P!NK

Warning – I am under the influence of mood altering drugs.

Pink has released a video for Peta asking people to boycott Australian wool because of cruelty in the wool industry.

I still buy Australian wool, but this does give me pause.  Mulesing is done for the long term health of the sheep, but is only necessary because of selectively breeding for sheep that have more skin than they need to cover their bodies.  More skin = more wool, hence the distinctive “collar” of the merino sheep.  Unfortunately this loose skin can trap feces and make the sheep vulnerable to fly strike. 

Fly strike in a sheep can go undetected for a very long time, and will often kill an animal before it is detected, especially if the sheep has a long fleece.

There are alternatives to mulesing, and there are anesthetics that can be used to ease the considerable pain.  These options have not been explored, and I am not above putting a little pressure on the decision makers to consider more humane alternatives.

Read no further if you want to keep buying Australian wool without concern for the creatures that grew your yarn.  While I would grant that prevention of a slow death is a laudable aim, I must question the methods.

Mulesing involves pinching a handful of skin above the vent, at the base of the spine, and using a razor sharp knife to remove the excess skin.  The animals are given no pain relief, and are left to heal naturally.

I didn’t think much about this until I took a closer look at one of the pictures I took on monday.  Here is a pic I took of the sheep on the road, in a slightly larger size.  If you look closely, you can see that these sheep have been mutilated, many are still showing the raw pink scar tissue.  The pictures aren’t too disturbing for those of weak stomachs, but I was surprised that I didn’t see this yesterday, but I did today.

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We have liftoff!

We have travel insurance (thank goodness we applied for that before my lungs went haywire), we have visas (thanks to Mum for both), and as soon as we have tickets we’ll be ready to start packing.

Grasshopper is moving around a little better today, probably because of the pain meds, and he is eating well. I had an email back from the new vet, and we’ll continue to keep a close eye on him this week.

My new “unvented” stitch pattern is a winner, and I have finished the first hat (finally got the degreases working satisfactorily), and am well on my way to completing the second, proof of concept hat. I’ll write up the pattern, and hopefully someone will like it enough to knit it.

Next, to research what I can take on the plane. It’s not a terribly long flight, but I am a bit anxious about not being able to knit on the plane. I am also starting to think about travel knitting. I’ll need something lightweight, something a little bit interesting but not too over the top challenging. I’m thinking lace, because a big project can still travel light, and provide a few good solid weeks of knitting, and something not too furry in case the weather is warmish. We’re scheduled for a mild winter, a little like a Sydney spring, but there could be some warm weather at some point.

Some warm weather would be nice. I need to keep absorbing the rays 😉

Grasshopper adventures

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Last night, everybunny was fine. This morning, Grasshopper (our special needs child) wasn’t putting any weight on his left rear leg. I rang Matthew the wonder vet, but he was on day leave. Damn. I had visions of the day we lost Rhubarb, when a suburban vet sent us home without painkillers, and my precious boy died in a lot of pain. Vets are wonderful, and it is a tough job with not much reward, but bunnies need a vet with knowledge about bunny medicine, and a vet that has 20 years of experience treating dogs and cats is very unlikely to “get it”.

Then I remembered Dr David Vella. He’s an “exotics” vet, and has a particular interest in rabbits. I’ve heard good things about him, and I am so glad I thought of him today. He’s never met a European Brown Hare before, and was absolutely rapt to meet His Chops.

David gave him some opiates, and we saw a relaxed Grasshopper for the first time ever. Examining him was hard without a sedative, but x-rays without a sedative would never be possible. During the examination, I was covered in fur, and my lungs stopped taking in oxygen. I had a Ventolin with me, and went out in to the waiting room for some fresh air. Thirty minutes later, I had taken about 50 puffs of Ventolin, and still couldn’t breathe. I was considering calling an ambulance when the vet came back with Grasshopper, who was starting to wake up.

The good news was, his bones are in perfect condition. His teeth (which can be a problem with pet rabbits), are in superb condition. And I think the vet has a little crush on him.

We put the boys in the car, and I rang my GP, who recommended a trip to hospital for the human. We came home, gave Grasshopper his pain meds and set him up in a convalescent home, and Mark dropped me up at Ryde Hospital. Apparently Asthma is one of those things that they make a fuss about, so I saw a Dr. pretty quickly. By that stage I was breathing pretty well, and they put me on a nebuliser for a while. Then they gave me steroids, and made me hang around for an hour, after which time I was sent home with some meds, and a recommendation to find a home for the hare.

Not likely.

