House Bunny Colony Update

     So it's been awhile since I set up the Bunny Room. Sapphire and Misty live together loose in my mud room, ruling their own world. I worried they wouldn't get along at first, but they have become extremely bonded. 
    

     There are some pitfalls to bunny colony living. Mainly, keeping them entertained. Because if not they will make their own entertainment.

     Sapphire loves to dig the litter out of the box, then pee on the floor. "I'm doing to right! The litter is all around me!" More litter boxes made the problem much worse, as she dug out more litter and Misty peed on the floor too. For the record, Misty is the good rabbit. Misty is just happy to be here, she requires no effort. Sapphire believes I should be showing her my full-time awe and servitude. Misty is very clean, Sapphire is not. Misty is always in the litter box. Sapphire is not. Misty is always polite and cute. Sapphire is... Sapphire.

     So at first the solution was to sweep the floor at least daily, twice preferably. But that eats up a lot of my life, and if I didn't get the floor swept that day, it was now peed on and required mopping as well. So instead, Sapphire needed an appropriate place to dig.

      This area is sectioned off with a 2x4 so that the hay does not go EVERYWHERE. Because the hay also started becoming a potty, I added the food bowl and give them their treats and treat sticks there. This discourages the clean freaks from making it a potty.

     So now Sapphire regards digging in the litter box about the same way we would look at swimming in the toilet. She is at heart not that kind of rabbit. She plays in her hay most the day. She is totally queen of the pile.



     She digs through there like there is some treasure she has yet to find. You can hear her in the middle of the night, *chit chit chit* digging and playing.

     In the summer I am already planning an outdoor play area. We have a local fox, so it will have a top and either a full wire floor or one the extends 1' inside, with the middle left open for digging. They would only be out when I was home and outside, but it would still give them a change of scenery, some grass, and a chance to be dirty.

     Providing lots of toys also helps with boredom. I think of rabbits who live in little cages, maybe have one toy that never changes. People call them dull, stupid, and boring. But no! I can give these guys all kinds of toys, hay, things to destroy, and they are constantly at work on them.

     Sapphire loves the little willow balls you can buy, branches woven together, usually with a walnut in the middle. The ones at Walmart sell for $4 and she will destroy it in about 20 minutes if she's in the mood, or it may last 3-4 days first. Recently I found some heavier duty ones at Petsmart, and that one has lasted 3 days now. If I don't pay attention to her when she requests an apricot, she will pick up her ball and beat my leg with it.

     Misty on the other hand never resorts to violence. She amps up the cute. She stands on her back legs, tilts her head, gives the nose a wiggle, lets the ears flop. She'll work you until you are about to explode from the sheer level of cute, and you must give her an apricot. She then hops off to eat it on her shelf.

    
     Here are some of the current toys. They always have chew sticks, but those are basically neglected unless Sapphire is using it to trick Misty out of her treat stick. When I used my last trash bag I set the box down on the steps near the door on top of some other cardboard. Sapphire deftly leaned out and snatched it away, then paraded through the room like she'd found the deal of the day. I let her keep it, currently it's in about 4 pieces. It is apperantly cooler then the usual toilet paper rolls I stuff with hay for them to destroy.

     They also love the stuffed treat logs, which are an edible log stuffed with rabbit treat stick. Sapphire generally hoards these. She'll work it until the treat is far enough inside she can pick it up, then carry it around and beat me with it like she does her willow balls.

     They both love treat sticks, but Sapphire it obsessive. Often she will scarf hers, then go steal Misty's. Misty got wise to this and would then sit on her treat stick, so Sapphire couldn't get it. Once this led to a little tift and Sapphire got sprayed with the water bottle. Now she will instead go find something else, one of the wooden carrots or willow balls usually, and dance around like it is the coolest thing ever. She'll run past Misty, grunting and shaking it. She'll dance and bounce like a maniac, then go 'bury' it somewhere, usually behind the litter box or in the hay. Misty then goes to investigate this apparently amazing toy and *boom* Sapphire has her treat stick.

