Busy!!!

Finals ended! Kennewick show was GREAT! Definitely one I'd go back to. Tomato took 2nd in B and 1st in A of good sized competition (the 1st place in A was the BOB winner), so I am excited to have debuted her. The Martens took BOSB in both shows.

Spring break was NOT long enough. I did order my cages from KW and bred 4 does: Rylee, Wall E, Nemo and Isabella.

17 pending sales for the month of April, so lots of details lining up money and transports for WCC and Ohio Mini Convention.

Website is completely updated, and will likely remain where it is now, because I wont have much time on my hands as I start spring term tomorrow!

Since I have some down time ...

Week 9 ended on Friday. Tomorrow starts dead week and then a week of finals. I only have three, but they will all be painful. Plus, I have lots of projects and papers due on top of that in combination with everything else.

Saturday I went to a horse show instead of one of the 3 rabbit shows I could have gone to. It was a nice relaxing event but probably not good on my cold that I currently have.

Friday I picked up a little junior buck from Amy. The timing was perfect as Scott was coming down for Myrtle Point so I didn't even have to stress about finding transport or driving up there. He is out of Angel Dreams, a broken chocolate, who is out of Angel Wings, who was a LHHR Buster Blue daughter. I never kept anything from Buster, so I saw this opportunity to bring those lines back that I truly missed. This guy is a cutie, I decided to name him Ruben.

Matt, Tango and I checking on the heifers.

Our bull was sent back to the ranch this last week... That means breeding season is here :)

Our steers enjoying the "white stuff" during our city snowstorm.

Andd...... Denver. Was a great trip with three of the best people ever. We had so many great memories :)

Back to rabbits?

When I go home, I will try breeding Nemo to Zeus and Lettuce to Hank. Been meaning to get litters out of them.

Pyro, Maddy and Wintergreen get their boxes this week. I am hoping the Martens re-bred off their litters, because their first litters weren't all that impressive. I culled out a lot due to some early nest box problems, but I am left with some does to work with. I will be culling those litters and Brianna's litter of 8 when I head home for spring break...

which may not start till Monday, the 21st, possibly later. I also have to Powerwash and spring clean the barn, since I wont get to go home spring term, and it sounds like I may not be home for the summer.

so... look for some updates at the end of the month :)

I'm still alive

Busy. An underestimated word of my life, currently.

The rabbits --

I am getting Zeus back on Friday. :) Also on Friday I am picking up a junior buck from WA.

Got 2 Martens and a ML due next week.

Decided to head to the Kennewick show the Saturday after spring break. So I'm currently excited for that :)

Got a lot for sale to send to Ohio Mini Convention or West Coast Classic in Reno, Nevada.

Travel here, travel there

Seriously, this term is FULL of traveling. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it ... but sometimes being gone every weekend is stressful, especially after a long week of busy school. Not to mention, calving starts soon, as well as lambing -- so my weeks will be stressful with lack of sleep!

My calendar:

1/14-15 - Coeur D'Alene, Idaho - rabbit show

1/20-22 - Pendleton, La Grande, Baker City, OR - cattle conference

1/28-29 - Saint Helens, OR - rabbit show

2/1-6 - Denver, Colorado - cattle conference

2/11-13 - Home :)

2/18-20 - Scottsdale, Arizona - rabbit show

2/25-26 - AQ competition

3/5 - WA - rabbit show

3/12 - dead week; studying for finals

3/19 - WA - rabbit show

So hard to imagine that I am only on the first weekend of the term, and that I have many more to go before I can relax for spring break!

This weekend I am showing Wall E & Badger... There will be some Silver Marten competition, which I am excited for, even if Badger is still young. Wall E, I am somewhat not sure, because I feel judges see her differently than I do -- however she is in great condition. 2BT2 is going to Sara, I am getting a chocolate chestnut and a REW daughter from Melinda x Stitch breeding. I also have 2 of Jill's Dutch and 2 of her Thrianta's... so I have a full load :)

So if I don't post much...I'm just busy -- however I hope to keep up to date with my travels :)

Getting back to "normal"

One week of school has kickstarted me back into gear. Thoroughly enjoying this new term, I am just so happy!

Probably does help that I dropped the Holland project, and I sold my Checkered Giant pair. I was searching through my "spam box" and read an e-mail that shouldn't have been sent there. It worked out the lady's friend was up in OR at the time and was willing to bring them back for her. So I lost a cage and a carrier in the mix, but i have my two big cages back and now I am down to just the Mini Lops and my small Silver Marten project. It feels so good to be back to normal!

I am down to just 14 rabbits:

Stitch

Hank

Brianna

Lila

Montana + 6

Lettuce

Rylee

Nemo

Wall E

2BT1

Badger

MGD

Maddy + 7

Pyro + 8

Certainly a more manageable number for these busy times!

Coeur D'Alene, Idaho show next weekend! I'm showing 2 rabbits... making the 16+ hr RT trip just to work with an out-of-state judge :)

2011 Goals

I said I would post them... so here goes:

*Obtain my judges license

*Start showing & raising Silver Martens actively.

