Saw this and thought of all you knitters and chicken people. LOL
http://blog.craftzine.com/
Sheepses, More Divine Sox, Yarnage, and Being Tutorialized
Loreen - did you see over in the DG forum for needlework, there is a dog sweater thread!
Wren - adorable!! I love the chicken and egg. They are so cute! Thanks for that link!!
Here's another knit item for the chicken people, especially if you live in colder climates or have chickens like that nearly naked rooster (don't recall who has it).
http://redshirtknitting.com/?p=269
Claire, I will have to check out that forum too.
I love Martha and her shawl. Perhaps older chickens would be more fashion-conscious and appreciate their knit wear.
My toes are still patiently waiting... LOLOL
I am leaving for Brazil, Sunday. (Poor creatures will be depending on DH).
When I return, the fruits of sulking will be dispensed. This may help address your toe issues, MissJestr.
Why would one leave for Brazil, O Catsy? Curious minds want to know. And I guess it's spring there so the weather will be very similar?
One would leave for Brazil so that one might stand in a hot, sweltering tomato field and admire the tomatoes and their many diseases, both bacterial and viral. And then one might hurry home to report what one has observed to one's boss, before boarding a plane to rush to Ohio and repeat the experience.
In Brazil, one does get to observe the noble capybaras in their native environment, however.
Noble capybaras to be sure! Would said capybaras be assisting you in your Lycopersiconian pursuits or would they be hindering said endeavors - or, thirdly, might they be totally irrelevant except insofar as they provide much-needed distraction?
I just got this email; I think they are much cuter than your capybaras! It warns against squishing baby hedgehogs on the road....
Objet : OUVRIR LES YEUX
Coucou à tous les automobilistes !
Je suis juste là pour vous rappeler de faire bien attention sur la route
car c'est la période des bébés hérisson !
Ce serait dommage de m’écraser! Non ???
Oh! My, my, my! Oh....I am smitten, g_g!
I would always watch the road during the baby migration period.....maybe I would stop driving altogether for the duration.
We had a hedgehog in our garden when I lived in England...but it was in no way that cute. In fact they were always warning us that they carried tons of fleas or ticks or something and they had this thing where they would work up a good lather of saliva and spread it all over their prickly little bodies...maybe it helped with the fleas....
Still, I want one. And not the ersatz African ones that the pet stores sell. I want a proper British one...my yard is full of windfall fruit (did I mention that I have a lot of fruit trees, Moxie?) and it could help with the clean up.
I wonder how they do with chickens....?
The capybaras are mostly for ornamentation...they are protected, but apparently they taste like pork. They spend the day in the water and then come out on the land to eat vegetation at night. Like hairy, dwarf hippopotami. So far they have shown no interest in the tomatoes, which have just been removed from the Lycopersicoides and moved into the Solanum (Solanum lycopersicum)...to everyone but the taxonomists' consternation.
This message was edited Sep 5, 2009 12:28 PM
AWWWEE I Have to have one.. befor moxen gets her hands on it!
I want one too!!!!!!!!!
They are terminally cute. I wanted one that I saw in a pet store, but I think it was an improper African one, not a proper European Union one. I had no idea they came in different sizes but I don't think the Euro-hedgies were on offer.
Solanum, huh? That's like bird nomenclature; the green heron has changed names several times since I starting paying attention. I knew that tomatoes were solanaceous but not that they'd gone into the witness protection program....
I know that in Mexico, or is it South America?, they eat guinea pigs which I imagine are a smaller version of your capybaras.
I know they eat guinea pigs in Peru....roasted on a stick...just can't go there....
BUT there is a nice business opportunity because guinea pigs are now being shipped in frozen to answer the needs of the US South American immigrant population....there was a segment on it on NPR.
Every time I pass the stockyard I swear I am going to become a vegetarian....but meat is just so convenient....and tasty.
Hard to eat something you've viewed as a pet! We never had a problem with our farm animals because we didn't name the ones slated for the table. And yeah, I'm sorry, but I really like the taste of lamb and goose and deer....
Missed that NPR segment; maybe I'm glad!
I want a baby hedgehog!!! That is super adorable.
If Moxon gets one can you imagine what she could do with THAT fiber?
She could make chain mail! Nice BIG purls....
Ahhh, I'm behind again....all these posts!!!
Regarding capybaras, first and foremost, I adored them as a child when I used to go to the Metro Toronto Zoo. They were one of my favorite animals. I don't know why but I was always drawn to smaller animals. Another of my favourites was the wombat. He was in the special dark exhibits with other nocturnals. I liked all of those critters. So Catscan, I am very envious of the capybara experience you are going to have (not to mention your fruit trees which cause me paroxysms of fruitilicious envy)
Regarding hedgehogs, my first teddy bear was not a bear, it was a hedgehog. My grandfather sent it to me before I was born and it was Mrs. Tiggy Winkle from the storybook. I still have her. Anyway, that started a lifelong collection of hedgehogs and I have them in many forms. When I would visit England as a child, my grandfather and I would put out food for them and then watch them come and eat at dusk. It was quite magical.
