Piccy's!!!!!

Wow, I realized I had not put up picture posts in a while, so here's some of our babies!!!!

Velotta's Stitch (RGC Chestnut 7 legs) x Milkhouse's Cloey (Reg. Bkn Opal)

This litter should be really nice! Pictured are an opal and bkn opal, the "colored" guys of the bunch. The rest are chinchilla and chestnut babies.

Velotta's Boomer (RGC Bkn Chestnut) x LHHR's Kaluah (Reg. Chinchilla)
Black doe pictured, there is also a chinchilla doe. We will most likely keep the better of the two, and put the other one up for sale.

Velotta's Boomer (RGC Bkn Chestnut) x LHHR's Peppercini (Reg. Chestnut)

The only broken in the litter, so I have my eye on her. There is also a chestnut buck and three Chinchillas!

Velotta's Boomer (RGC Bkn Chestnut) x LHHR's Lil Gigi (RGC Bkn Chestnut)

Been callin this guy "Halfpipe", don't know why.... and maybe it's a doe... I really forget. I do know there are 2 bucks and 2 does in the litter, ha ha!

Another Bkn Chestnut from Boomer and Gigi. Tooooo cute!

Summer Time

Had to take the nestboxes out today, the lil ones weren't even really using them to be honest. Kaluahs two are both does, Gigi has 2 bucks and 2 does, Peppercini has a buck and doe, and I didn't check the other three. Whops. Should be able to tell on Cloey's soon.

Will be breeding many does after fair. The weather will cool down a bit and we have 2 bucks we'd like to use excessively. Mr. Miami who will be going across the country in October and Quintessence. QT is a nice buck, but I don't think I'll hold out to keep him. I'd sure like some litters from him though.

Got my Convention catalog. It's real weird to plan all these details. Still got people interested in rabbits, but have to have everything wrapped up by the Redmond show, which I do hope to attend :)

Just a lil over a week until Yreka, sure getting excited :)

Phew!

Spent the morning figuring out fair entries. I hate how they are due weeks ahead of time, I hope no one goes into a huge molt!
Also tried to figure out my photo entries. I have 47 "nice" photos and about 5-10 "really nice" photos. Exhibting photos at fair becomes expensive. They have to be printed on high gloss or satin photo paper ($15 for 25 sheets), mounted on foam core ($3.25 each) and then shrink wrapped, ($2 each) A hanger must be purchased for $.25 as well. I have some pretty nice photos though, so I won't complain about the costs yet.
Went to town. Checked the PO Box. Can now send in another GC with a show report I recieved. Sent off my entries for Yreka. Entered: Honey, Miami, Habanero, Stitch, PJ, Kokomo and Hannah. I will bring BBLH7, Black Pearl and Buddy to sell. Also some miscellaneous equipment.
Went to Wal-mart. Didn't find the foam core I wanted or the acrylic paint I was looking for, or the letters I wanted to put on my carriers for nationals, so I went to scrapbooking connection. Found some letters, but that was about it. Even those were $10.99. Then went to staples. Found a foam board for my educational display on bunny butchering at fair, but found out 9x11 inch foam boards are ridicously priced!
Called ARBA. Paid my dues for my license and applications. Hope it comes faster.... ha ha!
Cloey has a solid and broken opal in the box! Peppercini's bkn chinchilla is a doe. Gigi's litter is looking nice.
Paid for my fair entries. Had to enter a few more rabbits to get a season pass. So I entered 3 of Blue Bijou's juniors. Also Buster Blue, Qunintessence and the same 7 listed above for Yreka. Sounds about right.
Better yet, the doe I am trading for Peppercini (Klara), the buck I was going to have her bred to (Yuri) passed away, so she will be bred to Tihkon. Probably equally typed, if not better, but is closer related. The BEW stock on the east coast is so interrelated, it will be interesting to do some out crossing, I am excited!
enough rambling... those were my findings for a monday. Tomorrow is the last day of the month. They are supposed to have royalty teams finalized..... soo we'll see..... :)

Pre-Fair and Entries

Well... August is almost here! You know what that means.... won't be hearin from me much. Just a preview.... August 1st -- 4-H meeting, plus family from southern CA visits. August 8th -- last 4-H meeting before fair. August 11th -- Yreka, CA double open/cavy. August 12th -- Put up rabbit coop cards and bring in non-rabbit entries, open and 4-H. August 13th -- Rabbits to the barn -- August 14th -- Open show and Showmanship -- August 15th -- Conformation show. August 16th -- Judging contest August 17th -- Mastershowmanship. August 18th -- Awards ceremony and Auction, double barn duty shifts. August 19th -- pick up rabbits and premiums. August 20th -- leave for state fair? Sept. 2nd --Triple Open/Triple Youth in Crescent City, CA.


Prefair on Saturday went well. We got all the dishes and feeders out of the cages and cleaned them, also cleaned the sitting boards. I tattoed about 25 rabbits, didn't get a single scratch even though the rabbits were non-cooperative. Took a blower to the barn and really got it clean! Went over to the poultry barn and cleaned feed dishes there, ended up getting in a water fight, felt nice though in the triple digits. Went over to the extention office to have lunch. Then painted benches and chairs. Did showmanship.