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Smart kids more likely to be “vegetarian”

According to an article published in the British Medical Journal (abstract here), kids who had a high IQ when tested at age 10 were more likely to be vegetarian as adults.

But here’s the thing. 33.6% of the test group claimed to be vegetarian, but also said they ate fish or chicken. Vegetarians and vegans accounted for 4.5% of the subjects. Apparently they included the fish and chippocrites in the “vegetarian” group.

The study lumps them both together – claiming to be a vegetarian (or vegan), while having no concept of the difference between an animal and a plant doesn’t disqualify you from a high IQ.

I think they need to review the test.

Road trip pictures

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The Masked Podcaster, modelling WIP

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The beautiful Hunter Valley

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This is what open cut mining looks like. If you’ve ever had a wine from the Hunter Valley, or used electricity in Sydney, then you ought to know what goes on here. I thought I had a clue, but this is was a bit of a rude shock.

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On the road to nowhere

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The coal travels to the power station on a conveyor belt, and we should be comforted that the clouds of grey stuff are just clouds. Nothing to see here folks.

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Around here David got some bad news on the phone. We’re too far from Sydney to go back, so onwards we go….

This was the second “event” of our trip. First, we saw a totalled motorbike, with a dust covered helmet beside it. Not a happy sight. We pulled over to look for the rider, and found him, gushing blood, by the side of the road. We took him to the nearest road house. Steve – I hope you got home OK.

(When I was a kid, our neighbour lost one of her teenaged daughters to a motorbike accident. A car knocked Cheryl off the road, and she died of her injuries by the side of the road. Nobody stopped.)

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We saw a sign with a picture of a cow and a sheep. The cows came first. There were a lot of them, and they were on both sides of the road, and on the road. Not a lot of grass to eat on the road, but cows are not allowed to join mensa.

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Then the sheep. Note the sheep dog mid leap into ute.

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Dog in ute.

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Sheep bums.

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Still life with cow.

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We made it!

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A rustic wool baler.

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The masked podcaster finds his mark.

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A wire sheep

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The big bad ass ball winder

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Machine number one. No idea what it is called, or what it does. See further posts for excuses.

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The drum carder.

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A lot of roving.

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Two drum carders.

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Unspun being turned into singles.

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Plying.

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The dye bath.

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Yarny goodness.

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Waiting for the dye bath.

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Unspun. I bought some of this, and am killing braincells thinking of what can be done with it.

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Raw Merino fleece. See the little crimps?

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After carding.

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Hmmmm…. Unspun.

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Of course we had to shop a little…

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Here is some of the yarn we didn’t buy.

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The shop.

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As we left, I spotted a calf in the neighbour’s yard.

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Back off, human.

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I’m eating.

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OK?

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And then there were sheep.

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Sheep with black faces.

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And a hunger for whatever we have in our pockets…

A great day was had by all, and we are already planning the next road trip!

I didn’t get home until nearly 11pm, so I had rather a slow start to tuesday.

An event made for knitters ?

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Kate tells me that this year it’s Turandot. Kerry tells me that the title character is a bloodthirsty princess, and that there is one particularly haunting aria. I have only been to the real opera once (Tosca), but I try to go every year to the pleb opera. Usually I try to get there a few hours early with a picnic, a bottle of wine and a few friends, so that we can soak up the ambience before the main event.

This strikes me as a great opportunity for a knit. Anyone up for it ?

PS. The Opera in the Park is on Saturday, January 27th. Concert usually starts at 8pm, I’ll probably try to get there around 4pm to grab a spot. I’ve added the event to the <a href=”webcal://ical.mac.com/rhubarbandcustard/Stitch%20’n%20Bitch.ics“>Sydney S’nB calendar</a>.

And here is a link to the Opera Australia calendar. You’ll have to navigate to January 2007 to find Turandot because there is no direct link (that I can find).

And because I hate being a whinging blogger

Today something really wonderful happened.

With all the crap going on lately, I had completely forgotten that before the storm, there was a brief period of calm, and dare I say it, prosperity.

Mark and I decided after seeing The Scissor Sisters at the Live 8 concert (on the telly of course), that if they ever came back to Australia, we’d have to go see them. As soon as tickets were announced, I set my alarm, and had the tickets booked by 9.05am on the morning they went on sale. It’s an extravagance we can’t really afford right now, and if it had happened a few weeks later, we would have had to be sensible. As it is, the money is already spent, and we have a small incentive to return from Vietnam – the concert is on in early Feb.

I DO Feel Like Dancing !

Check out their myspace page for a taste of 2006 disco.