I paired our beautiful Derrick Morgan (torte mini lop) with both Extra Stuff (broken black French Lop cross) and Sweetie Pie (white New Zealand White / Lionhead cross) for March litters. I figure if they're not finding homes and I've had to feed them through winter, they can at least provide us with some babies. That means those two does will no longer be available for sale until after kits are weaned. If all goes well, two litters of lop cross bunnies should be arriving around March 20th!
I had my much awaited doctor appointment today and left with several follow up appointments with a variety of other specialties. It's been a long road but I think I may finally be on my way toward some diagnostics or at least ruling things out to get to the bottom of my health issues. Here's hoping anyway.
I paired our beautiful Derrick Morgan (torte mini lop) with both Extra Stuff (broken black French Lop cross) and Sweetie Pie (white New Zealand White / Lionhead cross) for March litters. I figure if they're not finding homes and I've had to feed them through winter, they can at least provide us with some babies. That means those two does will no longer be available for sale until after kits are weaned. If all goes well, two litters of lop cross bunnies should be arriving around March 20th! After much thought, I have decided to sell off all of the rabbits. We only have four at this time, but I can no longer afford to feed them through the winter. They're currently eating grass and weeds from the yard. If they don't find new homes by fall, they'll go in the freezer and that would break my heart for a couple of the nicer ones. If anyone is looking for a good rabbit - I have two that would be good meat breeders and two that would be excellent pets. Asking $30 each for them. I also have a few spare geese available if anyone is interested. I believe they're Pilgrim but they may be crossed with Embden. They're nice birds, pretty quiet, excellent parents, used to free ranging for a bit every day. Good birds, the babies from this year are already full grown. Looking to sell one adult male and two young males. Asking $30 each. We are looking to downsize our house pets as well, so if you're looking for a house cat, please ask about what we have available! We have four or five that need to find new homes as I am forced to cut costs.
On the flip side, if you'd like to help fund our little homestead, please take a peek at what we have available in our Mercari shop and on eBay. The last surviving baby bunny is doing well. We've named her Xerox, because she looks like a carbon copy of her mother. She's eating and drinking on her own, and has been reintroduced to her mom full time. She's ready to go to her new home soon. I'm asking $50 and I'm looking to find her a good indoor pet home. She's well socialized, actively seeks out human affection, and loves snuggles. Some of the plants in the garden are finally flowering. I think it may be too late in the season for most, but here's hoping that the late start and the geese getting into the garden - twice - won't destroy all hope of some harvest. The Fur Crusher cucumbers are growing, the Little Greasy beans are flowering, and the various squash and watermelon varieties are starting to flower. Here's hoping for at least some harvest. Home grown food always seems to taste so much better!
We lost another bunny last night, the one that didn't seem interested in nursing. We have two left. I brought them out to the barn this morning and both were quick to get under mom for breakfast. Feeding this evening was less productive, both babies were under momma but they didn't get the full bellies like they did this morning. I will continue to shelve these kits until either they are weaned or until they die. I'll give them every opportunity I can to see them thrive. The remaining bunnies have opened their eyes, they've started grooming themselves, and they are active. One is a broken tri color and the other is a broken black. We are hoping for the best for them.
It's been a rough week for baby bunnies. Our litter of eight is down to just three after losing another two today. I decided to try shelving the kits - where you take the baby bunnies away from momma-rabbit and only return them twice a day for feeding time. Unfortunately, upon taking the last three out tonight and giving them ten minutes with momma, one bunny started to get cold and lethargic and refused to nurse, and the two who actively latched on and nursed (audible suckling noises and one got dragged when mom moved) did not have full tummies. They're too young to be without milk, but it would seem that momma dried up. I have offered them cucumber in an attempt to keep them hydrated but they don't seem interested. I will see what tomorrow brings, but as it stands, I don't think we will have any baby bunnies by the end of the week.