I had one of the African pet hedgehogs for a while but it was quite disagreeable and once clamped its small but effective teeth into my finger and then did the roll-into-a-ball thing around the same finger while remaining clamped. The pain was quite unmatched. I sold it after that.
Oh, regarding the saliva business, they do that when they encounter an unfamiliar smell or taste. It's called self-anointing. Unfortunately, it is not at all well understood. I have many books on hedgehogs and they all seem to agree on this matter. It has been theorized that it may help repel predators, or attract other hedgehogs. Go figure.
Claire, I had never heard that hedghogs could be attack-tiggies. Websites about them all tend to extol their prickly virtues, of course. I'm glad I resisted temptation. That does not sound like fun at all! On the other hand, watching them come out and eat at dusk in England must have been a wonderful experience!
I think mine was a bit unusual, perhaps having been poorly socialized. I have heard of others that are very sweet and pleasantly tempered. I didn't wish to cast a pall on the reputation of the poor little misunderstood creature...
Moxie, you are just TOO kind! I am impressed!
How do you poorly socialize a hedgehog, though. Curious minds want to know. Perhaps by teasing it with needles?
Nah, I'll bet she was trying to harvest its fiber!
Oh now now Porkpal, this was back when I was a city girl, in my early 20s, and I knew nothing at all about fiber...
I think you poorly socialize a hedgehog by breeding too many of them and then not handling them when they are itty bitty sized, so that by the time they are grown, they are just completely petrified of humans. Sadly, I suspect my little spiny critter came from a "hedgehog mill" operation. :-(
Churn them out for the money without regard for their character or wellbeing. Ugh.
Yes, that is always what happens to any pet animal that has the misfortune to become too popular. Many dog breeds have thus been ruined.
I never dreamed there were hedgie-mills! The websites that I looked at when I was thinking of getting one all stressed being very careful about who they'd sell the critters to. How sad!
But that's why I was glad that the Obamas chose a Portuguese Water Dog instead of a Labradoodle. Having a perfectly lovely AND beautifully-tempered doodle my ownself, I didn't enjoy the prospect of seeing the "breed" spoiled. Here's Chouette, for your edification:
Ha ha! Chouette! Elle est chouette bien sur! Un petit peu comme un mouton noir, n'est-ce pas?
(and for those of you who aren't French speakers, chouette means cute or great in French, and I said that she was indeed "chouette" and she looked a little bit like a black sheep!)
Bien sûr qu'elle est chouette, et c'est pourquoi je l'ai nommée ça! Et ce photo était fait juste quand elle venait d'être coiffée! Mais je l'adore.
J'ai voulu l'appelée Bisous, mais quelqu'une qui je connais l'a déja choisie.
(Absolutely she is cute, and that's why I called her that. And this photo was taken just when she had been groomed. But I adore her.
I wanted to call her Bisous (Kisses - a common signing off in French) but someone I know had already chosen that.)
Chouette also means "owl" but it's slang for cute or cool.
Of course you'd speak French, Moxon, being Canadian. I wasn't thinking!
shesh & i never thought high school french class would come in handy.. i could actually read most of that!
She is cute!
Catscan,
Your post "And then one might hurry home to report what one has observed to one's boss, before boarding a plane to rush to Ohio and repeat the experience" mad e me laugh. I remember leaving the comfort of Arizona for 2 weeks to go for training in Ohio during Tornado season.. got caught in one actually. My boss wanted to know how I survived the tornado, more so than the training I received... Be safe dear friend..
Hedgehogs oh dear dont show Billy he would want one.
Greykyttyn, good for you! Actually all I had was high school French, too. I started majoring in it in college and then thought "What in the world will I do with this?" so I switched to psychology and then was talked into taking Russian. One year of that was enough...
Merci!
Leslie
I just dropped in to see what condition the divine sock was in...
Been lurkin.. keepin an eye on ya'all.. I miss everyone already.
I miss Catscan.
Tudo bem?
I miss you guys too! But the tomatoes are calling and the capybaras are at the door...
Oooooo.....LURKER!!! Miss both of you guys....
Divine sock has progressed slightly but hasn't been touched in a couple of days due to the business of life. Sigh.
Divine Sock is looking just awesome..
It is looking good!
Oh Catscan you ARE okay! Shewww..
The divinity is exuding.. the anticipation is growing!
Looking good.
I have most of the front of my poncho done.
Wren, do we get a picture?
I will take a picture after I get a little further alone on the opening. Still working on how to do that.