All the Other Breeds Blog

Updates, where is the summer going?

2008-08-18T09:52:00.001-07:00

Okay, lets see. First off, we wanted to write blogs bi-weekly or daily.. That just is not happening. You are lucky to be reading a blog at all from me this month LOL!

Life has been insanely busy. We have cut down to 50 rabbits, actually less then that as we haven't weaned the juniors yet so the rabbit barn is very empty and it feels great!!
I think we have around 40 cages w/rabbits and then approx 10 empty but maybe not quite that many. We maybe cut down a bit too much... But we shall see we have lots of promising animals coming up.

I will go week to week from my last blogs...

I still have to go wedding shopping for shoes and a couple of little things, and I need to get a haircut before then too. (less then 2 weeks to the wedding now)

I have a bunch of shifts this week 9-5:30, by the time I get off and get chores done it is 7:00 and then I have to take the dogs out for a run, and check e-mail and work on wedding stuff..... So there isn't a lot of time for anything else these days! Before the show this weekend I worked on the rocks for each guest(labeled). My friend had done most of them, but I finished them up. Then I finished all the wedding guests "party favours". All 100 of them... Each piece of lace had to be folded, tied, a bow or something on the top, filled with the candy, and then put into a safe box for the wedding.. 100..... That took a couple of nights 3-4 hours a night...

Our mom had a super busy weekend painting fences, and now the basement floor and getting ready for all the guests we are having here. Stan took his 3 stackers(our 3 from Grand View rabbitry) and his 20 feeders so that was good to get all of that stuff gone, and wendy took her 13 feeders. We sold a bunch of EZ mats and dishes/water bottles.

We are getting a few sheep as well, so we have been busy researching breeds and we went to coombs fair last weekend and down to a sheep breeder in Saanich, and then the fair this weekend as well. We entered 9 Mini lops... We did only okay on Saturday under Cathy Armstrong- our first show under her. We managed to pick up a jr leg on a chestnut doe, and 1st solid jr buck but not enough for a leg, black Jack was 2nd/5. So okay, not great. Yesterday we took BOB with a solid jr doe out of Braxtin/Ada! And we took 1st broken jr doe. Saturday we had 1st, 2nd and 3rd solid jr does. We had nothing that wasn't moulting in the barn so we just picked what we had to pick from as far as coat goes!!! A doe we did a breeding to, to Amanda Swan was BOV broken yesterday- a gorgeous broken opal doe out of Adson. And a buck out of Posey's Phebe was BOSV broken yesterday that Jody bred out of her buck Mitchell's Link.

We didn't sell any rabbits, we took 3 to sell but 2 were pet stock(thought there might be someone wanting a pet mini lop) but as it was not many people sold anything. I think the holland breeders only sold 4 which is amazing as usually hollands sell out at that show!

Congrats to Kathy Mannweillers BIS with her Havana under Cathy and RIS went to Stan Mobey and Kathy Johnsons Mini rex, and then BIS Sunday was Judy Currie's New Zealand and RIS was Amelia Marchetti's Fuzzy lop.

It was so hot on Saturday we almost pulled our entries as we were very worried about the rabbits. It was 37 degrees out, and with all the people in the show room, and no breeze at the end of the barn where we were, we were very worried. Thankfully all was fine, and we had a spray bottle, and frozen ice bottles that we took for all the rabbits so we made out okay. But, they just aren't used to that heat. When we got to the barn it was 31 in the barn, which is the hottest it has been all summer in the barn, we quickly got it down to 29 degrees. That was a soaker hose on the roof, 4 fans including an industrial fan going and it was still that warm.

This week we have so much to get done... Oh to top it off, because we are getting sheep we had to put wire up in the cow area so the sheep couldn't get out and put wire on the gates, cut down thistles, and walk the pasture, and just all of that kind of stuff for the sheep. We had to get our show stuff ready to go, and all the stackers and feeders, and we cleaned our uncles house and anyway.. it was just a really crazy week last week. We also babysat our Aunt and Uncle's dog(s) X 3 one evening, and had company another.

Anyway... will write another blog again soon with rabbit updates.... : )

Too many that we like too much!

2008-08-03T10:51:00.000-07:00

As you already know we have cut way back on the number of rabbits we are keeping. But! We were pulling some juniors out that we were going to sell and we were like. But... we really like you! We want to keep you! They were our picks as babies but we didn't think we had room to keep them. We are trying to figure out if we can! The sable chin from Black Beauty was our 2nd favorite of the litter, she is looking gorgeous again! Katie from Addison, all the babies from Arabia are VERY nice, and the chestnut doe from Ava.. If we were to keep all these guys it would only still put us up to 41. With 50 holes.. So we would still be just fine.

We are having a very lazy, lazy morning. I went outside and took the dogs out for a pee and a romp. And came back into the house ate shreddies for breakfast and have been playing on the computer all morning. It is a beautiful day outside.. I should go do something.. but after digging a new septic line for 2 days, all our painting and house renovations etc.

Monday the 11th Star the dog starts dog training for her bad behaviour towards strangers, especially men... Hopefully this works!(she is 10).

This afternoon we are going to the river to find rocks for the wedding. We will paint them, put each guests name on them and our mom is buying lace today to make up gift bags for each guest... (with chocolates, candies etc)

Yesteday 2 pet mini lop babies went to their new home with 2 young boys(about 9 and 11). They will be spoiled rotten bunnies that is for sure!

We got a whole new septic line dug and put in. That was a lot of work! Everyone in the neighbourhood is finding their septics are going. I guess the septics around here were all put in around the same time, and they keep talking about putting sewers in but have never done it.

We were debating about going garage saleing this morning but couldn't find any adds in the paper. I wasn't looking in the right spot because I found nothing but I gave up and decided to go onto other things LOL

We started to type our youngest litters and are very pleased with some of the babies. Godiva and Butterball have the standout litters! Really nice babies in those litters! Midnight has a buck and a doe that are looking really nice, and Portia oh I forgot about her for a second there- she has a gorgeous, gorgeous chestnut doe and 2-3 others we like. The least liked litter is Midnights but it was a full brother/sister cross and we got the best and worst of both which we expected/was to be expected. However, still 2 really nice babies! All way too young to know for sure but at least on first typing : )

Our first show since early June(besides sending the 2 rabbits to WA State Convention) is on the 16/17 so only 2 weeks from this weekend. We are looking forward to it, and should have quite a few to show if they ever stop moulting. We tried to breed 3 does yesterday but didn't have much luck. Black Beauty X As You like it- no connecting that we saw, Audrey X Brayden- they did connect, should be a litter with dilutes! And Ocean Pearl X Imagine- another litter with dilutes we hope but no connecting either. We will keep trying! Ocean Pearl is being a pill to get bred. I think our first and only Mini lop so far!

Well I am rambling!!!

We got an award!

2008-08-03T10:37:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much to Tru Luv Rabbitry for the Brilliant Web blog award! I read Tru Luv's blog every day actually, and he gave out these awards(as he won one as well) a few days ago. I just haven't had time to get it up here yet!

And, as asked to pass on the tradition I would like to give the web blog award to the following blogs.

1) Velotta's Rabbitry

2) LHHR's Rabbitry

3) Three little ladies Rabbitry

4) Keep's Rabbitry

5) Tru Luv Rabbitry

6) Northern California Blog

7) Twig's Rabbitry

Please pass the award on to your favorite blogs : )

New Born to now

2008-07-31T22:06:00.000-07:00

Warning this blog has many pictures, and will make you go "Aww" a lot!

Cristina and I knew that this would be the last litter of kittens we would have in many years, unless we rescue a cat that is pregnant. (which is not likely to happen
since we are at very comfortable numbers).

Anyway, we have taken pics of the kittens weekly...

All the other cats are fixed, and these 2 and mom will be shortly as well. I hope you enjoy! We have had a lot of fun with these guys. They are 7.5 weeks will be 8 weeks on Tuesday. The time has flown! I can't believe how fast summer is going : (

We've named them Dexter- the long haired dark tabby boy, and "Abby" the tabby tortie female. Their personalities are completely different. Abby is outspoken and outgoing, not afraid of most things. Dexter is more shy and reserved. He spooks easily and loves playing with his sister, yet he will cuddle right in for snuggle time. Neither kittens are overly cuddly(their mom was feral/is feral although is 100% fine with us now).

Lets start with Mom:

2 days before she gave birth we figured out she was pregnant. She is that small of a cat, and although she has been and is very healthy she is very petite. I think it helped being fed the expensive cat food throughout her pregnancy that we had no idea on. She had NO problems with the litter at all. 2 babies, no still borns or any sign of her even having them.

Born sometime on June 9th. 1 day old in these pics. Still that shiny newborn look.

1 week old

Getting cuter, more curious and starting to move around. Oh, I should put... They were born in our hay bin. When I realized that I thought she was pregnant we made a bed for her at the front of the barn. Then one in a empty solid bottom cage in a 5 hole stacker that she would climb through the feeder hole and go to sleep. Figured she would have them in there! Nope! She had them in the hay bin!! We had to buy new bales of hay to feed the rabbits and move them to the back of the room(the hay not the cats)

2 weeks old approx- eyes opening, starting to venture around even more.

3 and 4 weeks old- these weeks I think got jumbled into each other : )
There first time outside!
This is with the cheap digital vs the expensive one we normally use. So these pics aren't the greatest. Too bad since they were just getting so cute at this stage! : )

Week 5- no clue what happened on this week but no good pics. Added the couple I do have!

Week 6 and Week 7- lots of pics of these weeks. They are getting really frisky now, and since they are going into week 8 in a few days they are running all over the place. They are pitiful eaters though when it comes to Nutro Kitten food. They only like Royal Canin which is even more expensive(figures LOL)

And today.... Sound asleep... Too much playing and eating.... Hope you enjoyed their blog! I will keep blogging about them : ) And get new pics this weekend of them outside!

It should be easier!

2008-07-25T22:34:00.001-07:00

With all of our downsizing, we should find things easier. Right now, we are finding the rabbits more of a chore instead of a hobby. And when it gets to that point you know that you need to either cut down or get out. We love the rabbits, the shows, and our friends in the hobby too much to sell out. We would be lost without them! however, we do need to cut down. Cleaning twice a week or more, 150 holes, then 92 holes, then 76 holes was/is just getting to be too much. We don't have time with websites, book keeping, Shar Kare, dog training, the wedding, rabbits, the cats, the dogs, watering eons of plants(for the wedding) to spend so much time with the barn. And we like a clean, tidy, neat barn that we are proud of. With all that is happening the barn isn't lacking but our "me" time is! The heat doesn't help because between 3pm and 6pm we basically have to plan to be at the barn if the weather is anything above 24 degrees Celsius because despite a soaker hose on the roof, 4 fans(including an industrial fan), and frozen pop bottles the barn still can climb up there(it never goes above 28, 30 if it is 36 or more out) but it is uncomfortable for us and the rabbits. Anyway, this will be easier, better, and more fun! If that makes any sense. I talk fast, and I type fast and sometimes it just doesn't come out "right". I'm sure Andrea will be laughing at that comment LOL

One 4-hole stacker is sold w/duratrays. One 4 hole is spoken for. That leaves Andrea's stacker's, and we have 4 more stacker's to sell as well. The website for sale page is constantly updated through the day so just keep checking it out! No more stock to be posted for sale, but more senior stock will be for sale this fall after litters I'm sure. Although quite a few ARE spoken for.

Anyway I figured out we are keeping 36 animals, and we will be keeping 5 babies from our 5 litters.. Possibly a couple more if there is anything "really" nice : ) Like Ava had to go and have 3 gorgeous kids... so we had to of course keep all 3 : ) And Steal My Heart has 2 gorgeous kids we are keeping.. Even though we keep saying- we can only keep 1.. yeah that is working SO well LOL
Anyway we have exactly 50 holes we are keeping. 42 hanging cages, and 2-24 by 30 stackers. They are these gorgeous stackers with legs and they are so nice to clean and keep clean and wire brushing is so easy with them.. They had to stay LOL

I should be going to bed.. But I think my brain is going too many ways to sleep yet. So much has to be done this month before the wedding.

Tomorrow I am going to take the time and give the dogs a bath, then advantage them again. I haven't seen them scratch but Star just started a 2nd ago so maybe she got a flea. Sigh!! Damn things!!

With the does we are keeping :
These ones will be bred in August and September... We will breed a couple of does each month. Even though we are cutting back so much! Some of these aren't senior until end of September so won't be bred until then.

Cassady X As You like it- rebreed of Good as Gold
Ada X Braxtin- rebreed of her awesome s.tip doe that she has now!
Ocean Pearl X Brayden- then after that litter to be bred to Imagine. Both litters should produce blue chins : ) We will fill the waiting list hopefully!(and our barn with blue chins that are gorgeous hopefully LOL) love the color!
Heather Rose X Turtle- half sibling cross- expecting chocolates and lilacs Turtle is a REG/GC Chocolate buck
Velotta's Broken steel doe- not until end of September X Braxtin
Maggie X Braxtin(rebreed of the 2 she has now which are awesome, then Maggie will be retired and live out her days as a pet)
Brooklyn X Imagine- expecting Blues, Blue chins, after that litter next spring we will breed her to Brayden.
Steal My Heart X Black Jack

Black Beauty X As You like it
Penny if she doesn't sell X Turtle- 100% chocolate and lilac litter
And Addison and a few others will be bred as well but they are all on the show team for this summer. Black Beauty may be shown trying to get that last leg, and Steel My Heart we would love to show but she is over the max weight right now just weaning her litter... we shall see!

Some pictures for the blog

2008-07-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

Again, I really don't have much to blog about. We did get a few pics late last week and this weekend of some more juniors, we have about 1/2 the juniors on our website now.. Still have that many again to get pics of when they are more out of ganglies! : ) We have 29 junior holes, 25 senior doe holes, and 8 senior buck holes for a total of 62... This will be much nicer for us, as we can spend more time with the rabbits instead of constantly cleaning, hauling in feed, hay, shavings, etc etc. We still plan to have 2-5 litters each month. Although we don't have any litters planned for August. We are giving all the girls a good break. We will start breeding mostly first timers again in September.

I think we are planning to breed:
Ocean Pearl X Brayden
Audrey X Black Jack
Heather Rose X Turtle
Butterball X ?
Black Beauty X Next Best Thing(borrowing him from Amanda until mid August as of the 30th of this month, thanks Amanda! :)
And maybe a few more.. Then we will start breeding some more does in October etc. Olive, Penny, Milky Way, the new Velotta doe will all be bred later this fall plus a bunch more that I am currently forgetting! : )

Babies are all fine. We haven't figured out colors or sexes yet(maybe a week old now) but all 28 are doing great. We had 30 but Penny lost her 2(both broken lilacs) we are debating about how to breed her too next.

The pics are the new calico long haired cat- "Karina", Bear's 2 kittens and Bear herself. We couldn't afford with the 6 vet bills between Harley and Luke($1200) to get Bear fixed and thought we would be safe a little longer(this was this spring/early summer) as she never went into heat(or so we thought.. Anyway she had 2 kittens. We have been calling around to find out the cost for her and the 2 kittens.

And then a pic of the decks we have been staining!

Something to write about

2008-07-19T12:49:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to write a blog for a few days, but I haven't had anything to write about. Thursday I filled in for someone where I used to work for the day. I offered to work Monday through Thursdays for them if they needed extra help.

Most of the Book keeping and accounting work happens after 4pm or on weekends, so it should work out fine. Will give me Sundays off. Today I am painting the back stairs, just finished. And debating about starting to paint the fence. Mom and Norm are painting the ramp and decks right now.

Rabbits are all fine. Lots of broken blacks, steels, silver and gold, seal/siamese sable? babies in the boxes. Some chestnuts as well. Hopefully some "color" litters in September-October. we have not bred anyone for August litters.

New barn cats are doing excellent. We will post the pics of Karina tonight or tomorrow, our 2nd new addition. She is a gorgeous long haired calico. Kitty(the tortie) is doing excellent and the cats are all "starting" to get along.

It is quite warm already out. I haven't checked but probably 24-25. And it isn't even 1:00 yet. We have been very lucky with excellent weather for the past few weeks. It has not gone below 20 degrees celcius, and we only had one morning that was cloudy. It hasn't rained in weeks!

We are going shopping for the wedding next weekend- shoes and accessories!

The big duncan parade is this weekend, we are staying away from downtown. We have to stock up on feed before first week in August because it is the big games that are happening, and they are expecting millions of dollars of revenue. They are telling everyone if you don't have to go into Duncan when the games are on, don't. As parking will be a nightmare! So we will stock up well before that point until the 10th of August.

The wedding, what wedding?

2008-07-15T10:31:00.000-07:00

We are getting that question a lot, what wedding? Who's? Are you getting married? How come we haven't met him? What is happening? When?

I figured I should write a blog.

Our mom(Cristina and I) and Norm (Selina's dad) after 16 years of being together have decided to finally tie the knot! The wedding is on August 30th at the farm, and we are expecting anywhere from 60-120 people.

Yesterday we were in Victoria and we picked up our 3 new Enumclaw bunnies, then we rescued a cat from someone who was moving and her dad had kicked her out so she couldn't keep the cat. Corinna is a beautiful long haired calico who needs some more weight and on the better food her coat should come in really nicely(Nutro cat food for barn cats even : )
Anyway, we will get pics of her shortly as well. Both these new rescues are fixed with all their shots etc so this really helps.

We had a very short visit with wendy of Manely Rabbits. We will have to go down and visit with her again soon! We just were running out of time as we had to be dress fitted last night as well!

Today we hope to get some new pics of the chin buck and Kiss and Tell. I am heading outside right now to wear the dogs out!

This week we hope to get pics of the Stackers as well that are for sale this week. We still have our 3 stackers, plus one of Andrea's for sale.

Anyway that is the wedding.. Our parents!

Busy weekend

2008-07-14T11:55:00.000-07:00

We had a very busy weekend. I think Cristina wrote a blog about some of this already. On Saturday we had Patti and family come from 150 mile house to get their 6 Jerseys, and then we had Danielle come to look at the pet babies. She picked out a baby buck from Steel my heart's litter.

Then Sunday we took 3 presold rabbits to Errington, a dwarf hotot for Kathy, and 3 dwarf hotots to Wally. Then we had lunch and b-day cake with Wally and a great visit. Then we headed straight to the barn and did chores. The cats were very happy to see us-- they are pretty spoiled and even though they roam all over the property they would much rather have one on one attention!

So we cuddled all of them and gave them all the treats we bought them.. not spoiled barn cats or nothing! And then after feeding rabbits we headed home. We got home about 7pm so we had dinner and then I decided to start tidying up the back yard. We should be having a TON of company in August so we want to get tons done now. I got the back yard all cleaned except I have to move a whole ton of tomato plants(well not a ton but a bunch) and then a pile of scrap firewood needs to be moved as well. Then that yard is done. The 2nd yard needs some tidying and we need to put new plastic on one of the greenhouses.

Mom and Norm got the decks cleaned off and powerwashed for re-painting so that was a good job to get done!

Anyway onto the rabbits. Out of our 30 babies that we had 6.5 weeks ago we are keeping 14 to grow out. Out of those 14... Most are bucks!! We just had our next round of breedings born. We try to have 2-3 litters a month sometimes it works out every 6 weeks though. We want to go to Convention in 2009! Anyway we had 30 new babies born with one more doe due. We will do some more breeding in August for September and October litters.
I think the next does to breed will be mainly rebreeds- Butterball, Penny and then Audrey and Ocean Pearl still needs to be bred for her first litter. She is almost 10 months old... oops!

Today we are off to Victoria as soon as we hear that Jan is back to get our 3 new mini lops from Enumclaw, then we will be heading to Wendys to take her a stacker, and a few other stops. Then we have to go for a dress fitting for the wedding.. Busy day!!

New barn cat

2008-07-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

There was an add on Used Victoria last week about this really nice person who needed to find a barn home/farm home for his cat. Autumn(or Kitty) bites and doesn't let go, and scratches as well. She is definetly a cat with attitude. He dropped her off at the barn this morning and right away her and Bear got in a huge fight. We sorted that out(a few new holes in my feet) and she was one unhappy cat for a little while. We gave her food/water/bed right next to the barn under the tree so she doesn't need to go in the barn if she doesn't want too. Hopefully this works out as I think she will really like all the wandering and exploring she can do around the farm!

I will get pics of her in the next day or so.

We spent yesterday morning before it got hot going through every rabbit we felt we should sell, including brood does. A couple of the does I would love to keep but we want to get down to 62 holes instead of 76.. So we had to make some hard, hard decisions! Plus, we are keeping daughters or sons from each doe we are selling.

We are very excited for 7 upcoming litters over the next week. Penny, Cocaine and Butterball are all due tomorrow. Godiva and Midnight on Friday, and Portia on Saturday then the following week Sara is due! In August we will breed Audrey and Ocean Pearl and maybe a few others. We are going to try to have 2-5 litters a month so we always have something to show. Ocean is a first timer, and Audrey will be going to her new home after one more litter.

We broke down what we can keep in 62 holes..
8 bucks- we are maxed out!!
25 does- we are maxed out!!
29 Juniors- I think we have 4-5 empty spots, but that is with all the youngest litters having to stay 2 per cage for 3-4 months. We are keeping those extra holes empty incase they don't get along. Some of those juniors will go into the senior categories as well, so it will all work out but boy tough decisions!!

Went through some of the barn

2008-07-05T09:59:00.001-07:00

Well, we basically went through most of the barn. It doesn't take that long to go through 70 rabbits compared to 150! We are trying to figure out what to keep from Black Beauty X Burke litter. They are SO gangly. They were a really nice litter at 4-5 weeks and we typed them. From our list we liked ALL 9 of them. Some stood out more then others of course, but none had more then 1 1/2 fingers in the midsection, and they were just a very promising litter. Now, fast forward a few months they are 3 1/2 months old.. Should be coming out of ganglies soon... Nope! They are still in hard core ganglies. There bodies are funny looking and akward. They look like skinny kids with big heads (lol) Okay maybe that might be a bit harsh. Well they look like luke our golden retriever in his worst gangly stage. He was skinny and tall, his feet were too big for his body and his head kept getting more and more narrow. Now he will be 2 in November and he is looking beautiful! These guys don't have the skinny part but they have the narrow, great heads, long body look!

We went through a bunch of the other litters as well. We had 7 more does due next Thursday/Friday plus a couple the following week. We have 76 holes and already 80 potential keepers( with only keeping 3 max from Black Beauty) so we are still 4 over. That is even with the new ones we put up for sale.... Oh well, we will figure it all out down the road. We still have 3 empty cages though....

Today is our moms birthday lunch. We just finished her cake, and will be starting to make lunch soon.

We are very excited for our first chocolate litter due Thursday. We decided to sell Yayo and Heath because we are running out of cages quickly. We have Penny- daughter to Heath and sister to Yayo, and have penny bred back to Dad. Even if we just get super massive Chocolates with heads we will be happy as we have a new broken lilac doe coming and Godiva. Plus we have Turtle for August/September. (turtle lives with Tammi and Saskia, same with Q). Turtle is a chocolate buck, and Q is his daughter a broken lilac.

We also have chocolate carrier litters due, and various other colors. Although we aren't working on producing colors we just happen to get them. Lately we've actually been getting pretty typey REW's so that is kind of neat!

Anyway keep an eye on the for sale page because we are already 4 rabbits over the limit of what we can keep, and we have 3 coming from Enumclaw that will be filling up those last 3 empty holes!! So, we will need to make some decisions. We did figure out 3 youngsters to cull, they just aren't looking great and siblings are better. One was pick of his litter, and probably will be a very nice buck but these Jerseys aren't moving so I need to make cage space somewhere.

If the last few Jerseys haven't sold by next week I will probably cull the 2 younger ones, and put Tonka and Mara up as a pair for super cheap... As I keep saying just make me an offer!

The dogs!

2008-07-03T20:15:00.000-07:00

We got some new pictures of the dogs the other day.

First picture is all 4 dogs together. Ben the yellow lab is 11. Star the Black Shepherd/Flat Coated Retriever mix is 10, River the Shih Tzu is 3, and Luke the golden retriever is 1 1/2(will be 2 in November.

Next we have Star and Ben... We had liver treats and they really wanted them!!

Then just Star showing her pretty self... Even if she doesn't like anyone else much lol

River and Star sleeping on the ramp!

Then we have Buttons our Tortoiseshell cat creeping through the laurel hedges.... : )

And last but not least, Star the dog again who had just got out of her doggie pool.. She is a happy old girl!

Tomorrow we will be spending going through the barn trying to make more cage space! An ongoing battle for everyone I know : ) And doing our twice a week cleaning as well!

Hot, Hot!

2008-06-30T22:16:00.000-07:00

It has been very, very hot here. Yesterday it was 34 degrees Celsius. Which is like 94ish I believe Fahrenheit.

All I know is we felt like we were melting. I don't know how people handle 100 plus weather! We had the soaker hose, 4 fans(3 on stands, and one industrial) going in the barn, plus we were misting the rabbits, and soaking the air in the barn which seemed to help quite a bit. We couldn't get the barn down under 28 though. The best we found was closing everything up so only the back windows were open(5) and then of course all the ventilation on the tops of the barn, and that kept the barn cooler. Then we opened up the other windows as soon as the sun started to go down(at least not as intense!)

