Finally some positives

post 100 days in the hospital, my dad is now ready to be transferred back up to the IRC center to do his rehab, and hopefully within the first few months of 14' he'll be looking at a prosthetic leg. Its all been a climb, a few weeks ago we were looking at the worst, but things have turned around now for the better.

Work has been keeping me afloat. Among many to-do lists on my days off. The holiday season doesn't make it any better for getting things accomplished.

We've had our first frosts. No frozen waterbottles or stock tanks. Pipes got into the ground finally and we're pretty set on other things. Right now we're focusing on pastures for next year and getting a few things done around the house via a contractor.

In the meantime I got rid of a bunch of rabbits. I am down to 10 SR/Jrs and growing out 8 babies that will eventually turn into 2 or 3. I don't plan on re-expanding until I know what is going on, and I will still have some bucks to sell next month or in January. I got rid of a few I really didn't want to, but at the same time it was necessary.

What's left?

Reba  (needs to be bred)
White Chocolate Mocha - Jr Buck
Romero - for sale after litters on ground
Ponderosa - for sale after litters on ground
Blizzard - older jr to be bred at age
Zachary
Zachary Jr - still on the fence on keeping him
McBride (needs to be bred)
Tan - hoping to find a home soon
Reflection - on a litter
8 babies from Smart Nicole and Michelle
Michelle (needs to be re-bred)

2 litters, soon to be 3.

Smart Nicole has a litter of 8. All doing well. 3 are solids, look like 2 GT steel, a ST steel. 5 brokens, chocolate chestnuts, a gt steel and I think a chocolate chin.

Michelle had her litter by Zachary, 5 healthy ones. a couple solids and brokens, most likely all chestnuts.

HM1 recieved her box today. She was also bred to Zachary.

drug out a few more nestboxes to clean since Reflection and Reba are also bred.

Where did the summer go?

Where I had left off, the fires had just started. About 3 weeks of hazardous air conditions hampered many summer activities. During the worst of it, my father was admitted to the hospital. Two surgeries, many cat scans/x rays, three blood transfusions (including 1 rejection and a blood type change), and even spending a night in critical care, he is doing much better and is ready to transfer to our neighboring hospital for the intensive physical therapy unit. Thursday will mark 2 months in this hospital and we're looking at 3-4 weeks in Medford. To make a long story short, its already well into fall, with craaazzzy weather (wet & cold so quick already!) and none of us, are prepared for whats in store. Thankfully the people at work, family and friends have got me through this stressful time in life.

I've been to 2 rabbit shows ... first was the CORBA show in Redmond, OR. I went primarily as a stress reliever and took the long way with a day in Corvallis with friends first. Nicole & Zach ended up sending me with a pair of Tans to see if I like the breed, but luckily the ML's are starting to pick back up. This next round of litters, will ultimately determine my future success with them. I feel like nothing in the barn is really worth keeping or competing with, since the shows I do get to attend are far and few between.
Second show was our local RVRF show in Grants Pass. I went solo on this show as it's primary people and folks I grew up with. I was really out of it this show though, and basically nothing notable happened. I did win a nestbox and 2 coffee mugs in the raffle - which is my best yet! I really needed the nestbox since some of mine are starting to fall apart after all of these years.

Smart Nicole started fall litters this morning with a litter of 8 chocolates by VE4. We sent VE4 down with Bob and he traded us a chocolate chestnut doe out of LHHR's Sergio which I sold him at Reno last year.

Michelle, HM1, Reflection & Reba are also bred, and only 3 does remain to get bred. 2 I dont forsee much problems with, but one in particular, Express, I've been trying to get her bred for over 6 months now. If she wasn't such a gorgeous doe, I'd probably have let her go by now.

Cullll

Culled 14 rabbits today...

What's left?

Bucks:

• Zachary
• VE4
• Romero
• Ponderosa
• Zachary Jr

Does:

• Michelle
• Reflection
• Kicker + 7 babies 
• Reba
• Express
• HM1
• Smart Nicole
• CBF1, VELN# & AF1

and an unsexed litter of 5 from Michelle & Fieldmaster

Tooooo hot.

The other day it got unbearably hot, and with all efforts Reflection lost her litter a couple days early. 9 scattered on the wire, all chocolates & lilacs. It really was devastating but she seems so much more happy to not have a litter...

