Looking Back on 2009

GC Sweet Pea wins Best Reserve at Delmarva.

GC CR Blue Skies wins Second Reserve at Shenandoah Show A.

GC CR Blue Skies poses for her official photo.

GC Shepherds Sweet Pea win BIS at Delmarva.

GC Shepherds Aslin wins Best Reserve at Shenandoah Show B.

The year 2009 has had many ups and downs for me but I can't be more pleased with my show season. My goal this year was to win one open Best in Show with one of my English Angoras. That was reached at the Delmarva show B with a Reserve in Show A. My next goal became winning a BIS or Reserve with an English Angora Buck and/or a Jersey Woolie. Both of these goals happened at the Shenandoah double show. Jersey Woolie Self Senior Doe GC CR Blue Skies won Second Reserve in show A and English Angora REW Senior Buck GC Shepherds Aslin won Reserve in show B. The English Angora Show Season ended with:

8 Grand Champion English Angoras with 5 very close to GC.

2BIS, 2RIS, 12 BOB, 16 BOS, 16 BOV, 7 BOSV winning a total of 44 legs.

I just want to thank everyone for their support and to particularly thank Mr. Bill Miller for selling me some of his most precious Jersey Woolies. The bunnies from him and my breeding with the "King of All" have really made my first official Fall Jersey Woolie Show season start off with an unexpected bang:

3 Grand Champion Woolies and 3 very close to GC.

1 Second Reserve, 8 BOB, 4BOS,7 BOG,11 BOSG winning a total of 18 legs.

Being very unexperienced with showing Woolies, all of these wins were a true surprise to me and totally unexpected. The bunnies made it easy for me as they just love to show as seen by Miss Blue Skies official photo above. You only have to look at her sideways and she does that! No help needed by owner except love and a little brushing.

Hoppy Christmas

Hoping all my bunny friends have a great holiday.

Hope your mug is overflowing with holiday cheer.

And you all get some rest!

To all my bunny friends have a hoppy, health Holiday season and hope everyone has full nest boxes for the New year. Thanks for all your support during a very trying year. Bunny people are all the best and I wish the best for all of you from The Rabbit Shepherds.

Snow Job

Winter wonderland.

There is a truck under there.

Bird Bath.

How deep can it get?

No words are necessary for the snow storm that we got on Saturday. I am hardly walking today from the big shoveling out. Our very kind across the street neighbor helped us with the street part of the driveway. It was still snowing when these pictures were taken and we ended up with 24" of snow in the end. The only ones happy about this picture are the angora goats and they already have on big fur coat.

The Big Haircut

The King of All says"What is that?"

Could that much wool come off of one Rabbit?

Buried in a sea of wool.

Aah, that feels better.

GC Shepherds Sweet Pea finally had her big haircut. She has been growing her coat for a full year. There was never a coat molted out. Even I was surprised at how much coat came off of this one rabbit. Her density and even, non-molting coat must have been her winning ticket to the two Best in Show and one Reserve in Show wins. Her sisters and brother held their coats for a long time and her one brother even won two BOS with his second coat. That doesn't happen very often in the English Angora world. I have had very few angoras to win with a grow back coat. GC Shepherds Aphroditi won two BOB with her second coat going on to complete her grand champion title. She is the only one I can think remember at the moment. Can't wait to see Miss Sweet Pea's coat spun up and knitted (by someone other then me:-) into something very beautiful.

New Goats

New Black Goat.

Both joining the herd.

Smaller black goat.

We have added some new members to our goat family, a large, black male goat with some silver to the edge of his coat and a smaller black male goat with a white saddle. They have joined our herd and you would think they had lived here all their lives. They really enjoy playing with our 3 young goats that were born this spring. It is fun to see them frolic around the yard. They also get our goats up and moving around the property grazing on the grass and shrubs instead of laying around sleeping in a big lump.

I drove up to get them in New York State near Utica. I got a chance to visit with Linda, bringing her my famous pumpkin pie, which she seemed to really enjoy. Then the next day we drove over to Maggie Alexander's to pick up the goats and thank goodness Linda was with me because I don't think I would have found her farm by myself as many of the roads didn't have any signs.

Her son helped to catch them and we put them in a crate in the back of my SUV. They stood up most of the way home and I think there were many people on the New York Thruway that wondered what kind of crazy looking dogs that lady from New Jersey had in her car. When I stopped at a rest stop I saw people looking in the back at them too. They did very well for being in the car for over 5 hours.

We kept them in a pen in the barn so our goats could come in and sniff them and get to know them but the little goat got out and joined right in with the herd so we let the bigger one out and he was happy to meet everyone. The only problem is the dogs keep barking at them because they can't figure out what they are. They will get used to them eventually.

Sweet Pea Poses

Sweet Pea in her show coat.

Sweet face close up.

Angora on velvet.

Haven't blogged for awhile because my computer was sick again but this time I lost everything on the computer. These beautiful photos were taken by Donna McGraw at the end of Sweet Pea's show career. She looks lovely posing on velvet. The longer she was shown, the better her attitude became. I remember that in the beginning of the fall, she was growling at some of the judges. Looking startled, they would usually place her last. Sweet Pea would never bite but just give out a warning that she was done being touched by strangers. She never growled at me by let me know when she had enough grooming by nudging me with her head.

The growling simmered down over time and she reluctantly decided to cooperate with showing, ending her career with 2 open Best in Shows and one Reserve in show with 7 BOB, 3BOS and 10 GC legs. Quite a show career for a slow stater that didn't have 1 GC leg as a junior. Her sister GC Posey, brother GC Bramble and other brother GC Tinker Toy always seemed to beat her. But she showed them by holding onto her coat for over a year and ending up with 12" of wool at the longest point.She has had the big hair cut which I will post photos of when I find the cord to my camera. She was surrounded in a sea of wool after her haircut and is very happy now running around her cage playing with toys. She will be bred soon but I have already re-done this breeding and hope to have good luck with babies again.