Notes From The Shire

DH and I were hanging when we heard for the fourth time on NPR how Hillary Clinton was meeting with the Palestinian prez in Abu Dhabi. "Where IS Abu Dhabi anyway?" my former NPR affiliate newsman-husband asked.

"I think it's a city in Saudi Arabia, but I'm not positive," I said. "It's most certainly NOT in Palestine." We Googled it-- it's a city in the United Arab Emirates. (I was close, but no cigar).

DH calls NPR and asks why they don't ID the place, as in "HC is meeting with PP in Abu Dhabi in the UAE..." NPR says they figure their audience is intelligent.

Well gee, my IQ isn't too shabby but since they're not in languages familiar to me, I tend to confuse places like Addis Ababa and Abu Dhabi...

Speaking of knowing things... DH and I were in the corner pub last night for a Halloween party. One guy had a mask on-- that ghostly creature with the "O" mouth and eyes. I happened to mention that that now-well-known Halloween image probably originated from the famous expressionist painting "The Scream" by... my mind went blank. Damn! I hate getting old!

The person I was talking to probably had no idea what I was talking about and after a quick gaze around the room probably no one else would either, but it's something that will drive me nuts if I'm not near the Internet...

Just then DH came over> "Who painted "The Scream? It's bugging the heck out of me but I can't remember his name..."

"Munch," supplied DH.

"Yay! That's right, Edvard Munch. Now I can sleep tonight!" I guess that's why I still like him after 30 years... like an oasis in the rural desert...

To my writer friends (in case you didn't get my e-mail):

SUNY Oswego is seeking a writer/editor. If you know of someone who might be interested, please pass on this posting:

http://www.oswego.edu/administration/human_resources/PubAffairsWriterEditor.html

(from cavysociety.com)
So most of The Shire babies have arrived for this year. I have only two sows in breeding, the red roans Posy and her daughter Primula, two of my best sows. Prim recently won a couple BOBs. One of them is in with Chess and the other is in with Podge I think.

Those four I have trouble with. I should paint their ear numbers on their behinds, LOL, so I dont have to squint at ears. Posy and Prim are mother and daughter. One has a blaze so you'd think it'd be easy to tell them apart but I always forget who has the blaze and have to turn to my Web site!

Begbie and Podge are father and son. Yes, their markings are different enough I can tell them apart, but again, I forget who's who! CRS disease bigtime!! Those two and Chess have really nice coats and Begbie and Podge are big besides.

Then there's the little, um, rape victim, LOL. The self red sow was stupidly put by me into the junior boars' cage and I didn't notice til I heard her screaming. She's old enough that the breeding isn't unduly risky, and the boar is the oldest one, he has a really good coat but is a roaned red broken, so not my ideal choice of colors to put together. In fact I was hoping for an excuse to sell him, but his coat is just too nice and his conformation is good too, and he's out of some of my best pigs. I'll breed him a few times and see what he produces before I place him.

The other boars in that cage are all showable colors and I'm waiting to see how their coats turn out. Then I'll keep and show the best.

The next show coming up is Fulton, NY. I have bunch of baby Texel boars to find homes for, and maybe some Teddies--gotta check who's ready to wean.

So yesterday morning I woke at 1:30 a.m. Not sure what woke me, but since I was awake I went downstairs to the bathroom, fed the cat and put the gate across so he couldn't come upstairs again. Afterwards I laid in bed and could not get back to sleep--I watched the hours tick by on my clock until about 5. That of course is when I fell asleep so dragging my ass out of bed at 6 was nearly impossible.

This morning I woke around 1:30 a.m. to the cat scratching at the window. Went downstairs (see previous paragraph) but the cat was already waiting by his bowl. I'm starting to think he's scratching the window on purpose to wake me!

Feed the cat the night before you say? Well I do, but since we have our large Dobe grandpuppy staying with us, who loves cat food more than life itself, I have the cat food atop the dryer. Fatty kitty can no longer hoist his heft up there so I have to put him up. Hence the "wake up the humans" routine, apparently.

