What A Week!

Aneira’s completed bag!

Really, the week was insanely full! I got to meet three–count ’em–three Facebook friends in real life this week. How awesome is that?! One, I’ve been friends with since she got her first Siberian Husky some eight or so years ago, so that was really exciting. The others came through having Malamutes. Yep, we all “met” through our dogs. And now we’ve actually met!

And Aneira and I went to a talk about exploring the Arctic with a sled team of Malamutes, which was also incredibly interesting, and something I will almost certainly never do. The man giving the talk goes out with his team for months at a time. Alone, except for the 22 dogs on his team. He said sometimes he won’t see another human being for five months. Part of me says “Oooooo, that sounds like heaven”, while another part is screaming “Woman, are you absolutely gorram mad???” Hmmm….must think about this. Me, alone, with a bunch of dogs, in the midst of a wilderness full of predators. Yeah, maybe not so much.

We also attended–without Vanir–our first weight pull competition. The entire family went, and the kids had a ball petting every Malamute whose owner permitted it. Bryony took great joy in pointing out each dog that looked like Vanir…which was almost every single one, of course.

So that’s the good stuff for the week. On the other side of the coin, I started having trouble with my right foot this week too. Like I didn’t have enough problems on the left side, right? Between the knee and the hip. Now I’ve got sharp, shooting pain through my right heel and up the right side of that foot. What the hell is this now? Turns out: probably plantar fasciitis. Wow. Never felt anything quite like this before. It’s beginning to seem like my body is sabotaging the idea of my ever going back to work for any but the most sedentary job, which is not what I spent all this time and money on school for! Whoever said getting older qualifies as the so-called “golden years” lied!! Your golden years are the ones where you are young, still living with parents who are paying the bills, your body isn’t falling apart every other minute, and the only responsibilities you have are keeping your room clean, your grades up, and your chores done. It doesn’t get any more “golden” than that!!!

The beginning of Bryony’s bag

And I also finally, finally finished Aneira’s bag, shoulder strap and all…only to find out I’d done it wrong anyway, or at least wrong for the style it was supposed to be. It’s acceptable as a bag, just not as a mochila type of bag. Now I’ve started on Bryony’s, with the correct instructions on how to do it, and have finally gotten the problem of the base cupping solved, thanks to a Facebook group on the subject. So Bryony’s will be done properly…I hope. I still think Aneira’s looks pretty darn good, considering. It’s got a ton of pink, which will make her very happy, and it was made by Mama, which she generally appreciates a lot more than I did at her age. She may not take care of it for long–she’s a kid, after all–but when I make something for these kids, they usually wear whatever it is to school and make sure everyone knows that Mama made it. That, of course, results in requests from their friends for me to make the same items for them in another color. The requests have stopped lately, as Mama has made it clear that I am not making eight pairs of gloves out of my own stash, using up my own time, for free. I guess the kids have passed that on. I don’t mean that statement to be obnoxious, really, but come on!!!

So that’s the week I’ve had, both pleasure and pain lol. On to the next week and the next bag!!

Read Full Post »

And Then There Were Seven

I said no. I said it twice over. And then I said yes, and the three newest gliders arrived last night, bringing my total to seven. My bedroom looks like a zoo exhibit. There are currently five occupied cages in my bedroom. Five. In my bedroom.

But I’m getting ahead of my story, here. First, let me tell you how this all went down last night. It was quite the adventure!

The gliders were shipped in from out of state, so they came by plane. My friend, who coordinated everything, was to take possession of the gliders when the flight came in at 7:15, so I drove her to the airport. So far, so good. We got there in time, and she went in to baggage claims while I drove back around to the cell phone parking lot, which is a bit away from anything. Behind it is woodland, and in front of it is a hedgerow and trees, so as you’re passing it, it’s pretty much hidden. Since there are signs at Arrivals stating no waiting, it’s the only other place you can wait for someone. Well, okay, fine.

