If only i had more hands......

I wish I could have gotten a video of Lu "trying to steal Magnus's bottle" unfortunately I only have 2 hands. To hold the bottle in one and magnus in the other makes it very impossible to the camera as well! Every time Magnus noticed that Lu was close to the bottle actually washing the milk off of his chest he would slap at her.
Instead I have magnus learning to pounce.. he chickened out though...

he is such a charactor getting all sassy with his adopted mommy.

For the Love of Magnus

I really do wish i could share with you all the joy of raising this kitten. watching his eyes open for the first time. Seeing the first wobbly steps. the miracle of him climbing into the litter box himself and begin the scratch.I do not think i would be doing so good at raising him if it had not been for my Lusitania. Lu took over the mommy cat duties of washing and pottying him. She showed him the litter box, I was not sure what she was doing when she went in and sprayed everywhere but he soon followed and is now using the box.






Today is the second day that he has had baby meat to eat. I takes him a minute but he does eat when he gets a bit in his mouth he starts to suck it all up.
This has been a miracle for me.

I saw this really kewl you tube on James Rollins blog so i borrowed the link. watch it through it says a lot.

So far the eucalyptus sap dye has been a disappointment i have the wool soaking in the bath one last time i have heated it again in hopes that it will help but i am not holding my breath. i did notice that as it was hanging on the line it began to change color intensity in spots. so hopefully this bath will help it gain depth of color even if it is brown.
The alpaca that had been in the kino bath is now in the exhaust of the apple wood as a curiosity experiment. the two hanks were the same color so i will see what happens when they are rinsed and dried.
Magnus is turning into a sassy little fellow, he wants his food now! not when it is cool enough to safely drink. i have been offering him baby meats but Lu is eating it for him. i do put at least one scoop in his mouth first before she can snag the whole plate. She enjoys licking the milk off of him. My lovely Lusitania is such a wonderful mama to Magnus.

update on kino experiment

It made such a beautiful color in liquid. such a disappointment on fiber.
the top picture is with ammonia

the foamy one is plain water. I will have to try the experiment again using alcohol.

the plain water was the most disappointing.
i added fiber to both and let soak, finally i added vinegar to the mix and got a bit of stain on the yarn. when i took it out of the bath and squeezed the liquid out it lost its colour when i gave a slight rinse all but the slightest trace left the yarn

finally starting the Kino experiment

I have enough Kino *eucalyptus sap* to divide it in half to test in two different ways.
1. sap in plain rain water
2. sap in rainwater with ammonia.
both colored beautifully but i did not get pictures before it got to dark i will get them tomorrow.

In plain water in five minutes i had a dark rusty red liquid
In ammonia water it went blood dark red.
I have alpaca soaking in plain water. I am thinking of soaking some wool as well.
the next question is what if any mordant.

I also have some bark soaking for dye, the liquid is almost black it is so dark. the previous experiment with bark was a light tan. The leaves gave me a rust to rival Robber.

Almost tempted to soak my hair in it to see what happens.

VACATION

Magnus is doing good.


Who would have thought that when I requested time off I would have a baby to share it with.


Lusitania went with us to the beach and got her toes sandy. She had to be re-fit to a new harness as hers no longer fit. She is now 16.5lbs and is wearing a small dog harness. The neck is at the smallest setting the girth is at almost the mid point. She had the boy in the carrier with her and was with him the majority of the time. She did come out for pictures though so I am hoping the camera worked. I think the film broke since it seemed to advance and the tension was tight and when I checked the rewind when I started questioning how many picture were on the roll it popped in real fast after the initial stiff grab. It must have been jammed which totally sucks! Lu is so beautiful and what I saw in the view finder was killer.

She is starting to surrogate some of the care of Magnus, Just this morning when I could not find him I saw her washing her paws... she had an extra paw!

Isadora had a special surprise for me this morning. She has caught her first gopher and was very proud of herself. She did not share but I praised her anyway.

I want to go to Muir Woods soon, maybe tomorrow.

a little update on Magnus.
Today he is 2 weeks old! he had a very tiring day today as he goes to work with me and since his eyes are now open he is more alert

His Belly is still a problem but the meds are taking affect. He is getting Lactuloce 3x a day. I was so excited when he finally had an easy poop.

end of day can we go home now i am tired

applewood dye part 1

Some time back while I was walking I found that someone had dumped quite a bit of rotted applewood.
At first I thought treats for bunnies then disguarded the idea as it was more rotted than I though. The next idea was potential dye.

silly me i should have taken a picture of the wood as well as the first soaking. which was a pale almost vomit colour.
this is what i got from heating it with ammonia





A close up. such a delicate color i do like it but i want to see if it will get darker.

This is the first attempt at dyeing on alpaca.prewashed in Ivory dish soap and then soaked in warm water and a touch of CoT.

Update on Magnus

Magnus is back home from the vet.
it was all a very scary situation and i was lucky there was a cancellation so he could be seen. Dr. D. did a quick exam attempted stimulation and took him back for an enema. I was told i would be called later with an update. 4 hours later I called them, and was told that Dr. D. was just now finishing with his last patient and would be calling asap.
He is a very popular doctor so has many patients to see.
I do not envy him his hours 8am to 6pm then an hour more for office and calls.

He went through with me all that was done. It was 4 enemas, an X-ray, a slight wormer just in case he did pick something up from mom. A tiny bit of med to help pass stuff, lubrication and all. I was not painted a Rosy picture. I was warned that Magnus might be going into kitten fail.

Which is why I really like this vet. He gives an honest answer nothing sugar coated. He also cares, many times he has not charged for things that he has done. This appointment could have been so much more expensive with another vet who would insist on test after test.
I was told that the stool that was passed went from hard to somewhat mushy on the last enema so hopefully things were knocked loose. the bad news is that there is a lot of gas in his intestines which means that things are not moving as they should. So prayers are needed for this little baby who is only 10days old.

Hello, I have been quiet lately. i have been depressed after losing Isolde and then Frankie. But here is an update on the kitty front.
9 days ago a customer came in to the store he had found his terriers licking something and went to investigate. What he found was a kitten, he brought it to t he store with every intention of dropping it off.
I did not have much faith on the creature surviving but with my options being accept the kitten or have it stuffed in a night box to a shelter where the odds of surviving the night were slim to none. I took the kitten. At first with it being so tiny i thought it a female now that it has grown i see that the odds favour more the masculine persuasion of things.

I am calling him Magnus now. He has survived 9 days which is much longer than i had given him. the problem now is that he is constipated. I have only been able to get little golden raisins from him not serious turds. He has just been soaked for the second time with serious stimulation until my hand cramped and nothing. i have added Karo syrup/corn to his bottle as I was told. I have used Vaseline and mineral oil Etc.
If I do not get a turd from him soon he will be going to the vet tomorrow