On your marks, get ready, set... SHOW!
Thats right folks! It is the beginning of show season in the good old midwest. Were gassing up the rabbit wagon and hittin the road. It will be a maiden voyage this eekend for the potential new rabbit wagon. 2001 Chevy Venture. Its navy blue and pretty. We'll see how she does on a long road trip. Always a little scary when you take a new vehicle out for the first time. I have faith in General Motors.
Our good friend Cole Simons will be accompanying us this weekend. Were meeting him and his mom Tara in Ames after work tonight. He will be going to the Gardner KS show with us on Saturday and DeWitt, Ia on Sunday. I bet we'll have a blast.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
What? It's February?
How did we end up almost to Valentine's day already? I have no idea! Time sure flies around here. I really don't have anything too exciting to say. We cut back on some rabbits going into winter and the cold took a few more. It's tougher on the little Dwarfs than the bigger bunnies I think. Hard on us, for sure, but it's just not feasible to do chores more than once a day when you have to drive 52 miles round trip to do them. They either learn to chew ice or they die. Fresh water once a day is all they get.
We tried making some improvements to the building. We covered the inside of the big doors to cut down the draft. This also has helped keep snow from blowing in! We tried putting in a plastic 'drop ceiling' of sorts... yeah that didn't work out so much. I really don't think it's made any difference at all.
We've given a few rabbits brooder lamps. However I don't recommend putting them over the top of nest boxes... seems the does tend to sit in the box and smoosh the kits. Which I find odd, because I have used the brooder lamps in my old barn for winter litters with pretty good success. My old barn was much warmer though. What I do think works well is to put the brooder lamp over the rabbits water bowl. This seems to encourage them to lick and chew the ice. Especially babies just coming out of the nest box.
We only ave a handful of babies from this winters breedings. Most just didn't make it when the first really cold weather hit in December. We have a couple litters of Dwarfs, one litter of mini lops and a litter of Blanc de Hotots. The Mini Lops started out with a few and has dwindled down to 2. Two very portly babies! Super cute with their upright ears! haha! The Dwarfs are just a bunch of silly chestnuts that Amanda likes. Boring. The Hotot started out with 10. 3 Hotots and 7 sports. Well, were down to one Hotot and 3 sports now. They just dwindled when they started coming out of the box. Darn things sure are cute though.
In addition to the few litters out at the barn, Amanda and I both have about 20 rabbits in each of our basements. I really don't like having rabbits in the house. 2 or 3 isn't bad, but once you get past 5 or 6 you may as well have 20. haha! I use the under pads for human incontinence in my drop pans. You can buy them at Sam's club. They run about 25 bucks for 120 pads. I try to change them out every 4 days but sometimes let it go a whole week. They are really handy because you can just tuck them up and throw them away. Don't have to scrape pans or deal with shavings or wood pellets. The garbage bags are pretty light. I can change all of them and only use two kitchen size trash bags. Then I take my pans rinse them slightly with water, spray them quick with smelly good stuff like febreeze, let them dry in front of the fan and then plop a new under pad in them. Pretty simple and easy. If you keep up with it the aroma is very much reduced.
We have a few litters due this weekend and next week. Amanda is off seeing Garth Brooks in Vegas with her mom! How exciting! So I get to do chores and frozen waters and nest boxes while she is enjoying the city that never sleeps... jealous? yep. :)
Anywhooo i'm off for now...
We tried making some improvements to the building. We covered the inside of the big doors to cut down the draft. This also has helped keep snow from blowing in! We tried putting in a plastic 'drop ceiling' of sorts... yeah that didn't work out so much. I really don't think it's made any difference at all.
We've given a few rabbits brooder lamps. However I don't recommend putting them over the top of nest boxes... seems the does tend to sit in the box and smoosh the kits. Which I find odd, because I have used the brooder lamps in my old barn for winter litters with pretty good success. My old barn was much warmer though. What I do think works well is to put the brooder lamp over the rabbits water bowl. This seems to encourage them to lick and chew the ice. Especially babies just coming out of the nest box.
We only ave a handful of babies from this winters breedings. Most just didn't make it when the first really cold weather hit in December. We have a couple litters of Dwarfs, one litter of mini lops and a litter of Blanc de Hotots. The Mini Lops started out with a few and has dwindled down to 2. Two very portly babies! Super cute with their upright ears! haha! The Dwarfs are just a bunch of silly chestnuts that Amanda likes. Boring. The Hotot started out with 10. 3 Hotots and 7 sports. Well, were down to one Hotot and 3 sports now. They just dwindled when they started coming out of the box. Darn things sure are cute though.