Tomorrow we are hoping it won't be nearly as hot so we can go through the Mini lop litters. We will have a bunch of pet babies for sale(well a few from each litter I'm sure anyway), that we would like to post for sale.

We took the dogs to the beach this morning. They were perfect until we headed back to the truck. Then they started to act up, but they did really well otherwise. We saw about 10 purple starfish.

Not much new rabbit wise. We have 7 does due next Thursday(not this coming but the following). I think that is the 10th? Anyway 7 does due, and we will finalize who we are keeping from our 28 older babies this week. Then Maggie's will be old enough to type in the next week or two!

Transport available to Monroe

2008-06-29T19:07:00.000-07:00

For anyone interested in the 2 Jerseys left(well 4 left) I do have transport to Monroe for $10 a rabbit.

The 2 young jrs can go in the same hole for only $10 transport total.

Tonka GC- $75
Mara- REG/1 leg- Smoke pearl - $40
Nice sable point buck, longer ear but it is shortening up as he is getting older. Very sweet, very cute! Super clean color! $25 w/pedigree
Blue tort buck- pet quality $15

We also have a few mini lop bucks to sell.. we weren't planning on it but we are running out of cage space!

Posey's Incognito wins Best of Breed

2008-06-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

Incognito is a black buck we sent to Jentle's Rabbitry. He was supposed to go to Saskatchewan but the person decided to just get 4 since she was having to have them transported instead of flying them in. But she got mom!

Anyway, Incognito was the pick of litter, and a really promising black buck(Jersey wooly). He has been winning all over Ontario and I believe the US as well. He took Best of Breed this weekend! And is only 4 months old!

Jen is taking him to Convention, and we can not wait to hear how he does!

BTW- anyone interested in Jerseys- 4 left! Grand Champion RH's Tonka, Leapin' Mara(smoke pearl 1 GC leg/REG),
And 2 adorable pet bucks that would make terrific pets for families. Especially the one buck, he is SO gentle and calm. He was the one we packed around as a tiny baby as he was the only surviving baby out of Foxy Lady's last litter(ever), and he is a sweetheart!

Everything is going well with litters, and babies in the Mini lops. The last Dwarf hotots here are:
The trio going to Wally- Sprite, Isis and Stairway
2 does that are still available
1 pet buck that is pending, they should be coming on Sunday to pick up.
And one doe that is also pending(with a deposit) to a new show and possible breeding home in Victoria!

Then Cowboy, Panache, the tort jr buck, Chantilly Lace and her baby buck, and the tort doe go live with Patti and family in 150 mile house on July 12th.

After that it will just be Tonka, Mara, and the 2 pet bucks. I am hoping to have homes for those 4 before then too, as we are only working on the Mini lops now.

I think we've worked all the different breeds well out of our system now for a few years! Although there are a bunch of breeders that have 5-6 breeds around here. I have no idea how they manage that one. I found with 3 breeds one of the breeds always got short changed for figuring out the breeding and showing etc(you always had more selection in one breed to show then the other because you didn't have enough cage space to keep too many of each breed!

We still have the 2 stackers of Andrea's available, and 2-4 hole carriers. Plus the 2 dwarf hotot jr does. We will take the 3 Dwarf hotots to Wally sometime in July the next time we are up that way.

The rest of the animals are all fine. We've been doing some major training with the dogs, and are seeing a somewhat difference with Luke.

He went to the farm with us last night to see if the tires for the truck were at the farm yet, and also a pet person came to look at the dwarf hotot buck. He barked at them as they got out of their vehicle ( Golden Retriever just not your normal happy go lucky one sigh!), anyway he barked but I told them he was friendly and just an idiot(lol). They tried to pet him but he would scoot his tail behind his bum and take off. Then he would approach them and if they ignored him he would get closer. The minute they tried to get close to him he was off running.

He was like that at 3 months old. The day we brought him home from the breeders(litter of 9, and he was the only one like that) but the breeder recommended him to us(probably figured we would be the only ones that could handle him this long lol). anyway the day he came from the breeders at 3 months old, we took him to Shar Kare where I used to work to show him off and he ran behind us and away from everyone. Despite all the socializing he gets going to the dog park, walks, in stores etc he still has never overcome this fear. Maybe someone with ideas can post comments! That would be wonderful!! : )

A tough day

2008-06-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

We had a very, very tough day today. First, last night coming home from ladysmith we blew TWO tires on our new truck. We knew when we bought the truck that was the thing that would need to be attended to before winter. But we didn't think it would happen so soon. So that will be $1000 this week. I have a truck payment coming out on Monday and an insurance payment on Wednesday ugh..

Then Harley our gorgeous Rottweiller, and the most incredible dog, had to be put to sleep. We called the vet to the farm as Harley took a turn, and it was best to put him to sleep. We are of course devastated.

We talked to Stan and Kathy and all the people have picked up their rabbits at WA State Convention so that is good. We took 5th of 21 solid jr does, and 10th of 21 solid jr does. The competition at WA State Convention is always fierce in the Mini lops, and our juniors were only 4 and 4 1/2 months old so we were happy they did place that well. We will see how they do tomorrow, and keep striving higher. Last year we took 1st in solid jr bucks AND does, and BOSV! At least we didn't have NP's!

We still have lots of empty cages with 10 rabbits being shipped to Quebec(they loved them!) and 25 rabbits going to WA as well! We weaned all the babies from the older litters that were still together. They had been away from mom for weeks but we didn't have the cage space to wean them all seperately.

We decided to keep Smokey, he was such a nice buck/is such a nice buck, still a little senior gangly.

Anyway I am going to go relax... It was a very emotional day, and I need to go destress.

Kim

Another thought

2008-06-18T09:16:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I wrote a blog on the "Best and worst moments of rabbit raising". I thought of something yesterday I figured I should post.

2 years ago we went to WA State Convention with Heather(no longer raising rabbits), Andrea(in Ireland), Selina(our sister in Yellowknife) and Cristina and myself. We went in our dads Cargo van which only had 2 front windows for air, and a huge area for rabbits but the heat that weekend was killer(105 in Ellensburg WA). It was awful. Well, we got stuck in Seattle traffic for over 2 hours, no air really going through the van it was just awful. We get to the show and it was so, so hot. We kept cooling the rabbits down with misters, and drenching them with water. We didn't lose any, but we did have to put down a mini rex we purchased when we got back. :(

Anyway, Selina, (yep I'm blaming part on you sis) ;) was great the first day, loved being at the show. But by Sunday morning she was tired of a rabbit show(not really a rabbit person), tired of that much driving, tired of not getting proper food because we all ended up spending our money on buying more rabbits and forgot to save much for food. So, we tried to go to Dairy Queen after the show I think it was Saturday night. Well, we get into this really, really small dairy queen. We had purchased carriers and water bottles and had very little money left. I thought I had more in my account. Which I did. BUT! that dairy queen would only let you pull out $20 at a time from their ATM. There is a $1.50 fee on top of it because I have a canadian bank card. Well, I couldn't pull out ANY money because it wouldn't let me. They also only accepted CASH. No debit. Well, between all of us we managed to scrounge up enough for 3 blizzards but had already ordered all kinds of food.
So here we are holding up this huge line, all these people are getting mad. We are hot and tired, and did I say hot? It was awful that heat. The dust/wind was terrible too, and the floor in the show room was dirt so it go in your eyes, and your nose and in your toes, and your hair. Ugh. Anyway, so we held up this huge line, people were out the door of dairy queen. Andrea and Heather had enough for their food but we didn't, and they didn't have any extra for us. So, we went to sit down and share a blizzard between the 3 of us. The people at DQ had made all our food, and had it sitting there, and I guess felt sorry for us and brought it to us for free. We were SO greatful!

By Sunday it was so, so hot and we were tired, hot and grumpy. I remember we were all ready to go and Andrea was talking inside and Selina was yelling that she wanted to go and someone had yelled at us to move the van as they needed to get in. Anyway we all started yelling at Andrea because she was taking forever and the van was about 100 degrees the rabbits were so hot. Poor things.

Even after all that we did go last year and had a great time. We couldn't afford to go this year, but as long as it isn't predicted to be that hot next year we will go again!

Helping a friend - Hollands and lionheads

2008-06-18T09:15:00.003-07:00

Lots for sale! Located in Nanoose here on Vancouver Island.

http://www.ridgewoodrabbitsandcages.com

Jersey woolies for sale

2008-06-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure the first 10 Jerseys are sold. We haven't had a reply back from the person(in a few days), and they haven't had even a deposit paid on them yet. They would have to leave in 5 days for WA, and so I am putting them up for sale on here in case the sale falls through.

I had over $2700 invested in the Jersey woolies. With everything happening, and all the dog classes and obedience and everything plus harley and all the grooming and cage plucking Jerseys require, I just need to cut down on some kind of a workload. Don't forget, we also have 6 house cats(6 very spoiled lazy house cats) and 4 very spoiled lazy barn cats, plus the 5 dogs... : )

Anyway there are 10 animals, 13 including the other trio. I am asking $350 only for 10 animals! This is really, really, really inexpensive. There are 2 gorgeous blue bucks, a gorgeous sable point buck(and pics are available), a Siamese sable senior doe REG/1 leg, a Smoke pearl senior doe REG/1 leg, A sable point senior doe, a tort jr doe, a smoke pearl jr doe, a sable point jr buck- excellent body and coat. And a black buck included(very nice black buck). $350 only! I paid WAY more then this originally. But I would like to see someone get a good start with some nice animals, most of these are juniors because I cull hard and was keeping juniors to replace senior stock. All are out of White Oak, Leapin Laura, Schultz's, Jentles, Brian's, lines.
I have pics of all available, transport is available to WA State Convention next weekend for $50 for all.

I also have one other trio available- Smoke pearl marten GC buck, and 2 senior does both REG/1 leg, each should be able(especially the blue tort) to grand. Both does are proven.

k_c_lops@telus.net
I thought the 10 animals above were sold for the past 3-4 weeks, otherwise I would have posted before now. They still may be and the person may be super busy, but at least I've re-posted as I really need them gone! We need cage space!

My favorite and worst rabbit moments

2008-06-12T21:19:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of favorite rabbit moments, and definitely some not so good moments as well.

One of the worst "Show" rabbit moments was, we were supposed to go the VIEX fair, and we had a really bad week, between college and I can't remember what else we were in lousy moods.

Usually if we are complaining on a Friday afternoon or Evening we totally forget on a Saturday morning and are raring to go(even that early in the morning).

Well, this one morning we woke up, and went to go to the barn to load the rabbits.

We were already over an hour late, NOT something we normally are. We are normally one of the first people at the shows! Anyway, we were late, grumpy and really thinking we should have skipped this day. Well, the truck won't start, so now, not only are we late, we have no wheels and we haven't even loaded rabbits yet.

So, we had to use our old, old farm truck with no canopy or anything. We loaded up all the rabbits into the back, and put a big piece of plywood over them, and headed on our way to the show. Very slowly I might add!!!

We get to the show, and Cristina gets a rock in her sandal. It took something like 25 mins to get the rock out, and Vern from M&S rabbitry helped her get it out(I think he thought we were nuts) but anyone that has had a rock in there sandal going into there foot knows how annoying and uncomfortable it is! We were trying to unload rabbits and we are so late judging has STARTED. NOT something Cristina and I ever do. Literally, if judging starts at 9:30 we are at the shows by 8am. If judging starts at 8 you can expect to see us there between 6:30-7. Now, for college/school if I showed up 1 min before the classes started that was good for me. Cristina was ALWAYS early :- )

Anyway we had DQ's for our hollands- light toenails on an opal, and we didn't do well at all with any of them. This had to have been in 2005. 2004 was the Best in show with Aerik, and 2006 was the last time we showed the hollands.

One of the best moments was winning my first "real" best in show with Sunny's Aerik a French lop buck in 2004. We had a best in show the year before with Sunny's can't remember her name, but Cera Young had that doe/was showing her so we could take credit for the breeding, but not the Best in show. Anyway, that was a great day.

One of my other best moments were all the trips to Enderby BC to the rabbit show. I think we went 3 years, and I loved it. The okanagan is beautiful, and they have the old drive in movie theatre. It was always so much fun, our mom would come with us and we would stay the weekend and go out for dinner, and we would go as tourists etc. Maybe one of the okanagan people reading this blog, will start a show up again- HINT HINT! Boy, those were the days, so much fun!!

Another bad rabbit moment was some of the US trips, getting lost, terrible motels, stinky rabbits, oh the fun lol!

Last year and the beginning of this year has been a great showing year(s) for us, and we are grateful for that.

Other favorite rabbit moments are all the times hanging out with our rabbit friends, and chatting rabbits, visiting our friends with rabbits and going through there herds. Something I wouldn't trade for the world!

Is this November?

2008-06-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I think this weather is awful! Yet, I don't really want it to be 35 degrees either.

I don't mind the heat, but my animals hate it. And with Harley having to stay quiet and live in the barn for the time being I wouldn't want the heat to come. Harley gets too hot in houses(being a big dog, lots of fur!) and the slippery floors aren't good either. And no stairs in the barn, so it just works out better all ways around.

He got a new toy yesterday, and he has his balls and the cats and rabbits and radio etc. He is quite content!

I just have one trio of Jersey woolies left. The 10 haven't been paid for yet, but I have been in contact regularly with the people getting them and they have promised to send payment. I've organized transport and will drop them off next week/Friday to the transporter!

The trio left is GC RH's Tonka, Leapin Mara- 1 leg/REG, and Leapin Hot Flashez 1 leg/REG
I am asking $150 for the trio- way less then they are worth that is for sure! I was originally asking $125 for Tonka alone. Very nice rabbits. They were unfortunetly supposed to go to Atlanta GA and then the airlines kept giving us a hard time AFTER we got health certs so these guys have also been vet checked. How often do you find that- lol!

We spent 8 hours yesterday working on books for the company we are book keeping for(our uncles), plus we had to do a whole bunch of photocopying and making up bills and all kinds of things. Plus we had to run downtown for more paper and various labels etc. It was a busy day.

Today I've been busy getting pedigrees organized. We look to have a shipment of approx 10 rabbits going to Quebec/Montreal next week, plus all the transport rabbits will leave next Friday- empty barn! I think we are down to only 2 holes maybe 3 empty now.... That will be nice! We decided to breed a few more does.. We counted how many babies in the Mini lops(only ML's) born this spring that lived(didn't count the few that were DOA and we had one baby from Addison's 11 that didn't make it past 5 weeks, and one from Sara's as well. Anyway, we had 117 born! That includes the newest 28! We decided to go ahead and breed a few more first time does before the heat comes. We can have a couple of litters to play with this summer, that way. And we will start breeding again late September.
We also rebred some does that didn't take. Neither Penny or Butterball took (at least we didn't feel anything) so we rebred both those girls. Penny we bred back to her sire Heath for a chocolate/broken chocolate and lilac litter! And Butterball we bred to Black Jack. That should be a nice cross! And Cocaine we bred to Huffle, for a rebreed of a doe named London that Jen from Rah Rabbitry had that was awesome. We also attempted to breed Godiva since she went an entire year without having a litter, and we weaned off her litter a few weeks ago. She is in prime(a little chunky) condition, so we tried to breed her to As you like it. And we tried Ocean Pearl with Imagine. We will re-try those 2 girls today, and breed Midnight as well.

All we will have left after next Thursday or Friday is the 4 rabbits to go to 100 mile house(jersey woolies) to Patti and family- Cowboy, Panache, tort buck and Chantilly Lace and baby. And the dwarf hotots, and all the mini lops. Oh, the last trio of JW's if they don't sell before...

We got an e-mail from Andrea asking us to sell the dwarf hotots for her, as she doesn't feel she is at a point to keep them. We are waiting to make sure she is absolutely certain and then we will put them, the 2 stackers, and the carriers(maybe?) up for sale. She may want to keep the carriers I'm not sure. About 12 dwarf hotots IF she is truly positive will be for sale.

We will be down to one breed again, and you know what it is the right thing to do. I like just having one breed.

Our chick Fiasco and Harley

2008-06-03T19:04:00.000-07:00

We caught the 10:15 ferry from Duke Point to Tswasswen, and got over in Tswasswen at 12:30. We were starving, hadn't had breakfast so we ran to Tim Hortins for lunch(right near the ferry) it was super busy and no drive thru. But, we ended up eating inside and left at 1:30. (got there about 10 after 1, since we got lost trying to find it first!). So, we left and headed towards the border.

We told the customs guy we were going to the Blaine Post Office to pick up chicks, and showed him the letter with the permission from Karyn, and also the receipt showing the chicks were in fact coming(invoice). He said "chicks are being mailed to the post office"? We said, yes. They do it all the time! So, that was fine and he waved us through. We yet again got lost, as Mapquest told us we were to make a left, and we were supposed to make a right. So we got to the Post Office at 2:15. We picked up the chicks, and had no problems and jumped back into the truck and headed for the border. The chicks were in 2 boxes, with a paper/shipping strap around them holding the 2 boxes together. We didn't know if we should dig for health papers because the border can be so funny if things are opened and what not so we didn't go into the boxes at this point. We were back at the border at 2:40. So, we get to the border and tell them what we had picked up, what they were worth, and how many etc. He gives us a white slip and tells us to pull over and someone else will help us. Well, the first thing the next agent/customs guard wants is the health papers. So we dug through the box. We found the invoice right away but no health papers- it said on the box they were in there. So the customs guard searches the box (x2) himself(we cut the strap so we could get into both. He couldn't find them. So he told us to wait and he would go call the vet. He called the vet and he had the vet come out with him. The vet told us "You need health papers, I can not accept these chicks without health papers" they will surely die if they are not fed/watered in the next few hours. So the vet starts looking and finds in one hole 3 of the chicks are dead, and there is one more dead in another hole. One box seemed much healthier then the other. So the vet searched both boxes and could not find vet papers(health certificates) either.He even called a 2nd vet to confirm and we definitely needed those health papers. He also said 2 weeks before chicks were sent through the same hatchery, and the same problem occurred and over half the chicks died.

So then, we were told the chicks could NOT come into Canada, and they didn't know what we could do with them but those chicks could also not stay at the border while we sorted things out. So, we were told we had to turn around and go back into the US. So, we jumped back into the truck, and turned around to head into the US. Well, we explained our situation to the border/customs agents heading into the US. The guy looked at us, heard the chicks, listened to our story and gave us an orange sticker and told us to go inside. Well, we headed inside another building and explained the story yet again. The customs guard(a super nice lady) asked for my truck keys and went to search my truck. She said she didn't know if we would be allowed into the US but she would find out. So after about 20 mins of sitting in lockup we were allowed out of that area and were told we could go back into the US. We headed straight for the post office to see if they had the health papers. All this while we'd been talking to Karyn who of course was very upset and couldn't do much on her end.

The post office did not have the health papers, but they gave me 2 cardboard boxes so we could move all the chicks out to check under the chicks for the health papers. While I was getting the boxes Cristina(my sister) had moved chicks around and found the health papers buried under the bedding. So we raced back to the border, called Karyn and told her thinking we would have no problems. Well, this was not to be the case. We explained the story(since they get your plate and licence number every time and it goes into the computer(this was now my 4th time crossing in one day) and they again gave us a white slip and we had to go back inside. So we wait in line(this is now 3:30), we get called up to the counter and are told we are in the wrong area(a really not nice women!) and to go to the next building, go through a set of doors, don't get hit by the semi trucks going through, and go into the Agriculture building. So we head to that building, where we wait in line for another 20 mins. We are telling Karyn all this on the phone, as we are of course really wanting to get these chicks to her so there are no problems. After waiting in line we are told(by a very not friendly man) that we need a broker. Why did we not have a broker? There is nothing he can do without a broker. Cristina and I have never dealt with a broker, and I honestly don't really know what they do either. So, we call Karyn and she explained that the chicks are for 3 people including herself and to tell him that. Well, that didn't help he said "YOU NEED A BROKER"(quite like that too). So, we call Karyn back again and give her some names for Brokers. She gets on the phone. We wait another 30 mins and decided since a really nice guy told us there were brokers across the street and to go talk to them.

The first "Broker" we went into we were told "You will soon learn not to be nice to people and do favours for others" and that he didn't have time as he was leaving for the day so could not help us. To go across the street and talk to another Broker(Pacific Customs Brokers LTD). So, we were then yelled at in there that just a few weeks ago the same thing had happened and over half the chicks had died, they had 4 other people ahead of us and surely the chicks would be dead by the time we sorted this out. They also wanted to charge Karyn $125 to bring the chicks over. I explained to them that Karyn was not told she needed a broker, and Cristina and I had no idea but she said it didn't matter you need a broker. After about an hour of this(was now 6:00) she said
"Look, your only option is to go back to building one, ask for the superintendent, and tell him you don't have a broker but you have the health papers now and show him and hope he takes pity on you". So, we head back to building number one. The Superintendent turned out to be the first customs guard who we dealt with earlier in the day with the vet "Cory". He said "These health papers are very clean, these invoices are full of chicken dung, and yet the health papers are clean". He obviously thought we had them printed up or something. Also, the health papers said 220 chicks, and there were only 119- this did NOT help the situation. Finally we were waved through, he didn't believe us but wanted to get rid of us I think and we were on our way. It ended up being a 10 hour day. Also the health papers are supposed to say Zoo something and have a number on them? And no one could find this on the health papers.

Harley was doing so much better on Sunday, then yesterday our mom said(since we were gone for 10 hours) he was not doing well but we got home too late to run into the farm to check on him. We took him back to the vet today and he has a slipped disc. If things had have been in our favor which nothing has lately, the anti inflammatory and the rest and no stress with moving would have been in our favour. They haven't been and Harley's chance of survival in surgery alone is only 50%, and $3000. Things are not looking good and we need all the good thoughts and prayers we can get for this incredible dog this week.

All Jerseys pending

2008-06-01T09:48:00.000-07:00

The 10 Jerseys are all pending. We just have one doe left, she has a litter of 1
(blue point) I think a buck out of M an M's Battle Royale a broken blue. The baby is just a few days old, so couldn't go with mom to WA etc.

$40 for both!

We have the 4 hole stacker, solid bottoms(metal pans) but designed for cavies work just fine for rabbits too. 24 by 24, 5 feet high. $80

3 hole carrier- $30 small rabbit size, ex condition
4 hole carrier- $40- individual lids, ex condition as well. Small rabbit size(bought for mini rex originally)

6 wooden nestboxes, and 2 metal nestboxes available as well.

Yep. I'm finally writing another blog.

2008-05-31T19:16:00.000-07:00

I don't know where to start on this one. I see my last blog was the 23rd, no idea what day that was. I do know that we bought a newer truck last Friday, then on Saturday we had company for dinner, and I can't remember what else. Sunday we insured the new truck(since we had to scrimp for the money to pay the PST and the insurance with the price of the truck etc!)(and payments on top of it). Oh well, we love it.

So Sunday we spent playing with the new truck. Monday we had more company come, we played more with the truck. And visited with the company. Tuesday was my birthday and we had friends over, and a big lunch, and a really busy day going here and there. Wednesday was spent I don't even remember? Between company and rabbits and animals and everything else. Oh, and then Luke ran into Harley while playing knocked him on all fours. It really hurt his back end, and we've been keeping a close eye on it.
back to that after.

Then Thursday we spent doing more running around and company and rabbits and working, and well the list goes on. Friday we had vet certificates to get, which went fine. When we went to book the shipment the airline(Frontier) will only let you book the flight 24 hours in advance. Well, we called and they were closed(Mountain hours) so the shipments didn't get booked for Monday. Now I've contacted the person we are picking the chicks up for to see if they can come in later in the week.

Back track to Thursday we took the company to the new walmart, then we had all kinds of hiccups and just a really crazy day. Had to help take our grandma to the doctor etc.

Then we had dog obedience last night, supposed to have it at 8am this morning for luke but had to cancel due to funds because we had to go to the vet with Harley. He really hurt his back end with that hit from Luke. He is on anti-inflammatorys. If it is not better by Monday he will need to have X-rays. We have to all pray that the Anti Inflammatorys(which he will have to take a pill for the rest of his life) work. If not, they have X-rays($200) and if it is a slipped disc it would be $3000 which we could not afford. So.. We just need to pray that this works out better for Harley. He is in great spirits. He loves life, and is just an awesome dog so putting him down unless crucial is NOT an option either. The vet at first was skeptical about a 135lb Rottweiller. He soon learned Harley is not a rottie you have to watch. He is just a big suck. Anyway, so we did that this morning. Had to cancel our Rabbits BC meeting as that was more important.

Then we had all kinds of hiccups the past couple of days. We are also cutting way back on our rabbits. We dont have the time to spend with this many, and quite honestly we just aren't enjoying having this many anymore.. I think in the next year we may downscale to only 40. 20 each. Who knows..

Anyway I have 10 Jersey woolies for sale- all the last of the Jerseys. $350 for all. Some really nice ones, a gorgeous sable point buck, and 2 gorgeous blue bucks, and a nice black buck. 6 does. All the does can be bred to Cowboy before they go as well... $350 for all, can be priced indivually as well.

