Bring on Week 9

The school year has got the best of me. Life has been stressful. I have been trucking through, but entirely too exhausted as come Friday.

Saturday I went to a rabbit show in Albany, OR -- the Fall Warren. It's a double open with a bunch of specialities. I missed entirely too much of it, having to do my dairy milking on Friday evening and had to register for classes on Saturday morning, so I didn't arrive there until around 11 am. I did however, catch up with friends, and manage to find a couple quality animals for my 4-H'ers to start them off right! Thank you Mike Misner & Abby/Jeena Corliss! I skipped the 4H banquet to work on homework, which it was worth it as I got about half of it done. :)

This morning, my roomates woke up bright an early, and headed on our "Term Getaway Trip". We headed north to Tillamook, and visted the Tillamook Cheese Factory! We also visted the Blue Heron Cheese Factory and then headed toward Lincoln City. We stopped in Depoe Bay for some *amazing* wave photographs. I have been getting some tips from photographers and took some awesome photographs! We then traveled south to Newport. We rolled into the Yaquina Head Lighthouse at 4:52 and ran ip 181 stairs to catch some photos and get a cardio workout ;) We then watched the sun go down, and travel 53 miles in thick fog back to Corvallis.

Most of our calves have arrived... just a few drop off's left. We're headed over to Bend after thanksgiving to give our presenation. Also that week is the Civil War. OSU vs U of O... if we win, we go to the Rose Bowl! So pretty excited for that.

I go home Wednesday morning. I am entirely too excited. To see my family... and my bunnies.

I will be doing some culling, and possibly some breedings. We'll see. At any rate, I'll have lots of updates!

Week 5 and counting

Week 5 is here and almost gone. The time has flown.

I had an interview last Wednesday for an internship.... and I found out yesterday that I recieved it! I am pretty excited, and this will be a great experience for me!

Tuesday I had a presentation and a midterm, but they both went well. My cattle classes that night went well too! Even though I have less credits this term, I am more involved. Next term I will be back up to 18.... but only 14 of those "actually count" so I will be working, busy with extra-curricular activties and keeping my GPA up!

Friday morning the rabbits leave for San Diego. I did mark the cages so my parents knew which ones to send.

I won't get to see my rabbits for another 3 weeks. I'm going to make a trip south to pick up 3 rabbits to show at the Fall Warren show, I'd rather have someone transport them but I'm afraid I won't find that.

For now.... LHHR's Rylee, our only colored rabbit in the barn is looking pretty impressive for a future brood doe. We have completely updated the website with most current information and pictures.

Velotta's Kristie is due on the 9th to LHHR's Titan!

Getting over it

I'm slowly getting over the fact of my absence at Convention. It hit me hard, but luckily I was able to get over it before midterms came.

The end of week 3 is tomorrow, I have 2 classes and then I am rushing home. I have a *lot* of stuff to do at home, most importantly getting my wisdom teeth pulled... I let them go too long. I really didn't want an appointment this soon, but oh well.

I also need to cull some juniors and evaluate my older juniors. I am considering showing a few at Fall Warren. I could pick them up on Friday and bring them home on Wednesday.... I just don't know if I want three more rabbits in the house! We'll see how they look.

Obnoxious is due a couple days after I return, so I will give her a bigger cage and build up a good box for her.

I might be breeding my BEW pair if they are mature enough. I haven't seen them in ages so I really don't know how far they've come, but they are 'old enough'.

I will spend a few hours getting my older seniors ready for their long trip down to San Diego. I want them to arrive in Arizona in good condition so they can be bred right away for their new owner.

I have to change my plane ticket. I guess I'm going to Michigan in December after finals. It's the only thing I can think of to do with my ticket.

I will have lots of PICTURES to post when I get back... I am excited to get to see my bunnies!

Ups and Downs

I was adding up convention costs yesterday, trying to tie up transportation ends, when my transporter tells me she has no record of my confirmation e-mail.... I lost my convention transport. So I scrambled and found someone else, more expensive but just as good. Thanks Scott!

I'm not going to send ANY rabbits to show at convention. period. And I'm not going either. So now I have a $350 ticket in lingo... what to do with it.

This year has been pretty hard on me, I've been to a few shows and failed them all (I have not gotten a BOB all year), which is the first time in like, hell along time (5 or 6 yrs or more). I did pretty well at Nationals, so I bred 10 does for Convention, so all of those babies were non-purposeful since I'm not going now. The offspring I did get was amazing, so I don't regret that.