In addition to the few litters out at the barn, Amanda and I both have about 20 rabbits in each of our basements. I really don't like having rabbits in the house. 2 or 3 isn't bad, but once you get past 5 or 6 you may as well have 20. haha! I use the under pads for human incontinence in my drop pans. You can buy them at Sam's club. They run about 25 bucks for 120 pads. I try to change them out every 4 days but sometimes let it go a whole week. They are really handy because you can just tuck them up and throw them away. Don't have to scrape pans or deal with shavings or wood pellets. The garbage bags are pretty light. I can change all of them and only use two kitchen size trash bags. Then I take my pans rinse them slightly with water, spray them quick with smelly good stuff like febreeze, let them dry in front of the fan and then plop a new under pad in them. Pretty simple and easy. If you keep up with it the aroma is very much reduced.
We have a few litters due this weekend and next week. Amanda is off seeing Garth Brooks in Vegas with her mom! How exciting! So I get to do chores and frozen waters and nest boxes while she is enjoying the city that never sleeps... jealous? yep. :)
Anywhooo i'm off for now...
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Been Away From the Blog Too Long
I know in my last post I promised to post more often. That just hasn't worked out too well for me. Since the last post, lots of things have happened. We have gotten calmed down from the tragedy and have tried to move onward and upward. At times its easier said than done. I guess raising rabbits really isn't for the faint of heart. It is a constant struggle, but so is life.
Babies die, grown ups die, sometimes suddenly and without cause and sometimes slowly and sometimes in horrible ugly ways. Its the way of the world. We really don't have a lot of control over these things. All we can do is our best and try to maintain and more importantly, to carry on.
With that said, I'm going to have a virtual *sigh* and hopefully move on to a more lighthearted topic.
The Iowa State Fair.
It's over! yay! It's over! Aww :(
Mixed emotions, for sure. Fair time is so much fun and also SO MUCH WORK! I've tried to distance myself somewhat from the craziness of the fair by only attending 'mandatory' days. to help my mom and stuff with the 4-H rabbit show. But it's still craziness. I think it just comes with the 4-H territory!
Mikey showed 5 Havanas and did really well, receiving 2 purples and 3 blues. WAY better than last year... I think he had fun, it was a long day. He missed his first day of 8th grade to show his rabbits. How 'bout that? Upsets me that the schools start so early now, State Fair isn't even over and they are in school. I just called the school and said he was going to be absent because he was showing his rabbits at the 4-H show at the state fair. No questions asked,, seemed ok... SO i guess I'm a cool mom? I don't really know about that!
After the 4-H show is over its time for the Open class show. It went well, Mr Toss Up was Best Of Breed and that was very exciting. We brought home a new project... 6 Blanc De Hotots... now isn't that something! Thanks go out to Sonja Papakee for the chance to work with this rare breed.
State Fair is so awesome. I just love getting to walk around and look at everyone's wears. Its a true example of the creative, ingenuity and commitment of the people of Iowa. Not to mention a great exhibit of the importance of agriculture in our society. It's over for another year and as awesome as it it... I a m glad it's over... :)
Babies die, grown ups die, sometimes suddenly and without cause and sometimes slowly and sometimes in horrible ugly ways. Its the way of the world. We really don't have a lot of control over these things. All we can do is our best and try to maintain and more importantly, to carry on.
With that said, I'm going to have a virtual *sigh* and hopefully move on to a more lighthearted topic.
The Iowa State Fair.
It's over! yay! It's over! Aww :(
Mixed emotions, for sure. Fair time is so much fun and also SO MUCH WORK! I've tried to distance myself somewhat from the craziness of the fair by only attending 'mandatory' days. to help my mom and stuff with the 4-H rabbit show. But it's still craziness. I think it just comes with the 4-H territory!
Mikey showed 5 Havanas and did really well, receiving 2 purples and 3 blues. WAY better than last year... I think he had fun, it was a long day. He missed his first day of 8th grade to show his rabbits. How 'bout that? Upsets me that the schools start so early now, State Fair isn't even over and they are in school. I just called the school and said he was going to be absent because he was showing his rabbits at the 4-H show at the state fair. No questions asked,, seemed ok... SO i guess I'm a cool mom? I don't really know about that!
After the 4-H show is over its time for the Open class show. It went well, Mr Toss Up was Best Of Breed and that was very exciting. We brought home a new project... 6 Blanc De Hotots... now isn't that something! Thanks go out to Sonja Papakee for the chance to work with this rare breed.
