It’s all math, really.

Here’s an example of subtraction:

This……

"Haas"

minus this…..

gives you this ….

(He’s muttering about the indignities he has to suffer…)  By the way, that bag of fiber is sitting on a bath towel, just to give you some idea of scale.

Here’s another example of subtraction:

This ….

63" Glimakra Countermarche Loom (12 harnesses, 14 treadles)

minus all the little pegs that hold it together equals this:

This, however, will be an example of addition!!  Wonder what it will be???

This is Fraulein Maria.  Her registered name is just Fraulein, but my husband, who speaks German, says that is like naming someone Miss, so we gave her a second name.

Fraulein Maria in full fleece

Today she got her quarterly haircut.  I used electric shears to do most of it, but have to resort to very sharp scissors at times.  She also got her nails trimmed, but no polish.

Shearing with the shears

Prime angora fiber

When we were finished, I was covered in fur, and she wasn’t.

Fraulein Maria, sheared, and Ninja, one of the mousers who lives in her building

Her reward for being good while she’s getting her haircut is to run around in the building for a while.  She was thirsty, and the cats didn’t mind sharing their water with her.

Fraulein Maria helped herself to the cats' water

Eventually, it’s back in the cage for her, and an enormous bag of bunny fur for me.  Tomorrow it’s Haas’s turn.

Big Bag o' rabbit fur!

Yes, caramel is sweet!  Yum!

But the Caramel I’m talking about today is the rabbit.  My Caramel bunny is one of the sweetest bunnies I’ve ever had, and today was his shearing day.

EXCEPT, Caramel is different from the other rabbits because he molts (sheds his hair), but only on parts of his body.  You can see where he has molted right in the middle of his back — all that brown fur.  Some of it is very short; some of it is longer because he doesn’t molt at the same rate all over his body.  I actually should have started on him a week or so ago.  He got tired of waiting on me, and managed to get the hair off that brown spot on his back by himself!

So a Caramel shearing day is only half shearing. The other half involves gentle tugging.  And when I’m through, I have 2-1/2 ounces of gorgeous biscuit-tan, soft as air, bunny fiber, and one pretty funny looking bunny.

Who’s mad at me. Sort of.  I’ll make it up to him with some carrots!

The greatest thing happened to us in December: a nice family with 3 teenage girls moved in next door.

Fortunately for me, they all love bunnies.  I have child labor available once more!

A couple of days ago they came over and we decided to “blow out” the rabbits.  This is not something I normally do since we don’t show our rabbits, but new friend Kathy suggested that I should do it anyway, that it was good for their coat to blow out the dander that accumulates near their skin.

The girls moved a table outside while I dragged the shop vac out of hiding and snatched up one of the German rabbits.

It was a wonderful success!  Fraulein and Hass both seemed to enjoy the experience, and the clouds of dust that we blew out of their fur were considerable! I’m looking forward to the girls coming back over in the next few days to blow out the rest of the rabbits.

The girls also feed, water, and put out hay for the rabbits while they are visiting. Now if I can teach them to clean cages……

It was in a strong, freezing cold wind this morning that I went out to feed, and to find that both Hercules and one of the chickens had passed on during the night. The chicken had given us little warning.  With Hercules, we had struggled for several days.  Despite my throwing the proverbial kitchen sink at him in treatment and love, it wasn’t enough. The cause of his illness remains a mystery.  We will miss his feisty little self and his beautiful creamy tan fur.

One of the hardest things to get your head around when you go from pets to livestock is that they are, despite your best efforts, sometimes going to die.  As city dwellers, we are used to our pets — dogs, cats, possibly both. We share our houses with them, feed them, pet them, love them, take them to the vet for their shots or for medical care in case of illness. I’ve put a vet’s kid through college, and if you love animals, you probably have, too.

But when you’re raising livestock, things are different. For those of us who did not have a first career as an international fashion model, our love for our animals is tempered by a somewhat cold, dispassionate reality that there is really only so much you can feasibly do. You’re going to lose some of those battles.

It is still a bleak, sunless day as I write this.My mood mirrors the day. There is still a bitter cold wind keeping most of the animals in the barn, and keeping me in the house.  There is no joy in Whoville, as we say our goodbyes to our little furry friend.