Greetings From Grand Central Station

The fridge is over flowing, and is desperately in need of cleaning, the boys rooms smell like a zoo and dirty socks, the laundry seems to be reproducing in the basement, and we have 4 birthdays this month. Danny worked out of town for a few days, not getting home until late. (Our team doesn't run so well when one of our teammates is missing!)  I haven't been sleeping well, and when I AM sleeping, I am snoring, which has lead to Dan stomping down the stairs to sleep on the couch at midnight. For the first time in my entire life I am dealing with allergy issues and had a sinus headache for 3 days straight. Our neighborhood has some sort of chicken/small animal killer that insists on dragging its screaming dying prey up our street several times a week now at 4 am. Yesterday  morning we ran out of toilet paper. And then shortly after,  Kleenex . And twice in the past week I have bought cheese, only to BOTH TIMES leave them sitting on the counter, in the grocery bag, overnight!!!! Just keeping it real!

Moving on..

We have more buns due this weekend/early next week, including the long awaited Dutch litters.  Tuesday morning, Jacob's chocolate doe, Keisha, had a litter of 5 little chocolates, sired by Jagger! His first Jagger litter! He's anxious to watch them grow up! (Jagger's 6 month show career to date has included 2 Best In Shows, 1 Best In Show Specialty, 2 Best of Breeds, and 2 1st Place Sr Bucks. He's a handsome boy!)

Jagger says Hello blogland!

It seems Keisha has inherited her dam and great-dams wonderful mothering instincts, as well as a not so favorable trait from her mom...you stick your hand in to check on those babies, and you will be greeted with grunts, growls and lunges with wide eyes and bared teeth.  Keisha's mom, a normally sweet girl,  does this her entire pregnancy, (its how we know she took!)  and then about a week after her babies are born, she mellows back out.  Those hormones are KILLER!  We shall see if they same holds true for her. Its hard to get mad at her, when she's just being a protective mom.

We have our potatoes and the beets and peas planted in the garden. Danny made our garden much bigger this year. Its now 38X51, adding on a good 200 square feet.  Which we will put to good use, since Dan is growing 3 different kinds of potatoes, I planted 2 varieties of beets and will be trying my hand at Okra this year!   It felt good to get my hands dirty again, and I was happy to see an abundance of  big, fat, juicy, earthworms. It seems with adding lots of rabbit manure, newspaper and straw, our soil has much improved in the 4 years we've used this plot for a garden! 
Tristen loves growing things, and this year is growing something new: PEANUTS! I wasn't sure if you could grow them successfully here, but found several articles on line about Kansas farmers growing them for crops. We had a sad empty spot in our yard where we recently took out our sandbox.  The perfect spot for some peanuts! Its been fun waiting for them to sprout and they are looking GREAT!! They are a hot weather crop and won't be ready until late this summer, but they seem to be doing well! 

Our spring has been A.MA.ZING! I commented to Danny that the pastures almost look FUNNY to me, with all the green grass out there. The cows are thrilled, and hardly come in anymore, except to get a quick drink.  It seems as if its been forever since things have looked this way.  Hose water will keep things alive, but that rain water, well, it's just magic!


The boys are in full swing with track! Jacob metaled in 2 events at the first track meet, with 4th place in the 800, and 3rd in the 400 relay.  
Tristen didn't metal, but has his first meet behind him now, which is a feat all in itself! I think track will be more fun now that the nerves will settle! He's been dealing with a foot injury for a month. He fell out of a tree..sigh...and bruised 2 bones in his foot. Its been a long  and annoyingly painful process for him.  One of those-- it doesn't hurt so bad to sit out, but hurts enough to HURT when he runs-- kind of things.  I think he's finally getting healed, which will help too, as long as he stays out of the trees. 

So there you have it. Our life right now. I'm thankful this week is almost over!

Goodbye March, Hello April!

Holy Batman! Really? March is over already??

It's a busy time around our house. Neither of my boys went out for basketball, so we had a nice time of nothing before track season started. But the busy time has started up and their first track meet is tomorrow.

Lots of babies in the boxes! Jacob ended up with 7 litters. 6 Havana, 1 Californian.  He has several pure black litters, 2 broken blacks, a blue,  and a litter of chocolates.  He has a another doe due this weekend, which  is sired by Jagger. He's anxious to get some Jagger babies in the boxes!

Tristen has 4 Dutch does due. 3 are due next weekend, and another the weekend after that. He's had a frustrating time getting started, and is just ready for some Dutch babies!! Stay tuned!

After this round is weaned, the girls will be bred again. In October, ARBA Nationals is in Wichita. 25,000+ rabbits, right in our back yard?? YES, PLEASE!

