Plugging Along

As the title says, I am plugging along, though with the Apple Harvest festival coming this Saturday, the plugging had better pick up its pace.
I have catalogued (with much help from my daughter) all my skeins. I bought plastic "clamshells" from a local deli and so I have weighed out some 1 and 1/2 ounce batches of angora. I am fixing a very nice coat rack given me by a friend that I will use for hats. It still needs a coat of paint.
On the more frustrating computer end of things... I have been working working working on a business card. Man is that frustrating. I only have basic tools like Microsoft Word, Publisher and Paint to work with and they each have their capabilities and idiosynchracies and limitations. But at last I think I have one that I can work with for now. I am hoping to get so I can print them on both sides, but for now I just have the ink-jet printer and it seems tricky. And I'd like to perhaps add color. Well, let's see if I can display it here - I put it on a portable USB drive thingy so I can move it about from one computer to another.
WooHoo!! I did it. It still needs work, the small writing is too small, but for now, it will do. And I have been making little stickers to label the skeins and the angora fiber. So, you see, I have really been a very busy bunny. AND I sold two rabbits last week, so that is a very good thing.
OK time to get ready for the "real" job.

Why ELSE I cannot get anything done....

Quick, miserable post: I lost my purse, wallet, etc etc. It is the most miserably annoying thing in the world. I left it on a local bus, and apparently whoever found it decided not to give it to the driver so that it would have been brought to the Lost and Found there. So, instead I must hassle with all the hassles of cancelling credit cards (not so bad) and changing my checking account (very very bad). And replacing my license (also not so bad) and mouring the loss of all those tid-bits that one accumulates in something as personal as a purse. I'm mad at whoever found it and made the decision not to turn it in, and I'm very very mad at myself for being such a scatter-brained flakola who does stupid things like leave her purse around (not the first time, believe me).
I still managed to spin a little angora today so at least the day was not completely wasted...

Apple Harvest

Exciting news! I got my acceptence letter for my first official fair - the Apple Harvest Festival in Amherst. They do not have a web site, or I would link it. It will be Sept 30. I have wound all my skeins, now I need to photograph them. Work has intervened so who knows... Also - I managed to get some plastic deli clamshells from a local deli and I will use them to package nice plucked angora for sale. So things are moving along! As for anything resembling a web site, well, that will happen when it happens.
And what about Frank, you wonder. So far, he is doing very well. His huge gaping wound seems to be healing and I am very grateful.

Why I Get Nothing Done

This was my weekly “day off” from work and I had hopes for accomplishing some useful things, but instead I had a very bad bunny experience. I actually only know of one person (that’s you, Togbean) who might potentially read this, and I should warn you, that if you get easily queasy or don’t enjoy hearing about revolting things, you might want to just move on to the next blog.

I, however, will plow bravely forward with describing this because it is truly disturbing and I want to get the whole thing out of my system. Ok, here goes. I have many bunnies, and this spring one of the 3 litters of babies included this one that was fawn and white in a pretty pattern (a lot like our corgi dog) and, best of all, with blue eyes. I usually only keep rabbits from especially good breeding combinations, and/or that are especially big, healthy, strong and with really excellent wool. Well, he was big, seemed quite healthy etc and in combo with the unusual color/eyes I decided to keep him. And he’s really a very nice bunny. I named him “Frank,” as in Sinatra.

Today I decided to clip Frank’s hair. I had brushed him recently, but he had gone off his feed – a pretty good indication of incipient wool block (something angora rabbits get) so I had treated him with several doses of Vaseline. It seemed to take care of the problem, but he had gotten quite a bit on his coat, thus the decision to clip it all off. In the process of clipping (I think I am making this way longer than I need to in order to avoid describing the actual awful thing….) I noticed a really nasty sore under his chin. It was truly truly truly nasty. It was open and seemed to be filled with dark convoluted stuff, I swear like a brain. And then I noticed that something inside seemed to be moving and I knew I was dealing with some sort of parasite. I’ve seen fly maggots inside open wounds before, and this was different. I have also heard of insects that lay eggs under the skin and then develop there. I suspected that this kind of insect larva was what I was dealing with. I did a quick google search, and yes, indeed, rabbits have a bott-fly parasite whose larvae develop in just this way. The solution is to smear it with Vaseline, and when the larva starts to emerge to get air, you pull it out. OK, I did it. And what emerged was immense!!! Horrible!! Disgusting!! It is practically the size of my thumb and dark and has all these folds down its big fat maggot body. I will say, that as a biologist, which I am in my other life, I find it quite fascinating. But as a caretaker of rabbits, for whom I try to keep life as happy and stable and safe and healthy as possible, it was awful awful awful.

