Photos from this weekend!

Castle Crags in Northern California (Dunsmir area)
Just north of Redding... an amazing pic :)

Some calves in Nor Cal

Where I was born!

with Chris & Tricia

The doe I bought from Kassi

Out the window of the restuart on the wharf

Dom was 3rd SJB in the National

Randy judging Tricia's does

Mini Lop Nationals!

WOW! is all I have to say :) I had such a great time, met so many awesome people and I am still insanely exhausted so this post will be rather short, I apologize in advance. Hats off to Vanessa & Tomalene Borquez and Tricia Hill for making it an awesome trip :)

*note I didn't post placements after 10th, there were only a couple :D I should mention I competed in OPEN, against Kassi Sieber and Chris Desurra, among other top breeders. I am very happy in what I brought home with my homebred stock.

Mini Lop Nationals placements:
LHHR's Mason - 9th SJB
LHHR's Dominic - 3rd SJB
LHHR's Taylor - 5th SJD
LHHR's Last Minute - 7th SJD
LHHR's Hera - 6th BSD
LHHR's Theodore - 9th BJB

SCMLC Specialty Show "The Day After Show":
LHHR's Dominic - 9th SJB
LHHR's Taylor - 6th SJD
LHHR's Titan - 5th BJB
LHHR's Theodore - 1st BJB and BEST OPPOSITE SEX VARIETY!!!
[under Randy Shumaker!!]
Sieber's Obnoxious - 4th SSD! [to the Best of Breed winner!]

West Coast Classic Double Open:
LHHR's Mason - 2nd & 3rd SJB!
LHHR's Dominic - 5th & 9th SJB!
LHHR's Last Minute - 9th & 9th SJD!
LHHR's Taylor - 5th & 6th SJD!
LHHR's Titan - 2nd & 3rd SJB!
LHHR's Theodore - 3rd & 10th SJB!
LHHR's Hera - 5th & 9th BSD!

I presold 2.... LHHR's EGK1 placed 7th in the National in Youth and won her class the next day, I hope she does well for the Votaw family. I also sold LHHR's Mozzerella to Heather, bred to Stitch so hopefully she carried her litter on the long trip. On our way back Summer left to Vanessa Borquez, bred to Stitch, so hopefully she produces another kick-butt litter!

I purchased a rabbit... yes, yes I did. I didn't find anything I liked of Chris D's rabbits, but I did find one of Kassi's that I liked so I spent the money and brought her home. I think she will add a great deal to my herd.

I attended the Judges Conference... Allen Mesick did a great job in putting it on, all the presenters were amazing and I learned a lot. Gained some tips for when I give my presenation at State Convention.

I bred does on my way back home! woot! Here are the breedings we have coming for National Convention:

LHHR's Maddelyn x ?'s Chocolate - Bred: 4/12 [color litter only]
LHHR's Mia x LHHR's Mason - Bred: 4/12
LHHR's/Velotta's Hera x LHHR's Theodore - Bred: 4/12
LHHR's Kassidy x LHHR's Kenai - Bred: 4/27 [BEW litter only]
LHHR's Maid Dignified x Velotta's Danger - Bred: 4/27
LHHR's Kendall x LHHR's Boomerang - Bred: 4/27
LHHR's/Velotta's Ellie Mae x Velotta's Twitch -Bred: 4/27
LHHR's/Velotta's Hades x Velotta's Twitch - Bred: 4/27
LHHR's Chestnut x LHHR's Titan - Bred: 4/27
Siebers Obnoxious x Velotta's Twitch - Bred: 4/27

So we are pretty excited for these litters , three litters will be about 4 weeks old when I come home and the other 7 will just be opening their eyes!

**I will post pictures and more info with time, for now this is my update :) The website is in the process of being updated, we are also on the lookout for another host, since Geocities is shutting down :(

These past couple of weeks...

I can't believe midterms are next week already and that two weeks have flown by like nothing. However, they have been filled with some good times :)


The first week back, I had a full Tuesday of livestock eval, marketing, Steer A Year, Purebred Cattle Management and club lamb meeting.... have since decided to break up a few of these meetings so I might get home by 7 pm rather than 10 or later..... Wednesday was a small/short 4-H meeting. Thursday was livestock eval and left for our Steer a Year trip! We left Corvallis around 5 pm and drove straight to Yakima, WA. We got into our hotel around midnight and had to be up at 6 am. We then toured Washington Beef. I won't go into any details.... we then drove to Toppenish, WA and toured Trinity Farms, a Angus/Sim-Angus ranch... very beautiful cattle and a wonderful lunch there! We then drove down to Pendleton, OR. We got there a little early, so we did some shopping. We had a dinner reservation at 6:30 at a nice steakhouse. Dinner was good, went to the casino afterwards since the pool closed at 10 :( Celebrated one of our member's birthday. The next morning, we had a tour of Lorenzen Red Angus.... a very beautiful place with some really nice looking cattle. We then got on the road again to drive to Boardman, Oregon where we toured Beef Northwest. Again, I will not go into any details, but we had an amazing time here, we learned a LOT and walked away very appreciative of the extra-long and informative tour. Definately a place I wouldn't mind working in the future ;) We got back to Corvallis pretty late that night. I crawled into bed and didn't wake up till around 11 am on Sunday.