In a related note, all loses are put in the freezer to be offered as reptile or BARF/Raw dog food, in case anyone is interested. I've been working hard this month to get seeds in soil. Yes, it's late to be planting, but better late than never, right? Here's to a long season and a bountiful harvest! I planted Canada Crookneck Squash, Honey Boat Delicata Squash, Patisson Golden Marbre Scallop Squash, Odessa Squash, and Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas in the strawberry bed. I also planted Marvel of Four Seasons lettuce and Table Queen Acorn Squash, but I suspect the local chipmunks had a snack as none of them came up. I planted Grey Zucchini, Black Beauty Zucchini, Fordhook Zucchini, Golden Zucchini, Hmong Speckled Squash, Dolya (Share of) Pumpkin, Interception Pumpkin, Titovka Melon, Malachite Watermelon, Bozeman Watermelon, Kentucky Wonder Bean, Little Greasy Bean, and Ever Blooms Bean seeds into grow bags in a broken plastic kids pool. I planted San Remo Melon, Mexican Sour Gherkin, Boston Pickling Cucumber, Blue #2 Cinderella Pumpkin, and Cushaw squash in a raised bed near the fence. So far only the San Remo has come up. I planted True Lemon Cucumber, Seagull Melon, Mulatto Watermelon, Sugar Magnolia Sugar Pea, Blue Lake Pole Bean, Guicoy Squash, Fur Crusher (F1) Cucumber, and Armenian Cucumber seeds into buckets in the small fenced garden - so far everything has sprouted except the Armenian cucs. I planted Chicago Pickling, National Pickling, Marketmore, and Dragon's Egg cucumbers, as well as Beni Kodama Watermelon, Golden Crispy Melon, Zolotinka Zucchini, Svitozar Zucchini, Graduate Student Zucchini, and Burpee's Stringless Green Pod Bush Beans in grow bags in a new garden area beside the barn. Last week #3 was able to get several varieties of flower planted too. It looks like we will have sunflowers and zinnias and butterfly / pollinator mix flowers growing in the new garden and along the west side of the house by the fenced garden. An excellent balance of edible and insect friendly seeds planted for this year. Last week we welcomed five new goslings. Our flock more than doubled overnight! The new babies join their mom (Goose-Toph), and their dads (A-Goose-Tus, and Freckles). They're a week old now, and aside from getting stepped on frequently by the adult geese, the babies seem to be doing well. They eat commercial crumbles, grass, and I tossed in some strawberries the other day which were gone by the next day. Today we welcomed a litter of eight baby bunnies. Mom (Extra Stuff) made a good nest in the nest box and didn't mind me reaching in to count them. Looks like it'll be a nice colorful litter. A couple dark ones, a couple spotted ones, some pink ones, a few that might be brown. Mom is a broken black lop mix, dad is a torte lop mix. I'm excited to see how these babies look as they get bigger. If all goes well, these bunnies will be ready to move on to new homes in 6-8 weeks depending on how they're doing with eating and drinking on their own. Right now all four of the adult rabbits are on a grass-only diet. I cut fresh grass (and weeds and whatever else is in the yarn) to give them every day. They do seem to be maintaining their weight and they eat until they're full, munching away all day long. The geese appreciate the grass that falls underneath the cages. I have a new eBay account if anyone wants to take a peek at what I've got up for sale. I'm going to try to be more active there as I clean out the garage. I need to find new income sources as our family has changed a lot in the last year or two and I'm really struggling to make ends meet right now.
In other news, our dear #3 graduated high school and is looking into out-of-state colleges for this fall. Congratulations #3! I am so proud of you! After a two year hiatus, I bought rabbits at an auction this weekend. New additions include:
Ten new auction rabbits, that's a lot all at once... but what else did you find at the auction I hear you ask... An excellent question! I also purchased one cage containing three geese. I am guessing they're all this spring hatch as they're fairly small. They all appear to be male (long thin necks). There's one solid white (embden?), one brown that looks like a small African goose, and my favorite one - white with black and grey spots throughout. Theylikely came from a mixed flock of embdens and Africans, but I'll never know for sure. These guys don't have names yet. I did move the old black fence off the old rabbit house to fence in the barn. Our last birds had free range of nearly 70 acres, but our dogs proved to be untrustworthy with birds in the yard. These geese will have less space, but they will be safe from the dogs while still being able to leave the barn and enjoy the sunshine.. I'm hoping to look at a couple potential barn kitties this week. We've been finding mice where they don't belong since the old barn cats both passed away last year. It's time to invest in new rodent control friends. I'd like to have three or four. I had originally wanted three, but we only had two last time. I guess it depends more on how many spay and neuter surgeries I can afford before spring.