     But then here lately it has changed. They now are always together, always side by side. Misty usually sits on her shelf and destroys some cardboard next to Sapphire and her obsessive hay-hunting. And when it comes time for treat sticks? They share. They both eat the same half, then hop over and eat the other half.

     Proof see, Sapphire has learned to SHARE!!!! It is the most miraculous thing of them all.

I Shoed My House

     I live in a 200 year old brick farmhouse. It is decrepit and unhappy for the most part, and has a moderate breeze on any given windy day (with the windows shut). This is giving me excessive opportunity to play Ms. Handyman.

     I am very pleased with my current project. The old wooden floor was quite bad, warped, mangled, and no longer sealing the hole between the outside and the inside. So Lowes being my hero I bought 1/4" plywood to cut and lay down over the old floor, spray foam to continue sealing holes, silicone caulking for the smaller ones, and a type of trim called 'shoe' to seal the whole shebang.

     Cutting the board was a royal pain, and required the procurement of three differant jigsaws. I cut all but the last piece with the help of my Head Fiber Cat, Daisy. My boyfriend came and helped with the last piece, and this is likely good because there is a very good chance the house would have been lit on fire before I finished cutting out all the little pieces of trim the stupid thing had to fit around.

     Here is Ms. Daisy helping with construction, mainly by shouting instructions and sitting on the heating vent.

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     So after it was all cut and down I had a brilliant carpenter I know come out with a nail gun and tack it all down.

  

     From there I began my shoeing. First I had to spray foam like mad, which is rediculously good fun and very messy. Then everything required caulking, which is very easy, fun, and not nearly so messy. The trim had to be cut to size and the ends cut at a 45 degree angle with a miter saw. This was actually remarkably easy and I had fun doing it, besides that there is no longer a breeze in that room! I'm now ready to start shoeing the whole house!

     Check out that corner. You'd think someone who actually knew what they were doing did that! But no, it was me! (and Daisy, but she really did more 'getting in the way of the saw' then she did helping)

     So there are my pictures of my now shod house. Next is painting the floor, I'm going to start on the trim today. Pictures of the finished product will come later. I was vetoed repeatedly on Electric Blue with Neon Green trim. So instead I had to go with something more subtle, but still very me.  

 

My Etsy Store

     So, shameless plug. I started an Etsy store to sell some of my drop spindles, fiber, and yarns. Etsy is a everything-handmade online store, sort of like Ebay but without the bidding and Chinese junk. So far I've been listing drop spindles mostly, and I've even sold one which was very exciting.

     The store is Blue Dog Fiber Arts, which means Zak takes the profits since his name is on the door. I have put a link box on the right hand side of the screen, shows some of the stuff I have and will take you directly there.

     If nothing else go to www.etsy.com and just look at some of the really cool artwork on there. People are making amazing things. I have found a little needle-felted turtle I feel I must have, and some handpainted rovings that I adore. There are awesome handmade dog tags too, quite cheap for what they are I think.

     I'm starting to dye some yarns and roving to put on there, and listing some of my handspun. I started making "art yarn" the other night to list, some lumpy, fuzzy, curly, funky yarn out of Lincoln Longwool locks. I hope to have a pretty good store built at some point. So now you know where you can get your next fiber fix and support Zak's toy and treat collection at the same time!

The Crooky Salamander

     One day about the middle of October, I was feeding the horses and when I bent down to pick up a feed bowl, lo and behold there was a salamander. In October! He looked dead, all crooked, skinny, and not moving. I picked him up and he twitched just a bit, so I immedietely cupped my hands aorund him and started blowing warm air on him. It was way way to cold to be a salamander outside, I'm amazed that alone didn't kill him.

     My boyfriend puts it as "instead of doing a normal thing like giving it a fling into the cornfield", I set up a little aquarium, heated some dirt with hot water, turned a light on it, and set the little fellow in a 'salamander heater'. By that time he had warmed in my hands enough to be up and around.

     He was starving, his tail was a string behind him. He's blind in one eye and crooked. His spine has a permanent bend. When he gets scared he runs in circles or flips over. It's sad. But I set him up in a 10 gallon aquarium with a heat light, and he eats like a pig now.

