Mamma told me there would be days like this
Mood:  rushed
Now Playing: WEIB 106.3 fm www.weibfm.com
Actually, things aren't too bad; I'm just feeling the pinch for time for my job. My fault, and I should have known better. This weekend will be more relaxed.

My little office mate is doing well. His eyes are open now, and he's curious about his little world. This little one will probably be the most tame rabbit I have; I'm holding him a lot. He will be going to a pet home in another 5 weeks or so. My friend Carolyn wants him, and I know he'll have a very good life with her. :)

About the only thing keeping me sane right now while I get through my work stuff, is that I've been dyeing angora for the past couple of days. On Monday, I dyed some a color called garnet. It really looks more like a very deep dark pink rather than a red. Yesterday, I dyed some a color called rose pink. These two colors of angora will be blended with some lovely brown alpaca that I got from my friend Caroline who raises alpacas at her place up in Central MA. Caroline will be helping me with the Angora workshop at MA Sheep and Wool on Saturday morning. She's a pro at shearing a rabbit using electric clippers to get maximum wool off of the rabbit, while keeping the rabbit completely calm and stressfree (for those that don't know; you shear an angora rabbit every 3-4 months to prevent wool block). Anyway, this angora/alpaca blend will be used for part of the spinning workshop I'm giving at MA Sheep and Wool on Sunday morning. The rest of the fiber we will be using in the class should back here from the processors by tomorrow and will also be for sale at my booth. :)

Shameless plug:
For those interested, Ripley's litter is now 3 1/2 weeks old. They are 96.5% German, and their sire is 100% new import blood from Leslie Samson's rabbits. I am taking deposits on these babies, and they will be available for delivery to MA Sheep and Wool at the end of this month.

A learning lesson
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: WEIB 106.3 fm
Sometimes it just pays to look.

I've been accused by Marcy of being the Evil Buck Maven (and I do *love* that title! ). She blames me for Loretta turning into a buck.

But sometimes, you just have to look.

Rocky is a red buck that I got from another breeder. He came here with the idea that I would be trying to breed for red rabbits. That never happened, and I decided that it was time for Rocky to move on to a home where he would be used in a breeding program. Suzanne, who has Moshi Moshi from here, said that she would like to have him. So yesterday, in anticipation of Rocky going to Suzanne's house, I started to clip Rocky down. Now, Deanna has always done the clipping on Rocky, which is why I hadn't notice this before; Rocky only has one testicle! That certainly isn't suitable for breeding, since it is genetic, and can be passed on to future litters.

So now Star, who is my sable colored shearing demo buck, will be going to live at Suzanne's house, and will be having a rendezvous with Moshi. All of Star's equipment is there, and he'll be a nice addition to their household, as he is very gentle, and sweet.

I will miss Star, but know he's going to a good home where he will recieve lots of love and attention.

Posted by baycolonyfarm at 9:49 AM EDT

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My new office mate
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: WEIB 106.3 fm
This is a picture of the little one who is living in a bowl next to my desk in my office.

This little guy (or girl) was born 9 days ago. We've lost his siblings due to the cold temps, which I'm very sad about. So now he is living in my office, in hopes that he does o.k. I'm taking him out to his mother once a day for nursing, and she's doing quite well nursing only one kit. Before he goes out to mom, I put him in the nestbox for easy nursing for her. But once we come back inside, he goes back into the bowl, where he is more contained than being in a large nestbox by himself. I think I'm able to keep him warmer in the bowl. But having the heat turned up to 75 degrees in here doesn't hurt either.

He will go live outside with Mom in another week or two, when he's stronger, and his eyes are open. Until then, I have an office mate. :)

This is what arrived in today's mail....
Mood:  lyrical
Now Playing: WEIB 106.3 fm

A box of 6 skeins of yarn from Leslie Samson of IAGARB. This yarn is a test run of the new fiber co-op that the group is establishing. Anyone that is a member of IAGARB, and owns German Angoras can submit their white German angora wool to be included in the runs, and will get back an appropriate percentage of yarn. I believe this is a 60% angora, 35% merino and 5% silk blend (this will be confirmed by Leslie once I talk to her). My job is to knit it up into something appropriate and show it at MA Sheep and Wool in May. I'm thinking lacy shawl, which would be really soft, and show off a nice pattern. What ever I do, I'm looking forward to starting on it. In fact, I'm very tempted to stop everything that I'm doing, search out a nice shawl pattern, and start knitting.