We will have a for sale list of Mini lops soon.

We also have a 4 hole stacker, a 3 hole JW size carrier, a 4 hole JW size carrier. And 6 nestboxes(wooden) and 2 metal nestboxes. $80 stacker, $30 for the 3 hole carrier, $40 for the 4 hole carrier, $6 for the wooden nestboxes(brand new condition, only used once each! and 2 metal nestboxes are $15 for both.

Upcoming show, litters etc

2008-05-23T08:06:00.000-07:00

I think we have 5-7 does due this next week, we have to get nestboxes in for them this weekend. I need to double check but they are either due the 27th or the 28th.

We have our next show on June 7th in Victoria. We have tattooing and figuring out what we are entering over the next week, two weeks. It is a day of show entry so that is nice, because I don't know how we would even have time before the 7th to figure out entries.

4:00 last night we called about taking an old coin collection in to see about appraising and selling it. We sold it, for just under $1000. None of us collect coins and had no idea where it came from, it was in a box in the attic. We sold it to a coin collector that is a close friend of the family. He said it was worth the $1000 and he would only make another $60 off it, a little more if silver goes up in the next couple of weeks. So, we were happy as that will go towards the truck fund. Now I have to go to the bank at 9:30 to pull money out to put towards a truck, and then we are going to Ladysmith sometime today to look at another truck.

We looked at a truck last night(the one we are going back to today). And then we will start looking at other vehicles. We decided to give mom our truck, as she could use a truck and sell her car. So, we will be going out to start cleaning out her car, to put it up for sale. Then she will take over our truck(worth 3 times as much as her car) and then we will hopefully be able to trade the van in towards a truck as well..... So crossing fingers this all works out! If it isn't the right truck today we will keep looking. I don't want to jump into something that has problems. I would love to buy new.. But the payments would be $500 a month($472, plus insurance another $85-90 a month) on payments and that is just too much right now.

Maybe in the next year or two.

Anyway to the rabbits, so we took the coin collection in and didn't get to the barn until almost 8:30, so we fed and watered rabbits and had to go back to the car dealership at 9:30/quarter to 10 to get the number for the dealer today.

Rabbit wise all is well, babies are all doing great. Panaches babies are SO cute, same with the sable point buck from Ms Sierra- very nice! Mini lop babies are all doing well, just a few litters left now. Have lots more expected!

Our crazy life

2008-05-21T20:12:00.000-07:00

Our crazy life, hasn't got any less crazy. More crazy yes... And I really don't have much to write about in this blog rabbit wise, since we haven't had time to do a lot of extras besides cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning(wire brushing every night, regular cleaning etc etc) feed runs you know.

We did manage, to get a whole bunch of pics done. For sale animals, a few Mini lops for sale, and various other things. We put a whole bunch of animals up for sale, as we are very surely running out of cage space fast! So, once the shipments go out, and the rabbits are transported to WA then it will be nice to have more empty cages.

We have tons to do in the barn. We have 7 dwarf hotots, plus 4 almost ready to wean babies, plus 5 new babies and 2 does that need to be bred in the next few months. So, we will have to decide(with Andrea helping from Ireland since they are of course her rabbits) who to sell! As there are only 8 holes!

We finished the van, we had a bunch of body work and a few little things to do, and we put it up for sale on Sunday and already we've had 6 inquiries, and 2 or 3 are serious! So that is awesome. We worked all day on the truck,(my truck) as it also needed a bit of body work(little rust) and then a tuneup, and then a new console etc. So anyway, we got a whole bunch done and just a bit left and it will go up for sale : )
I was really and am still really hoping to have it up for sale by Friday or Saturday, and sold by Monday so I can buy a truck next week.. The 27th would be excellent(my b-day : )

I fell in love(haha) with a Ford F150 air conditioning, leather, 6 seats, extended cab with the 3rd door, power everything, V8 lots of horse power! You name it. Anyway, love it! Hoping the one I really love is there next week!

Literally working on vehicles is taking up most of our time. Running around for pieces, and finding various pieces we need has been taking up hours as well. On monday we went to Ucuelet to get our RV trailer and bring it home. We left at 7:30 am and we didn't get home until 5pm, then had to do chores etc. It was a very long day!

Rabbits are all fine. Nothing much to report there. Next litters start arriving next week.

Well..I really don't have much to write about so I am going to go work on something else. Oh, I should say next week is going to be nuts.... The 27th is my b-day and a friend from the mainland is coming to visit on the 26th through the 29. Then on the 28 we have to pick up crates in Victoria for 2 shipments, plus get 8 rabbits vet certificates. The 29th nothing planned that I know of. Then The 3oth Irene and Dillon come to the farm, the 31st Luke has his major obedience class at 8am, then a rabbits bc meeting in the afternoon. Then the 1st nothing planned, and the 2nd we are in the US. Then the 7th is a show in Victoria. CRAZY!

Jerseys for sale

2008-05-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

Posey's Black Junior buck- GC Jentle's Hero Blue X B-Mac's Canadian Mist Pointed White 2 legs/REG. Beautiful body and wool on this buck, nice head developing. $75

Leapin' Cowboy- Blue point senior buck, nice body, very cute head and good ear. Little harsh in texture. Not showable(wrong color). $45 Leapin' Snookums REG 1 leg X Leapin' Mona Lisa REG(blue tort both parents)

Leapin' Panache- Smoke pearl- Leapin' Wisdom(smoke pearl) X Leapin' Mara(smoke pearl) all Leapin, one Brian, one Ryan line. Awesome mom and producer. I am keeping her junior buck out of Hero, very nice boys in that litter. $50

Posey's Blue jr buck- GC Jentle's Hero(blue) X Leapin' Panache(smoke pearl) very nice junior buck $60

Leapin' Maggie May- Smoke pearl senior doe, proven on a litter of 4 right now. Out of GC RH's Tonka X Leapin' Willow Waltz, 1 leg for BOB WA State Convention 2007, REG. Great body, brood doe now. Big about 4.0lbs. $40

Posey's Blue jr doe- GC Jentle's Hero X Leapin' Maggie May- very nice junior doe, pick of litter. $50

Leapin' Miss Sierra- Blue point? Senior doe- awesome mom, raising her first litter of 4. Leapin' Munchkin REG x Leapin' Chantilly Lace REG/1 leg. Ms Sierra has a great body, brood doe. $40

Schultz's Secret Weapon- Siamese Sable senior doe-Wo's Taboo 2 legs X Schultz's Cassie- White oaks and Oswalds. $50

Posey's Sable point junior buck- Gorgeous buck! Will keep him if he doesn't sell, like the blue doe above! Leapin' Rock N Roll(Tort) X Leapin' Miss Sierra $65

Posey's Sable point junior buck- Leapin' Cowboy X Leapin' Foxy Lady- very clean, nice body, needs a better ear. $50

Leapin' Chantilly Lace- Sable point Senior doe- Bred to M an M's Broken blue buck ( I think ) I need to palpate. Very small doe with a great body. REG 1 leg out of Ryan's Royale X Leapin Willow Waltz. Brians, Leapin lines and Sara's. $45

Posey's Smoke pearl junior buck- Leapin' Cowboy X Leapin Fantasy 2 legs- awesome body, needs a bit better ear. $50

Posey's Escapade- Leapin' Chantilly Lace REG/1 leg X Leapin' Rock N Roll- really nice junior doe, in ganglies right now. Nice and small, great body. Just a tad harsh in texture. Smoke pearl. $60 I will keep her if she doesn't sell, but I have to cut back somewhere!

Beautiful Vancouver Island

2008-05-14T22:32:00.001-07:00

I don't know, Andrea said Ireland is just gorgeous but I think Canada is pretty damn nice too! Here's some pics taken from Vancouver Island. I hope to do a collage, or major blog? of pics taken this summer in my travels of beautiful Vancouver Island, hopefully the Interior, and Alberta as well!

And, what is a rabbit website blog without talk of rabbits?

Here's Leapin' Panache X GC Jentle's hero babies! I am keeping one buck, but the other is available. Beautiful boys! Panache is for sale as well, and is a terrific mom!

We had the 2nd and last calf of the year born, a heifer today! I've attached pics of both calfs. The one calf is just over a week old, and then the heifer "Mary" born today.

And I've also attached a pic of Luke- see how pretty he is getting? He is finally getting out of ganglies, our golden retriever. And Harley- Harley was getting up in this pic, so he looks strange, lol!

Jerseys for sale

2008-05-11T19:43:00.000-07:00

Here's my current for sale list. The babies I am listing on here are too young to tell type yet, but because of space restrictions I am forced to only keep 1-2, or sell something of the older animals... Even though we have 92 holes, and 8 holes for Andrea Dwarf hotots I don't have much room left over! We have tons of mini lops, and more on the way :) I will get Cristina to write a blog about our 6(yes 6) new additions(ML's) once we have pictures/typed them : )

Anyway, because of our allergies to the wool, we have just kept 8 holes for the woolies. Yes, unfortunetly both Cristina and I are allergic to some degree to the Jersey wool(especially blowing them!).

So, here's the animals for sale.. I really need them gone, so we can wean more ML juniors. We still have approx 10 empty holes after the new ones arrive late tonight, but, those 10 won't be empty long. I will get new pics of all the older animals this week, and as soon as I can type the babies I will start listing them. As I don't have room to keep any!

Bucks:

Posey's Black Junior buck- gorgeous buck! 2 1/4 inch ears, full brother went to Ontario and this is what Jen has written about him- "He has a very full face... short, thick ears... and a body to die for... Where cheerleader lacked in coat,... incognito makes up for it... 10 fold!! He's got the right attitude and poses like a dream... and upright ears to boot!!.... This is gonna be a fun show season!!"
I like this buck as much, but I don't work on selfs. And as it is, I'm keeping a blue jr buck already!! (bad me!)

M an M's Battle Royale- Broken blue buck from M an M rabbitry in WA. Massive buck, on the bigger side. Sweet personality. I paid $120 , am asking $75.

Does:

Leapin' Maggie Mae- Smoke pearl senior doe, on a litter of 3, ready when litter is weaned. 1 GC leg for BOB WA State Convention 2007(out of 53). REG. Great mom! $40

Leapin' Ms Sierra- Blue point senior doe- has been shown and passed as a sable point. Ready when her litter of 4 is weaned. Awesome body! $40

Leapin Panache- beautiful body, good head, super personality. On her first litter of 2, awesome babies! I am keeping one. This is the oldest litter, so the first I've been able to type(hence why I'm not saying awesome babies for the other litters, since they are too young to type). $50

Babies:
3 babies from Leapin' Maggie Mae 1 leg/REG X GC JEntle's Hero- Blues- 2 bucks, 1 doe

1 baby from Leapin' Panache X GC Jentle's Hero- I am keeping one, one blue buck available.

4 babies from Leapin' Miss Sierra X Leapin' Rock N Roll- sable points, tort, and a blue point.

And that is it!

Dwarf Hotot Litter!

2008-05-08T15:19:00.000-07:00

Electric's Stairway to Heaven kindled her first litter today, bred to BOJ's Calvin. She had 5 babies, all alive doing well in the box! 1 mismark (only 1 eyeband), and 4 perfects.

Electric's Nightwish should be due as well anytime. Not sure who she was bred to, would need to look it up / ask Andrea!

Still waiting on 2 Mini Lops to go...

Spring is finally here!

2008-05-05T21:33:00.000-07:00

Well Spring is finally here on Vancouver Island. We had our first calf of the year born a couple of days ago. An adorable(aren't they all?) Black Angus bull calf. A sweetie! I will get pics in a few days. We are waiting on "Molly" who is bagged up and ready to go in the next week or two maybe even sooner! Molly is a pro, she has had quite a few calfs in her 10 years. Her last year calf was a Heifer. Actually both calfs last year were heifers, hoping for a heifer from her again this year!

I know what's a blog without pics, but I promise to get some in a few days. The cows enjoyed playing around the barnyard today and eating the foot tall grass that has been growing like crazy the past couple of weeks. I was going to get a pic of them today too, but I ran out of time. Tomorrow is an extra crazy day as we are off to Victoria to look at Trucks for our dad, and then if he buys one we will have to do all the insurance, and transferring etc. Then we have to get pics of our Uncles Skidder for sale, and get the van cleaned and ready to go to put up for sale, the same with our pick up. We hope to have both those cleaned and put up for sale by Friday at the latest as we found a truck! Now if only it would be there..... When we sell the other 2!

Crosses fingers : )

Rabbits are doing just fine. It was nice to have so many fewer with taking those ones up Island on Sunday. We have a shipment of 5 off to GA in a few weeks, and a few off to WA and possibly Utah as well.

If anyone on the Mainland or Interior reads this blog and is interested in stock, our friend Kelly from Black Creek is going to Kamloops this coming weekend(May 10th) and is willing to transport rabbits for $5 transport fee... She is going to the Langley Auction, Vernon and Kamloops as far as I know.

Anyway I will try to get pics of the cows and calf tomorrow or Wednesday! We just have 3 cows left, and 2 yearling heifers, plus the new bull calf. We lost Megan about 6 weeks ago, and just have Molly(Angus/Hereford cross), A red angus young cow who won't be bred for at least another year. She came from our uncles friend(our uncle owns the cows we just spoil them : ) and she is the ugliest looking cow. The others all have sleek shiny coats, and fat healthy bodies. This one is long coated and shaggy looking. She's been like that since he got her, and no amount of grain seems to change it so we are all hoping another year will make her look better lol. Then 2 black angus heifers from last year, and a black angus cow with the bull calf at her side.

Oh, I do have one pic for this blog.. Harley and River were sunbathing a couple of days ago on the step going into the barn. Harley is 150lbs, and River is 10... And they get along just fine!

Why didn't I do that in the first place?

2008-05-04T20:01:00.000-07:00

So we set up the shop vac, with the blower attached and we blew out all the juniors yesterday. No brushing, no messing with tangles or anything it was SO easy and their coats look awesome.

Why didn't I just do that in the first place?

Sighs, having to learn the hard way! I really didn't comprehend when a couple people mentioned shop vacs that they really take away from every couple of day brushing to virtually NO brushing. It blew the coat and we didn't have to brush at all. Built to Last had a tiny knot on his side, and we blew that right out no problem!

I'm very impressed and kicking myself for not getting it together sooner.

We had a busy day today. We delivered 10 cull ML's to Courtenay, 2 Champagnes and 3 Jerseys to Kelly in Courtenay as well, and stopped at Wallys and did a few pics and went through a few litters and rabbits for him, Petsmart on the way home, and then to our Grandmas for dinner and then we fed the barn.

Making money with rabbits?

2008-05-01T08:26:00.000-07:00

I saw a blog off "Three Little Ladies Blog" and skimmed it quickly about a week ago(only because of how rushed we've been lately) and it got me thinking about making money off rabbits. We've tried, and have not succeeded!

I think part of the problem is we use the rabbit sale money for the dog and cat food. And for anyone who has rabbits that also has dogs and cats they know just how expensive it is to feed dogs and cats!

The rabbits, really, aren't too bad. Maybe I'm just saying that because of the amount of dog and cat food we feed and buy.

My thoughts on making money off rabbits is, you have to be right on the ball. You have to have breeds that are in high demand. The high demand on Vancouver Island is still, and I think will always be, Holland lops. We still after not having them for almost 3 years get inquiries and sad e-mails that we sold out! If you don't have breeds that are in high demand, that you also enjoy showing don't count on making money!

Now, this is of course my opinion and what we've found on Vancouver Island. You have to have some kind of a meat breed, to help costs as well. Whether that is a breed you also show, or a breed that is just strictly for meat purposes. Reason? Although you can not sell rabbits under the new "farm gate" law for human consumption unless it is inspected, you can sell rabbits for dog/cat food. There is a huge market in BC for rabbit meat for pet food. This is another way to help make "money" off rabbits.

Years ago, selling the rabbit wool was a big profit, but I have not seen anyone wanting wool for quite a few years now at least here on the Island. And I haven't had anyone e-mail or ask about rabbit wool for years. I had one "Angora" rabbit inquiry a few weeks back, but that is the only angora inquiry we've recieved in the last 7 years.

You of course have your pet sales, show sales, breeding stock sales. But, again Holland lops have the largest price tags on the Island, the most amount of inquiries and new comers start with this breed as well! In my opinion you have to work really, really hard to make money off rabbits. Cristina and I personally don't like the whole "petstore" sales. We do have one petstore that we will occasionally let a rabbit go too if we have quite a few, as they seem to be pretty good at giving out care sheets etc. The one petstore we absolutely loved selling rabbits too because they were so awesome with the animals, will only take holland lops as even the hollands for them will sit for 3-6 months or more at times.

Our dog and cat food bill runs anywhere from $250-300 a month, not including vet bills, advantage, deworming. Rabbit feed bill runs from $250-300. These days it is $300 , we are going through 20 bags of feed a month(about half a ton)

I don't know, from what we've done- from selling pet rabbits, meat stock sales, breeding and show sales, conditioning mix/hay/grain/, rabbit pet sitting, and various other things it is REALLY hard to make money off rabbits. Some months we do break even, but never from the meat, breeding, or pet stock, or conditioning mix or rabbit pet sitting sales. Only from the show/breeding sales, and usually from our small breeds of rabbits. Mini lops aren't a super popular breed as pets, and so many people have mini lops(pet people) confused with holland lops. Thinking mini lops are holland lops. By the time we sort it out with them it is a Holland lop they are wanting! : )

So, personally, I would say no on Vancouver Island you can't make money on rabbits. You can however break even, and have the rabbits pay for themselves if you are careful and have enough pet sales to warrant this!

What a nutty week!

2008-04-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

Since last Friday it has been INSANE around here. I'm talking shakes head crazy!!

We were in Ucuelet all day Saturday, then Sunday we were up super early to unload our dads truck of tools, and our truck of "stuff" from his RV trailer, as he is moving back home(he worked on the West Coast for the past 4 months, but because of his health has had to become a "travelling mechanic", then after that we cleaned the barn, and worked on a whole bunch of pics.

Then Monday we get a phone call at 5am that our dad is really sick and needs us to go get him. So we drove all the way up(3 hrs one way) and picked him up and took him to Nanaimo hospital. Our mom stayed with him while we came home and dealt with a few little things, then we fed rabbits and did chores, they got home and we went to bed pretty darn early! Yesterday we spent all day working on various things we needed too like Champagne and New Zealand Sanctions from the April 5th show. With being sick all last week we didn't spend any time on the computer, and I had some things to do. I've also been busy e-mailing judges and trying to get things organized for Luxton and Cowichan Fairs in September as catalogs need to go out pretty soon for those(because they are fairs, and Cowichan is the biggest fair on the Island).

I had to go to the post office on Monday and yesterday for stamps, and we mailed Valerie Uptagraffts show towel back(hand towel) she had forgotten at the show, then we had to mail a bunch of other things, and finish up the show stuff(all done now)(everyone had their legs weeks ago, but with being sick last week things got postponed!)

I had to research a course that my uncles logging company has to take, and today we worked on our taxes and got them finished. Plus we put a new oxygen sensor on the truck and went to the feed store.

See? Crazy!

Tomorrow we have to work on the oxygen sensor on the truck- long story, and one I am too lazy to type out. I just finished (in the oven) baking a cake for our Uncles B-day tomorrow, and it is also our good friend Sylvia's b-day as well in case she reads this before I send her a b-day greeting tomorrow : )

Rabbits are all doing fine. We will have some Champagne babies available if anyone is interested. We are keeping the buck, but both does in the older litter will be for sale, and we have another litter of two as well. The one doe is very nice, we just don't want more then 4 Champagnes. We will be selling the seniors as we replace them with juniors we've bred as well, so inquire if interested in senior stock down the road!

The only things left on my "HAS TO GET DONE THIS WEEK" are the Luxton and Cowichan catalogs, and my delay on both is I STILL don't have judges for Luxton. I've e-mailed over 20 judges in the Northwest and for the ones who have written me back they are all booked, and some I haven't gotten a reply from. And Cowichan show the judges are all booked, but, we are still waiting for sanction numbers.. That was mailed off the 7th of April. This mail system is SLOW.

Well better run and check the cake!

Picture and website update, and other animals!

2008-04-28T19:35:00.000-07:00

We've been slowly getting caught up on website updates, although they won't be published for a couple more days yet. We've done over 100 pics in the past week, and have been adding them to the website. Mainly Mini lops, as everyone is coming nicely out of "ganglies" and some are maturing beautifully! We are looking forward to showing them.

As we've been taking pictures, the dogs and cats have been having fun annoying us and getting in our way! Here's Cassie, one of the 4 barn cats deciding it was "her turn" for pictures!

Also included is a pic of 2 of Andrea's dwarf hotot babies- so cute! And a pic of a Bear we saw eating on the side of the road the other day driving from Ucluelet.

I've sexed my litters... Boy did I have luck with BUCKS! ugh!!! Fantasy has 2 gorgeous bucks and a doe that are looking really nice! the other one buck is actually pretty nice too but is a blue point so unshowable color.

Maggie Mae and Hero have 2 dark smoke pearl bucks, and a dark smoke pearl doe.

Leapin' Miss Sierra X Leapin' Rock N Roll- a tort buck, Blue point buck, Smoke pearl buck and Blue point buck.

Leapin' Panache X GC Jentle's Hero- 2 blue bucks

Schultz's SEcret weapon X Leapin' Munchkin- dark sable point doe and siamese smoke pearl doe!

We've gone through tons of Mini lops and mini lop litters. I mean the barn is soon going to be full we have so many babies and juniors we are growing out. For now we are fine with quite a few empty cages(at least a dozen I can count off the top of my head, BUT! we have 8 more does bred, with 3 due in a week... That is the end of breedings for us. I have 2 more Champagnes to breed, possibly 3 and then that is it for sure this time lol! I bred the last Jersey wooly on the weekend when we bred the other mini lop does, and one Champagne doe.

Fair weather rabbits

2008-04-25T18:05:00.000-07:00

In the past couple of weeks, I've had more Jersey babies born then any other time since last October. We've both decided the jerseys are "Fair Weather rabbits". The mini lops bred all fall, all winter, and now all spring. The Jerseys have been a whole other story!!

We've been sick this week, with bad colds so haven't been on the computer or writing blogs. We are feeling much more human now, so thought I should write a blog!

Leapin Maggie Mae X GC Jentle's Hero have 3 kits left- not sure if blues or smoke pearls.

Leapin' Panache X GC Jentle's Hero- 2 kits- blues

Leapin' Ms Sierra X Leapin' Rock N Roll- 4 kits- 1 tort, and 3 sable points and blue points

Schultz's Secret Weapon X Leapin' Munchkin- 2 kits- dark sable point and a smoke pearl we think? They keep changing!

I've been trying since last October for Secret Weapon and Maggie to have litters. Maggie had 2 dead litters in the box, in a row, and she has the live litter now(she was proven before) so it was just winter!

We had a new Champagne litter today as well, 2 HUGE babies. Doing great. About 3/4's the size of our hands! They are big babies! Still waiting on the other Champagne to kindle.

We will do some more breedings in the next week, and I will hopefully find something interesting to write about : )

The 5 babies from Fantasy X Cowboy are doing great. I will see about getting some pics this weekend. 3 of the 5 are looking really nice with great bodies!

The sable point buck from Foxy Lady and Cowboy is doing fine as well, he is fostered to a mini lop(Rosalind). Its looks so funny this tiny Jersey against these huge mini lops who are just a week older then him, but are 3 times bigger then him!

We did a whole bunch of new pictures last weekend, but haven't felt up to doing website updates.. We will hopefully start working on them tomorrow.

Our dad is moving from up Island back down here, to travel with his job instead of living at his job(and towing the trailer) so we will be busy this next week organizing him, and helping him move everything back down this way.

It bugs me!

2008-04-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

When people say "wow, you are doing another breed?", Or, you "Sure have a lot of different breeds". Or you sure have a turn over on breeds etc.

What better way to know a breed then to BREED AND SHOW the breed. This is my opinion but it just bugs me when people comment, on something that is really not an issue to comment over!

I can think of many Nationally winning breeders who have more then one breed of rabbit. In fact, a lot of the ones I am thinking of have at least 2 breeds, some have 3 or 4 or more.

For me, I don't think raising more then 4 breeds does anything for all the breeds. Unless you have hundreds of extra cages and time to devote to the breed.

For us, Mini lops ARE the main breed with 72 holes for them. Mini lops have been here the longest, besides the first few years we spent with Holland lops and French lops. We had French lops for 3 1/2 almost 4 years, and Hollands for 3 years.

Since then, yes, we have tried various breeds and yes some didn't stick around for very long but every breed we raised so far, before we sold out we won a Best in Show with it! French lop, Holland lop, Mini rex, Netherland dwarf. We really haven't had many breeds.

I know of a breeder who has had rabbits here on the Island, has incredible stock especially in their one breed, and has 7 different breeds of rabbits. Has had rabbits since the mid 70's, and has raised many different breeds. Although the breeder doesn't have a big turn over of breeds, some of the breeds they don't do all that much with(having just a pair or trio or up to 5 animals at times).

