But today it's working.
So, yesterday, those people did get back to me, and told me that they wanted to get the cage for the rabbit. So, I poured some vinegar in the cage and let it sit, scrubbed, let it sit, scrubbed, and eventually all the grime came off, with me finishing up cleaning the cage today. Added a shelf on the far side of the cage, and got all the stuff ready for the rabbits pickup. Got them their two food bowls, two water bottles, two everything, and washed off and cleaned their xl hidey house. My mom made a comment that I shoulda kept it, cause it's the same as the blue one that was just donated by Mara, but with the cages I'm keeping (once the animals are gone out of the other ones and all), I have enough hidey houses, I believe. Well, I sure hope. Lol. If not, I have no doubt that more will find their way here, with additional critters that find their way here. But this one can go with the rabbits. So they're all ready to go now.
Also got all the paperwork ready for a supply pickup (today), and for the two chin pickups (tomorrow). So, got an email last night that the person coming today to pickup the cage wasn't going to come after all, and had to reschedule. Again. This time, I moved the cage back out of the way, as I'd pulled it away from the other cages and more out in the open so it could be brought upstairs, but for the past week, its sort of been in everyone's way and was getting coated by sawdust from the table saws, so now it's back out of the way.
Also had the person for the one chin pickup email and say they are having car troubles so they can't come pick up the chin tomorrow. I told them to email me when their car is fixed and they can come by. Hopefully it won't be too long.
My supply pickup people showed up today (well, these people always do), and they got their pellets and hay cubes and sample bag of the new treats we have in. Which reminds me. Half the time I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to hurry up and get orders out. I know that on the website it says that it can take up to 2 weeks if you're ordering a hidey house (and it says that so I can relax, but....) I try to make it a few days versus 2 weeks if I can. Anyway, point being, because I try to get things out quick, I don't always think to throw in a sample or something. Some people get a goodie bag, some get some cookies, some get... nothing. It's nothing personal, I'm just not always thinking about it. So if you're looking at the website and saying, "hmmmm I wonder if my chins would eat the hay cubes, or hmmm I wonder if the chins would like a rosehip? or that other thing...." -- feel free to ask for a sample and I will more than gladly throw in some hay cubes or rosehips or whatever you want a sample of. If you want a sample of several things, perfectly fine, just name what you want samples of. Nothing that I carry is that expensive that I can't throw a few of whatever in with your order so someone can try it without having to purchase an ounce or bag or whatever of it.
So then today, I took some time to sand and drill some wood so that when my volunteers come by, we can make some toys. Still need to cut the wire and put the hooks on (though I think a 15 year old can bend wire, yes?), and drill some pumice... but I have people coming at 11 & 12, and then the volunteers coming between 2-3. So I'll have some time in between to get more ready. I think I may set up a table, because if the parent stays with the kids there definitely won't be room for everyone at the little table I use. Which, if you want your kids to volunteer, and you want to drop off your kids, that's fine.... within reason. As in, you can drop off your teenagers, but if you talk me into dropping off your 7 year old and it turns into more babysitting than volunteering, your kid may find their way home with a new puppy and having eaten some sugar packets. Lol. Kidding! No, but seriously. Parents don't have to stay with their kids, so long as, #1 -- you come back for them. If the kid can somewhat follow direction, even if that's "play with this critter while I vacuum the cage," they'll be fine on their own. No person here bites, we have a bathroom, and the kids aren't allowed around the power tools, so there won't be any major accidents. But if the kid is a little nightmare and you know it, and you just want the kid gone for a few hours, I will not hold myself liable for anything that may happen to them. Lol. No, but seriously. Anyone who's been here knows that volunteering isn't all work. It's not like let's sit down and we're gonna work from the moment you get here til the moment you leave. We talk, we laugh, we clean, we get stuff done, but it's not a big deal if you bring your kids here to help and they aren't master sanders or can't clean a cage super fast or whatever. It doesn't matter. I try to get toys ready to do for some kids cause it's relatively easy to make toys (there's pictures to go by) and it actually looks like something's getting accomplished over time. Or the hidey houses, cause most kids can sand wood.
I sometimes think it's the adults that get the short end of the proverbial stick, because they're the ones that can help clean cages. A lot of the cages are at heights that aren't easy for kids to clean, not to mention, I really can clean cages probably 5x faster than most kids. I clog our shop vac relatively often, and a lot of kids can't grasp how to use one in a way to not clog it every 5 seconds so, I'd rather have kids make toys or do something that they can do at a decent speed (and, let's face it, is more enjoyable than cleaning cages), and I can clean cages on my own time. But adults.... haha..... you can all clean cages just as well as I can. But seriously, I've had adults (we'll classify adults as 17/18+... if you drove here yourself, you can classify yourself as an adult), who have wanted to volunteer, but said, "I won't clean cages." Fine, I can think of plenty of things for you to do. Whenever I need to refill toys in the cages, that requires some pliers and metal wire. Not something I particularly want a 7 year old around, but an adult can manage. No one's using the power tools except for the drill, but I trust adults can drill holes in wood, which is something that always needs to be done for toys. Believe me, there's stuff to do other than cleaning cages.
