Chinchilla on the run!

I've had Walter for about a month now and he's adorable! A right little character!

In the evenings, I have to remove his food bowl from the cage for the night or he pulls it off the side of the cage, throws it to the floor of the cage and then jumps into it - as it's a metal food bowl and the floor of the cage is bars like the sides; it makes a godawful noise!

He's very sociable and comes to me whenever I open the door, will eat from my hands and most of the time; I can stroke him (especially if I distract him with food).

But I can't pick him up!

He'll sit on my hands & chew my sleeve or jewellery or food if I have some in my hand, but if I try to hold him; he jumps away. I've watched Mel - she puts her hand in and just grabs hers, he struggles a bit, but then calms immediately. I asked Auntie Ruth how she holds hers (she has four), she puts her hand in and picks them up under their bellies - if I try that; Walter just jumps over my hand.

I can catch him, but it takes a minute or two of chasing him around the cage and then when I've got hold of him, he struggles. He'll relax for about 10 seconds, then struggle, then relax for a bit longer.

I tried giving him a treat when I've got hold of him, but he won't take it.

Should I just stick to putting my hands in the cage for now, or should I persevere with chasing, catching and holding him - when will I know when I can pick him up? If I persevere with catching him, should I hold him until he's calm (kinda like flood therapy) or just hold him for a few seconds?

As I've said, other than trying to hold him, he's adorable! He chitters to me and loves when my hands are in the cage, if I could climb into the cage, he'd be all over me - but I'm too scared to get him out of the cage unless I can hold him in case he jumps down and runs away!

Following in her mothers footsteps

I was watching a video on YouTube today about using the Twist and Rip method of dreadlocing hair.

Jess was watching over my shoulder and was inspired, she went to work and several hours later; she looked like this!

I think she looks great and I hope she keeps them!

I've got about 9 beads in my hair now, all the original ones I bought at Woolfest, then I ordered this lot from here.

The little white one, top right, was sent as a freebie along with the five that I ordered - isn't that fab!

I've scattered the beads throughout my hair and I love how it looks today - all wild and messy!

Got Jess to take a photo of the back of my head so I could get a good look at it - it's locking up nicely now!

The beads are holding well, there are loops and knots and it's still changing daily! If I'd known it was going to be this easy to dread my hair - I would've done it years ago!

After one week - or thereabouts

So it was a week ago that I decided to stop brushing my hair. Then on Tuesday of this week, I decided to speed things up by backcombing it.

I removed the beads, backcombed, sprayed with sea salt spray and palm rolled.

Today I had a long soak in a bath with bicarbonate of soda (baking soda to my US friends) in it and this evening, I put the beads back in.

Even though I look like Sideshow Bob, I'm actually starting to like the way it looks! I can see dreading happening now, can feel the changes going on in my hair and I love it!

I've even ordered more beads!

Hmmmmmm

So, I was told to spray my hair with a sea salt spray to help the knots form, which I did yesterday.

I washed it this morning and all the knots dropped out - not sure if it's because I actually submerged my head in the bath instead of gently pouring water over it, or what.

So today, I decided I would back comb it to try and hurry things up a bit and this is what I ended up with LOL

Of course, that looked ridiculous and I was trying to resign myself to missing bingo this week - no way would Mel take me looking like that! - when I had a brainwave!

On the dreadlock forums on Ravelry, someone posted about palmrolling while in the shower, so I sprayed all my new fuzz explosions and palm rolled them and ended up with what (almost) look like proper dreadlocks.

It feels very very different - like I've done a 'big' hairstyle and put loads of hairspray in it; there's movement, but away from my scalp.

It also feels quite dry because of the salt, but I'm going to leave it as long as I can before washing to give the knots a chance to get established!

Dreadlocks

I finally took the plunge and decided to dreadlock my hair.

I spent a day giving myself a migraine by researching online.

There are several methods but I decided to just twist the hair, palm roll a bit and then just leave it! Jess helped me and did the back and I've got lots of little worms on the back of my head!

We spent several hours doing it and I was really pleased with how it looked when we finished.

Unfortunately, all that fiddling made my hair feel quite greasy so I gathered my courage and washed my hair this morning.

