Updates

It has been a very busy month.  Rico made a beautiful nest but didn't have any babies.  Expo had 6 babies from Creme on 12/15.  She still has 4 - 3 broken torts and 1 solid tort.  Amber had 6 babies from Lane on 12/22.  She lost 3 of them.  But the other 3 are doing well.  Whiskers laid her first litter on wire Monday night.  Sugar had 1 baby last night.  Unfortunately, it is a peanut.  So we will lose it within a few days. 

Our first two litters from Lane are approaching 4 months old now.  They are looking awesome!  We are so pleased to have little Lane babies in the barn.  Cammie's litter with Sub-Zero is looking promising.  We have a siamese sable in the barn again from Ash.  Siamese sables are gorgeous. 

We have three does due in January.  Hopefully, it will warm up for a few days soon.  Then we can do more breeding. 

Pictures

We were trying to get some good pictures today for our website today.  But there always a few hams in the group.  Frazier just wanted to stand up and look around.  RJ just wanted Philip's attention.  We also took some pictures of Gracie's litter.  The litter includes a fawn, a chinchilla and a frosty.  The frosty was hiding at the bottom of the basket. 

Unexpected Babies

It is supposed to be 17 degrees tonight, 5 degrees tomorrow night and 3 degrees on Wednesday night.  We could get 8 - 12 inches of snow tomorrow.  I think winter has come to stay.  When I came home tonight Rico had pulled fur in her cage.  But we weren't expecting her to have babies.  Maybe Lane successfully bred her when I had my back turned last month.  We should know in a few days.  It would be a nice surprise if we had unexpected babies. :>

Seward, Nebraska Rabbit Show

It was a great weekend.  We attended a triple show in Seward, Nebraska.  This is one of our favorite shows because the show is relaxed, well organized and well attended.  We took several Hollands who left the barn for the first time this weekend.  Crash, a SJB, from Lil' Bit Farms' Cammie and Lil' Bit Farms' Juneau attended his first show this weekend.  We were excited because Crash is from Cammie's first litter.  The other two Hollands (Smash and Bash) from this litter look promising, too.  Crash was even more promising than he looked.  He took Best in Show at the Holland Specialty show on Friday night.  On Saturday he won both of his classes.  But Lane, our SSB, beat him for BOSV in the first show and BOV in the second show.  Lane also took BOS in the first show.  Several of our other juniors did very well this weekend, also. 

Patience?

I think I could use a little more patience.  We listed George on the for sale page last month because he really wasn't looking good.  He is broken tort buck from Zoe and Moose.  He just turned 4 months old last week.  He is really starting to pop.  He is a pretty junior buck now.  If cage space wasn't such an issue, I think that would help.  But because we want to have a small rabbitry this will always be an issue.  We want to be able to give all of our Hollands attention especially when they are babies.  Needless to say, George was removed from the sale page tonight.  He is a keeper for now.  I don't know how many times it will take for the patience lesson to stick.  Hopefully it happens sooner rather than later.

Home

I arrived home Saturday afternoon from San Diego.  Convention was great.  I am so glad I went.  But I love being home.  We were blessed that Spunky placed 4th in his class.  We sold four rabbits.  One of our junior does is going to Japan.  I hope she travels well.  My family was really amazed when I arrived home with a broken black French Lop.  Nick has been asking for a big rabbit for the last few years.  Now he has one and it is his favorite color.  The French Lop's name is Twister.  He seems huge compared to our Hollands.  It is like having a puppy in the house.  I am sure that he will add a new dimension to our family.

Youth Best in Show Winner

Check out this beautiful Holland.  Aislin Hall from West Virginia won youth Best in Show with her solid senior doe.  This doe is gorgeous!  It is just awesome that a Holland Lop won Best in Show. Hollands Rule!

Sightseeing

We took the day off from the show barns today.  It was a nice change of pace.  This morning Karen, Debe, Sarah and I went to Del Mar beach at 6:30 AM.  We wanted to find seashells.  We didn't have much luck at Del Mar.  We fed the rabbits and then went to Tijuana Estuary with our friend, Mark Carson.  He is an avid bird watcher.  He had a great day because he spotted about a dozen new birds.  After visiting the estuary we traveled north to Imperial Beach.  There was a huge pier there.  The sand was great - soft and white.  While picking up a shell I underestimated how far in the tide would come.  My shoes and socks were soaked.

After lunch we drove across the Coronado - San Diego Bay Bridge.  It felt like the bridge was a mile in the air and two miles long across the water.  It was nearly that big.  It just felt like it.  Coronado Beach was our best find of the day.  All of us found bags of seashells.  We found several sand dollars that were intact.  There were a lot of baby sand dollars also.  I think we combed the beach for over an hour.  The sand was beautiful.  It had flecks of gold in it.  On this beach, I removed my tennis shoes and socks.  I enjoyed walking in the surf. 

At sunset we drove to San Elijo State Beach.  Unfortunately, the fog rolled in right before sunset.  So it was very hazy and turned cold.  The beach was still full of surfers, though.  The cliffs were awesome.

Tonight we fed the rabbits.  I took a picture of Spunky, our broken junior buck, who placed 4th yesterday.

More Rabbit Pictures

I took pictures of several breeds of rabbits today. 

Miscellaneous Convention Pictures

I thought I would post a few more pictures from Convention.  It was bright and sunny this morning.  The weather suddenly changed this afternoon.  The fog rolled in and it felt cold at 63 degrees. 