So I went back to bed. Watched the clock again...2...3...4... at 4 I decided I do NOT want to get an hour's sleep and then try to get up like yesterday. So I took a bath, did some e-mails then cleaned pigs and took the dog out for a bit... At 6:30 I was a zombie. I made coffee and since I ran out of decafe I had to use part regular anyway. Otherwise you'd not be reading this.

I still have to pack for Chicago tomorrow morning. please let it be a light work day so we can get done early!

The Shire's Petal Delver had five new babies yesterday (pix in my CavySociety.com albums). She's always lived with her sister Prissa, so I breed them to the same boar. Prissa is due anytime.

Of the five, four appear to be showable colors/patterns. I haven't examined them thoroughly for belly roaning or small white marks, etc. Two are tri-roans, one appears to be a buff (brassy cream) roan and two are red. One of the reds has a white blaze like his mismarked dad. The self red and the cream have really pretty faces and large eyes. Their mom is an especially pretty pig.

Petal and Prissa have nice dense coats but they lack kink/resiliency on their sides, so I only showed them a couple times. The Shire's Dosh Durry, the sire, is a brindle with a white blaze. He has better resiliency but I wish he had better kink. My more recent pigs are having more kink, so we're getting there.

It was so cute: Prissa helped clean off the babies. When I checked on them last night before I went to bed, the two reds were cuddled with Prissa and the other three with Petal, in the opposite corner of the cage. It was chilly last night.

This morning they all seemed to find Petal in time for breakfast, LOL.

While I was cleaning, a baby kept wheeking piteously so I finally went to investigate and a little red baby was all alone on one side of the cage while everyone as on the other side. Probably seemed like desolation for miles around him. I scooped him up and stuck him in the pile under Petal and it's been quiet ever since.

Oh--here's one that'll stop your heart for a second. The sight of a well-chewed tomato in a cage of newborns! LOL.

Thai elephant hurt by mine gets artificial leg

By APICHART WEERAWONG, Associated Press Writer Apichart Weerawong, Associated Press Writer Sat Aug 15, 6:35 am ET

LAMPANG, Thailand – Motola, a female elephant who stepped on a land mine 10 years ago and endured painful operations, was fitted Saturday in Thailand for a permanent artificial leg.

The 48-year-old pachyderm became a symbol of the plight of today's elephants, and her injury sparked international sympathy and donations.

Experts were making a cast of her injured left front leg for a plastic prosthetic limb which will be attached later Saturday.

"I do hope she will accept the new leg. It would be wonderful to see Motola and Baby Mosha walking together side-by-side," said Soraida Salwala, secretary general of the Friends of the Asian Elephant, a non-governmental group.

Mosha, also a land mine victim, became the world's first elephant with an artificial leg, attached in 2007. Soraida said Mosha, now a 3-year-old, is faring well and has outgrown three of her prosthetic devices.

Both elephants have been cared for at the Elephant Hospital, set up by Soraida's group in 1993. The world's first such facility, the hospital has treated thousands of elephants for ailments ranging from eye infection to gunshot wounds.

Motola was injured in 1999 while working at a logging camp along the Myanmar-Thailand border, a region peppered with land mines after half a century of insurgency. Her mangled foot was amputated, and she hobbled on three feet until fitted with a temporary, canvas shoe-like device two years later.

Motola's initial operation used enough anesthetic to floor 70 people — a record noted in the 2000 Guinness Book of World Records.

"It has been 10 years now, but in all these long years Motola enjoyed a happy life, walking out of her shelter for a sun bath," Soraida said.

Soraida said Motola has otherwise been in fine health, with her once bony frame now weighing more than 3 tons.

The artificial leg has been constructed by the Prostheses Foundation, which also makes cheap but effective artificial limbs for human amputees.

A number of elephants have had land mine injuries. But that is only one of many problems facing the domesticated giant, whose numbers have dropped from 13,400 in 1950 to today's estimated 2,500. The number of wild elephants has also dropped dramatically.

Traditionally the truck, taxi and logging worker of Thailand, the elephant has lost most of its jobs to modernization. One saving grace has been the tourism industry, which employs large numbers for elephant trekking and other activities.

On my way out again. Going to the lake, a hike and then an early dinner at a bistro on the water. After I hand-feed a pig.

