The Hog Diaries - Freedom, Freddie and Fab Fosterers

Written Sept 2014 ...A few nights ago I released Kera, almost 8 weeks to the day that she came in to care. On the day of her release Kera weighed a roly poly 1108gms and was beginning to have trouble rolling in to a tight ball.

Let's just say that she had plenty of blubber on board to sustain her over the first few weeks of freedom whilst she found her feet.

Fatty Fatty Bom Bom

Kera was released along with Lucky - another female hog, at Houchens House. This is the same place that Hector and Poe were released a few weeks ago and is a beautiful and special spot located on the fringe of one of Hamilton's southern suburbs. There are acres of formal gardens - all heavily mulched, which will provide provide plenty of forage for the hoggies.

Kera and Lucky's release boxes

A view of some of the garden at Houchens House

Freddie continues to thrive and having finished all of his medication is well and big enough to have graduated to a hutch outside.

He hasn't looked back since his move and at his last weigh in a few days ago he was 902gms. I'm not weighing him every day now as he needs to start getting his wild hog on which he is doing admirably.








In fact, when I last got him up to weigh him he balled and prickled up like an absolute pro. I was so proud of him hehe. He is growing a very impressive amount of fur as well as a good covering of quills and next weekend I will move him into a pen in preparation for release, for which he should hopefully be ready in 2-3 weeks.

Currently our Hamilton foster network is almost full to over flowing; which this early in the season is a bit worrying, as over the past 6-8 weeks we've had a steady stream of severely mangey hogs coming out of hibernation in very poor shape indeed. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that we are temporarily down by two fosterers which equals 4 hoggie placements. That aside though, the hogs that we have in care (all eleven of them!) are doing well, with some coming close to being ready for release.

 I also have to remind myself that this time time last year we had one 'official' fosterer in Hamilton - me, and that coming in to this season we have six super caring souls helping us, with more (hopefully) coming on line soon. Let's just hope that we can get our current inmates well and on their way before the main rescue season hits with a vengenace.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Arty Farty - A Shawl Well Traveled

Written in 2010 - How many countries do you think this garment has traveled to? Well, it was conceived in Australia, spent its teenage years in India, reached maturity in New Zealand and will soon emigrate to America to be rehomed at a fund raising auction for the Mastocytosis Society during its 2010 conference in October.

The shawl's pattern is a variation on a theme from a pattern on Knitty:

Lace Ribbon Scarf

I doubled the width so the scarf is around 62 cm wide and 2m long after blocking. It is knitted on 4mm needles and took 5.5 balls of yarn. I altered the gauge a little from the original 21st/ 34 rows to 24 st/ 32 rows.

The yarn I choose is deliciously soft and lovely to work with:

Eki Riva Supreme 100% Baby Alpaca # 2299 Lavender

I choose to use this particular yarn because alpaca is often tolerated better than wool as it is softer so is less likely to cause irritation. This was an important factor in my decision because many folk who suffer from Mastocytosis have issues with skin sensitivities and itching.

The edging was knitted separately and sewn on prior to blocking. The pattern is called Willow Leaf and is from one of my books:

150 Knitted Trims

As with all lace, the edging looked horribly lumpy prior to blocking and there was plenty of guestimation going on whilst I knitted it and tried to figure out long it should be, but it shaped up nicely once it had had a taste of the 'wires'!  Blocking really is akin to putting your precious work on the rack for a torture session.

I hope that whomever takes the shawl home with them at the conclusion of the conference enjoys wearing it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Ruminative Ponderings - Trishaw TriHard

Written in India 2010... One fateful Sunday, Chris and I headed out to Galleria Market Place. The main reason for our mission was to go to Le Marche and Le Marche Sugar 'n' Spice. I had read about these two shops on line. One was apparently a good butcher and the other a source of imported goods.... yes, I was determined to find some coffee beans... We also needed to purchase a large UPS unit to protect computers etc during the 5-20+ power cuts a day that are the norm in Gurgaon.

Now, Galleria is an 'interesting' place - as many are in India. The link below provides a  description which suffers from a syndrome I am finding is quite common here in India, and that is that it is utterly fantasy driven. It's almost as if they believe that if they write that it is like that then it will be that way in reality. Honestly, reading this you'd expect to never want to leave the place once you got there ... this certainly isn't our experience to date. One really has to marvel at the Photoshop skills of the person who provided the images and also has to wonder just what the author was smoking when they wrote the article ...

Galleria Market Place .....

In the summer heat the central plaza is simply an oven. If it is around 40c in the shade then heaven knows what the temp gets to in the sun. Simply put it is hot enough to bake ones brains in ones skull within minutes....

This particular Sunday we were fortunate in that the temp had peaked at a 'cooler' 36.5c. The driver triple parked to drop us off then beetled off to find a parking spot somewhere in the shade ...