I'm looking forward to winter sowing this winter and hope I find the time and resources to do so. I've added hundreds of new seed varieties to the collection this year after discovering two new seed companies in Ukraine. Wow! I'm so excited to try new kinds of tomatoes and peppers (and cucumbers and pumpkins, and melons, oh my!). 2020 was a strange and complicated year. A lot was happening, both personally and out in the world. I'm hoping to get back into regular blogging after a year, largely off doing other stuff.
It is New Year's Day, so as is my annual tradition, here is your official reminder. Check the batteries in your smoke detectors! I just changed the batteries in one of mine today. Smoke detectors save lives - but only if they are functional! Take a few minutes to make sure your smoke detectors are working, and replace the batteries regularly to make sure they don't run out! So, what have I been up to recently? Crochet. Yup, I'm back to my yarn addiction. A few months ago I got bored and taught myself how to make an amigurumi octopus. Keep in mind, I can't read patterns, so I have to figure it out for myself. I liked the original result so much I made another, and another, and another. I made them in different sizes and colors, I even made one in Vikings colors with horns for my mom for Christmas (she's obviously a big Vikings football fan) Then I tried making a banana, and a kiwi, and a snowman. I'm working on a blanket now with some of the yarn I got for Christmas. Eventually I do plan on listing the hats and amigurumi octopi in the Bonanza shop, but for now my mind is more on creating and less on listing and selling. In October I officially gave up my child-production capabilities. After many years of medical issues with my "baby maker bits" it was finally time to have it removed. It was an excellent option because it turned out I had major adhesion issues inside from my last surgery, and the doctor was able to "unstick" bowel, bladder, and ovary from the mess. It turns out, I don't have nearly as many food intolerances as I struggled with, it was purely a digestion issue caused by the adhesions strangling my innards. I still can't have some foods, but I'm relearning what's allowed and what's still off limits. What about gardening? This year I largely took a break from all of it. Mostly due to ongoing health and pain issues (now hopefully resolved). I do plan to get back into winter sowing this year, and gardening this summer. We have some perennial beds with strawberries and raspberries, but I want to get back into regular gardening too. Cucumbers, lettuce, peppers, and so on. What about rabbits? As for the rabbits, we are down to the last handful of rabbits on the homestead and we really don't have any plans to breed anymore. The original plan had been to raise meat rabbits and only eat the ones we didn't sell by the time they were big enough - but of course by then we're attached to them. Not to mention with Facebook blocking animal sales, there's only a limited audience with sites like Craigslist, and we virtually stopped selling any rabbits at all. We've slowly sold off what we can. I'd happily sell most, if not all of the rest, if someone were to make a reasonable offer and provide them with a good home. I loved raising them, and it was fun, but we don't eat as much meat these days, and I've come to hate having to butcher and process animals. It takes a heavy emotional toll, and honestly, it's just not worth it for me. Maybe we will try again in the future, but right now I think our rabbit breeding days are going to be on hiatus unless one of the kids wants to take over breeding and marketing the kits to find them homes. On the plus side, the barn chores that used to take 45 minutes can now be done in about five to seven minutes. Check your smoke detectors! Happy New Year! Today I picked up two bunnies. One is Yvonne, a bunny we sent to her new home two years ago, and the other is Peanut, a second rabbit from the same household. Due to unfortunate circumstances, their family didn't feel like they could continue to provide them with enough attention.