And to let you all know....................

I PASSED MY EXAM FROM SATURDAY!!!! I'm so happy! Now I send in my application to the state, along with some of my work for review. I have 2 weeks to get this together, and mail it off to Boston. Any dpn waves my way that this goes smoothly would be gratefully accepted. :)

Off to gather up the products to sell at CT Sheep and Wool tomorrow. If you are in the area, please stop by and say Hi! I will be vending along with David Paul from the Merlin Tree.

Fleece Mountain is back!
Mood:  lucky
Now Playing: WEIB 106.3 fm
Getting a Whitefish Bay fleece is the equivalent of trying to get concert tickets to a show you *really* want to see. Just trying to get through on the phone lines requires setting your phone on speed dial, or the very least, hitting the redial over and over again. But I perservered, and now I will have (besides my usual 6 fleeces), Kansas, a extra fine, bright white corrie fleece, Prunella, a jet black lamb fleece, and Neville, a chocolate black lamb fleece. Now I need to decide which ones go directly to the processors, and which ones come here for me to fondle.

I also signed up today to take another class which starts tomorrow. This class is the last of my continuing education classes that I'll need for this year. It is a good refresher course for me to take, and again, it runs 2 nights a week for 3 weeks. I'm looking forward to taking it, but most of all, I'll be glad when I'm done with classes.

I also washed up a white Icelandic fleece that I got from Harry and Jimmie. Even the tog is very soft, and I will have this carded up with angora, ready in time for MA Sheep and Wool.

This is a picture of the fleece I washed yesterday. It's Gracie, from Coneflower Farm, which has several beautiful brown corriedales.


And here is a picture of Ripley's babies. You can see a difference in just a few days.

Posted by baycolonyfarm at 5:00 PM EDT

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Whew, who would have thought....
Mood:  special
Now Playing: Orinoco Flow by Enya
That it would be this warm on April 19th? Yeah, I know we've had some hot weather in April; both of my boys were born in April, and I seem to recall roasting due to hot temps in both years that I was pregnant.

However, I'm not pregnant, so I was able to sit outside today and enjoy the sunshine, breeze and the warmth. Not only did I do a bit of Spring cleaning in the barn, and the rabbits are now enjoying a nice breeze blowing through the barn, but I was able to sit for almost 2 hours spinning on my Joy wheel. I'm working on my Halcyon fleece from WFB, and when the yarn is plied and washed, it is going to be the most gorgeous color of pale vanilla grey, just as Dick described (sorry, but I reserved her fleece again this year ).

I've also been thinking about putting together some roving packs for CT Sheep and Wool this weekend (I'll be there with David Paul of the Merlin Tree provided that my husband doesn't have to work), and for the rest of the shows I'm doing this year. Sometimes it is nice to be able to buy a variety of roving, instead of having to pick and choose just one color.

Posted by baycolonyfarm at 6:17 PM EDT

Updated: Monday, 19 April 2004 6:18 PM EDT

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Patriot's Day
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: "Watermark" by Enya
No, not the football players, but an actual holiday here in the state of Massachusetts. It commemorate's Paul Revere's ride to let the good people of Boston know that the British were coming at the start of the Revolutionary War.

The funny thing is that the only people that really get to take the day off are state and town employees. Most other employees, including banks, stores, the post office and other places of business are open. Being in my field, we are caught between a rock and hard place, since town offices are not open for us to get necessary information, but the banks are open, wanting their reports.

