Snakey and Buns

7 am

                Snakey came out last night so I held him for a bit. It was nice, he is so smooth and he was quite active. I guess I’ll feed him today if I see him emerge again. And buns are doing pretty well. I lost a couple from Ebony’s litter last week and one from Ella’s. It is odd, Ella does not enter the nest to nurse them, but I think they are actually getting fed bc she leans into the nest. I suppose it means they are not getting to her hindmost teats which could be a problem, but they seem to be growing, though slowly, and they are doing ok. I did move her 2 white ones to Ebony’s box. I sure wish I had a fawn male. I have not sexed this year’s buns yet, so we’ll see about the fawn/grey ones. If one is male I may well keep it. and there are 2 grey so I may keep one of them, too. I probably need to choose between Ella and
Ebony and Excelsior and Ethyl. And then decide if I want to keep both Bart and Dylan or replace one with a fawn male.

                Tonight I am going to hear music with a friend. She got tickets and then her husband had to go away. I hope it will be good. I must finish giving M&M feedback to those who wrote them; I should do that this morning. And I did some tidying yesterday, but it is not at all evident, so I’ll have to do more. Especially sort laundry which is a reasonably mindless busy task. When I woke up, I opened the curtain and a lovely bit of sun shone in, but it has now all clouded over. Still I think it is supposed to get sunny later and it is supposed to be warm. Yes. That is needed. OK time to do buns and take psillium and I guess I’d better do my stretches as my back has been bad.

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Baby Bunny Saga

7 am

                Several oddities: first that I am writing at all, it has certainly been a while; next I am sitting on our exercise ball which the chiropractor suggested I try – much better for my back; next I am in the bedroom as that is the brightest room in the house, everywhere else being quite gloomy. Actually the greatest “oddity” is that I am actually in something of a good mood. Anyway not inordinately gloomy as I have been for quite a while. Probably several reasons (list day): I took my 2^nd antidepressant last night. If I forget during the day, I usually don’t take it bc I don’t want it to interfere with sleep. Which means I often only take the one. And next reason – I have gone back to taking my multivitamin and am even taking an iron pill each day. For about 2 weeks I was so tired I could barely walk up the stairs at work. It felt reminiscent of when I was so sick and dehydrated and could not function. I remember being barely able to make it around the triangle up the road on a walk. So anyhoo, I am feeling somewhat human.

                As for the day: chiro at 9:45, then back here to await Comcast coming to fix the Tigger-chewed cable. Before that is the usual: psillium, stretches, bunnies, breakfast. Then I would like to get in some spinning and of course there are the barleys to grade. Lovely. And I am thinking of making quiche for supper. I need to get the rest of the meat from my neighbor’s freezer. And I really should just buy a little chest freezer. Of course maybe that will have to wait until the basement and garage get done. Speaking of which, I don’t think the worker will be able to finish the basement. He got a “real” job and is pretty busy. So I think I will call back the guy that I kind of blew off and hope for the best. I also have a lot of fair stuff to focus on. Things are somewhat falling apart, or at least that is how it feels. Mainly bc the person who originally volunteered bowed out of Drop In Spin so I have to step in and find volunteers and organize them etc. Blah.

                I should describe the Baby Bun Saga, even though it happened last week. Thurs I got home late after driving all over delivering brochures. I arrived at about 5 to find L here, and we went in, then I remembered I should check the 2 buns that were overdue for their babes. Ebony had a nice batch in her box, with plenty of pulled hair. In Ella’s cage, however, there was one very cold babe half-way through the wire on the side – halfway into the next cage. And another babe in the next cage, also cold. I got them and put them in my shirt with low expectations, then looked down and there were more on the ground. All in all 9 babes scattered about. She had not used the nest box and all had squirmed their way out of the cage and around on the ground. A couple were stirring a tiny bit so I had some hope for them. I gathered them all, and brought them in. We got the heating pad, then L and I put them in various places on our bodies, tucked here and there to try to warm then up. None were stiff at least. And bit by bit, all but one warmed and started wiggling! We kept them on the heating pad while I dealt with the other nest box, and put together a nest box for them. And then I brought them out, and held Ella on the nest so they could nurse. I had to do that for the next several days. Ebony was good right away, but it took Ella a while. She seems to have the hang of things now, though yesterday after they nursed, both dragged a still-attached baby out of the nest box as they left (not their fault, it just happens) so I have still been bringing the boxes in, even though it is quite warm out. And now I must bring them out for their morning feed. Success! At least so far.