Kicker kindled yesterday and did amazing! 7 all live, and atleast 2 of them are a chocolate variety. Kicker goes alll the way back to our original starter doe, so this litter is super special and it's a must to keep a few from her ;)

Improved the cull pen, it's a double pen now, so about 7 feet long, 2.5 feet wide and pretty tall. Now have 11 to cull with the 4 I added today. I'm waiting until I have several to do, really.

The weather is starting to cool down for this next week, but 100 fires still surround us, only 3 "big" ones. Ash and brown smoke fill the skies and it's hard to breathe at times. It is a 0% containment and they are letting it burn and focusing on structures/houses only. Selma, a town a few miles north of us, has been evacuated. I figured we'd have another big Biscuit Fire (2003) this year, but there is still time I suppose. Crazy.

10 years with ARBA

July 22nd, 2003 was my membership join date as a youth at age 13 :) I had a few "pet" rabbits and was begging to breed, mostly Mini Rex at the time, though I had a few Mini Lops and a Holland Lop. Never would I ever imagine that I would get involved in 4-H, ARBA royalty or even get my registrars or judges license! I can look back at these 10 years and remember all of the good memories, with my family & friends. Where will I be in another 10 years? Well, certainly ... I don't know!

Yesterday was also the 1 year of Rylee's passing away. Rylee died and left her litter of two 4-week old babies behind. One of those is Reflection, which is due in a couple of days. Kicker, Rylee's GGG-daughter, is also due. Related to Rylee we also have Stupid Lana, Smart Nicole & VELN# We're so excited to get this project back on it's feet, since Rylee is the sole reason I didn't sell out in college. Having that "one" rabbit to hold onto, is all I needed!

Summer Heat

Temps have risen to triple digits this week -- no losses. The help of proper barn placement, shade grasses and an industrial fan do most all of the work for me. I can turn the fan on before I go to work and off when I get home. 

Michelle and Avocado both had their litters -- 5 each. Avocado has 2 REWs, 2 seal/sables and a chestnut. Michelle has a chestnuts and blacks like her 1st litter. 

I bred Kicker and Reflection to a new buck I picked up from Deb (bred by Nicole). He's a chocolate chestnut. I also got a Bkn Chocolate JR buck from her sired by Jones's Mahler. I got a Lilac GT Steel Jr Doe from LHHR's Stupid Lana (GC lilac steel 8 legs) that I gave to Nicole and also sired by Jones's Mahler. 
I'm getting Stupid Lana and one of her babies sired by McNay's Neo (bkn lilac steel) in a couple of weeks. Needless to say I got my chocolate/lilac program back on its feet. Thanks to Yvette for making this happen! 

Got a cull pen started 6 jr bucks from Cherry Bomb & Sweet Potato. Holding one of SP's babies back, a bkn chin jr buck. He looks nice so far, so we'll give him the benefit of the doubt. SP, Cherry Bomb, and a chin jr doe from a March litter are headed to CA soon as well. So we'll see a few holes opening up soon. 

Got a broken bag pallet from work yesterday. It contained 10 bags of pellet bedding, a bag of rice bran, 2 bags of poultry food, 3/4 bag of cat litter and some random gate latches/nuts/bolts all for $10. The pellet bedding will come in handy for more litters, carriers & trays. 

Work has been good, the 40 hours ended the start of this week when our company attempted to abide to ObamaCare. We discovered in 3 short days this will never work out, and with the extension, I'm hoping to have my hours back soon. So we'll see what happens! I'm aiming to make it to 3 or 4 shows this fall. 

Summer lull

Summer is here. We made it to 1 spring show and now we have nothing until September. So basically the rabbits just "sit" during the summer.

Have 2 litters on the ground. Sweet Potato has 4 by Zachary, 2 REWs a Chinchilla and a Bkn Chinchilla. Cherry Bomb has 6 from Fieldmaster, 2 are Smoke Pearl Chin & Steel & the rest are Bkn Chestnut.

Michelle & Avacado are bred to Fieldmaster and due in a week or so.

That's all really that's new. Just still working a lot and my spare time is spent gardening or doing necessary chores. Hard to believe just a year ago I was still slaving hard away in school. How the time flies!