It didn't all fall out, although it does look really curly now! I am really pleased with it now and can't wait until it's loc'd properly!

Once it's all established I'm going to research bleaching and dyeing the locks.

Purple, naturally!

Lots of stuff

Sooooooooo, let me see. It's been a month since I last wrote anything here and naturally, as soon as I get here; my mind goes blank.

So, as per usual, this post will probably be a bit rambly LOL.

First of all, Matt turned 18! I'm planning on taking him out clubbing tomorrow night - wonder how drunk I can get him LOL.

Then Jess had her high school prom, finished her exams, left high school and has applied for an animal care course at college! This is a pic of her in her prom dress, doesn't she look absolutely stunning!

Also, June is Woolfest month - I'd been looking forward to this for months and even missed out on being a bridesmaid so that I could attend!

I drove up to Ilford where Claire lives on Wednesday, I slept in the van outside hers on Wednesday evening and she filled the van up with all her stuff LOL. Thursday we headed for the Lake District.

On the way I met up with Dora & Kathy who bought my Majacraft Rose from me and paid me cash which was very handy as I was planning to buy another Ashford Joy so that I'd have a travel wheel and a plying wheel - I love Sherry The Cherry, but carting her about is cumbersome and she takes up a lot of room!

We arrived in the Lakes at dinnertime and Claire took me to a Chinese takeaway for a birthday dinner - it was very nice! China Garden in Ambleside if you're interested.

After that we headed for the Derwentwater Hotel - there's a little dead end road that the hotel sits on and the end of the road doesn't have any double yellow lines or 'No camping or overnight occupation of vehicles' signs so we parked up there for the night.

Unfortunately, a cockeral now lives in the field right there and started crowing at about 4.30am - I was not amused but managed to ignore it for the most part!

We headed into Cockermouth for Woolfest on Friday morning. It was awesome, I walked loads, spent quite a bit, saw loads of old friends, met some new friends, had an absolutele blast, but Isis was the hit of the show. Loads of people came up to say hello to her LOL.

Friday night was the Cumbrian Sausage Fest and the Spin In - it was delicious and gave me the opportunity to check the Joy was all in full working order.

That night a couple of officials were kind enough to let me park with the vendors who had chosen to camp there for the night.

We attended Woolfest again on the Saturday and spent most of the day with 'The Mogs' in the Interactive Area - they run the Interactive Area at Woolfest & Wonderwool, it's a meet up place, a demo area and an area where anyone can come and ask questions, learn a new skill, buy/donate yarn and fibre - all proceeds go towards the Air Ambulance and this year The Mogs raised £230!!

If you're interested you can view all my Woolfest photos here.

We went back to the Derwentwater Hotel road despite the cockeral for Saturday night and Sunday night we were invited to visit Damaris at her home - which is gorgeous and I want it! She even has a flat bit outside that was suitable for the camper!

We were going to visit The Mogs on Monday night, but they had a family emergency, we were both exhausted and decided to head back to Claire's!

I stayed at Claire's on the Monday night and Tuesday I went to visit Kerry for 2 nights.

I got home at lunchtime on Thursday, I was exhausted, filthy and dying for a shower.

Before I could do anything, Mel called and asked if I could PLEASE collect Mason from playschool and take him to her Mum's. After which, I came home stripped off, ran the bath and discovered that there wasn't one clean towel in the whole house!

Luckily, Damaris had loaned me towels when I showered at hers, so my towels were unused, but I was NOT happy!

On Tuesday, Live Foods By Post who I get all my snake supplies from posted this picture.


BABY CORNS! And they're black!!

Yes, I've already been in and reserved two :D

I also got a message over the weekend telling me that Matt had a job interview Tuesday morning at Arreton Barns. He went in today for a trial and by 2pm they told him they wanted to hire him! My baby is all growed up with a proper job *sniffle*

Today, Walter came to live with us, he's a little chinchilla born from the pair that Mel has so I know he's been cared for properly and I've definitely seen his parents LOL

He's had loads of fun, chewed hay, his cage, shelves & box, pooped, eaten and snoozed and I've held him a couple of times too.