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anemic

7 am

                I have done my stretches but nothing else. I don’t want to do anything else. Psillium bunnies fire. Those things need to be done. Psillium is yuck. Bunnies will be hard bc the waters are frozen (it is a chilly 20 degrees out) and fire will be hard bc I have no more kindling and the fire has been out for days so it will be starting from stone cold. So I need to gird myself by writing. It that especially girding?             I am feeling better this morning than I have for several days. I think I was anemic. Perhaps bc I stopped taking my multivitamin. That was bc I started reading that taking calcium is not good, and I had read that Twinkies book that talked about how all our vitamins come from manufacturers in China. Just seemed like I didn’t want to take it all anymore. But I think I had better go back to the multi. Maybe take just one Ca++ per day instead of 2. Anyway I’ve been really dragging around. Yesterday I felt like I could barely walk up the stairs. I managed to “run” both Fri and Mon but it was just walking and just for ½ hour. So yesterday I got a Phili steak sandwich (it took forever and was not that great to tell the truth, so I don’t suppose I’ll do that again, but I didn’t think I could walk all the way to the town shops). Then for supper I made myself liver. I had thawed some rabbit organs over a week ago. I was pretty sure they would have spoiled, but they were still nicely sealed in their bag and they were still fine. So I sautéd them with onions and added tomato and it was delicious. I honestly did feel better by evening.

                Now how will I spend today? I was trying to remember how I spent last Tuesday bc I don’t think I did much grading. And hadn’t I already turned Mom’s tax stuff in? Well I will have to look at what I wrote in my pages. I sorted all the orange stuff for spinning on Sunday. Well, I can’t remember. Speaking of the orange stuff, I did start spinning it. Very fine and very tight. Meaning it is going to take a long time to spin. Well, let’s hope it turns out nice. It is certainly muted and soft. It will be fine. I will do some of that today. The other biggies are to keep working on the FAFSA that I finally got back to on Sunday, and to do fair stuff that has certainly lagged lately. One thing I must do is try writing up a letter to Drop-In spin volunteers so I can show it to the committee chair tonight at spinning.

                Wow I don’t know exactly why lately I am so impatient. I am impatient with myself. It is since my surgery. One would think that maybe a trauma like that would make one more patient. But I am not. Or maybe, I have thought this before, it has to do with butt burn. It hurts so damn much. Thank god not for long, but having periodic intense pain like that does something also. I am feeling impatient now. Odd bc I also just want to sit a lot. So what is that about? I am trying to figure out a weekend that I can go to Temenos. The fellow working downstairs is coming this weekend to do the ceiling, so maybe next weekend would work. We shall see.

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Easter Weekend

8 am

                So happy happy Saturday. What will the day bring? Always a question. Well I have done my stretches, and fed the buns and had my delicious psillium so that is all ok. I have sorted and folded a bunch of old towels and rags. Now I am waiting for K to get up. We are going to go to Davenport Maple Farm for bfast. This I decided last night bc I need to get fair brochures to a committee member who works there and that seems like a reasonable way to do it. It’s a bit of a drive, and K does not want to do the driving as yesterday he drove to work, drove back up to participate in the Good Fri service at Grace, then back to work and then back home. When I got home at 6 he was asleep on the couch. I crawled straight into bed myself (I was BEAT) and when I got up (starving) at 7:30 he was still asleep. So there you go. Anyway I’ll do the driving. I do wish he would get up so we could get going. I suppose after I write I could go wake him up. 

                And what about the rest of the day? Well big thing: G’s FAFSA. And then there is grading to catch up on. I have the Fri lab ferns to finish. And the Angio II drawings. The latter should not take very long. The former at least I am partly through with. So it should not be too bad. Next week they turn in their barley assignment. And then there are 2 weeks of plant projects for which they turn in nothing, then there is drosophila and chicks and there are no assignments for either. Then they turn in the plant report and so that will be a bitch to grade. And  meanwhile, I am a bit swamped with the 145 prep, but for 2 weeks they will do their projects. After that are 2 more labs (?) at least one of which  - the chordates – I think will be a bitch. So really it is kind of up to the wire for all that.

