Creeeeeeeeeaaak

Well, the hinges on the door seem a bit rusty, and there's definitely a lot of dust on the windowsills, but I'll get the blog shipshape in no time...
It's been a busy summer.  After endless soul sucking rain in June and a good bit of July, the sun finally came out.  And then it got too hot and humid to breathe.

So, a summary of summer:
Madman heard a report that we'd had 21 days of rain in June.  I honestly don't recall there being 9 days without rain - I'd put it closer to 3.  Maybe 4, tops.
So the garden is an abject failure this year.  What didn't wash away, rotted in the ground.  The soil was usually too wet to work (and was always too wet to work on my days off), so the only thing growing out there is grass and ragweed.  And 6 corn plants.  And I found a beet the other day.
Not a banner year for gardening.
The goldfinch finally gave up around the end of July.  My guess is he finally suffered a terminal concussion.
Something has been eating our laying hens and got one of our adult turkeys.  We're not sure if it's a skunk, a raccoon, or a fox - all have been seen lurking around here at one time or another.  We've revamped fencing.  Again.
There have been numerous sheep escapes - some more harrowing than others.  (I'll share a few in a later post.)
We lost a mama rabbit, but gained 12 baby rabbits. 
All 12 of our Barred Rocks have survived, and are almost ready to join the remnants of our laying flock, once we're certain that we've thwarted whatever carnivore is out there.  There are several roosters in the crowd, who don't know that they're auditioning for the role of Only Rooster in the Coop.  (The ones who get voted off the island will end up in the freezer.)
All 15 turkeys are also still with us.  They've still got some growing to do.  There's been some gobbling starting to go on out there, so we're hoping there's a male or two for our future breeding flock.
I had a lovely vacation, with family visits, yarn, bubble blowing, and a RenFair.

And I had a major milestone birthday.  One of those that end in zero.  There weren't any party hats or balloons, but my daughters kidnapped me and took me on an adventure.  And, as with all really good adventures, I got to wear a superhero costume.

Anyone care to hazard a guess?

All Quiet on the Critter Front

No sign of any lambs.
No sign of any weasels.

One of those statements makes me happier than the other, of course.

The chicks are growing, getting prettier by the day. Their wings are developing black and white stripes as they feather out, which you can almost see in the picture.

I had a terrible time even getting a picture of the little peeps, because they move so fast.  One moment I had a group focused in the middle of the frame, the next moment all I had was a plain of woodshavings.  The lighting was complicated in this pic by a sunbeam that was peeking in through the upper window of the coop.

The closest thing to animal excitement (and non-quiet) we've had was the other day when one of the hens was out.  (We keep explaining to the chickens that this is not a free-range establishment.  They keep ignoring us.)  I was happily kneeling in one of my flower beds, pulling weeds, when I had a feeling of not-being-alone.  A quick glance to my side showed a hen standing at my elbow, watching raptly as I tugged at grass, with a "Whatcha doin'?" look on her face.  Or maybe it was an "Are you gonna eat that?" look - it's hard to tell with chickens.  This was the same hen that I'd unsuccessfully chased earlier in the day.  There had been one of those mad loud I-laid-an-egg cackles, but it wasn't coming from the henhouse like it should have been.  (Chickens are very full of themselves when they lay an egg.  They're good for several rounds of "Buk-buk-buk-bu-GACK!!!  Buk-buk-bu-GACK!! Bu-GACK!!!  Buk-buk-buk-bu-GACK!!!"  which roughly translates as "I just laid an egg!!!  Me!!!  I laid an egg!!  It's the best egg EVER!!!")  I finally tracked the noise down to the bunnies' shed, where the hen was telling poor Stiffler all about her brand new egg, from a distance of about a foot away.  Poor Stiffler - large ears, sensitive hearing.  He was just staring at her with a rabbity WTF face.  I made a grab for her and missed, but at least it shut her up as she ran out. 
I swear I heard Stiffler give a sigh of relief as I picked up the Best Egg Ever and took it to the house.