There are beautiful plants and trees everywhere we look. 

One of the exhibitors from Japan let me take a picture of his show coat. 

The Holland Lop booth had some great decorations.

Purina has a great display.

Youth Hollands & Open Hollands

Ty Gorden had an excellent day.  He placed in a number of classes.  His solid senior buck took BOSV.  I took a picture of him with our judge, Jay Hriez.  Aislin Hall from West Virginia took BOV with her solid senior doe.  She went on to win BOB.  Kelly Pedrotti from California took BOV with her broken junior buck and BOSV with her broken junior doe.  She won BOS with her BJB.  There were some excellent Hollands on the table today.  I told Ty that his buck could come home with us if he didn't want him.

Jennifer Poprawski won BOB in the open Hollands.  Linda Jinnings won BOS.  Congratulations to all of the winners!  They deserve it for the hard work it takes to breed a good Holland. 

Philip's Rabbits

The Holland judging is finished. I already posted the SSB and SSD results earlier.  We didn't have any solid juniors at Convention.  Frazier, our broken senior buck, placed 14th.  I was really pleased with his placement.  He is a small but well balanced buck.  Todd Naragon gave him credit for that balance.  We had 4 broken senior does.  Rico and Yoshi weren't up to their other competition.  However, Zoe and Judy both placed in the top 20.  Our 2 junior does, Peaches and Minnie, finished on the bottom half of their class.  But there were some great junior does in that class.  In fact, the best broken junior doe to best of variety.  Our last shot for top 10 placement was our broken junior buck, Spunky.  He placed 4th.  That was great!  It means that I get to bring a prize home for Philip.  Those will be awarded on Wednesday night at the Holland Lop banquet. 

SSB & SSD - Holland Youth

Jay Hreiz is the youth Holland judge for this morning.  There were 50 solid senior bucks.  Ty Gorden from Utah had a great morning.  He placed 1st, 4th and 6th in the SSB class.  I enjoyed visiting with him this morning.  Lane placed just out of the top 1/2 of the class.  Not bad for a young buck.  There were a number of 2 and 3 year old bucks that were awesome.  Lane should be more competitive next year.  Moose and T-Bone were no places.  But we weren't expecting them to place.

There were 31 solid senior does.  Miss Expo placed in the top half of the class.  I was thrilled because it was a deep class.  I have never seen such a nice group of does.  It took 3 1/2 hours to judge those two classes.  It is going to be a long day.  I spent the morning running Hollands to the judging table and talking to Ty.  That made the morning go faster.  I continue to see people that I know from around the United States.  I didn't think I would know this many people at Convention. 

Sunday ARBA Convention

Today was very busy.  We spent 8 or 9 hours at the showrooms.  It took 3 hours to feed and groom Philip's rabbits.  Now they are ready to show tomorrow.  The competition looks tough. I am just hoping that one of Philip's rabbits places. :>  I toured the exhibitor booths.  I found a great Holland Lop necklace.  Another booth was an artist from Tuscon, Donna Wahl.  She paints animals.  Her paintings of Hollands and Netherland Dwarfs are awesome.  So I had to take advantage of that opportunity.  I have another surprise for my family.  But that will need to wait until I get home.  We sold one rabbit today.  It was like a big swap meet with rabbits.  Sarah sold her Netherland Dwarf doe as a pet.  It is amazing to me that a family would pay Convention price for a rabbit as a family pet.  But this is California.  I took pictures of the fairgrounds and several breeds of rabbits today. 

Beaches and Raiders

This morning we visited Carmel by the Sea before we went to the showroom.  Tonight we went to Solano Beach to watch the sunset.  Sarah and I collected shells while Debe waded in the water.  Karen and I also  collected rocks.  It was a beautiful evening.  Then we went to Albertson's for groceries.  That was an interesting experience.  We saw fresh herbs and vegetables that are not available in Kansas.  There were 50 pound bags of carrots.  We saw a man in the checkout with two bags of them.  So I asked him what he planned to do 100 pounds of carrots.  He said they were for his horses and that is why they are called horse carrots.  Well, that seems logical doesn't it?  Except we have never seen a 50 pound bag of carrots before.  There were two guys behind us in the check out line.  They were obviously Raiders' fans.  We asked permission to take their picture.  California continues to be interesting. 

Saturday

We woke up at 6:00 AM (Central time) in Gallup, New Mexico this morning.  We drove from Gallup to Phoenix this morning.  It was 23 degrees when we left Gallup and 84 degrees by the time we arrived in Phoenix.  We drove through Tonto National Forest.  There were beautiful gray squirrels with white tummies.  I wished that I could have snapped a picture of one.  But they were too fast.  We were driving through a regular forest and then the landscape changed suddenly.  The mountains were covered with Sagauro cacti.  It was incredible. We drove through numerous mountain ranges today.  They were all different - pine forests, Sagauros, sage brush and pure rock.  We also saw sand dunes when we crossed into California.  We made it to San Diego by 6:00 (Pacific time).  We arrived at the coast just in time to see the sunset. 

The scenery was gorgeous today.  But the trip will be memorable because of the ladies I traveled with.  I don't remember the last time that a road trip went so fast.  Karen, Debe and Sarah all have a great sense of humor.  We were slap happy by the time we reached California due to the lack of sleep. 

We did check in and get all of our rabbits in their coops tonight.  The rabbits seemed to have weathered the trip okay.  Now we just need to get some sleep!