Babies Galore

We've been blessed with a bunch of babies lately. One bunch was planned, expected, while the two other batches were of their mama's making.
First up, my new bunny litter out of my fawn doe Breeze. She has 6 nice kits, 1 runt who is chocolate, a fawn, a tort, a chocolate agouti, and two whites. All of the colors are being added to my wool herd, the two whites will probably be available for a spinner home. These are 57% german, the rest is mostly english. I absolutely love the texture of Breeze's wool for spinning and wanted to have some younger bunnies in the herd to carry on for their mom.
Next is my little banty hen who stole away into the woods and made a nest behind the dog kennel. I guess she knew the dog would not let anything get her. She emerged with 5 little puff balls. We don't need any more chickens, but they sure are cute and bantys don't eat much. I know I have another chicken who has been mia, but I saw her for a brief bit the other day. I think she has a nest in the hay bales but I haven't found it yet. She is an americauna so maybe I can sell some of those chicks to a new home.
Last but not least is my muscovy duck hatch. Mom Blackie decided to make a nest under the front porch out of my reach. I did not think they would hatch, but surprise they did and now she has 7 little yellow balls of fluff. Now mind we really did not need more ducks as I bought some day old muscovy babies this summer and they are now big and on the pond. Winter seems to be hard on the ducks though with predators. We've tried to keep them safe this year by building a fence all the way around the pond, but who knows if it will keep everything out when the pond freezes. Anyone know of a cheap source of a water aerator to keep the ice from forming? Anyway I probably won't thin the muscovy flock until spring.
Enjoy the baby pics.

Busy Weekend

Wow what a hectic weekend, time to go back to the real job and rest! Saturday I woke up at 2 am to finish the knitting on the sock class project so I'd be ready to turn the heel in class. Did manage to grab a couple of more hours of sleep before I had to get up and do chores.
After the class I sheared and sheared, temps close to 90 with high humidity caught me off guard. This cool weather we've been having lulled me into a sense of security with rabbit coats. I think when the temps started to rise I was more stressed than they were though. But it was time to get them sheared because in 90 days I can harvest. I like to try and time my winter shearings to November and February. November because it is not quite too cold in early November and February because we generally get a warm up period in there for a couple of weeks. That also allows me to time the last shearing in May before it gets too hot.
Sunday brought more shearing and then we had to go and load hay. I've gotten all but two of the bucks sheared to the skin again, toe nails done, and ivomeced all except the doe who has a litter and another doe who is possibly bred, she also kept some wool on belly and chest to pull. If she doesn't kindle in two weeks then she'll get sheared as well.
Next weekend I need to start work on the horse stalls, the flood really did a number on those.

Agouti Update

Well a new year has started and yipee we fixed the computer. Our satellite access at the farm cannot run on wireless. We've found by hooking straight in it doubles the speed so now I can upload to the blog again.
We've had a busy year since moving back to the farm. The summer flew by with so much to be caught up outside, the garden, the fences, mowing, etc. Then my husband's mother passed away in the fall. I then got a new job with the company I work for so it was quite hectic. I'm looking forward to a more stable pace now in 2009.
I wanted to post an update on my pure german agouti baby I was so excited about when she was born last Feb. She is now an adult and has turned out very nice. I want to register her with IAGARB, but first she has to be a mom. I find if I don't get them bred by 1 year of age it becomes difficult. So I tried last month and she didn't take so last week I bred her again to Everest, an awesome german boy. She seemed more receptive and I witnessed several breedings so I'm hoping for babies around the 28th of January. I also bred Emmaline to my black buck Thunder, so the new year should bring lots of color.

BACK HOME AGAIN!