No NoBloPoMo

For the first year since I started the blog, I'm not going to do NoBloPoMo.  I'm having trouble posting once a week - once a day is totally out of the question.  Though I will try to post a little more often.  The activity level of summer has tapered off, though we still have sheep, chickens, turkeys, and rabbits to tend. 
We butchered our original turkeys, selling one and putting the other two in the freezer, but someone gave us two pretty Bourbon Reds, which is a heritage breed..  They're not old enough to tell what sex they are yet (and after the loop one of our first turkeys threw us, we're not going to guess), but we're hoping for a male and a female so we can try raising some of our own.  With our luck, that won't happen, of course, but we can still hope.  The same person also gave us two young female rabbits.  Our sole surviving rabbit, Stiffler, is verrrrrry excited to have new girls in the neighborhood.  We put them in a cage next door to his, and he's been combing his hair and practicing his pickup lines ever since. 
Soon, Stiffler, soon...

Wascally Wabbit!

A friend just sent me this video. 



I'm still laughing.
I wonder if we could train our rabbit to do this...

Brokenhearted

We lost our little bunny. He was fine last night - playful, bouncy, cuddly. This morning he was dead.
When we first brought our little orphans inside and started researching how to hand-raise them, we noticed a lot of the experts said "Don't bother. They're all going to die anyway."
But, being us, we had to try.
Losing this last one is hard.

Not creepy at all

These are for Lindsay, who thinks my bunny is creepy...

Not creepy - just really hard to photograph. (S/he usually wiggles just as the camera clicks. I've got a lot of blurry bunny pics.) At least the eyes aren't glowing red in these photos.

Madman has taken to calling the little bunny Hopper. Though Tiggywinkle's comment on my last post had me laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes.

Sourdough, Milestones, and Great Balls of Fiber

The other day, when Madman picked me up from work, he asked me "Do you know someone named Erika who would mail you a lumpy envelope?"
"Why, yes," I replied. "Yes, I do."
Erika and I had been emailing back and forth about bread, and she offered to send me some leftover sourdough starter. Dehydrated sourdough starter makes for a lumpy envelope...
So I've got the Son of Makoto. Or, more properly, the little brother of Makoto.
It's been happily bubbling on my counter for days and days. I fed it up good last night, and used it to make this
today. I meant to take a picture of it before cutting into it, but, well, you know...
(And btw, Erika? I cheated and added a tiny bit of dry yeast to the dough, which is why I got such a good rise. Next time, I won't, I swear.) (Really.) (Patience? What patience?)

Hey, look! Little bunny is now eating rabbit pellets! And hay!
*sniff* They grow up so fast...

This is actually a major milestone. We're both breathing a sigh of relief, because it looks like the little booger is really going to make it. After all our recent losses, I don't think we could bear to lose this little sweetie. We've gotten way too attached.
The word "houserabbit" is now in play.
Though a New Zealand White isn't the best choice for a pet rabbit (there are friendlier breeds), at this point this little one is more acclimated to people than other rabbits. We'll have to wait and see as it gets bigger.
I've done weirder things than keep a rabbit in my house.


And last, but certainly not least, I've been washing up and carding a storm of fleece.

I started with Goldie's fleece. Now, to look at her, she looks like your average sheepy-colored sheep. You know, that basic off-white creamy sort of color. Imagine my surprise when I started working with her fleece - it's laced with dark gray and black fibers. The roving is coming out a light heathery gray, which I'm liking a lot.


I've made that little mountain of roving, plus I have twice as much washed and drying. And I still haven't made much of a dent in the fleece.
Do you think she'll be okay with me wearing a sweater made from her fleece? Or is that going to boggle her little sheepy brain?

