Pssst....A Change in Plans

Well, I was going to work on cleaning my fleeces from Sheep and Wool this weekend but as usual life happened.  This time it happened in the form of a 50lb foster puppy named Bellamy.  I had contacted the Animal Welfare Foundation of Iowa earlier this week to see about maybe fostering for them.  However, when I contacted them, I didn't count on how much they needed foster homes and how fast they would get me approved and get me a dog.

I contacted them Monday.  On Tuesday I got the form and the profiles for three dogs that needed homes.  Thursday they got someone to come do a home visit (the husband of a friend of the rescue coordinators cousin! LOL).  Friday morning I got the email saying, "If you could come pick out your foster by noon today, that would be GREAT!"

So yesterday I went to Anamosa with my dog Spike and we looked at two of the dogs, the third one had been adopted already, yeah!  The first dog Spike did not get along with, they fought immediately upon meeting.  I got them to calm down and we walked, but as soon as we stopped they fought again.  The second dog, Bellamy, there was no fighting.  Spike gave a bit of a growl when she lifted his hind quarters off the ground trying to sniff him but she backed off immediately.  We walked together, and they got along so we took Bellamy home.

Bellamy was found as a stray so we don't know anything about her background before the rescue got her.  I am positive she wasn't born a stray though because while she has no sit, stay, down, wait, etc... training, she does know that if you sit quietly in front of a person with food, that person might give you some food.  She also signals when she needs to go outside by whining.  So so far, we've had no accidents in the house.  Yeah!

I am crate training her and she does NOT like it. I put her in there last night about 10 after one last potty run and she cried for 20min or so. About 130 she started crying again so I got up, took her out again, and then recrated her, she did pee so at least she did have to go. She cried for about 20min again but the settled down and slept till about 8.

I haven't gone thru a female spay in 13yrs, so I listened to what the vet clinic that did the spay told me and they said I should try to keep her from jumping, but I could walk her as much as she wanted. (insert gasp from those of you who know better here). I asked about the distance, should I take her for a lot of little walks just for potty time or should I take her for 2-3mi walks like I do my other dog. They said "Oh, she'll be fine for a few miles, no problem!"

So yesterday I took her on two mile plus walks (it was to hot for multiple mile walks). She seemed ok with that. This morning however, I get her out of the crate and while I am trying to keep her quiet, she is trying to jump on me and play with Spike and Spike is trying to play with her. I finally wrangle both dogs outside and they potty. When I am taking Bellamy back into the house I notice blood dripping from her. My dh and I check her out and she's popped open the incision.

I call my foster coordinator and leave a message, then I call my vet and get her in. Fortunately it isn't anything serious so they stapled the popped open area and gave me some antibiotics, more painkillers (the original clinic only gave me 2), a cone, and better care instructions. My vet was pissed when she found out how much the other clinic told me I could walk her. Bellamy is way to active to not be walked a lot so my vet suggested I give her benedryl for a week to keep her quiet so she heals.

I am also giving Spike benedryl as well. I am still taking him for his long walks but instead of being pooped when he gets back its like the presence of another dog winds him back up again and he tries to get Bellamy to wrestle and rough house which can't happen right now.

I don't really like drugging the dogs but Bell needs to heal and its either that or I crate her all the time which sucks as well.

So, that was the first 24hrs. Now both dogs are snoozing. We shall see what the next 24hrs brings.

Here is a picture of Bellamy.  They are pretty sure she is either a Lab/Hound or Lab/Boxer mix.  I'm leaning towards the hound mix because she is very nose oriented.

Be sure to follow the blog so you can hear more about Bellamy and my adventures in fostering.  Sure, this is a fiber blog and all but she's got hair and she's cute so I say its close enough.  :)

Iowa Sheep and Wool 2012

In my earlier posts I mentioned that I was at Iowa Sheep and Wool this past weekend.  I probably should have put this post before the one about the drum carder but I was way to excited about the drum carder to wait.   LOL

Anyway, on to Sheep and Wool.  It was held at the Dallas County Fairgrounds in Adel, IA.  It was about a 4hr drive for me which wasn't to bad as much of the drive was 65 or 70mph.  It is a very pretty drive with lots of farm country, but ironically, I didn't see a single sheep farm on my way down.

Friday I met up with my friend Margie and got my class area setup for my dye class.  Margie is on the board that puts S&W together so she was quite busy.  I tried to help her but felt sort of like I was getting in her way so I found a vendor who needed help and spent the rest of the evening helping her get setup.    She was happy to get some help and I was happy to have something to do.