So far this "vacation" hasn't been so great, mostly because money's tight. Our kid took our dog, who lives with her, to the vet. It cost me $200. Not sure what the DX was.

Tuesday night our schitzo house cat got a bug up his ass and darted out the door. Every chance we had we wandered around calling him. he finally showed up last night. Well one CATastrophe solved.

Wednesday we went for a light lunch and then hiking along a creek and in and out of a gorge. I about killed myself climbing uphill. Only the knowledge it would eventually have to be downhill kept me going, LOL. The woods were cool but on the return path it was midday and MUCH warmer. The truck's A/C never seemed so sweet. Then we had Chinese food so I'm sure I added at least as many calories as I took off.

Thursday morning Alyssum had a little brindle baby in wiyth her when I went to do morning chores. He has an eye infection so I'm treating that. Excellent coat on her (I think) but not enough red brindling to show (story of my life). Looks like Alyssum is taking for Liv's propensity for one baby at a time.

After chores I took my 80-y-o mom out to lunch. She lives about 130 miles away and I don't see her much, what with shows on weekends. I spoke to her on the phone the night before so got to hear everything all over again, but it was a pleasant outing. We were gonna stay overnight but came back that night in case the cat came back.

Friday we went to the lake, went swimming etc. Had a barbecue at home. After that we split up walking around the area calling the cat. It was about dusk. I went down by the creek and the culvert. DH went around the houses across the road and that part of the creek, and along the road above the culvert.

We came in about the same time. He was just going out and I was just coming out of the bathroom when he dropped the cat at my feet. Said the cat had met him at the truck in the driveway! He is a very scaredy cat and I know our barn cat intimidates him if he's out and about. Maybe he was hiding and finally heard us and thought the coast was clear? I know he was hungry. makes me feel glad I walked around calling him umpteen times a day. Maybe it finally paid off. I had about lost hope and was actually looking for the body below the road by then!

OK during all this week I've been hand-feeding our oldest piggy 2-3 times a day. She's had trouble eating, I think because of overgrown molars. I've been giving her various soft foods several times a day and syringe-feeding her formula mixed with Critical Care besides. Meanwhile I'm hoping my daughter, who lives in a city nearby, has made me a vet app't with an exotics vet for Monday. If not, then I'll call Monday.

DH does NOT like the pigs. I didn't want to ruin our/his vacation by letting him know I have a sick pig and that I plan to take off even MORE time from work to take her to an expensive vet 75 miles away!

So stayed tuned, we'll see how it goes.

Well the Chocolate Orange Zucchini Cake I made came out really well. I was just too damn tired to deal with cupcakes. When I get done with work, I'm not good for much else usually. I'm sure if I got more exercise I'd have more energy and a brighter outlook.

It's raining now and yesterday it was gray most of the day. We got some rain last night but very little. With our sandy soil it's sometimes like farming in the desert, and I totally don't mind the rain. However I was gonna clean out my car, maybe do the outside and clean up the area when I store my hay so I can go get some and actually get it IN the barn.

DH bought a new tractor, but the old one is still here, he has an unused dirt bike taking up most of one old stall, we have a wood splitter, the John Deere, a rototiller and the wheelbarrow in the main part of the barn, where the kennels open out of. I keep my hay in the first indoor run. Gee maybe that's why this last bale smelled sort of like a garage.

I feel guilty, I really wanted to cut grass for the pigs yesterday or today. We went a ways along the lakeshore to a little dive for lunch--DH found it on Google. It was so small (how small was it?) that after you seated yourself the waitress RECITED the menu. NO book menus, not even specials scrawled on a board. I had a prime rib sandwich--I think it was like $6?--with french fries and it was very good and I had to bring half of it home. DH had haddock and that looked good too. I doubt we'd ever go back, but it was a fun drive, even taking a wrong turn and having to backtrack a bit.

There goes the diet--I won't eat more than one a day, but I just can't let so many zucchini go to the chickens! The damn plant runneth over!