Sigh of relief

Madman and I were watching a tv show on the computer tonight (Supernatural, if you're interested. Catching up on the last couple of episodes.) when I noticed he had fallen asleep. Since it was time for Little Bunny's late night feeding, I paused the video, went to mix up the formula, grabbed a towel, and headed into the spare room to get the bunny out of its box.
No bunny.
I thought it might have burrowed under the towel in the box, so I pulled everything out of the box (water dish, pellet dish, hay - Bunny is old enough now to start investigating grownup food, so we're making it available. So far, he/she hasn't figured out what all that weird stuff is, but we're patient.) and searched through all the folds of the towel.
No bunny.
I pulled the towel completely out of the box.
No bunny.
The search began. Under the bed, under the dresser, behind the pumpkins. (It's a multi-purpose spare room...)
No bunny.
I widened the search. The guest bathroom. The hallway. The kitchen.
No bunny.
Finally, I headed back to the living room to wake up Madman so he could help in the search.
Look what I saw in the crook of his elbow.


Both of them, fast asleep on the couch.
*sigh*

Rain of Death

This whole Circle of Life thing can just stop any time. First something got into the hatchlings' chicken tractor, and killed three of them. Then we lost 4 more of the baby bunnies. Then, this morning, there were gaping holes in the chicken wire of the hatchlings' tractor, and the last two were gone.That's 4 rabbits and 5 chicks in a week's time. It's all just heartbreaking. The hatchlings were the 5 that survived the first hatch in our incubator, the ones we cheered for as they broke out of their tiny prisons. The bunnies were poor little orphans that we desperately tried to feed and keep alive, against all odds.

We almost lost the last bunny as well. It started to decline, right before our eyes. We'd been listening to the experts, and went from infant formula to kitten formula. The bunnies continued to weaken and die.
Finally, as the last one was getting lethargic and losing interest in eating, as the others had before him, I said to hell with this, and went back to the infant formula.
He started to perk back up. (Or she. I don't know if you can tell the difference at this age. We certainly can't tell the difference at this age.)
Back to perky, to our huge relief.
He/she/it enjoys a good run on the carpet. (Not so fond of vinyl flooring...)

Sort of a Bunny of the Baskervilles look in that photo.

If you hold out your hand, he/she/it will jump in.

After all we've been through with this little guy/girl, we're keeping it. So far, we're just calling it 'Bunny' or 'Bun' - we should probably go ahead and give it a name.
Like, Scamper, maybe.

Excuse me. I have to go catch a little bunny.

Ain't we got fun!

Adventures in the Wild Kingdom continue.
Still feeding bunnies:Though sadly, the runt didn't make it, so we're down to five. But look! Their ears now look more like bunny ears and less like pig's ears! And their eyes are starting to open - just a peek now and then - and they're starting to walk/hop instead of just randomly flailing. (And here's a question - why, when we're trying to get a better grip, do they always spin to the left? All of them do this. Madman and I had both noticed it. Any vets/biologists/zoologists out there with an answer?)

And we're still buried in chicks. Our little Rhode Island Red hatchlings are looking tinier and tinier next to their behemoth cousins. (The RIR chick is in the upper left. Note that even standing, she is shorter than the sitting chick next to her...)

There's only a 2 day difference in their ages, but a 2 week difference in their development. Those Cornish cross chicks are genetic freaks monstrous mutations a hybrid that was specially developed to grow chicks to chickens in the most efficient way possible.

Our little guys just get lost in the crowd. (Here's our version of 'Where's Waldo' - there are three RIR chicks in that picture. See if you can spot them...)

And just because there's more to life than baby animals (or so they tell me), I'll be going to NH S&W on Saturday. Where I'll probably look at baby animals. (Though I may not coo over the baby rabbits as much as I have in previous years...)
Anyone else going?

Bye baby bunting... Wait! Oh no!

Have you read the lyrics to that lullaby?!? We at Chez Mango are appalled...

