a week sooner than anticipated. I figured that I would have about a week before my first time mother would whelp her puppies….hhmmmm. I had been planning to make an appointment Friday for Breeze, to be x-rayed, however, she had a plan of her own, unbeknownst to me. On Tuesday of this week, I put all the dogs in their crates, gave them their lunch and headed out to the post office 5 minutes away. I was going to run some errands, but traffic in a resort town in the summer is so blessed busy, that I decided to wait until early evening……as luck would have it. When I got home, (15 minutes later), I went to let the dogs out and you can well imagine my shock to find a puppy in Breeze’s cage with her. I was horrified!!!!! This girl had no signs of impending labor, no nesting, no panting and she even ate most of her lunch! Needless to say, my 22 yr old son and I raced around like a scene out of the three stoogers, getting whelping equipment, clamps sterilized and clean bedding. An hour and half later, 3 healthy baby girls made their way into this world. These babies are definitly preemies, but are good sized and very vigorous. As you can see from their picture……they are reasonable sized for preemies!

A very content Mom and her girls.
Well Done Breeze!

(Ballymena Winters Wind)

BUNNIES
I finally got a chance to sit down and try to see what the sexes were on the new baby bunnies. Not as easy to figure out as on the dogs…haha! These babies are still huge! At 12 days their eyes are just starting to open and I was thrilled to discover that we have a buck and a doe. Just what I had hoped for! Now as you look at the picture of the babies…….they do not look very cute yet…LOL….but in just a few short weeks, they will be just about the cutest creatures on earth. My Doe, Bonnie, has been a fabulous mother. One of the things that I breed for is good mothers and temperaments. I have found that using a drop nest has greatly improved my odds against having babies being born on the wire and it seems to give the mom’s an extra sense of security. I feel it is so important to have rabbits that are friendly and comfortable in being handled. Given that they require such intensive hands on grooming/shearing sessions, I prefer not having to fight with an animal with such big teeth….grin!

THE LOOM
Yippee!!!!!!!!! The loom is warped and the towels are in process! I am in LOVE with my new loom. Of course it occupies almost all of my office and getting behind it to work on it is a challenge (grin)…., but I just love the smooth action and the ease with which it weaves. I am doing a waffle weave pattern and these towels are working up nicely in the organic naturally colored (except for the lavender) cotton, that I purchased from Lynnae’s Place, The Chamomile Connection.

After all the hard work of figuring out yardage, winding the warp, beaming on the warp and threading, I am sitting here, enjoying the creation of a new fabric, and my mind drifts onto the next project………….I am thinking nice soft thick bath towels in a lovely 3/2 Organic Olive Natural Cotton that I have….hmmmmmmm……………………

SOCKS
Puppies and bunnies and looms……..Oh MY!! All of the goings on around here have left me on the short end of the stick with the Six Sock Knit Along. I had decided that I could not leave my cloverleaf sock sitting alone and now the crunch is on to get the mate done in time for the deadline of July 31st. In order to qualify for a spot in the drawing, the finished picture needs to be posted by that deadline. Being that I am up all night, making sure that Breeze does not sit on her puppies, I am hoping to be finished in time. I have just finished up the leg and am getting ready to start on the heel………will she I make it in time???……….tune in this week…….same “Bat Channel”, same “Bat Time”…….as the old (I am dating myself here..LOL) saying goes.