I haven't been able to sell rabbits. Period. I've culled more than I like to JUST because I can't sell. I realize culling IS essential, but not when it means dead-ending animals just because the economy blows (which is what I have blamed it on).

I don't have the money to invest in shows, when they are not beneficial finacially anymore. And I'm not in it for the money, DO NOT get me wrong, but I am a college student, and I have LOTS of bills to pay!

I have, considered, the possibility of selling out.

I cried last night for a few hours until my roomates came home, because it was very hard to consider. I have come SO far these past few years, creating a good line, having great rabbits and a hobby I truly enjoy! I became a registar because I eventually wanted to become a judge, and still do have that goal but maybe just not right now.

I have tried the herd reduction thing, and still... just not working. Granted I did manage to sell a couple for Convention... seniors too, but it still is just not enough. I will be updating my for sale page either today or tomorrow, visit it, and e-mail me if interested. Prices not as important as finding them good homes.

Week one complete!

Don't let anyone try to fool you that college is easy, because it's quite the opposite.

My first week back to college was stressful. Monday was my birthday and well, it didn't go all that great and I ended up going to bed early because I wasn't feeling well.

Tuesday was suicide. I have my first class at 8 am. I then have a 2 hour break where I can go home. But then I have to be back on campus at 11 for a 3 hour Bio lab. And, I really hated it because they "monitor" labs so you can't go at your own pace and get out early. It was really frustrating having to power-walk to my next class. My next class, was an Education class for my Agriculture Education minor. It is also, 3 hours long. I got out a little early since it was the first day, but that still left me running home, grabbing my keys and having an off-campus Steer A Year meeting in the nearby town. That alone was another three hours, so I didn't "land" until almost 10 pm. Every Tuesday will run like this.

Wednesday was short, but filled with work, readings and home work. Thursday was short, just a class and a two hour lab at the ranch, but I had errands to run and lots of stuff to do. So when I rolled out of bed this morning to go speak to a class, and then two hours of class, I was very excited to believe it was FRIDAY!

As far as the rabbits go, I really don't know how they are doing. I have plans of showing 4-6, I want to sell 2 but *if* I don't go, I'm not going to send those 2. That would leave me showing a SJB, BJB, SJD & a BJD. :)

As far as convention goes, yes, it is now less than a month away. I still have my ticket, which has gone un-changed so far and with only one week of school down, I can't say if I've made a decision. I had changed my mind and decided to go, and educational wise I could go now, taking less credits. And, monetarily, I could swing it. But, I should probably save my money, I just spend about $500 in books and still have two more months of rent, electricity, internet, groceries and gas to pay for. We'll see. Hopefully I would have made a decision by next week.... :(

I might go home next weekend, cull some more rabbits and make my convention entry "final".

Well...... Bring it on

So today is Sunday, the day before school starts.
And yes, Oregon university schools start at the end of September, we are weird, we know.

I start my 2nd year up here, I am almost a junior credit wise and I still don't know what I want to do with my college career.

I had an advising appointment on Friday with a different department, Agriculture Education. Where it sounded intriguing in May, it still stands in my "number one" career interest spot, so I'm just going to follow through with it. It's not a lot of extra work, just a few extra classes to fill the basic requirements and pre-licensure core.

In all of the years that I spent thinking 'what I would be when I grew up', becoming a teacher never occured to me, I never even considered it. But, I do realize, I love interacting with kids, and I love teaching, which is really the reason I became a 4-H leader! So I guess it's in me, its possible and it's within my reach. Here goes to the next four years!

Anyways, tomorrow is pretty easy, classes @ 9 and 10 am and a short Livestock Evaluation meeting at 3.

And.... It's my 20th birthday tomorrow, and I have to go to school... great eh? :)

Junior Selections

I love how 53 yielded babies, just 6 of them will make it to convention.

1 SJB - Matthew
1 SJD - Brianna
2 BJD's - Ashlyn & Lila (for sale)
2 BJB's - Henry & Money Maker (for sale)

I made some cull selections out of Kristie, Taylor and Melinda's litters.

I got rid of a SJB out of Taylors litter, a SJD & 2 SJB's out of Kristie's litter, and three from Melinda's litter.... I also got rid of Chestnut & Theodore's little broken doe, and Tessa and Kiah... I could not pose them at all and Henry is just so nice it wouldn't be advisable to keep a doe too.

After all of that... I am down to 29 (including babies). Several of those I will chuck when they get older and make my permanent selections and some of them are for sale. I am keeping just under 20 until the spring.

oye.

