She fought the bowl and the bowl won

I have a few rabbits that dig in their food bowls, eat their food bowls, dump their food bowls, or do a combination of the three. I have tried different bowl, feeders, and crocks at different heights and positions and nothing has made this better. I didn't realize how bad it had gotten until I sheared in Nov. and saw that a few of the worst for it were looking a little skinny. So with renewed determination I started looking for a way to stop this, because not only is it costing me money in wasted feed but it is starting to hurt my bunny babies.

I tried to do some research on the internet for a solution but no one seemed to have one. The only helpful tidbit I could find was to get something that was less wide and taller than the feeders and crocks that I had. So yesterday I was in Petsmart, picking out some new toys and a concrete perch for my little lovebirds and in the ferret section there was this neat little crock that attached to the side of the cage. It holds 10 oz. of feed and is skinnier and taller by far than any of my feeders. So I bought two of them just to give it a try with my two most difficult rabbits. Mr. Blue (a french), who has eaten his plastic food bowls that attach to the side of the cage so that he can better dig the feed out and waste his feed and Wonderbunny (a german hybrid) who eats a few bites and then tears her metal j-feeder off of the cage and attacks it every single night no matter how I try to attach it. I brought the feeders home and attached them to the cages, filled them with food, and left them overnight. This morning I went out to check because I figured if these bowls could make it through one night with those two they should last forever with the rest of them and I am happy to report that I have two angry bunnies and two intact feed bowls! No feed spilled either! The way that they are shaped they can't get their feet in there to dig and they attach well enough that they can't pull them off.

I am thrilled. Wonderbunny was so angry that she demolished her cardboard box (I put smallish boxes in for them to eat/play/snuggle in) So ha! I will not be outsmarted by cute fuzzy critters of any sort!

On another note, people suck.

While at petsmart I brought this home

Why, you might ask? Surely not because I needed or wanted another cat! No, it's because some low life peice of crap dumped her out in the dirt lot next to petsmart and it was freezing and she was scared and I am a sucker. This is her in the pocket of the robe that I wear to take care of the bunnies when I am too lazy to put on real clothes and it's cold. She stayed in there the whole time I was out with them and does not like to be away from us. She's a tiny little thing, not old enough to be weaned but she's eating well and I think that she will be okay. What kind of person does this crap?!? I am so angry, what makes someone think that it is okay to drop a pet (that was probably born due to their lack of responsibility in the first place) out in the cold, feet from a busy road to fend for itself. This time of year we always end up with a few extras, I do my best to get them to the vet and get them fixed and find them homes, though there's been quite few cats that have stayed permanantly because we couldn't find them a good place.

Please everyone fix your pets. EVERY pet should be fixed if you aren't a breeder. No excuses. By not fixing your pets you are creating generations of possible unwanted or mistreated animals. Barc is possibly the best pet related program on the face of the earth. Barc helps people who can't afford it to get thier pets fixed. No residency restrictions, no hoops to jump through, just the help that you need. The impact that they are making in reducing the number of stray and unwanted pets is amazing. If you are thinking of making a donation during the holidays please consider Barc

We're reading!!

Today was an amazing breakthrough, my daughter, who recently turned six is learning to read. We're homeschooling of course and technically she would have been in kindergarten this year. We've been working on writing and letter sounds and such for a while now and being a beginning homeschooler I have had my worries about how we were doing in general (made worse my certain members of the husbands family's lack of support) and I haven't been pushing too hard because I figured it would all click when she was ready. I've found that when we start to have a hard time with something it's helpful to switch to another method and with her reluctance to try to sound out words in books (she seemed really intimidated by the thought) I decided to let her work through it on the computer. We started playing the games on starfall and today she started doing the little reading "books" on there and she totally got it! So after computer time was over she still wanted to practice so I got out one of the I can read books (level 1) that I had gotten a few months ago and she just started sounding out the words and putting the sentances together and it was magic! We've done it, we've learned to read, all on our own with no excessive amounts of homework or "boyfriends" or early morning hour long bus rides! I am thrilled and so is she, I just can't wait to show the husband when he gets home from work!
AND that's not the only breakthrough that we've had today! My son phinneas (who will be two Jan. 23rd) went on the potty! We've been trying for a few weeks and he wanted nothing to do with it, absolutly refusing to even go near the potty and I was getting really fustrated so we decided to switch back to cloth diapers since I got a bunch of nice pocket diapers at cotton babies a while back and they are still to big for little Cassius and I just got some really wonderful diaper inserts from Purple ducks on etsy. So anyway I put him in the cloth diapers and then he decided to take it off and I asked him if he needed to go potty and first he shook his head no but then he nodded so we ran in there and I put him on it and he went!
What a day, I will admit, sometimes having four kids this young and the business and everything else going on it's hard. The bad days are really bad, but then there are the really good days like this when everything is working and I'm getting the house clean and fleeces washed and kids taught and it all comes together and it's like, wow, what a sense of accomplishment!
Now here's hoping that tomorrow goes smoothly, we will be making pies and anything else that we can make ahead for thanksgiving since the husband will be at work all day and I will be cooking and handling the kids all day by myself. I can't remember a thanksgiving that I didn't have some sort of meltdown and that's even with the husband helping But I love being able to have his mom and whoever else shows up over and serving this giant meal that I made from scratch and all that.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Bah Humbug