State Fair is so awesome. I just love getting to walk around and look at everyone's wears. Its a true example of the creative, ingenuity and commitment of the people of Iowa. Not to mention a great exhibit of the importance of agriculture in our society. It's over for another year and as awesome as it it... I a m glad it's over... :)
Thursday, June 25, 2009
It's Been a Tough Week
I just copied from my facebook notes what I had written Monday night. I figured that was the best way to put on here the events. I am still really unable to think about what happened. I'm still in 'fix it' mode of just working on the barn making changes and preventing it from happening again... I really haven't slowed down enough to let it really sink in. I did have a moment last night when i jammed my finger in the back screen door at home and i ended up crying. Of course the comments on my facebook have all been nice and supportive. They make me cry when i read them. Its nice to know that other people do care. I haven't really responded to anyone yet, because I am still at a loss for words, but i do want to say thank you to every one for your sympathy, support and caring. It means a lot to me. I know it means a lot to Amanda too.
On a humorous side note... we decided yesterday to just start calling each other "rabbit Partner" not by our names anymore. I think we should get T-shirts made up that say that. Amanda suggested "rabbit partner A" and "rabbit partner B". I love it!
Yesterday my Dad let us close the shop early and head out to the barn to work on it. I am really somewhat suprised that my dad was being so helpful. That probably soiunds really awful and I dont mean it to. I just didnt expect him to really let us close the car lot at 2 and work on the barn all day. Especially when he is not feeling well at all. I really appreciate all that my dad does for me and my brother and my kid. He is usually pretty much a tough guy, with a 'screw you' attitude most of the time, but he's really not like that. Anyway, I'm suprised and really thankful and grateful.
My brother and my kid took down some panels from the south end of the building to let in more cooler fresh air from the fenced in 'porch' area. It was an almost immediate effect. I couldn't believe it! Then my brother opened up two of the panels on the back (east) side of the building to be 'vents' until we get the exhaust fan/s installed. That seemed to help as well.
We are still planning to install a drop ceiling. We need to add more support 'beams' first so it wont have to be 20 feet tall! Bringing that ceiling down to 8-10 feet will help keep the hot air up and will also keep it warmer in the winter! So that's the project for the rest of this weekend.
Thankfully it is cooling off here in Central Iowa. The high is ONLY supposed to be 91 here today. Then high to mid 80's through the weekend. Lets hope it stays cool. There are still several rabbits that have been very weakened by the continual heat. My Fawn doe Boca was not looking good last night at all. We did all we could to get her cooled off and comfortable. I gave her some dandelion leaves i hope she ate them last night. Boca is one of my most favorite bunnies. She is SUCH a great mom and just a wonderful bunny all around. Type, color, personality, mothering ability and i love her. I am scared to go see her today. I hope she can pull through.
We lost one baby Havana last night. It just laid down and died. I think it was just too much for it. Too many days of too hot. A nice looking young Blue Havana out of T25 and Tim's 2 time BIS winning black doe who died when her babies were about 5-6 days old. Sad. As much as i don't want to have Blue Havanas these babies were nice looking and very pretty. There is one Blue from that litter left alive.
Well this is about all I have for now. I need to run to Home Depot to return some stuff. Then I'm off to the bank and them meet up with the brother to shop a bit at Sam's Club. Then Work. Then go to Cedar Rapids to pick up new cages... what wonderful timing... we lose 55 rabbits in one day and 3 days later I'm getting 20 more holes... great timing. Oh well, I made the deal long before this tragedy happened. Even with the sadness I am excited to be adding more 24x24's. One step closer to getting rid of my old buck cages! YES!!! I cant wait to get rid of those things!
On a humorous side note... we decided yesterday to just start calling each other "rabbit Partner" not by our names anymore. I think we should get T-shirts made up that say that. Amanda suggested "rabbit partner A" and "rabbit partner B". I love it!
Yesterday my Dad let us close the shop early and head out to the barn to work on it. I am really somewhat suprised that my dad was being so helpful. That probably soiunds really awful and I dont mean it to. I just didnt expect him to really let us close the car lot at 2 and work on the barn all day. Especially when he is not feeling well at all. I really appreciate all that my dad does for me and my brother and my kid. He is usually pretty much a tough guy, with a 'screw you' attitude most of the time, but he's really not like that. Anyway, I'm suprised and really thankful and grateful.
My brother and my kid took down some panels from the south end of the building to let in more cooler fresh air from the fenced in 'porch' area. It was an almost immediate effect. I couldn't believe it! Then my brother opened up two of the panels on the back (east) side of the building to be 'vents' until we get the exhaust fan/s installed. That seemed to help as well.
