Snow N' Bunnies

It started snowing here an hour or so ago and it's still coming down.  First snow of the year! (For us, anyway :)) 

It's not snowing the type of snow that's going to stick to the ground and pile up, it's currently just hitting the ground and melting.

However, it's still snowing!  And the bunnies are all doing well.  Luckily their water bottle's have not begun to freeze.

I even checked the metal part and it's still allowing water to flow, which is really good!

Unfortunately, there are only 4 baby lop bunnies now.  One of them crawled out of the box and froze in the night a few days back.

So I've been careful and check on them often, making sure they're all in their box and warm.

Another one had gotten out yesterday, but I found him and got him back in with his siblings.  He's doing well.

And I know I haven't done a blog post in quite a few days, so I'm sorry about that!  But things have been quite busy around here and now we have Thanksgiving and Christmas quickly approaching!

Not only that, but I will begin a new job Wednesday.  So the bunnies have been another thing keeping me quite busy.

A good busy though.  My brother and I harvested some male bunnies who were a few months old.  It was all successful and done quickly and humanly.  Now I'm ready for winter!  I've got tarps and old feed bags hanging up to help keep my rabbits out of the path of wind. 

I'm hoping to soon buy a memory card for my camera.  Once I do that, I'll be able to take some photo's of the baby lops and my rabbitry with all the tarps up for you. 

Driving

I'm super excited! I went for my driver's test today and left with a driver's license!!!

I'm really glad that it only took one attempt.  And it was actually extremely easy.  I was expecting the driving part to last around 15 minutes, but instead it was more like 5. 

My picture on my license does not look very good, but I haven't seen many that do, so I didn't mind.  I was just glad that I passed!

It's going to be different, but cool to get to drive by myself now :)  I'm definitely excited! 


Wearing Rabbit

There's a ton of really pretty and cool jewelry out there with the usage of rabbits.  (not literal rabbits, but rabbit inspired)

I actually have a rabbit necklace AND rabbit ring.  I really enjoy wearing both!  I have to buy a new memory card for my camera, but here are some super neat piece of jewelry that you can find on etsy.com if you'd want them. :)

Let's start with cute ring...(under each picture, I'll put the link directly to it if you'd like to buy one)

https://www.etsy.com/listing/170892573/rabbit-ring-bunny-ring-adjustable-ring?ref=sr_gallery_3&ga_search_query=rabbit+ring&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

 This ring above is actually JUST like the one I have.  I love wearing it an it's great because you can just adjust it to your size. 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/89782587/rabbit-ring-bunny-ring-adjustable?ref=sr_gallery_25&ga_search_query=rabbit+ring&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

 This one has a really pretty band on it, and it's open in the back so it would easily fit almost any size finger!

There are quite a few different types of rings, but I'm going to move onto earrings now :) 



https://www.etsy.com/listing/178235803/fox-and-rabbit-earrings-antiqued-brass?ref=sr_gallery_25&ga_search_query=rabbit+earrings&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

I never wear stud earrings, but I really liked the ones above and have been contemplating buying a pair for quite some time!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/151156178/head-of-bunny-earrings-antique-silver?ref=sr_gallery_5&ga_search_query=rabbit+earrings&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_page=3&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

Then, they actually have these cuff earrings.  You don't have to have pierced ears to wear them and I think they're really cool.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/111197855/running-rabbit-ear-cuff?ref=sr_gallery_1&ga_search_query=rabbit+cuff+earrings&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

Moving onto other things that have rabbits on them!  Here are a few examples of some things that look really cute with rabbits on them.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/150052250/bunny-rabbit-belt-buckle-etched?ref=sc_2&plkey=47542e784ce80e866d9bd19b95e2eb56e466bdfc%3A150052250&ga_search_query=rabbit&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

Above this is a fairly neat belt with a rabbit on the buckle part of it.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/130850248/bunny-nail-transfers-40-rabbit-nail-art?ref=sr_gallery_27&ga_search_query=rabbit&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

As you can see, these are sticker type things that you can put on your nails.  Very cute :)

https://www.etsy.com/listing/161336652/nerdy-bunny-art-print-dictionary-art?ref=sr_gallery_34&ga_search_query=rabbit&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_page=2&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

And as you can tell by this picture, there are quite a few adorable pictures you can get of rabbits as well!

So consequently, there are quite a few things you can do with the use of rabbits to accessorize.  There are lots of other options out there, so you should really go to etsy.com and check them out! All you have to do is type in 'rabbit' and his search. :)

Rabbit Scare and Lop Babies

I went out to tend my rabbits yesterday to discover I was out of rabbit food. 

I figured I could find some saltines or something for them to eat.  Well, I found some bran flakes cereal with raisins. 

Two full boxes of bran flakes later, I had fed all the bunnies.  Today I went out to take care of them only to see EVERY SINGLE rabbit on their side, motionless.

My heart literally (yes, LITERALLY!) stopped for a second.  I had killed every single rabbit.  Every. Single. Rabbit. Dead.

(Just so you know, to replace them with rabbits of breeding age to have the same amount of rabbits again would cost me basically around $800)

I was so mad at myself.  What a stupid mistake! I should have found them something I KNEW was safe for them to eat!  But I didn't.