My friend calls me a bit later and says there’s a problem. Ten gliders were shipped. Two were going to Ohio, and eight to Colorado. The airline, which shall remain nameless, mixed up the carriers. So the two for Ohio were in Colorado, while our gliders were still in transit to Ohio. Oh, boy. And all of the gliders have been in small containers for hours with only enough food to get them to where they were going. Now we have an issue. My friend is working with the airline to resolve it and get everyone to where they’re supposed to be. Shouldn’t take long to resolve, and ours will arrive tomorrow (today) instead, early in the morning. Okay, no problem, I’ll circle the airport a bit. It’s now dark, and the cell phone lot–the nearly invisible-from-the-road lot–is empty. Well, I’m not turning myself into a sitting duck in an empty parking lot where no one can see if there’s trouble, and I haven’t seen a single security person the whole time I was sitting there. Time to drive around the airport. It doesn’t take very long to circle it; Colorado Springs Municipal Airport is one of the smallest I’ve ever seen. Okay, scratch that: for a commercial airport, it is the smallest I’ve ever seen!

Time passes, and my friend calls again. The carrier containing the two Ohio-bound gliders is actually a cat carrier with two smaller boxes inside. Hamster cages, actually. These two need to come out and stretch their legs and food needs to be found for them. Problem: gliders that don’t know you are not going to stay with you, you can’t leash them, and the bar spacing on the cat carrier is such that they can conceivably squeeze out and get loose, so what do you do? You get a ton of zip ties and start creating your own “bars” to keep them from entertaining that idea. So she is now zip tying the carrier door, and airline personnel have gone in search of baby food at one of the airport shops. I hate to think of what an airport charges for baby food!

I’m beginning to get a little concerned. Aneira has already Skyped me to ask what’s going on and why am I not home yet. I explain what’s happening to my family…my extremely patient family. By this point, I have stopped circling the airport and am now parked in front of Arrivals, where I am not supposed to be. However, as I mentioned before, I was not inclined to sit in the cell phone lot anymore, and I was also not inclined to waste anymore gas. I’m not driving an economy car, I’m driving a very thirsty truck. I tell my friend all is well–and it is; my family is okay as long as they’re kept up to date–and do what she must, I’ll be here.

More time passes, and by now we are closing on 11 pm. My friend calls again. While in the process of zip tying the carrier door, she has managed to rip her thumbnail past the quick rather badly, so she needs me to come in and help with the ties. Okay, where can I park the truck? The guy in baggage tells her to have me park in the employee parking lot and enter the building from there. So I drive over there, and as I enter, I see a sign that informs me that parking there is by permit only. All vehicles not displaying said permit will be towed. This justifiably worries me, as I am not an employee and therefore do not possess any such permit. I call my friend and pass on the information, and the baggage gentleman says no worries, it’s okay. So I park, and hobble my way across an expanse the length of which rivals a football field. This is a long walk for me, and my hip has no qualms about telling me so.

Inside baggage, I commence zip tying the rest of the carrier door so that we can let these poor babies have a touch more space than what is available in a hamster cage. Once this is done, we can release the two gliders into it, feed them, then hurry on home, because the airline has redeemed itself somewhat: because these two arrived early, and my friend was smart enough to open the carrier to ensure all was well, she was able to quickly tell them we had the wrong carrier, and the airline was able to catch their flight in the air and halt their progress in Chicago. And fortunately for all involved, there was a flight coming to Denver that was leaving ten minutes later. The airline managed to get our gliders on that flight, and gave my friend vouchers for the taxi that she was going to take to Denver and back to pick them up. The flight was due to land a little after midnight; it was currently about 11:30.

Dealing with eight strange gliders is a lot to ask of anyone, so my friend told me that, to cut down on everyone’s stress, she would bring me my trio as soon as she got back to the Springs, which would be at 4 am. As I still had a cage to put together, with no illusions that it was going to be easy, I’d already figured on being up that late anyway, so I agreed.