We are still planning to install a drop ceiling. We need to add more support 'beams' first so it wont have to be 20 feet tall! Bringing that ceiling down to 8-10 feet will help keep the hot air up and will also keep it warmer in the winter! So that's the project for the rest of this weekend.
Thankfully it is cooling off here in Central Iowa. The high is ONLY supposed to be 91 here today. Then high to mid 80's through the weekend. Lets hope it stays cool. There are still several rabbits that have been very weakened by the continual heat. My Fawn doe Boca was not looking good last night at all. We did all we could to get her cooled off and comfortable. I gave her some dandelion leaves i hope she ate them last night. Boca is one of my most favorite bunnies. She is SUCH a great mom and just a wonderful bunny all around. Type, color, personality, mothering ability and i love her. I am scared to go see her today. I hope she can pull through.
We lost one baby Havana last night. It just laid down and died. I think it was just too much for it. Too many days of too hot. A nice looking young Blue Havana out of T25 and Tim's 2 time BIS winning black doe who died when her babies were about 5-6 days old. Sad. As much as i don't want to have Blue Havanas these babies were nice looking and very pretty. There is one Blue from that litter left alive.
Well this is about all I have for now. I need to run to Home Depot to return some stuff. Then I'm off to the bank and them meet up with the brother to shop a bit at Sam's Club. Then Work. Then go to Cedar Rapids to pick up new cages... what wonderful timing... we lose 55 rabbits in one day and 3 days later I'm getting 20 more holes... great timing. Oh well, I made the deal long before this tragedy happened. Even with the sadness I am excited to be adding more 24x24's. One step closer to getting rid of my old buck cages! YES!!! I cant wait to get rid of those things!
The Tragic Events of 6/22/09
Tragic events of 6/22/09
Originally posted to my Facebook on Mon at 11:59pm
we went out to do chores and found 55 dead rabbits. that is more that many people have in their entire herd. I have never in my 24 years raising rabbits ever seen anything like it.
Poncho
High Roller
Deja and one of her babies
Mousey and her litter
Litsa and her litter
China Doll's sister (dragon lady or geisha girl I'm not sure at this point)
Habenero and all but one of her 10 day old litter
Cannas and half of her litter
8t42 and her litter
43F and her litter
the beautiful Vienna Marked doe
so many babies i cant even count
does i dont even remember because they are all blurred together
2 guinea pigs one beautiful TSW Aby boar and a white teddy boar
Nest box after nest box full of dead babies
every baby poncho had sired for us
almost every baby Roller had sired
its a shockingly unreal feeling i have right now. i feel sucker punched and i feel guilty. I feel that i should have done soemthing more. More fans, more air flow, better placement, i shoul dhave gone out before and after work, i shouldnt have waited til evening to do chores. i shoul dhave done this or that or something else or different i should have know it would be too hot
i believe in karma and i believe in what comes around goes around but what have i done to deserve this? what have Amanda and i done to deserve to lose these rabbits in particular? And why Roller when the two rabbits on either side of him were fine? and why Habenero when Tippy my English Angora on her left was fine and Maddie the mini lop with 5 or 6 one month old babies on her all lived? Why Poncho? Why Mr Ponch and all his babies? I try to be a good person and I try to be fair and just and honest. Sometimes I make mistakes and i try to make amends for them. I don't understand this at all.
I feel like every time i end up doing well or having success in my life, my rabbits, my relationships anything some major set back comes up and crushes everything.
I can buy more rabbits but there isn't enough money in the world that would ever replace what those rabbits meant to me. I can breed more rabbits and raise more beauties, but nothing or no one could ever replace Roller or Poncho or Mousey or Habenero or all those fat faced beautiful orange and tan and otter and opal and chestnut and steel babies that never even made it out of the nest box. Those were OUR rabbits. That was Poncho who was a cigar smoking Italian mobster retired from the life of crime, living only to woo his lady friends and raise himself up a family of baby ponchos. That was our Roller who was just a lover and a pisser and the most beautiful baby we've ever seen and one of the most correctly typed and beautifully formed Dwarfs I have ever had the privilege and honor to have hop out of our nest boxes.
I feel like i dont even know what to do anymore. And I know i am still in shock because I really cant feel anything. My hands feel numb and my head seems like its floating.
We are getting up super early in the morning before daylight and going to see what we can do.
The worst part is we just made a bunch of changes to the barn and bought two new fans and rearranged. I shudder to think of what would have happened of we hadn't have done that on Saturday.
This is only June.
Originally posted to my Facebook on Mon at 11:59pm
we went out to do chores and found 55 dead rabbits. that is more that many people have in their entire herd. I have never in my 24 years raising rabbits ever seen anything like it.
