Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Hoppy Summer

Baby birds on a shelf.

Lilac Pearls getting bigger.



GC Shepherds Sunflower finishes her show career
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Liam learns to drive.

It is finally summer and the weather has cooled off for a bit. We have a metal bakers rack on our front porch where we put birds nests we collect from the ground. The other day there was peeping from one of them. When we looked inside, the top photo is what we saw. Mommy bird took atvantage of the pre-made nest and went crazy as she realized that her babies were really accessable to human hands. We left them alone and they are really big now, almost ready to leave the nest.

The last show of the season was at the Carroll County fairgrounds in Maryland. It was a midnight madness show and we were almost showing our angoras at midnight. What a nice set up for the wool room with AC and huge fans. We didn't even have to use the blower, just set the buns up in front of the huge fan. The judge even came to us and judged in the AC. Prizes were adorable with small concrete lawn ornament bunnies for BOB and BOS and large round FAT bunnies for BIS, BRIS and even 2nd RIS. What a showing of English Angoras with 9 colored senior does on the table at once and each one was just as beautiful as the next! Makes for a very hard decision by the judge. Donna won BOB with her beautiful REW doe and Alyssa won BOV and BOS with her two beautiful torts. Anita had some beautiful tort sisters she was showing. Lauren and Chris did a beautiful job with the two tort does they were showing in youth as well. And Liam is growing up so fast, he is even learning how to drive now. So cute and so much fun to be with the little guy.






Thursday, June 9, 2011

Cool Thoughts

Snow storm last December

Looks refreshing!



Shoveling was no fun.

Just trying to bring some cool thoughts to the bunny bloggers. It is only June 9th and it was 100* in New Jersey today. It's crazy, just saying. But it could be December and the cold and snow could be back. What's worse? I can't decide. Bugs are out in force with the flys being the worst I have ever seen and now we have an ant invasion. We all are being punished for some really bad things we must have done.

Went to the North haven, Ct. show this past Sunday and had a delightful day of showing. I haven't been to this show in years due to my not always being able to get my entries postmarked by a certain day. Who wants to be charged a day of show entry fee for 15 rabbits? Anyway, they have come into the modern world and now accept e-mail entries so all is well with the world. It is not a bad drive even at 3 hours and we found an even more scenic ride home through the backwoods of Ct.

My breeds were mid-way through the group so it was really relaxing to groom and chat. I even got to have breakfast sandwich, which never happens. We had some different judges including the ARBA president, Mike Avesing ( spelling?) for the second show. I am always so happy to hear a different judge's opinion on the stock that I may like or dislike. It is always a learning experience for me even after 22 years of showing. There is so much knowledge in the comments from each judge that it can help you improve your herd if you just listen. Very thrilled to have a mention of second Reserve from the ARBA president for Shepherd's Sunflower. He said it doesn't come with anything but a hand shake but it meant the world to me. It is very nice when after all your hard work and time spent on the bunnies, someone notices.

The range of breeds and the quality of the breeds at this show was amazing. Where do you ever see about 20 Belgian Hares? It was a smaller show but there must have been every breed there and they all looked great. I don't know how they could choose a best at the end. Oh and the woolies did well with some very nice comments. One of the REW does I had planned on selling won a BOB in the first show so I guess she is now a keeper. Entered her at the last minute, thought I might be selling her if someone was looking for a doe. She looked pretty nice. Who knew that little white bunny sitting in her cage would do so well? Stay cool everyone, think cool thoughts, look at my snow pictures and maybe that will help.