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'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!
I took a lot of photos today, so prepare for a bunch of pictures!!! I got some better photos of Luna's kittens (now just shy of two weeks old). The kids decided to name these kittens after Overwatch characters (a Blizzard video game). So, I'd like to introduce Mei, Tracer, Mercy, Hanzo, Genji, and Lucio... Though #5 insists that Genji is to be called "Cutie" like the mini oranges... The blueberry plant in the side herb garden is in full production. Fortunately the short fence has managed to keep the wild turkeys out. Today I went and harvested as many as would fall off when I ran my hands gently over them. Not a bad harvest for a plant that's only about 9 inches tall! I snapped this photo of our Bourbon Red turkey. I had wanted a trio and twice this year I bought three of them... We have this one, and one little tiny one in the brooder yet. I'm really hoping they're opposite genders and survive the winter and thrive to produce more next year. I adore this little turkey and it's so friendly. She doesn't like to be touched, but follows us around and is always looking for treats. She will drink water from my cupped hand, even if she's standing beside a water dish. Silly bird. I assume female, but I don't know for sure. The other turkey is a big white one (a production bird). The big white turkey will be our Thanksgiving meal if it survives until fall. This Bourbon Red will be more of a pet. In rabbit news, yesterday Hazel delivered three. MooMoo has pulled a lot of fur but not had any babies, and it looks like Fern missed her breeding again. This morning both Peanut and Rascal had escaped their cages by removing their food bins. We managed to catch Rascal, but as soon as I got Rascal back into his cage, I couldn't find Peanut. Tonight he is still on the loose. He does not appear to be in the barn anymore, so good luck to him... If he survives the night and comes back in the morning we will try to find him again. Here is an updated photo of Wanda. She's one of Calliope's babies (half Holland Lop, half Jersey Wooly). #5 slipped her a carrot, which she seemed to appreciate. We have so many flowers in bloom right now. I know most people would mow the lawn, or at least clear the areas around their houses. So many people complain about having to mow often. But why? I lived in a town with a mowing ordinance for too long. I want nature to flourish. We don't mow. Yes, it looks unkempt to most people, but I love it. Each summer there are more and more flowers coming in. The first year we had lilies, milkweed, black eyed Susan, and phlox. We now have creeping bellflower, purple coneflower (echinacea), scarlet beebalm, astilbe (below), ninebark, campion, Virginia waterleaf, Lily of the Valley, columbine, violets, and thistle,among others have started popping up. I plan to plant more flowers too. The bees really seem to like the astilbe plant below. They're showing up in a shady forgotten part of the yard behind a big patch of phlox. What a joy to find new things coming up. I want to feed the bees and butterflies and all the other bugs. When we start gardening more we will need these pollinators! In a lower note, as of about 6:30 this evening, both Ditto and Carbon were playing in the yard. That's when I was out taking photos of the little kittens. We went in after that so I could email the photos of Wanda to someone. Later, around 8:30, #3 came home from a friend's house and couldn't find Carbon. I figured he was just off playing somewhere, but tonight when we went to close up the barn, he didn't come in. We found Ditto and locked her in the barn, but much searching with flashlights, calling, shaking the food bin, and wandering around the yard searching everywhere got us nowhere. Like Peanut, we're going to have to hope he stays safe overnight and comes back in the morning.
My poor animals. That makes two that are missing tonight, plus Tigerlily, who's been missing since Monday and is now assumed to be gone. I know we have bald eagles in the area, but I'm still hoping that Carbon and Peanut (and not likely, but still hoping Tigerlily) all come home safe. I did finally get the indoor brooder back up and running. Its more like a playpen or a prison enclosure at this point since the duckling (Ping) and the gosling (Morgana) don't use a light anymore, but aren't feathered yet to go outside. Daily cleaning because water fowl are messy... but if my critters are starting to go missing (all of the outside ducklings from this year are gone, our older duck Matt is gone...), I am leery to put Morgana and Ping outside. We went to the farmer's market today and picked up some carrots, a cucumber, some green beans, a couple of tomatoes (because something got into the greenhouse last night and ate all of mine), and a jar of strawberry jelly. I do love the farmers market. I hope they have watermelon and squash soon. I'm feeling a little miserable since I wasn't able to do a garden this year. I'm glad I didn't though because with how tied down I am right now with my tummy troubles, I wouldn't be able to maintain a large garden or deal with the produce from it. I'm barely getting through barn chores and daily routines at this point. |
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