Enough time has passed that I think I owe you an update on how the bunnies are doing.  I was thrilled to take photos each day at first because the changes were dramatic.  Though they are still growing quickly, the growth is not as evident from day to day as it once was.  They seem a little bigger every day that I go out to check on them.

The Angora bunnies are incredibly happy.  They are living with their mama full time.  They chase her around when they want to nurse, and I never have to go out and hold her for them anymore.  Every time I pick up a bunny it has a nice full tummy.  They are totally thriving, and I expect no more problems in the future.  They have learned how to eat pellets and drink from the water bottle without any problems.  I always find them running around and jumping up and down.  They love to sleep on top of Daisy.  I am not sure that she is thrilled to have 8 bunnies jumping around at any given time, but she tolerates them.  She gets as much feed as she can eat these days, which makes her happy.  She is always trying to convince me that she is going to starve.

The bunnies are going to lose their nesting box this weekend because it looks like Thing 2 is going to have a litter after all.  They are perfectly happy to sleep in a pile outside of the nesting box as it is, so I don’t think they will even notice.

They look so happy to be eating and drinking here, and she just looks THRILLED doesn’t she?

I always find the babies stocking the food and water.  Sometimes they are a strong enough force to keep their mama away.

The white bunnies look exactly like there mama, and if you hold them just right, the size is the only thing that clues you in to the fact that they are not full grown bunnies.  This photo looks particularly adult.  Check out all that Angora fiber!

Here is a black kit not looking as furry, but trust me, they do have a lot of fur, and it is growing more and more every day.

I am going to look at sexing the bunnies in the next week or two and start listing them for sale.  I should not have any problems selling the Angora babies.  I did decide to cull any that have odd coloring on them.  I feel this is my duty as a responsible breeder.  That does, unfortunately, include the black bunny in the photo above.  He has too much white on him to keep those genetics (and possibly pass them down).

Daphne has been working hard to help me socialize them.  She loves to hold the bunnies and play with them.  She prefers only to play with the white ones, and I discovered the reason for that.  She was peed on by a black bunny a while ago, so she thinks they are not good to play with.  I tried to hand her a black bunny yesterday and she told me to give her another one because she didn’t want to be peed on!  All in all, she does an incredible job taking care of the rabbits for a 2 year old girl.

The story with the meat rabbits is a little more sad.  Things were going really well for me until Thursday.  When we had our big storm, I opted to not take the rabbits out to nurse for the night because of how crazy it was.  I have done this one other time in the past, and it worked fine.  The trampoline was on top of the rabbit cage anyway, so it would have been almost impossible to make it out there to get them nursed (despite the rain, hail, wind and lightening).  The next morning, I took the babies out to nurse and all was fine.  By Friday evening, it was clear that there were 3 babies that were not getting as much nutrition as they needed.  Upon examining them, I discovered that the mama had developed mastitis.  She has been nursing them for less time lately and acting funny when one or two got too agressive.  I took it as normal behavior, but when I examined her I found some large swollen lumps near one teat.  She must have been keeping the kits from nursing on the front 2 teats leaving only 6 teats for the 12 bunnies.

I noticed the three babies were having trouble, so I let them nurse an extra long time on their mama on Friday night.  I even took them over and let them nurse from Daisy (who is always glad to help in my crazy adventures).  It wasn’t enough, when I woke up on Saturday (my birthday) two of the black bunnies had died.  My suspicion is that they didn’t get to eat one feeding because of the lack of teats and then became progressively weaker and weaker.  With each missed feeding they were being pushed aside more and more easily.  When I let them nurse extra, their sucking powers must have been greatly reduced, and despite the fact that they were trying, they must have not gotten any milk.  I was sad from the loss, but the truth is that 12 babies is a LOT and the fact that they made it that far was a miracle.  Though I don’t hope for any babies to not make it, it is a sheer fact of raising livestock, and I must not let it get me down.

Besides, I had one more sick baby to turn my attention to.  This one was a white baby.  I took it out and let it nurse again and again and again, and it didn’t seem to be improving.  I finally concluded it was not getting any food and I went out to get some kitten formula for it to try to get some food into it.  When I got back from the store the baby was so sick that it was pretty much in its death throes.  It was flopping around much the same way a chicken does when it has been dispatched.  I was sure that it was gone.  My sister even watched me futliely trying to feed it, and she offered to take it outside and put it out of its misery.  I decided to persist.  I fed it as much as I could force down its throat and put it back into the nesting box very much expecting to find a dead rabbit when I checked next.

I found the opposite.  The bunny seemed to be a little more lively, and though it still looked sickly, it was much improved.  It was no longer flopping around, and it was willing to respond to stimuli.  I fed it again that night expecting to find a dead rabbit in the morning.

Much to my surprise, on Sunday morning, the bunny was alive and was much stronger than before.  It seemed to be a fighter.  My sister was eyeing the bunnies thinking they were wonderful, and when she saw that this rabbit was going to need hand feeding she offered to “take it off my hands for me.”  Bunnies have a survival rate of about 10% when taken away from their moms, and from the look of it when they took it, I was thinking maybe it had a 50% shot of making it.  She reports to me now that the bunny is doing really well.  It is happy and fuzzy and playful.  Its ears are standing up, and they can barely keep it out of trouble.  I suppose that it is fitting that the bunny be allowed to be a pet after making it through such an ordeal.  So, I started with 12 meat rabbits, lost 2 to unfortunate circumstances, and another to my loving sister and her family.