Both of these beautiful ladies are available for adoption. I will try to get photos tomorrow when the kids have them out in the grass to get a feel for their temperaments. Both were indoor pets and would do well as indoor pets in their next homes. They can be adopted together or separately, but they have not and should not be housed together. Yvonne is out of Fern (Penelope X Sushi) and Thatcher (a Creme d'Argent), making her a Harlequin / English Lop / Rex / Creme d'Argent / possibly something else cross. Sushi carried the genetic for Vienna so that's always a possibility too. Peanut we don't have a history on. She's some sort of mix and we were told there was some interesting fur in the litter she came from. She has one up ear and one lop ear and she's very soft. Upon initial handling to get them settled here tonight, she was very docile and calm, letting #5 pet her in the cage. I will have both Yvonne and Peanut listed on the Rabbits page as soon as I get photos taken and uploaded. Having been out of the loop not selling much this year, I forgot how often this question comes up. Now that I'm finding homes for kittens, I'm hearing it frequently, and think it might be a good time to go over the answer again.
I realize that it is exciting to pick out a new pet. I understand wanting to bury your face into a pile of kittens and feel that special bond when the right one catches your attention. I get it. I also know that animal rights folks have worked hard to educate the general public on how to avoid flippers and puppy mills and whatnot by telling people to always ask to come and see, or to ask for photos of the parent animals. I am always happy to supply photos of our parent animals. I'm willing to take additional photos, even videos of the animals someone might be interested in. I have filmed videos of the kids handling different rabbits in the past to help someone decide which had the temperament to be a good family pet with their own kids. I love interacting with people and making sure that what you want and what the animal needs match up. If you want a docile cuddly pet, you aren't going to be happy with a squirmy adventurous spirited pet. It's important to have a good match. That said, no, we do not allow people to "just stop by" and meet the animals. There are many reasons for this, and while I won't go over all of them, I will go into detail for some of the bigger reasons. 1. Biosecurity. In 2017 we had a friend bring her kids for a visit and the kids went through our barn. Soon after, our rabbits got very sick and in a matter of months we lost nearly 75% of our rabbits. Since then we have held a strict "no visitors" policy and have never had another illness outbreak. We don't know what other people could be bringing with them. Some issues can be transmitted by touch or through dirt or feces tracked in on shoes or tires. We have no way of knowing if you visited someone else's farm, if your friend's pet carries something, or if your own pet may be sick. We practice a "rather safe than sorry" mentality and just don't allow anyone on the property. With Covid now, it adds a human component to potentially spreading illness as well. All meetings are in public places, we wear our face masks, and try to avoid physical contact other than handing you your new pet and taking payment. Likewise, we advise you to do the same. 2. Safety. This one was especially huge at our previous home. We would have people come by to meet the available animals or to pick up their selected critter. It worked well most of the time, until it didn't. We had multiple occasions when someone would come by, decide not to take an animal, and then come back at a later date and try to break in. We had things stolen from our yard, windows smashed on our vehicle, we had to replace the locks on our doors when someone damaged them trying to pick them, and we had our wonderful neighbor lady chase off a couple of people who were attempting to look in our windows to see if we were home. One person tried to steal a cat on their way out the door! You will notice that we do not provide our home address here (or anywhere else). We have children, it isn't safe to give our address out on the internet to random strangers. We have dogs, and even though they behave here with us, I cannot guarantee they wouldn't jump on, knock over, or even potentially bite someone if they felt threatened. Likewise, I cannot guarantee that my cats won't scratch or my goose or turkey or other animals won't nip or scratch or bite if someone tries to pet or grab them. I cannot guarantee someone driving up my driveway won't run over one of my animals. It's much easier to arrange a meeting in public. 