Well we finally did it... the new sheep pen near the house is complete, along with a fancy two room sheep condo! I've gotta send out much love and a huge hug to Neil for all of his help - as he said today "I didn't sign up for this!!" However we succeeded and can have a few days of rest (well from fencing).

The funnest part of it all was moving in - the sheep had a bit of a treck from the barn to the new pen, but I don't think they even realised they were going somewhere! Neil had the famous yellow bucket of grain and I followed behind. Boy I wish I had a camera, Neil had to run as the ewes were nearly tackeling him for the grain! All I had to do was run to catch up.

The pen and shelter are a recycling project - the only things we bought were the gate hinges and the fencing staples, and a few used metal T-Posts. The wire, wood posts, most of the T-Posts, gates, roofing tin, cool grain trough, and wood for the shelter were all scrounged from my landlord's farm. The wood pallets are from the hardware store in town, where they offer them for free. All of the gates are made from pallets, and the shelter walls are made from pallets. I also made the sheep and the horses wonderful feeders using the wonderously versatile slatted wood pallets! I love pallets.... :)

Gina actually was pregnant! We are finally rabbit breeders - she had six little spotted kits on Oct 27, exactly 31 days after the 'maybe, possibly bred' day. They are all healthy and strong, no runts, and appear to be black and white like mom and dad (Chester).
I am hoping to keep one doe from the litter to add to our breeding stock. 
It took months to get our first litter, but my spirits are raised and I believe we are now on our way to establishing a nice little herd of buns.

We have a lengthy to-do list to try to complete before the snow shows up!
- convert horse trailer into a winter rabbit barn & chicken coop - DONE!
- Bring home the rest of our applewood and chop up
- Fence a winter sheep pen near the house
- complete fencing yard for pugs
- repair fence that Delphine and Sequel destroyed
- set up winter watering & deicers
- put plastic up on all our windows
- replace glass door in living room with the winter wood door -DONE!
- clean up yard before all is hidden under snow
- figure out winter horse accomodations - who lives with who
- can apple sauce and apple pie filling

As I posted earlier I had decided to enter the rabbits into the Creston Fall Fair. Last night my friend Lorna and I packed up the bunnies and drove to town. Thankfully I thought to put a tarp under their boxes on the back seat - all three of them peed on the trip. Oh we only took three as Tater and Chester would have been in the same age/breed catagory. Poor (or is it lucky?) Chester got to stay home.

I am happy to report that Hershey placed first in Junior Doe, Gina placed first in Senior Doe, and Tater also placed first in Senior Buck! Now that was much more fun that my fruit mishaps!

 

Somewhat unexpectantly I've found that I really like to do home canning. I am on a role since Mom got me started last weekend! I've added to the list with peaches, peach jam, blackberry jam, Thai sweet & hot sauce, and some really wonderful Peach BBQ Sauce. Wow is it tasty! 

Things didn't go so well with my first fair entries though. My peach jam didn't set, my peaches were mushy, no comment at all on my rhubarb raspberry jam. But I did get a second with the Nectarines! That is ok - I entered for fun and as a learning experience. Next year should be fun :)





 

Well I don't quite have the blogging thing down yet... just remembered that I needed to put a few minutes aside and write something! To bring things up to date:

August 28: I bought two more Rex rabbits from a family in Idaho. A nice looking senior broken black buck that should cross well with Gina if she will ever accept! Nope, no luck yet. 'Chester' is a pretty active and handsome fellow though, I am sure Gina will take to him one of these days. I hope.

The other bunny is Hershey - a chocolate otter junior doe. It will be a couple more months before she can be bred but I plan to breed her to Tater when she is ready. Hershey is very sweet - the kids who bred and raised her did a great job!

August 31: My mom Rose came to visit and stay with us for a few days. She didn't really get much time to relax - instead she taught me how to can fruit and jam! We spent hours canning tomatoes, nectarines and peaches, and making various jam concoctions such as strawberry, strawberry rhubarb, strawberry banana, and raspberry rhubarb. We also viewed a property for sale nearby with the hopes of convincing her to move to Creston and buy an acreage that we can live on as well :)

September 1: Last day to enter items into the Creston Fall Fair. I decided to enter Gina, Tater, and Hershey, as well as a jar of nectarines, peaches, rhubarb strawberry jam and peach jam. Why not? First time entering into the fair and first time with rabbits and canning! Gotta start sometime.

 



 

Yes it does sound simple...the term "reproduce like rabbits" must be born from truth...right?

I have tried unsuccessfully to breed Gina to Tater. They were first put together July 19, without much excitement. Tater really tried to do his job but Gina just wasn't interested. Being somewhat impatient I left them together overnight and assumed they must have figured things out. Wrong. Now it is over a month later and there are no little bunnies! I know better now than to leave them together unattended - seems that I wasted a month of waiting because I didn't' witness any action. That is ok.. I am always prepared to learn a lesson even if it is done the hard way. But it is SO DARN FRUSTRATING!

So now I have been trying once again to breed them, and again without success. Through research and some wonderful help on various homesteading forums I have learned that perhaps I've been feeding Gina too much - she is rather chubby now. I've also received tips such as taking her for a car ride for a change of scenery, putting them in the sun to 'warm up' (but it has been raining here so haven't tried that yet) , and to separate their cages out of sight to try for the 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' idea.

Tomorrow Gina gets to relocate and go on a diet. Maybe even go for a car ride though the pugs Karma and Shambhala will be mighty jealous.

I am new to many things, and blogging is the most recent! Thank you for dropping in for a visit - I hope in some way I can offer you some tips, hints, advice, inspiration, knowlege, or just plain entertainment. All of which are good for the soul. In turn I welcome your own input and appreciate any contribution.