Poncho
High Roller
Deja and one of her babies
Mousey and her litter
Litsa and her litter
China Doll's sister (dragon lady or geisha girl I'm not sure at this point)
Habenero and all but one of her 10 day old litter
Cannas and half of her litter
8t42 and her litter
43F and her litter
the beautiful Vienna Marked doe
so many babies i cant even count
does i dont even remember because they are all blurred together
2 guinea pigs one beautiful TSW Aby boar and a white teddy boar
Nest box after nest box full of dead babies
every baby poncho had sired for us
almost every baby Roller had sired
its a shockingly unreal feeling i have right now. i feel sucker punched and i feel guilty. I feel that i should have done soemthing more. More fans, more air flow, better placement, i shoul dhave gone out before and after work, i shouldnt have waited til evening to do chores. i shoul dhave done this or that or something else or different i should have know it would be too hot
i believe in karma and i believe in what comes around goes around but what have i done to deserve this? what have Amanda and i done to deserve to lose these rabbits in particular? And why Roller when the two rabbits on either side of him were fine? and why Habenero when Tippy my English Angora on her left was fine and Maddie the mini lop with 5 or 6 one month old babies on her all lived? Why Poncho? Why Mr Ponch and all his babies? I try to be a good person and I try to be fair and just and honest. Sometimes I make mistakes and i try to make amends for them. I don't understand this at all.
I feel like every time i end up doing well or having success in my life, my rabbits, my relationships anything some major set back comes up and crushes everything.
I can buy more rabbits but there isn't enough money in the world that would ever replace what those rabbits meant to me. I can breed more rabbits and raise more beauties, but nothing or no one could ever replace Roller or Poncho or Mousey or Habenero or all those fat faced beautiful orange and tan and otter and opal and chestnut and steel babies that never even made it out of the nest box. Those were OUR rabbits. That was Poncho who was a cigar smoking Italian mobster retired from the life of crime, living only to woo his lady friends and raise himself up a family of baby ponchos. That was our Roller who was just a lover and a pisser and the most beautiful baby we've ever seen and one of the most correctly typed and beautifully formed Dwarfs I have ever had the privilege and honor to have hop out of our nest boxes.
I feel like i dont even know what to do anymore. And I know i am still in shock because I really cant feel anything. My hands feel numb and my head seems like its floating.
We are getting up super early in the morning before daylight and going to see what we can do.
The worst part is we just made a bunch of changes to the barn and bought two new fans and rearranged. I shudder to think of what would have happened of we hadn't have done that on Saturday.
This is only June.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Geocities is closing its an end of an EAR-A
har har.
So Geocities is closing. I have had a lot of fun making web pages on Geocities over the years. I remember lots of fun and silly web pages made with 'pagebuilder' and 'resizing ' photos by dragging them. I remember playing around with AOL hometown or whatever they were called. Then homestead then when they started charging i kept my site for a while, but eventually canceled it. Boy, I wish I had all the photos that were on there. They are still on my old hard drive... someday i should try to recover them. Then geocities... how much fun was geocities? well besides the fact that pagebuilder continually freezes up regardless of your internet connection speed... and the fact that it took me LITERALLY years to figure out how to cut and paste ... it works pretty well. haha! come on... give yahoo some credit it's been free for years.
Amanda is a gifted graphic artist. She has designed a wonderful web site for our rabbitry. It simple, easy to navigate and pretty. I love it. I have kept my geocities site just because it's been around for so long that I am sure some people, besides me like it. (keep in mind I have a vivid imagination) Do I need it? Well why does any one need a web site? I keep it because I enjoy messing with it. Kind of like the rest of the hobby. Its fun. Frustrating at times, but in the end its fun.
So I will miss geocities. I may be forced to work on a different free website just for s & g's (Amanda told me not to cuss on my blog, unprofessional) Maybe I will FINALLY make a website for my My Little Pony collection. That is something I have been wanting to do for years. Maybe I will take more time and write more blogs for this here blogging thing. Maybe I'll waste less time on Facebook and actually write blogs that explain how i feel about things.
I have a few topics in mind already.
1. "Youth vs youth, open vs youth and open vs open" ... this may need some explaining, but believe me it will be worth it!
2. "posing... YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG!" This seems self explanatory to me.
3. "Should I pull a COD on my purple polka dotted zebra striped Dwarfs and will they show in the AOV group or be a new group of their own?" ...no comment
4. "Why do I have a zillion Tans and Reds and Fawns and Lynx and NEVER SHOW THEM except at ANDRC nationals or ARBA conventions?" This should be a doosy...