I am sick again! my sinuses have decided to rebel and I'm in a rather foul mood at the moment. Today I am washing wool, just finishing up a nice charcoal grey/brown shetland fleece and then I am going to start on a super nice looking but horribly rammy smelling white fleece.

I am also working on a little basket to store some of my excess stuff in. Not sure what will go in it yet but I've finished the bottom and now I am starting up the sides. I am making it out of scraps of the things the kids outgrew this year!

And I am starting to prepare for the upcoming years fiber fests! I am braiding roving and dying fibers and figuring out what I will run short on so I can be sure to get more. The best part about being sick is that the husband handles the kids and mostly no one bothers me so I can actually get stuff done as long as it doesn't involve alot of moving around.

Here's some dyed angora as it rinses (it's drying right now).

After the dust settles

Sept/oct was such a traumatic time for me and my family. Being in the hospital, separated from my kids, not able to go home and then having our little man early. Then the almost full month of driving an hour and 45 min. to the hospital and back everyday to see him and the struggle to get him off of oxygen and ready to come home really took it out of me.
Now, after almost a month of having him home we are finally starting to settle down, I don't think I will ever recover from the stress and trauma of that time, but I think that I am finally starting to move past it.
I still kind of can't believe we all made it through in one piece and though I have always been pretty laid back when it comes to the kids I will admit I am still pretty anxious about Cassius. He spend alot of time in the sling or in my arms. Even now he's chilling out on the boppy in my lap as I type.
I've been taking my anxiety on the dyepot and creating some really beautiful stuff because of it and I think this whole experience had helped me grow. Being able to pour all this emotion into my yarns and fiber has been an immense help and I am starting to to plan for next years fibers fairs and other fun events.
After coming through all of this I feel like I can handle anything and it is pure joy to be at home with the family. I think that I appreciate it all so much more now.

And the Winner is.....

Congratulations to 4dogsmom who won my big birthday fiber gift pack!! I had a ton of fun putting this together and I am sure that she will love it!
On another note cashmere and soysilk have arrived and will be in the shop very soon but if you just can't wait to get your hands on some let me know and I will get you hooked up early.

Today is my Birthday!!

Today is my birthday! I am having a sale in the shop http://www.punkjordane.etsy.com/ 15% off of any $25 purchase and 15% and free shipping off of any $50 purchase, plus every purchase enters you into a drawing for the giant 8 oz. fiber goodie box! This box is 8 oz. of art batts, hand dyed rovings, and other fiber goodies.

There's a bunch of really awesome stuff in the shop right now and if you're looking for angora I am in the middle of shearing so I have tons, if you don't see what you are looking for just email me and I can let you know exactly what I have fluffingtonfarms@yahoo.com

Just soaking up the baby goodness

Well my little man is home and I am loving it. I'm still a little anxious and he spends the majority of his time in his sling because I can't bear to be away from him but we are all doing well. The kids adjusted to having him much better than I thought and so far there hasn't been any major jealousy or other badness. I am starting to get going dying and carding and spinning again, and I've got a ton of things to post about as I have time so there will probably be more than one in a day sometimes. Anyway, here is a picture of my guy. We named him Cassius.