I came home and wrestled the cage into submission for about two hours, then joined the PIP in front of the television for a bit, until my friend calls and says she’s back, and could I instead come to her house to help her with the other five gliders as well as pick up my own. Naturally, I went, helped her out, and collected my boys.

Can you imagine what their shipping containers smelled like after housing animals all day long?! Yeah, “rank and reeking” doesn’t even begin to cover it. The shipping containers went directly into the garbage after releasing their tenants into the new cage. It was quarter to five.

Now, being a mom, I have one superpower that works most of the time: I have the ability to tune out anything but bloodshed. I subconsciously recognize the tone of the scream I am hearing. I know when it’s simply that Bryony is angry at her big sister, and when it is something worse that I need to address myself. This ability works on the pets as well, so if the dogs bark in the middle of the night, unless there’s some urgency to it, I will sleep right through it.

My superpower went on vacation this morning.

The Kaos Krew started it, by barking–constantly–for two hours, thereby causing the boys to bark back. At this point, the rabbits decided to add their two cents by thumping their back legs very loudly. Normally, only one member of the Krew barks at a time, and only for a little while. This ruckus drove us to sleeping in the basement. It was 5:30 in the morning. Furballs 1; humans, 0.

The three new additions are all considered “half-tails”, although only one actually has anything approaching half a tail. The other two have considerably less than half a tail. We were told that one of them was a birth defect, and the reasons for the other two having only half tails is unknown, as they were rescues. It doesn’t appear to bother the fuzzies in question though.

They have all received new names. This time, I went with a dragon theme. I have read and reread Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series any number of times since I was a kid, and still do. She was a fantastic writer, and, really, who wouldn’t want a dragon?? So, the glider with the longest tail is Mnementh, the medium tail is Canth, and the smallest tail is Ruth. If you’re familiar with the books, you’ll recognize the logic. In the books, Mnementh is the largest male dragon on Pern. Bronze dragons are second in size only to the golden queen dragons. Canth, in the books, is a brown dragon, which is the next size down from bronze and are also all males. Then there are the blues, then greens, and then there is Ruth, who is the only white dragon ever on Pern. He’s a sport, the smallest existing dragon. His story, The White Dragon, was the first one I ever read. So there you have it!

Read Full Post »

LPCS

Maverick’s cage, complete with adorable cage set. He’s very happy with it!

I know, the title is a bit confusing, so allow me to explain: LPCS stands for Lay’s Potato Chip Syndrome. This refers back to the commercial that says you can’t have just one. The same goes for other things in life, and that brings me to our lives. You can’t have just one sugar glider. Yes, LPCS has taken over my house. Sort of. We’re drawing the line now.

Since Maverick’s arrival (Yes, the name remains. It was put to a vote, and two of my children’s favorite people voted in favor of Maverick. And I promised to abide by the ruling of the second person, so the name stays.), three more gliders in need have been brought to my attention. Well, actually it was eleven, but three of the eight males are coming to us. Quite soon, as it happens. That puts us at seven. Five males, two females, and, for the moment, three cages. The plan is still to acclimate the original members of the Kaos Krew to Mav, and move him in with them…eventually. The other three are already bonded to each other, and will have their own cage.

The funny thing is that the PIP called it a week ago. He said this would happen, and I blithely told him no. I was ending it at four. We didn’t need any more.  He suggested that I make room for another cage, because he was sure there would be more. I laughed at him.

Look where I am now.

When I sheepishly ate crow and told him about the three boys, he only laughed. He’d expected it because I’d mentioned them before. I had actually said no to taking them, initially. Twice over. And initially, they were set to go to other homes. But both homes fell through, and I was told how bad things were for them, and I weakened. I couldn’t help it. I saw pictures, and gave in.