     He is really getting quite fat as you can tell.

     He's not huge yet, and he quite likes me now. We've been working on conditioning him to a clicker, which he understood in 5 crickets over the coarse of two day. Pretty damn smart for a little crooked salamander! Eventually I want to teach him a few tricks, just to be able to say I have.

     A bit blurry, but look at that smile! How could anyone resist that face! Next step I'm working on setting him up in a 40 gal. salamander paradise in my office. That will give him enough room to walk sideways and run circles to his hearts content. He's no longer scared of me, now he peeks his head out of the dirt and gives me the one-eyed, "Give me crickets" command. He's training me much faster then I'm training him. 



It's COLD!

     Ack, the first cold days of winter. Yuck yuck. 18 degrees out currently, colder last night. With the wind too, I'm not thrilled. The dogs are not even going out to feed with me, they are staying under the covers on the bed.

     Cody and Zecilly are bundled up in their coats. Honey and the alpaca's are even thinking the barn is good to get out of the wind. The ducks and chickens are staying in, huddled together in the straw.

     But then there is Sonny. Mister Died Hard Winter Lover. He's totally yak-ed out with winter hair, and loving this. He's out, face into the bitter nasty wind, breathing that fresh air. The other two horses are picking their way across the frozen miserably rough ground, and he's striding out, trotting even, "This isn't bad terrain, there isn't even 6 foot of snow you pansies!"

     In the 40-60 MPH winds we had the other day, he was out in it for most the day. Willingly. Despite my efforts to convince him otherwise. Cody was cuddled up in his stall, Honey in the barn, and Sonny was out all by himself napping in the "sun" with all the nastiness. He's certain the weather is just getting nice and fit for a Fjord.

     The good news is if I can handle this ugly bitter cold, I think I've got a excellent winter riding horse.

Honey

     I have been thinking of late, of the amazingness of horses. As a species I've never met one that failed to impress something upon me, but none yet so much as my mare Honey.

     A couple months ago I went riding for 3 days down in Southern Indiana at Harrison-Crawford forest. We rode some 17 miles the first day, and at about mile 18 on day two, my knees gave out. My knees don't like riding, but then they like very little in this life. My knees dictate that I ride English, and they really really hate any rides over 15 miles. So by mile 18 I was in pain. Intense, take-your-breath-away pain as something slowly ground the cartilage out of my joints.

     I stopped riding. I sat on my horse. She immediately stopped dead. I have spent lots of time teaching her to stop off my seat, and she now does it beautifully. She'll stop on a dime if I so much as sit crooked. This is partially because it's harder on her to carry my lard ass if I'm just sitting on her back, not 'riding' and moving along with her. So some of it's training, and a whole lot of it is that I have given her full permission to correct my bad riding by stopping (which in my view is a lot better then correcting it by bucking me off).

     So I sat and wiggled my legs a bit, asked for a soft trot to catch up with my friends again, then returned to walking in agonizing pain. A few minutes later I couldn't take any more, and sat down again. Honey executed a beautiful halt, watched the other horses walking away around the bend, then looked back at me with the calm patient look one may give a slow child.

     After a few minutes we again took up a slow trot to catch up, and resumed walking. We repeated this about three more times, each time my knees getting worse, Honey getting irritated with my silliness, and my friends wondering what on earth was wrong with us, assuming it was something bad Honey was doing. So the fifth time Honey stopped dead, I nudged her on. She turned back with her, "Are you sure?" face, and took about three steps before stopping. I nudged her again, she slowly walked about 30 ft. like she'd never been ridden before, and stopped again. By that time our friends were out of sight, and I simply could not trot again. I couldn't hardly move. I tried to 'ride' along with her, but I ended up grinding my teeth in misery and 'sitting' down.