5. "Why cant the rabbits feed and water themselves on Friday or Saturday nights? Is this a trait we could selectively breed for? If so could we also make them clean up after themselves?" Come on I'm sure you've thought the same thing before! Sometimes i just want a beer or three on a Friday night ;)
6. "How can an adorable precious cute baby Dwarf with a huge head and teeny ears at 2 weeks turn into something that more resembles a Flemish Giant by 6 weeks?"... Dang those cute babies!
7. "What about those people that just keep buying their winners?" I am totally joking, or am I?
8. "Why i like using 5 digit ear tattoos" Self explanatory as well.
ooo! guess what I can take my registrars test in September! Now, am I really going to? That is the question. Ok that may be enough for now, I haven't checked Facebook in like 10 minutes... i better see whats going on over there...
~Becky
So Geocities is closing. I have had a lot of fun making web pages on Geocities over the years. I remember lots of fun and silly web pages made with 'pagebuilder' and 'resizing ' photos by dragging them. I remember playing around with AOL hometown or whatever they were called. Then homestead then when they started charging i kept my site for a while, but eventually canceled it. Boy, I wish I had all the photos that were on there. They are still on my old hard drive... someday i should try to recover them. Then geocities... how much fun was geocities? well besides the fact that pagebuilder continually freezes up regardless of your internet connection speed... and the fact that it took me LITERALLY years to figure out how to cut and paste ... it works pretty well. haha! come on... give yahoo some credit it's been free for years.
Amanda is a gifted graphic artist. She has designed a wonderful web site for our rabbitry. It simple, easy to navigate and pretty. I love it. I have kept my geocities site just because it's been around for so long that I am sure some people, besides me like it. (keep in mind I have a vivid imagination) Do I need it? Well why does any one need a web site? I keep it because I enjoy messing with it. Kind of like the rest of the hobby. Its fun. Frustrating at times, but in the end its fun.
So I will miss geocities. I may be forced to work on a different free website just for s & g's (Amanda told me not to cuss on my blog, unprofessional) Maybe I will FINALLY make a website for my My Little Pony collection. That is something I have been wanting to do for years. Maybe I will take more time and write more blogs for this here blogging thing. Maybe I'll waste less time on Facebook and actually write blogs that explain how i feel about things.
I have a few topics in mind already.
1. "Youth vs youth, open vs youth and open vs open" ... this may need some explaining, but believe me it will be worth it!
2. "posing... YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG!" This seems self explanatory to me.
3. "Should I pull a COD on my purple polka dotted zebra striped Dwarfs and will they show in the AOV group or be a new group of their own?" ...no comment
4. "Why do I have a zillion Tans and Reds and Fawns and Lynx and NEVER SHOW THEM except at ANDRC nationals or ARBA conventions?" This should be a doosy...
5. "Why cant the rabbits feed and water themselves on Friday or Saturday nights? Is this a trait we could selectively breed for? If so could we also make them clean up after themselves?" Come on I'm sure you've thought the same thing before! Sometimes i just want a beer or three on a Friday night ;)
6. "How can an adorable precious cute baby Dwarf with a huge head and teeny ears at 2 weeks turn into something that more resembles a Flemish Giant by 6 weeks?"... Dang those cute babies!
7. "What about those people that just keep buying their winners?" I am totally joking, or am I?
8. "Why i like using 5 digit ear tattoos" Self explanatory as well.
ooo! guess what I can take my registrars test in September! Now, am I really going to? That is the question. Ok that may be enough for now, I haven't checked Facebook in like 10 minutes... i better see whats going on over there...
~Becky
Monday, November 3, 2008
Chapter One of 2008 ARBA Convention: Adventures in Kentucky
The 2008 ARBA convention is over. I've been back home for 3 days but it still feels odd. I can't seem to get back to the mental state of 'being home'. It just feels weird.
Convention was nice. Its lovely building, parking is super. Food in Louisville is great. Waffle house, steak n' shake, nom nom nom. Amanda and I stayed at the Best Western and it was pretty nice. People there in Kentucky are just friendly. I'd say over all we had a good time.
I am not going to attempt to write this blog and say that my trip was perfect or that it was crappy, because it was both. I do think that getting to KY at 6 am on Sunday set the mood for the week thought. I never could seem to get over the whole being really tired thing. We slept a lot and ate a lot and just hung out a lot. There were so many things I wanted to do and see and experience, and we just didn't go do any of them.