                I finished carding all the lovely soft orange stuff, and Sunday I organized it into packets for spinning. Now I get to spin it. If I ever get started. That should be nice. I must spin it quite tight as some of the white stuff is rather short. I will spin it tight and thin. Maybe I can do a bit today. Then tomorrow we leave around 10:30 to meet the entire gang for Easter dinner. This started as me arranging to take Mom out for easter. Because no one else was available to do that. Wasn’t sure if Lucy would join us, but I made reservations for 4. Then sis 1 texts that she and N would like to join us. Fine. Added 2. Then I get an email from sis 2 that they want to come too (their kids are all busy w/ the “other” families). Fine. Add 2 more. Then sis 3 texted 2 days ago to say that she was feeling left out and wanted to come to. Oh brother. Now it is the entire primal family, plus Lucy lucky Lucy. I still have to call to add 2 more to the res. So that will take a good chunk of the day. Res is for 12:30. I guess we’ll finish around 1:30, then we will drive Mom home and I will balance her checkbook. So we will leave around 2:30, home by 4. That is the day. And then there will have to be supper of course. No doggy bags from a buffet. And then it all begins again. I sure hope there is absolutely nothing planned for next weekend. Let’s see, first person will be Monday, and spinning on Tues. But bookclub will not be until the next weekend. It sure would be really nice to actually have an entire weekend “off.”

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RIP T Boy

7:30 am

                Yesterday we had to put Tigger down. It is kind of a long story that I am not sure I want to go into, but I will summarize anyway.

                He had been going downhill all week. Getting more and more bent in his back and I was having more trouble getting him into his wheels and changing his diaper. Friday is when I came home to find all the computer cables chewed, then I went out for the evening. I gave him an extra pill, and he was really out of it in the morning. Would not eat his breakfast at first, though he finally did. Sunday was even worse. He did not eat at all. I let him outside and he lay in the dirt near the steps for the longest time. I finally brought him in, but he looked really out of it. And he had started doing this odd thing where he would sit and kind of arch his back with his head going gradually up and his eyes really vacant. Anyway, K got home around 1:30 and was checking him out, giving him some rubs, and he went to kind of lift him up and Tigger snapped and bit his hand. Well that kind of said it all. We left and spent the next several hours in the urgent care to get his hand looked at. They gave him antibiotic and told him to soak it. It has really swollen up, probably from the force of the injury, though of course K is worried about infection. Anyway, that made us realize that it was time, and we decided to take him to the vet in the morning. We called and they could do it at 10:30, so I actually drove to work to get a bit done then came back. Poor K was sitting here just giving the T lots of rubs, which he did seem to like right up to the end. We managed to lift him in a rug and in his old crate. Unfortunately we did have to wait quite a while for the Doctor to arrive which was hard. Just lots and lots of rubs. Anyway, now he is gone and it is certainly odd. One thing is clear and it is what makes me most sad- no one will ever again give me such never ending unconditional love as he did. It is an odd mix right now between wanting to remember the good parts, and then also knowing that things will be a lot easier. It was really really hard over the past year or so. Gradually harder so this past week was really bad. But we will miss him. His silly behaviors, his cuteness, his eagerness. It was actually odd to do my stretches this morning and not have him right there to lick my hand.

                Didn’t do much last night.  Well, I gave the buns hay and brought the babies in, and checked weather before that to see if it would be cold, and I hunted for Gs school awards records, and read them off to her, and I started a fire and brought in wood, so I guess I did not do nothing, just nothing that felt very accomplished. I went to bed early, and read a bit more of Confederacy of Dunces which I am enjoying though it is odd.

                And what about today? Well, on a few other notes: yesterday I also dropped Mom’s tax stuff off  with the accountant, and over the weekend I finally managed to write something up to send off to the woman about renting the farm. Those felt like big huge burdens off my back. And I finished all the sea urchin lab grading and returned those yesterday. So things feel a lot lighter, at least momentarily. I do have the fern assignments and the angiosperm II assignments to grade, and the proposals to look at, and tomorrow I will get 2 sets of pre-labs. And then there is a lovely meeting tonight in Cummington with the fairgrounds committee. Oh lovely. So it is not like everything is free and clear, time to Party, but I feel a bit less burdened with things hanging over my head. I think I might even set up to spin some of the orangey angora that I carded last week.                            

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