AHhhhhhh

After the past couple of weeks we’ve had, it’s been really nice to just sit and just be. The only thing we “had” to do this weekend was football in Dodge. T got a fumble recovery and almost got an interception, but he dropped the ball.(In the pictures, J is #30, T is #9) J had a good game too. However, he had a horrible case of stomach flu the day before and I wasn’t even sure he would be able to play. He felt much better, just tired. Not only was he weak from being sick, he threw up so much he pulled something in his chest and it made running really painful. Coach let him play but made him sit out more. He didn’t mind so I KNOW he wasn’t back to full speed yet. He did get a punt return, but only made it a yard before he got hammered. I think he was happy when that game was over.

Last week we sent the 3 roosters to a farm. It was getting much too noisy and I like most my neighbors and didn’t want to drive them crazy. It’s very quiet in the back yard now, and the ladies out in the coop didn’t really seem to know what to do without them being there. It took them a good day to come out side and act normal again. I don’t think I wrote about it before but 2 weeks ago our baby chicks came. We had 25 but are down to 19. We are first time chick owners and it took us a bit to get the temperature just right and lost a few in the process. I’m ready for them to be grown up, out in the coop, and laying blue eggs!

J and D have a big rabbit convention coming up in October. T and I are going to stay home since he will have football. We thought they were going to have to miss it, but it just happens to fall on J’s bi-week in football so he doesn’t have a game. It’s a 2 day event, with one day dedicated just to the youth with all kinds of contests and things for them to do. As long as he doesn’t come home with more rabbits than he left with this time, it will be great. J’s defiantly got show fever!!
We just got him a new show coat, and it was sent to Cindy to have his name put on it. He found a really cool Californian rabbit pin to put on there, as well as a cool 4-H patch. Some of these kids really spice their coats up so it’s really cool to see how creative they can get!

I FINALLY got a new camera! One day a couple of weeks ago, I turned ours on, and it literally gave a death scream and wouldn’t turn on again. It was dead dead dead!! That thing survived a lot, including getting a whole glass of milk spilt on it. Since then, the batteries would only old a charge for half the time, so we would have to take 2, sometimes, 3 sets of batteries, to make sure we didn’t miss anything. Anyway, we packed up and went to Pratt, where I fell in love with one. Well, they didn’t have it in stock, but they gave me the display model with 10% off!!! YIPPEE!! I am thrilled with my new camera and even more thrilled I got money off for it! =)

Lucky Lucky!

It would seem the Bruckner boys had a huge dose of Felix Felicis this past week. (Felix Felicis is a potion in Harry Potter that is refered to in the books as liquid luck)

Jacob was on a winning streak this weekend and I should have had him buy me a lottery ticket or pick out the Power Ball numbers or SOMETHING.

Jacob’s Californian rabbit got Best of Breed out of 22 other Cals that were at the State Fair 4-H show. So then he went on to compete with all the other Best of Breed rabbits for the Best of Show. He competed against 34 other rabbits for this and he got 1st runner up!! This won J a trophy and he also got a medal for the best of breed when we checked him out. (BTW-the above picture is of Jacob and Truman and the judge that judged for the Best of Show. Danny was so excited he didn't get her entire face! And it's a crappy picture because they had left the bag with all the show supplies AND THE CAMERA at home so it's a cell phone pic.) Keep in mind this was the rabbit I had blogged about before that I was CONVINCED would be laughed off the show table. It just shows I have no clue what I am doing when it comes to these guys. ;-)

Saturday at the show they were having a raffle giving away all sorts of rabbit related things for all the 4-H kids. There were sacks of feeds, stuffed rabbits, REAL rabbits, brushes..things like that. Can you guess what my son won? Yep..the real rabbits. He brought home 2 champion Havana rabbits…a breeding pair. Just what we needed. I would have been thrilled with the feed. Oh well. He’s super happy. Me? I guess I’ll get over it.

Sunday morning Jacob did his rabbit showmanship. They didn’t let the parents in to watch as they have had major problems with the parents interrupting the kids and coaching, so they took them into a conference room. J received a blue ribbon for this too!! I was so proud of him!!
(Rabbit showmanship is where the kids are judged on their knowledge of their rabbit. The rabbit is not judged, the KIDS are judged from everything from appearance (they have to wear show coats) to miscellaneous knowledge. They start at the ears and work all through the rabbit telling about and checking for illness, disqualifications, etc, and then the judge will ask them a series of questions at the end. They get scored for each section and the person with highest points wins. It takes a lot of guts to get up in front of an adult rabbit judge you don’t know and do this!! )

They had all kinds of contests for the 4-H rabbit kids. J participated in a rabbit judging contest and a breed identification contest.
We had left at 5:45 am so we could be there around 8ish. Jacob was done with everything by 10, but we couldn’t check out the buns until 6. Needless to say we were tired, grouchy, sick of the fair and ready to come home when 6 rolled around.

