Liquifying Pinniped

I've switched Pinniped's daily fluids from subcutaneous to oral.  I had a hard time getting the full 30ml into her the first few days.  It took more sittings than I had time for so she got needled every couple of days.  But Pinni has caught on.  She's either developed a taste for lactated ringer's solution, or she's figured out that if she drinks what I give her, she doesn't get poked.  We have a new routine in place of the quick (but stressful) two-person evening shot.  I draw the fluids in the morning, squirt it into a clean baby food jar and feed it to her throughout the day using the 3ml syringe.  Pinni goes through 10-12ml at a sitting; if I'm lucky I can finish off the fluids in two sittings.  When it's time for evening meds and fluids I announce:  I'm off to liquify the pig.


Pinni's pretty funny.  She pulls the syringe like I'm not giving it to her fast enough.  But I don't want to plunge the syringe too fast - I'd hate to choke her.  I can tell Pinni's had enough when she either starts dribbling fluids or when she grabs for the syringe from the side instead of straight on.  I wish all feedings and medicating were this easy.  Down the hatch!

Good girl, Pinni.  Oral fluids may interrupt my daily schedule than administering a subcue, but it makes everyone much happier.  If she keeps this up, I may have to return my collection of butterfly needles.  Oh, joy!

Who Let the Pigs Out

Wheek, wheek, wheek-wheek!

This summer has been pretty good for spending time outside in the yard.  Pinniped and Cannoli had several afternoons in their pen while the weather was dry and sunny.  But we had rain and thunderstorms last week, so they had to stay in.  Friday cleared up and was a perfect day for an outing: sunshine, not too hot, and dry.  There was much happiness!

The grass had grown quite a bit from the rain.  Pinni wasn't sure what to eat first - the wide-bladed grass or the clumps of clover.  She kept chewing as she moved from one spot to the other.  Cannoli preferred whatever she could find under the house.  She's so hard to photograph!  That chicken runs and hides whenever I come near (Pinni, as you can see, could care less).

Ipswich River Sanctuary

It's been several years since our last visit to the Ipswich River Sanctuary.  I was excited to feed the birds.  We usually make the trek in the fall or winter.  Monday was our first summer visit.  What a difference!  The ponds were lush and green with lilies and dragonflies.  The Rockery was so quiet and still, it seemed as if no one else was at the sanctuary. 

The birds were pretty quiet, too.  We walked around the pond and listened to the croaking frogs, but any peeping trees seemed far away.  We came across a couple of shy titmice who watched me, but wouldn't risk taking seed from my hand.  A lone chickadee took the seed I offered.  This was not the flock of curious birds I've met in the past! 

Pieced Pillow Tops

I have too much going on.  It's taking forever to finish even a small project, because I keep getting interrupted to work on something else.  There's just not enough hours in the day!

I've finished two 16" tops for the pillow. The diagonal strings piece is so bright and cheery.  If I made another one, I'd change the colors of the center square.  But other than that, I'm happy with the results.  It will be my little piece of String Theory when that quilt goes to it's new home later this month. 

I think the spiderweb panel is really pretty.  It's my favorite of the two.  I've never pressed open seams on a quilt before.  Quarter inch seams are a pain to press open!  But the results are terrific - the middle of the webs were much easier to line up and stitch through.  I wish I had done this with Northern Lights.  Lesson learned!

Annual Blueberry Pilgrimage

Sunday was my annual pilgrimage to Newbury to pick blueberries from my parent's HUGE blueberry bush.  One of these years I will remember to take photos of the bush itself; no one ever believes how big it is, nor how many blueberries are on it.  My mother and I picked over only half the bush and I brought home 10-14 cups of blueberries.  I considered picking more when it started to pour rain.  I had brought rain gear, just in case.  But I decided I had enough berries.  Silly me - one can never have too many Newbury blueberries!

I didn't have time to wash, dry and freeze them until Tuesday.  My stash dwindled in those two days.  This year's crop is the sweetest I remember.  Normally I freeze all the berries I bring home, but this time I'm leaving 3-4 cups in the fridge for snacking.  The frozen ones will end up in muffins and my blueberry cake.  Yum!

Namast-hay! Shirt Giveaway

Click on photo to enlarge

This shirt was supposed to be my birthday present.  I was so excited... until it arrived and I tried it on.  It's a fitted T and I double checked the sizing guide before ordering it.  I don't think fitted is supposed to mean can't breathe. 

I contacted the site about returning it the shirt.  They kindly refunded the money without requiring a return.  So now I have this really cute shirt I can't wear.  What can I do with that?  Well, I'm sure some small yogini in the guinea pig community would love  it.

So I am giving this Namast-hay! light weight, fitted woman's T-shirt designed by When Guinea Pigs Fly.  It's marked as a large, which is silly.  The website said it was for a 36-38" bust, but my guess is it would better suit a 34" (or roughly a size 8), or a 36"/size 10 you prefer a snug shirt. 

More Strings

When I first learned to quilt, I made a few throw pillows.  A decade later, they're faded, worn, dingy.  I've been meaning to make new ones for a while, and they finally made it to the top of my to-do list.  Yay!

I have bookmarked so many neat block patterns I've wanted to try.  Now's my chance to try a few of them out.  The first pillow will consist of two string patterns: double diagonal and spiderweb.  These two will probably exhaust what's left of my scrappy strings.  I have been loving these project, but I need to do some non-scrappy projects!

Tea Dye

They started out the same color

I don't tend to buy a lot of light-colored clothing because... well... I'm a slob.  And sure enough, within two weeks of purchasing a pair of beige capris, I managed to stain it with rust from the ice cream maker.  Right smack-dab on the front of the leg.  Cripes.

I decided to dye the capris a few shades darker with tea, to see if it would hide the stain.  Goodness knows I'm aware that tea stains, but I was amazed at how few tea bags can change color on a whole piece of clothing.  The shorts and the capris were originally the same color.