More tattooing :)

My tattooer is getting some good use lately; seeing how I only use it on litters here and there these days.

My 4-H leader's mom had several rabbits to do before county fair and with the fact that she's older and her's breaking, I decided to do them for her... all seventy-eight of them. What was I thinking?

Anyways, I took the opprotunity with open hands because she raises a lot of breeds! I tattooed several Velveteen Lops, Florida Whites (wishing I almost had a couple), Himilayans, Dwarf Hotots, Holland Lops, LionHeads and a litter of English Lops. (she also has Netherlands and English Spots). It was really nice to see a lot of them, different colors and such. I walked away with no scratches (I love arm guards!) and got them all done in a few hour's time.

While I'm on the topic of tattooing, I figured I would talk about what I use and works best for me. Each breeder has their own method and style I've come to figure out.

I have two tatooer's. I have an electric one that I bought about 3 years ago. I'm still on my original needles and have only gone through a couple bottles of ink. It's pretty quick, less painless and comes out a LOT better! If you have steady hands and good handwriting, this is a very economical and pratical use. You can hold the rabbit yourself or have someone else hold the rabbit just as you would with a clamp-style. Also, the results are immediate. You don't have to wait for the tattoo to dry or figure out if the tattoo took or not.

I had to buy a clamp-style tattooer when I got my registar's license. I really only use it for his unless I am doing big rabbits or dont really care how they turn out.... I have the 5/16" I think, the medium sized one. The letters are best kept in a pill box for easy assortment.
The clamp style, you have to worry about blood vessels. You have to worry about the tattoo taking. Afterwards there is a big black blob in the ear and you have to wait for the rabbit to clean it out or to where you can clean it out yourself. The ink comes in a screw-top small plastic jar which rabbits are very easily able to kick over (lost a whole jar one time that way). And you have to use q-tips and often need vaseline because it's more evasive.

I start off with the rabbit flat on a table... preferably bigger than my show table, with carpet and or towels. I clean the rabbits ear out with alchohol. I then decide which tattooer I would like to use (mostly my electric one). I pour the ink into the well, soak up some ink. I put my right arm around the rabbit, holding the whole body with my left holding the head and other ear. I tattoo slowly. Most of my Mini lops just sit there... really not the most wild creatures to tattoo I must admit. I was tattooing my Satins I would use my clamp style tattooer because they are less eager to participate and they turn out good in their ears.

After I have finished the tattoo I run my finger over it and see if it stuck or needs any areas of improvement. :)

I don't want to tattoo anymore rabbits for a while.... :)

My Last County Fair . . .

I barely make the age deadline, but whatever, why not show ? I made a sick educational display, will do a presentation (both on rabbits of course!) and entering 16 rabbits in open and 4-H.

Open:
Velotta's Stitch - SSB (yes coming out of retirement for a week)
LHHR's Boomerang - SSB
LHHR's Exclusive Getaway -SSD
LHHR's 2 - SJD [For Sale]
LHHR's 3 - SJD [For Sale]
Stormie Haven's Keepsake -BSB (never been shown)
LHHR's Maid Dignified - BSD
LHHR's Maddelyn - BJD
LHHR's MB2 - BJB
LHHR's MB3 - BJB [For Sale]
LHHR's MB4 - BJB [For Sale]

4-H:
LHHR's Mist At Dawn - Senior Doe
LHHR's Lil' Hollister - Senior Buck
LHHR's 1 - Junior Buck [For Sale]
LHHR's Kenai - Junior Buck
LHHR's Kassidy - Junior Doe

I haven't decided if I am going to state fair or not... I guess I will decide that closer to fair . . . I'll be quite honest and I'm not so happy with the 'judges' hired (only 1 is an ARBA judge) for showmanship / conformation... and that's a long way to go just for a day! [Not to mention turning back around and going to Crescent City the next day].

I think I may keep 2 babies from Secret Score (steel doe and bkn chestnut buck). Hab is doing great with the 5. There is 1 bkn chestnut, 1 chestnut, 1 chinchilla & 2 bkn chinchillas. Yay... for no color.

I named my 3 older juniors... pretty sad they've went this long w/o names.... but I named the VM buck Kenai, the VM doe Kassidy and my bkn blue doe from MAD, Maddelyn :) I finished tattooing everyone I'll be showing at fair... that was a chore. I have to weigh Stitch... I think he looks SO pretty right now he's nearly done with his molt and I swear he's lost a pound but in excellent condition. He's the only one who actually uses the rabbit run to 'run' in. :) He loves his time in there!

Easy Summer will get her box later this evening or tomorow if I forget. I never palpated her but she should be due to Keepsake on the 2nd. I am excited to see what I get out of him :)

I think that's all I have to update right now. I updated most pages of my website yesterday... mostly minor updates but as much as I could do for now.

