It is hard to find a good middle of the road book for rabbits and goats and sheep. Many of the "Insert Name Here Guide to Critters" do a good job giving you the basic facts about the critters we care about. Many of them, however, don't give all the information I would like to have and find useful. For instance, one of my rabbit books tells me that it is best to cull the animal with said medical issue...okay for meat rabbits maybe but what about animals we have a lot of emotional attachment, time or money invested in? I was looking for books that give me some technical information- enough to make a decision about wether or not I need to get to the vets office or if I can do something about the issue myself. Or how to spy a problem in the making.
The Completely Angora book was a find at a library book sale that a friend found. It is incredible! I think he paid 82 cents or something for it, and he still gave it to me after he found out it is worth a bunch more (true mark of a friend). Unfortunately it is out of print. Not too technical and very in depth. I can't imagine what else I might need to know about angora rabbits that isn't in there.
The Sheep and Goat medicine book is very good as well. It has an appendix with common goat and sheep medicines (including off label) and their dosages. It is written primarily for vet students (with a biology background I still needed to look up a few words) but it isn't too hard to follow. It retails for $105.00 but I found it at
http://www.jefferslivestock.com/ for $89.00. I feel happy to have found both of these resources.
When I came home on Valentines Day, this surprise was waiting for me! It is modeled after a really interesting display that we saw at the Portsmouth Children's Museum (they had a whole hands of textile section for kids). Will says it is a mock up only and that the frame will be finished etc... I love it. It looks even prettier in person and away from my messy counter... Since it isn't completely finished we may add a really big weaving shuttle that I bought in NH last year that is from a mill and a larger mill bobbin as well. I'm thinking it might be nice to wind some other yarn on some of the naked bobbins too...yarn spun from our woolies might be nice.
The angora book sometimes goes for big bucks on the secondary market. Look at it on ebay or amazon. I have it too-good book and bargain for you. Neat idea for a way to display spools. I have a bunch of those too - sitting around in various places waiting to be knocked over. Also agree with you on the culling. I don't want to cull my pet rabbits for a minor medical issue that I could treat with patience and proper medicine.
ReplyDeleteWow...such a nice blog entry...spindles and spools, animal natural medicine books, and amazing curls on our Lila. She looks totally awesome with all those curls, even on a sleepy morning ! If I remember correctly the experience of wearing those darn things all night, the sleepiness is a result from not sleeping so well with lumps all over the head. Likely she did get her Daddy's curls and he got his from her Grampa Dan.
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