Monday, March 30, 2009

Back to School !

I arrived back to Corvallis yesterday afternoon. It was nice to have a break, but I am excited for the next 10 weeks... I have lots going on!

I sent out my finished registrations this morning... and I also sent out my Pear Blossom entry!
I entered 5.... a SJB "Mason" (who is out of Ex. Getaway and Keepsake) and a BJB "Titan" (who is out of Maid Dignified and Stitch). I really like both of these boys... I especially see Titan being the next herdsire in the barn. I also entered three BSD's; Ellie Mae, Mia and Hades. I couldn't decide which one to show, so I figured why not show all three! I am judging a youth show Friday night and I am also the registrar for Saturday, so I will mix that with showing and clerking and managing to catch up with breeder friends. I will probably bring a few for sale animals as well, I can't hang onto all of them for long.

I have started to read up on Mini Lop Nationals information after my classes this morning. The weekend actually works out pretty nice, I'll only miss two Chemistry lectures and an Ethics reading, but I am not at all worried. I have a tenative show list, however I won't decide anything until later this week for sure or not.

Wednesday night I have a 4-H meeting... so I have to plan something for the kiddos. I don't think we have a 4-H show coming up soon, so I think it will be dedicated to a knowledge night. It will be a nice relaxation night, as Thursday afternoon I am leaving for a *long* roadtrip with one of my ANS classes, about 20 of us going. Vistiting about 6 feedlots or breeders in a matter of 3 days, covering a lot of distance... should be fun I suppose.


Don't have much else so I am posting pictures of some of my keepers.

LHHR's Titan
LHHR's Taylor
LHHR's Dominic
LHHR's Last Minute
LHHR's Mia

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Feed, Show List and For Sale

As a university student, I've had my share of classes about feeding and nutrition. I am no expert, but after 10 years of raising rabbits (and other livestock) I know when a feed works for my herd and everything that is dependent upon it. When Fibre 3 first came out, it was all the rave. I am not sure what different breeders expected to get out of it; whether it was the no corn, higher fiber and less fat that it promises. My intentions were simple; I wanted a feed that worked well for flesh and condition, that they ate well, and was cheaper than what I was already feeding. My genetics are solidly in place, all I need is a feed for my animals to show it.

When negative comments were starting to fly about Fibre 3, I will admit, I began to worry. When you are 4 hours from home and no "rabbit experienced" family members to tell you about flesh and fur condition you are running a rabbitry blind. Furthermore when I didn't do as well in my first show as I would have liked, I had to e-mail a reputable breeder who switched over last fall. When he told me his experience was going very well, I was relieved.

When I came home, I was uberly impressed. My older juniors, who are now seniors look amazing. My babies that are now juniors, look amazing. Even some of my seniors, who have had litters and went to shows galore, look impressive. The only one affected minorly was my herd buck, who is getting older and needs some TLC anyways. I had healthy litters of 3, 5, 8 and 5 all living with a great start. The feed works for my herd, and so does the price. So I will just let the negative comments fly; I'm sorry it doesn't work out for them.
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I spent a few hours out in the barn and I came up with two show lists. I was really picky and critical.... that's a lot of money to spend. I'm going to weigh two of the juniors tomorrow, with a month left, I want to make sure they won't go over. At Pear Blossom, I am going to show 5... and 3 does are in the same class... but I like them all SO much and with barn blindness, I can't really tell which one I'd pick best, so I'll let the judges suffer over that one ;)

For Mini Lop Nationals, I have chosen to enter 7. Six of them are juniors, and 1 senior doe. I will post my list later on when I have decided "for sure" that's who's going to make the trip.
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I have decided to sell the chestnut doe from Exclusive Getaway and Keepsake. Her Chestnut brother will also be for sale as soon as his first litter is on the ground. I have a chinchilla buck and steel buck from Summer and Stitch. They are very promising as show/herdsires but I will be keeping a doe or two. I also might have a chinchilla doe for sale, she's very nice... so if she doesn't sell I won't be unhappy to keep her :) I have also decided to let go of two senior does, so lots of opprotunties for sales and such.