We have a huge pet food industry here on Vancouver Island, with no sales of rabbit meat for human consumption allowed, a lot of breeders are going for the pet food industry. In fact, the pet food industry on the Island is so good we have all our culls sold for the next YEAR.

Yes, we are getting 3 satins coming from the US. Why ? Because our meat sales are so good, it would be nice to help pay for the feed bill some more with these meat sales. And we've always thought the red satins are beautiful. If you want to see more judges, and better judges I think you better want to see those judges raising all kinds of breeds, the more hands on experience the BETTER THEY ARE!

My opinion, as always : )

Litters coming up

2008-04-19T10:42:00.000-07:00

We have 2 Champagne litters, 4 Jersey wooly litters(one doe is sold, so will be 3 litters) due this next week. All the does need to get boxes put in tomorrow. I've already put one Champagne box in as the doe has been nesting for the past week. And I will put in the other boxes today or tomorrow.

I am looking forward to these litters.

Secret Weapon has 2 babies- a Siamese Smoke pearl looks to be a doe, and a Siamese Sable also looks to be a doe.

Panache has 2 dark smoke pearls or blues ( I think blues) by Hero.

Mara, Maggie, and Ms Sierra are all due this week.

The 5 babies of Fantasy X Cowboy are 4 bucks and 1 doe. Blue torts, Smoke pearl and Blue points.

The one baby from Cowboy X Foxy Lady is a Sable point buck- SO CUTE!

I think we may work on pictures today. We also are hoping to get the pet site finished this weekend. Tomorrow we do a shipment of 6 Jersey woolies to Ontario. On Tuesday 5 Jerseys go to Alberta, and then throughout the next couple of weeks a bunch more will go. That will be nice for cage space. We have 72 Mini lop holes and 52 we are keeping so far(not including the youngest litters) so we will need as many empty holes as we can get!

We decided how to work out our holes:
72 Mini lop holes. The mini lops are a really fun breed that we both enjoy, and they are our main breed. 4 holes for the Champagnes, and 4 holes for Red Satins as we have a huge demand for meat for the pet food industry, so we NEVER have a problem selling our culls. 8 holes for the Jersey woolies.

There are some breeds we would never try again, and we are offically finished with cavies for life(sorry cavy breeders) just not for us. (we haven't had cavies since last fall. I've tried them 4 different times in the past 8 years, but I just enjoy the rabbits that much more.

Well I should go and get my butt in gear... We are having a very lazy morning. Our mom is sick and usually we hear her early in the morning working around the house, but with being sick she didn't get up early so we both slept in, and then we've been getting caught up on e-mails etc. Now, I must go get some work done!

They are coming today!

2008-04-17T08:57:00.000-07:00

It is a bittersweet story. Today is the last day we will see Andrea for a full year. This is going to be a tough day! : ( Her Dwarf hotots come today, for the next year... We will be breeding them for her, and showing them for her as well etc. We are both looking forward to it, as we've never worked with Dwarf hotots and will be something different!

There are 6 does, and 1 buck coming. She is also bringing 2 brand new stackers, 2 carriers, nestboxes, dishes, and their toys and pedigrees : )

We will get pics of them in the next few weeks to blog about : ) 2 of the does Classe and can't remember the other does name have litters of 2 each. And 2 more does are bred.

I will blog about the dwarf hotot experience as we go along over the next year. Keeping Andrea updated etc.

As I said it is bittersweet. I am happy and sad at the same time. I am really happy we can continue for her, as she put so much work into them the last 3 years genetically as well as breeding to the standard.

Can you keep a secret?

2008-04-17T08:37:00.000-07:00

I had to tell a white lie. That is my secret. Why did I have to tell a white lie? Well, I'll tell you!

So, after a year of sitting I decided to sell my pick up. A really cute 91 Chevy Sonoma(pic attached with all of Andrea's cages from moving her from our farm to Wally's last year). So we charged the battery on the truck, and started it. The truck sounds FINE! Totally fine.

Now, what I haven't told you yet is we took the truck in and had $4000 of work done on it a couple of years ago. Last April we took it in for a tune up and everything was GREAT! Last May we had to sit the truck because we thought their was a noise coming from the engine (they had just put a new used engine in the October before (6 months before), and the truck ran beautifully. As soon as we heard the noise we took it to Crofton Auto who said yes, there is definetly something up. No warranty.. 3 month warranty ONLY on used engines. So of course, CRAP( or well, more terms for that but I won't write those ;) Beginning of May we drove the truck to Monroe WA, all the way down to Toledo I belive it was called to get French lops from Lynn and Patrick Eden. Something like a 5 hour drive. NO PROBLEMS with the truck.

Anyway to make a long story short we sat the truck for almost the last year, and had to start it once last fall to move it, and again it ran great no problems no noises.

So, I decide you know what? Screw it. Sell it! Norm was going to give us the van to use anyway, as he is buying a pickup in a few weeks. So, we thought sell the truck, keep the van and all is well. Well, now that the dumb thing sounds great I will drive it/put insurance on it for 3 months (will only use it for up to a month as then I will sell it as soon as Norm get his pick up). And get the other 2 months of money back. So, I put an add before we started the truck, on one of the sites for $1500, put about the motor occasionally making a noise etc. I've now had 3 phone calls, and 6 e-mails about the truck.

WELL! Now we've decided to drive it for a few weeks, because if it isn't the motor and isn't expensive to fix I will take it in to the auto place and get them to fix it and get more for it.. Then we will sell the Van, and put the money from the p/u and the van for a Ford F150 that I REALLY want ;)
I'm done with Chevs!

Anyway, where does the secret come in? I had to tell everyone that phoned and on the site that due to a family emergency I wasn't able to sell the truck for 2-3 weeks. Now, part of this is true. I have one family emergency I can't talk about, and another my step sister has cervical cancer and just had surgery this week in Alberta. That is all true.

So in 2-3 weeks we should be down two vehicles, up one vehicle for Norm, and then hopefully by beginning of May up one vehicle for me!! : ) Oh.. I can't wait : )

On rabbit news now... I will either blog or Cristina will in 2 secs on one thing, but Panache finally 3 days late had 3 babies, one doa peanut, and 2 either blues or dark smoke pearls doing great! Maggie and Mara are due on Monday, Sierra and the 2 Champagnes and Sophia(didn't take I don't believe) next Wednesday.

Off to either write the other blog.. Or get my butt in gear to wash a truck... Then off to the barn... (our other blog is about the barn)

Crazy week already

2008-04-15T10:45:00.001-07:00

I can't even imagine what Andrea must be going through, moving for an entire year to Ireland.. All the things she has to do. I feel like we are moving to Alaska and this is just a daily thing for our house.

Taxes are due in a few weeks as everyone knows (here in Canada they are due on the 31st), well neither Cristina or I received our GIC info in the mail to do our taxes. So we searched for the last hour through our junk drawers in our desks (got them cleaned out too) and they definetly were not in there.. So she is on the phone right now to CIBC to get hers and then I will call for mine later. We have to go to Duncan to the accountant with our uncle in a few minutes, only been trying since last Monday to do that.

We have tons of things to do at the barn too, we have to make room for Andrea's 2 stackers, and we have to get things organized for the shipments this weekend and next week.

I will write later if Panache has finally kindled!

Luke is fine

2008-04-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

We just got back from the vet, and Luke is healing nicely. I didn't think their was a problem but it is always better safe then sorry. It didn't end up costing anything either (thankfully), and he is healing properly! He goes in on the 22nd to be checked over, neutered, and get the one staple out.

A busy weekend

2008-04-14T10:31:00.000-07:00

We had a very busy weekend. Friday we spent finishing up the show stuff, mailing all of it. Because we only had one vehicle until Saturday morning we had to take our mom to work at 3pm every day, and then head to the farm after that. Well, by the time we fed rabbits, had a quick visit with our grandma, and headed home it was already almost 6pm. Andrea was coming at 6 for dinner/visit for a few hours. We had a fun visit with her (as always) and she left at 10, we picked our mom up at 11.

Saturday morning we were up early to clean the barn. The day didn't go quite as planned. We got to the farm at about 10:30 because by the time we gave Luke his morning pills, and did a bunch of other things around here it was 10:30. We did get the barn cleaned though. Then, we head over to our grandmas about 1:00 for a sandwich and get a phone call that Luke has pulled 2 of his 3 staples out... So we rush home. Our vet isn't open on weekends so we either had to call them in for an emergency or wait until this morning. We decided to wait, as it is not infected and is nice and clean. He has an appt at 11:20. Plus we had to be in Nanaimo by 6pm and were rushing around like crazy as it was. Our mom and uncle made 5 trips to Duncan throughout the day Saturday for parts for the brakes for her car.

So anyway we ran home and did that. By then it was 2:30. We had to rush back to the farm, feed/water/hay rabbits, run back to the house to get ready as Saturday night was Andrea's surprise party at Kelseys in Nanaimo.

So we rush home.. Changed outfits about 8 times (at least for me), finally we were ready (okay I admit I was the slow one) at 5:00.. Then we had to run and get propane.. Well, the gas station was NUTTY busy, so we had to wait.. I think it was something like 5:20 before we even left Chemainus.

Now, you have to keep in mind with not having the car we had to use our farm truck. And when I say farm truck it really is. It does not have a working radio, the clutch is almost gone (I'm the only one that will drive it besides our dad who hates driving it so I am the sole operator 99.9% of the time when we have to use it), keep in mind the truck is almost 30 years old, and only has 4 gears (no 5 speed, no power etc). So... Starting out is slow, but painless (it really isn't that bad) and finally you can get it up to about 100-110km an hour. It could pull a house, but not win a race :- ) None of the dash pieces work (speedometer, battery, gas gauge), where the radio is supposed to be is a gigantic hole.... So anyway we made it at 5:55!! We had a great night visiting with everyone, got lots of pics and had a great dinner.

Sunday morning we headed to Ladysmith and Nanaimo, then to the farm and did pictures. Had someone return a Holland lop they bought as a pet 3 years ago (as they were moving). I felt so bad for the poor family, they I know are going to miss him so much. They sent his hutch and indoor cage, and bag of hay with him as well. He was very spoiled, if we don't find a suitable home for him we will keep him and they can come visit him whenever they like : )

I did manage to get a few pictures yesterday, and this week will be busy organizing shipments and transport next week. Kathy M is taking 5 Jerseys and 1 lionhead to the Alberta show for me(the lionhead is another breeders), for a buyer up there. Then there are 6 Jerseys flying to Ont hopefully on Sunday.

Secret Weapon had 3 kits by Munchkin, this is the same breeding as Fantasy! Just waiting on Panache now. I need to check due dates for all the other girls as well.

The for sale page is current, just a few left that we need to move out.

I decided to keep the tort jr doe I was going to sell. I figure I will grow her out and already she has a better body then dad, so I'm looking forward to watching her develop. Plus, I love the tort color! I think one of my favorites I've sold is Hardly an Angel- a chocolate sable point- what a fun color!

Well I better run. I have to take Luke in 25 mins and knowing him I probably have to find 6 tennis balls before we go.. ;)

A new page will be launched

2008-04-10T17:27:00.000-07:00

We are in the process of launching/making a new page off our website. This page will be designed for the pet rabbit owner in mind, especially within this area(Vancouver Island) but could work for all areas of Canada (for some of it).

We will be selling Conditioning mix already made up in bags, with our labels. Bags of feed, if needed. And Bags of Orchard Grass Hay (2-3 flakes per bag), as most pet owners just don't have the room to store a 50-100lb bale of hay.

We will also be adding our rabbit sitting on our website, as we have been doing more and more of it these days. Stay tuned for all of this!

What a month...

2008-04-09T11:44:00.001-07:00

April is just getting crazier by the day.

Yesterday Luke(the golden Retriever) and Harley(the Rottweiler) got in a huge dog fight. Luke started it, but Harley won... Big time.

Luke had 3 huge teeth puncture wounds on his right front leg. He was pouring out blood all over the place, we stopped the bleeding, and bandaged him all up (to keep the bleeding stopped). We then had to take the bandage off a few hours later and check it out to decide from there what to do. The incisions were quite deep and we figured he would have to get stitches. So we cleaned them, and left them cleaned and opened for the night as his leg was quite swollen.

We called the vet first thing this morning to have him go in. He may need surgery down the road, but for right now all is fine. He did have to have 4 staples on one bite, and the others are deep but not deep enough for staples. Poor guy. He is on Antibiotics, and Anti inflammatory. He is sleeping right now. He goes in on the 22nd to have the staples out, be checked out (we have to call right away if the swelling gets worse) and take him in.

We have to keep him quiet for 2 weeks.. That should be interesting. It has been no problem so far as he really isn't feeling good. He was quite mad that we weren't going for a longer car ride so he can't be feeling TOO bad : )

Star and River keep going up to him to make sure he is okay. And stealing the cheese we gave to him to put his pills in. (or trying too). They kept getting their own pieces. Every time we would stop giving them pieces they would start hitting us with their paws.. It was quite cute.. but got annoying lol! ;)

Cowboy and Fantasy's litter is doing good. They are getting very cute. Well that is all that is new around here... Quite a few of the Jerseys I put up for sale are pending. And 2 Mini lops we hadn't planned on selling but will be an excellent start to someone in GA will be shipped out over the next few weeks.

We have to keep a close eye on Luke, so today we have to go to the Accountant I think? With our Uncle for a few things, and then we have someone coming between 3:30-4 to look at Jerseys. Otherwise we will have to be at home monitoring him :- )

For sale page updated

2008-04-08T09:15:00.001-07:00

The for sale page has been updated with many new pictures... Please check it out. We are having to be really picky with what we keep, as we are only working with Shaded woolies and there are some fantastic producers up for sale! Chantilly Lace produced Escapade... Snookums produced Cowboy, etc!

Kim :- )

Some new pictures

2008-04-07T19:50:00.000-07:00

We managed to get a few new pictures today!

First, my favorite Jersey wooly (his pics will be on the website shortly) Leapin' Heza Smooth Cowboy- Blue point Senior buck. Cowboy is a sweetheart with gorgeous type, just unshowable color!

2nd- Posey's Escapade- Blue tort Junior doe (she is looking more blue tort these days!)
So everyone that wrote was right : ) She just isn't quite the proper shading of tort but I will work on that. Beautiful junior doe!

We also got lots of new pics on the for sale page, and will keep updating pics over the next few weeks!

I haven't sexed litters but lots of smoke pearls, blue points, and sable points in the boxes. As far as I remember they are almost all bucks.... *(sigh!)*

Rabbits BC, April 5th show

2008-04-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

All went pretty well with the show yesterday, although the day did not start out well.

We found Tigerlily our 6 month old kitten had been hit and killed on the road. Of course, as you can imagine we are devastated. But knew we had to put brave faces on and go on with the day. I guess we looked pretty tired and worn out, as a couple of people commented we sure looked tired. Only 2 people knew at the show, and I don't think they told anyone so that was the start of our day at 5:30 yesterday morning.

The show went smoothly, a couple of small hiccups (comment card missing) but otherwise everything went very well! We had a lot of people who entered bucks who were does, does who were bucks ( lol)

We did very well with the mini lops. I will let Cristina post those results. We sold our 2-4 hole carriers we took to sell, plus a 2 hole! So that was great. About 1/4 of the plants, the nestboxes, about half the treat mix we made up to take to sell, and we have a few people interested in rabbits! So that was all great!

Jentle's Hero was BOS both shows. Leapin' Heza Smooth Cowboy ( I only showed 2 JW's) was DQ'ed both shows for being a blue cream or blue point ( I think blue point?) they raved over his type, and head though and Michelle said he would have been one of the top contenders if he was a showable color! Even Kathy Mannweiller commented on him being such a nice buck! So that was good. Cowboy is my favorite, so that was nice to hear! He is SO sweet!

Other then that, we were very tired and had the Myer family help to take everything down and put away. That was so awesome of them! And then Jody helped fold down tables, and did a bunch of sweeping so we were cleaned up and out in about an hour!!

We sold the Charlie the Champ buck to the Myer family, as George will get more use in our herd, and eventually down the road we will need to bring in a really good herd buck. For now, though, Charlie will help our depth out and we will see what is in that litter of 3!

I will be updating the sale page with new pics this week.

Some sale animals, litters, life in general

2008-04-01T20:04:00.001-07:00

Life, as per normal around here is crazy. How could it not be with this many animals? Who in their right mind would have 5 dogs, 11 cats, 90 rabbits, goldfish and 5 cows? Well, I guess other rabbit people!!

We put a whole bunch of for sale animals up- check out the for sale page.

We are busy preparing for the show this weekend ( we are show secretaries). We are actually pretty organized, but, it is a lot of work. Today we had to go to the Cowichan Exhibition and get gate, bathroom, and show room keys. Then we had to drop off a sanction form for Cowichan Exhibition fair in September. Then we had pictures to take, rabbits to feed, visit with our grandma. Entries to work on etc etc. I mean life is nuts : )

Litters are doing fine. Unfortunetly for some reason the Champagne litter the babies keep coming out of the box. So we've lost 2 of the 5 : ( We just had the box made for us, and it is a deep big box, so there should be no reason for them coming out. I will rebreed the doe when the 3 remaining babies are 4 weeks, as a meat breed raising 3 babies is a little pathetic lol! (as long as she is in excellent flesh condition to rebreed, of course). Right now she feels excellent. She is a good eater. 2 cups a night or more, and babies are still in the box.(or supposed to be)

Jersey wooly litter is doing fine. Foxy Lady had 1 baby we fostered to Fantasy. Fantasy lost one of hers so is down to 5, is raising 6. All smoke pearls and blue points for all 6 babies.

We have some gorgeous mini lops that are now weaned. Can't wait to watch them develop! Lots of neat colors, we have lots of litters to keep an eye on over the next few months : ) Some nice show woolies too! Escapade, Built to last, and a blue jr doe.. I am selling Hardly an Angel... she is really nice and I may kick myself but I can only keep so many.

A few new pics of sale animals are on the website tonight. Being show secretaries we can do our own entries whenever, so we haven't figured ours out yet. I know I only have 2-3 Jerseys, and 1 Champagne to enter. Until we get the Mini lop club changed to both our names I won't be entering any mini lops(as I don't want to take sweeps under my name until we both have our names with the club!)

Otherwise nothing much else happening.. Super busy with all this show stuff, life, animals etc. I will try to start working on pics over the next week, after this show is over.

I'm running out of blog ideas!

2008-03-27T12:46:00.000-07:00

Not much new to report on the Jersey aspect in the barn, so I am running out of blog ideas. I am always repeating myself and it is boring me lol!

Fantasy has 6 kits, none ended up being peanuts!! and all are doing well- smoke pearls mainly but looks like a couple of blue points (non-showable) as well.

We have 2 more Jerseys due today and tomorrow- Foxy Lady and Hot Flashez.

I have 6 other does bred as well.

Champagne litter is doing great, getting big. Can't wait to see them develop!

If anyone has any ideas of what I can blog about please let me know!!

I will try to write another interesting blog tonight!

98 bottles of beer on the wall!

2008-03-22T10:16:00.001-07:00

Well, okay, not beer but babies.. We currently have 98 babies between all the litters- we had 42 babies born yesterday in our breedings that were due that survived(more that didn't survive from first time Jersey litters). You just can't seem to count on dwarf breeds! With our older babies, plus these new ones it makes 98!! Plus we have 3 more mini lops bred, 2 more to breed, 6 or 7 Jerseys bred, 2 more to breed. And 2 more Champagnes to breed in about 2 weeks.

Spring has sprung here!

We are expecting a calf this summer as well that I am personally looking forward too.

So Jersey litter wise.. The only doe that came through was Fantasy with 6 babies, of which 4 may be peanuts. Sophia had 3 DOA, and Sierra had 2 DOA. I will rebreed both does in a few days. Sophia pulled just a tuff of fur, and Sierra pulled a little more then that. Fantasy (my favorite girl now lol) pulled a box of fur, built a beautiful nest and is a terrific mom. Right now she has 2 mini lops in her box as well... Ack! We had to do a bunch of fostering because mini lops had HUGE litters!

New litters, updates etc

2008-03-20T20:02:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it has been 4 days since my last blog...

I had a couple new Jersey litters to report today. Leapin Fantasy X Leapin' Cowboy had 6 kits- first litter! 4 MAY be peanuts, though with 2 for sure that are regular size.

And Leapin' Sierra X Leapin' Cowboy had 2 DOA huge kits. I will rebreed her this weekend, unless we need to foster something off to her. We still have 2 more JW's to go, still waiting on my Champagne D' Argent to deliver, and then numerous mini lops. Then more JW's next week.

I can't wait for the Champagne litter. They are a super fun breed of rabbit! Very sweet, inquisitive, and good eaters! I think they will make excellent pets from what I am seeing (the bucks) as both our bucks are very easy going. We got new pics of the 2 young does today, but didn't like the pics of the younger of the 2. However, new pic of the older doe.

All is well with all the bunnies. Tomorrow we are having Easter dinner at the house here. Andrea and her mom are coming, along with our Grandma and one uncle, my friend Starr and her daughter Tiffany, and then the 4 of us. Plus 7 cats, and likely 5 dogs because if we are feeding rabbits a bit early I can't tie Harley up that early (Harley the farm dog, but you have to tie him up at night because of his last fiasco with chasing wild rabbits and getting lost!). Anyway, he will probably come home for Easter dinner too : )

We are stuck on our emotions right now. In one way we are looking forward to Andrea's dwarf hotots coming to the farm. It will be fun to play around with them for a year, while she is gone. And in another it will be hard to say goodbye and not see her for another FULL YEAR! We are really happy for her, and can't wait to hear about her adventures and hearing if she finds any rabbitries over there! But, it will be a hard time saying good bye for sure. We've all really grown close over the last 2 years and it will be like losing a family member for sure ( she IS family)

Tomorrow, I have to go shopping for a baby gift (year old birthday) for our Cousin Aliyah. Then a birthday gift for a friend, and an easter gift for Cristina, Mom and Norm (just a chocolate bunny each or something) we don't go extravagant in this house for easter.

We cancelled homemakers for our grandma( who needs help with cooking/meals etc) for tomorrow, so Cristina and I will be at her place bright and early for breakfast, at the barn to check on the does due and then running around. Then back to the house by 3pm to work on dinner and tidying house, and figuring out how to entertain dogs while all the company is here : ) Probably take them for a long run and wear them out. That always works!

I have 16 Jerseys to keep, and 17 holes.. So expect to see more Jerseys for sale before Summer, as I need to keep empty holes for babies. : ) Can't wait to see how a few of these very nice Mini lops develop, they are looking VERY nice! And I really like how these couple Jersey babies we are keeping are developing. Showing improvement already, that is always a good thing!

Another Busy weekend

2008-03-17T20:12:00.000-07:00

Weekends around here are always brim full! Saturday we spent most of the day working around the farm. Saturday night we brought Harley the Rottweiller home for a "sleepover" and a long walk with the other 4 dogs. That all went well, and Sunday morning we all went back to the farm together (Harley, Cristina and I).

Andrea, Tammi and Coleton came down for a visit, and we spent most of the afternoon in the barn going through mainly Mini lops, although a few Jersey woolies and we looked at one Champagne as well. We also ran to the raptor centre, and out for coffee. Lunch at our Grandmas as well. Today we did a bunch of running around in town, and put boxes in for the does. We also, decided on our cage space in the breeds:

We have 88 holes in the barn exactly, so we were figuring out what we wanted to allow for each breed. We need lists, boundaries, and limitations in our life(okay I've been watching Cesar Millan videos, and those words are embedded in my head. Anyway, we do really need boundaries and lists and limatations though. Why? Well, we've decide to allow 59 holes of those 88 to just the Mini lops(we've had 43) that is 16 MORE holes just for the Mini lops. This will really help! 38 holes are for Senior bucks and does(all at least 24 by 30), the other 21 holes are 24 by 24 junior cages.

17 holes will be for the Jersey woolies, and 12 holes for the Champagne D' Argents. That is our so called list and our boundaries. We can't go over 88 holes, neither of us will allow stackers in the middle of that barn now, so that is all we have room for! That is our limiations- we are limited space wise in the barn now, and can not have more holes : )

We are gearing up for many new litters over the next few weeks. We have something like 14 upcoming litters, and after palpating yesterday(Thanks Tammi and Andrea for double checking) all the Mini lops except 1(which is a maybe) came through, and all the Jerseys except 1(who was just bred a week ago) are too soon to tell as well. The rest are packed full!

Well, that is about all that is new around here : ) The spell check on Blogger is not working, so if my spelling is not accurate you know why!!

Posey's Built to Last

2008-03-13T19:46:00.001-07:00

This is Hero's placement, a beautiful blue junior buck! Nicer ear then dad, but his dads awesome body and head as well : ) He is out of Jentle's Hero GC X Jentle's Tikki : )

I did some rebreeds today, trying to get a bunch of does bred to Hero and Rock N Roll before they leave. I decided to keep a few does for another litter, so I could breed them to just those 2 bucks for now. I do still have 4 animals available.. I am debating about keeping Snookums as well- I am so bad!

I have 4 animals available that would go very well as a group. GC RH's Tonka, Leapin Maggie May 1 leg (smoke pearl), Leapin' Mara (smoke pearl) and Leapin' Honky Tonk. All would be great in a marten (smoke pearl marten) project. I would like $200 for the 4, way lower then these animals are worth. But, I'm not working on martens!