The Planning Starts !!! :)

I have 3 big trips to plan . . . and I haven't started on any of them so I have decided to spend some of my free time this week to planning :) Gotta get it done sometime and I have somewhat of a dead week right now before fair.

November 25th-December 3rd 2008 - Atlanta, Georgia
4-H NATIONAL CONGRESS! I need to get my plane ticket and reserve my hotel room. I am pretty excited! I'm not sure how far the airport is from the hotel we are staying at (the hub for all events for 1000 4-H members . . .) but hopefully not too far. I have a project that I need to submit before August 1st, which is a couple days away; I haven't even looked at it :( I'll get on that today, I promise! I also need to go clothes shopping because we have certain dress requirements we have to follow.

April 24th -26th 2009 - Monterey, California
MINI LOP NATIONALS! I waited a little bit to announce that I will be making the trip. I need to remind myself in Feburary, when scheduling for Spring goes on, I need to not plan classes for Friday and preferably Monday. I am looking for someone to carpool and room with! With gas being almost $5 a gallon, the logical solution would to split costs. Either way, I will end up going. I should have 9-10 seniors available to show and 3 litters of juniors about 4-5 months old. :) I will also have 3 NICE senior does available pre-sold or for sale their (with their juniors available as well). With this plan I will not go over 15 rabbits! I am so proud of myself! Anyways, as Chris stated in his DM article, hotel rooms need to be reserved asap, so as soon as I figure out what I'm doing I'll get on that. I decided driving is the least expensive way to go, even though it's 11+ hours of driving -- ugh!

October 31st - November 5th 2009 - San Diego, California
ARBA NATIONAL CONVENTION! My second convention in three years, I must be incredibly lucky or just plain stupid! With Michigan putting me in the hole at over a grand... this convention should be cheaper but still on the upperside with gas and hotel costs. Thankfully no plane tickets, kennels, health certificates or transport costs for rabbits to pay for. Yes, should be much cheaper. I will miss 4-5 days of classes, I have not decided how I am going to deal with that yet but I must go . . . What can I say? I'm a hardcore rabbit addict :)

Babies :)

After a couple days of waiting, we have been blessed with babies from our broken does Habanero and Pacific Pride. Both litters are sired by Velotta's Landen, a GC Chinchilla buck with 3 legs. I am very happy Nicole let me use him!

Habanero had 2 of 5 babies... She has 1 solid agouti and 1 broken.

Pacific Pride has 3 of 3 babies... 2 broken and 1 solid agouti

I fostered Pride's to Habanero because they were both smaller litters that I felt needed each other. The brokens had distingusiable markings and there is a size difference in the two agoutis. If needed, I can always mark the kits until they get older.

Does not look like Dignified took... she has not made any attempt at a nest. Summer will recieve her box next week. I think I want to hold these two does back at home until I can breed them again.

We will decide our county fair show list in a few more days. I will also make my State Fair and Crescent City show lists asap. [my last show of the year most likely, so sad!]. I would like to go out with something memorable, but I'm not counting on it, my show list is kinda stinky with all my good stuff on litters or out of condition.

More Pictures :)

MBB - Bkn Blue Jr. Doe (keeping)

SCI - Chestnut VM Jr. Doe (keeping)

KI - Chestnut VM Jr. Buck (keeping)

KMM2 - Frosted Pearl Jr. Doe (For Sale?)

KMM - Frosted Pearl Jr. Doe (keeping?)

LHHR's Exclusive Getaway - Chestnut Jr. Doe (keeping)

KMM1 - Chinchilla Jr. Doe - (For Sale)

KMM - Blue Chinchilla Jr. Buck (For Sale)

Random Notes

Went to the river yesterday... which I forgot how fun it was just to hangout. We were happy to see Hellgate in good business... 8 tour boats went by in the short time we were there.

This morning I met with Krynn from Fresno. She is taking the two VM juniors up to Vanessa in Wilsonville. I hope those two do good for her. I still have three of the BEW project juniors left. Thought I had them sold yesterday, but oh well. Im not strapped for cage space by any means, but I just dont like feeding rabbits that I dont need to be. :)

I then had a lady come over and pick out a pet... she got one of the bkn jr bucks from MAD and Buster. So there is 1 doe left (that I'm keeping) and 3 bucks.

Score's babies are doing good. Of the 6 there are 2 steel, 1 chestnut, 1 chinchilla, 1 bkn chestnut and 1 bkn black or seal? I'm really not sure what color that one is yet.

I also gave Pride, Habanero and Dignified their boxes, I almost forgot! I'm short of a nestbox so I hope Scores babies are ready to come out of the box by the end of next week so I can clean it and get it ready for Easy Summer, who is due on the 3rd.