The thing is, gliders are incredibly easy to care for, once you have the essentials. If you have the ability to make their diet, which is made up of things you eat anyway, and they have a large enough cage, and you have time to spend with them each day, it’s not difficult at all. They’re considerably less messy than my rabbits, and less smelly, by a long mile, and cleaning their cages is a lot easier. Paper towels in the catch tray, which you throw out every other day and replace with more, or cut a piece of fleece to size, and shake it out every other day, then wash while another piece of fleece replaces the dirty one. Hardcore cleaning once a week, for which I have a steamer. Add the fact that they’re frigging adorable, and there you go.

Having them leap to the front of the cage to see you every time you walk through the door is gratifying. Hearing them bark makes you go “Awwwww” every time. And watching them “ride the lightning” on the wheel makes us all laugh. The largest expense has been housing, and that, too, can be accomplished pretty inexpensively if you keep a weather eye on Craigslist.

This is not to say that it can’t be expensive. You have to have a vet accustomed to sugar gliders, for one thing, and sugar gliders from breeders can run anywhere from $250 to $1500 for one animal. And since they don’t do well as singles, then you’d have to figure on spending $500-$3000 for a pair. I’ve been lucky–all of mine are rehomes/rescues.

This is also not to say that it’s all fairytales. Gliders are nocturnal, which means they’re noisy at night. All night. Again, I’ve been lucky there: mine, on their own hook, have changed their schedules. When they arrived, they would get up at ten or eleven and stay up until about six am. Now they get up around four am, and stay awake until about four pm. And, of course, it takes time to create a bond with them. It’s not like a puppy, kitten, dog, or cat, who will pretty much warm up to you right away. It can take years to bond with a glider. My first three still bite me. Maverick has been handled so much by his previous owner that he pretty much doesn’t nip at all.

My bedroom, though, looks like a zoo exhibit. Currently, there are two large glider cages, two rabbit cages, and four spare cages inhabiting the room, with the third glider cage soon to be moved in. Fortunately, the master bedroom is a huge room, but I’m going to probably get rid of all but two of the spare cages soon. The larger spare will be kept as a hospital cage in case one ever becomes ill, and the smaller will be a travel cage for trips to the vet. All others will go to new homes.

You know where you can really get in trouble with gliders? Accessorizing. There are any number of adorable bonding pouches out there for sale, and tons of people making cage sets that are equally adorable. And, well, it’s necessary to have another cage set on hand while the first is in the laundry, right? And they love toys. Fisher Price toys are always a hit. So are large Lego toys. And large branches and long chains for climbing. My glider cages are more brightly, gaily colored than the rest of the room.

But this time, I really am drawing the line. When it was ferrets, I stopped at six. With the gliders, I’m stopping at seven. Enough really is enough.

In crafty news, I have redone Aneira’s bag, and am beginning on the shoulder strap now. I reversed the colors this time, making the variegated yarn the background, and the pink yarn the pattern. As you probably saw in my last post. The holes are in place for the drawstring, and I managed not to add any stitches this time. The only thing I still didn’t get right is the base, which still cupped as I made it. I blew it off, figuring that this child is going to load the bag with all her junk anyway, and the bottom is going to cup no matter what with all the weight. Give me a couple of days, and it’ll be finished completely. Then I can focus my attention on Bryony’s bag. And finishing the first crocheted glider toy.

I really hope the kids can appreciate all the love and effort that’s going into this. I know Bryony probably won’t, as she’s the baby, but she might surprise me. She loves her crocheted blankets because I made them. Aneira is old enough that she should understand, especially if Bryony does.

Well, it’s time to get the littles fed for the night…Maverick, at least, will be up soon!