I found a recipe online and thought this preamble was hilarious and right on the mark:

Five reasons to make this Chocolate Zucchini Cupcake recipe:

"If, like me, you have a small mountain of summer squash in your kitchen - don't make the mistake of ignoring them. You have to understand, summer squash are sensitive and passive-aggressive. While they might be pert and vibrant when they first make the jump into your basket, it is all downhill from there as they wait impatiently to be turned into something spectacular. As the hours pass, they sullenly pout and begin the slowly but steady decline into a flaccid, rubbery incarnation of their former self. Use them quickly, because as they sit there on your counter - mark my word, they are judging you!"

We had zuke boats and spaghetti for dinner last night; pretty good. (DH made it!) I'll let you know if these turn out good.

Ugh, yesterday was totally wasted. I guess I was depressed? I just had no energy the entire day. I need to exercise, that might help. My latest excuse is the mosquitoes, but damn it's a serious excuse--all that rain we've had this year.

I get on average one mosquito bite per trip to dump GP litter. They like to attack the arm that is supporting the tub of litter because they know I can't swat easily.

Today I picked up some prunings I'd left in piles on the lawns. OK. I picked up ONE pile, after DH bitched about it. I just couldn't bear to drench myself in bug spray, so I decided to risk it. I sort of jog-trotted the wheelbarrow to the brushpile, but this winded me, so I walked back. Until a deer fly started dive bombing me and a mosquito landed on my wrist, I ran back so fast I nearly fell over the empty wheelbarrow. When DH noted there were piles in the front too, I was just too tired now to do them.

I inevitably have mosquito join me in the car every time I open the door, which means I spend the first two minutes trying to swat it before I even pull out of the driveway. I think it was a car mosquito who nibbled my barely-encased-by clogs feet so that they drove me crazy with itching two weeks ago--I though I had poison ivy! But then I noticed the welts rather than rash, hard to see on heel skin. UGH. I used half a tube of Rx cortisone, then scratched most of it off. I'll probably kill a major organ (or whatever cortisone does to you) but at least I won't be scratching as much. Not that it really works anyway. If it stops any itching, by that time I've already scratched it raw anyway.

DEET? Mosquitoes around here laugh at DEET, at least on me. It f**k's up their "radar" so they can't find you, but we have so many mosquitoes per square inch here that they simply blunder into you, then call their friends-- "Haha! I found one!! Dinner is served! Follow my hum!" Then of course you sweat it off too, from swatting mosquitoes.

The other day one got me in the middle of my back. Now that just ain't cricket. I think I wrote on my back by mistake trying to scratch it with a pen because I couldn't reach it. Sometimes I'll go crazy and grab anything-- hairbrush, fork, ruler, scissors... I should change my name to Pruritis, it defines me so well.

Plus I hate the smell and feel of DEET. It wastes water. I can be fresh out of a shower, put on perfectly clean clothes, realize I have to do something outside, have to drench myself in DEET, do whatever I have to do, then I have to wash body and clothes. If I don't, the smell just makes me sick, and the feel of it on my skin makes me--you guessed it--itchy.

Don't try this at home.

I've never considered myself a BAD cook, but I'm a bit rusty, as my DH took over cooking some years ago, which I thought was great. It gave me a bit of extra time for hobbies, cleaning, gardening, etc. Women just have more to do than men--why SHOULDN'T they cook?

Of course the down side is they cavalierly use every huge bowl and pan in the kitchen when they DO cook, and guess who gets to do the dishes? "Well *I* did the cooking," he justified.

Well lately he's gotten into a snit about doing *all* the cooking. (I've always thrown together a few meals once in awhile). So to avoid arguments, I went shopping and bought ingredients for some dinner recipes. OMG was that expensive. Like the sweet n sour recipe that uses a bit of red currant jam. Yeah, that'll get used up--NOT. Or the coconut milk! But I digress.

My first follow-the-recipe dinner was a Thai dish. You cooked rice "noodles" and then combined them with a sauce, basically. Well I checked the recipe several times and yes, I had the right amount of noodles, and it filled my largest bowl! Well No. 1, did you ever try to mix anything with dry Ramen? This was like that. It stayed globbed together no matter what I did, and the sauce seemed woefully inadequate. Maybe if it was like soup broth, I'd be able to mix it. I ended up cutting it with a scissors and picking it apart with my hands and then making and adding like 3x more of the sauce. To top it off, it wasn't that good. I have another Thai recipe that's much better. Well this dish ended up with Fat Bastard and his two leghorn hens. Not sure what they thought...

