Ok well, technically this is going to be my last blog on this freewebs account. Cristina Posey is building my new website for me and I can't transfer this blogger to the new site. So I will be beginning anew :) I will be able to leave the old blogs on this site ( which will then link to my new one, for anyone interested in reading the old ones). At least this will be a long blog...
Where do I even start? I guess I will begin with the Monroe show. It went really well, despite a rocky start! We were going to go down with kim and Cristina in the van, however Kim had to stay to work as a co-worker was in a car accident (thankfully is ok). So we piled into my 2 door Chevy Cavalier and headed out. Thank goodness that Sarah McCrae's mum was able to take her down as we had NO room and it was upsetting to have to tell her that. We all look forward to these shows so much!
We stayed at Sylvia's house and that was fun, walking down to the White Rock beach for some Japanese food in the fog :) We got up at 5 am and were out the door and were at the US border by 5:30 am. We got to Monroe and were unloaded by 7:30 am, so it was good timing for the show to begin at 8. La Luna picked up her second GC leg for BOS at 4 months old, even beating Lyra (who managed to seriously blow her coat in two days LOL). This little doe is such a looker!
A remarkable thing happened at the show, there were actually 9 Blanc de Hotot's entered! Margaret Cummings won BOB with a gorgeous jr. buck with exceptional type (sold to Taryn and Dennis from Edmonton!), and BOS with an adorable massive jr. doe, that I was lucky enough to be able to purchase from her. Thank you so much Margaret, you are so generous with your stock! The neatest thing about it was that they were both homebred's too. I brought Nike, my little 3 month old jr. buck and he recieved 3/5 in the Jr. buck division, not bad!
We left at about 5-6 pm, stopped at a Denny's for dinner (where I might say was the most exceptional service I have ever recieved at a restaurant, wow)! We were back at Sylvia's, unloaded a few things at 9 pm and then we headed off to the ferry, Us in the car and Sylvia in her truck bringing the 4 hole stacker that Heather bought (the main reason for her going to the show, as its impossible to get cages without shipping -so this worked out well). We got there at 9:30 to take the 10:45 home, said good bye to Sylvia....not realising that it was the day the schedule changed.... Apparently the last ferry that night was at 6pm. So there we are with my little car, a stacker that is longer than it lol and no ferry until 12 hours later! Instead of asking Sylvia to come all the way back to pick up the cages, we begged and pleaded and the ferry staff let us keep in in the staff room until the next morning and we again piled in the car and headed to Sylvia's :) The next morning we left and got home by about noon, very tired lol It was a fun trip, although we missed having Kim there. Its great having friends that are laid back and adaptable, it makes trips a lot more fun and relaxed. I find that the rabbits bring together people that normally may have not have had a chance to meet, or become friends, so that is a really positive thing that this hobby has done for my life.
Speaking of life, mine has been...interesting lately! I wont go into details, however my landlady has been, well, I cant really write what I WANT too, so let it suffice to say that she has decided she wants to run her business out of the house and is trying to make life hell so we will leave. We will move when we can (as its no fun living with all this harassment, and it HAS been harassment) for now we need to make the best of the situation. One of her game cards has been to threaten to call the city to conviscate my rabbits, as she knows thats the one thing that will get to me. Classy lady. So I was lucky when Kim and Cristina agreed to let me "move in" the rabbits to a small barn on thier uncle's farm in Duncan. The rabbits have roommates now LOL Thank you SO much, girls! I was worried about what I was going to do, and am relieved I don't have to reduce my herd significantly. In fact, thanks to all the room at the farm, I am able to keep Odie and Lilah (my Blanc de Hotot). Before I was only going to be able to keep 2, maybe 3, so this is exciting. The only downfall is that I have a half hour drive each way everyday, however the relief is worth it!
Anyways I had better go now, I will talk to you all soon on my new site :)
I have decided who I am going to bring to Monroe finally! Its a good thing as entries are due on Monday lol I am really excited as I am entering only home bred stock for the first time!
Today I am cleaning the rabbits, finishing up cleaning my carriers as well as a MAJOR tidy of the rabbit area. I have assembled half of my new cages so far and once they are all done I can move the cages around one last time.
I also need to get all my website information done for Cristina, so my new site can get up and running by the 13th! I am very excited about it! So today I am going to finish my write-ups on the rabbits, put borders and names on my photos in Photoshop, and other odds n' ends. I see a long day ahead of me :)
I recieved my "Domestic Rabbit" magazine and was frankly dissapointed. As a Canadian I feel that we are getting a seriously short end of the stick, as far as ARBA is concerned (I might mention that I am not just complaining on my blog - I will be contacting ARBA as well to get something done). I noticed that the Canadian BIS winners are not mentioned, as well as there is usually nothing Canadian related in our district report, except this last one at least a letter was referenced to that was written by a BC member. I am dissapointed in this and encourage everyone to write in to report our successes to our District rep, as she can only write about what is submitted(however I have heard lately that doesnt mean that is gets reported either. No wonder Canada is rarely taken seriously, when ARBA doesnt even acknowledge us. I apologise if I am going on a rant, however this has been bothering me for some time.
I would like to thank the American Dwarf Hotot club, as they DO acknowledge thier Canadian members.
Anyways back to Monroe! Only one more week until we leave :) I am going to be bringing down 4 presold animals, as well as 4-6 sale animals. If anyone is interested in a Dwarf Hotot, now is the time! I have lots of brood stock, some perfect marked, some sports, and one senior. I am looking forward to spending a couple of days with some great rabbit friends! Well I had better get going and get some of this started! I will write more soon ;)
Ok, well I am going to copy everyone and do a "rabbitry rundown!" This was entirely Laurie Stroupe's idea (man that woman can write!) and then Kim and Cristina did it as well! I think its an awesome and a good practice for all of us to do periodically. So here I go!
I have 33 cages now (not including my "emergency cages.") Yay! I have 20 (18x24's), 8 (24x24's) 3 (36x24's) and 2 solid bottomed cages.
Dwarf Hotot's
5 Sr. herd bucks:
13 Sr. does: (all my does are basically for brood, however I show them as juniors and early Sr.s when possible).
JR's I am growing out and showing before selling:
Blanc de Hotot's:
I also have my three pets, a pair of MR and my French Lop.
I am culling hard again quite soon, for my fall breeding, and I am almost ready to move on a few Sr. does, so I will be contacting my waitlist about them.
Ideally, I would like to have no more than 20 Sr. animals so that I have 10 cages to grow out my juniors, and then the 3 cages for my pets!
On another note I am really, really hoping that I can get another doe from Joy at the Monroe show. I dont know if she has anything available, however it would be so awesome! I love her stock, and anything that I get from her is still linebreeding for me :)
Lovin' Spoonful had 4 live perfects this morning, so that was exciting. Particularly as its the first litter that is out of animals of my own breeding! I am looking forward to showing them, as it will feel more successful winning with true homebreds! I am looking forward to the Monroe Show, that is coming up fast in another 2 weeks. I think I will only have about 4 to show! Oh well, I will go through my stock over the next couple of days and decide who to bring. I would love to bring lots as its a nice WA show, however it will likely be all juniors, other than Lyra.
Tomorrow I am building my cages that arrived today; I am looking forward to seeing them all set up. I cant wait to store those emergency cages away!