3. Stranger Danger. Maybe it's just the way I was raised, but "stranger danger" is a great way to sum this one up. I don't know who I'm meeting from the internet. You can fill out an application form, we can chat through email, but that doesn't mean that I know and trust you. Likewise, you don't know us. It's impossible to truly know who you're dealing with in the internet age we live in. I've gotten replies to my ads from out of state, and yes, some of our babies do live in other states because some folks are willing to drive (and in one case fly) to Minnesota to get the pet they want. There have been many news stories of people who've been mugged, raped, and murdered for replying to Craigslist ads and going to random peoples' houses. Please follow law enforcement suggestions - always meet in a public place, and never alone. All of our meetings are scheduled in public places, and while we cannot force you to bring someone with you, we will never meet anyone without someone else in our vehicle. It's a safety precaution. This is also why I am very hesitant when someone asks me if I can deliver an animal to their home. I understand if you are disabled and unable to reach a public meeting spot, and we have done a few direct deliveries right to someone's house, but again, always with a second person in our vehicle. I fully understand if someone decides not to get an animal from us because of our adherence to privacy and safe standards. And if you are one of those people, I wish you well on your journey to getting a new pet elsewhere. For these three main reasons and dozens more smaller reasons, we do not and will not have people coming by the property to look at, pick out, or pick up animals - or anything else for that matter. Even when working out non-animal bartering, we also follow these same rules. Buying a kitten or a bunny? Meet in public. Trading a carton of eggs for some homemade soap? Meet in public. Want to donate something to our homestead for us to use, repurpose, or sell? Meet in public. Can't decide which kitten or bunny you want? Let's chat more about it and narrow down the options and then we can bring the two or three we've narrowed the choices down to along to the meeting in a public place. Alright, so 2020 has admittedly not been my year for blogging or updating this page. We've had a lot on our plates. Not just with Covid concerns and quarantine, but with school largely shutting down early (distance learning was an epic failure), and my husband taking a promotion just ahead of lock down (he is considered an essential worker and has been putting in 60+ hours per week to help cover everything). To say we are exhausted would be an understatement. But 2020 hasn't been without its redeeming moments too. I've made some new online friends that I chat with daily. Despite failing at gardening, we did manage to grow a few tomatoes and strawberries. My parents have a bumper crop of apples so we've been busy making apple butter this past week. I finally managed to run both my phone and my laptop down to the point of breaking so I got new electronic devices. I just got my new Chromebook this past week after being without a computer since May (shortly after my last blog post). I do apologize for neglecting this page. With kids heading back to school soon, I hope to have more time to work on getting things back on track with the homestead and many of the plans we had for it. So what are our plans for the end of 2020 and into 2021? Winter sowing for one. Its a bit early to be thinking of it now, but by February I want to have a small jungle of seeded jugs outside. Hopefully Toby will leave them alone. Last year I only put out two because he kept racing out the door and grabbing them and running through the yard like it was a toy. Didn't seem worth the effort to put any more out. I digress. Also on the "to do" list is getting the old Bonanza shop cleaned up and restocked. I've been making crocheted hats. This month I've made a strawberry, a watermelon, and I'm working on an apple hat now. Kind of an interesting creative outlet just to see where my imagination can take me. We are also having some discussions about livestock and where we want to go with that. Big recent news, our good boy Moose passed away. He was only five years old and had only just two weeks before celebrated his birthday. He was playing outside, he gave me his tennis ball, I threw it, he retrieved it, but instead of bringing it to me he ran headlong into the fence behind me, went into a massive seizure and died in front of me. It was very sudden and unexpected. We buried him in the most beautiful place in the whole yard, overlooking the lake at sunset. I've planted a raspberry plant over his grave as a marker and have purchased some bulb flowers to plant around the raspberry bush to fill in space. Those suggest planting in September, so soon they'll get planted. We have had four litters of kittens on the homestead this year - none of them were with our hairless cats though. Both barn cats gave us kittens and both of the indoor cats the kids kept from last years litter had kittens as well. Sixteen kittens total between four litters. We've decided to keep the spunkiest of the barn cat kittens as a third barn cat (Rowena), and #3 wants to keep one of the kittens in exchange for finding a new home for Martha (her cat she kept back from last years litter). That leaves fourteen kittens to find homes for. We found homes for Percy and Glimmer a couple weeks ago, and today we sent Anna and Clarissa off to their new homes. Now to find homes for Nona, Charlie, Marlene, Draco, Albus, Padma, Minerva, Nala, Kiara, and Sarabi. I'm asking $20 each for them, and all of the money raised will go toward getting the remaining cats here fixed. On last check the vet charged $75 per neuter and $125-$150 per spay. I am actively trying to downsize our cat population. We have not bred the rabbits at all this summer and don't plan to this fall. With Facebook censoring animal sales, it's harder to find homes now. I'm not sure where to list them for sale.