I also checked some does that I bred a few weeks ago. And Confirmed are:

Leapin' Hot Flashez X Leapin' Snookums- expecting blue torts
Leapin' Fantasy X Leapin' Cowboy- expecting smoke pearl, sable point, blue point?
Leapin' Foxy Lady X Leapin' Cowboy- sable point and REW
Leapin' Miss Sierra X Leapin' Rock N Roll- sable points and torts
M an M's Sophia- (pointed white) X Jentle's Hero

Does bred today and yesterday:

Leapin' Panache X GC Jentle's Hero

Schultz's Secret Weapon X Leapin Munchkin (rebreed of Fantasy) she did not take last month.

All is well around here. We had 6 dogs in our care today ( I think I should send my dogs to people who can't keep dogs and get paid for lending my dogs out lol). On top of our 5 dogs( 1 farm dog (Harley) and 4 dogs here in Chemainus. Lucky our cousins dog was at the farm.. Lucky eats cats, we have 4 barn cats. So in the 2 1/2 hrs Lucky was at the farm (tied up) so we had complete control, she was a perfect angel and she loved playing with Harley again they lived together for 4 years. Anyway, in that time frame we barely got anything accomplished because we were worried that the cats would go out there and "try" to be friends.. They tried, but Lucky was just fine and we were right there. Our cats are too used to dogs, they don't know a good one from a bad one. That is the only scary part. But all was fine, and Lucky is back at her house now. And we are back down to just 5 ... JUST 5. Sarcastically murmurs!!

Show Juniors

2008-03-12T20:25:00.001-07:00

I have a few nice babies coming up that I will be keeping back as show juniors. I am super picky, as most people already know, so of my 20 babies some of them are really nice but not colors I want to pursue, and others don't meet my criteria.

I do have 3 so far that are definite keepers...

Leapin' Foxy Lady X Leapin' Rock N Roll- Sable point Junior doe- awesome body! Posey's Hardly an Angel

Leapin' Rock N Roll X Leapin' Chantilly Lace- Blue cream ? Junior doe- awesome doe, if she is a blue cream not a showable color but I am keeping regardless for breeding! Will see! Posey's Escapade

And GC Jentle's Hero X Jentle's Tikki- Blue Junior buck- Posey's Built To Last

So far just those 3, but, I have more litters to go through. Leapin' Ginger Rogers X Leapin' Rock N Roll have 2 dark sable points, and a dark tort( I think 2 does, and a buck )
Jetta X Hero have 2 blues. I just rebred Secret Weapon to Munchkin for a rebreed Fantasy litter. I have 3-4 more does bred as well.. I need to breed a bunch more this week.
Maggie and Mara both had litters yesterday- Maggie had 6, but unfortunetly none made it (and she is proven not sure what happened?) and Mara had 3 Fetal Giants (also proven) Mom to Panache. If they don't sell I will rebreed both. I hope to have as many babies in the box next month as I do now, for animals to show in August/September. I doubt we will go to any shows in the US this year due to the cost of gas and feed, animal food, groceries etc. Someone was saying it is going up to $1.50 a litre up here this summer(around $1.15 right now)
The dog food is over $60 a bag and we are going through it easily every 2 1/2 weeks with 5 dogs ( but they don't do well on any other kinds ) I've been trying everything. Ben lost so much weight on another brand, and they don't like the other brands.. Cat food is almost $40 a bag now..
Sigh!!!

:- )

Baby pic, and last sale buns

2008-03-09T18:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a pic of Posey's Escapade Smoke pearl? Jr doe
Out of Leapin' Rock N Roll X Leapin' Chantilly Lace

Super cute little doe with a great body, head and good ear! She is not posed in this shot, more of a "cutesy shot". I was going for barn pics today(battery was almost dead as we forgot it on.. oops ;) So, just one shot of her. Definite keeper!

Also, I just have a few sale buns and really want to get them moved out...

Leapin' Snookums blue tort senior buck- REG- I had this guy at $140, reduced to $100. I would be willing to sell him, Maggie, Panache or Mara as a trio for $200 for the trio(instead of $220, already reduced from $275). Great deal, nice rabbits- all 3 are registered, entire line is basically all registered and most are granded... I just want to cut back to what I am keeping, and building my own line.

Leapin' Panache- Smoke pearl senior doe- $50

Leapin' Mara- Smoke pearl senior doe $55

Leapin' Hot Flashez- Blue tort senior doe $85

Leapin' Maggie Mae- Smoke pearl senior doe- $70

Leapin' Foxy Lady- REW Senior doe- $40

GC RH's Tonka- Smoke pearl marten senior buck, $100 was $125

Leapin' Black Prince, and Leapin' Honky Tonk- both $40 each.. I will make a great deal for someone who wants more then 2-3 : )

The South Island 4-H club came up to the farm today, I think they were happy. We taught them about Coccidosis treatment, and why they should treat. Also deworming, and various other lessons. Density and Texture of coat, and type of the various rabbits.

I got 3 new Champagnes from Jolynn Wagner. A Massive senior buck, and 2 nice senior does. I am giving them a few days to settle in before I get pics. But the buck is a sweetheart!

Same old, same old

2008-03-08T19:49:00.001-08:00

I really don't have much to talk about. I am just not a topic type person. I don't have anything ever clever to write about (well occasionally) lol.

So I will just babble some more :- )

Animals are all fine. Harley was being a brat today, so he got locked out of the barn for 40 mins. He came back in and was a perfect gentlemen after that : ) (160lb Rottweiller)
I can seriously say the with 5 breeds of dogs. My favorite is Rottweiller, Shih Ztu, and Flat Coated Retriever. I love Luke, and Ben(my parents Yellow Lab) are nice dogs. But I wouldn't have another of those breeds(Golden Retriever and Yellow Lab). Star has some German Shepherd in her so it makes her aggressive towards strangers which I don't like. We all joke that if we walk Star and Harley, people move around us because of Harley when it is really Star they should be worried about (lol). I am really not a small dog person-- not that I have anything against small dogs I think they are adorable. BUT! I find small dogs I have to worry about more(around the cows) and at least ours hates the outside/cold/rain. Whereas the big dogs will lay outside in the snow and rain(not because they have to but because they like to) and they can just handle it more. I guess I'm just a big dog person. However, I will always have a small dog, and probably always a shih ztu. Next favorite would be a Pomeranian but the Shih tzu seems a bit less fu-fu lol!

Anyway onto rabbits. They are all fine. We got the middle of the barn organized this morning. We just have to sweep tomorrow morning, and we did regular cleaning. Ranger(Jersey wooly) found a great pet home with a really nice family. I think he will be very happy!

I just have a few more JErseys to sell, and I am willing to negotiate on price... And make package deals.... : )

Champagnes are doing fantastic. Really a fun breed of rabbit. We have a litter coming around the 18th that we are both looking forward too. Nice sweet rabbits! Good eaters too ( sarcastically mutters at those Jerseys for being picky eaters!). The rabbits that are good eaters are in excellent flesh condition, rabbits that are not good eaters are in poor flesh condition it makes sense, and it drives me nuts! It is not that they don't like the feed they just aren't big eaters. This last batch of feed was bagged the day before we bought it! Super fresh! However, Jerseys eat what Jerseys want. So some will clean 1/2 a cup of pellets, others barely 1/4.

Tomorrow we have the 4-H club coming, Stan and Kathy are bringing our trio of Champagnes, Andrea is likely coming to the farm, and possibly Jody as well.. It is going to be one heck of a busy day! Maybe they will all take rabbits home with them ;) hint, hint guys!!

Nice to be getting spring cleaning done!

2008-03-06T08:53:00.000-08:00

It is so nice to be getting this spring cleaning done. We are actually done all the stackers and hanging cages. We just need to put the barn back together. The cages/rabbits are back together but the middle of the barn looks like a bomb hit it (lol).

All the carriers that we used our in the middle, plus feed bags as we had to buy feed yesterday and we spent 8 1/2 hours powerwashing 44 cages yesterday(stackers), pans, and putting them back together(some of them have legs and come off in twos) so by the time we took one 2 part out, then the other 2 part etc. We usually did 3-4 stackers at a time. But it is still a lot of work. By the time we fed and watered everyone it was after 7:00 last night and we were exhausted! We had even gone to check on a boat we are taking care of(making sure it doesnt take on water) and then picked up feed as well.

We did treat ourselves to Tim Hortins for lunch though :- )

Today we were going to take all the scrap metal but we may work in the barn instead and get it re-organized. I'm really not sure. It sounds like it is going to be a hectic day so we will have to see.

If we do work in the barn it will be nice to get it back to being re-organized, and maybe we can get a few pictures as well. We shall see!

Day one complete as Cristina said

2008-03-04T19:49:00.000-08:00

I won't go into details as Cristina's blog has what we got done but I am very pleased with what we did get done(we are well over half way done powerwashing) and tomorrow is just stackers and a few odds and ends : ) Really nice to get this all done now instead of May or June like we normally do. We are well ahead now! We have shows in April, May, June, July(if we want to go), August, September... So it is nice to get this type of thing done now. I doubt we will go to that many shows. Actually we have a show October as well, and then November if our club decides to hold another one that may be the month or early December.. I think we will miss some shows though(we will be showed out!)

I did get a few pics done today that I thought I would share.. I really liked how they turned out(sorry no barn pics quite yet). I do have pics of the barn as it was last spring it changed quite a bit since then and today it changed MUCH More : )

The one pic attached is of Harley, our new "farm" dog. A 160lb Rottweiller(a big lush!)

Then Star my dog. Star will be 10 this year, like Harley. Although more grey around her muzzle she isn't quite as slow moving as Harley(has way more energy) and wanted to play with Harley all morning. Once he realized "Hey, I can still play" she was tired of waiting and had gone off to do her own thing. The one pic of her is her covered in shavings(she promptly laid on the clean barn floor) : )

Then a pic of both dogs. I don't know what Star was doing but she managed to get her tongue sticking out.

Then a pic of the fields around the farm

And finally a pic of the corner of the hay barn, an old tool shed on the farm, and a bit of the fields/sunset etc.

It was a great day in the sunshine!

Started spring cleaning

2008-03-03T09:33:00.000-08:00

Today is pretty wet and windy out, so I don't think we are going to do anymore power washing. I am debating about taking a load of scrap steel to the metal yard in Cassidy though. We've been cleaning the yard here at the house(or mom has). Cristina and I are rarely outside our yard here at the house(1/2 an acre) because we take the dogs up to the Lake to play(about 40 acres) and if we aren't doing that, we are at the farm with the rabbits, Harley, cats and cows. : )

Anyway, yesterday we tried out the new power washer at the farm! We got one 4 hole stacker completely power washed, vanodined, dishes vanodined(had done feeders already) and set back up with the rabbits back inside. Except, we switched some of the rabbits : )
A couple of the rabbits were those annoying ones (lol) that were constantly getting hair on the wire in spots, and you know how some rabbits are more prone to having their poop hang off the cage wire? Well 3 of those 4 rabbits had that problem and I was always wire brushing! So.. we switched that : ) We moved Ranger, Cowboy and kept Rock N Roll in that stacker(moved Ranger and Cowboy) into that stacker. And moved Ginger Rogers and her litter onto a solid bottom stacker(they used to be cavy stacker's(not our new ones but our 3 older stacker's) we replaced the trays a couple of years ago(Cristina did) and they are way too nice to get rid of. So, we use those for the Jerseys. They work great for them, and no hangy poops on the wire! :- )
Anyway Ginger Rogers, Munchkin and Too Hot 4 U all got moved into solid bottom cages. That leaves one empty hole in the 4 hole stacker we got power washed for someone else. Not sure who yet.

Sometime next week I will be shipping out 5 Jerseys so that will be good to get those guys moved out. I still have I think 4 empty cages but once these guys all go I will have lots more. We have about 10 holes empty in the barn right now. We are trying to keep holes cleared for all the jrs we have. We checked out the mini lop litters and their are some VERY nice babies in those litters! It looks like lots of keepers. 2nd Glance and Burke seem to click and it is a very nice litter thus far. They are just coming into the cute stage but I like posing early(lol)

Well I should decide what I am doing today.. I really should take that scrap metal.. It is just going to be one heck of a job(some of it weighs 200lbs a piece...)ugh... Since not working at Shar Kare I've lost some of my muscles... (lol) it is going to feel like 400lbs I'm sure. (No I can't pick up 200lbs by myself) Cristina will help with about 1/4 of that weight, and then a dolly and myself and we can heave it into the truck :- )

I will have quite a few Jerseys for sale at the April 5th show. If not seniors and juniors... I would love to move all those tan patterns and any selfs that are left out, and a couple of those does.. so I will probably make a bit of a better deal if someone wanted more then a couple....

A little of this, and a little of that!

2008-02-29T19:55:00.001-08:00

Today was a bit of a crazy day. Around here, Friday's usually are!

We left the house just after 8:00 this morning to take our Grandma to her activity for the day. Then we saw our Uncle and talked to him for a few minutes, and had Harley the Rotti(farm dog) with us. Took Grandma, ran around downtown, went back to the farm. We forgot the key to check the boat in Cow Bay so will have to do that tomorrow. We checked out Pressure Washers at Canadian Tire, and saw a couple we liked but wanted to get the okay from our dad first(he was on his way from up Island). So we priced those and headed to the barn.

Then we were trying to figure out what we should do.. (Barn was clean and we just groomed and cut a bunch of nails a few days ago) didn't have the camera for pictures and had worn the dog out already by walking him downtown in amongst everything else we did today)

So we decided since we want to start "spring" cleaning we would take every feeder off the cages and clean them (thankfully they are all the EZ plastic feeders so they are so easy to clean, take off, and put back on! Anyway, we got the ENTIRE barn done this morning(bleached, soaped, re bleached, rinsed, dryed and put back on!).

Then we did a couple of bills for our Uncle, headed back home to pick our dad up to take him to Canadian Tire. We bought a new power washer. It is pretty nice-- 1600 PSI, has the attachment for cleaner, various attachments for how hard/soft you want the water etc etc. So we finally have our own Pressure Washer for in the barn. We tried it out on the car first and it worked great : - )

And then the afternoon was basically spent running around, picking up our grandma, washing the car, chores etc.

This weekend is pretty quiet. Next weekend is crazy- we have a few people coming to look at rabbits on Saturday. Then on Sunday the entire south 4-H club is visiting our barn to see all the rabbits and to learn various things(Coccidosis treatment, deworming etc etc). We also have to go to Sooke at some point either Sunday or Monday to pick up my new trio of Champagnes from the US, and some rabbits for a friend as well drop off a couple pre-sold rabbits.

We've already sold quite a few Jersey woolies and most of the mini lops that were for sale are sold with a large waiting list for spring litters. Don't expect many steels or dilutes available this spring(show animals anyway), the waiting list is very full on those. Chestnuts are always available- nice typed animals too it is just our least favorite color!

Anyway still quite a few JW's for sale.

Jerseys for sale

2008-02-27T09:32:00.000-08:00

So I decided which Jerseys to part with. I'm a tough culler, and these guys I have full or half siblings, kids, or aunts/uncles/cousins etc.

Does are bred, and if they kindle there will be a $25 charge for bucks pedigree(you keep the litter). Or no charge and I get 1 baby back from the litter.

I have over 20 babies in the boxes now with more litters coming.. So I can move these guys on safely.

Leapin Snookums- Blue tort senior buck- $140- incredible producer! But I have kids, half siblings and lots of relatives from him. He is Heza Smooth Cowboy dad who is the replacement for Snookums and mom Mona Lisa.

Leapin Rock N Roll- Tort Senior buck I have a chocolate sable point doe, a sable point doe, and 3 new torts out of him that some will be replacing him. So I felt I can move him on too. $120

Leapin' Hot Flashez- Blue tort senior doe Full sibling to Munchkin, and I am keeping Munchkin. Really nice doe, bred yesterday February 26 to Snookums. $85

MG's Decoy- pointed white senior doe- Kiss's Corey X Selena's Destiny- nice doe, I've rebred her just need to check to who. I believe Snookums as she wasn't taking by Hero. $50.00

Leapin' Mara- I debated on this doe and her full sister Chantilly Lace but decided to keep Lace and sell Mara. Really nice doe, still showable. Proven, very good mom. $65

Leapin Panache- daughter to Mara- I have so much from this line and I am culling hard!! $55

Leapin Ginger Rogers- brood doe for sure. $35- has a litter of 3, of which I will be keeping one or two as her replacement. Nice lines, out of Leapin Snookums X Leapin Flame N Desyre(Laura's best producer from what I've seen). Great mom! Ready in 8 weeks.

Leapin' Foxy Lady- REW- I just bred her a few days ago to Cowboy. $55

Leapin' Mona Lisa- Blue tort, awesome producer, Cowboys mom. $50

Leapin' Maggie May- Smoke pearl senior doe- Very nice producer, awesome body type. Proven, great mom. She is likely rebred to Munchkin. $70 1 leg for BOB at WA State Convention.

My pair of Chins(sniff) I love my chin Jerseys but! they are mother and son which will work to breed together once or twice(for major linebreeding) but then I am going to have to go elsewhere for another buck or doe from the same line hopefully. And with not working on martens anymore I should sell the pair. The buck is really really nice and I think he will do very well at the shows this spring. If they don't sell I'll enter at least the buck at the April 5th show. $150 for the pair

Plus the ones on the for sale page, have a couple more to add on there I believe. And I will have a bunch of babies for sale down the road(blacks, blues, torts especially).

Almost all the does I believe above are bred, so would need to be sold/shipped in the next 2 weeks. If not, they will have to kindle here and they will be for sale once babies are fully weaned.

I need to update pages on the website with my keepers etc but that will have to wait a bit! I have a bunch not pictured that need to go on :- )

I'm only keeping 3 top herd bucks but they are either proven, producing my best stock or what I want to produce. As I said I am culling and I'm culling hard and these guys are awesome rabbits but I don't need them in my program.

k_c_lops@telus.net
or tini67p@telus.net
If interested in stock.. For sale page to be updated shortly.

Trying new things

2008-02-26T09:39:00.000-08:00

Someone asked me recently why we sold our Netherland dwarfs. Before I answered back, I thought long and hard about exactly why.

Here's what I thought about:

When you go to Walmart and see the racks of clothes you might see a few pieces that attract your eye but you want them slightly different, no buttons, more buttons. A zipper, no zipper, a different color, a different saying on the T-Shirt. Am I right? You go to American Eagle and right away that latest and greatest Sweatshirt is just staring at you, saying "Pick me", Pick me!

The Dwarfs were like that for me. There were lots of things I liked about them, but not enough to keep them around. I saw another breed that interested me more and wanted to try it out.

I didn't feel so bad lately when I talked to a breeder who has had rabbits for over 30 years and she mentioned she has bred almost all the breeds except for a few(mainly wool breeds as her allergies won't allow her to have wool breeds).

She has always had 1 breed as her main breed that I can never see her without, but other breeds have come and gone and she said she loved lots, and some didn't stay for very long.

That was my last year and a half. We had the Hollands for 5 years, with 3 years actually really working on showing them to improve the breed. The first 2 years I hate to admit were kind of a wasted time just playing around with them and working on "colors" that didn't have type. Anyway, the last 3 years we worked harder on them and then just found we didn't enjoy the breed all that much anymore.

So we bought Mini rex, tried those twice in a course of 1 1/2-2 years. (in a couple different colors) liked the breed just weren't for us.

Then, Cristina decided to try Mini lops again(she had them when we first got started in rabbits) and absolutely loves them. I like the breed too. I can't see her ever without Mini lops, they are absolutely the breed for her.

Anyway, we then had Selina our step-sister come live with us to finish one of her years of high school( I think it was grade 10 or 11 can't remember) anyway, she loved the dwarfs and got a few herself.. With my money of course(sigh!!). She had them until she left 8 months later and Cristina and I kept them for another 6 months and decided they were really not the breed for us. Then we tried the French lops, and a few Jersey woolies. Sold both(the original Jerseys we got were selfs mainly with only a couple of shades) so we sold all of those and then this fall got the Jerseys back(which I love the shades and pointeds). And picked up a few Champagnes most recently. I have to say, those Champagnes are an incredible breed of rabbit. They are super sweet, good eaters, not scratchy, clean on the cage wire, and they run up to the front of the cage for attention. I can't say that about most of those Jerseys! The buck hasn't sprayed yet at all either(Jerseys don't spray either). Can't say that about Mini lops lol! They can be pee heads :- ) (Cristina will growl at me now for sure ; )

So yes, that is what I think about trying new things. You don't go to the same restaurant every day of the week and order the exact same thing, do you? I know if I go to Subway more then a few times a month I won't order the same thing. If I only go once in a while I do, but if I go more then 3-4 times in a month I order something different. Or if you order the same thing day in and day out, you would order a different kind of drink wouldn't you? I don't know, maybe it is just me but for some things I like change and trying these new breeds has been a ton of fun! I think now, though, I've found the breeds for me :- )

08 plans

2008-02-25T20:32:00.000-08:00

Well first, I should say that I am very happy we got the Champagne D' Argent cages hung today. 4 cages(3 24 by 30, and 1 30 by 30) repaired(more j-clips). So we hung those, and put the pans on top(they will be exactly the same as the right side of the barn). Then we will pull down the one 2 hole where Kara/Ada are and hang it underneath as well, put a pan on top, and then we will have room for 3-4 stackers on that side instead of in the middle. We will be ordering 1-2 more cavy type stackers from Wally(or Cristina will) for growing out Mini lop juniors. We only sold hanging cages, and one stacker that wouldn't work for us anyway. So we aren't "backtracking" or kicking ourselves for selling anything. What we had didn't work with what we wanted. : )

I was reading Jody's blog on her plans for 08(she has way more then us!). But, I would love to paint the barn this summer. I just don't think any of us can afford it but it would be nice!

The barn is really coming where we want it so I cant say we have a lot of plans that way. We will be buying a few more industrial fans for the heat this summer, and then of course 1-2 more stackers for that side of the barn when we are ready(not until later this spring). Otherwise though the barn is basically where we want it. We want to get a bunch of power washing done soon, and regular disinfecting of feeders. Since everyone is being treated for Coccidosis since it is almost spring and we brought in a few new animals we will be disinfecting next weekend(not this coming weekend the following).

Basically we are pretty caught up on barn work now. We got rid of the last few cages from the lower shed today so everything is completely gone. We also have cleaned everything from under the barn and got rid of all that stuff we didn't need! We've gone through carriers and the various "junk holes" in the barn and got rid of everything we didn't need!

Every carrier has a EZ crock for water, and food and we have 2 big bins of cleaned dishes and feeders sitting in the back aisle.

I would like to do some gardening around the farm this year and I think that will be one of my major things this spring. Also Obedience with Luke our Golden Retriever(he may be the death of me) anyone want a dog??!!! Maybe a Yellow Lab? We have a 11 year old :- ) Or a Shih Ztu? Maybe one of those.. The Rottie and the German Shepherd/Flat Coated Retriever mix are good dogs.. they can stay.. Those other 3!!!!!!!! :- ) They can GO!!!

In the next few weeks I will get pics of the barn to post. We have pics from last spring but it looks much different from even last spring... So I will convince Cristina to make a "rabbitry" page.

I liked Jody's idea about the pea gravel. I will price that and see what it would be for a load for the walk way at the rabbit barn, and maybe around various other areas of the barn/house(at the farm).

We sent the only bull we had off to Auction last week. The lines were getting too close so we just have the 4 cows, and 2 bull calfs from last year left. They will both be sold and then just the 4 cows. Who are likely bred to this Bull we just sent off, next year we will have to find a "stud". Or maybe wait until the following year(they are our Uncles cows). Well except Molly she is ours.

Well that is all my babbling for today.. I was happy to get the Champagne cages hung today. I had one new litter of Jerseys. Still waiting on one more! One blue baby born between Hero and Jetta. She has 1 peanut as well, and 2 DOA.

Kim :- )

Missed breedings

2008-02-25T09:09:00.000-08:00

We had a great winter with breedings. While quite a few people were struggling for litters we were able to keep breeding and had about a 50-65% success rate. Well... Out of my 5 jerseys 4 are coming through. Maggie did not take again(I think she is a little too well fed and I need to put her on a bunny exercise program) she feels great though. Anyway, Panache and Jetta we are waiting on today. Mona Lisa is due next Saturday- she isn't due now, no way. She would have taken on the 2nd breeding date which is this coming Saturday the 31st so that is fine : )

We had 3 of the 4 Mini lop does miss though although most were by Show me the money who seems to be a very low sperm count buck(okay this is my blog and not mini lop blog so I'm just going to write it ) he seems to be a pitiful breeder!! We went through every single mini lop in the barn yesterday and I will let Cristina talk about that. We are have so few rabbits right now it is insane. We are culling really really hard, which is good but also means we have no rabbits left lol! Well about 32 mini lops and selling a few more bucks.... Again I will let Cristina talk about that- she does have as many babies in the boxes as she has seniors/older juniors.

