"Show withdrawls"

This year and last year I had the wonderful chance to attend nearly any show I wanted to as long as I had the money and a good showing. Currently, we are on a 3 month waiting for our next show. We cannot fathom going to Frozen Friends, so Emerald Empire will be our next show.

But we have to get used to the lack of shows, it's not all what we are in it for anyways. I want to continue registering rabbits, and to hopefully go on to earn my judges license in a couple of years.

And yet the story is a few years back, I told myself I would never become a registrar, or even think about becoming a judge. What changed? and why?

I am not really sure, but I do know that raising rabbits is a wonderful hobby full of awesome people. It surely is not showing other animals (horses and dogs to start off with!). There are so many awesome people I love talking to and many others I look up to. There is always room for advancement, something to work on, people to meet, new shows to attend and at the least, there is always room for having fun.

Today started out all right. We finished delivering cookies to our neighbors, which turned into a fiasco really, but at the least was fun and heartwarming.

Later tonite we plan to go look at all the christmas lights :) And I will be busy with the kids as they wait for Santa.

happy holidays!

*pictured above is LHHR's Maid Dignified, who earned her first 2 legs at Red Bluff and will continue her show career next year :)

That Christmas Feeling...

Well, I realized that tomorrow is the 20th.... I realized that Chrismtas is RIGHT around the corner and I haven't done anything. I mean... nothing! I have just been too busy! School and family have been occupying most of my time... Mike has a job right now (which reminds me that I need to get one!) and I am also still in the midst of doing 4-H and becoming a leader.

I just don't have that "buzzly christmas feeling" you get around the holidays..... And I don't know if that is a bad thing, I just haven't had time to land. I plan to go christmas shopping on Friday.... and if not Friday I will post-pone it to Saturday night. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will be making christmas cookies for all of our close neighbors. It is a tradition that our neighborhood has done since I was just a small kid, and I feel the need to contiune this, even if it means staying in the house hard at work.

The bunnies are doing good. In this nasty weather I manage to quickly feed and water, do some minor head scritching but I rarely find the urge to do anything else. I would DIE for some nice semi-warm spring weather right now, anything but what we have!

If I get lucky, I may have some litters coming along! Klara should be almost 2 weeks along and Bridget & Honey are still in with Drizzit. I figure I will remove them in a couple days, atleast give them a week for something to happen!

I hope to get some riding time in. My horse thinks I have neglected her as all I have had time for is feeding/watering and minor grooming. Maybe I will take some pics of Katie and Sierra (the young girl who needs horse therapy for her legs) when she comes over to ride.

until then, Happy Holidays! :)

Finally!

Two blogs in one day? Wow.... you're probably thinking that it is the holiday season and we have nothing better to do but to stay warm in the house, right?



Well I just wanted to post that I got 2 more does bred!!!



LHHR's Exclusively Roman #RW2 was acting really frisky this morning, so I decided to give him a doe. LHHR's Lil' Gigi, a bkn chesnut GC with 5 legs was a suitable choice. I also wanted to breed Velotta's Renee, *GC with 4 legs as the last litter she threw was just amazing! So I bred her to LHHR's Mr. Miami, *GC with 6 legs. Renee carries dilute so we should get dilute babies this time around!



Bridget and Honey are still in with Drizzit. I don't know why they have to be so stubborn!

Cold & Foggy

Despite the wonderful Oregon weather we have been having lately, the chores must go on!

I started the morning off putting Bridget and Honey in with Drizzt for a slight hope that one or oth of them will get bred! They will remain together for a couple of days as long as no blood flies. We have done colony breedings in the past, just not lately.

We weaned Klara's "litter" Klara ended up only having 3 kits, and sadly, we lost the Blue Eyed White buck last night, which was *very* depressing! We noticed he was a bit on the smaller side about a week ago, he had stayed in the back of the cage for a while, but everything else was fine. :( So the BEW doe and Orange buck recieved their own cage, as Klara is bred again, to Hollywood Dun It! We hope she has a nice litter for us. :)

We are glad to be using just 20 cages, having 20 rabbits. That is a number we surely are not used to, but will have to get used to for the next few years. Even yet, we would like to get down to 15! Which means I will have to find myself to part with 3 more rabbits (2 are already on hold) and not have very many babies, or replace their sire's/dam's entirely. Not an easy task I might add.

We're still in the process of "upgrading" the barn. We have yet to get the auto water system figured out for our stackers, we need to get 6 solid dividers, need to sell 7 cages so we can buy 4 new ones [that match our others!] Plus we have no further use for those 7 cages, we never really liked using them anyways!

So now that I took a small break, I need to go out and finish dumping and cleaning the rest of the trays. :)

Blog Readings

Every evening I take time out after getting online to read my bunny friend's blogs. It is always neat to stay in the loop of what is going on outside of my district.

This evening I was on SunnyBrook's blog and she posted the passing of Adson :( Adson was a prime star for a lot of people's rabbitry, not just Nicole's, but Kim & Cristina's and mine as well. Gigi, Renee & Bridget are all sired by Adson. Adson is also the sire or related to in some way all of the animals I have from Nicole. And of those animals, I have kids and soon grandkids from these animals. He truly was a stunning animal who left this bunny world too soon. May his kids pass his name on.

Other blogs of interest are Betty Chu's blog, which I have been a reader of since it's start. She always has interesting stuff to post, and it's not always about her rabbits, or even rabbits, but people who raise rabbits and their hobbies as well! Currently she post's Allen's reportings from Africa, so we all know he is still doing well.

Steve Machado has the Rabbit Shows and Winners blog. The winners are generally from District 2 but he tries to include everyone. Including pictures and breed winners from all of the shows. Red Bluff Results are now up with pictures!