Read Full Post »

Keep On Keepin’ On

Aneira’s bag, the 2.0 version

Still working on the girls’ Yule gifts. Progress is being made, but I’ve also discovered mistakes that I was hopeful the kids would forgive, if they noticed them at all! Two of the arrows on Aneira’s bag had somehow come too close together, and it happened so far back that I wasn’t willing to rip it out. And, of course, I’m still procrastinating on ripping out the mistakes on Bryony’s bag. The mess will be ugly. So very ugly. But in the end, I had to completely restart Aneira’s bag. The stitch count had somehow gotten so far out of whack that the bag was misshapen, not to mention I had tugged the carried color too tightly in some areas to keep it from showing through, on top of that. So: do-over!! The 2.0 version is going much better. I learned a valuable lesson that may or may not work for others: use lots of stitch markers. I’m using two types. I have the plastic locking ones marking number of stitches per row. The first stitch of the row is marked with a green one, and every twenty stitches after that is an orange one. Then I have some custom markers that I bought a few years ago on Etsy marking off the pattern repeats, which is every eighteen stitches. It’s made things a lot easier to keep track of where everything should be.

I finally bought some head pins to use for micro-macrame, so I can get started on their jewelry pieces, and found the size 20 T-pins at Joann’s. The general consensus had been that you could only get the proper sized T-pins online, but I was fortunate enough to find them locally. Yay!

I’m going to try my hand at some crocheted sugar glider toys too…I have some safe yarn in my stash, so it’s just a matter of figuring out what I want to do, making it, and then before putting it in their cage, I’ll post a picture of it to the glider groups and get some feedback so I can make any changes that need to be made before they get hold of it.

Speaking of the Kaos Krew, I’d seen it mentioned in one of the groups that gliders can vary their schedules if they choose to, and it seems mine have chosen to.

The Kaos Krew likes to hoard plastic bracelets in their sleeping pouch.

When they first arrived, they would get up around ten or eleven pm, be up all night, and go to sleep around six. Over the time that they’ve been here, that has gradually changed. They are now waking up around 3 am, and going to sleep around noon, which is great for me, if not so much the kids. School is back in session, which means bedtimes are strictly enforced now, so they only see the gliders early in the morning, and only in the cage. Getting them out when they are wide awake is…what’s the word I’m looking for here?…we’ll say “chaotic”. They outnumber me, and they are well aware of the fact. I get them out of the cage for playtime when all three are still asleep in their pouch, and take them into the bathroom.

They’re very amusing. Zoe will jump onto the cage bars and scurry up them till we are eye to eye, grab my hand with hers and pull it close enough to nip me, while Inara and Mal keep their distance. But in the bathroom, Zoe is the one that keeps her distance, while Mal is all over me, and Inara is exploring the room. And all of them have now taken to bloodless nipping, though I’m not sure they mean for it to be bloodless!

Tomorrow, we’ll be adding a fourth glider to the colony! A lady contacted me because she needs to rehome her glider immediately, as in it’s an emergency for her. I was initially wanting another female, and hers is not; he’s an intact male. However, not only is there no charge for him, she is also giving me the money to have him neutered. So I’ve already scheduled that with the vet, and he’ll be arriving tomorrow afternoon. He’ll be going into the spare cage for now, and we’ll be swapping bedding between the two cages so that everyone can get used to each other’s scents, and after a couple of weeks, we’ll try introducing them to each other in the neutral territory of the bathroom. If that goes well, we can start transitioning him into the cage with the other gliders. The introductions will have to wait until after he’s actually neutered on the 25th, though–I don’t want any surprise babies! Female gliders go into heat every 29 days, for two days, and their gestation period is only 16 days! When a baby is born, it’s about the size of a grain of rice, and has to crawl up mom’s body to the pouch, where it will stay until it’s developed completely. This is not something I’m prepared to deal with just yet, if I ever am. I’m just not a breeder. I have nothing against them, mind you, it’s just not for me, certainly not right now!!

Since the other three are named after Firefly characters, I’m debating about changing the new one’s name. According to Firefly canon, Mal and Inara had an unspoken thing for each other, though neither of them ever acted on it, which is why I named the parents Mal and Inara. On the show, Zoe was married to the pilot, Hoban “Wash” Washburne, so I was thinking of calling him Wash, and in fact that’s the name I gave to the vet. But he already has a cute name: Maverick, which, ironically also belonged to the Tom Cruise character in Top Gun, who was also a pilot. So I’ve gotta make up my mind!!

Read Full Post »