This is what the bunny looked like as I was getting it ready to send off.  It looks sad and sickly.  I still ask my sister every time I talk to her if the bunny is still alive, and she assures me that we are past the point of having to worry about it.

Mama bunny is still having mastitis problems.  I have her a round of penicillin, which seems to help, but she still has a really big lump around one teat.  The bunnies are nursing on that area now though, and I check to make sure they are all getting fed every time.

I moved the bunnies out full time to be with their mom, so if they are getting too hungry they can chase her and ask her for milk if necessary.  She is taking good care of them.

They have started to eat pellets and drink water following her lead, so I think that things are going to be find with the rest of them.  After all, they are a little over 3 weeks old at this point.

This is a beautiful black bunny.

This is a lovely white bunny.

That is the update from bunny land.  Hopefully it will be a lot less problematic from here on out, but I am curious to see if Thing 2 has a litter this next week.

I was blogging regularly, and it kind of went out the window over the past week because things have been getting incredibly crazy around here.

Most importantly, my friend Melissa and her son Jack came to visit.  They made the decision to move away to New Hampshire about 2 years ago.  Luckily, they have found the error of their ways, and the whole family is returning back to Oregon where they belong.  She came on Thursday night and left on Monday.  She was here to look at apartments, get some moving information and show off her beautiful baby boy.  He really is adorable, and upon downloading images from the card recently, I discovered that we had taken no photos.  What a total bummer.  Daphne was interested in playing with Jack as long as he did not touch anything that belonged to her.  She can be a bit of a rat sometimes, but I think she is genuinely good at heart.

The weather was totally crazy last week being incredibly hot and humid.  It really wasn’t any fun at all.  It was supposed to storm 3 days in a row, but on Thursday we finally got hit with a big one.  Big storms are not common in this part of Oregon, and in fact thunder is a big surprise often.  I spent the afternoon with Melissa cooking and baking.  The electricity started to flicker a bit while I was trying to make dinner, which I found annoying.  Eventually, the wind just picked up from nowhere, and I watched as a neighbor’s tree snapped like a twig.  I was quick to respond by running outside to put the chickens into their house so that they didn’t freak out and try to fly away.  When I walked out the back door our trampoline had blown across the yard and bent.  It took out some garden beds with it and caused some other serious problems.  Jared and I scrambled to put the chickens in and then to take the trampoline apart so that it didn’t head through a window or blow over a fence.

The damage from the storm was felt by all.  Our farmer friends lost a greenhouse and had some major crop damage.  A lady from our spinning group had a barn blow away over two fences.  I am extremely upset to be losing the trampoline because it was one of Daphne and my favorite things to play with.  After some thought, we will work to pay off our debt this year, and we can get a new trampoline next year when the baby is big enough to enjoy it as well.  You live and you learn.  You should always anchor your trampoline in case there is a freak storm.  I am upset about losing some of the garden as well, but I feel that with some work done this weekend that we are pretty much back to where we were last week–minus a trampoline and a few melon plants.

The storm did do one good thing.  I got a REALLY great rise on my bread, and the whole wheat bread I made ended up looking more like Wonderbread with the nice mushroom looking top.

We went to go see the Lipizzaner stallions for my birthday on Thursday night after the storm.  All the roads out of Carlton were closed because of down power lines and down trees.  We ended up taking a side dirt road to Mcminnville.  Daphne and I had a total blast watching the horses.  We had gone to see them two years ago for my birthday, but it was a treat to see them again.  My mother-in-law even got away and got a chance to see the beautiful animals.

My sister called me on Friday morning to say that she was going to head up and surprise me for my birthday (I turned 25 on Saturday).  That was exciting.  We don’t get to see each other much, and I always appreciate hanging out with my nephews.

While I waited for them to come, I decided to go get Poe out and shear him.  He is on a different schedule than the other bunnies that I have, so he has been hot and hairy recently.  Here he has some hair.

Now I have taken all the prime fiber off, but I have collected some fiber for myself.

He has much less fuzz after the whole process.  He is going to be a happy bunny during our next heat spell.

It was nice to have my sister around.  Eli and Daphne seemed to have closed the age gap, and they are finding it is a lot easier to play well together.  There was very little screaming or hitting, and that was quite pleasant.

I see my future in this photo.  That future is not too far off either.

I haven’t seen Noah in almost 6 months.  He is totally adorable.  He just turned 1 year old in May, and he is a total cutie pie.

Saturday was my birthday, and I decided I was going to make my own ice cream cake.  I wanted a chocolate cake with pralines and cream ice cream in the middle.  I made the cake on Friday night.  The ice cream was made on Saturday, and I must say that I had a lot of help–in the eating process.  Daphne now knows what comes out of the ice cream core when it has been running for a while.

And when a spoon is too cumbersome, use your fingers.