I was rooming with Margie so I sort of followed her around like a puppy and went to dinner with her and two of her friends.  It was a very nice evening.  They made me feel very welcome and not at all like a stray they had picked up along the way. :)

Saturday was my dye class.  I had 5 students and we all had a lot of fun.  I am rubbish at taking photos at events so here are my only pictures from Sheep and Wool.

This is my class area Friday afternoon.  The class was in the small animal building and those are rabbit cages hanging from the ceiling.  They were only about 6-7 inches above my head so I was hoping none of my students were tall.

Here are two action shots of a couple of my students.

The first one she is dyeing some fiber and in the second she is wringing out some fiber that had been soaking.

Here is some finished work before rinsing. 

There was a well pump as a water source and we had grit showing up in the water buckets so I had the students take the yarn back to their homes/hotels/campers to rinse.  We wanted to keep the grit out of the yarn as much as we could.

We had an issue with electricity so I ended up with my dye pots plugged in all over the building.  It was a bit of a pain but it all worked out in the end.  And my students had fun which is the most important thing.

Saturday afternoon I shopped, helped at the registration/information booth while Margie was in a board meeting, and then took part in the lamb dinner the festival put on.  Heather had a little lamb, it was delicious!

As I had said in my previous post, one of my dye students sold me a drum carder for $150.  So Sunday morning before the vendor booths opened and classes started Margie helped me pick out two fleeces at one of the vendors she knew well.  She only had four left so we put a note on them telling the vendor I would come get them after my class.

Then I went to teach my lace knitting class.  One of the students from my dye class enjoyed the dye class so much that she signed up for my lace class too.  That made me extremely happy.  I taught my students the pattern, we knit on the pattern for a while, I helped them with the inevitable mistakes and showed them how to fix errors without having to rip back, and I showed them how to place lifelines.  After that I opened up the class to anything else they wanted to know and demonstrated blocking of lace and helped a woman figure out where she was in a pattern that she'd been working on and had set down.  I also showed them how to read the lace so if they forgot where they left off they could easily figure it out.

The student who took both of my classes told me she did enjoy the dye class more but that my lace class was great and helped her get over her fears of lace.  I was really happy to hear that.  I enjoyed the dye class more too, I always like the more physically active classes, and while lace is fun, you work to someone else's pattern.  With dyeing, you are creating what you want to create, not making something as dictated by someone else.

My lace students ended up leaving by 11 instead of 12.  We had covered everything we needed to cover, answered all their questions, and it was starting to get warm in the building so they decided they wanted to get out of there.  

So with my extra free time I got my fleeces, and some silk cocoons to play with, ate lunch, and went over to ogle the border collie pups.  They were resting while their humans took a lunch break but while I was talking to one of the humans a crowd started to gather at the pups so they decided to have a mini puppy trial for us.  

It was a lot of fun watching these 10 week old pups running sheep.  The first pup was really good and I got to hold her when they decided she had had enough and it was a second pups turn.  The second pup wasn't quite as good so the first pup kept crying and trying to get out of my arms as though she were saying, "Let me do it!  I can do it!  I'll show you how!"  One of her other humans came and collected her because she wasn't going to settle down as long as she could see the sheep.  It was good he came for her though, I'd forgotten how strong a puppy can be so I was having a hard time holding her.

One more photo for you, the pups in their pen resting.

Don't you just want to climb in there and snorgle them all?

After the trial I said good buy to my friends and headed out.  It was a great time and I look forward to going back there.

I'm going to start cleaning the fleeces I bought this weekend so be sure to follow the blog and see what I do with them.  :)  There may even be a give away for my blog followers.  :)

Awesome Deal - New Drum Carder!

I was teaching at Sheep and Wool in Iowa this past weekend.  During my dye class one of my students mentioned she was selling a drum carder on behalf of her friend who was clearing out some extra equipment so she would have money and room for an Angora rabbit.  I've been wanting a drum carder for a while so I had her show it to me and I took it.  I only paid $150 for it.  It is in great shape, everything moves freely, and it only had some dust on it from its sitting unused for a while.  However, it does not have a brand name on it and neither my student nor her friend knew what brand it came from.  I would really love to find out what brand it is so if I ever have to replace the drive band I will know what to buy.  If anyone has ever seen one like this I would appreciate it if you could tell me the brand.

Busy, busy, busy...

Apologies for not blogging for a while but life has been a touch busy lately.  Sara at Yarn Soup had her first ever sale last weekend so I worked for her Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  And at the same time I was getting ready for my classes at Iowa Sheep and Wool.  I will be teaching a dyeing class called Fearless Dyeing, and a lace class called Fearless Lace.  If you have time please come down and say hi!

I will be sure to report back on the festival and post pictures next week.

Have a great weekend everyone!