Next recipe was sweet 'n' sour pork loin. First problem was the store had no pork loin. I asked the butcher and he gave me three like butterfly pork chops but only the lean round pieces, which he said were similar.

The recipe called for the aforementioned jam and pineapple juice and Dijon mustard. Well as basically a condiment-avoider I don't my Dijons from my Poupons. Turns out all we had was brown mustard. Well it's all the same, right?

You mix this while heating in a sauce pan. It was like mixing bacon grease in water. I spent the whole time trying to smash the chunks of mustard against the side of the pan. When I thought it was done, I strained it. I never knew there were little bits of stuff in mustard.

OK, now you put the chops in a 7 x 11 baking dish or pan or something. Uncovered I assumed? It didn't say. And I've never heard of that size. I Pam-sprayed a glass brownie-type baking dish which was a bit smaller than the usual, which I know has a 13" somewhere in the dimensions. All my casseroles are round. With those dimensions they must mean square, right?

So you paint the chops with the mustard-jelly liquid, bake at 400 and baste "with meat juices" every 10 min. OK "baste" I take to mean suck up liquid from the bottom and squirt it over the top. Thing is, at 400, that little bit of painted on liquid was vaporized immediately. So after the first 10 min I painted on more liquid, flipped them over and painted on more (it never said to turn them over!).

Ten more min go by and I take the pan out of the oven and set it on the warm stove. When I turned to get the liquid, the pan explodes! OK, not exactly explodes, but it broke suddenly and with a loudish noise into several large chunks. GREAT.

There were only a few shards and I'd sooner risk the emergency room than waste good meat. DH? Well I guess he should've cooked if he wouldn't have wanted to eat it, now shouldn't he!

I rinsed the porks off and this time put them in a meat loaf pan! They just fit and when I basted them the juice didn't immediately evaporate. I was out of 10 minuteses, but I set the timer for longer because I notice MY pork is like 3x the thickness of the pictured. Meanwhile the broccoli is nearly overcooked so I turned it off.

OK, so the pork was actually decent with a delicate mustard flavor. I didn't put the reserved liquid over them though. Yuck. Overkill. I also didn't mix the poor pineapple with mustard. Double yuck. But I didn't run into any crunchy glass shards!

I refuse to cook tonight.

(Reposted from CavySociety.com)

Well after putting most of my good pigs into breeding resulting in a losing streak before most of this year's babies were old enough to be competitive, we finally won.

My favorite boy, the one with the really nice head I've always gushed over, the one who pees on his sweeps, sits in his bathroom and/or lies under the water bottle, the one I call Paddy the piggy pig, actually won Best of Breed Texel. Twice!

His coat is getting long enough so that the little curl he had over his shoulders is straight along the "part" and while most of him was clean, urine had made his rear sweeps sticky and they matted up as soon as I stopped unmatting them. I did them FOUR TIMES. Poor Paddy must've wondered why I was torturing my fave boy. I dematted him once before two breed judgings and once before two Best in Show judgings. I kept thinking "Don't feel his bum, don't feel his bum" and kept expecting a judge to make a remark about how this one has mats. Arrgh. They weren't felted hard mats, but still...

The senior adult competition was pretty good, too. Linda has a really nice senior boar that has beat Paddy before, I think. I don't even know why we beat him this time, LOL. But I'm not up there feeling and comparing them either. I do know one boar was dumped because his coat was a bit harsher than Paddy's -- I really think that with such a nice class it came down to nuances.

Little Tulip won Best Opposite, but that was mostly because she was the only sow, or at least the only sow old enough to have competitive coat. No one seemed to think she was anything special. She does have her good points, though, one being that her distribution is better than most all of my Texels, who have slightly Dutch-type patterns. You know, white blaze, red eye and cheek patches, most of the rear body red. Not close enough that they'd be DQd (OK if you were a certain judge bending over backwards to ID one as a Dutch, you would DQ at least one), but enough to suggest that sort of pattern--big areas of color mostly. Tulip has a red face, which immediately spares her from anyone's weird dream of what constitutes Dutch markings, LOL.