We are going to hang up 4 of the Champagne cages today, and get barn things done- maybe a few more pictures? It is supposed to be the last nicest day of the week as it is supposed to pour rain until who knows when. So I think working outside sounds great today :- ) Who needs to do work anyway?! lol

Barn cleaning was yesterday so that was good

I am thinking about keeping some of the blue jersey babies because Hero is so nice that if one looks like him(I hope) I will keep something... I know how excited Jen is about getting him otherwise I may have held off and waited until I could do some linebreeding. I just don't want to work on selfs, otherwise he would have stayed. I will breed him to a few shades before he goes and hope he produces some gorgeous babies!

I will post on Jetta and Panache tonight with what they had!

New litter

2008-02-23T19:30:00.000-08:00

If you read Cristina's blog it basically sums up our day. We did a little bit of this, and a little bit of that. We really didn't want to do a lot today as last week and weekend was just nuts, and well, we needed a day off to relax!

I did have a new litter today. Leapin' Ginger Rogers (blue tort) had 3 babies. I need to run out to the truck to grab the piece of paper that tells me who they are by. I am thinking Munchkin but it could be Rock N Roll. Or I could be totally wrong but I'm pretty sure it was one of those 2 boys : )

I am still working on getting Hot Flashez and Mara bred. Mara I tried breeding to Cowboy today but no suck luck, same with Hot Flashez and Rock N Roll- no such luck. Oh well, we will keep trying!

Upcoming litters

2008-02-23T10:54:00.000-08:00

I have some Jersey litters due this weekend that I am looking forward too, and next week as well.

Mona Lisa X Snookums is expecting a litter either the 24th(tomorrow, Sunday) or next weekend the 31st(I rebred her a week later as she wasn't really interested on the 24/25 and so I retried the following weekend and she was interested. But, just in case she has a box now regardless and has been packing for the past few days. This is a rebreed to Heza Smooth Cowboy :- )

Jetta is bred I'm just trying to remember to who? I have it all written down, lol

Maggie X Tonka
Panache X ?? have it written down need to check

And I have more bred due later in the month. I will get them all producing yet! Babies are doing fine. I need to check some does to see if they are bred, otherwise need to get them bred. Hot Flashez and Mara being two I need to check and rebreed if they are not pregnant. Mara's last litter was early summer last year(ack) and Hot Flashez I don't know if she has ever had a litter. (I couldn't breed when I first got them because they all needed to be in quarantine for a month of course(since we bought the whole herd in October) then they all were dewormed, treated for coccidosis as a preventative. Then I started breeding just in December/January. Which of course has been frozen weather, well into the -'s (except the past couple of weeks!) so everyone has been either reluctant to breed, or frozen popsicle babies. Although I do have 14 babies in the boxes now.

Anyway nothing else new around here. Super busy week, have had a very relaxing morning so far! Need to go get some work done soon though.

Where do I even start?

2008-02-20T19:44:00.000-08:00

So last Wednesday our farm dog, Harley went missing. We searched over 6.5 hours for him and found not one trace. So we called the SPCA right away and the animal shelter, they had no information. We kept searching until we gave up to do chores etc. Then of course we had all the show preparations to do(dishes in carriers, finding the good grooming table, cleaning out the van when it got here, etc etc. So Thursday and Friday were a mix of hanging posters, calling various places, knocking on peoples doors, and show prepartions some more.

Saturday and Sunday was the show in Victoria- VIRBA. It was an awesome show, we all I think had a great time. Show results for the woolies:

Under Manuel Hidalgo on Saturday- Leapin Fantasy was BOB Shaded Senior doe, and Jentle's Hero was BOS Self Senior buck! Then Sunday under John Grimm we had BOB with Jentle's Hero, BOSG with Leapin' Fantasy, and BOG with RH's Tonka. Cristina did awesome with her mini lops, but if she hasn't already blogged/bragged I'm sure she will : -)

So anyway we get through the weekend, all went well. The waiting list is getting very full which is great especially in the Mini lops-- and Jerseys as well-- and get this!! The best news of all almost all the inquiries are for very good bucks!! We can do bucks. We always get lots of good bucks. I think Cristina has 5 jr bucks right now, and they kept bouncing back and fourth all weekend on who was nicer. Some of those bucks are going to be just gorgeous! Anyway, so we got through the weekend sold ALL the supplies we had to take, sold some rabbits etc.

Monday and Tuesday go by, and today we are at the barn cleaning, and trying to start cleaning carriers and we get a phone call on the cell phone. Someone has spotted Harley on the railway tracks(this is a 150lb Rottweiller that is super friendly). So we roar over to this persons house to see if we can find him(she saw him on Sunday). We walked the tracks and called and called and called. No Harley. So we asked the machine shop(that we hadn't asked) and they said a few days ago they thought they saw a dog but didn't pay attention. So we called some more and No Harley. We head back to the farm to do more chores, and called on Hall Rd as well. While doing chores we get a phone call from the animal shelter that someone has seen a rottie or a doberman in their field and it was either hurt or lost or old. So we go roaring over there to meet up with the spca constable and sure enough it was Harley! Very happy to see us as we were with him and very happy to go home and go to sleep and get some food!

Now onto rabbit type things. Litters are doing well. I am not going to work on self or tan pattern Jerseys. Only shaded and pointed so I have the rest listed for sale. I also have some babies in the boxes- 2-3 are spoken for at the moment in the black litter(6 blacks 5 bucks, and 1 doe(spoken for) out of GC Jentle's Hero gorgeous blue buck X B-Mac's Canadian Mist. Jentle's Tikki X GC Jentle's Hero have a litter of 3 - blue buck, blue doe, and a blue silver marten buck. And my final litter Chantilly Lace has a litter of 1- smoke pearl doe! I think out of Munchkin but I'd have to double check. In the next year all my stock I have in the barn besides the 3 from Ashley, Cowboy, Fantasy and my pair of chins will be up for sale as I replace them with kids/grandkids etc. Quite a few already are spoken for as they come up for sale.

Other then that, that is about it! I am so so greatful to have Harley home.

Getting lots accomplished

2008-02-13T09:51:00.000-08:00

I'm pleased with how much we've gotten organized so far. We got our grooming table sign ready to go. We dug out our red rabbitry sign, and our white board. We cleaned the nestboxes for Amanda and Sarah(they'd been under the barn so had dirt on the bottom etc)

I got feeders on EVERY cage in the barn- finished those last few stackers. Actually that isn't true, I have ONE cage to finish but didn't worry about it (bottom stacker 4th cage down) because I have to buy a new door for that cage anyway so I never use it(the door got bent when we moved stackers) oops!

We cleaned our grooming table(the top) it had pieces of hay on it, and we finished the last bin of dishes!! 5 bins total we cleaned from various parts of the back of the barn. We got them cleaned, bleached and dried, and back into bins. We are taking 3 bins of things to sell at the show!!

I am now up to 14 JW babies!! The 4 older babies are doing well- chocolate sable point doe, sable point doe, chinchilla buck and a ? color doe.
Litter of 6 blacks, a dilute sable point in another litter, and a litter of 3 born yesterday- likely smoke pearl or sable marten or blue. A lot of these will be replacements this spring for the parents... Oh, other news. I am going to sell my agouti AND self programs. The selfs aren't my favorite, nor are the agoutis...

The pair of agoutis are ready now. I am keeping a really nice chin buck from the opal buck as his replacement. The chin will work in my smoke pearl marten project as well.

So Just Hoppin's Apollo and MBR's Chestnut senior doe are for sale. $100 for the pair. The chestnut doe is from Brian's and Ayer's lines in Ohio- and is originally from Valerie and Michelle Uptagrafft.

Leapin' Black Prince is available- Black senior buck $60

For now I am going to keep GC Jentle's Hero and get his really nice type into my other programs as much as I can through linebreed(pending color wise) and eventually he will be for sale.. Which is why I'm keeping Mikhala as well.

After litters:
MG's Jetta- Black Senior doe $40
Leapin' Mikhala- Black senior doe $50
Leapin Ginger Rogers- Blue tort senior doe $40
B-Mac's Canadian Mist- available after her litter of 5 is weaned $40
Jentle's Tikki- sable marten senior doe- hoping her litter of 3 is does as I have 2 sons already then she can move on. $50

So today we are powerwashing the 6 meat rabbit cages we need to hang, the stacker going to Amanda, and Wendy's big cage, and Kelly's 8 small cages we are giving her. Then everything will be done in that lower shed.

After that we will start tattoos.... The dreaded job!!

New pics

2008-02-11T17:45:00.001-08:00

I got a few new pictures today(well we both did). We have to leave in 30 mins to babysit dogs(lol) so I am throwing them on the blog...

Leapin Rock N Roll- Tort buck

Leapin' Miss Sierra- that picture on the website is horrendous. I cringe everytime I look at it. She has a gorgeous body!

Leapin' Too Hot 4 U- For sale

Leapin' Butch- For sale

The litter of 4! Chin buck, sable point(chocolate??) doe, sable point doe, and frosted pearl doe

I have one more sable point in the box(the other 2 were peanuts), and 6 blacks... I will get more of those does bred yet!! Over 30 ML babies in the boxes now... sigh!! I shouldn't complain in total I have 11 babies.... ;) ranging from 3 1/2 weeks down to just a few days old.

Kim : )

Feeders on cages

2008-02-10T21:42:00.001-08:00

This afternoon we got feeders on all the 24 by 24 stackers. Every cage in the barn besides stackers had feeders(white plastic ez feeders which we swear by!) so easy to clean, keep clean, and they look great!

Anyway, we ran out of feeders to put on but we only have 12 more to do! That will mean we have all 85 holes with the white feeders. I swear by them!

So tonight, we brought home 2 huge bins, and a garbage bag full of dishes and feeders to clean. We now have enough feeders to put on those last 12 cages : ) (our parents let it slip that we are getting feeders and Ez Crocks for Valentines day next week too : )Thank You!!!(not that they ever read this)

We got all the dishes and feeders cleaned, and have 3 bags of dishes and bottles to sell at the show next weekend, plus over 30 wide mouth lixit 8 oz bottles to sell. And 2 grooming table things that hook onto cages or carriers at the shows. If that makes sense, plus a box of metal feeders!

Cristina and I are going to do a few meat rabbits because of the demand. There is a huge demand for meat rabbits for human and pet consumption. We are definetly getting a bred Champagne doe, and are hoping to find a buck. And we are debating about a pair of lilacs, but will look at the show : )

Entries for JW sent in, barn cleaning etc

2008-02-09T20:26:00.000-08:00

So I sent in my JW entries also entered my Mini lop senior doe.

I entered 12 JW's. Cristina entered her senior doe JW- Hot Flashez (her favorite doe in the Jersey barn) and then Honky Tonk sable marten jr buck.

Mainly shades, 8 shades, 2 selfs, and 2 martens(tans)

We did our regular weekly barn cleaning, played with Harley, went to Tim Hortins for coffee(and Harley went for a car ride).

Yesterday went well with our grandpa and then to dinner at our Aunt/Uncles. On Monday we are babysitting the dogs for them. Their young dog had to go in for surgery so she has to be on "bed rest" basically for 8 weeks. We are going to babysit for 2 1/2 hrs : ) We had a great dinner and watched some TV with them, lots of talking ;)

Tomorrow we are going with a friend and her dog to the "dog park" with Luke and Harley so the dogs can play. First we will take Star, River, Ben, and Luke to the lake to wear off a whole ton of energy. That way Luke will be half tired when he goes and plays with the other dogs so he won't be so rough(or nuts).

I still have lots to do to get ready for VIRBA but we are getting there. Next is getting all the pre-sold equipment dug out, and tattoos done. Those are the next most important.

Not much else new! Oh! wait there is. My pointed white doe Canadian Mist had 6 babies by Hero- all blacks though(sigh!) lol! Obviously she doesn't carry dilute, and first generation won't produce pointed whites(??) someone help me out on that one? Is it possible?
Anyway, 6 blacks. Chantilly Laces are doing great. I know Tikki and the other PW doe are pregnant for sure. I've rebred almost everyone else that missed...

Today

2008-02-07T19:24:00.000-08:00

Well, did I get all that I wanted to get done today? Nope! Did I get close? Sort of!

We tried to leave early this morning but had a bunch of errands to do before hand. Then we had to take the dogs to the lake because they were driving us nuts and we had to wear some energy off them. So we didn't get to the farm until almost noon.

We did manage to get ALL the cage dividers on : ) And ordered 3 more. We also got ALL the carriers cleaned, disinfected and clean shavings put in them : ) We also put a whole bunch of dishes and feeders into rubber maid bins and brought them into the house to disinfect and get cleaned up.

So we still have a lot to do but we did a major start today and I am happy with what we got done.

We also had a new litter. Chantilly Lace X Rock N Roll had a litter of 3- 1 peanut, 2 light colored(probably sable points). Looking forward to these babies!

I culled through my litter of blacks in October. Narrowed it down to 2 does- one for myself, and one for Kelly Jersey.

Tomorrow I have more to get done then we are going to our grandpas for a visit and take his Christmas presents(lol). We went just before Christmas and he wasn't home, then were going to leave them with our aunt but he said no bring them when you get back from Calgary. Well we got back beginning of January then we had all the catching up to do, we decided to eliminate the lower barn etc. Then we had quite a few other things to do and never got to his place, then we all came down with bad colds and were down for over a week. Plus, he is in his 80's so we didn't want to give him that! So now life is a little less crazy and we are going to his place tomorrow around 4:30 and then to our Aunts for dinner at 6pm.. Saturday and Sunday are going to be barn days- regular cleaning, try to get that lower barn cleaned, get Amandas stacker ready to go.(we just need to clear a path so we can get it out lol)

The main barn is so organized now that the lower shed is packed full. : -)

Anyway I will write more. Still have 4 more JW's due this weekend...

Lots to do before VIRBA

2008-02-06T22:13:00.000-08:00

I think tomorrow(Thursday) I am going to spend at the farm. I have so much to do.

I want to get the lower barn cleaned out (it is full of storage and bins and gods know what else!) and get that all cleaned out. Once I have the cleaned out I want to clean all the feeders and dishes that were on the hanging cages that went to Kelly.

Then clean dishes for the carriers for next weekends show. Then get the carriers disinfected and ready to go, put clean shavings etc in them.

Make sure they all have dishes ready to go. Harley will enjoy the extra company I'm sure. He is such a sweet dog. Rotties sure get a bad name for themselves, he doesn't even fit the bill. He is 140lbs easily but he is a huge lap dog(or thinks he is). He has gone to the feedstore 2 times. Today he saw a Chihuaha(sp) he looked at it as if to say (what the heck is that thing?) and proceeded to try and steal the squeaky toy the owner was buying for her dog(lol) So convinced him to steal cookies instead so instead of taking one he stuck his whole head in the cookie bin and went hog wild. : - ) He just got laughed at by everyone. He is just too nice of a dog to get mad at. Well he did get yelled at yesterday when he tried to help Cristina bring a rabbit out of a cage. That didn't go over so well- "Harley try that again and you won't come back in the barn". He looked at us as if to say "How rude". lol

Anyway back on track. I also hope to hang 4 empty cages in the main barn, and put up the 2 pans- doubt that will be done tomorrow but would be nice. As this weekend we have to figure out entries and send those in. Then we have to start tattooing and getting all our signs ready to go, and figuring out sale animals if any. I also have to get nestboxes ready to go for Amanda and Sarah, Sarah's carrier, Sherri's carrier and hollands, Sylvia's Holland, and way more other rabbits to factor in that we have to make sure we have enough carriers for!

It should be a fun show. We are both really looking forward to it. I also want to take the dogs to the lake again tomorrow(we've missed the last 2 days). It is good exercise as well-- huge hills. Star, Luke and River run up the hills. Ben usually has to catch up to us about 10 mins later. By then he is barking going where the hell did you go lol!

Well... I should get to bed... I will write a blog tomorrow of what I did or didn't get done. I tried to get all this done yesterday... All I got done was rabbits and a few small things done, animal things and helping our grandma, our mom and talking on the phone, writing back to e-mails, cleaning house and setting up the next couple of weeks work. Not what I wanted!

Do whats in the best interest of the rabbit

2008-02-05T09:58:00.000-08:00

Thinking back to when we started all those years ago, honestly, I cringe to think of all that we did. No, it wasn't that bad but now we are so picky with our standards that we spend half our life cleaning something in that barn! (keep in mind this was 7 years ago)

When we first started we had a 10 by 10 approx shed for 21 rabbits. Now we have a 40 by 30 foot barn with 85 rabbits(with more room for way more if we did stackers on the one side instead of the 10 hanging holes.. but.... we are VERY happy with just 85 holes. We can do so much more with the rabbits now : )

I remember a few times coming back from shows with too many rabbits and having to put them in my french lop carriers for a week maybe two to make cage space. We would never do that now. Maybe we grew up, maybe we just care more, maybe it is just a mixture of both. But to me if you don't have cage space, don't buy the rabbit!

If you don't have time to care for more rabbits, don't buy more rabbits!

If you are always away or have to rely on someone else to take care of your rabbits more days a month then you are with them don't buy more rabbits!

If you are buying rabbits, and having them shipped to you or transported to you have everything ready before they come. Don't make them stay in carriers for a few days because you didn't take the time to get their home ready. THEY depend on YOU. They shouldn't have to wait.

I can understand coming home with an extra rabbit that will help your herd, although knowing the next day you will have to cull something in the barn to make room for that rabbit. 1 day in a large carrier would be fine, but not longer and definetly not in a small carrier.

I think what really changed for us(and hopefully she doesn't mind me posting this) was Jody Mitchell.

When we started going to her place and seeing all she did we really changed. It wasn't that we were neglecting the rabbits or anything of that sort. If it ever got to the point where I wasn't able to feed my rabbits every single day I would give them up. I wouldn't rely on someone else-- at least not longterm anyway(months, years etc).

When we had the small shed we didn't cull hard. So we had all these ugly rabbits that we wouldn't cull because we didn't want to cull any of our rabbits. Well, now it is just a fact of life. That definetly doesn't mean we've turned cold, however, when we cull them we know they never suffer. We know they aren't sitting in some hutch out in someones backyard with no attention, no food or water until their owner feeds them, not being let go into the wild because "its better for them" because its not.

We cleaned constantly that wasn't the problem but we didn't do the proper set up. We used canning jars for water, that were zapped in. Well a big french lop could throw those even zapped in if it wanted too. I would never do that now! Every rabbit has a water bottle and a lot have a water bottle AND crock.

We used to free feed. I measure feed now it is better for the rabbit, it keeps them in better condition. We would only treat for coccidosis 1 time a year(and didn't really know what we were doing), same with deworming. Now we are 2 times a year at least for both, sometimes 3 depending on how many shows we've been too. We would absorb information but never really do it. That all stopped 5 years ago when we moved to the big barn. I think we probably just grew up, but I'm still seeing some breeders who haven't seen that light of day and need too!

Jody is the ultimate rabbit breeder. She is the person if you had a favorite rabbit that you could no longer use in your herd, you would want her to have that rabbit because you know that rabbit would be in excellent hands. She loves her rabbits, she takes the absolute best care of her rabbits- we hope one day to do as good of a job as she does. Any help we ever need we call Jody! We've strived every single day to have a better barn, a clean sanitary barn, happy and healthy rabbits, and I think every day we get a little closer to our goal. We are very proud of our barn, it is coming together just as we like it. We have a lot to learn, but with one of the best people to learn from I think we are well on our way!

Linebreeding

2008-02-04T09:47:00.000-08:00

Lately, every magazine we've recieved in the mail seems to have an article about linebreeding.

I'm really trying to do a bunch of linebreeding these days. It is very true that your best stock will come from the linebreeding. Once you get your core stock, don't bring anymore stock in until you are getting too close and need to bring another animal in. Even then they recommend bringing in something that is somewhat related. Maybe a distant relative.

Now if only Cristina and I could follow that rule.

Although honestly I think I am set : ) I am getting 4 really nice animals at VIRBA from Ashley(first time ever buying stock from anyone other then Laura!) so I am really looking forward to these guys. They will put my pointed white program up to speed, and they will also help add those better coats!

We are pretty bad with the Mini lops buying new stock and we need to stop doing that! We are completely set that if we need one thing, we have distant relatives that can help whatever it is we are needing! For instance, I know Cristina has 2 bucks who are super deep but both lack shoulder width. Then she has As You like it who has a gorgeous body but needs a better head, and Cornelius who is an overall very nice buck maybe needing a tad more depth. He is all about width and head. Those 4 bucks alone compliment each other so well that they will be influential in her herd.

I'm still figuring out my Jerseys. I've only had them for coming up 4 months now so I'm still working on that. However, I know linebreeding is the key and I have 11 upcoming litters of which MOST ARE linebred in someway or another.

So my tip for today, not only linebreed(best is father/daughter, mother/son in my opinion, but also cull, cull, cull. How many times have you heard me say that?! We had 70 babies born this fall, and only 16 made the cut :- ) Out of those 16 we are down to the ones we feel will help our breeding program the best. Then out of the latest litters we had 3 litters- one of 7 but unfortunetly she lost all but 2, a litter of 4, and a litter of 5. We are down out of the 11 babies we are keeping 6 babies- all very nice though I might add 2 bucks, 4 does :- )

We never keep something that won't help our herd in one way or another, we rarely keep something because "oh we don't have anything from this doe or buck yet" if it can't beat the mom or dad I'm not letting it stay in our barn!

We got a breeding from a friend back in the summer, the doe had 8 babies. Chestnut is our least favorite variety so we sold a nice doe to a girl starting out in Powell River, we culled the other 2. The other 5 were a blue doe who went to Tamashanter Rabbitry, a blue chin doe going back to the person who gave us the breeding(thanks guys!) and then a black buck we are keeping at least for now, and a steel doe we culled, and an opal doe that went to Ranui Aviary and Farm. Just because we got the breeding doesn't mean we were going to keep more then 1. It was a total outcross though so it was interesting to see how the genetics worked!

Anyway for the most part linebreeding seems to be the key to success. I will write a blog in a few months to confirm if that was true or not. I know in the Hollands it was. I know in the French lops it depended. I know in the Mini rex it definetly was.

New Jerseys etc

2008-02-02T23:03:00.000-08:00

So I confirmed some animals coming from Ashley for sure, so now I have to make the cuts here to sell a few. I have 10 empty holes(once the hollands go)(long story), however, I don't need this many bucks!! So I need to sell a couple :- )

Here's the new animals coming from Ashley
M an' M's Bebop- A smoke pearl senior buck with 2 GC legs
" " Sophia a pointed White Jr doe
2 Jr pointed whites(hopefully) I know one for sure, but hoping both are for sale : ) One doe for sure and hoping the other is a buck!
I am still debating about a senior doe but will see! : )

So I am selling my agouti program, however, I am keeping my chin doe to work into the martens(as that is a good color cross I am told) and remember from the hollands. I will sell my Chestnut doe from Brian Hartzell and Ayer's lines after her litter, and Just Hoppin's Apollo(see bucks page) is available now.

Also, I hate to part with him but Leapin' Butch is also for sale. I have a daughter by him and one baby in the box by him as well. He is a super cute buck but is too big for show now(3.09ish). He produces nicely, very good lines, registered.

I also will be selling one more buck. I am debating about Too Hot 4 U, Honky Tonk, Jet or Black Prince.... Just after the show or at the show I should know!

I also have A black Jr buck and a Black Jr doe available out of a pointed white doe and Black Prince(pointed white is Canadian Mist N Cream).

Jersey babies are doing well. We did lose one of those small ones the other is doing great. We have a siamese smoke pearl doe, a dark sable point doe(thought blue tort it is a very blue torty sable point color lol!) and then a chinchilla buck and a frosted pearl doe. We start with more litters by next weekend : )

We got the rest of the cage doors on today- they look so good! We just have a few more cages that need new doors and then the barn is almost either all new doors or all new cages. We've replaced everything this year. We will get pictures in the next few weeks. We need to work on tattooing and entries next weekend. Entries are due on the 10th for the show the following weekend(16/17). There will be carriers AND a stacker available at the show-- everyone bring cash!! I know for a fact there will be single, double, triple and 6 hole carriers available at the show.

Well I need to go to bed. zzz!

2 new bucks coming

2008-02-01T18:08:00.000-08:00

I have 2 new Jersey wooly bucks coming, however, I have to sell some bucks to get these 2! I have a pointed white buck coming from Ashley, a gorgeous smoke pearl buck with 2 legs, and then Sophia the pointed white doe. I may see about getting another doe or two :- ) I will attach pics/courtesy of Ashley this weekend.

I have some bucks to sell :- )

I'm on my way out for the night, but I will write a blog with what is available.. I think I will let the agoutis go before the selfs. I love my shades and my pointed whites. And I only have 41 holes so with 11 upcoming litters I have to be careful!

Just Hoppin's Apollo- Opal senior buck REG is available, see bucks page

And I had to pick between my 4 sable point bucks so I am letting Leapin Butch REG go as well. I will post more about him etc later but a nice buck with a very nice head.

A few more???

Short blog! Gotta run!

Fewer rabbits, well organized barn, rabbit life is good!

2008-01-29T10:07:00.001-08:00

I really like having fewer rabbits.

Sure, our show string won't be as big although I still think we will probably have up to 30 animals to show for VIRBA so that is a huge entry!!