The kitten ad got flagged off of Craigslist after one person got upset that I wouldn't sell her a cat for her to use for breeding. I don't know how many flags it takes to get an ad pulled, but it seems pretty harsh that one offended person can make it next to impossible to find homes for them. I was trying to cut costs by offering them without any vet care. The older two litters are old enough now for rabies vaccinations, but if I'm going to go through the cost and hassle of bringing them all in to the vet for rabies vaccinations, their price is going to go up accordingly. So, if anyone is interested - now is the time to snag a cute cuddly kitten for $20. Otherwise the price will go up if/when they go to the vet. Hopefully I can get back into the routine of blogging regularly. The other day I made a really tasty recipe with chicken thighs in the slow cooker and I hope to share the recipe for future use. It's taken me several months, but I finally updated the rabbit pages. I've been considering downsizing our rabbits for a while but I love them and don't want to get rid of them. I've slowly been working on it, and now we're down to the last ten. I've decided to put five of them up for sale and keep the last five. Donna Noble, Hazel, MoR, Cheddar, and Vanilla are currently for sale. Waldo, Dexter, Thimblenimbus, Calliope, and Kaelyn will be staying. I do plan to get back into breeding them at some point, but on a much more limited scale. I'm honestly already having second thoughts about putting Cheddar up for sale. I may end up keeping her back too. That would give me an even set of two breeding trios to work with. It turns out our only surviving Bourbon Red turkey is a tom. We've named him Norbit and he keeps doing his "sexy dance" for all the chickens - who are thoroughly and remarkably unimpressed. I'm hoping I can find a lady turkey for him so he's not so hopelessly lonely. If anyone in the area has turkey hens for sale - while I would definitely prefer Bourbon Red, I'd accept any heritage breed if the price was right... I'd even barter a rabbit!
Goodness, we're just over a week into December already! This year is flying by. Or maybe I think that every December.
I've been working on writing a fanfic. So far I'm about 37 pages in. I think it's good, and I've read it to the kids and they are excited for each new chapter. I mostly write while they're in school so I don't have interruptions. Weekends are a bit of a slow time for productivity. I need to get updated photos of the rabbits and start actively trying to sell them off. It's something I've been putting off for too long. Procrastination is starting to cost me with ongoing feeding bills. The kid with rabbit allergies is starting to get stuffy with four in the house now. While Dexter didn't cause her any issues (and he lives in the kitchen), when the other three came in she started to have issues. They need to go. We're kind of liking having Dexter though. He's in a cage with an open top. The cats come and go and sometimes hang out with him. They all share a water dish (so the dogs don't slobber in it). Yesterday he was doing his happy bunny hops and dancing around, and then he'd stop and stand next to Mason (cat). Mason would reach out and put his foot on Dexter's head. Then he'd go hop and bounce again and come back to Mason. The kids lament that we didn't catch it on video to put on TikTok with the "you need to calm down - you're being too loud" audio (Taylor Swift). Our Christmas tree isn't up yet. Am I behind schedule? There's still time I suppose. I don't have any gifts to put under it anyway, so perhaps best not to put it up yet. The other day I was talking to the older girls about potential cosplay plans if we can afford to go to the Harry Potter convention next year (not likely, but it's fun to consider it anyway). I said I'd like to attempt to cosplay Remus Lupin, and wouldn't it be adorable if #5 could be a part of the cosplay. So I asked him if he'd like to participate. I said he could wear whatever clothes he likes, maybe we could dye his hair (temporary of course), and he'd need a "Hi! My name is..." sticker and we'd just write in Teddy Lupin. He was enthusiastic to participate but then he asked if he played Teddy, could be play a different character on another day? He's never asked to cosplay before, so I asked him who he wanted to cosplay as... So this week Tony and I were at the store looking for ideas for #5's birthday (he'll be six). He asked "what do you think he'd like?" and I just smiled, went straight to a certain toy isle, and said "No judgement - because I cosplay male characters... he wants to cosplay Owlet from PJ Masks." and they had a mask and top for dress up. Guess who's getting his first official cosplay for his birthday? He already has the Gecko costume from a couple Halloween's ago, but this will be his first requested cosplay outside of Halloween costumes. I hope he likes it as much as I think he will. We are one week away from Thanksgiving. Where has this year gone?