The down side of our wins is the prizes. Pretzels in a jelly jar. Oh well, guess our budget isn't very big. I'm just happy for the legs. Not sure if Paddy will ever get a third leg; we'll see how his coat holds up.

We pretty much sucked in Teddies. I showed two of each of my two breeds. We did beat one sow who was also a red roan, I'll bet her coat was nice, but mine definitely had better overall conformation. Coat means a lot in Teddies, however, and she beat us in one show also. But this sow is from a breeder who's had nearly perfect pigs (at least from a spectator's view) and it was nice to view these two sows, no matter who beat whom, and really think my sow was nicer looking. her coat is past its prime though--I only entered her because I don't have much to choose from to show right now.

Hazel's panda bear lookalike boy didn't do so well, I guess judges were unimpressed by the cuteness factor, LOL. He IS still a baby; he's barely 13 oz., so I'm hoping his coat will grow in density--I've definitely seen this happen with my boars. Although I really don't need a broken boar, what I need is a really good roan or brindle boar.

Well overall it was a nice show, and it was nice to get out with the pigs.

A piggy breeder who got most of her stock from me, wrote me about a red-eyed white baby who seemed blind. At my urging, she checked him out thoroughly and he is also deaf and missing teeth-- a typical "lethal" roan that occurrs in 25 percent of babies born to roan x roan breedings.

Because the roan gene is dominant and what you see is what you get-- if a pig is roaned, it carries the roan gene heterozygously, that is: Rn rn. If it is not a roan, it is rn rn, and lethals are dominany homozygous, or Rn Rn. What we call a lethal is a white pig who is usually blind, deaf, has missing or misaligned teeth, and may have internal problems as well. They rarely live to adulthood and are usually sterile anyway. Most roan breeders try to avoid breeding roan x roan for this reason, or euthanize these babies at birth. Because the roan gene is dominant, there can be no non-roan "carriers."

That said, it's not so simple. I had a dark-eyed white boar who, when bred to a roan sow, produced a lethal. A thorough physical check of the boar showed a couple black hairs-- he was a "silent" roan, or a roan with so few colored hairs that he appeared white.

The parents of the lethal I mentioned in the beginning are not roans either. The mother is a mostly-black brindle, out of two other brindles, "I" and "B". "I" 's maternal side has roans.

The father of the lethal is a -- suprise-- tortoiseshell and white, also sired by "B" and his dam is a self black out of no-roan lines. We'll set her aside.

Of the father's parents, "B" is a mostly black brindle who was sired by a line of TSWs. His mother is a patchy red roan. The father does have some intermingling of red and black hairs on his rump patch.

OK, go figure. The pigs' owner swears there's no one but this father who could have sired this litter. In fact he was the only boar she owned at the time. If this is true, he must be a genetic roan, right?

Insight invited!!

I got "The Shire"! As in <http://facebook.com/theshire> It was gobbled up in URLs years ago. Take THAT URL holders. I do at least have <http://theshirecavies.com>

I bought <http://shirefolk.net> first because I was showing dogs and had other interests on our farm. Now I mostly do The Shire Cavies, no longer show or raise dogs, and most of my creative stuff is under the aegis of <http://venturewisedesign.com> Anyone need a logo or a Web site or whatever?? LOL.

I've decided to post identical entries in my Cavy Society and Live Journal blogs. I know some people only read one and some only read another. I'm still encouraging people to be active on Cavy Society though, and I will be adding to my photo albums and Twitter-type postings there. I also do the Twitter thing on Facebook, which is generally not about cavies: the other posts are.

So, cavy people, read and please contribute to Cavy Society; LJ people can follow my boring cavy ramblings on LJ and non-cavy people can find out what I had for breakfast on FB, LOL. J/K.

Here's the latest time-sucking task:

This round of babies is nearly all weaned and I've been going through my waiting list, trying to offer the appropriate piggies to the appropriate people, all in the right order, before I put them on my Web site's For Sale page.

Pretty much everyone is wanting Texels, which is good because I have many more Texels than Teddies for sale. Teddies are my main breed, and it seems harder to get really good coats on the ones with really good conformation and markings. I tend to keep mismarks with super coats, and perfect conformation and markings on pigs with sort of flat sides. Arrgh. Murphy's law of cavy breeding, eh?