The Herd :: April 2013

Bucks:
LHHR's Zachary
LHHR's Fieldmaster- JR
LHHR's Romero - JR

Does:
Milkhouse's Michelle
LHHR's Hoover
LHHR's Reflection
LHHR's Sweet Potato
LHHR's Express - JR
LHHR's Avacado - JR

To be declared:
BJB
2 SJD's
3 BJD's
SJB - For Sale

Placed a few more rabbits last week - just a couple to continue sorting through. The Michelle litter is very nice and we are growing them out further; 1  buck and 4 does!

Pure happiness :D

Work has been excellent :) I have been working 4 days with 3 days off up until next week where I will only get 2 days off until June. It's nice going to & leaving work happy, stress free and in a good mood. I learn something new every day and teach something new everyday and it's only a matter of time and opportunity to where I will be able to move up. It's nice to be able to accomplish things on my day off.

The weather has been great! So spring like and sunny :) The round pen is staying in good shape and I have been working Sierra several times a week. I hope to have her in good riding shape sometime next month. The lower pasture I worked on getting all invasive weeds out, a load of rabbit manure has been deposited per week and some seeding went out last week with some rain. I will add some more this week and hopefully it will be a great summer pasture to reduce feed cost.

Rabbits!

Annihilator and Storm left end of last month to WA. I'm trying to place Cucumber and Mossberg quickly to open up holes. 7 are being culled today.

Michelle x Ruger Gold Label yielded 3 keepers:
Chestnut buck we are keeping and named Fieldmaster
Chestnut doe we are keeping and named Express
Black doe we are growing out and will keep as a brood doe or sell as a brood doe (shes nice, just dont need the 3rd!)

Cucumber x Zachary I narrowed down to 4. There are 2 chin does, a Chin buck and a Bkn Chin buck. Both does have pretty nice structure, the bkn reminds us a lot of Zachary and the Chin buck isnt too shabby either. They are still freshly weaned so we will keep an eye on them and narrow them down in a couple of weeks.

Michelle is left with 7, 5 are hers. A chestnut, bkn chestnut, bkn blue buck, bkn steel and an blue gt steel doe. The blue steel doe did get a bit of nest box eye and wont be showable, but I will give her a chance to see her body type as a brood doe. Michelle is also raising 2 of Annihilators, we discarded the bkn charlies, and kept the 2 Bkn Smoke Pearl Chins, one of which looks like will be a nice doe.

Rabbit show next month! I will be entering about 5 in the quad show, so thankfully the show is close and entry fee will be my only expense.

New beginnings :)

Can't believe that it's already been a month!

On the 20th of Jan I applied for a new job. I've spent the last few weeks in HR, interview process, clearing and orientation. I quit my old job on the 31st. Is it stressful to quit a job before you have confirmation of the new one? Of course. Especially in this economy.
But on Friday I received the call and I start on Tuesday morning :) The wait was worth it and I will have much more time on my hands to do things that I want, will be getting the same amount of hours (but better scheduled) and more pay :) Plus I wont be stressed out all the time!

Michelle's first litter is separated and growing out. There are 3 bucks and 2 does.

I have 3 litters on the ground: 6 from Cucumber (chins/sable chins), 4 from Annihilator (2 brokens, 2 charlies -- lilac somethings?), and 6 from Michelle (3 dilute (blue chins/opals?), 3 agouti). I am still attempting to get Hoover and Reflection bred ... every day. Nothing seems to work.

Shows are going to be starting up next month. First is the Myrtle Point show on March 2nd. And then Pear Blossom/Western Frontier on April 13-14. I'm not sure how it's going to work out in requesting days off or accepting bids to judge, but hopefully I will be able to attend a few shows this spring.

Happy New Year?!

I'm not even sure where last year went, but it's gone!

This year, in regards to rabbits I just hope to stay in. I'm down to 9 rabbits with a litter of 5.

I have three does bred:
Cucumber x Zachary on 12/28
Annihilator x Storm on 1/6
Michelle x Storm on 1/8

Hoping some babies will get things moving along.

First show probably won't be until March or our local show in April at best. Just isn't a great time for traveling to shows, plus there's a lack of them this time of year anyways.

Everyone is doing good, just really cold (we've had snow & freezing temps lately) and lots of work. So haven't had time to work with the rabbits or do anything fun.