Wit, Wisdom & Wonder

Martha Grahamcracker is now bouncing around the Rainbow Bridge, no doubt disapproving of it all, nibbling on everything and bossing everyone around. I would expect nothing else of our fierce little force of Nature.



Josh buried her under the Rowan tree. I expect next year's berries will be especially tart.

Its a slow weekend here at the house. Yesterday, Josh yanked everything out from under the sink and put down vinyl shelf paper, doing the same for the glass cupboards. He's going to do the baking cupboard, possibly during the week. Then he'll do the dishes and cooking cupboard.

Deanna came over last night to learn to make the Neely Family fried chicken recipe. We ended up on an incense making spree, which was great - she made Bast incense. I'm still screwing around with a Samhain recipe for the site. Not particularly fond of most of the recipes I'm finding, which seem to be fumitory in nature. *shudder* I have found one that's nice, but it needs tweaking, which I'm currently working on.

Woke up with a fever. I take this as a good thing, as my immune system is finally taking on this stupid sinus thing head on. I'm sneezing like crazy and still feverish. Hoping this means the end of the cold is near.

Meanwhile, Martha is hanging on. Her digestive system is working again. This is a good sign, though she's still not moving much. We're feeding and watering her by hand. We'll see how she's doing tomorrow, see what the vet says, etc.

Meet the new guy - our Flemish Giant rabbit (buck, aka male). On the way home from the livestock auction I called him Bucky, Josh doesn't seem to think the double entendre is as funny as I do. But until we figure out a better name, I'll likely continue to think of him as Big Bucky. More pics on FB, here.



I managed to cover his winning bid ($13) with the proceeds from a friend's two Barred Rock roosters and my three Silkie cockerels (all three returns from the straight run Silkie sales), with a bit left over. *whew!* Josh is thrilled, we're thinking he's around 15 or so pounds. We really need to get a scale soon for the poultry and bunnies.

We have Bucky set up in the middle pen of the West Wing, surrounded on both sides by Silkies. We'll likely have to re-enforce the exterior fencing soon, as he may decide its a lot of fun to unravel the chicken coop fencing. We have a tougher fencing we can quickly staple in over that, if need be.

Bucky is friendly and very happy to be out of cages and in a pen of his own, he's experimenting with the possibility of climbing up the hutch. Whether he gets up there or not, only time will tell. He's already water bottle trained, though we did give him a water bowl just in case. I've given him some nose rubbins, brought his scent back to Shady and she seems to approve. She has another 3-6 months at least until she's big enough to even consider introducing the two.

Later this week, we'll put Shady in her own exercise pen and they can stare across the aisle and make goo-goo nose twitches at each other. :D

We've moved Shady into the dining room, now that she's a bit older and better able (we hope) to cope with the comings and goings of our busy household. Flemish Giants are a very tolerant, calm breed, so we're watching carefully to see if she's old enough for this, as we don't want to needlessly stress her at this stage in her development. We've placed pet towels around her large cage in the hopes she'll feel a bit more protected in her space, plus have some shade. I'm a bit concerned that the noise will force her to be a bit more diurnal than she's been to date, its a lot quieter and darker back in my office. That said, I'm very grateful to have more room available back in there with her out here.

Additionally, given the three windows in there (a sort of faux bay window) that the area not heat up too much. Given our relatively chilly temps here in the Pacific Northwest, that isn't likely to be an issue until August. Facing West, the dining room gets a lot of late day sun, which leads to wonderful shots like this in the front yard:



Visiting folks are charmed by her. She's one of the first things that come up when they visit. Treats are more forthcoming now that she's handy, including fresh herbs and dandelions. I'm currently watching her stand with her front paws on her feed bowl (attached to the side of the cage) and nibbling away. She's a great eater, growing as fast as she is. Josh has hung several hay balls, as well as using additional hay in the cage as filler, the hay balls provide hours of entertainment as she works to free the hay and ring the attached bells. I take her kitchen trimmings, when appropriate, more often now that she's right there. We've begun giving her a bit of fodder, as well, now that the danger of her juvenile digestive system over-reacting is a bit less of an issue. We do need more shelves in her cage, we've had a few go missing, somewhere. Grr.

Meanwhile, I check several times a day for Wendy's eggs to hatch. Gracie will tell me when they are ready, but Big Blue has gotten so ferociously protective, he's no longer allowing Doodle to come down the dog slide I know the time is close! I shit you not, Big Blue has been standing at the bottom of the slide and not allowing Doodle outside. While that's a hoot, its a real pain in the ass! We're about THIS close to asking friends to watch Doodle for a week or so until Big Blue calms the EVER-LIVING-FUCK-DOWN - which generally happens a few days after hatch, when he takes up guard duty in front of the hutch. And its just Doodle. Gracie and Flash are exempt. *sigh* Mostly, I go running out there to get them to knock it off, I haven't thought to get a picture of it.

Josh has wanted Flemish Giant rabbits for years and we finally found some! These are very hard to find because anyone who has them, keeps them! Given they are livestock rabbits, they are very tolerant, very laid back and very lethargic bunnies, even as babies. These have been weaned for three days.

I knew they were babies, what I did not expect was for them both to fit on one hand. Oh dear Gods, are they cute.