Our first stop was Sugar 'n' Spice and yes there was a range of imported produce, including coffee beans - yowsers tres expensive! The shop was a  really a long skinny cupboard crammed with people and very hot but hey, this is India! We stocked up and went off to find the butcher. I walked in and took a sniff as I checked out the meat on offer. Hmmm, having been suffering with Delhi Belly for the previous week didn't help my first impressions. I bought a few packs of locally made sausages which were very fresh but declined to sample anything else on offer.

Lugging six bags of shopping plus the very heavy UPS, Chris and I made our way out to the entrance and called the driver. No answer .... okay, maybe he's away from the car, we'll give him 10 minutes and try again. Which we did ..... over and over and over for the next 70 minutes. There was no response at all. After the first 15 minutes I had found myself a seat under a tree and had planted myself there to wait ... as you do in India. I passed the time checking emails and posting on Facebook and trying not to get tooooo wild. I was so relieved that Geri wasn't with us...

When the hour mark clicked over Chris started talking about using a Trishaw to get home. NO WAY! I am not going on one of those things on those roads!!!! I was getting a trifle 'grumpy' by this stage as I was overheating and hence began suffering a total sense of humour failure. Poor Chris was watching me closely and trying to gauge just how close I was to total nuclear meltdown. I'm certain he was dreading the dropping of the "I've had enough and am going home" bomb. Eventually he went to see if he could find the driver; with no luck, however he did come back with some cold bottled water which was wonderful.

 ... and they're off ...

                               
Finally reality bit and I accepted that we had no other option but to take a Trishaw. Oh joy! Chris went off to negotiate and once he had agreed on a price I staggered over with our loot. As everything was loaded aboard I marvelled at the poor, scrawny little guy who had been game enough to take on six bags of groceries, a large UPS and two huge Europeans.  We set off down the road at a fairly sedate pace and after a few minutes I had to grudgingly admit to myself that I was almost enjoying myself ...

We traveled at a sedate (poor, poor man!) pace for about one kilometer during which time I looked around and gave thanks once again that Geri wasn't with us and that the road we were on was a quiet (for Gurgaon) one. Glancing over to the right I couldn't believe my eyes when I spotted what I thought was our car. I grabbed Chris' arm and pointed frantically as I sputtered at him to tell the Trishaw driver to stop. Said driver finally did stop; totally confused, and watched in horror as Chris leaped out of the Trishaw and ran over the road to our car.
                                                                                                                                    
Trishaw guy turned to me; totally confused, and exclaimed "NO taxi, No taxi!" I tried to make him understand that that was our car but he just looked at me as if I was stark raving mad - hmmm, maybe he wasn't too far off the mark! I finally got him to understand (I think) that he just needed to wait and we watched Chris trying to wake our driver; Saroj, up. He bashed on the windows, venting the frustration that had built up over the last hour and a half. Slowly, slowly the noise penetrated the impermeable cocoon of sleep that Saroj had woven around himself. He cracked open an eye and when the realisation that it was 'Sir' bashing on the window and that 'Sir' was looking very irate he erupted out of the car  and proceeded to look very confused about why we hadn't phoned him to pick us up!!!! GARG!!! His level of mortification increased exponentially when he he spotted me perched in the Trishaw.

Chris came back over the road, paid off the Trishaw guy and we transferred everything to the car before proceeding back to Central Park. The tension in the car was palpable and on arriving back at the apartment 'Ma'am' made it perfectly clear that she was beyond angry - no smile, no eye contact, death ray vibes humming.

For the whole of the following week, Saroj waited for the axe to fall. You see, his transgression was a fire-able offence.  Now, there's no way we would get him fired for this. He'd never done it before and goodness knows how many people rely on him and his income.We just hoped it would never happen again and decided to let it go. Unfortunately, it did happen again the following weekend. This time we had been at a major hotel for lunch and Saroj once again disappeared off the face of the planet. After waiting for 30 minutes (inside in the A/C thank heavens) a customer services employee; who knew Chris well, let us hire (for a nominal fee) one of the hotel limos to get home. An hour after we got home Saroj called, wondering where we were.... hmmmm...... no comment.

One major ramification of these incidents is that I don't feel I can trust Saroj to be there when I need him to be when I am out with Geri; not that we've been out much so far, as we've been too sick.  This means that I can only take her out to somewhere that I know has good A/C but even that wouldn't be safe if she was reacting. So we are restricted to Ambiance Mall which is attached to the Leela Hotel. The staff at the hotel know us and know that Geri is sick so would do everything they could to help in an emergency and whilst this is reassuring, it is somewhat restrictive to say the least. I guess only time will tell if Saroj blots his copybook again ...      

The Hog diaries - Freddie - Words Fail Me!

Written in 2014 ... Well, Freddie simply breaks the cute - o - meter.... He's been with me for 8 days now and is just the cheekiest, wriggliest, happiest, cutest wee hog in the whole world.

Look at that face!!!!!!