Monday I sent in my entry for Mini Lop Nationals. I went ahead and entered 7....

• Hades - BSD (1 leg)
• Titan - BJB (2 legs)
• Theodore - BJB
• Mason - SJB
• Dominic - SJB
• Taylor -SJD
• Last Minute - SJD

*the rest have not been shown!

Theodore has a down payment on him and is coming back to Oregon after his trip. We pre-sold three, two leaving at ML Nationals and one leaving on the way back. That will give us some cages to work with for litters :)

Tuesday was another full day, along with Wednesday. Thursday was not fun either. Had marketing at 1 pm. From 2-4 I had class. At 5, I fed... and at 5:30, I went down to the swine barn to help shave the pigs that were being sold in the hog and lamb sale for the 4-H kids for their market projects! Um.... yeah I got a little dirty that day... but it was fun, exhausting, and I climbed into bed after a well-deserved shower because I had to be up at 7 am! I went to the 8 am chemistry class, finished packing and left for so. Oregon for the weekend. I judged a 4-H show that evening (very great kids, wonderful low-key experience) and then went home to get my rabbits ready.

I entered 5 rabbits, 3 in the same class which helped me decifer my ML Nationals BSD, Hades will be going. She won 2nd in show A... not sure why she lost but whatever.... My other two does, will be bred here soon. My SJB won his class but there weren't enough for a class leg and the senior buck was prime. Titan, pulled out and won BOS and had raving comments. He is such a pleaser -- pleasing to look at and a wonderful disposition, along with a wonderful growth rate! Loosing Zeus was tough, but this up and coming buck really makes up for it, because he's been sitting in the barn the entire time! Show B was the same... for once, consisitency.

I sold the two I brought... and I came home with one. The night before I had fallen in love with a beautiful broken chocolate buck out of my stock :) I went home wishing I could have a breeding from him, and I went back the next day and Stacey offered him to me! I couldn't object... he had a couple type flaws but nothing that can't be fixed with correct breedings. I have already bred him to Maddelyn :) We'll see if she carries chocolate, if not, the babies at the min will carry chocolate and dilute!

also registered a ton of animals, a variety of breeds too..... my first English Lops, more French Lops, some New Zealands, a Himilayan and Thriantas. Had a great time. Drove back Sunday evening.

Monday afternoon we ultrasounded our last 16 head of calves. Basically we are looking to see how much backfat and marbling they and how they should grade, even though we will measure that upon carcass as well.


Today during livestock eval we had an intro to carcass Yield Grades, and at 5 we had an extensive lesson on Yield Grades during Steer A Year. I did learn a lot :)

Tomorrow I have Purebred Cattle Mangement and a Young Cattlemen's meeting. Thursday is full of classes until 4 and Friday and Saturday I am feeding and pulling a homework/study weekend.

So.... it's very likely I won't report anything until after Mini Lop Nationals. I'm looking forward to a safe, fun and exciting weekend :D

Above is a picture of our new broken buck, "Chocolate"

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

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.
---------------------------------------------------------
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.
---------------------------------------------------------
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!

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.

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

All Rabbit Business

I was finally able to get some information and pictures from my parents about my rabbits :)

I had been asking for pictures on the black from Easy Summer Breeze and Stitch. She is a solid black who got nest box eye, but is perfectly fine for a breeding doe. Priced to sell, she actually has a pretty nice body!

Zeus, Hera and Hades were weighed, none of them are overweight or even close to it, so my 5 1/2 ounces strict feeding ration helped them out! (they have BIG parents!). They may mature later, but right now they are holding out almost 7 months old and 5 3/4 and 6 1/4 lbs. They are not molting, and my dad said they are in good flesh. They have been on Fibre 3 long enough for it to effect them, and it has not! The pictures I recieved show they are in good show condition, but they are not posed. I can somewhat gather that they look just like they did Jan 1st, only with a bit more weight on them. I want to thank Karyn for taking them to Myrtle Point and thanks to Vanessa who's going to show them in the Quad show that weekend. I'm sending out my entry in the morning.

