Thursday 27 February 2020

Perseverance...

I never thought I had that much perseverance in me! I am on my second cardigan for granddaughter and before I finished the right front, it had been pulled down 6 times:(

The air was blue for a while whilst it was sorted out and amended. At least I am getting better at pulling down and picking up entire rows of knitting. As DB is always saying, ‘there’s no such things as mistakes, only lessons learnt’.

Ah well, both sleeves and one front done so far. Onwards and upwards.


Tuesday 25 February 2020

Pancake Day, nom nom,

We are traditional for the most part, topping ours with lemon and sugar. When DS and DDiL were in Canada, they brought me back a bottle of real, deeply flavoured, maple syrup. Although it has just run out, date wise, I shall try and finish it off tonight.

We make ours from scratch but I know you can now buy shake up bottles, packets and ready made. For those who don’t have time, these are great. For us though, there is something deeply satisfying about making from scratch, a reminder of childhood days.

Monday 24 February 2020

Knitting

I can’t knit anywhere near as quickly or proficiently as the other Grandma so won’t even try. Instead I focused on knitting something simple to begin with, in garter stitch. The garment below took me about 10 days, a world record for me:
It can be knitted in 5 different sizes and the second version will be the same pattern as such but I will use both garter and stocking stitch, to give it a different look (and colour). Also I will make the sleeves a little bigger where they join the body as it felt a little tight although I think that is to do with me casting off (binding off) a little too tightly.

When DS was little, newborn in fact, I knitted one item designed to fit a 6 month old and that was it! MiL was a super duper knitter and supplied him with everything he needed and then some.

Don’t forget it’s pancake day tomorrow! Nom nom.

Thursday 20 February 2020

Welcome Home!

I am pleased to report that our darling granddaughter went home today. She weighs 1.8kg and tiny newborn clothes still dwarf her:)

Happy Birthday

Ruby was 2 yesterday. We didn’t do anything special as we were out for a good part of the day. She did get a new red collar though. Her old one was blue because we liked it.

When people meet her they always said “how old is he?” before we replied she. Maybe that will change now, who knows.

From this:

 

To this:
She looks just slightly different now, but not much, as this was the last picture of her on my computer that I use for blogging.


Sunday 16 February 2020

So far so good

Ruby has been eating my home prepared raw diet food for 4 days now. She seems to like it and so far, has been well. Her poo has become firmer and she just seems her usual happy self. She had a small snack at lunchtime of 3 sprats. Whole sardines and mackerel don’t seem to sit well with her but she can normally eat sprats as they are tiny. She also loves pilchards and tinned mackerel in moderation.

Tuesday 11 February 2020

Creating Ruby a new diet

I have read up prolifically on raw food diets. Most people seem to just use a tube of meat and that's it but there is so much more to it than that. I have always added things to her diet to help balance it but having read so much, have decided to make my own.

I got in everything (human food) I needed to create a fortnight of food but as it happens managed to get 16 days worth (two per day) rather than 14.

Cleanliness is everything, more for us than her but her as well. I will need to get her some mixing bowls or small buckets just to be on the safe side. This time around, I used all our stuff then sterilized it afterwards.

Into each bowl went the correct amount of liver, kidney and heart. A pack of green raw tripe (dog food only) was added, along with an egg and its crushed shell. Each bowl had a mixture of ground linseed, hemp seed and chia seed. The seeds plus a few of the above gives her the correct ratio of omega 3 and 6.

Into one bowl went a mashed banana, minced low fat beef and a whole ground up chicken carcass (dog food only). The carcess gives her the full quota of raw bone but is far safer than letting her chew on bones which I hate. The other bowl had a grated apple and minced turkey with a whole duck carcass. Divided between the two was a small pot of natural live yoghurt.

Donning my special Ruby rubber gloves, I then squished it together. With DB's help (putting a carton on the scales whilst I filled it with a days food) he then levelled the food and applied a lid and label.

They were put in the freezer and one will be put in the fridge each night and divided in half for each meal the next day. Providing she doesn't have any bad reactions, we shall make more soon. As and when in season, we can also add herbs and dried nettles for iron and minerals.

Her medicine was giving her loose stools but is now finished so she is on psyllium husk to counteract it.

Cost wise, carrying on using tripe, we reckon another £5 per month. Leaving the tripe out and using extra meat, maybe another £12 but we reckon its worth it. At the end of the day, when she sees her bowl coming, she races of to where she gets it, licking her lips in anticipation!

She will be given raw sprats as a treat a couple of times a week to give her her correct fish intake, but only when she is 100% better.

This morning she was given half raw and half rice and cooked chicken. So far so good but her poo still isn’t right bless her.

Monday 10 February 2020

We have been lucky

Such devastation particularly in the north of our beautiful country. Homes and businesses flooded again, buildings destroyed, major disruptions in all kinds of things. We know from the floods last July that some of the people effected are still not back in their homes.

