Spring has Sprung

Not a Hot Dog.

First Day of Spring.

Still a Chili Dog.

Big Flakes.

Forgot that I took these photos. Friday was the first day of spring. It seemed like as soon as they announced that on the TV weather, the sky started falling. Moe was not having any of it and pulled the blanket down over himself, going right back to sleep. He is always a cold dog and keeps him nose tucked into the blankets. It is still cold today, 23 degrees when I got up, but very sunny which kind of fools you. Want to work in the bunny barn but I can't feel my hands. The bunnies like the cold but their coats can't quite figure out what to do. Grow and molt, grow and molt. Maybe tomorrow would be a better day, it is looking like 60.

Show Day

Cute little Dwarf Hotos at the show.

Nice bright show room.

Everyone being social.

The group down "Angora Alley".

Hamburg, Pa. is a fun show in a large arched showroom. It has windows at the top which lets in lots of sun making for a very bright room. No place for mis-matched toenails or stray white hairs in this show room as everything shows up in the bright light. It also seems to highlight the white bunnies making them almost glow. Every time that I have show there, all the REW bunnies have won. This seemed to be the case last year as Shepherds Sensation won Best Reserve in show A and Sullivan won BOB in show B, both REWs.

This year the McGraw's handsome REW senior buck, Luna won BOS in both shows and REW Shepherds Aphroditi won BOB also in both shows. The colored rabbits were young but Mr. Ashley (black senior buck) won BOV in both shows and my sable pearl doe ( no name yet) won BOSV also in both shows. Along with very informative comments, Judge Frizzell and Judge Humphries were consistant. There were a good amount of English Angoras entered along with many French Angoras, a few Satins and a few Giants. Of course, I was too busy to get any photos of bunnies except a cute stack of the McGraw's little dwarf Hotos.

The grooming area was set behind the bleechers and we called this location "Angora Alley".

We all had a good time socializing and laughing while running back and forth between both shows. I came home with a huge stack of cages set on top of my car and 7 chickens crowing in the back. I couldn't have fit more than a cracker in my car with all of the bunnies, supplies and chickens. At one point I thought that it wasn't all going to make it back in. Some smarty pants suggested that I put bunnies into the stacker on the roof, as they would have a nice fluffy coat by the time I got home.

Very funny :-)

Good Therapy

Tort doe sitting pretty.

Tiny blue tort buck.

Two chocolate tort sisters.

Tort buck enjoying the sunshine.

Grooming bunnies is great therapy. I find it very relaxing and it seems to take all the stress away. There was a story in the newspaper about a woman that had hairless dogs. She trained them to lay over her neck and it helped her with her chronic neck pain. She said "neck" and they would go up to the back of the sofa and wrap themselves over her neck.They have a body temperature of 102 degrees so they must be just like a heating pad. I know it sure is nice to hold a warm bunny on your lap on a chilly, rainy day and have a snuggle. Continuing the show grooming and getting everyone beautiful for Saturday. I had better finish naming these guys before they are all grown up. Sometimes it just takes me awhile to find something that suits them and sometimes it comes to me right away. This group seems to be causing me trouble.

Show Prep

Lydia enjoying the sun.

Sable pearl doe fluffed up.

Lilac tort buck looking handsome.

Ashley looking nice.

Natasha trying to make a run for it.

It was such a beautiful day, sunny and 70 degrees. So as many bunnies as I could manage, got groomed today. Most of them just sat on the table and enjoyed the nice weather but some had spring fever and just wanted to make a run for it. Sometimes I think about other breeds of bunnies and how little grooming they need. It must be nice to go swoosh with a brush and plop a bunny on the show table. Even the Jersey woolies don't need as much attention and patience with the coats as the angoras do. The preparation for a really beautiful show coat can take months of care, nutrition and cold temperatures. This winter has been hard with the

very irregular hot and cold often during the same week. This makes the coats somewhat choppy and irregular in response. Hopefully, now that spring is almost here they should even out. The older juniors are looking good but the white senior does still have some growing to do. Maybe it's time to invent Rogain for bunnies.

Is it a Bird?

The goat playground.

Two little goat girls up a tree.

The boy watching them.

Hey, we are up really high.

How high can we go?

My yard is just a big goat playground. We had some trees come down after the snow storm and the little goats think they are a jungle gym. I can't believe how high they can go. The fence in the background is 6 feet high. They are very sure footed. They run up one tree, then down and up another one across the way. My husband is in the process of cutting the tree down now so his little kids don't get hurt, but I had to get a picture. I have heard of mountain goats but never tree goats. They are pretty funny.

Best Friends

Want to play?

Me too!

Never mind we'll just eat.

You can learn alot from watching animals. These three little goats were all born within a week of each other. They do everything together and learn from each other. The big one is "the Brat". He teaches the two little girls all kind of both smart and naughty things, like how to get his head stuck between the yard wagon and the barn and how to holler like no tomorrow. The two little girls came running for me, looking for help. In the end your friends are there for you. They keep you company, cheer you up and make you laugh. What more can you want?

Spring Fever

Baby blue jersey wooley.

Moving round ball of fluff.

More brushing?

Lydia looking sweet.

We had a heat wave this weekend and I took advantage of it by spending time in the barn and brushing all the juniors. They spent most of their time turning around in circles while I was trying to groom them and get a photo. I think they had spring fever. The weather has been so strange this winter that I don't think the coats know if they are coming or going. The only one that sitting still for me was Lydia and I think she fell asleep.

March Snow

Well, winter is a really hard time for me anyway and going to a rabbit show has always taken the away the winter blahs. The last two weeks have been particularly hard. I was hoping to go to the York show but even though I packed up bunnies and headed out at 4 am, I had to turn back home due to ice and snow on the roads. It was disappointing but there is another show in Hamburg soon so that should cheer me up. I did have to laugh after coming home from the bank yesterday and saw my yard bunnies making their way out of the 12" of snow that we were hit with on Monday.