Let's SHOW some BUNS!

 This weekend was the show we had been looking forward to for months. It's one of our favorite shows at Wichita. It's a double show, one put on by the Sunflower club, the other put on for the KSRBA Scholarship fund.  And there are specialty shows the night before, so you can potentially show 3 times.

I guess I should probably mention I woke up Friday, the day we left, with a scratchy throat. Just annoying. Nothing bad.  A while later it was a full blown sore throat. By noon, as I was stumbling through the hunting section at Wal-mart with Jacob and I was having to pump myself up to even swallow my spit, I realized I was very sick. Like "I want my Mommy" sick.  So I got Jacob out to the car, drove to the motel, checked in, crashed in bed, and called my momma, who promptly took control and made things better by calling my Dr and sending a bag full of meds up with Danny just as he was packing up to head up our way. Sometimes only a mom will do.
BLAH. I was so annoyed that I was SICK on our big weekend get away.

Anyway, Friday evening Jacob showed in the Prairie Winds Havana Specialty show where he got Best Black with his Jr buck, Rufus.  It was nice for him to hear lots of good comments about his Jr's--they just needed to grow up a bit, but I think he's defiantly on the right track.

Saturday at the Sunflower show, we anxiously waited for ALL the Havana's to be judged. Havana numbers have really grown.  It felt like there was 1000 of them, and I lost track of what belonged to who and what and where Jacob's were. In the end, while we were holding our breath,  Jacob's Jr doe, Pink, was awarded the Best of Breed prize, with the Best Opposite going to his friend Madelynn. Pink also got looked at twice and long and hard during the selection for Best In Show at the end of the day, but no such luck this time!

Jacob, BOB with Pink,  Madelynn, BOS with her blue buck, with Judge Eric Mixdorf from Iowa.

Later in the scholarship show, Jacob's friend Tyler took the Best of Breed with a broken, and Jacob's Jr chocolate doe got Best Opposite.

Jacob, BOS with a jr chocolate, Tyler, BOB with his broken buck, with Judge Vic Vogts.

Jacob's haul, minus a really cool BOB ribbon that was buried in his moms purse. Jacob graciously shared ONE of the boxes of candy with his family. The other boxes are hidden and probably under lock and key.

I was thrilled to witness a wonderful camaraderie with the youth Havna breeders. Jacob, Tyler, and Madelynn were never far from each other, going over each others rabbits, asking questions, giving advice, asking advice. Jacob had hauled a few rabbits to the show for Tyler to look at to buy, and he ended up buying 2.  Later, Jacob and Madelynn traded stock, because each of them had something the other wanted and needed for their programs. I love it that they are turning to EACH OTHER and not just the adult breeders, for support.

You can also tell exactly when and where the Havana breeders are at a show..youth AND adults. They cheer VERY LOUDLY and give candy for the rabbits first off the table. (last place)  It's just another way to have fun and show support. =)

(I have news on Tristen, but I think he deserves a post all of his own, so stay tuned!)

Bunny Love

In bunny news we've had a very successful breeding season. We have never bred this many does before, nor had this many litters. It's nice to be able to be really picky about the stock we keep, and Jacob's getting really good at picking those out.  We've also had some really strange things happen this season.  We've had 2 black babies born with incorrect eye color.(BLUE! They are BEAUTIFUL regardless!!)  And we also had a first time mom get a little obsessive about cleaning and chewed off part of her babies ear. (It's hard to get upset at them for "loving" their babies so much. Some of them are just a bit OCD about it.)   So while this boy can't be shown, he can stick around for breeding stock.  We've named him Crack, because as his ear grows, the "crack" in it gets deeper.  He's a bit homely looking, but is very sweet. And it's never hard to pick him out from his litter mates! It was actually just tiny little "notch" when he was little, but as his ear has grown, so has the crack.

It's the first of June and we have already lost 2 juniors to the heat. It may be a very long summer. Both these were from a Californian litter. Rabbits are very intolerant to heat and will check out pretty fast.

Danny braved the high winds over Memorial weekend and shimmied up the tree to get on  the roof to install a soaker hose on the bunny barn roof.   We had plans to re-roof in white tin, but that just didn't happen.  Water on a metal roof will drop the temperature down quite a bit. Last year we used a sprinkler on one side  and it knocked it down 5-8 degrees. We are hoping with it running down both sides it will help even more. We normally use frozen water bottles in their cages, but seeing as how our freezers are full of FOOD, and we don't really have the room to freeze the number we need, we will only be doing that for the buns OUTSIDE of the barn. Summer time with rabbits is a yucky time.

 Jacob stood guard, promising he'd come get me if he thought an ambulance was needed. He also attached different tools with rope and Danny would hoist them up.  Sometimes--SOMETIMES boys are smart! ;)

 Gotta keep one hand on the hat at all times.

This probably should have waited until a different day, but he got it up and it works like a charm. I'm sure we will be trying it for real sooner than we'd like.

We've got a big show coming up in just a bit over a week!! It feels like it's been FOREVER since we've been able to show.  Jacob's got a lot of youngsters to get on the table and some of them are looking pretty nice. It will be nice to catch up with our rabbit friends as well!

State Fair Results

It was a great year at the State Fair.  And crazy.  And exhausting.

 T took his Florida White, Runny Babbit. Runny is an old guy being 4 years old now, but that didn't stop him. He came home with a nice Best of Breed ribbon from the open show and a blue ribbon from the 4-H show.

J has been working on his meat pen for about 4 months now. It was the first time he's ever done it, and learned a lot from it.  He didn't qualify it for the 4-H show, but got Grand Champion Meat Pen in the open show! (A meat pen is 3 rabbits who are to look exactly alike or as close as possible in body type and be pretty much the same weight.  I think J's were all within 2 oz of each other.  It sounds easy, but it's a challenge.)

 J took his Sr Buck Californian, Truman and came home with a Best Opposite Sex in the open and a blue ribbon from the 4-H show.  Truman does well on the table. He's J's showmanship bunny so he usually goes to all his shows, but he also gave J some NICE looking babies so he can just sit back and relax now. (Babies above in the meat pen are his boys and J's already been practicing with one for showmanship!)  Truman was J's first HOME BORN winner so he's got a special place in our hearts.  He's kinda of spoiled. ;-)

 For Havanas, J took his Black Havana Doe, PR8.  She came home with a Best of Breed from the open show as well as a Best Opposite Sex and a Best of Variety from the 4-H show.

 He also took his Black Havana Buck, Charlie.  He got  a Best Opposite Sex for the open and a Best Opposite Sex Variety for the 4-H show.  Charlie was J's Best In Show winner from the Dodge City show, and just might have done better had he waited to molt. He was in horrible coat condition.  Most of the rabbits there were blowing their coats in some shape or form.  People with allergies were really suffering in the bunny barn!!

 J also participated in the showmanship contest and got a blue and also the judging contest and got a purple. He was really excited about that one as its his favorite and he's really improving.  They take 4 breeds of rabbits with 4 rabbits in each group. They have numbers in the ears and they have to judge and place each group.

The boys also took some other projects.  T took his Strawberry Coffee Cake and got a white.  J took Mint Chocolate Cookies and got a red, the boat harbor picture got a red, and he received a purple on his chess board.
I'll need a year to recover from this years State Fair....and I'm not even sure that will be enough time!