No pictures today, but I had to write a short bit. Sorry it took so long but we have been very very busy. You see last weekend the moving men loaded the truck and then some dear friends helped us drive the critter caravan home to Indiana. All the bunnies are now snug in their home barn once more. I worried terribly over the old ones, but they all took it in stride and no one even missed a meal. Even the week old litter of black germans made the move snuggled in a basket and mom was happy to feed them after the 10 hr trip.
It is so nice to be home! I walked out to the barn to feed this morning and listened to the peepers in the pond and the whiporwill calling across the wood. You just don't know how blessed you are until you leave the sanctity of your little carved out nitch of a home in the wood. Now I know and I'll never move again.
Last night I took the dogs for a run in the wood, both of them went splashing through creeks and ran until they dropped. Very happy dogs and I'll admit I loved watching them frolic.
Hubby is working diligently on the lawn that turned into a hay field over the last year. Next he will tackle the fallen fences and after they are up then we can bring the horses back home from my cousins. I have to head back to Wisconsin for a couple of weeks for the software launch and to get the old house listed, but before I go there are several bunnies in need of a wool harvest. Maybe this weekend I can take some pictures to show off those wonderful coats.

Going Home!

I haven't posted for a while because I've been extremely busy. The software at work is moving full speed ahead to a launch on June 2nd. This means we are training users and testing/simulating processes at high speed. There have been a few bugs, so we are working through those, mostly in our businees processes.
The wonderful news is that I found a new job, it is not really new, but allows me to continue to do the software gig only move back to Indiana. They did not want to lose my expertise in this area until the other plant is up and running. So to keep me in the role, they agreed to relocate me back to the farm and allow me to travel as needed, on their dime, back to Wisconsin. This really benefits everyone, so it is a great solution.
So this started the mad dash to get things moved, I have to wait on the relocation company for the house stuff, but I started to look around for a horse transport. I found one who said if I move her tomorrow it is basically half price. He was in the area and with the super high cost of fuel I jumped on it. So today is moving day for my Annie. We are also going to Indiana to do some more work on the house, so today is a long day of travel.

New Spring Beginning

At long last, I have a pure german litter out of SWF White Lightening and SWF Tornado(Tori). Lightening is the son of Suzanna, who was the 2006 IAGARB highest wool producer, even though her record has now been shattered, I'm still very proud of this doe. Although my biggest problem with her is she is very hard to get bred. I decided a long time ago that I wanted her wool production, but with the easy breeding and good mothering instincts of my old lines. Tori has all of the wonderful mothering and breeding characteristics and her IAGARB registration total, while not a record, was quite respectable at around 390 grams. This morning, right on time, she presented me with a nice litter of 5. She always has 4 or 5 and this is a wonderful size litter. The bunnies always get well fed and she stays in good condition.
Another baby update and just for Sara, some cute baby picture of the other litter out of Suzanna's other boy SWF Cumulo Nimbus and my tort doe Buck Creek's Sunny. The babies are out of the nest and although a large litter, they are all growing nicely. All black so it is hard to get good pictures, but the one above is cute. Sunny loves being a mommy and doesn't seem happy unless she has babies to take care of.
Enjoy, and happy spring!

Black Germans

Several folks have asked about my black germans. Two black germans does were imported from Germany in 2006 by Susan Wiley and Leslie Samson. I have a black german buck who is a grandson of one of those does. This picture and the one in my side bar are two from my first litter. Their mother is my SWF Tornado (Tori) who I registered with IAGARB when she was 10 mths old. Tori is what I'm breeding for. An excellent mother who takes every time I breed her. Excellent wool production, she produces just under 400 grams at every shearing, and she stays very clean between shearings even her bottom needs very little maintenance. Tori is now bred to Lightning whose picture is in my header. This will probably be Tori's last litter as she is now two and she is my biggest pet. I will be keeping her daughters from this litter. Lightning is the son of Samson's Suzanna, my 2006 record setting doe.

Sad to say I lost his brother this past weekend, not sure why, found him dead on Sat morning.

The other brother Nimbus has a litter with my tort doe, this will be what I use to bring a much better fawn into my herd in the future.

Well back to work, seems the real job keeps putting on more demands.