I should also mention that I got my Domestic Magazine yesterday. I appreciate all the new stuff they are incorportaing into it, pictures and results! Yearbook also came a couple weeks ago and that is completely updated as well!

I will try to find the time sometime soon to post some more blogs!

Red Bluff

We traveled down 1-5 on Thursday. We got stuck in 5:30 Sacramento traffic and I can now recall why we moved to Oregon. Dropped off a few bunnies and went to Stockton.
Spent all day Friday with my aunt, uncle and cousins. Was really good to see them! Friday night, proved for about an hour of sleep. Woke up at 3 AM to leave for Red Bluff.

Saturday went well. I spent most the time running around as I was doing about 3-4 things at once all day.

Stitch - BOB, his 10th leg!

RW5 - BOB, her 1st leg!
LGB3 - BOV, her 1st leg!
Allen Ormand just LOVED these two!

Hollywood Dun it - 1st SSB! his 5th leg!
BP1 - 1st & BOSV 3 out of 4 shows
CRV - 1st 3 out of 4 shows

Sunday was decent. More 2nds and 3rds but very good comments none the less under Josh. RW5 was 2nd in the large class of SSD's and Kokomo was right behind her. LGB3 was also 1st. Under Randy, RW5 was 2nd or 3rd, she's still a junior, so being in a senior class didn't help her any. LGB3 was 1st.

Sunday, I was clerking with Courtney Lund and there was a man there making conversation. He was talking about how he got a really nice buck out of a raffle at this show last year. I asked him if he was a chin and he was like yeah, and I said Mojave? :) Mojave went to good owners who use him and LOVE him and his blue-chin daughter won BOB both shows Sunday!

So I suppose you could say that it was one of those shows where all the rabbits you have sold, or are a offspring of ones you sell, come back to kick you in the ass. Teri did really good with the ML's I have given her and now I know wher Mojave went to and that someone actually appreciates people who put GOOD rabbits in raffles :)

I got rid of my sold rabbits. Which is going to open up some holes in the barn, for sure.

Today I have to spend cleaning the barn and moving rabbits around and trying to get some does bred. If that is even possible this time of year.

Am I crazy?

As I have started on my "rabbit show chores" getting mainly the easy stuff done, I am sitting here wondering why I put myself through all of this.

First off I came home this afternoon. On my way I picked up 6 carriers from my old 4-H leader who was very generous to let me use them! Luckily they were already cleaned and filled, so I didn't have to add them to my list of my own to do!

I went to the bank and got some money... which I will need for gas, lodging, and food.

I came home, I lunged my horse, put her away and fed/watered the animals. I need to go out and get the rabbit food ready we will use for the show, and I need to breed some animals! Not just for myself, but some co-op breedings as well! I also need to make cage tags, stuff carriers with hay, get the chairs, sawhorses and boards. Among that I still need to get my pedigrees in order, grab my standard..... and PACK! I forgot about that part.

We are leaving in the morning. We will drive down to the Bay area to deliver some rabbits, then drive back up to Stockton and spend time with family. It's been a year since I have seen my cousins (we did the Red Bluff Family trip last year!) so it will be good just to breathe. We will spend all day Friday there. Saturday we will leave around 5 AM for Red Bluff and spend the rest of our weekend showing and we will come home on Monday in the daylight.

So.... looking forward to a long weekend.

Wish us luck!

Beaver Spirit

I sent my Red Bluff entry in today. I am showing 8 animals in open and 2 in youth. To get this off my chest, 3 are overweight. Did I do that on purpose? Well, they are in such good condition and un-noticeable that I decided to take the risk. If they get weighed, oh well.

Teri called shortly after I got home from 4-H training. Her van was too full of bunnies to pick up the ones she wanted. So... they will be here a lil while longer but it's not like we're that desprate to get rid of them, there are still a couple juniors in there I'd like to look at further. I also get more time to clean the barn, since I did absolutely none of that today like I had originally planned! I also need to get some does bred, Gigi lost her litter and MAD simply didn't kindle at all, and I needed the babies from Hollywood. Just my share of bad luck though. The ones I am showing look good, I love it how coats are just in prime here in December. They have almost a sheen to them because some of them are just so plush and perfect!

The catalog for Frozen Friends is out. Quite frankly, I would love to attend, but I don't see myself making the trip... All the best judges are there and well, I may just have to wait until Corvallis. :) I will miss my buds up there though....

The horse I've been looking at...... I got word back from Rex's owners that he had his first "official" lesson this morning by Jason Acosta. I took the very first ride on him on Saturday and it was just amazing! He is so smooth and responsive, not to mention tall! He's 16.3hh and only 3 1/2 years old. He will remain in training until Spring Break, where I will decide if he can/will go onto be my OSU equestrian team mount! He has a lot to learn, but is a quick learner. I will have more to update on that in the months to come.

I also got word back from Benton county 4-H extention office. I can become a 4-H leader if I go through all the training, references, ect! I am so excited, as this is what I have wanted to do! I loved being in 4-H and being president/Junior Leaders/Leader conferences/camp counseling + I have learned a lot of skills and I hope they have a rabbit position for me. If not I will take one of the other animal areas I have experienced, so wish me good luck!

And if by now you are wondering what my title means, today was the Civil War game between Oregon State University and University of Oregon. Since becoming a OSU Beaver, I felt the "need" to watch this game! I never really cared about my HS football team (even though we had a really good team!) and rarely ever watch NFL games, but this was different. It's a "must" to being a student I suppose.
Anyways, Oregon State WON in double overtime 38-31 and it was a very good game :)