My parents also sent pictures of Dignified's litter. The sable chinchilla is doe, then there is a bkn chinchilla and a bkn chestnut and those are bucks. They are almost 4 lbs at 2 months old!!! Two of these will be available. Price is likely to go up with age, so reserve them early ;)

Ex. Getaway's two chestnuts are pretty good lookin at 4 1/2 lbs each, and they are a month older than the litter above. The buck will be available for/at Mini Lop Nationals

Summer has 8 babies that are about 3 - 3 1/2 lbs each. I wont know any ideas of these guys until March 20th or later.

I am purchasing two rabbits around Mini Lop Nationals. One doe, sometime this spring, from Nicole. And the other I will post more later on, will come home from Mini Lop Nationals. Summer will be leaving on the way back from Mini Lop Nationals. I would still like to sell Ex. Getaway and Mozzerella for Nationals.... I need to work on advertising them.

I've decided since I probably won't get the internship, to plan big for this summer. I will be needing some more cages. I'm really regreting selling all my cages this last summer but I thought it would prevent me from getting over my max number of rabbits. I will have over 11 does to breed this summer, so I can replace them and get some juniors for Convention. I'll work on that over spring break.

3 more weeks :) I'm getting pretty excited to go home and see my bunnies :)

Holiday Ranch and Critter Romp

Monday morning we headed over to Terrebonne, Oregon for the Performance Plus Bull Sale at Holiday Ranch, a part of 44 Ankony (1 of 4 Ankony farms in the Nation). It wasn't a bad drive over, ODOT kept most of the snow off the passes so it was an easier drive. The scenery was amazing :) When we got there, we had some time to look at the bulls in the pens. All black, with some Sim-Angus in a back pen. It was good to see quality bulls in such a mass quantity. (Rabbit breeders would be amazed with this concept). Some pens were embryo transfer, such as the 6o's lot, which came out of one sire and dam, placed into other less quality cows. It's pretty common among beef cattle, and more recgonizable in Angus. Holiday is such a nice setup, big clean pens, good hay and beautifully trimmed bulls not overfed and ready for new owners :) We then got lunch, and took too long with that and didn't get good seats for the auction, but that's alright since we weren't buying. I got a pretty good place to stand and didn't mind. The first two bulls out spun the buyers at over 5,000 a piece. The top bull went for $16, 000 and if I remember correctly he was out of a deceased, famous bull which semen went for over $500 a straw. At any rate, prices were up... I saw some great stock, and had a great time. I can't wait for next year!

Tuesday night I had a math exam. I finished in less than an hour and headed upstairs to catch the tail end of Purebred Cattle Management and Steer A Year. A good presentation was given on our Expenses for Steer A Year and what we need to make to break even. We're going to charge $3.50-3.75 for quality beef, so if you are interested, shoot me an e-mail!

I fed Friday night and got to bed rather early as I had to be up at 6 am to head to Critter Romp! I left at 7 am for McMinnville. I got there, checked in with the superintendant and relaxed for a bit. I chatted with some breeders and my 4-H'er that came with me. I started off with a table of Seniors, and four tables of Intermediates. I called back 7 of the Intermediates to make my decsion. I also got to do Champion/Reserves as well. :) I ate lunch, and then it was conformation. I doubt I can tell you all the breeds I judged, but I felt that I did a pretty good job and made good BIS/RIS decisons.

My ambassador application has been looked at it. I will have an interview next week hopefully and should find out shortly after that. I don't mind if I don't get in, I'm only a sophomore. Waiting to hear back from Columbia Dairy and various scholarships.

On the rabbit side, it's been nearly impossible to get rabbit information out of my parents. I'm not going home this weekend as I originally planned so I'm not going to be home until March 20th where I will make my first National junior cuts. It makes it hard to pre-sell and make show selections 3 hours away from home, I don't suggest it !! My parents are supposed to be weighing and going over the three I plan to have shown in a couple of weeks. I'm worried as I have heard some negative comments about the feed I started in December. However, my parents tell me no rabbits are molting, and Roxy, who has been on this food for quite some time, looks and feels just fine! She has every reason to be out of condition as well and she still rocks the tables :)

For those of you who may be interested, I don't get the internship and stay home this summer, I will be breeding Roxy in June :) I am currently searching for a very nice broken buck to use at Oregon State Convention to complement her nice type. Roxy has made the college transition so much better. The first term was very hard to go without a rabbit! I used to have negative thoughts about Hollands (my first experience raising them wasn't good, they were poor quality rabbits) and none of them had the temperment she does.

that's all for now :)

Pictures!

I finally got my parents to get pictures of Mozzerella's litter :) Sorry for the quality of the pictures, this is their first time doing something like this... All chocolate chestnuts, I was a little dissapointed with no variety but I did get a milk tipped ear! I will only be keeping one of these babies, so feel free to contact me about these guys... colorful pedigree from great lines!