It was an AWESOME experience for all of us, and I now understand why you go into the animal barns and see people sleeping in the strangest places or positions….it’s exhausting!

All in all I was THRILLED with the results both boys got. Being as we were at the State Fair and that it was our first rabbit show EVER, I think they can be proud of their results!!

Rabbit Shows and FOOTBALL!

We had a very busy weekend!!
Saturday T and D took off to the open rabbits show at the state fair. Unfortunately, they came home before they got to watch T’s rabbit, PC, be judged. There were lots and lots and lots of rabbits to get to before the mini rexes, and they didn’t want to do or look at too much at the fair since we are all going up Thursday, so they just came home.(T’s a bit like his mom, and doesn’t like crowds. Not to mention he has NO patience at all.) They got see J’s Californian, Truman, be judged though. He got 2nd out of the youth Cals. Sam called us and kept us updated though and PC got 3rd out of the Black Jr Doe Mini Rexes.
His Dwarf Hotot, Julia, wasn’t judged till Sunday, so we didn’t go back up there for that one either. But Sam called us and told us she got Best of Breed!!!
Not bad for our very first show EVER as well as being at the State Fair! We were very pleased with the 2nd and 3rd so the BOB was AWESOME! I was afraid we were going to DQ out!

J and I headed to Dodge Saturday while they were in Hutch. This was the first game of the season. It was cold, windy, and misting…perfect football weather. However, I had my sister’s car, with no blankets or umbrella in the trunk!! Thankfully, Maria took pity on my and loaned me a blanket. I believe I would have died of hypothermia. I was so cold.
The boys played an AWESOME game, tying with a DC team 6 to 6. It’s been awesome to see these boys learn how to play the game. They are really coming together and you can see that things are “clicking” a lot more now.

Above are pictures of T grooming his buns getting them ready for the show. He thought he was the man getting to go a real rabbit show.
I’ve come to realized the best people to talk to about rabbits or understand what really goes into these guys are…..other rabbit people. I try not to talk a lot about our buns because you can almost see peoples eyes start to cross as you ramble on and on about them. =-)

J had a food entry in the State Fair also. He made Cherry Vanilla Chip Cookies and received a red ribbon. We had a huge fight that night, because he was trying to hurry though it, uncaring, and all he wanted to do was go play with his friends while he was making them, so I believe he’s lucky he got that.

Next weekend we go back to Hutch both days. J’s rabbit will be back in the 4-H show on Saturday, and then he will do Showmanship on Sunday. Wish him luck!!

River Flows In You

Those of you that really know me know how important music in my life. I love all music. I have everything from Ozzy to Pachelbel's Canon in D on my MP3 player. I have songs that remind me of each step or certain people in my life, songs that I listen to when I'm angry, when I'm sad, when I am cleaning the toilet, you get the idea...
I was sitting at the variety show last year with my family and heard one of the foreign exchange students play River Flows In You on the piano. I had goosebumps and tears in my eyes.
I listen to this song a lot and it still has the power to bring tears to my eyes. When this song plays I see everything happy that is going on, and I can see everything sad. Its the most beautiful piano music I have ever heard. I love to just sit, close my eyes, let the music flow through my head and let my tears fall if they need to.

Just wanted to share this beautiful song with you.

Fall is COMING!!

Ahhh..can you feel that? Fall is defiantly coming. The mornings are crisp and the days are just about perfect! Spring is my favorite season, but fall is a close second! I love the smells of fall time, the colors, pumpkins, apple cider, football games, the annual Dunn Halloween party….Fall just is just awesome!

Something new we are doing this fall is attending more rabbit shows. We are not real sure how J’s rabbit, Truman, is going to do at the State Fair. He’s not the best bun we have, (the others he has he just got, and are out of condition) and was told at the county fair that his bones were too tiny, but in order for J to do Showmanship with him he has to be in the show. J and Truman have become buds and he doesn’t want to do it with any other rabbit since Truman is already accustomed to the routine they go through and pretty much just lays there and takes it now. We’ll see.

Next week we will have our new arrivals here at the Funny Farm. The day old baby chicks will be arriving sometime after the 8th. We got 25 (That was the minimum number you could order!)-- 10 Easter eggers (Americanas) that lay colored eggs, 10 Red Stars,(they lay HUGE eggs) and 5 Rhode Island Reds. The Red Stars and RIRs are new 4-H projects for the boys for the coming year. We are also going to hatch some out later this fall. That will be fun!

This weekend I made more cherry jam, and tried a new recipe for blueberry jam. In all there are 12 jars in my cabinet, making me smile. The blueberry turned out a bit thin, so I am not sure if I cooked it TOO long or not enough. Need to figure that one out. It’s still ok, just not as thick as I would like it to be. I’d have a recipe for pumpkin butter and also found an apple butter one I’d like to try soon.

We ran to Pratt last night to get some chick feed and a heat lamp for the new babies and I saw some BEAUTIFUL fall colored mums out. I didn’t get any, but am kicking myself now. I might just go back sometime this week and pick me up some! ;-)