We did go see the Drive-By Truckers on Thursday night for the opening night of their national co-headlining tour with the Hold Steady. That was pretty freekin' cool. The DBT are one of my most favorite bands in the world. It was my first time seeing them live and it was FANTASTIC. I do need to talk about how very, very strange the concert was though. It was a good sized venue; really neat looking on the inside, with 3-4 bars, pool tables a smoking section, large stage and AWESOME SOUND. So the venue was neat-o. But… the folks… once again SO POLITE. It almost made me uncomfortable to be around so many nice and considerate people. There were a lot of people there and they were all so polite. If someone had to get through the crowd they touched you gently on the shoulder or back and said "excuse me I am so sorry". It was so strange. Basically I have chalked it up to culture shock. I'm used to being shoved around and stomped on at concerts. Also, nobody was really dancing or moving around during the show. There was some head bobbing and a tiny bit of toe tapping, every once in a while there would be a 'woohoo' and a fist or two in the air, but for the most part, people just stood there. I wanted to dance around and sing and have a good time. I still had fun but it was definitely weird. Not like any concert/show I've ever been to before. They played for about 75 minutes maybe a tad longer. They played sinkhole, and let there be rock and marry me and tons of other great songs, lots from the new album. I had my heart set on getting a DBT t-shirt so I waited in line after their set for what seemed like forever. The merch guy was on some serious drugs. It was a bit scary. Lady in front of me used her credit card to buy her merch. I found that quite odd… I wouldn't have given that guy my credit card for sure. He was itchin', scratchin' and adjustin' all over the place. Trucker speed… nope for like the real deal, imho. Next time you see me ask me to do my impression of the merch guy… I guess I can do it pretty well. Then I think I got hit on. I'm still not quite sure what that was all about. A tall nice looking man came up behind me put one hand on my shoulder and the other down by my waist and asked, "How are you ladies doing this evening? Would you care for a drink?" Amanda and I were like holy what the ???? I just said, "were doing great, and no thank you. But thank you anyway" It was very odd indeed. I thought for a moment he worked there. About 30 seconds later we decided it was time to leave. I was quite disappointed in the Hold Steady. I only gave them 2.5 songs to impress me, sadly I wasn't. DBT kicked butt though and Amanda was a good sport for going with me. I appreciate that a lot.
So back the the rabbity part of the rabbit adventures…
Arriving at 6 am Sunday put out internal clocks a bit haywire. I think I consumed more than the recommended daily dosage of red bull on the drive out there. We crashed upon arrival, and then put the rabbits away early afternoon Sunday. I was somewhat baffled by the layout of the Netherland Dwarf cooping. We got it all figured out and got the kids settled in. Got hooked up with the Cottontail Express and got the new mini lops. I will just leave it at that about the mini lops.
Found the Himi doe from Cheryl Carpenter, very nice rabbit. Found the himi buck from mark Jacobs. Apparently he had hurt his eye pretty severely, so unfortunately we had to scratch him from the show. That was a huge bummer, he is a nice buck. Hopefully his eye will heal up ok. Mark was awesome though and we are happy about the outcome of that deal. Amanda found Gigi and got that all taken care of. Gigi is super cute, can't wait to get her bred.
After the kids were all tucked in we headed back to the hotel and ate dinner at Ernesto's. It's a Mexican restaurant that was attached to our hotel... I just wanted some Tecate in a bad way… and a tamale and chili relleno and a chicken enchilada. We ordered some queso dip and nom-ed down on the salsa while we waited. Our food showed up and looked great. So we began eating. I think we were so tired and ravenous that anything would have been great. So we got about a 1/3-rd of the way into our meals we both simultaneously decided that uh… nope, this is not delicious, its actually pretty gross. My chile relleno was basically a green bell pepper chunk over a scoop of beef with some Velveeta cheese melted over top. Amanda's enchilada was soggy to the point of not even being done in the middle. We were so disappointed. My tecate was delicious though! I think that living in Des Moines has me somewhat spoiled for Mexican food. This may seem like an odd statement, but hear me out… we have LOTS of really really good authentic Mexican restaurants here. Homemade everything. Delicious. Ernesto's simply didn't not measure up to my refined and sophisticated palate.
Then we went to the hotel and promptly passed out.
Chapter 2 will commence tomorrow.
Convention was nice. Its lovely building, parking is super. Food in Louisville is great. Waffle house, steak n' shake, nom nom nom. Amanda and I stayed at the Best Western and it was pretty nice. People there in Kentucky are just friendly. I'd say over all we had a good time.
I am not going to attempt to write this blog and say that my trip was perfect or that it was crappy, because it was both. I do think that getting to KY at 6 am on Sunday set the mood for the week thought. I never could seem to get over the whole being really tired thing. We slept a lot and ate a lot and just hung out a lot. There were so many things I wanted to do and see and experience, and we just didn't go do any of them.
