Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Tucson in the summer

There was an article in both the USA Today and the Arizona Daily Star in which they celebrated that Tucson is the number one place to live according to a survey in AARP. Well, there is one thing that they did not consider in their calculations which anyone in Tucson could have told them. Tucson in the summer is hell. I cannot even imagine what Phoenix is like. Forget that dry heat stuff. Hot is hot!

Most of my aggravation with the heat is a result of watching the animals deal with the stress. Despite the fans, misters, and sprinklers running full blast, they are breathing heavy and I managed to lose an angora rabbit and her babies. Of course, there were other factors that lead to their deaths, but it is very frustrating to deal with the heat on top of it all. Raking is a major pain and I am seeing the fleeces start to accumulate vegetable matter(VM.) The ones with the best fleeces seem to want to roll in the stuff. Wet fleeces attract and hold the VM, so I will have a lot more work when it comes time to clean the fleeces.

On a positive note, my Elsa carder from Patrick Green is ready. They should have the check and it will be shipped before the end of the week. I am excited. I have been washing 5-10 fleeces a week in order to have plenty to just run through it. Anything boring in the shop will get new life.

I am currently spinning novelty yarns. I just finished one that shifts from white through all sorts of shades of gray to black. It is now in the wash. I carded all of the batches into three batts weighing a total of 6.6 ounces. My new carder will hold all of that and more. I plan to get back to Netflix and keep spinning my way through the "Ghost Whisperer." The plots are all becoming predictable, so I am counting on the character development to keep me going. Then I will be back to finish "BattleStar Galactica." Has anyone watched anything good available on DVD? Can't do those long stretches of one color without mental stimulation.

1 comment:

Donita Porter said...

When I had rabbits we would freeze plastic soda bottles and put them in the rabbits cage each morning. They would lie next to them and keep cool.