Baby bunnies are what it's all about, lately. Morning, noon, and night, it's time to feed the bunnies...Two of them are doing extremely well, two are doing okay, one is doing almost okay, and one isn't doing as well as we'd like. (In any group, there's a scrawny little runt, it seems. Why is that the one we always cheer for?)
As you can see in the photo, they're starting to get a little... um... well, grungy. If there was a Mama Rabbit, she'd be licking them clean. Unfortunately for them, they have a Mama Human who isn't going there. I don't care how cute they are, I'm not going to lick them...
We've been giving them a quick wipe-down with a damp washcloth, and buffing them gently dry, trying not to chill them.
They're still a little ooky.
Between spilled formula (they're messy eaters) and perfectly normal bodily functions, they're going through my kitchen towel collection rather quickly. (After this is all over, I am totally buying new kitchen towels...)
Sometime in the coming week, their eyes will open. Maybe they won't be so messy when they can see what they're doing...

Houston, we have a problem.

In between all the crazy things going on here, including bottlefeeding rabbits (and getting peed on by the ungrateful little wretches sweet little bunnikinses), I've actually been doing some knitting. Yeah, I was surprised, too.
But.
Slight problem.
I was almost done with the ribbing on the cuff of Skew when I decided to try it on.That's as far as she goes, folks. The ribbing will go over my instep, but the leg of the sock won't. The only way I'm going to be able to wear this is if I pull a Cinderella's-Stepsister and chop off a hunk of my foot.
*sigh*
The frogging has already commenced.

And if anyone thinks I'm not entitled to whine about our weather up here, this is what it was doing this afternoon.


My daffodils and tulips are pissed.


Goldie just stands there going "WTF?"

Mother Nature is a right mean bitch.

I was honestly going to do a post about knitting, but the Universe has bitten us on the butt once again...

We were excited because one of our rabbits had her first litter. But before we could even send out birth announcements, she got out of her cage and was killed. (We suspect a dog did the evil deed. A wild predator would have dragged her into the woods. The evidence shows that whatever did it entered and exited by our long driveway, and was comfortable spending time out in the open right next to our house. Don't even get me started on my leash-law rant. We've had trouble with 'visiting' dogs before.)
Madman rescued the babies from the nest box and brought them inside.

Here's three of the six babies -

They're a little bigger than a mouse.

And now we're doing this

at least 3 times a day. (We've since bought smaller syringes - that was the only one we could locate at short notice. )

They're messy eaters, so you have to stop and wipe their faces now and then.

Check out the two on the left side of this picture.

They're actually the same size, but baby rabbits seem to have a lot in common with accordions...

Partly cloudy, with extended periods of gloom

A little sunshine would be nice. Just for 5 minutes, that's all I ask. We've had nothing but cloudy, cloudy with snow, cloudy with sleet, cloudy with wind, cloudy cloudy cloudy. And gloom.
(The last sunny day I can remember was in early December. I'm not kidding.)

I was hoping for some light, to get a decent picture or two of the sheepies. We'll all have to settle for these, instead.
I took a raft of pictures, but I think my memory card is dying. All the photos with Onyx in them didn't save. (Poor Onyx. And she loves getting her picture taken...)

Here's Merlin, with Goldie peeking around him from a safe distance.

But I did get a good shot of Goldie, looking thoughtful. Or maybe just staring blankly. It's hard to tell with sheep.

Caught Merlin daydreaming...

And, since I've sorely neglected to take pictures of the bunnies, here's the girls:

That's Clover on the left, and Jane on the right. (And if you're wondering how I can tell the difference (or even if it matters) - Jane has a lazy left ear. It droops anytime she isn't 100% alert. (She's also shyer than Clover, but that's hard to tell from a picture.))
And here's our boy, Stiffler. He isn't really grumpy - he's just hopping forward to see if I'm going to give him some more hay.

And, of course, I have to give equal time to the chickens, or I'll never hear the end of it.


They do keep an eye on me...

Okay, okay, by popular demand...

Peek-a-boo, Carrie!


They're hoping I'll give them some more grass.