We did go see the Drive-By Truckers on Thursday night for the opening night of their national co-headlining tour with the Hold Steady. That was pretty freekin' cool. The DBT are one of my most favorite bands in the world. It was my first time seeing them live and it was FANTASTIC. I do need to talk about how very, very strange the concert was though. It was a good sized venue; really neat looking on the inside, with 3-4 bars, pool tables a smoking section, large stage and AWESOME SOUND. So the venue was neat-o. But… the folks… once again SO POLITE. It almost made me uncomfortable to be around so many nice and considerate people. There were a lot of people there and they were all so polite. If someone had to get through the crowd they touched you gently on the shoulder or back and said "excuse me I am so sorry". It was so strange. Basically I have chalked it up to culture shock. I'm used to being shoved around and stomped on at concerts. Also, nobody was really dancing or moving around during the show. There was some head bobbing and a tiny bit of toe tapping, every once in a while there would be a 'woohoo' and a fist or two in the air, but for the most part, people just stood there. I wanted to dance around and sing and have a good time. I still had fun but it was definitely weird. Not like any concert/show I've ever been to before. They played for about 75 minutes maybe a tad longer. They played sinkhole, and let there be rock and marry me and tons of other great songs, lots from the new album. I had my heart set on getting a DBT t-shirt so I waited in line after their set for what seemed like forever. The merch guy was on some serious drugs. It was a bit scary. Lady in front of me used her credit card to buy her merch. I found that quite odd… I wouldn't have given that guy my credit card for sure. He was itchin', scratchin' and adjustin' all over the place. Trucker speed… nope for like the real deal, imho. Next time you see me ask me to do my impression of the merch guy… I guess I can do it pretty well. Then I think I got hit on. I'm still not quite sure what that was all about. A tall nice looking man came up behind me put one hand on my shoulder and the other down by my waist and asked, "How are you ladies doing this evening? Would you care for a drink?" Amanda and I were like holy what the ???? I just said, "were doing great, and no thank you. But thank you anyway" It was very odd indeed. I thought for a moment he worked there. About 30 seconds later we decided it was time to leave. I was quite disappointed in the Hold Steady. I only gave them 2.5 songs to impress me, sadly I wasn't. DBT kicked butt though and Amanda was a good sport for going with me. I appreciate that a lot.
So back the the rabbity part of the rabbit adventures…
Arriving at 6 am Sunday put out internal clocks a bit haywire. I think I consumed more than the recommended daily dosage of red bull on the drive out there. We crashed upon arrival, and then put the rabbits away early afternoon Sunday. I was somewhat baffled by the layout of the Netherland Dwarf cooping. We got it all figured out and got the kids settled in. Got hooked up with the Cottontail Express and got the new mini lops. I will just leave it at that about the mini lops.
Found the Himi doe from Cheryl Carpenter, very nice rabbit. Found the himi buck from mark Jacobs. Apparently he had hurt his eye pretty severely, so unfortunately we had to scratch him from the show. That was a huge bummer, he is a nice buck. Hopefully his eye will heal up ok. Mark was awesome though and we are happy about the outcome of that deal. Amanda found Gigi and got that all taken care of. Gigi is super cute, can't wait to get her bred.
After the kids were all tucked in we headed back to the hotel and ate dinner at Ernesto's. It's a Mexican restaurant that was attached to our hotel... I just wanted some Tecate in a bad way… and a tamale and chili relleno and a chicken enchilada. We ordered some queso dip and nom-ed down on the salsa while we waited. Our food showed up and looked great. So we began eating. I think we were so tired and ravenous that anything would have been great. So we got about a 1/3-rd of the way into our meals we both simultaneously decided that uh… nope, this is not delicious, its actually pretty gross. My chile relleno was basically a green bell pepper chunk over a scoop of beef with some Velveeta cheese melted over top. Amanda's enchilada was soggy to the point of not even being done in the middle. We were so disappointed. My tecate was delicious though! I think that living in Des Moines has me somewhat spoiled for Mexican food. This may seem like an odd statement, but hear me out… we have LOTS of really really good authentic Mexican restaurants here. Homemade everything. Delicious. Ernesto's simply didn't not measure up to my refined and sophisticated palate.
Then we went to the hotel and promptly passed out.
Chapter 2 will commence tomorrow.
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About Me
- Beckerella
- I like rabbits! I raise and show domestic rabbits. Got started as a kid in the mid 80's. I have a rabbit partner, who coincidentally is not my life partner other than the fact that we are BFFs. The Netherland Dwarf is my favorite breed of rabbits but my rabbit named Tippy is my favorite rabbit ever. He is an English Angora.