The gusts of wind were pretty bad and the rain sideways for a short but NOT sustained period of time. The wind removed the lose top of our wooden gardening bench but kindly dropped it inside its frame. I am thankful DM made the garden safe.

We are still forecast strong winds, with 50 mph gusts until 6pm Tuesday evening!

Ruby awoke this morning to a clean bed, no vomit. She seems a lot happier in herself so fingers crossed she is now on the mend.


Sunday 9 February 2020

Keeping warm in this miserable weather!

DB had just brought in the still hot duvet cover from the tumble dryer and stuck his head inside to warm himself up. "Here" he said, "give it a whirl", so I did:
We woke up this morning to Rubys tea from last night, all over her bed again. In herself she seems a lot better. If I feed her a liquidized bland diet of rice or rice and chicken, it seems to stay down. Last night her tea was eaten whole, which is how it came back up!

Today, she has had two small meals of a rice smoothie only. Tonight she will have rice and a little boiled salmon whole and see how she fares.

It hasn't stopped her wanted to stand outside in the high winds we are experiencing at the moment:

Saturday 8 February 2020

A new sleeping trial

Horlicks didn't last long, just 10 days before I reverted back to my usual insomnia.

Reading up again, I read about whole almonds (walnuts apparently also work). I now take a small glass of cold/warm diary milk with 12 whole almonds to munch on, around 9pm.

This has been my routine for a few weeks now and I have to say, so far so good. About 80% of nights I sleep right through although some nights I am still awake until 2am. Even on those nights, I get up for another small glass of milk, read, then sleep until about 7am.

You could probably try almond milk instead of diary if that's what you prefer but apparently, you still need the almonds/walnuts as well.

Obviously don’t eat nuts if you are allergic or sensitive to them.

Friday 7 February 2020

Battening down the hatches! Ruby update!

Starting Saturday late evening, we were due for 67 hours of non stop winds between 45 and 59 mph. Now our forecast is for 48 hours between 45 and 68 mph plus associated rain!

DB walked around the garden yesterday, placing wedges in fence panels to stop them from rattling and hopefully not being blown out. Our mini greenhouse has had a heavy chair put in front of it, all loose lying items put away.

We shall probably have power cuts so bread and soup will be made tomorrow ready for heating on our camp stove. Kindling and logs for two days will also be brought inside. We will hibernate and keep safe.

Ruby has picked up some sort of bug we think. She had her last meal Wednesday at 5pm, didn’t even come near the kitchen for breakfast. She threw up, didn’t even want to drink all day. Threw up again and just slept.

Today thankfully, although not quite herself, she felt like a little breakfast but more importantly is drinking well. So far so good.

She brought her breakfast up... Been to the vets, nothing untoward found, meds given, go back tomorrow. She had a little boiled rice, chicken and chicken stock (like a thick soup) for tea, so far so good.

Wednesday 5 February 2020

A squished in Ruby

Thanks for all your comments yesterday regarding DGD.

When we are in the kitchen Ruby likes to lie either under the dining room table or under the computer desk:
There is a large soft rug just in front of the window which she occasionally nests in but this is her favourite place. That is except for when we are near her feed times, and our cooking times, in which case, she lies just outside the kitchen door.

Tuesday 4 February 2020

Darling Granddaughter...

We went up to see her this weekend and managed to visit her each day in hospital. She is doing so well and fighting like a little trooper. She now weighs 3lb 4oz (weigh day again today).

The photographs of just how small she actually is, don't really show her true size. She is incredibly tiny, basically the size of a doll. Her head isn't quite the size of a pomegranate, her little face is barely a 2" circle. Her beautiful mouth is probably 1/2 - 3/4" wide. A whole host of expressions play across her face including big smiles which everyone says they can't do but they look like smiles to us.

She still needs to grow her fat layer under her skin but her skin is now looking more pink  rather than shiny red which apparently it was when she was born. She is beginning to shed her lanugo body fuzz.

When I held her in the crook of my arm, with her head resting inside my elbow, her feet just about reached my wrist. If she were to stretch her legs out they would barely reach the base of my thumb! She is basically the length of two and a bit mobile phones.

She has her mum's large eyes, so big, and her nose. She has her dad's ears, hair and frown!

Mum is excelling with caring for such a tiny delicate wee thing and is absolutely blooming:) DS is still a little wary but has a go at everything when he can (except feeding of course) but he doesn't get to spend so much time there. It will come.

She has moved from an incubator into a heated cot which is good. Once she can hold her own temperature the heat will be turned off to see how she does. Her sucking reflexes are now developing but she has been on her mums milk from the start. Here are her grandads fingers for a comparison:

I so wished we lived nearer to them and am counting down until we can visit again. It had better not be too long folks:)