So far, Freddie has been in care for 51 days, 42 of which were with Maritha; his and Kera's rescuer, who had done an awesome job to get him this far as he has been every bit as sick as Kera and far from an easy case.
However after struggling with him for 6 weeks, Maritha reached the end of her rope when Freddie's latest poo tests returned (still!!!) positive for Lungworm and also showing a very heavy Coccidia burden. This of course meant he needed yet further rounds of medications and when I reported this to poor Maritha; who was also struggling with a teething toddler, her face just fell. I had already made the decision to take Freddie on if Maritha needed to surrender him and when I offered to take him on she accepted immediately, albeit tearfully.

Once I had Freddie settled, I immediately started him on Deprim for the Coccidia and waited for the required gap between his last Profender treatment for Fluke; which had been given on the day he arrived, and starting Panacur - his 4th course!!! There is simply NO way he should still have had Lungworm and hopefully this latest round of Panacur will finally deal to it once and for all.

When Freddie arrived he was still quite skinny and underweight and although he had gained 297gms since admission. He was apparently quite a fussy eater and refused all wet food... Well he's had a change of heart and eats a huge bowl full of Jellimeat (into which I mix Flaxseed Oil and a Magnesium/Zinc/B6 supplement to encourage quill/fur growth) every night. I am very pleased with his progress so far and expect he will simply go from strength to strength for here on out.

In the ensuing 8 days since admission Freddie has gained 215gms and is now a healthy, plump 828gms. He's filled out a lot, has relaxed and is less anxious and frightened. In fact he is just the cheekiest wee thing around. Whenever I open his crate he pops his head out of his blankets and peers up at me to say hello.

Me thinks Young Freddie is going  to need a good long spell in pre release to wild up!

Arty Farty - The Winter Garden - a potentially dangerous state of affairs ...

Written in 2010 -Soon after arriving home from India... This morning in Pukerua Bay we are enjoying a 'refreshing' southerly blast. This wee breeze is coming from the Antarctic via the fresh snow which fell in the South Island yesterday - all 75cm of it. Brrrrr. Hence today's decision to stay inside and write about my garden rather than work in it.

I've been home from India for 8 weeks and have leaped head first back into my garden with unbridled glee. On the days when it has been too wet or cold, my Fibro or Geri's masto has prevented me from working outside I have planted myself in my window seat and tried to organise a brain which is overflowing with ideas. I have ideas sprouting left, right and centre which is exciting but at the same time a little daunting and very dangerous as I have decided to redesign many areas of the garden and am in scheming and plotting overload!

But before I show you what I'm up to let's take a moment to ponder just how gorgeous a winter garden can be. Even in the depths of winter; when one expects there to be little to admire or find joy in, there are gems to be found.

Tecomanthe speciosa

When I arrived home my Tecomanthe vines were flowering. They have hinted that they might flower over the last fews years, but I've never been home to witness it. These vines flower in mid winter and as I've made quite an effort to avoid visiting home during Wellington's winter whilst living overseas, it is little wonder that I haven't managed to catch them at it.

The Tecomanthe is a rare beastie indeed so it is an extra treat to have it flowering in my garden. This vine was found on Great King Island in the Three King Island group (some of NZ's off shore islands) in the 1940s. The specimen; discovered by Prof. Bayliss of Otago University, was the sole  remaining plant in the world. Luckliy it propogates fairly readily and is now growing with great vigour in many NZ gardens. It loves my garden because it is pretty close to the plants original home in regard to growing conditions. In fact it is so happy here that it can be a trifle too triffid-like at times! Anyway, as you can see the flowers are really quite beautiful and are a welcome addition to the local Tui population as a source of winter nectar.

Clianthus puniceus

Another native plant that flowers from mid winter through to late spring is the Kaka Beak. This showey customer is also endangered in the wild but is grown in many gardens these days so is safe from extinction. These guys can be pretty picky about their growing conditions but seem happy enough where I have them located for now. However their apple cart is about to be upset as the bed they are occupying is soon going to be redeveloped and the Kaka Beaks won't fit with the new colour scheme. Not to worry tho, they'll be moving upstairs to the top garden where I have a few gaps to fill. Hopefully they won't decide to sulk... or worse!

Fuchsia triphylla

Although not a native, this fuchsia is doing pretty well in the garden even though I've not been home to keep an eye on it. It is about to be relocated upstairs to the top garden as well, however I don't think it will be as upset about moving as the Kaka Beak might (will) be. I'll just give it a good haircut and let it get on with it.

Last but not least, we have another precious NZ native plant. This one originates from the Chatham Islands and is simply magnificent. It won't be in flower for another month or so yet, but even so its form is so striking that I think it rates a mention. This plant can be difficult to grow but if you get the spot right and it decides it likes its location it just thrives. This group is in one of the beds that I am redeveloping but lucky for them they work in with the new colour scheme so they can stay put. In fact, I love them so much that I have designed the colour scheme around them!

Lunch awaits ... as do the seed and nursery catalogues.