Greetings dear readers!  I know you have all been waiting with bated breath, desperate to know what nifty little crafts have issued forth from my hands.  Here they are: naalbinded mittens and a hat.  I am drying them as I type.  Here are some pics of me boiling them up on the woodstove. 

That is a hat.  The terrifying thing with felting up something is that when the wool gets wet, before it starts to shrink, it expands… a lot.

That is the blue mitten, also seen with its already shrinkydinked mate below:

Here is the hat, after a few minutes in the dryer:

And the ensemble:

They still are a bit floppy, so they will go back into the dryer for a few more minutes.  And hey, if you liked them, go to the Barnyard flea market this weekend and buy them!  They will be offered for sale on consignment by an acquaintance of mine who has a booth there.

Dixie Thunder of Aiken County held their annual Crippled Critter Benefit to help raise funds for our private sanctuary most of which houses special needs animals.  The first Crippled Critter Benefit was founded by Dixie Thunder member PR

Here is a picture of PR (Center) his wife Faye (left) and Rick (Right)

This years event made it into the local newspaper and the Aiken Standard had this to say:

This year the goal is to put in a wheelchair/scooter ramp using the exit door that leads into the Kennel so I will have safe access to and from the kennel from the mobile home and to and from the kennel from the portable building.  Being able to use my wheelchair and/or scooter around the kennel will help tremendously and with access into the yard, it will make sense for us to finally open the entire land plot for use as kennel space and gardening space.  At the moment I have no access into the other parts of the yard.

The ramp will also enable those animals who have trouble with stairs to go in and out by themselves and they will enjoy a better quality of life as well.

Animals such as The elderly dog Ginger who attended the benefit.  She was adored by so many and really enjoyed her time.

Blind Cat Freddy.  Fred didn’t attend the Crippled critter benefit as the sounds, smells, strange hands etc would have frightened him too much.  Rick the Chapter Coordinator for Dixie Thunder met Freddy once and tried to pet him but the strange smell scared him so badly he tried to run and bumped into things.  We never let Fred go beyond his familiar surroundings.

3 legged cat Sidney who attended the Crippled Critter benefit for his second year and made friends with one of the bikers who just melted his heart by rubbing his head.

Little Junior with nerve damage in his rear paw.  He was originally found by Biker Judy Hamilton who was recently running for House Seat 83.  She found this little boy dragging his hind paw across the street.  After checking him out she called me to see if I would take him.  He attended his first Crippled Critter benefit and Judy got to see that he is coming along wonderful.  His little paw only acts up when he is running too fast.

Amy is here holding Junior at the Crippled Critter event, he is not the tiny little boy that would fit in my shoe anymore

This was Caroline’s second Crippled Critter event.  Caroline was brought with a heart defect that took her siblings.  Her mother stopped feeding and the family wanted someone who knew how to feed.  She wasn’t expected to grow up, but little Caroline went from this photo at the first Crippled Critter event

To the plumpy little princess that Redneck (Biker on the Right) is holding

Those who came last year were glad to see how well they were coming along and got to meet a few new faces this year.

Another one of the new faces is Poppy the very nervous, little slow, pup with a deviated septum.  She is a very clumsy girl.  Little Poppy was a roadside dump in the middle of a very cold February.  We don’t know what kind of life she had before finding her way into our family, but we know this big klutzy shy pup is loved and cherished now.  One biker melted her heart, the same one who managed to get Sidney to lay down and purr.  He is pictured here on Poppy’s level easing her fears.  As soon as he came up to her and started to calm her I said “you work with animals!”  Turns out he and his wife rescue and give sanctuary to dogs.

The group raised over $600 for the kennel modifications and we came home with a trunk load of donated food. 

The money for the kennel modification stays with the organization and once we have everything we need volunteers will get the supplies and come build the ramp.

It was a wonderful day!  I thank every single member of Dixie Thunder, Iron Horse Bar and Grill,
and all wonderful Aiken County SC folks who showed up with food donations for the critters.