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!

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.

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