Oh well, I'm taking most of the day off because both of my boys are home due to school vacation for Cal, and because I just feel the need to relax. And besides, I already did an inspection this morning. :)

I'm feeling the need to start another project. I really want to knit something from Melissa Leapman's book "Hot Knits" since I saw the pre-printing copy at the Ewephoric Weekend, but it won't be released until May, so I'll content myself with knitting a shawl. I have some instructions for a basic Pi shawl, and will decide if I want to knit the Feather and Fan pattern (I know the repeats on that are extremely easy) or Cat's Paw, which will require a bit more concentration on my part.

Decisions, decisions.

Whew!
Now Playing: The sounds of two little boys playing in the tub
What a weekend!

Yesterday was a whirl wind trip down to Cape Cod for my exam. DH and the boys decided to go with me, which was a great relief to me. While I was in class, they did a Duckmobile tour (which included a drive in the ocean), a beach walk and a visit to the JFK Museum in Hyannis.

After finishing my class, we headed home. Once here, I got ready to go see Elton John. My husband was too tired from the day out to go, so I asked Deanna, and we had a great time at the concert. Not only did we get to see an amazing preformance (I highly recommend seeing Elton John at least once in your life) which lasted over 2 1/2 hours, but we also got to giggle at the way some "adults" act while at concerts (like dancing as if you were ready to mount the pole at a strip club and how we noticed that when Elton played a few of his slower songs, only a handful of hands with lighters could be seen in the audience; have that many people stopped smoking?). And let me just say for the record that Deanna managed to get us the Doris Day parking spot of the evening. I have NEVER been closer to the Mullin's Center than I was last night for ANY event, including basketball games. Not only did we only have to walk a couple hundred feet to the arena, but we were out of there is record time; no waiting for an hour for the parking lot to clear, as I am usually stuck back in no-man's land. :)

Today was equally as fun. I worked the sidelines at the benefit football game played against the New England Patriot's All Stars team. Let's just say that I have a new respect for those people at the games that work the "chains", the two poles that are run up and down the field to show where a first down will happen again for the team that is playing offense. But being on the "chain gang" as we were called. was a lot of fun, and I hope that this benefit football game will be played again next year (and yes, I did originally say that I would be playing today, but sanity took over sometime on Friday evening at practice, when I realized that there were PLENTY of local guys who wanted to go out on that field and be heroes, so I let them ). I will post pictures tomorrow of the photos I had taken with the various Patriot players.

Due to our wonderful warm weather, we finished the day off with a barbeque on the grill.

And as an aside, Ripley's babies went outside today to stay with her. Now that the weather is so warm, and they are starting to become curious as to what is on the other side of those nestbox walls, they will do better out there. :)

Posted by baycolonyfarm at 8:42 PM EDT

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More rabbit baby info
Mood:  quizzical
Now Playing: WEIB
This morning, Comet's eyes were still not open. Today way day 15, and if left too long closed, the rabbit runs the risk of becoming permanently blind. So, after bringing the babies in from their daily feeding with Ripley, I took a warm, wet paper towel, and gently rubbed the eyelids of Comet. He really didn't appreciate this, after after a few minutes, proceeded to show his displeasure by peeing all over my lap. However, I was able to get his eyelids open, and he started to look around. He is back inside the nest, snoozing with his siblings.

Today is study day. I've cleared my calendar, and will spend the rest of the morning and afternoon studying for tomorrow's exam. Tonight I have a practice for the benefit flag football game against the New England Patriots team which takes place on Sunday. If you are interested in attending, tickets are $10 each, which includes a meet and greet the players, autographs before the game and during half time, and some fun watching this game. :)

Posted by baycolonyfarm at 9:17 AM EDT

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This is what I woke up to find this morning....
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: WEIB 106.3 fm smooth jazz


All of the albino babies have their eyes open. The only baby that doesn't have his eyes open (and yes, it is a He) is the grey baby. But, he's hopping around the nestbox just like his siblings, so I suspect that his will be open in another day, if not by the end of today.

I've already named this little grey guy. He has a white blaze on his forehead, only it looks like a comet streaking through the sky, so I'm calling him "Comet". The other babies will be harder to name, since they all look alike, and I typically don't name the ones I'm not planning to keep. Four of these babies will be for sale in time for MA Sheep and Wool.