     I asked for a walk. She took her head and slung it in a huge circle, from nose nearly brushing the ground to straight up to the sky. It's a gesture she used to give me on a daily basis, but it was the first I'd seen of it in probably a year. A full on "Up Yours" (to say it politely). I could get off and walk, or I could ride my horse, but by God she wasn't going to move again until I did one or the other. We weren't going to have any of this sitting, bracing nonsense like I couldn't ride. I damn well did know better, and I was to get with the program.

     This is, in my full opinion, an invaluable horse. This is a horse worth her weight in gold and diamonds. This is a horse I could have so easily destroyed by giving her a good kick and telling her she'd do as I say no matter how stupid it is.

     I laughed good and hard, and slid off. I loosened her girth a few notches, worked my knees a few minutes, and limped along toward my friends. She walked slowly with me, let me throw an arm over her neck and use her as a cane for a bit until the blood returned to my joints,  and took the opportunity given by my slow movement to grab a few mouthfuls of grass as we went along.

     We caught up with everyone, because they had stopped to look for us, and I walked for a good mile or so until I felt workable again and got back on. We rode about 2 miles more then got back to camp. I gave her extra cookies. I really couldn't have been prouder of her if we'd just won the Grand Prix. She is working on teaching me invaluable things you will not learn anywhere else for years of trying. And of course everyone I ride with just thinks I'm insane.

     We were riding through the park Sunday at a trot, and I was leg yielding her around trees, soft and light as air. I will shift my seat, and we pick up a trot, sit and ask, we are in a easy canter. Look and touch with my calf, we slide around a tree like a river around a stone. No more then sit down, and we can slide to a perfect halt. Before any of that, when I hook up the horse trailer, she meets me at the gate. She's ready, soft, and willing before she's even caught.

     This is the horse someone paid me $100 to get off their property. This is the horse who had been severely laminetic for 2 years, and who used to tell me off if I so much as looked at her. This is the horse who meets any resistance with a full on bull-headed stubbornness that would put any donkey to shame. This horse has caused me more irritation, headaches, and cursing fits then any other animal I've worked with, and yet now that I can sit and look back at it, she's also taught me as much as anyone ever has.

     I can work with her. She'll do about anything I ask, though maybe with some forethought. Also in Harrison-Crawford, my two friends horses spooked at a wooden bridge and had to go the long trail around. With the other two horses spooking, refusing, then turning and leaving her, I asked and she calmly walked across that bridge like she did it every day, then stood at the other side and waited for the other two horses. She's never been on a wooden bridge in her life, and anyone who trail rides with a group can tell you the misery of having one horse suddenly by themselves. But as long as I treat her right, she will do this kind of thing all day long. 

     It's the moment I decide we are going to have an argument, I may as well go home because I will lose, and from then on out it's practically war. She is teaching me an obscenely difficult level of patience and self control. Any temper tantrums, stubbornness, or anger out of me will be met head on by ten times the emotion and sheer body weight. Come hell or stubborn Haflinger, I will not get my way. But if I remain calm and soft, offer a logical reason as to why we are doing this, reward her efforts, and treat her as a partner, we have no limit on what we can do. She'll do anything, go anywhere, and jump the moon. She is really one of the most amazing horses, and anything she can't or won't do I must take immediate blame for. I am our only limiting factor. The more I am willing to learn, and behave myself, the more she is willing to work with me. And we are having a lot of fun.

    

      

    

    

Sonny's Feet

     I know, it's been ages since I've updated anything. Terrible blogger. I've been out riding too much, no computering.

     But I had to share from when I trimmed Sonny the other day. All of his flared hoof wall has grown out, he has cute feet, and a beautiful white line, that is so exciting to see.

     RF

     LF

     For some reason my computer is not letting me flip these at the moment, the program is being a brat, so you will just have to tilt your head for the time being.

     I was concerned about the frozen ground with him, since that bothered him so badly last year, but he has been out bucking and farting on it since it got ugly. He's the least bothered of my three! He thinks the colder the better, and if we could get a good blizzard he'd be in  hog heaven. His hair is so rediculously thick and heavy I joke I have 2 horses and yak! He puts the alpaca's to shame with his winter coat!

     And of course he is still totally in love with Honey. She has... we'll call it a tolerant appreciation for him.