It is much more fun having fewer rabbits. I can enjoy them, I can keep up on grooming and my normal cage wire brushing.

Maybe I can even get everything organized in the lower shed this week(nothing down there just storage). Wouldn't that be nice?!

I got a whole bunch of grooming done the other day. All the cage cards were put up on cages and as I said in my blog earlier on the weekend we moved a couple of stackers. Why? Because we finally have room to move a few stackers! I love how the barn is looking. If we could just get those last 4 stackers moved from the back middle it would give us 8-9 feet in the middle of the barn!! right now we have ample room for walking on each side, and enough room to turn a wheel barrow around in each aisle so I can't complain(has been like that for a long time).

We are getting things more organized. It wasn't so much they were unorganized before it was basically that the rabbits come with WAY too much stuff so we had to better situate everything. I think I mentioned in the last blog or maybe Cristina did that we got rid of a whole bunch of small "bins" and got her one of those huge cow/horse bins that fit 5-6 bags of feed. Much better then those other bins that hold 2 bags : ) We will move all the shavings into the lower barn in the next few weeks and keep our 2 feed bins, 2 grain bins(for treat mix) in the main barn. Once we move the freezer into the barn and get it situated in the lower shed we will use that just for feed storage, extra grain storage, and whatever else we might need it for!

Now we just need all the sold rabbits to go so we have more cage space for weaning the litters we have right now in 6-7 weeks. And then the 21 litters we have coming up over the next 4 weeks : )

Again, i love having the fewer rabbits. Life is more enjoyable, and I have more time for other things.

With the mini lops out of stackers it works MUCH better too. They are all in hanging cages now. The Jerseys do well in stackers. It is just the hair that is the biggest problem.

We still have 85 holes in the main barn exactly plus 2 small cages for growing out jersey jrs or mini lop jrs just weaned.

After VIRBA we will do our spring ivermecting and coccidosis treatment. They were all done in October .

So yes, I love having fewer rabbits. It put me back in perspective of what I wanted to do with them.

With 150-160 before it was constantly trying to just keep on top of cleaning 1-2 times a week(always once but likely 2 times quite a bit) and the amount of feed for all those rabbits. We easily went through a bag and a half a day if not more(sometimes 2 or more!) that is over $20 a day to feed them-- $140 a week, $560 a month on FEED alone! that doesn't include the 2 bags of shavings we go through approx per week, plus a bag of floor shavings(the finer stuff) once a month(4 cleanings). Wow..... Also of course doesn't include the grain, hay and flax, sunflower seeds, old fashioned rolled oats, and fastrack for the young babies.

Yes, i love having fewer rabbits! And so does my pocket book!

Various color programs in my Jersey herd:

2008-01-28T10:23:00.000-08:00

Blog for Tuesday January 29th NOT what is it showing as I already wrote a blog for todays date the 28th. See below for that one ; )

I've been figuring out my various color programs in the Jersey Herd.

Although I am going to try to keep my colors seperate so I can keep the colors clean I will be doing some crosses that are only okay color crosses. Reason being that the coats from Shultz's Secret Weapon and her daughter Fantasy are gorgeous and need to be put into the rest of the herd- they are full of texture and density and do not mat. They also have great legnth although not above 3inches(if over 3inches they will be DQ'ed). The sable points in my herd lack that nice coat so I am going to cross all of them together to get the better coats.

I'm hoping to bring stock in from Convention next October to help me with that!

Pointed Whites:
B-Mac's Canadian Mist-N-Cream- Bred
MG's Decoy- Bred
M' an M's Sophia
I need a good buck for this program! I am in contact with a breeder now trying to find a good buck : ) A siamese sable would work too but I can't find one. I only have one siamese sable in my entire herd!

Shades(Sable points, Siamese Smoke pearl, Siamese Sable(would work with pointed white), Blue tort, Tort,

Bucks:
Leapin' Butch- Sable point- REG
Leapin' Munchkin-Sable point-REG
Leapin' Rock N Roll- Tort
Leapin' Snookums- Blue tort REG
Leapin' Too Hot 4 U- Sable point
Leapin' Heza Smooth Cowboy- Sable point(blue point?)
Leapin' Ranger- Seal Jr buck- out of martens though.

Does:

Leapin' Chantilly Lace- Sable point REG- Bred
Leapin' Fantasy- Siamese Smoke pearl
Leapin' Ginger Rogers- Blue tort- Bred
Leapin' Hot Flashez- Blue tort REG- Bred
Leapin' Maggie Mae- Smoke pearl REG- Bred
Leapin' Mara- Smoke pearl REG- Bred
Leapin' Miss Sierra- Sable point
Leapin' Mona Lisa- Blue tort REG- Bred
Leapin' Panache- Smoke pearl- Bred
Schultz's Secret Weapon- Siamese Sable REG

Marten Program:
Bucks:
Leapin' Honky Tonk- Sable Marten
GC RH's Ronka- Smoke pearl Marten

Does:
Jentle's Tikki- Sable Marten- Bred

Self Program:

Bucks:
Jentle's Hero- Blue REG/GC
Leapin' Black Prince- Black- REG
Pharoh's Jet- Black- REG

Does:
Leapin' Foxy Lady- REW- probably for my shaded program though
Leapin' Mikhala- Black
MG's Jetta- Black- REG- Bred
Posey's Willow- Black
Posey's- Heidi- Black

Agouti program:

Bucks:
Just Hoppin's Apollo- Opal REG

Does:
MBR Look at this kid- Chestnut agouti- Bred
MG's Ironwood-Chinchilla- raising 5
If I continue with this program longterm I will need to bring in a couple more animals eventually.

Eventually I will likely eliminate either my self program or my agouti program as with all those programs I will run out of cage space quickly. My favorite colors are shades and pointed whites. Probably next being smoke pearl marten(not sable marten) and then I like blues better then blacks. Although I love Black Mini lops or Hollands, I don't care for them in the Jerseys. They are nice but just not my favorite. Whereas as Black Mini lop to me with that slick black coat is just gorgeous! So that is where my "color" programs are going.. I think the agouti program will go before the self, however I love my chin doe and can't see her leaving so I would put her into my other programs SOMEHOW! Maybe Ashley will have a few Jerseys for sale at VIRBA. Will see how funds and cage space are :- ) Of course, they would have to be somehow related to my lines(which she does have somewhat) and they would have to work color wise. I just got exciting news that there will be rarebreeds at VIRBA!- Beverans and Creme D'Argents and others!! Very exciting! : )

Jersey colors, busy weekend, busy week!

2008-01-28T09:58:00.000-08:00

The 5 Jersey babies are doing well. I confirmed colors(I think) One chinchilla and one Frosted Pearl for sure. 2 Blue torts, and one siamese smoke pearl. 4 does, and one buck!

We had a very busy weekend with Tammi and Jody coming by the farm. Tammi got all her Mini lops(elaborated in Cristinas blog) and Jody dropped off a rabbit for Tammi, we saw her beautiful new Silver Marten buck! And we got our new nestboxes! Very nice craftmanship! If anyone wants nestboxes, grooming tables etc built contact Jody! She makes excellent ones!

We got cage cards printed for quite a few of the rabbits in the barn and put those all up. I think almost all the Jerseys are done now. I think we missed one black and that is it! Cristina will have to get her butt in gear and do all the Mini lops : )

Last night Tammi and Saskia and Coleton came to the house for dinner, we had a great dinner and a long good talk. Then the Chimney caught on fire!! We've been burning wet wood and so we had to start running around like chickens with our heads cut off. It was quite an interesting couple of hours. Got that all sorted out, and the smoke smell out of the house. I think the house is about 13 degrees right now only though because we have to wait for Norm to come and look at it and clean it before of course we light the fire. ;)

We had a good time showing Tammi all the animals. The only cat she didn't see was Max. We tried to find him but had no luck, he finally came home at 7:30 this morning. He is very much "his own cat". He does things on MAX'S terms : )

Today we are heading to the ferry to meet Wendy to take lionheads to Kelly in Black Creek. Then we are picking up a friends holland herd who is selling out and they are being shipped to Alberta(except a couple are going to Wally/Andrea). Then from there we are picking up MORE cat food at Petsmart. I swear they are inhaling it in this cold- and they aren't even outside very much!!! I guess with 7 of them it is to be expected. We are going through a bag of Nutro Natural Choice cat food every 2 1/2 weeks(about $38 a bag).

Well I should go find breakfast and get ready to go in a little while.

My Jersey herd

2008-01-25T10:21:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about what I need to work on in the Jerseys this year.

Because Cristina and I have decided not to attend many shows in the US it will give me time this year to focus on my breeding program not worrying that I shouldn't breed this doe or that doe because there is a show I want to go to. I think that is the biggest frustration is when you have does you want to breed but want to show as well, especially if they are proven and in great condition yet if you don't breed something you won't have jrs to show anyway. That can be frustrating!

Anyway, I see that 1/8 of the herd is lacking genetic condition, this is something I immediately want to breed out. The ones that just don't get that genetic condition or you can feel pinbones. I know after 3 months this is not feed it is condition as the others are feeling great and have coats now too! The ones that I am going to work on breeding it out of are:
Foxy Lady and her Dad Butch- obviously a genetic thing
Tonka and his son Honky Tonk as well as Tikki who is Honky Tonk's mom. Those are the ones I can think of that don't keep that genetic condition the other 25 animals do.

Off topic but I do have one great thing to post. Mitchell's Quentin an adorable broken chestnut buck who will be 5 in May(btw a Mini lop) anyway about a month ago we bought a bag of Dairy Text 14% to put into the treat mix. Quentin just hasn't had that top condition we strive for since he moulted in the fall. Well after only a month on 1 tbsp of Dairy he feels great : ) He was getting 1 cup of feed, regular treat mix(flatted barley, old fashioned rolled oats, and ground flax) but it just wasn't adding that "extra". With the dairy text it has really helped-- it has been very cold here too so I think he just needed that extra to get him back up to our standard of condition : )

Okay so back to the Jerseys. My next plan to is to strive for more depth in the jerseys, I am seeing a bit of longer bodies happening and want to keep them shorter. And then my 3rd thing is working on better shape of ears. Those are my 3 main things for this year then I will work on other things but for now that is my goal : )

Also the Jersey babies are as follows:
One Chinchilla buck!
One Frosted pearl ?

3 Sable points- 2 different litters

I bred 5-6 more Jerseys yesterday can't remember exactly lol. And have 5ish bred... So I am looking forward to all those litters
: )

Also pic attached we broke down and bought one more Jersey doe to add to the herd... Might pick up a couple more from Ashley at VIRBa will see how funds and cage space etc are(also I want to add what I'm needing only in my herd and keep within the same line) this doe is M an' M's Sophia- Pic attached courtesy of Ashley Felton- M an' M's Rabbitry
Can't wait to get her! Thanks Ashley! She is out of Leapin' Silverballs and a gorgeous pointed white doe of Ashleys : ) So I'm looking forward to seeing her in person! Again might buy something else at the show, will see!

Spring Cleaning

2008-01-24T10:22:00.000-08:00

Although it is not quite that time yet, I have been thinking of all the things I would like to do for spring cleaning.

It is still in the -'s here during the day/night. Right now it is -2 (which with the dampness would feel like about -8 for the prairie places)outside so too cold to pull the power washer out, and take all the rabbits out of the barn but its not far from my thoughts!

Once all the cages from the lower barn go(hopefully next Monday) we can store all the extra shavings, feed, carriers, treat mixes etc in that lower barn(once we move the non-working freezer in there)

In the main barn I want to get all the power washing done of the cages and floor. Once everything from the back is moved to the lower barn I plan to move the stacker's from the back middle to the far back. Which will give us more room as well.

Then of course there is feeder and water bottle cleaning although we try to do that about once every month or 2nd month so that is never too hard, and we wire brush at least a couple times a week so a good spring cleaning is all that is in order!

Definitely the tops of the cages need that power washing from the hair build up though! Especially from the mini lops ;)

I need to do a recycling run and we might just give a couple of bales of hay to the cows. It is coarse orchard grass but we've had it since the fall and it is such huge pieces(each stalk of hay is about 1 foot long and 2 inches wide) they are huge! So each rabbit really doesn't eat a lot! Those bales are lasting us forever. Mind you we have been feeding alfalfa and a couple super green bales of orchard grass too so it has been lasting us all winter for 7 bales.(100lbs each)

I also want to get the front "counter" of the barn cleaned and power washed, and clean out our cabinet and restock it with what we need for spring. I know with spring around the corner and having Jerseys now will need to buy acidophilus to put on litters food(spring a capsule on top of the pellets) since I feed a rich treat mix I have to watch for enteritis with the little guys.

And of course there is the rest of the spring ritual :- )- going over the animals,website updates (although we just did a big one), everyone will in the next few months be swamped with litters I'm sure : ) nail clipping, show preparations, tattooing, deworming, coccidosis treatment(we aren't due until March/April).

Yes, spring is around the corner and despite all the work ahead I am looking forward to it!

5 Jersey babies!

2008-01-21T20:15:00.000-08:00

Well out of all the does due to kindle we finally have babies!

Leapin' Foxy Lady X Leapin' Rockin Roll(tort) had 5 babies, with 4 DOA(first litter), however one alive and doing well! Sable point?

Leapin' Pan X Leapin' Butch had 3 babies- 2 alive, one peanut. Not sure the colors

And finally MG's Chin doe X Just Hoppin's Apollo had 2 babies one chin and one ? All are fostered to the chin doe and all doing great! Can't wait to see what colors. I have 4-6 more does due, and 8-10 more does to breed shortly.. I will hopefully get them bred tomorrow!

We are feeling much better around here, we were down with a cold. Back to getting caught up on e-mails, phone calls and blogs!

I should have approx 15 Jerseys to show at VIRBA on the 16/17 of February :- )

How should you cull?

2008-01-16T20:35:00.000-08:00

You've read the magazines, you've heard people talking, you've had someone give you that piece of advice "cull hard", "cull tough", "Cull, Cull, Cull"

How the heck do you cull though?

In my personal opinion first you need to know your breed. Read the standard, show your rabbits under various judges.

Know the standard but see what the comments are as well(from judges). Eventually you will know your breed and will be able to see what your rabbits are lacking-- although all of us have some kind of barn blindness to a certain degree.

Because these are the 2 breeds we raise, they are the breeds I am going to talk about, however these points would likely work for almost any breed.

- Learn your line, some lines are fast developing others are slow. For instance, I am seeing the mini lop lines tend to differentiate. One line is very slow you don't even bother look at them until at least 6 weeks and even then it is 9-10 weeks before you even look at type for the first time. Other lines if you don't look at 4-5 weeks you have a long wait ahead of you! I would say we are accurate 95% of the time. As for the Jerseys we haven't had them too long and only one litter so far, but what I am seeing is that they for the most part hit a terrible gangly stage and there is no point looking at them until 4-5 months!

- Realize what parts are easy to fix, and what parts are harder to fix. Keep long shoulders or low shoulders away if at all possible. We've found they are the HARDEST thing to fix. If your having a problem with heads or bone that is much easier! We like to get certain things going in the right direction before we fix the small things- keep proper toplines and headmount with the jerseys, short bodies, full lower HQ's. Right now we are working on Mini lop bone and head, and short midsections. JW's rounder ears and short bodies will be my this year goals.

- We also have our own personal preferences. I can't stand long ears or pinbones- we never have pinbones in the Mini's(touch wood!) however the Jerseys seem to have that problem in the line so I will be weeding that out(just a few so it isn't too bad). I also can't stand weak heads although that is a fairly easy thing to fix!

I still think in any breed you can be looking at the babies between 4-9 weeks and get a good idea of who goes and who stays. I've never had luck with growing all the babies out in a litter and finding "more" keepers. I find if I keep them until 4-5 months the ones that looked good at 4-9 weeks are still the ones that look good, and the ones that looked like pets at that stage still look like pets. The only thing I find that comes in especially with the mini lops is width of loin and width of shoulder those CAN both fill in. So if you have a beautifully deep animal with tremendous HQ's and shoulders but it is a tad weak in the loin don't be so fast selling it. It may fill in :- )

Of course go over the animals for obvious DQ's- split penises, malocclusion, white spots, mismatched toenails. Don't keep animals that are pinched, undercut, severly long in the shoulder(or just long in the shoulder).

That first culling we go over all these DQ's, we don't keep anything with bad shoulders or lower HQ's. In the mini lops it is hard to tell what the senior weight will end up being. They are usually around the same size for all of them, if one is way bigger you can almost bet it will be over that senior weight. But for the most part it isn't a huge thing in our line with the Mini's. The JW's you know which ones are BUD's-- they will have longer ears, longer bodies, and will be 1/4 size more then your "normal" babies.

Ask yourself what is it that I want to improve in my herd? If it is shoulders then dont keep long shoulders if you can fit fingers at that shoulder don't keep it! Midsections-- you shouldn't be able to get any fingers between the hip bone and front leg if you do the finger test. If you get 1 finger you are okay the rabbit will still balance you will want to lose that finger in later breedings but with one finger you are still okay.

You will want to be culling for bone, ear legnth, heads, HQ's, shoulders, midsections, depth/topline, fur and flesh! And know your breed, read the standard!

Cull hard. It may be tough but in the long run you will thank yourself. In one year we've moved on about 3/4's of our original herd of Mini lops we purchased. However, in the last year we've managed to win double Best of Breeds with home bred stock over 70 animals in Monroe WA against some of the top WA breeders, we also managed to win RBIS, honorable mention(so close!) and many 1sts. A couple of the shows we won every class, we granded 2 homebred animals, almost granded 5 more(they all just need 1 more leg), and were very happy where we went! We kept better kids then all the parents, and have grandkids from some of those now.

So culling may be tough, but when you cull, cull, cull your herd moves faster!

My pets

2008-01-16T11:36:00.000-08:00

Here's some new pics of my crazy animals : - )

I've been trying to get the dogs into agility(at least training here and then put Luke and maybe River into it). Star is great at the jumps but she is a little too old to be doing too much jumping now(she is a bit on the lazy side although not nearly like Ben!) Anyway here's Luke yesterday at Fuller Lakes outdoor horse arena jumping over the jumps! He is doing great!

So as everyone knows I love dogs and cats, honestly I probably prefer dogs/cats over rabbits however I love my rabbits too of course.

Pickles was one of the barn cats, now a house cat as he got too friendly with cars and we didn't want that to happen. So he is now a house cat. I caught him lounging with Cristina's 4 year old cat "Pie".

And Tigerlily, a kitten who had a bad upper respiratory infection after antibiotics and lots of care, eye cleaning etc she is doing fantastic and will make a full recovery. That kitten sleeps so close to you at night that she generates as much body heat as one of the dogs :- )

My hilarious dog

2008-01-14T20:36:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, Norm, our dad took River(our Shih Zhu) up to Ucuelet to live with him while he is working up there. I guess it was a bit of a rough start as she was pretty nervous about going up there and didn't know what was happening. All went well though and they went to bed early. She wouldn't eat much dinner but did go outside to the bathroom etc. So they went to bed, went to sleep and when they woke up this morning our dad noticed River ate all her food in the night! He praised her(she is not a good eater to begin with) and fed her some more(only the good quality food of course for my dogs ;)
Anyway, so after his coffee and breakfast he got his work boots on.. Or tried.. They were full of dog food! In the night she carried every kernel from her dish and put them in his boots!!!!

I thought that was just hilarous and had to share! Pics attached of River last Summer. : )

Re-evaluating the Jersey Herd(and potential VIRBA show hopefuls)

2008-01-13T09:44:00.000-08:00

I'm doing this to fill my blog space, as I don't really know what to write about. And also, so I can see what I might have to show for VIRBA(first show since October Mid February) Rabbits * are potential show ones for VIRBA

Senior bucks:

*-GC Jentle's Hero- Blue
-GC RH's Tonka - Smoke Pearl Marten
*-Pharoah's Jet- Black 1 leg, hoping to grand him this year
-Just Hoppin's Apollo- opal - once I get a replacement agouti buck, he will be up for sale, nice buck just needs a little more head and ear, I think.
-Leapin' Butch- Sable point
-Leapin' Munchkin- Sable point
*Leapin' Snookums
Leapin' Black Prince- Black

Junior Bucks:
*Leapin' Rock N Roll- Tort
*Leapin' Heza SMooth Cowboy-Sable point(maybe blue point?)
*Leapin' Honky Tonk- Sable Marten- For sale
*Leapin' Too Hot 4 U- Sable point

Senior does:
B-Mac's Canadian Mist-N-Cream- Pointed White
MG's Decoy- Pointed White- if she didn't take possibly show?
MG's Anky- Chin
MG's Jetta- Black
*Schultz's Secret Weapon- Siamese Sable
Leapin' Mona Lisa- Blue tort
Leapin' Maggie Mae- Smoke pearl
Jentle's Tikki- Sable Marten
Leapin' Hot Flashez- Blue tort
Leapin' Mara- Smoke pearl
Leapin' Chantilly Lace- Sable point
Leapin' Foxy Lady- REW
Leapin' Ginger Rogers- Blue Tort
Leapin' Panache- Smoke pearl
MBR Allison- Chestnut agouti

Jr does:
*Leapin Mikhala- black
*Leapin' Fantasy- Smoke pearl
*Posey's Willow- Black
Posey's Heidi- Black
*Leapin' Miss Sierra- Sable point

So around a dozen, I'm counting 12 but a couple of senior does are nice and would like to show them but would rather get babies so will see as the show approaches. Total animals = 32 :- )

When life is out of balance

2008-01-08T22:20:00.000-08:00

So, recently, we've been finding our life is way off balance. For some people it might work, but everyone is different so for us it was just too off balance. We were finding ourselves being pulled into the rabbit aspect of our life so much so that everything else was failing. By the time we fed, watered, cared for 150 rabbits plus organized shows, clubs, answered questions, website upkeep, blog entries, shipments, sales we were spending 75% of our time doing this. (75% being not overally generous somedays it was almost 100%).

Our goal for this year is to get our life much more in balance. For us, that many rabbits was becoming more of a job that we weren't/aren't being paid for, and was becoming more and more demanding and "why are we doing this?"

I don't know about you, but I want to go into the barn and be able to spend time with my rabbits not just clean, feed, clean some more. I know my Uncle says we have the cleanest barn he's seen(he worked for another rabbit breeder who also shows) and said we were being too picky. Well lately we couldn't even keep on top of everything. Grooming all those Jerseys(mainly babies/jrs) the seniors don't need to be groomed, keeping on top of nails, cage tags, health checks, breedings, weaning litters, culling and figuring out who to keep and sell and butcher, regular cleaning(pans, floors, wire scrubbing, hair deplucking off wire. Then we got the 2nd barn and for the first month it was going okay and then it was like AHH!!!! This is too much! So our life is going to be much more in balance now. I have 31 woolies I am keeping, and Cristina has 45 Mini lops(was 39 plus 17 babies to go through) we went through all the babies and picked our keepers and now it is 45 total plus one litter of 3 less then 2 weeks old. Much easier!

Now that our life is going to be more in balance we are hoping to do some extra activities. We've started painting and rug hooking(not free painting for me, paint by number is just fine lol!!)(I'm NOT an artist) in fact I'm terrible, but I can admit it AND enjoy it : )
I'd like to start swimming again and we both have plans for better eating and dieting. We'd also at least I would like to find my own place by the summer(it is so hard with dogs/cats) that is my biggest obstacle. And get set up with work. So many things but so much better balance!

2 silkie guinea pigs

2008-01-06T17:41:00.000-08:00

Here's the 2 silkies, and Jester the Harlequin Mini rex looking for a great pet home.

Hollands for sale

2008-01-06T17:13:00.000-08:00

Blue Otter brood doe. Has some shoulder faults, and color is a bit washed out but nice and smooth with a good head and ear/crown. $30.00

Blue Otter showier doe- super short and tiny! Tight crown(right now ears are either straight up or out to the side/airplane). Would be a good start to Otters, though. $35.00

Creator's Jericho- Blue Senior buck- super sweet buck with a great head and smooth body! Ears are folded for my liking but nice buck otherwise! $50.00

Fuzzy Peach's Kikiee Black Senior doe out of GC Sunny's Ted(Pitney lines) and Rudolph's Miranda
Pic coming this week, mom to Blue otter babies above though. Throws nice babies! Can be bred to a Tri color buck, or Jericho free of charge if I knew before tomorrow(as the tri buck leaves tomorrow).

Huge long blog- major herd reduction!

2008-01-06T09:28:00.000-08:00

We are so busy these days with non-rabbit activities that we've decided to majorly cut back on the number of rabbits we have at least for right now. We've gone from around 150 rabbits early December to 100 now, and would like to get down to 75ish......50 would be great but that isn't likely to happen! Mainly herd cut backs on our smaller breeds, or just cutting back on lines/colors or too many bucks/does. I have too many JW bucks and Cristina has too many ML does :- )

Here's the list...