Apparently I thought it was necessary to share a photo of my first Caprii Salad of the year.  It is one of my favorite foods.  The basil, tomato, mozarella and olive oil just seems to hit the spot every time.

We did spend some time out at Delphi’s Parent’s Weekend this year.  Though I am no longer a parent, it is nice to go out and hang out during this time of year because so many of the graduates that I know come back for one reason or another.  It was nice to chat with some friends I had not seen in a while.  That really kept us on our toes.

After all the company left on Monday, I was totally exhausted.  It took me a full day to sleep and rest and clean before I was able to feel partially normal.  The good news is that the list of projects I have to handle is coming quickly to a close, and the house is staying mostly clean.  I like feeling a little on top of things.

My friend Rebecca came over today for lunch.  I made a giant salad with all kinds of things in it from the fridge.  It was totally delicious.  We even managed to pick a few strawberries from the plants growing in the front yard.   They made a nice, simple dessert.

We went for a walk after lunch to enjoy the beautiful day.  Daphne went right to sleep when we got home, and I was able to spend the afternoon getting some important sewing done, which always makes me happy.

Rebecca was even kind enough to let Daphne hold her 7 week old son, Oliver for a few minutes.  Again, I see my future, but the truth is that Daphne is very sweet and kind with babies.

I am now exhausted and unable to sit at the computer for long because I have feet that swell up bigger than you can imagine.  I’ve got some other exciting posts and updates in the near future, so stay tuned and please forgive my disappearance over this very busy past week.

I am in a discussion board online with other people due around the same time that I am.  One of the ladies just had the baby.  Though it is a bit early, the baby was totally fine and didn’t need to spend any time in the NICU!  It really started to hit home the fact that I could have a baby at some point soon.  I am totally ready, but my world may be turned upside down for a while.  I would like to get some projects completed first before I go leaping head first into newborn land.

I realized that we have very little time to get some big projects done around the house, so Jared and I spent Sunday attacking them.  Everything on my list got done, which is amazing.  The old chicken coop was turned into pieces to make future rabbit hutches if necessary.  The garage got cleaned out.  I spent several hours cleaning out the car interior.  It is perfect.  I even put the infant car seat in because I have had people coming places with me that have little babies.  We might as well put it in and leave it in at this point.

I even got all the projects from the backyard handled.  Jared took apart the chicken run from the meat birds and helped break it down.  I am no longer doing the meat bird thing in this small space we have.  I cleaned all the chicken pens and reduced my chores to just the chickens and the rabbits–much less than a week ago.

Daphne has been really wonderful and helpful lately.  She LOVES taking care of the baby bunnies.  She can’t get enough of holding them.  I moved the angora babies out with their mom yesterday during the day, and they are spending the night out there tonight.  Daphne will miss going to get them herself, but I am sure that she won’t lack time playing with them.

Of course mama gets to help play too.  That is a rabbit on top of my very pregnant belly.

And a rabbit snuggling down in my shirt.

The babies want to be just like mama.  They are learning to drink from the water.

And they are learning to eat out of the feeder.

Curious little buggers.

They sure do like to hang out on mama.  Look at the bunny under mama trying to nurse.  Daisy really is not totally thrilled with 8 babies running around demanding that she play.  It has been exceptionally hot here recently, and I am sure it is not easy to cool off with youngsters sitting on you.

All the white bunnies together.  Look at how exhausted and hot Daisy looks.

All the bunnies in the box.

They like to explore.

This is Thing 1 nursing her babies.

She really is a pretty rabbit.

The babies opened their eyes over the past two days, and it really does a lot to make them look cute.

It got really hot outside, so I rigged some extra shade for the bunnies to hang out of.  It is a real high tech solution.

The chickens got some shade for their nest boxes, and they started to use them again.  This completes almost all of the things that need to be done for the chickens.

The chicken run is now almost complete except for a 15 minute fence repair I hope to make it to this week.

Big news!  We got a garage door opener.  We can now park the car in the garage.  The car is clean, the garage is clean, and the car stays out of the hot weather for the small children riding in it.  This has made a wonderful improvement in our lives.

A clean car in a clean garage, what a great feeling for a pregnant woman.

I packed a to-go bag for the baby to go to the birth center with me.  I’ve got clothes and diapers.  For now, all this stuff is sitting on the freezer in the garage, but it will soon just live permanently in the car.  I made a bag of things for Daphne to eat and to do while she comes with us.

I made Daphne some wipes for a baby we are going to give her when our baby is born.  They went in the Daphne to go bag to the birth center.  I think she will appreciate them.

Daphne sure loves to hang with her daddy.

I am feeling really tired as the end of being pregnant draws near.  My birthday is on Saturday, and I feel like there is an awful lot that needs to get done before I have no more energy.  My feet are starting to swell up and I am having trouble doing the same things I could do fairly easily only a few weeks ago.  I spend a lot less time on the computer because it is not good for my feet or my morale, so that is why I have been skipping days and not posting things like my no dairy, no sugar ice cream recipe.  All in good time.  There are plenty of adventures to be had.  Until then, I am going to join my baby in this position.