And that is not even the worse of it. If I had removed the larva and that was the end of it, I could deal. But unfortunately, the rabbit now seems to have a big and infected abscess from the whole ordeal. I have cleaned it, and packed it with gauze, but I am afraid it is too much. Having lots of rabbits as I do, I cannot justify the expense of taking them to the vet when things go wrong. I have gone that route enough times to know that I would be cranking up a lot of $50 vet bills that I cannot afford. So I muster through as best I can. Unfortunately I cannot get antibiotics without a vet visit, and I don’t think Frank is going to make it without them. I do feel bad. On the other hand – I try to keep things in perspective – he is actually the result of a father/daughter breeding which is not the best thing to do. So if he does not make it, well, believe me there are many other rabbits. So far he does not seem in pain, is eating and seems comfortable. btw - the photo at the top is of Frank in his younger days.

That ends my story and is an example of WHY I CAN NEVER SEEM TO GET ANYTHING DONE!!!!!

Back to Fiber

Reality has struck in the form of work which has started back up. But I cannot complain (yet). Classes will not actually start until Friday, and lab (which is what I teach) starts next week. So for these few days, I have been plugged into my work computer which has Photoshop. I am trying to learn how to use it, so that I could actually post GOOD photos onto my web site. Maybe I will even try putting one on this blog.

But back to FIBER NEWS. What have I accomplished towards my goal? [and I will make a little aside here to show how my angst-filled psyche works: while walking the dog this morning, I got to thinking about my goal of selling skeins of yarns at craft festivals etc. I got real discouraged thinking about the reality of it all. Let’s say I pay $50 – or sometimes it is $100 – for a booth. Let’s say I actually make some sales and get that $50, or $100, back. All fine and good, but that does not really account for the time put into making the yarn. I will probably price my yarn to give myself a tight $10 an hour for the time spent making it. But that would not really add in the cost of the wool, or the “dead” time. After all, if I spend an hour actually spinning a skein, there’s also all the time spent tidying up my spinning area, measuring and weighing things…. I do add in the time spent on carding and blending, but not really the washing time, since I usually do that in between other things. But the really discouraging thought was that there I will be at this fair all day long. Will I make enough to cover the entire day? After all, I could be doing many things on an entire Saturday: hiking, housework, reading. On the other hand, given a free Saturday, what would I usually do? Spend it spinning or knitting or carding. And I’m hoping that part of what I could do at a fair would be spin while people look at my stuff. So ok. Too bad if reaching my goal does not also make me filthy rich….]

Really back to really fiber. What have I accomplished? On the physical side of things, I managed to finish making a rack to hold skeins of yarn. I made a table, though it still needs a little work. And I set everything up under my EX-UP tent and took photos of it all. This was needed for that application form I mentioned. And….I finished and sent in the application!!!! Big step for me. Now I wait for the powers that be to judge my application and make a decision on whether or not I am “in.” Meanwhile, I have also been rewinding all my skeins so they have a consistent form, and I have been cataloguing them. A bit obsessive of me, but it makes me happy. Once they are all wound and catalogued I will start photographing them. And maybe THEN I can put the photos on a web site that does not yet exist. So there’s where I’m at. Whew.

All's Well in Bloggerville!

It is all working very well!! And, in fact, my friend
explained things to me very nicely. Maybe next post I will get back to writing about my "fiber business"....

update

First I will gripe a bit about this whole “blogging” process. I had some issues, when was it? Last week? Two weeks ago? Well, whenever it was, I had some issues. I thought that once I actually signed on this blogging thing would be a piece o’ cake, but I ended up with issues. I made one entry, then, as I was on vacation and had some time, I rapidly made even another entry. But the second entry got lost in the ether of Bloggerville. I could find it sometimes, but it wasn’t showing up on the actual blog. I was very frustrated and annoyed. So, in true trooper fashion, I gave up. Well, at least I put it on hold while life intervened in the form of packing up and going home and then getting back to the reality of the day to day (or as a friend says “the minutia of life”).

I was planning to ask my friend, who is an old hand at this blogging thing, about it on our knitting day, but I didn’t go to knitting as we were invited to supper that night at another friend’s (definitely NOT something to complain about). It was not until days later (has it been weeks?) that I griped to yet another friend (boy, it’s starting to sound like I have lots of friends, which in fact I do, and obviously they are all wonderful and helpful), and went to show her the problem. And look! There it was - my second entry! And on the same page, but instead of the new entry appearing on the screen when you click on the blog, the old entry appears and one must scroll up to find the new one. So you see, there is still some sort of glitch. Sarah’s blog does not do that. I guess the real reason I have blabbed (blogged?) on about all this, is to point out how easily discouraged I can get. Small glitch = major set-back. Well, I have gotten through this and will try to move on. And perhaps my next entry will be something more substantial.