Surgery Decision

Booker’s mom checking in-

Recap - Limping, then Right knee had a positive drawer sign mid June. Initiated conservative management, supplements and food improvements, after it had stabilized, as far as we could tell i.e. when he returned to full weight bearing, we then slowly added activity, a short distance each day.

No more limping, muscles toned back up, happy, trotting fine, tho we hold back- no stairs, no jumping , no mega hikes and beach running mania etc...

Well, we got the right Ortho Vet for us and trust him 100%. The good news is his hips seem fine from his hands on exam and a look at X-rays we brought along. We had a set of really bad x-rays from the Vet who first saw Bookie-the general vet had stated he had misaligned hips-- man the X-rays are so very bad !! I want my 300 bucks back! I often see human X-rays and know these were.. of minimal value. The 2 x-rays basically only showed no other growths etc, not much information. We shall see.

In any case looks like Booker stabilized the tissues around the joint so he could use it but bone on bone will soon appear, and probably had a full tear occur; drawer sign is very evident when he was manipulated (albeit not sedated this time).

Waaa. We are going for the fully Monty- TPLO - for best outcome, least arthritis . Then see how the luxating patella changes- or not.

Booker‘s limbs are very out of conformation- all bowlegged in front (which may or may not catch up with him) and the right leg has a twist to it, which rules out the normal fix for patellar luxation ( repair=relocation of the bony prominence where the knee then, theoretically, will stay in place).

At least the his left rear leg is “normal”!

So for Christmas I am telling friends/family to donate to their favorite charity, and my funds will go to the Vet office! We usually don’t get caught up the whole gift thing too much anyway- prefer have them over all through December- to fix ‘em all great dinner and hang out instead...

Happy Holidays......... Surgery will be post Thanksgiving. I am on Orthodogs yahoo list and gleaning tips like the soft 3-collar, donut collar, no slippery floors, no stairs, pain management. Much of it basically a repeat of conservative management but with drugs.He was a total zombie on Rimadyl for a few days so I am researching the best way to manage things post surgery now.

Long time no Post

Been awhile since I posted here, life being as it is. Working full time +, death in the family and generally being gardening and happily taking a vacation this summer, and dabbling in my hobbies has kept me rather busy and off here!

Yesterday came the first rains, a welcome sight after many dry months. Here in Northern California it rains plenty part of the year, but most of the year is dry, dry, dry! I planted part of my winter garden recently so it is sooo GOOD to have Mother Nature help along.

Fiber stuff news is I acquired a few nice Alpaca fleeces this summer and also finally got back a set of 3 nice ( Cooriedale x Lincoln) fleeces back from the mill I use. Although the wait to get them seemed to be forever - wow! -Yummy! Spins itself almost! Just floats off my hands. Of course I am not that great a spinner yet, mostly inch wormy still, but hey- all this is my fun, not my work so no worries!

Spinning: I did get a wooly winder for my Ashford Traditional this year too and I can say it is a great convenience, no stopping to adjust yarn on hooks/wind on etc, so has helped me concentrate on producing even, consistent yarn. I now see how each roving really speaks to me as to how it wants to be spun. I can still spin thick and thin (aka as Designer yarn) on spindles ;-).

Milled: White and “black”, these will be spun up this winter. Oh yes, the white was blended with some yearling mohair. Last year I did the same blend and it really makes the yarn bright and shiny. My experiments with dying carded roving resulted in some really tight (as in felted) so prolly I will experiment a bit more but lean towards dyeing after spinning (and plying) this time around.

My time spent on scouring, carding and spinning up samples of the fleeces was well spent but I really advise letting a mill do it ( except the spinning!) if you ever want to have enough yarn to do a major project with! YMMV. For me- So many hobbies, so little time.

Here’s a good tutorial video: (joins my collection of 80+ Fiber-related You Tube videos)...




Last weekend the Editor/Publisher Linda Cortright of Wild Fibers Magazine visited our Spinning Guild ( gratefully is nearby).Wow! We were treated to a slide show about cashmere in Ladakhi, where they nomads opened up their own mill, and various aspects of 2009 having been declared The Year of the Natural Fiber by the UN.

I did win a few prizes for my 4 hats at the county fair - knitted, fulled and traditional feltingtechniques (dread lock hats were a hit! One was from commercial merino another from white handspun). $50 dollars more in the fiber coffers!

Yesterday was a day of bring yer machine and have fun at my machine knitting guild- it was really fun! I started a picot baby bonnet. Off to go and finish it now!

KnittySpin - gotta love it!

Knitty of course is a fav site of knitters and spinners too- and this 08 Spring issue has a great article on plying:
http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring08/KSnoveltyply.html


This blog helps me get back to places I like, so hope this helps you too.

The long and short of my spinning life is:

I use an Ashford Traditional wheel- kind of a pain since it has a little lag when at the top of each rotation, that I have to watch out for, (the woes of a AT, single treadle newbie spinner)

I tried to learn how to spin yummy silk (tussah and bombyx top) but was a dismal failure; this was via a “ from (off?) the lock“ technique. 4-6 inch pieces of top. Super tangles is all I really got going. Will struggle along,silk is worth the effort to get GOOD!
I have some silk hankies to try next; it won’t be as frustrating to spin silk in that form.www.knitty.com/issuewinter05/FEATsilkhankies.html

Prolly if I had FIRST learned to spin wool off the lock, i would have done better.
Spinning on a spindle is way fun- yep, collecting these starts up quickly! I try out various wools, such as those I have dyed, to see how they spin up. My first attempts at dyeing wool became semi-felted- oops. Not easy to draft at all.... So I do very exotic yarn via spindling to make something of them! LOL - Moi Designer yarn.

Water pump Video

Water is so important. This video is great! I suppose in the USA, this would be considered child labor.

Goal is 4,000 by 2010 in (subsahara) Africa.