The agouti is the female, she's about twice the size of the male:



The male is the runt, he's itty bitty:



Needless to say, Josh is thrilled. He carried them around in the bib of his work overalls for hours after we picked them up at noon. So far, the bunnies have visited several friends, including our friend John who is house-bound and his mother-in-law who has moderate Alzheimer's (they napped on her lap).

They'll be living in the house for at least a month, then likely moving into the coop with the chicks before they are large enough for a hutch. When they are big enough, we'll hopefully have a few pens ready for them. These rabbits can get upwards of 22 pounds and the Guinness record is 50 pounds!

A marvelous lady just adopted the two English Angoras, Winken and Nod. They are going to a wonderful home where they can live indoors and be spoiled rotten the whole while. I've always believe I'd failed the Angoras, so it's with mixed feelings I sent them out to their new home.

Goodbye, my bunny boys. You will be missed

This little gal, a chestnut agouti mini-lop, was brought in today by a nice pagan gal who caught her on the Naval Air Station. Predictably, she was covered in fleas, really underweight and dehydrated. After a flea shampooing, toweling off and introducing myself she gladly submitted to a half dozen syringe-fulls of cool water.

Here's a pic of her being bathed in our kitchen sink to show you how tiny she is:



Here she is grooming after her bath, protected by Cthulu - destroyer of SPOs:



As to her name, Kevin who has built and repaired many a rabbit enclosure asked to name her.

In celebration of the beloved lady, we've got a huge Furkid Friday to share. So enjoy!

The adorable synapsepi came over, along with her munchkin Stephen (sp?), to help me with Farm Day. We emptied the duck pond, cleaned out the rabbit pens, scoured the waterers, etc. Brenda came by that evening and groomed Winken, much to his dismay.

Starting with a very wet, bedraggled and disapproving Winken mid-bath:



Winken asks "Who you looking at?":



After a very tiring day, Doodle & Libby curl up together on the sofa (I took dozens of these, but this one was selected due to kitten belly) for a nap:



This morning, a very annoyed pair of English Angoras were taken back outside to Bunhalla after spending a night in the Temple: Winken because he was still a touch damp, Nod because he was still a bit groggy from the anesthesia for the sutures:



In other news, Bunhalla has seen a few changes. Martha has been giving Mufasa's old pen (hopefully she won't figure out to get out of that one, fenced as it is in chicken coop fencing) between Thistle (aka the Pirate Bunny) and Noir. And where, you may ask, is Mufasa now? He got adopted! A beautiful little girl, the daughter of Erin, the Hay Lady has wanted a bunny to spoil rotten. And the very indulgent, sweet and infinitely laid back lionhead was the perfect match. Thankfully, I'll get to see him every month when we get hay!

Yay, for Mufasa!

Headed outside around 9pm tonight to finish the night prep for the critters: herding the ducks back into the pen, making sure the ducks and bunnies had water and food. For the bunnies, this includes a Summer treat of apple branches (the non-apple bearing ones) and additional hay. Feeling charitable, I then fed the dogs and cats so they aren't prompted to get creative during the night.

Which reminds me, I need to buy more rabbit pellet. It's time to start supplementing.

Next week a few friends are coming over for the Summer Farm Day Clean Up. This includes:
cleaning out the pens in Bunhalla
scouring the waterers and de-bogeying with white vinegar
emptying the pond, cleaning it and refilling it (rock retrieval, too)
grooming the rabbits
fixing Bunhalla West so Martha can't wiggle free

Needless to say, I need to prepare a good lunch for all of us!

Meanwhile, my idiot neighbors are setting off fireworks down the street.

A few of your favorite things~

Ms. Martha (the big Mafia bunny) has decided, in her typically bossy way, that she'd like to hang out in the duck enclosure (Duckgard). Which caught us completely by surprise, she's never gotten out before now she's slipping easily back and forth between the two pens at her leisure. Martha apparently has two main objectives for doing this: 1) she can eat their cracked corn feed & s) she gets to chase Libby out of the duck's pen.

Which, predictably, is driving the other rabbits nuts. Why does Martha get to eat the ducks' corn and they don't? Cue the mass disapproval. Even my darlings Mufasa & Nod are avoiding eye contact! Frankly, we're just surprised that the Khaki Campbells are allowing this thievery, likely they will attend to this post haste. The Campbells adult feathers have mostly grown in, a few still have downy tufts of down on their heads making them look a bit bewildered and balding. Their new feathers are gorgeous - glossy, beautifully marked with just enough individuality to help us tell them apart. Bernard, in particular, has gorgeous almost vibrant silvery embossing on each feather.

Our little mixed duck flock (Rouens & Runners) are getting big. The Rouens in particular have really begun to put on some decent heft. So much so that during a supervised mingling of the flocks, one of the Rouens (Brutus) chased off a Campbell some 4 times his size! Unfortunately, one of the Runners is the Runt, so we have to take particular care to ensure she gets ample food and isn't bullied too much by the Campbells. We're only allowing supervised mingling at this point, which ensures both flocks are joined in their contempt & complaining of my herding skills. I hear far less gossip when Gracie herds them, which she's getting remarkably skilled at. Brutus and Nero (Rouens) I don't really worry about, they will hold their own. The Runners (Beatrix & Luca) are my main concern, they haven't the padding or body weight and easily get knocked over like the bowling pins they resemble.

Picy goodness this afternoon!