My Stockton report

Left Friday morning as early as possible, meeting up with a breeder in Sacramento.
I hate Sacramento... even the airport exit pissed me off. I am used to two lanes of freeway traffic; not eight. I am used to courteous polite people who drive the speed limit and use their directional signals.

Get into Stockton, head to the fairgrounds. It's an open barn. Puzzled on how they are going to cram in thousands of animals in there before the show starts in the morning I drove back towards my cousins's house to find out they are sick, so we find a hotel. Have to carry 3 big carriers upstairs. Wonderful.

Go out to dinner with my uncle and one of my cousins that weren't sick. Hit the bed, had to be up at 6.

Load the rabbits into the car and hurry to the fairgrounds. When I paid my entry to Rita I asked where to set up my reigistation stuff and she told me next to the raffle and there was an empty table there.

Mistake #1. Little did I know, that empty table was where they used to have the secretary's table. A simple line in the catalog noting that there was a change in location would have been nice. I had to tell about 200 people, and several of them youth, that no, I was not the secretary, I would not take their money and had to give them directions where the secretary's new table was. Now, if that happened a dozen times, I wouldn't have minded.... but it was really irratating and half the time I just left and went and talked with breeder friends.

Mistake #2. Putting all BIG entries in the "arena". Big entries mean lots of people, silly people so why cram a bunch of people in one square. I had troubles getting in there, so I became really agile and learned how to hop chain link fences while dodging all of Chris's carriers below.

Mistake #3. Leaving the lights on when its 103*F out. WHYYYYYY. Selling bottled water for $1.50.... im surprised they didn't charge tax too. No fans for the buns.... WTH. By the time it coooled off, we were leaving!

Mistake #4. Sitting next to the raffle table. Never again. People assume you are "in-charge" of the raffle and then to come out and ask you who's in charge.... I don't know lady!, I'm from Oregon! Not to mention, when they finally pull tickets for the raffle, just leave the area. I had a crapload of kids ON my table, affecting the work I was doing and deterring people from bringing animals to register. I could have doubled my work if it wasn't for that darned raffle.

Mistake #5. Having bathrooms that don't work and furthermore not supplying toilet paper or paper towels... or HAND SANITIZER for that matter.

Mistake #6. A lot of the above could have been avoided if the superintendant had given a 'welcome' message at the beginning of the show. A simple, here is this, the secretary's table is over there, or these breeds will be starting under these judges..... I would have been a wreck had I been a newbie exhibitor trying to find my way around....

There is more... I know it, I just can't think of it at the moment. Are there any positives? Sure, I made enough money to pay for this months rent, I got to see some of my family that were'nt sick and only got chased by one African American man... we made it through the bad part of town pretty safely. My uncle drove me through Stockton, telling me about all the buildings that have changed since I lived there, and took me up to the Port of Stockton and got to see a HUGE frieghter boat.

I come back with no pictures, the only pics I got were of family and the bunnies in the hotel really... I was driving so no I-5 memories.

Overall, it was a decent show. I've been to worse, but the Pacific Northwest puts on lots better shows and that's what I'll stick to from now on. :)

Stockton Results

The rabbit's end was excellent :)

Brianna AND Henry amazed me and took 4th in ALL 3 of their shows. Class sizes were 20-25, but with some DQ/Scratches/and Adds, I will wait till my show report... but other wise, big competitive classes :) Matthew took a 6th and 9th, I think I still might keep him, he's pretty typey, just lacking some development.

I got rid of 3. And I transported several to help with gas.

I got to breed one of my does, to Chris's buck "Techron".... who is just "jaw-dropping" beautiful. I will be getting his son at Convention who should work as my next herd buck.

I'm alive!

We have the internet temporarily hooked up... there's an issue with the wireless router so we have to share it and can only use it on one place... hopefully they'll have it fixed by the time I come back!

I'm going to leave for home tomorrow evening, or Thursday morning at latest. I have a lot to do, in far as getting rabbits ready and plan on who I'm bringing, washing clothes and packing.

But I'm ready for Stockton, now it looks more like a daunting task, but at the same time it does look fun. :) I'm excited to see my bunny friends and talk CONVENTION!

Speaking of convention, there is a lot of talk of trying to put one on in the NW Reporter. It's a lot easier said than done, and our DDirector just posted on the D1 web (link) a "surface" as to what goes on, to know what people would be getting into but also to put in some serious considerations for it.

Here to Stockton! Wishing for safe travels :)