Feed prices went up... $12.45 for a #50 of the "ok" stuff. I cant even imagine what my show feed is right now. I still have a quarter of a barrel of the show feed left so I dont think I will need to buy it for a while. I'm only feeding it to a few rabbits that I want to keep in condition for my last shows.

I'm not sure if I have anything else to report.... The rabbits enjoy the run I made for them. I plan to let the 4 MAD juniors out in it tonight. I tried it out on the smart seniors first to make sure it was bunny proof :) hee he...

I will have litter updates in the next few days.

Pictures!

It's somewhat cooler and clear air out this morning, even though my chest still hurts from all the smoke air. We're hoping to go to the Cresent City show next month, but currently both highways are closed to a forestfire there.... quite sad. The redwoods are some of the best trees and they're going up in flames right now.

I got out to the barn and took some pictures! Not an extensive photo shoot, dont have time for that as I have to make it into town today, but just some quick ones!

Stitch catchin a drink after runnin around :)

Stitch enjoying the 4 x 10 run I made. It's pretty bunny proof and I will be adding some 'bunny' things to it soon.

I finally got a picture of Keepsake... which was hard because he wanted love so much he was soo hard to keep still! What a cutie! LHHR's Lela kindled 9 of 10 kits for Amy a few days ago to him... and our own Easy Summer Breeze is due to him early August.

Part of the 6 crew of MAD and Buster... all which look just like them... all showable too... I can't believe it! They are now weaned and MAD is relaxing and going to get a major grooming session here, she has to be ready for fair ;)

LHHR's Secret Score's litter to LHHR's Lil Hollister. There are 2 bkn chestnut, 2 chestnut and it looks like 2 steel. We will be keeping a doe to replace SS and Hollister will leave the end of August.

Almost done!

We are nearly done with the barn... it was much nicer out there today. The four are back in their cages, I seperated the Klara/Sour Cream crew into 2 cages (the 2 that are going to Vanessa) and the 3 that are still waiting to be sold. I then weaned MAD's litter and put them in one of the big cages. There are 4 bucks and 2 does. The doe I had my eye on is now in her fugly stage, so we will grow them out until late-august.

Secret Score kindled on the 9th. She had 9 babies, 6 of which are living now. 1 DOA and 2 fader/peanuts died this afternoon. I'm sure the heat didn't help but it happens. There are 2 brokens and 4 solids. She is being a good first time mom.

We are going to make a run in the back of the barn. Now that we have some extra space we figure why not. It will give the juniors a chance to stretch their legs. We have 4 more litters coming, so there will be plenty of little ones in the barn!

I've thought about going to Nevada to be with Mike. I could easily get a job on the ranch, either out on the fields or with the cattle. I'm still not fully decided yet.... I have a lot of stuff to do here at home and not sure if I can afford the time loss.

Hoping to get some pics here soon... I know I havent gotten pics of Kokomo or MAD's litters and they are getting so big!

It's getting there!

Sorry I haven't posted recently, been rather busy this last week. While I am waiting for the heat to die down, I thought I'd post to let everyone know I'm still alive :)

Have been working on the barn in the spare time. Trying to get it prepared for this fall and for a good few years in general. What we have always wanted to do is finally getting done! I thank my boyfriend's dad for the wood he gave me to replace the siding on the barn. The cages will be brought out individually, hair will be burned off and then they will be pressure-washed for a like-new look. We've fallen behind on some seasonal cleaning so the work is long overdue.
Some leveling of the barn floor will be done and the auto-water system will finally be hooked up! I discovered I didn't order enough tubing so we had to wait a couple extra weeks.

The rabbits are handling the heat very well... very fortuate for barn location and air flow exchange. We have decided who we are taking to county fair -- so that will be a plus. Since I'm still 18 I can exhibit in fair (also in Open class) and if possible, if a good judge is hired for State Fair, I may make the trip this year. We'll see.

Secret Score recieved her box yesterday. She has already nested and pulled fur. I see activity in her belly so we are hoping for a large live litter by Hollister! I think these guys should cross well :)

I decided just to keep 2 Vienna Marked animals for my project. I liked the VM doe from Klara but she was just lacking too many type qualities. I would rather roll the dice in breeding those VM's to non carrier animals and getting some good typed, marked offspring. I really like the Chesnut VM's I'm keeping... really a huge step to more structrually correct Mini Lops.

One of these days, before mid-September for sure, we will have a final photo shoot for the website. I will do some graphics work on my sold animal photos to make the website look more uniform as despite my best efforts, I always use a different background or none at all. I'd like to get the animals in good condition right now and I have way too many does on litters and does bred.

Not much else is new... doing homework, stuff for fair, working, and finding time to breathe every once in a while.