Texels I ruthlessly cull since I only want to keep a few for breeding--the best of course-- plus keep a few back for showing for maybe a year if I'm lucky.

I've had a couple people say they want to wait for upcoming litters -- Tassel and Tessel are in breeding to Brody, who is also for sale. A couple others I didn't hear back from, and a couple others want pigs but have no sure way of getting them. So while I have in theory 10 people on a waiting list, I can only accommodate 3 or 4 this go-round.

And Teddies, forget it. Everyone wants sows and I am keeping the only (TSW) sow in two litters, at least til I decide if I want to add her to my breeding program. I am also keeping Ruby's only baby, a boar, at least until she produces someting better. Ruby is a gorgeous sow. From her sister Hazel, I may keep this little broken boar who has two roaned red patches. His coat looks promising so far. While I don't need more patchy roans, at least his patches are roaned, LOL. I have added brokens to my roan line to hopefully pick up their better conformation and sometimes coat. So far it's worked and I've gotten decent roans or brindles (including coat and conformation) out of the second and third generations. (Sigh) it's a long trip but we'll get there.

Right now I'm waiting for two sows from Herbaceous Haven to have litters sired by my TSW Chess. Chess has an incomplete pedigree as the gal I got his father from did not keep them. But he has four legs and is arguably my best boar. He is, however, TSW. And the sows are dilute agouti brokens, blecch, but have wonderful conformation. I'm hoping to get good coats out of their litters, then sell them and breed their babies to roans. Did I mention I'm trying to weed all agouti out of my line? Not to mention the white spotting gene. LOL. Hope it happens in my lifetime.

At least I have a goal: I want to have red, black and tri roans, red and black selfs and brindles. That's it. And fewest selfs. I hope I live that long.

I've been trying to post stuff on CavySociety.com so if you miss me, look there, :-D

Had several new litters recently. Coal x Ruby had a CUTE little black and white boy, not the greatest distribution but he looks just like a panda!! He looks like he has a promising coat so he's a keeper for now.

I lost Inky, a daughter of my former GCH Mint, with her litter. Sad time. I never got babies out of her for the short time she was at The Shire. I do have her son Coal though.

Chess x Hazel had three cuties. The only really showable one is a TSW, not the best markings compared to near-perfect dad, but she has an AMAZING dense coat for a newbie and is definitely a keeper at this point. The mm TSW is definitely for sale and not sure about the grizzled red and white.

We have three Texel litters of 1, 3 and 3. Fred x Clodagh's one red and white is a keeper; the mm TSW will be for sale and not sure about the other r&w.

Brody x Iris had three; the GA/red/white will be for sale first, not sure about the others. The pix I took of them did not turn out, it was just before my camera gave up the ghost.

Do the math, these guys MAY be ready by the Rochester shows if only to an experienced breeder.

My old Canon is like 5 or 6 years old anyway and only 4 mp--a dinosaur these days anyway. I just ordered THIS:

Not sure how LJ handles HTML code and anyway I've been coding half the day and don't want to deal with <>'s any more! Did I tell you I lost an hour's worth when the software decided to be a bastard and dump me when I tried to save?

So hopefully new pix in a week or so?

Hmmm, not sure why it's not showing the camera pix...

So glad to have my laptop back. It was a dead video card and was under warranty, otherwise it'd have cost over $1,300; in other words, we'd have bought a new comp.

Now I HAVE to catch up on hard-copy pedigrees and to in general start backing stuff up. I wish I had some good software to do it--thinking about doing it "by hand" makes me groan. On the other hand, thinking about what it's like transferring stuff when you get a new comp makes me cry. And if the reason you have a new comp is because the old one passed on and took all it's data with it... well makes me not wanna live, LOL.

Not doing too well producing babies lately. June 12 I checked a Texel cage and found two dead babies in with Rally. Amazingly there was one tiny one bopping around. This guy (gal I think) has been doing well. It amazes me how her babies ever figure out how to nurse. Rally is a very big, older sow with, um, middle-age spread. And now she has this teeny baby...

Of course I have people waiting for pet AND show Texels, so I'm wishing more than one lived. But two more sows are due anytime.