Hollands- we were going to work on Otter Hollands but find we do not have time for this right now(we're working with friends on this project). They have first dibs on who they want but I know they are also tight for cage space. With us it isn't even cage space as the lower barn is 90% empty(about 20 empty holes if not more!) but time is just not in our favour : )

Fuzzy Peach's Kikiee Black Senior doe - $20, proven excellent mom out of GC Sunny's Ted X Rudolph's Miranda
Creator's Jericho- Blue Senior buck- $50- out of Miss Mustache mom to Cobalt a really nice blue doe we had.
Following out of Kikiee above and Creator's Magnum
Blue Otter Jr doe- Show $35
Blue Otter Jr doe- Breeding- $35
Back Otter Jr buck- Breeding/Show $35
Black Otter Jr doe- Breeding $35
Also have a Tri buck and Black doe who are pending ? $25 each if not already sold.
Mini rex:
Fuzzy Peach's Jester- Harlequin Senior doe- pet home, awesome personality!
KT's Cezanne- Broken black senior doe out of KT's rabbitry in Oregon, fantastic lines. Big girl though! Prefer a pet home/retirement home but would consider the right breeding home. Super personality, has had 3 litters- 2 of 8, and one of 5.
Red Jr buck- out of GC Hangtown's Fireball X Hangtown's RH26- pending?
Mini lops:

Velotta's Keaton - Opal Sr buck. Out of GC Velotta's Waltor X GC Velotta's
Renee. Breeding/Show. All Velotta lines. 2 GC legs. $50

Velotta's Posey - Silver Tipped Steel Sr doe. Out of GC Velotta's Waltor X
GC Kitsemble's Ella. Proven breeding doe, excellent mom! 2 GC legs,
Registered Red/White. Kitsemble/Velotta lines. $50

Posey's Armoni - Broken Chestnut Sr doe. Out of GC Velotta's Adson X GC
Velotta's Olivia. Breeding/Show doe. All Velotta lines. $40

Posey's Abby - Broken Steel Sr doe. Out of Velotta's Sam X GC Kitsemble's
Ella. Show/Breeding doe. $65

GC Velotta's Olivia - Broken Chestnut Sr doe. Out of GC Velotta's Dodger X
GC Velotta's Francie. 5 GC legs, proven doe excellent mom. 2 yrs old. $150

GC Velotta's Cattabrie - Chestnut Sr doe. Out of GC C.C's Jack X GC
Velotta's Francie. 10 GC legs/BIS win. Proven doe, excellent mom. 3 yrs old,
still producing great! $100

Velotta's Chloe - Chinchilla Sr doe. Out of GC Velotta's Dodger X GC
Velotta's Cattabrie. Registered Red/White/Blue with Gold Star. Excellent
mom! $50

Black, Opal and Chestnut Jrs (2 does, 1 buck) out of GC Sunny's Audrey X GC
Hutholm's Broken Opal buck. Some very nice Juniors! 1 on hold for now. $40
ea.

Milkhouse's Summer - Chestnut Sr doe. Out of Milkhouse's Desi X GC Desurra's
Sietta. All Desurra lines, with a bit of Velotta's. Excellent mom! $60

Mitchell's Quentin- Broken Chestnut senior buck 2 GC legs, produced 2 super daughters for us and we are getting fantastic grandkids. Super sweet personality, still breeding. Will be 5 in May. Otherwise he will live out his days here if we can't find him the perfect retirement/pet occasional breeding home. Still breeding just fine! Doesn't seem arthritic this winter, has an ez mat regardless but he likes to throw his toy around and he LOVES food ;) Free to the right home... references may be required!

Fuzzy lops: Selling last 5- It does look like most are spoken for now. I will repost as I know. The only one I can't remember on is Violet. Will update as I know

Leapin B52 Tort Senior buck 1 GC leg for BOS first time shown, 2nd in his class other show. Very nice buck with a fantastic body and head! $125
Amelia's Kyoko- Tort Senior doe- ELS RIKU X Mason's Louie- Hollands in the background. $30
Wilder's Violet- Siamese Sable jr doe, tight crown, good type, cute doe! $30

Jersey woolies:
Leapin' AOV buck- All that Jazz- out of Leapin' Black Prince X B-Mac's Canadian Mist-N-Cream PW. I got this buck in Laura's herd sell out, and his mom was rebred to the same buck for the 2nd time. I've kept back 4 of the 5 from that litter(all black) and will be selling something from there as well. This guy is going to wind up on the larger size, and be more breeding quality overall. He has a very nice head, super massive body. I just would like to see him shorter/showier. Nice pieces buck. Goes back to GC Jentle's Hero, PP's and Brian's lines, and B-Mac's and Ft's. $40

Leapin Honky tonk- Sable Marten Jr buck out of GC RH's Tonka X Jentle's Tikki- Cute buck with a super head, short ears and small cobby body will be tiny! $75
Leapin Siamese Sable Jr buck out of same cross as above. This guy is going to be teeny! He got chewed by mom before he was weaned(and could be weaned) so currently is more Netherland Dwarf looking(because of short hair) tiny cobby body with super tiny ears and a big fat head. Little dark in color. $50
Posey's Black Jr buck- out of Leapin Black Prince X B-Mac's Canadian Mist-N-Cream PW- cute buck with a very nice body, good head and ear as well. $50
I will be selling one of my 4 sable point bucks towards the summer, if interested in getting on the wait list for either : Leapin Butch, Leapin Munchkin, Leapin Sable point jr buck out of Mona Lisa X Snookums, or Leapin Too Hot 4 U please contact me.

Cavies:

Posey's a Little RNR- Golden agouti/Red/White Silkie boar- fantastic density, not fully pedigreed. $20
Posey's Mosaic- Mosaic Jr sow! Out of RNR above and a TSW sow who was out of dilutes. Is Black, Red, White and Lilac. $20 Have pics of both taken today.
Cages:

Leanne- you are first on the list since I wasn't able to organize a day to be available- December was nuts here. We moved rooms around and lost internet in the process when we unhooked the wrong thing and lost wireless and regular highspeed(not sure how!) got that sorted out, then the neighbours phone line something happened to there line which did something to our internet so it went down. So needless to say it was a crazy month with Christmas parties, Christmas, family, friends etc! I can make time next week for pick up of cages/rabbits though for anyone interested. Next week is pretty open- : )

4 hole 30 by 18 each hole $30
2 hole 24 by 15 each hole $15
2 hole 24 by 15 each hole $15
8 24 by 30 holes(singles) $10 per hole
2 hole- 18 by 24 - $10
5- 30 by 30 holes $15 each hole
2 hole 36 by 18- $15
White indoor pet cage- Free- stained bottom, and top is a little bent but would work for someone needing an emergency cage or a cavy cage etc. We've had it for years.

Black Indoor cage on wheels, ramp to top level. Had our pet New Zealand in here is about 3 1/2 feet long by 2 or 2 1/2 feet wide, and 4 feet high. Paid $65 for it. $35

2 hole French lop size carrier- would work for senior Mini lops or senior large breeds at shows. $30 Great condition

Metal feeders- Brianna you get these at VIRBA as I go through them again, please let me know again how many? :- ) Oh, we also have some nestboxes French lop size or meat rabbit size but would work for Mini lops as well if anyone wants some..... Have one that we paid $20 for in the US, would like $10 for it. Some free, and some $5 each.... First come first serve, the faster you can get them the more you can take for a good price :- )

I may also have one stacker for sale- I need to make a decision next week on it.... 4 holes- either way would be 24 by 24 whichever way I decided to go(if I sold it)

Stock can be held until the VIRBA show mid February but there is a fee of $5.00 a rabbit to cover the cost of feed/treats/hay until then. Discounts on multiple purchases...

k_c_lops@telus.net
Website is NOT updated, and won't be until later in the week most likely so if interested in new pics please e-mail us personally for more information and pictures. The website hasn't been updated for at least a few weeks, however, the pics of the rabbits on the website are recent within the last 3 months for almost all.

tini67p@telus.net

Sometimes some peoples e-mails bounce to the k_c_lops one not sure why, e-mail the other address if any problems. If you don't get a reply within 24 hours please e-mail us again!

Kim & Cristina
Happy New Year! Sorry this was so long... I warned at the beginning!!!

2008-01-05T09:43:00.001-08:00

To sum up our trip to Calgary just after Christmas, was, it was great : )

Last Thursday we left Vancouver Island and took the 6:30 ferry to Vancouver. We caught the 620 bus to Airport Stn(which we thought would take us to the airport) but we had to catch another bus to the airport, then a shuttle from our hotel picked us up and took us back(by this time it was 1am and we had to be up by 7am to take our plane to Calgary). In the meantime another shuttle service dragged an empty airport cart beside it and caused lots of commotion! The hotel didn't have the credit card information for our step mom who paid for everything so we had to deal with that at 1:00 in the morning-- it was an eventful night! ;)

We got up last Friday morning, and got our flight to Calgary. We went shopping in Calgary, Banff and Canmore. We stayed at the 3 sisters resort village where our step mom lives. Because Selina, Cristina and I are sisters we had our pictures taken under the "3 sisters" sign : - ) We went up the Gondola in Banff, and checked out Lake Louise Chateau and Banff Springs Hotel(where they sell $50,000 coats!)

Selina was the major shopper going home with little money. I bought a couple of sweatshirts from American Eagle, a pair of pants from Old Navy and some souvenirs from the shops in Banff. Oh and a T-shirt from the Garage. We went to the Old spaghetti factory and had one heck of an awesome waiter! The streets in Banff were so packed New Years eve that it was $100 cover charge in the pubs!

We were going to go and do some outdoor activities(we saw the ice castle at Lake Louise) but everything was so expensive and us 3 girls prefer shopping anyway ;)

3 sisters village has a sauna, pool, hottub, the pool game and each house is over 2 million dollars a piece so we had a great time : ) We had our own suite too!

We went up to Chinamens peak and of course saw the gorgeous rocky mountains and a frozen over water fall.

It took almost 12 hours to get home yesterday because of high winds, turbulence in the air, and delays with flights and ferries but we made it! I won't be getting caught up on e-mails until next week.

Kim & Cristina

We will get back into blogging at some point, although I do know this year is going to met with many personal changes for me so I may not blog all that much. Not that I was very good at it before ;) Rabbit wise all is well. All those does that were due one had 2 DOA, one had a peanut, and the others did not take. Very unfair as those mini lops have no problems this time of year, lol!! Our barn is FULL of Mini's :- )

Sunny Brook Rabbitry

Long time, no blog! Whirlwind month!

2007-12-18T09:44:00.001-08:00

Well, it has been a very busy month as it is for many people. Last week on top of baking for our grandma, Cristina starting a new website for a Timberframe company, and I working for Patterson trucking for a couple of days it was just nuts! Last Thursday we met up with Ingrid and Sylvia at Fast Eddies in Naniamo for lunch and they picked up 12 rabbits! That was nice. Lots more cage space- all fuzzy lops and mini rex, and a jersey wooly as well. Then on top of it Saturday was our big Christmas party, so we were busy getting things prepared for it on Friday. Saturday on top of running around going crazy doing last minute things we did all the outside decorations and lights. Then we ran and fed rabbits, came home got changed and company started arriving. We all had a great time, wish we could have invited more people but 20 people in our house it just comfortable and anymore gets way too crowded(our house is tall but not wide, lol)

We had a very lazy Sunday morning but got to the barn as Dot and Dash our 2 rescued barn kittens from this summer went to there new home : ) They got a great home in Saanich with a couple of horses and 40 acres to play in!

Yesterday we headed to Naniamo and did some Christmas shopping then we headed to Nanoose to clean cages for Andrea and Wally, then off to Staples and grabbed dinner, then we stopped at the house to check on the Tigerlily(kitten) as she came down with a cat cold(vet said basically like a human cold but because she is so young and with a bit of this virus couldn't be vaccinated like all the other cats are yet. so on Friday on top of everything else she went to the vet(forgot to mention that one) and is on some antibotics. Doing great though. then off to our Aunt and Uncles to drop gifts off to them before they head to Hawaii for Christmas! Then visited until 9:30 then finally the poor bunnies got fed! Then off to Crofton to pick our mom up from work, and then home.. It was a VERY busy day and that has been how the whole month has worked..

Last weekend(the 8th weekend) we moved the TV room from upstairs to downstairs so had to move all our computers and equipment downstairs, and moved the dining room into the tv room upstairs. Cleaned all the carpets as Luke got into red food coloring(yes it was a diaster!). And then we re-arranged other rooms in the house as well.

Today I am working on my aunts DVD's to drop off to her tomorrow, and then we have a bunch of stops to make this week- need to stock up on feed, dog food, make sure we have enough cat food, make up the rest of the baking gifts and then of course barn cleaning etc, etc! Selina arrives from Yellowknife on Sunday the 23rd at 10pm in Victoria. So anyone wanting to see her come by on the 24th, 25th, or 26th, or early on the 27th :- ) As we leave on the night of the 27th for Vancouver and then off to Alberta until the 3rd. I can't believe how fast this month has gone!

Now rabbit wise... All is well. Not much to report. Had 2 JW litters that unfortunetly one was born on the wire, and the other the doe just didn't pull enough fur. I have I think 4-5 does due on Christmas day : ) I am going to breed 4-5 more this week as well! Some really nice shaded and self babies out there right now that are almost ready to be weaned! Otherwise not much else new JW wise- they are being very spoiled this winter- there treat mix consists of:
Dairy Text which is basically like cob but a little sweeter and a little higher in fat with added vitamins mixed with ground flax, flatted barley, alfalfa pellets, and fast track(what they use for horses that colic) a bunch of us breeders are trying it out to see if it helps with those babies that get upset stomachs. Too soon to tell yet for us!

Anyway, I have to go but there is at least an update : )

Oh, and yeterday while we were Shopping Dillon picked up his last 3 mini rex, as well : )
My dogs and cats got very spoiled for Christmas. The cats got a 12 pack of mice as well as a bunch of organic canned food(salmon and turkey mainly). The dogs got a huge 2 1/2 foot tall bone, a bunch of treats and marrowbones(liver treats, soft treats, hard treats lol). And I am going to buy some pig ears on the weekend as well for them(they LOVE those!)

Adding pedigrees, barn chores, etc

2007-12-05T09:32:00.000-08:00

I'm really stuck on what to write about. I really need to figure that out ASAP. About the 20th of December through the 5th of January is going to be so nuts around here that I don't know we will get any blogs done. We leave the night of December 27th for Vancouver where we stay in a hotel which takes us to the airport the next day. Then from there we fly to Canmore Alberta(well Calgary first) but head to Canmore and Banff for 7 days!

I got a whole bunch of pedigrees added to Evan's software last night. I still have lots more to do but it is finally a start. Most the mini rex are now gone, the rest leaving next Thursday and then next Monday so I was able to move everything around and start organizing my VERY messy pedigree book!!

Yesterday I was able to get the lower barn cleaned(it is easy to do) for its weekly cleaning(well we try to do bi-weekly for both barns but with only 18 holes now in the lower barn we end up usually only getting to that barn once a week. Anyway, got it cleaned and all the pans thrown in the scrap metal bin. (the pans that came with the cages from Laura, but since I converted the lower barn into only one side having double layers I've ordered 3 pans like we use in the upper barn for that barn. And because a bunch of cages are empty down there right now, I was able to just keep a couple of pans for that side. So we only have 4 more pans to get rid of after this! Yeah! I really need to do cage pictures today for Leanne(incase she reads this)! it has been mucky and yesterday poured with rain.. today looks nice!

Well I hope to do more pedigrees tonight. I bought a computer game called Farm Frenzy. it is very fun to play BUT! It is addictive. Night before last I spent 4 hours playing the dumb game. I gave myself 30 mins last night and I think I won't play it tonight. Last night I did get a bunch of various things done around the house.. I really need to clean my bedroom too!! Yuck!

A beautiful white wonderland

2007-12-02T09:28:00.000-08:00

It started snowing around 10:30 yesterday morning, and it is STILL snowing! We have over 13inches of snow(almost a foot!). Although, it is supposed to stop snowing this afternoon and turn to rain : ( I love the snow! We watched 8 different vehicles almost crash into each other at different times yesterday- those roads were slippery! That was everything to brand new 4 X 4 pickups and small cars! SUV's(Tahoes and Jeeps) and a sports car.

I've just had no time this week to write blogs, it has been very busy. I'm rearranging the lower barn, I can't stand it(or couldn't stand it). One side was 3 layers, and the other side 2 layers/banks of cages. With the main barn having over 85 holes then the lower barn having around 40 we were just finding it too much work. And, it felt like all we were doing was cleaning cages(which really was the case!). So after the 19 rabbits left last week for their new owners, on Friday I started pulling cages off the walls and rearranging. The one side now has a double layer-- we've ordered 3 pans for it like the main barn which has worked out great for us, super easy cleaning and nice and easy to pull out! Anyway, that will look great once those 3 pans are built! Then the other side is only one level now, and I figured out which cages to keep and which to sell. It gave us:
12 Fuzzy lop holes
6 Holland lop holes- I'll let the cat out of the bag-- Cristina, Andrea, Wally and myself are now "Show Stomper's Rabbitry" as a co-op rabbitry between the 4 of us, with Otter hollands- blues and blacks only and we all agreed NO brokens! We have a nice little start- Fuzzy Peach's Kikiee a black senior doe, Creator's Atkin a blue Jr buck out of Sunny's Miss Mustache who was Cobalt's mom : ) And Kikiee was out of GC Sunny's Ted so this all goes back to our old line : ) Anyway we also have 3 adorable baby otter does out of Kikiee and Magnum an otter buck- thanks Tammi for the breeding.
Anyway back to what I was saying. 12 Fuzzy holes, 6 holland holes(I think Andrea and Wally are planning 12 holes but with over 100 rabbits as it, I don't want anymore then that!! Somedays I wonder why I have this many, lol!
And then one extra hole for mini lop overflow probably, plus a 4 hole Jersey stacker...

So it should be much nicer to clean and manouver in that lower barn and now if I could just get my uncle to do some fix its down there we would be set.... Been waiting 6 months so might be waiting another... sigh!!!

Cage wise... We now have :
41 Jersey holes in the main barn
44 Mini lop holes in the main barn
4 Jersey holes down below
12 Fuzzy lop holes
and 6 Holland holes for a grand total of:
107 holes.. yikes I think I'm good for rabbits, lol!

A whole week?

2007-11-25T11:19:00.000-08:00

Has it really been a whole week since I've written a blog? Time flies!

I filled in at my old work for a couple of days last week, and then again tomorrow as well. This next week is going to be absolutely insane!

Tomorrow I'm filling in until 5:30pm. Tuesday it looks like Cristina and I are going to work in Cow Bay or at least I will be. Wednesday we are in Campbell River doing a whole bunch of rabbit deliveries(Mini lops and Mini rex!) and a couple of cages as well. Then, Thursday I'm not sure what is happening during the day yet or Friday(I'm sure that will be filled up quickly as well) but we will be going to the light up on Thursday night and Friday night the family is invited to our Aunt's and Uncles for dinner. Then Saturday is the Rabbits BC meeting -- my old work wants me to work in the morning if possible as it is Santa Photos for the pets... However I haven't decided yet because I wanted to do a couple of rabbits myself this year!(take them in for santa photos) then be in Victoria for 1:00..... Not sure what is on for next Sunday........ crazy!

We did a whole bunch of breeding yesterday! I bred 6 Jersey woolie does! : ) 4 were very ready, 2 were not.. Going to keep retrying those 2! We also bred 2 fuzzy lops and 2 mini lops!

A very busy weekend

2007-11-19T22:09:00.001-08:00

I really wanted to go to the Christmas Chaos this weekend, but it was too insane to even think about going.

Friday night we were invited to our Aunt's and Uncles for pizza and a movie. We both stayed up late, and got up late Saturday morning(late for us anyway 9-9:30). Saturday flew by and yesterday we had 5 different sets of people coming to the barn for various things.

Tamashanter Rabbitry came to get their 2 Mini lops, and Holland buck back. They oohed and ahhed over all the babies(we have lots out their!).

Electric Bunny Rabbitry came- of which, Andrea kindly did a Bunny photo shoot for Christmas photos!! The pictures turned out beautifully and we can't wait to get the Christmas cards back that we made today with them : ) Thank you Andrea!! We also will put the pics up on the website closer to Christmas.

Then, we had a breeder on Saltspring Island come to buy mini rex.. She only wanted 3 but left with 4, lol!

We had someone come to look at Mini rex and picked out a jr red buck from one litter, as a future show buck for them : ) He will be going to live with them in December sometime.

And then we had someone come to look at some cages, of which they purchased 7 and came and picked them up today. So it was a very busy weekend!

Last night Andrea came back to the house for dinner, and we all started baking at 10pm. We finished at 11:30 and Andrea left shortly after. Then, Cristina and I didn't go to bed until after 1 which is really late for us.. So we totally overslept this morning- which didn't help classes! And weren't up until almost 10am(within 10 mins of each other because my room is next to hers and I'm usually half asleep tripping over dogs(stubbing toes, crashing into things, lol)(ack!)

We had to be in Victoria by Noon or 12:30(which we made, just) as we had 3 stops to make, and had to have the car back for 3.. Which we also made, just.. However, our mom had already gotten a ride to work(she can't drive the truck because it is standard and a pain in the arse to shift(straight 6 shifting or something, lol) so we headed to the barn.

Cristina and I both agreed if at all possible we are going to do that more often- have everyone come in one day, one afternoon. It is busy, and jammed packed but it is so much easier then every evening, or afternoon etc.

I got my 3 new Jersey woolies today from Ingrid, all the bloodlines I'm working with Leapin. A beautiful chin doe, a really nice pointed white doe, and a gorgeous black buck! I plan to do breedings ASAP! So I will be having some litters by Christmas : )

Shows are all over for 2007 for our rabbitry

2007-11-16T10:42:00.000-08:00

We've finished our showing for 2007 here at Sunny Brook Rabbitry. We've had:

3 Best in Show's
2 RIS's(one 1st runner up) I think that counts the same?
Many BOB's/BOS's, 1sts etc.

Probably our highest compliment at the shows was ARBA Judge Joey Shults comment:
"My compliments to the breeder on this buck" to GC Sunny's As You like it(ML)

We have one more show we can attend, but have chosen not too as it is only a single show and just not worth the cost of ferry, gas, entries, motel etc to go.

I just heard exciting news that we will have another JW breeder coming up for our show in February here on the Island! : )

At this rate, I'm only going to have bucks to show, lol!

Well I'm on a "writers block" and I don't know what to write about.... hopefully something will inspire me!

My herd goals

2007-11-14T19:34:00.000-08:00

My goals for 2008 are as follows, in the Jerseys.

O/T for one sec!The Jersey's are all that I will be raising after this! I have my 2 pet cavies "A little RNR and Mosaic" but all my Mini rex are sold except some babies which are mainly all spoken for now. I still have the hollands... if anyone is interested in a holland for a pet or breeding animals.... : ) Anyway back on track!

My breeding goals are:

To keep consistently producing the short round, typey bodies that seem to be predominant in the "Leapin" bloodline. Work on legnth, shape, and substance to ear which seems to be a fault in the line. I plan to do some major linebreeding with RH's Tonka and GC Jentle's Hero, and Leapin' Munchkin. I think those are the 3 best in the entire herd, and I want to work on their excellent qualities!

I am really looking forward to Jersey babies in 2008. Because of the feed problem I still haven't bred anyone. Well, that isn't true. I bred Jetta and Maggie, or at least tried to the other day but didn't have much luck with Maggie. Jetta and Black Prince connected once, and Maggie and Hero were a no go. I need to check does and maybe do some breeding this week! Everyone is bouncing back into condition. I'd also like to move most everyone into the main barn after the mini rex go as well so I can work on the lower barn this winter and get pans made for it etc(pans need to be replaced).

Anyway those are my major goals for 2008. I know that Laura only had 30 holes between the 2 and at one point 3 breeds so I am wanting to keep a few more does. I am keeping a whole bunch of jr does, a few jr bucks(a buck herd I tell ya!) and the one litter I do have out there(5 blacks). I really like 2 does and a buck so I will probably grow all 3 out : )

I think the one doe I will breed shortly is Leapin Ginger Rogers. Rebreed Maggie, and maybe Tikki and Mona Lisa.

I am getting a trio of Jerseys from Ingrid. We are doing a trade. I'm getting a REG black buck, a REG Pointed White doe, and a chin doe. The chin doe is going into the agouti program obviously. I have a nice start there.
The agouti program has a Chestnut Jr doe bred by the Uptagraffts all Ayers and Brian Hartzell lines! A very nice opal buck from Just Hoppin lines, the new Chin doe, a black doe who will eventually go into that line as she is out of the opal buck. I've bred her to Prince for now though as he has the depth she is needing. And I think that is it for the agouti program, just the 4 for now.

I'm glad to get the other pointed white doe! Really want to work on a pointed white program!

Hopefully my next post will have some does that are bred... : ) The mini rex and Mini lops are sure breeding well this winter... We have over 60 babies out there right now between those 2 breeds!

I might breed Mara too.. maybe I can find 5 to breed.. that would be nice! As I said I'm keeping lots of replacement does as well, as long as they have better type or traits then parents that I'm working on. There is one doe out there that I'm not sure I want to keep but am growing her out anyway.

I want a competitive herd like Laura! I do plan to have around 25 senior does, 10 senior bucks, and the rest Jr holes....