Noses and Nails

Since the day I met her, Pinniped's nose is non-stop.  It's always waving about, out of curiosity, anticipating something good to eat or with her excited victory wave.  Her latest thing is bumping her nose up against my chin or face.  This started some time in the winter.  I picked her up a lot after Bertie died and would snuggle her and cover her with kisses, which was more affection than Pinni was accustomed.  She'd toss her head at me from time to time (known here as "nose-fwips"), but what developed was more of a steadily pushing back.  Pinni now tends to lean into my chin or my chest when I pick her up and snorgle her.

So now, whenever I hold her close to my chest, she'll try to touch her nose to my chin.  Rob managed to catch some of this when I clipped her nails over the weekend.

If black nails aren't hard enough to see and cut properly, Pinni makes it even more difficult by getting her nose in the way!  Other than that, she is such a very good pig for nail clipping.  There's not much wriggling or drama.

And talking about lack of drama:  Cannoli is the best youngster ever for clipping nails.  Some wriggling, but she doesn't pull away like most first-timers.  She never cried or flinched, even when I accidentally cut the quick on two of her black toes.  Little pig!  You're supposed to tell me when I hurt you!  But things were all better with a bit of corn husk and back with her pal Pinni.

Disaster Area

Poor Pinniped and Cannoli haven't gotten much attention in the last week or so.  We've been spending much of our time packing.  Right now, the place is a madhouse.  The pigs are all but lost - can you even see their cage in the photos?  But Cannoli makes sure we find them for breakfast and treats.  Wheek! Wheek!

This entire household will be relieved when we're moved and settled into the new place.

Rosy Radishes

The Moose Hill CSA had its first distribution this week, and I picked up my tatsoi, arugula and radishes.  Yay!  I'm always excited when the farm starts up each year and the fresh veggies come in.  The guinea pigs aren't excited, but they will be once they start receiving the stems and leafy ends of whatever I don't eat.

Aren't those radishes a pretty color?  Huzzah for spring!

On the Move

I've progressed with the quilting.  It took some time to recall how to maneuver the darned thing through the sewing machine.  I had a bad start and set it aside for a few weeks, as I reconsidered my approach.  I decided to start quilting simple squares in black.  It gave me chance to recall how best to feed the quilt through the sewing machine without making too many visible mistakes.

The quilting has been moving right along now.  I finished over half of this stage of the quilting within two weeks.  I am hoping this will make the quilting the stars easier, because I can focus on where I'm stitching and not worry about the pins all over the rest of the quilt.  I also decided to not stitch-in-the-ditch the stars, but stitch the contrasting color on the front as well as the back.  I know, it's hard to envision.  I will be sure to post photos as soon as I sew a few.

A back yard full of flowers

Speaking of moving - no sooner than I get settled in a home office than my home moves.  The landlord plans to sell this place as our lease ends.  Bummer.  I shall miss the back yard, with it's wild, unkempt beauty.  I will miss having my office perched amongst the trees.  I am crossing my fingers that the new place will have untreated grass so I can allow Pinni and Cannoli to graze outside.

I'm also losing my quilting momentum as I focus on the move.  I'll try to stitch the last of the squares before I pack up for the new place, so I can start fresh with the stars. 

Nothing but Net

What's with the flashy thing?  We want pepper!

Cannoli is a growing little girl.  She's gained nearly two ounces in two weeks!  We're still working on the skittishness.  Perhaps being called a wuss in public motivated her to be braver?  Whatever the reason, there have been two noses at the grids in the morning awaiting bell pepper.  Noli still runs away when I come up to the cage, but she does an about-face and rushes back as soon as I tap the bars. 

Cannoli was all excited this week when I cleaned the cage.  Her popcorning always makes me laugh, especially her favorite move to get into the hammock.  I grabbed the camera when I saw her do this a couple of times and managed to catch the action.

Slopping Soup

I found this recipe for Vegetable Thai Curry Noodle Soup on Steamy Kitchen earlier this month.  I had a number of the ingredients on hand.  It looked interesting as a dairy-free, gluten-free, vegetarian meal.  I made it over the weekend.

It was simple to make, and the flavor was good, but I think we both liked the Black Bean Chicken Soup or my Lentil Kielbasa Soup better.  The soup was missing something.  The curry gave it some zing - perhaps all it needed was some more salt.  Did you watch the Steamy Kitchen video?  Maybe if I had the same quality ingredients it would have come out better.  That coconut milk looked nothing like mine.

So this didn't make the cut for my "keeper" recipes, but I may keep it in mind when I have extra coconut milk and baby corn that need to be cooked up.

What a Wuss!

Noli's favorite spot

I had hoped that Cannoli would quickly adjust to a new home, since she has the laid-back Pinniped as a mentor.  She seemed such an outgoing spark when we adopted her.  Turns out her spunky attitude is solely for other guinea pigs.  When it comes to the humans, she's still overwhelmed.

Cannoli is a great little wheeker.  She has no problem drawing our attention when we come home in the evening or rattle a plastic bag.  But as soon as we arrive with food in hand, she hides under the hammock in the back of the cage.  Veggies are nice, but not worth exposing oneself to get them.  After nearly two months of working with her, I can entice her to stretch her nose out from under the hammock, but generally the rest of her remains safely in the shadows.  To add insult to injury, Cannoli is a slow eater.  It means that Pinni polishes off her own share then goes and helps herself to the rest of Cannoli's piece.

Yesterday Noli was the bravest yet:  she came all the way over to see what Pinni was noisily munching, but decided that stealing the corn husk from Pinni was less risky than grabbing the piece from me that I had pushed through the grids.  As Pinni happily munched more husk, Cannoli stayed at a safe distance and ate pellets instead (and I caught her pulling the bowl).