A day later, I found Phoebe with two dead babies and one sitting alone in the corner while the three adults hovered in the other corner. I picked up the baby, it was cold, and it cried like in pain. It could barely sit upright. I tried giving it a bit of milk but it came out its nose. I know how to feed a baby so it doesn't aspirate so I'm thinking it had a cleft palate. No way to check on a pig though, with those huge cheeks inside. I set the baby in a blanket and he was dead a couple hours later.

So Phoebe and Chloe are both in with Chess. I saw him purring and swaggering at them yesterday-- he looked like a normal boar in slow motion, never got near them, and gave up. I don't have a lot of hope in getting babies out of Chess, :-( he and Ruby did produce a baby once but it was dead and I think premature. Ruby isn't a great producer either. I'm crossing my fingers there. They are both really really excellent pigs or they'd've been out the door before this.

I don't want to do much more breeding this year, so anyone who's pregnant better produce well.

For more cavy blog excitement, check out http://CavySociety.com

OMG a spider just dropped down in front of me!!!!! AAArrrrggghhh!!!!

My comp died, so I'm on DH's.

Had a show today, took a little brindle sow with the barest of white toes but she got DQ'd. That's ok, I really wanted comments on her coat and brindling, and both judges seemed to like her.

Also DQ'd was my fave boar Podge, who decided to sprout a lump on his chin. Fun. Paul J. nearly cried to have to excuse him from competition he liked him so much.

More later, in CavySociety.com

Worked VentureWise today and proofread two newspapers tonight. Tagged pigs inbetween. Just finished sending my entries to the MA show.

I decided not to enter the two Texel boars who are huge for their age--they have barely intermediate coats at senior weight. My other intermediate red/white/lilac boar has much more coat and just as curly. Since I only have four finished show boards I decided not to pad the entry. And I know who's better than who anyway, I know who I'm keeping and why so I don't need an opinion.

The intermediate Texel sow who had her coat chewed by her neighbor is staying home :-( The neighbor is going.

The Cobalt x Hazel tri-roan Teddy litter, aka the psycho bitches, are going. All three are sort of patchy but they have decent density and kink for their age (juniors). I'll let George decide who he likes best, if any, since I can't decide! One is very dark with a black area of non-roaning near her head, one is patchy red and black with a non-roaned white patch, and one looks sort of like a roaned brindle. I'm keeping her even if it turns out she isn't worth showing. She has the best head of the three, and not sure if she has the best coat but it is looking good. The light tri is the head bitch, but she has a good coat too, but a narrow head. The darkest one has a bit less density over the rump, a common fault that, however, I have seen self-correct. So if someone begs me to buy them I'd sell all but the brindled one. But if I get "stuck" with all three I wouldn't mind seeing how their coats mature.

Also entered is a black sow out of Belba, who is also for sale. Belba is a GA roan, a bit spotty, flat sides, but a beautiful sow and a great mom. Her roaned daughter is a clone. If I don't watch out I'll fall in love with their pretty faces and friendliness, but I want to wean out GA in my herd. The black daughter has a decent coat, about as good as the roan, but her head isnt quite as nice (of course.) The brindle daughter's coat is soft and flattish--not sure if I should keep her, but her brindling is probably the best I've produced so far. I'm getting discouraged about ever having decent brindles. None of them seem to have a good coat and most don't have great brindling either. I guess when in doubt stick it out, so I'll keep her yet a bit.

I entered Minde's black boar, who is decent and I don't have another self to enter besides the little sow so what the heck.

I also entered Begbie's son Podge who has totally blossomed. His coat is great: good kink and density and resilient even over the sides and rump. If the judges can excuse his little roaning, he'll do well. Otherwise he'll be DQ'd LOL. Stay tuned. I'm sticking with showing this guy til we run out of judges, LOL! If course he has to be a GA roan so he's gonna be the exception to my weeding out agouti, at least for awhile.

I guess that's about it. I have to pack up my car and even the pigs Friday night because I have to leave at 4 a.m. Ugh.

"Lil Jumper" just visited her texel neighbot three times as I was writing this so she now has a C&C cube over her cage! Brats!

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