*Attend atleast 5 shows

*Reduce on numbers, getting back down to the bare minimum

*Apply for graduation

*Raise my GPA (I have a set number in mind)

*Pass Repro & Advanced Repro with atleast a B

*Payoff the loan I'm taking out

*Get a good summer job/internship

*Find a career goal by June

annnnnd that's it for now. All of them are pretty obtainable I suppose :)

Much over due

I can't believe I haven't posted since convention!

At any rate, I finished fall term. Longest 10 weeks of my life... ever!

Went to Red Bluff... I worked Saturday and Sunday. 3300 rabbits.... great people, great show! I don't exactly know my results, but I do know my martens took BOB all 4 shows, and Wall E won BOSV in show D. Also got some 1sts in the other shows.

Litters! After the recent catastrophes with the birthing problems, low numbers and does missing, I now have some on the ground and on the way!

Silver Martens:

Maddy & Badger - 7 on 12/26

Pyro & MGD - 8 on 12/26

*have 5 or 6 blues, rest are black

Checkered Giant:

Robin & Bruce -- due today :)

Mini Lops:

Montana x Hank Tank - due 12/29

Lettuce x Hank Tank - due 12/29 or 1/18

Brianna x Casper - due 1/18

Rylee x Casper - due 1/18

Lila x Zeus - due 1/21?

Have less than a week of vacation left. I return to school on Saturday. I won't be bringing many up to Corvallis. Don't have much to show and everything else is bred or on a litter.

CDA is coming up on 1/15. I am making the long trip to work for my license. Will have to flip a coin to decide who. Good lineup! I will probably only show 3 rabbits, I will have others showing for me so I want to make it easy :)

After CDA is a road trip for the Or cattlemens assc, then St Helens rabbit show, then going to Denver, CO for a cattle convention... after that I'm not sure whats on my calendar but I do have march shows planned. Just not sure which ones yet :)

Going to establish some 2011 goals... I didn't really set much last year and this year surprised me... in many ways. :) Will get them posted as soon as I figure it out.

Convention Purchase

I've always sold for conventions, I've never purchased.

Back when I thought Maddy & Pyro were bred, I figured to purchase a buck for later use. So I decided to purchase from either Tex Thomas or the Riddles, but I discovered I had plenty of Riddles lines in my does, so I went with Tex Thomas.

It was an easy ordeal, I simply put in my reservation, paid the rest for convention and a few days after convention ended I traveled north to pick up my buck.

Keep in mind this picture is after he traveled over 2500 miles, but hes in great condition, just didn't want to be messed with that much! He traveled well, eats good & I can't wait to get him home to get my black doe bred to him!

Hopefully we will have some Marten babies on the ground when I go home for Thanksgiving, Pyro is due 11/24 to MGD.

Yelm, Convention & more

Yelm show was a BLAST!

I did not work for my judges license, I transported sale & convention rabbits, I hung out with good friends, and I came home with a ML doe.

Hank Tank won BOSB in Show B, 4th leg. Rudolph's MGD won BOSB in A & B.

Jill's Black Dutch doe won BOB in A, and honorable mention in show.

Terisa & Jeff won BOB with their Checkers in A & B and RIS in show B.

Melinda & Lea Ann left with Shonna Ausborne to go to Convention. From there they are going to Tennessee.

Theodore left with Scott to get shipped out to go to Vermont.

Convention!

Started today.

Melinda won 5th of 88 BSD's. Keep in mind she is 4 years old, has had 4 or 5 litters, 2 this year, and got weaned off her last litter on 10/23. She's a doe, that's for sure. But best wishes to Amy Terry!

Velotta's Twitch got 3rd of 69? BSB's. We have some good offspring of him, so congrats Nicole!

Other than that, school is just rollin on by. Week 7 started today. I am registering for my next terms classes soon and have it all figured out, figured out that I will have NO life.

I am missing the Monroe, WA show next month, so my next show wont be until mid December unfortunately.

I have Pyro & Lila due on Thanksgiving. I hope to get a bunch of other does bred then as well!

The story of the Uglies

~ 8 weeks... Looking good right?

8/16 - He was a JERK to pose. The whole inability to pose was the sole reason I almost didnt decide to keep him.

8/2 - Here he stopped posing at all, and I was only able to get a head shot.

9/12 - Hank refused to pose in show A, but show B, the judge worked with him a little bit and got a glance of him. He won BOSB under Kevin Stanford.

His head shot at 4.5 months :)

10/15

LHHR's Hank Tank looking good! This was the night before the show.

In A he won 1st of 8 under Roger Hassenpflug, and in B he won BOSB under Tracy Gouette.

He is now an RGC in just 2 shows. The shortest GC earned for me in quite some time. I am just so proud of my new little herd buck. I would have never imagined the Kitsemble's Melinda & LHHR's/Velotta's Matthew cross would turn out so good :) I can't wait to get some does bred to him!