Moving back onto today and yesterday. Few days ago, well, back when I finally took Mara's donation down to the rescue, I thought, I'll fill the litterbox with shavings and put it in the one guinea pig cage. Cause our one guinea pig cage has a liner, and I know I have seen potty trained guinea pigs before, so I was like this can't hurt. And the litterbox was black and had one of those carabiner clips attached to it (through a drilled in hole), so I was able to attach it to the corner. I think I might die of shock, but I actually think the guinea pigs are using it!! I just have Pixie and her female baby in that cage at the moment, but I put in the white paper shavings and they're definitely looking somewhat wet, and I've seen the pigs climbing in it to pee! How awesome, right?
Same for the baby rabbits. I was telling the adoptive home that I'm sure they can be litter trained, and really, they're not even two months old, so I'm positive they can be littertrained at this age. So, when I cleaned their cage, I didn't put all the litter back, I just filled their litterbox with the paper shavings. First night, found a lot of poos and some pee outside the litterbox, but it was in this one corner where they peed. Which was partially my fault, for not putting the litter pan where they were peeing, so I moved it to that corner, and picked up the wet shavings and poos and put those in the litterbox, and I think they are using it. Which is good, they can continue picking that up at their new home.
So, yesterday, I was at Menards, putting in a special order....turns out, I hadn't checked their website first, and now customers are able to do the "ship to guest" special orders from home. So I really hadn't needed to go in. But anyway, I'll know for next time. Anyway, so I was in the store and couldn't pass by the scroll saw without ogling it, and I noticed it was on sale for a bit. It's been on sale since after Christmas, and I've been in the store a few times (getting christmas ornaments on sale... getting more christmas ornaments on sale, picking up my other special order) and each time, walked past it and thought, maybe I should get that. But never did. Well, yesterday I was actually considering getting it, cause it was like $90 down to $65 and I look down (where the product is) and there were no scroll saws. Go figure. So I debated asking if they had more in back, then remembered that places like Home Depot, Menards, etc, don't really have much of a backroom, except for special orders and the like, so if they had it, it'd be out. So, I get home, still thinking about it, and I look online, and it's still showing me the regular price, so I was thinking I could pass on it cause I could get it for $90 anytime. But then I tried putting in my zip so it'd pull up the local store and then it showed the sale price. Yay. So I ordered it, site to store, so I imagine I'll get an email or phone call when it comes in. Can't wait to get it. No idea what I plan to do with it, well, chin stuff obviously, but specifically, I dunno.
A few privileged people (maybe like... 1?) have seen the NWI Chinchillas sign I had done by one of those mall vendors who was only at Southlake for the weekend. It turned out a bit too nice (and... too expensive) to really put down in the basement, so it's actually in my room. And for all of those who will never make it up to my room, here's what it looks like:
Now, that was my first time ever seeing someone actually use a scroll saw. But that kind of cemented the *want* in my head. Now, obviously, that looks a bit more flashy than the average thing you cut on a scroll saw, cause it's airbrushed with color and glittered and all, but those letters came from two pieces of wood. It may be not super clear from the picture, but the "NWI" is on a separate "base" from the "Chinchillas." Which is because scroll saws can only cut so deep (mine will be able to cut 16" deep...which I want to say is typical, some are 17") and all of this wasn't going to fit in 16" unless I wanted it scrunched, which I didn't. But like the NWI w/ base was one piece of wood and so was the Chinchillas w/ base. Now tell me that isn't cool. So, now, I don't think I'm anywhere near this level of talent, but these people charged like so much per letter, and so much for each inch of "base" that I want to say this thing was like $35. Now it's a good 16-18," maybe bigger (?) so it's a good size, but just think if I could do like chin names. I could offer up chin names (or whatever words) in this, for some rate per letter or whatever. More money for the rescue. Really, I'm probably nowhere near able to do that kind of thing with a scroll saw, lol. But the fun, for me, is that I have wood here so I can try that kind of thing for myself and if it turns out, great, if it doesn't, oh well. At some point, though, I'll figure out something I can make and sell with the scroll saw and it'll pay for itself.
For me, though, the draw with the scroll saw is not only being able to do curves, but also being able to do cutouts. I had someone tell me I should get a bandsaw instead. Which, for curves it'd work, but I've only used a bandsaw twice in my life, and I always felt like I was gonna lose a finger. I don't like that long blade going round and round.... I dunno. A scroll saw has a reciprocating blade, the blade goes up and down, and it's a little blade, probably only 6" or less and it's thin. It doesn't look intimidating. Though, I suppose, if big blades going round and round are intimidating, the table saws should really bother me (but they don't, and I have two 10" table saws). Anyway, the scroll saw blade is like pinned in. I'm sure there's a term for it, but as I understand it, the blade basically has a quick release, so you can unhook the blade, stick it through a hole in the wood, re-hook the blade, and do a cutout. Which I think is just the neatest thing. That said, I have never actually used a scroll saw. Which is actually kind of amusing, because I'd never used a table saw either, until I went out and bought one for myself. I apparently prefer the saws I haven't tried before, in terms of ones I want to own.
So, I think it said the saw should be here in 6 days. Not like I will have time to play with it the second I get it, but..... I may put that "it takes 2 weeks to make hidey houses, mobiles, and motorhomes" thing into effect and give myself a day or so to play with it. Gotta have some fun now and then.
Oh, and the person interested in David sent in their adoption form today. Didn't send measurements of the tote, so I asked them to guess at the size. But everything looks good, so assuming it's a decent size, I think he'll have found a good home.
Well, I think that's it for today. Hopefully all the adoption people show up tomorrow, and everything goes good. We will see.
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