I do have a bit of a sad story to tell, while I'm talking about rabbits.  Jacob's black Havana, named Golly, was bred this last time, and I had palpated her as positive.  She built an amazing nest, pulled fur, and then...nothing. We waited, and waited.  She's known for having small litters, with big chubby babies, so I was worried.  After a week, we knew that it wasn't going to end well if she had  babies still inside her. So I called our vet and ran her over.  She had her belly shaved and was given an  ultrasound...our vets very first one she'd ever given a bunny!  Turns out, Golly isn't even pregnant. She just wants to be a momma REALLY bad!  She might have aborted her litter, or had a false pregnancy.   I tell people if she were human she would be one of these people who fakes a pregnancy and steals babies!  Golly still isn't convinced she's not about to give birth, but we feel better now that we know she's ok!


Saturday, Jacob and I ran to Dodge for a little birthday shopping. He got a pair of boots he's been wanting, as well as a headset for a game he plays on the Wii. That evening our family joined us for some pizza and some birthday cake.  His 14th birthday is Wednesday.

Let the month of birthdays begin!!

I am so enjoying our spring flowers!  It's amazing what a little bit of rain can do!! I sure don't remember things being this pretty last year!

 It's exciting to walk around the yard right now, and seeing things take off! I think we have a chance of rain off and on this week!! I sure hope we get it!  Hope everyone has a fabulous Monday!!!

It's SPRING!!!

There are Tulips blooming in my yard, baby bunnies in our nest boxes, and the smoker has a rack of ribs on it...It's SPRING!!!

Miss Anna has been found in the strangest places lately, soaking up the sunshine.

I love weekends where we just hang out and tinker around outside, which it what we did most of the weekend. The boys did some work at the farm. Jacob has won Charlies heart...food may have been involved!... and has finally able to get his hands on her.  Soon he will be getting her halter broke and walking her.

I transplanted starts from 3 rosebushes from the farm over the past week. With the rain we've had, they didn't even wilt! I really hope they live! If they do, I will have parts of  rosebushes that both my Grandmothers planted!  One is a really pale pink/almost white, but it's been years since I'd payed attention to what colors the others are. I guess I'll be surprised!

Today we had some of the cutest little girls in the county come over to learn about rabbits. I'm so excited to see increased interest in this project!  We may be a bit biased, but we think its the BEST 4-H project out there!

The babies have started arriving. This weekend was full of nesting mamas and through the night checks. I was convinced it was cold enough to kill newborns, but I was surprised when I went in to check at 3am to find 3  boxes filled with warm, toasty, cleaned up, babies snug in their nests. The moms just looked at me like, "Yea..I got this..you go worry about the human children."    We always learn during this hobby, and this time was no exception. Jacob has a cute little black Havana kit, who was born with NO TAIL! Like it never formed.  He's named him Stubs.  ;)

Hope everyone got plenty of sunshine this weekend!!

LOOK AT WHAT I MADE!

I love crafts. I am just not very good at them, unless they came  out of the kids section  and the package says for 5 and under.   I WANT to be good at crafts, but I have found I am just not good at anything.

BUT!!
See what I made for my door for Easter??

There is a running joke in my family about my love of Peeps. I do love them. I LIKE eating them too, but not nearly as much as I LOVE LOOKING at them. They are adorable, all lined up in their cute little package!

I do realize while all I did was hot glue sugar coated marshmallows to wreath, and added some ribbon, I feel its a small victory for the crafty-challenged!

Capital City Rabbit Show

We weren't going to go. Really. We were not!!
But we did.
I kept feeling conflicted as there was another show 2 hours away and it is a 3 hour 45 min drive to Emporia. We would have nothing good to take with us, as all of our does are bred and due this coming week. BUT!  We were pretty sure ALL of Tristen's Dutch does had missed, and his Dutch mentor, Briony, was willing to load up her herd bucks up to breed them at this show.  After breeding Oreo 6+ times to several does, we've come to the conclusion that the guy is sterile. 

But it was a wonderful 2 days!  After prom dress shopping with my sister, Danny met us outside Wichita and picked me up, so I wouldn't have to drive BACK from Wichita, and then all the way to Emporia.

I was happy we got there early, so we could play a little and not rush around.

Bright and early the next morning, we headed to the show. I was happy to FINALLY get to wear my new bunny show shirt I had Cindy make.