I walked into the rabbitry, both young and old bunnies were on their sides.  With minimal hope I went, "Guys!"

They all jumped up! I was soooooooooo relieved!  They were all just enjoying the day (as it is really nice weather)

So, with that crisis averted, I took some photo's of the baby lops for you!

When you first open the hutch, this is all you see until you push away some of the fur!

Here they are! 5 beautiful babies...(the sixth one she ate)

Then as you can see, she ripped a lot of fur off her front legs and chest.  She really is quite bald!

We also caught a star-nosed mole this morning.  I tried to get photo's of that, but he was extremely squiggly.

As you can see, his build is incredible for digging! But he still is sort of creepy looking :)

Anyway, I'm just so glad my bunnies are all alive!  Our fridge from craigslist isn't working, so we're getting another one off of there today.  On our way home from this adventure we're going to pick up some REAL rabbit food!

52 Years Ago Today

Fifty Two years ago today two very special people got married.  Those two people are my grandparents.

These were some bases in Alaska

They were both in the Air Force and stationed in Alaska during the Cold War.  They didn't know if a nuclear weapon would be shot off at them during any time.  They were in love and so they got married.

Fast-forwarding back to this modern day, they are still together and still are there to be a companion for the other.

They live within minutes of my family and I.  Whenever we have a problem we call them and vise versa. 

They are the best example of showing that when it comes to marriage, you'll be successful by working hard at it.

They made theirs work.  They traveled all over the globe together, had 3 children and now have 10 grandchildren. 

It's people like them who made helped make history.  And continue to bring hope to the future. 

Bunny Stuff

Well, Polka unfortunately died yesterday.  However, like I had said there was the great news of Cupcake having six adorable babies!

My brother heard on the radio that we're going to get a cold snap tonight.  Apparently it's going to get below zero!

Consequently, I hooked up a heat lamp for the baby bunnies and the mother to help keep them warm tonight.  Especially poor Cupcake who's completely bald on her chest and front legs as she ripped the fur off for her babies to stay warm.

Then I went and cut up old feed bags and zip-tied them to the cages to help keep the wind from directly hitting the rabbits, in an attempt to help keep them a little warmer tonight.

It took me a good hour or so and it was freezing already!  If it does get that low, all my water bottles out there will freeze and I won't be able to use the hose anymore.

I'll have to water them the way I did last winter...get out a sled.

I had a sled I used last year which I'd throw the frozen water bottles into and drag down to our basement where I'd defrost them, fill them up with fresh water, and then drag them back up to the rabbitry and distribute the bottles to the rabbits.

It takes a LONG time and has to be done quite a few times a day when the weather gets really cold.

I also have to watch that my bottles don't crack.  If there's too much water in the bottle when it freezes, the ice expands and breaks the bottle.

This happened quite a few times last year and I really am hoping I'll be able to keep that from happening again this year.

I put Buttons and her babies out to graze for a while in the grass earlier today.  They enjoyed every minute of it!  Buttons' is a digger though, so I had to keep a close eye on her.  Sure enough, she started digging and did dig quite a bit. 

Oh! I almost forgot, but this morning after church we came home to see the wind had knocked down my top row of rabbit cages!

It took my older sister, mom and myself to get them back up properly and while that happened, Eleanor (an albino rabbit from the porch) had gotten out of her fallen cage somehow and was very frightened.

Needless to say, it took quite some time to catch her.  And it didn't help that the wind had blown open the chicken coop door, letting all the chickens out which we had to catch.  They were part of the problem in catching Eleanor.  She was scared of them.

And every time I went to catch her, the chickens would follow me to watch and freak her out, so she'd go running. 

Hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures of the babies for you soon.  Also, I cleaned in great detail the rabbitry today. 
I pulled the shriveled up mums out and did a BIG raking job! It looks so much better back there now.  I also cleaned out all the leaves that were stuck in the sink back there.

I know, I didn't have many pictures in this at all!  But I promise my next post will have lots of pictures for you all :) 

Surprise!

Well, what a better way to start off a new month than with a surprise! :)

Our fridge broke a few days ago and we just bought an old one off of craigslist this afternoon.  Needless to say, we didn't get back home until later. So I was unable to take care of the rabbits until about an hour or so ago.

In my daily routine, I usually feed the lop bunnies last.  When I opened the hutch up, I saw what look like an explosion of fur! White fur...ALL over Cupcake's area.

My first thought was, 'why on earth did she do this? Does she think she's pregnant?'

Then I noticed - movement in the fur.  Turns out, Cupcake WAS pregnant as she just gave birth to SIX adorable baby lops!!!

(I didn't have time to take a photo of them, but here's this picture of a lop :))

It must have been from that ride home when all the bunnies (male AND female) were together when I first bought them...

Anyway, the babies were beautiful...and a very big surprise to see!!! However, it's getting cold out.  REALLY cold!!

So, I moved Ruby out of her hutch, cleaned it, added LOTS of woodchips for some added warmth, then put Cupcake and her babies in there. 

I then put Ruby in Cupcake's old hutch area (after cleaning it out, of course :))

Mother and babies all seem to be doing well for the current time.  Hopefully they'll remain warm enough.  I'm so happy I've got six lovely lop bunnies!