These are the Buff Orpingtons we bought as day-old chicks, and the Rhode Island Reds we hatched from our own eggs.
Now they can't decide who to watch, me or Madman. Because Madman had had a wonderful idea for a photo.

First, he scooped up one of our little Orp hens. Then he went to catch one of the meat birds. Then he came back to hand me the Orp to hold, because he couldn't get hold of a big bird while holding a little bird. (They're a little reluctant to take a 'walk with Dad'. They've finally twigged to the fact that no one ever comes back from a walk with Dad...)
We finally got it all together...


Now, these birds are exactly the same age. The white chicken is a Cornish Cross - a chicken specifically bred to eat and grow and eat and grow. Madman can hold the Orpington in one hand, but really has to cradle the meat bird.

Look at the difference in size of feet, alone!
The meat birds are heading to the freezer. Madman and I both have Sundays off, so we're doing in a few of the big birds every weekend until we get them all done. Ideally, we should have offed the lot of them all at once, but we just can't handle that much mayhem in one day...

And even though no one asked for bunny pictures, here's a few anyway. Cuz it's not all chickens (or sheep) all the time, chez mango...

This is Clover. She's grown 'a bit' since my last photo of her...

And Stiffler wants to know "S'up?"

And so, good night. It was dark in the coop...

That's the rooster on the lower rung, watching over his flock. The other hens are over on the perch by the nest boxes. They're not supposed to be there, but you can't tell a chicken anything...

First Day of Summer, Vermont Edition

After supper tonight, I went out to sit on the deck. A ruby-throated hummingbird visited each and every flower of my (Japanese Iris? Anybody know what these are?)
I knew I should have hunted up that hummingbird feeder...

I went inside and grabbed my camera to capture the day.

First off, we have new residents chez Mango.This is Stiffler. (Yeah, that Stiffler. Madman named him. Perfect.) And that white streak is the wire from the cage, caught on camera. I'm a knitter, not a photographer...)
And the girls. The one whose face you can see is tentatively named Clover (my suggestion, subject to change if something better occurs) and the other one might be Jane. (Yes, Jane Doe. Madman again...)
And before you get too far into the "Ooooooo, Bunnieeeez!" mode, these are (vegetarians, avert your eyes) meat rabbits. They are our breeding stock, so we are giving them names, but their children will be referred to as "Hassenffeffer" and "Fricassee."
They are also little fertilizer factories. Rabbit poop is a wonderful addition to our gardening arsenal. It doesn't have to be composted before being added to the soil, so we can sprinkle it freely around our plants without fear of "burning" them. Yay, poop!

On the chicken front, the meat birds have been moved out to the broiler coop. (This is the prototype of an ice shanty that Madman and his brother designed and built a couple of years ago. It works equally well as a temporary chicken coop.)
Since all they do is eat and poop and knock over their waterer, it was time for them to get out of the living room. The Buff Orpingtons and Rhode Island Reds are much more polite, much smaller, and certainly less smelly, so they'll be allowed to stay inside for a bit longer.

Here's our new favorite lupine - it's a mystery where it came from, since we've only put red and white ones into this particular bed. Love the fabulous two-tone colors. Who knew pink and yellow would look so good together?


And you may have noticed some new whimmydiddles in my sidebar. It's all Cookie's fault. She caught me in an under-caffeinated condition. Before I knew what I was doing, I'd signed up for Summer of Socks. And then, in a fit of total madness, I signed up for the Tour de Fleece, as well. (Clearly, I can't be trusted with the Internet until after the second cup of coffee...)
I'm a proud member of Team Crankypants. Though I'm pretty sure I'll serve mostly as a Cranky Cheerleader (you know, giving people the raspberry and flipping them off), I thought I'd try to spin this:
Eight ounces of gorgeous Merino I got at NH S&W. I want laceweight. I tried a couple of weeks ago, and it kicked my ass. For Tour de Fleece, I'm going to kick it's ass...

And, just for the record, the sheep are still afraid of the camera...
*sigh*