I should probably start by telling you that Jacob hauled 4 Havanas, 1 Mini Rex, and 2 Californians to this show.  The Californians are 2 Sr bucks. Truman is 3, and is Jacob's very first homegrown winner. He won 1st Reserve In Show in the very first show Jacob ever went to! Anyway, he also brought along Brat, Truman's son, who is 2. Brat hasn't left our barn in over a year, and Truman for over 2. He pretty much just brought them to have more rabbits to show. When we arrived, Jacob realized that Tara had come to show her Cals. Tara is from OK, is a really sweet girl, and has the most AMAZING CALIFORNIANS I have never seen. Jacob has quite literally drooled over them for over 2 years now, and anytime she's there, she easily sweeps the BOB and BOS. She had brought 12 with her, Jacob had the 2 old guys, and there was another exhibitor there who had 4. I think Jacob pretty much thought he was walking the walk of shame as he hauled his carriers up to the table. BUT--  would you believe who won??

Umm..yea..you could have pretty much knocked us all over with a feather. Jacob's Brat won Best of Breed under Tex Thomas.  I wish I could have taken pictures of Jacob's face when Tex kept sending bunnies back and Brat was still in the coop. Jacob claimed it was almost as exciting as the Best In Show judging!

Brat has hopefully sired a litter of babies expected later this next weekend!


In the Havana Specialty, Jacob was thrilled to win BOB with Jagger, his broken chocolate, with his buddy Tyler winning Best Opposite with a broken doe. It was St Patrick's Day and everyone was really festive, as you can see!

Jagger also went on to win Best Opposite in the regular show, (I'm bummed I didn't get a picture, but Tristen had rabbits on the table and we were in a hurry to get over and see how he was doing)   with a little blue doe from OK winning Best of Breed. That doe later went on to win Best In Show!

And THIS guy...!!!

 This guy won Best Opposite in the Ks Dutch Specialty with Oreo. He took 5 Dutch to show. Tristen met and shook hands with the vice president of the American Dutch Rabbit Club. He's from Gardner and a super nice guy. Dutch people are the BEST people out there!   Briony got all 3 of his does bred, so hopefully we will have Dutch babies in the nest box in a month. GO Dutch!

T also talked his parents into buying him a super cute 4 month chocolate Dutch buck, who has yet to be named, but took to our family very well...

It is, apparently, absolutely exhausting being so cute while trying to impress your new family!

I am constantly amazed where these little bunnies have taken us,  the time spent together, just the 4 of us, and the friendships we have formed along the way.  Sometimes in life, only our rabbit friends will do. And we were sure happy to see them!!

And on the way home, I was drug, perhaps against my will, to THIS PLACE!!  Its not that I HATE Cabela's. I mean I don't LOVE it either, but I have 3 men in my house. I've learned to be tolerant!  But I hate crowds. And this was the week of grand opening of this store. *shudder*  Pure insanity!  These people are just nutty over dead animals, camo, and guns!  I found a little tiny candle section and tried to sniff my way to my happy place and  pretend I wasn't just bumped into by a 6 1/2  foot man dressed in a deer costume, wearing a blaze orange cap.  It didn't work. As we were leaving the parking lot, which had police officers directing traffic I might add, I found there is a super-Target just down the block.

So,next time they have the urge to go there, I'm just running to Target!! As fast as I can...

=)

Posted on my Facebook page this morning by my cousin. =)

Source: imgfave.com via Sophie on Pinterest

Oh Spring Break..

..how I love thee.

My boys are home this week on Spring Break. Ahh. Just what this momma needed! No more morning drama, no more having to stop and think who is going where after school and when they will need to be picked up.  For the first time in 9 years, my daycare load LIGHTENED during this break, and today finds me with *2* children.   It's strange, and nice, all at the same time!

We've been enjoying temperatures in the 80's. I LOVE it, but fear this year will be another like last year.  Took a little walk around my flower beds, and was THRILLED to see most of my plants starting to leaf out. I did lose a few plants in the bed I added last year, but its not nearly as many as I feared.  I'm seeing life in things I was certain were dead and would need to be replaced. 

The Naked Lady's have shot up!

I'm proud!! This is a poppy I translated from my flower bed last year! It's THE ONLY poppy I've managed to transplant successfully in the 10 years we've lived here!!

The Blanket Flower I was convinced was killed by the Summer 2011 has returned after all!

And the Purple Coneflowers have started peeking through!

This weather has the bunnies feeling very "frisky", and after only have *1* litter  in 8 months, every available doe in our barn was bred, and are due next week. I'm pretty sure not ALL of them took, but judging from some of the bellies on some these girls, our baby drought is about to end.

Hope everyone gets a chance to get out and enjoy this weather!! Sounds like our area is in for some thunder storms next week! Would love the rain, just not any activity!