Entries are due soon. And they are adding up! Owe about $15 in open fees, then owe $42 for Yreka (entering 7 rabbits), $22 for my registrar's license and membership, but I also have to pay for registration blanks, which are $30 per 10 applications. I will need atleast 20 for the RVRF show, since I know from experience, people want to get their rabbits registered before the winter, and have tons to do from the show lull in the summer! But I also have to be conservative for Grand Rapids! That will be one expensive trip!

One.... Two.... Three.... Four..... NINE!

Cloey did it again! She had her 2nd litter yesterday, and again, she had 9 babies. There are 4 broken and 5 solid, many dilutes! She is being a great mom! Our other litters are:
Kaluah x Boomer - 1 chinchilla, 1 black
Peppercini x Boomer - 1 bkn chinchilla, 3 chinchilla, 1 chestnut
Gigi x Boomer - 1 chinchilla, 3 bkn chestnut
We will not be breeding any does until September. We will be using Mr. Miami in most of our breedings. We hope to grand out a few does so we can finally breed them. :)

Setting down convention costs

I knew it was going to cost quite a bit of $$ to go to conventions, but... this is one of my last goals in rabbits. Who knows, I might sell out of rabbits in college and never come back or finish striving for my judges license or continue showing... you never know. Either way, I have plans to go. No matter how much it will put me in debt.

I found out the dimensions of the kennel today that Delta provides. I hope we get to fly with them. I will be contacting my "chaperone" tomorrow and see what they have planned for flight.
The dimensions are: 40" L x 27" W x 30" H. I can fit two of my carriers in one of those, 6 holes (one has larger holes). We are still trying to figure out how many rabbits we can take, but if we have our way, we have plans to take 9 rabbits with us on the plane, and 5 rabbits pre-sold (so far) with John Nyberg. I still have 5 rabbits for sale that I am willing to send to convetion.

Then there is the hotel cost, food costs, entries, health certificates, my plane ticket, the kennel cost, geez..... Thank god we aren't buying stock.

Not just any bunny....

Last night I was confiding in one of my "non-bunny" friends about an issue. I had a lady contact me about Mini Lops. She was on the other side of the country and she was interested in getting rabbits from ARBA Convention. I told her what I had for sale and all the details about transporting to Michigan. She wasn't really interested in anything I had for sale, but she was interested in a junior buck I have, a junior buck I held back to replace his sire. I told her he wasn't for sale. I even offered her this bucks sister. So... I let it sit for a couple of days... I pulled him out of his cage, looked him over real well... he's a really nice animal. Will he replace his sire? Is he a unique color and does he have an unforgettable and unique personality? Maybe. Sure he does. Am I willing to sell him?
So... then I think about the reality. I am going to college. I do need to cut down on the # of rabbits I have. And then there's the point my friend brought up... "he's just a rabbit". Will I die without this rabbit? Probably not...
So... I will continue showing this buck. I sure hope he does well. He will be a junior for Yreka double and fair, but he will be a senior for the Crescent City triple, Redmond double and Grants Pass double shows. I figure I can start breeding him to my does in September after fair and CC show, get some for sure litters on the ground, and then breed him to a couple more does in October. That should give me plenty of his blood in my barn to live with. :)
That'll work, right?

Tattooing and Nest Building

Tattooed 4 rabbits that are going to fair with us next month. All the others have tattoos or won't need one until September or October. Went well. All 4 didn't want to be tattooed, but I decided to do it while it was cooler out. The heat is coming back, so I guess it was now or never.

Gave Cloey her box this morning. She immediately went to nesting. She is *very* fat and full of babies! Last time she kindled 9 and took them all to weaning! This litter we expect a better cross. We will have updates soon.

Also, we have the catalog for the double open in Yreka, CA now. August 11th. There is also a single cavy show. Contact me for more info.

Honey Bunn

Honey has always been a BIGGGGGGGGG gal. We got her last fall bred to her sire and she gave us 8 or 9 beautiful babies, if I can remeber correctly. We didn't end up keeping any, the only rabbit we were super impressed with was a buck. Some lucky soul won that rabbit in raffle in March. Anyways, Honey came to us overweight after winning 2 legs in WA. Now... Honey is one beautiful doe. I cannot empahsize the word beautiful! So I went out to weigh her today and she weighs 6.9 lbs. Just one ounce over! If all goes well, we will have her entered for our fair, and we can only hope she gets below 6.8 and does well, becuase we want to breed this gal. She is worth a GC certificate and her weight in gold. She's such a sweetie! *Pic taken December 2006

About Time...

Called the ARBA office today after waiting a month trying to find out the status on my registrar's license. The lady I got on the phone was very nice and informative. She told me I had completed all the nessecary requirements and that all I had to do was pay my licensing fee. So hopefully, I should be prepared to register rabbits by the end of the month. :)