I cleaned the entire barn today, every single cage. Moved some rabbits around, made some evaulations and did some tattooing. I have some breeder friends coming over tomorrow to get animals registered. I've then gotta head into town to go shopping, Friday is cleaning and Saturday is getting ready to go back "home" to Corvallis. This break has gone by way too fast!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

I'm home :)

Bucks:

Stitch (retired)
Boomerang (might do a spring show, sell for San Diego?)
Kenai (VM program, sell afterwards)
EGK2 -SJB *
MDRV2 -BJB *
MDRV3 - BJB - For Sale!
2ESBRV1 - SJB *
2ESBRV2 - SJB *
2ESBRV3 - SJB *

Does:
Hera (spring show)
Hades
Kendall
Ellie Mae *
Mia (spring shows?)
Maddelyn
Kassidy (VM project)
Mozzerella - On Hold
MK1- BJD
MK2 - BJD (For Sale!)
Maid Dignified
MDRV1 - SJD *
EGK1 - SJD *
Summer - On Hold
2ESBRV4 - SJD *
2ESBRV5 - SJD *
(* denotes possibly ML National showing)

On Friday I drove up to Portland to get a 6 hole stacker from Quality Cage Company. I thought it was necessary to have some more holes while growing out some breed National juniors. I might add in some other cages I have sitting behind the barn for extra room, but we'll see. For now I still have empty cages.
I was very happy to come home to my barn... where I spent all day yesterday cleaning and organizing, I still had time to sort through juniors, make some evaluations and get some pictures!

I am happy that I am under 30 rabbits. I have quite a few juniors I'm holding back to show at Nationals, I'd like to pre-sell them but I don't know if that's possible. I have updated my juniors page and for sale page. I have a couple does I'm willing to part with, along with a bunch of nice juniors I'm really happy with.

I need to come up with a show list for PearBlossom, those are due April 1st. I also need to decide on my Nationals list... I am going to have to be really critical as if I want to show in all 4 shows, it will be really expensive. So I will work on that today :) Yesterday, booked my ticket for San Diego! It's very exciting, I can't wait to breed my does after Nationals.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Long week... Just two more!

Honestly, I cannot believe that this term is almost over. It seems like the weeks go by and I'm still standing here wondering where did the time go! At any rate, I am still waiting to hear back on the internship. It was a pretty big position to fill so I'll give it a little more time...
I interviewed for Ambassadors on Tuesday morning. It was a group interview at 7 am (which is ridculous... but it weeded some kids out... ha ha!) My indvidual interview was Thursday evening. It went well I suppose. I'm a competitve person, and even though I'm just a first year, I want this position, and I think I'm very qualified for it!
I registered for spring term classes Wednesday evening. I am on taking three Bacc Core courses and two Animal Science courses, (plus Steer a Year/Purebred Cattle Management) and heaven forbid I do Ambassadors too. I am overloaded on credits. [I am only taking 12-13 credits this fall so I can go to National Convention and have a job...]
I had a 4-H meeting on Friday night because we had a Small Animal show today :) I had a long night and arrived a little late but they were just starting intermediates when I got there. All of my kids got blues, one got a call back and we had three Champions in breed class. One of my 4-H members came home with a blue dutch out of the silent auction. I hung out with a lot of people... its amazing when you've been in 4-H how many people you can talk to and how the time flies. I am going to relax this evening and get to bed early... I'm pretty exhausted!
Next week is dead week... I only have one test, one of my labs was cancelled so it's a low key week before Finals. I don't get to go home until Friday late morning :( Talk about bummer. In the mean time I'll share some pics from today's show.
Part of Champion Breeds for Best in Show. The Satin was reserve and the Holland was best.
Marika and sister holding a cute Polish
Lindsey playing with her new Dutch
Samantha holding Lindsey's new buck
Richard in Senior Showmanship
Samantha in Novice Junior Showmanship
Lindsey in Intermediate Showmanship