The three returned bunnies are adjusting to life in the house here. I hope to get photos of them soon, but I've been distracted with all manner of other things. They're all available if anyone is interested in an indoor bunny (or two or three). I'll even send them off with their cages, since those were returned with them. They need to go to indoor pet homes (they're not food). I will warn that two of the cages do not have trays underneath, so two of the rabbits will need more appropriate indoor cages anyway. I wrote my first bit of "fan fiction" yesterday. I published it on a site #1 suggested, and so far (in 26 hours) it's gotten 125 views. Not bad for a first attempt at writing something in a genre I'm not at all familiar with. And no, I'm not sharing a link. I don't think that anyone on a homesteading blog would be interested in such a thing anyway. I mean, fanfics seem to have a very specific audience for the most part. There's not a lot going on lately with the homestead. Gardens are all tucked away for the winter, it's too cold for anything to grow, the chickens have stopped laying due to the short days, and we don't breed rabbits in the winter months.
Tomorrow we are taking in three more rabbits. Two came from our colony rabbits (Lapis and Cheddar), and the other is from a different breeder. It seems that last year about this time we had rabbits returned too. I wonder what it is about this time - cold weather and upcoming holidays - that seems to make people decide to return their rabbits. Anyway, as of tomorrow when we get back home, all three of the new rabbits will be available for adoption. The sooner we can move them out the better, since I'm running out of space in the house for rabbits, and one of the kids is very allergic to them... This past week has been spent working on my next cosplay project. I'm (slowly) learning about make up. I've been trying to do beard make up, with varying success. I mean... it's not great, but it's not absolutely awful either. I have a lot of room to improve. I'm worried that I could actually make the cosplay worse by using the beard make up at this point, so I need to practice and figure it out. I have the basic idea down, but I can't seem to get the chin and under-lip area to look right, despite consulting numerous pictures, videos, and a couple tutorials. I'm hoping we can grab a different color of make up tomorrow while we're in town to see if maybe that will help. In the meantime, I added a few accessories and a ring light to my Christmas wish list. I'm now working on crocheting a scarf with the Gryffindor (Hogwarts) colors - since I can't afford the $40 they want for an authentic one from Universal Studios. Of course, #1 has the authentic one from our trip there many years ago, so if I totally botch mine, I can still borrow hers... I just doubt she'd borrow it to me knowing I may end up accidentally rubbing my beard make up onto it. It does smear on everything it touches. Which brings me to a question. Having not been one to wear make up... like... almost ever... how do you make-up-wearing-folks not touch your face!? Good golly! I'm constantly itching my nose or rubbing my cheek or putting my hand under my chin or swiping hair out of my face... This whole "don't touch your face" to avoid smearing or smudging make up is frustrating. Is there a trick to it? If I'm not in front of a camera or mirror, I tend to forget I'm wearing it... The big seed trade package came in the mail today. Yay! I went through it briefly to make sure everything was in there (as it wasn't closed properly), but I haven't had a chance to sort it all out and update the seed list yet. Maybe Wednesday when the kids are in school and Tony is at work I will have time to spread it all out on the table and get it all inventoried. Today I learned how to put my hair in a ponytail using a pencil or crochet hook. I guess I need to learn to do the same with a wand for my next cosplay, but I need to buy my wand first. Unfortunately, the two I'm looking at are pretty expensive ($38 for one of $53 for the other). That's why they're on the Christmas list. |
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