Holding a Kit

Until today, I have resisted the incredibly growing urge to hold a baby. The only handling that I have done is just very careful kit checks to make sure they were all still alive and feeding properly. My reasoning for limiting the interaction, including taking pictures, is that I wanted to lessen the stress in their earliest days so that survival success could be at it's greatest.

But since Wednesday, two different babies on two separate occasions have crawled (or held onto Mom's tit) out of their "nesting" box. A box that is simply the potty box with hay that she birthed them in. She was, of course, not eliminating in it, but instead using one corner of her cage that I later placed another potty box in.

So after observing the resilience of those two kits in a new situation, (i.e. the cage floor) and seeing that they are just beginning to peep their little eyes open; I decided that today I would hold a bunny! I chose the one wearing socks because he or she was one of the two that began exploring its way out of the nesting box in the first place. Also he or she was one of the first to begin opening its eyes.

I may begin taking more and more pictures as the days pass and their growing and changing will begin to take off. For now, I am feeling her success as I observe the six kits are well nourished and still alive from such a young mom.

They are somewhere between 7-9 days old.

A Merry Christmas Surprise.

The foster "boy" bunny was no boy at all! She began pulling out her furr vigorously on the December 21st. I didn't actually see the hay moving around until December 23rd though. These babies could be anywhere from 3 to 5 days old.

When I part the nest to take a look, they began squirming and popping up. I have seen them individually wiggle their way up and out of the hay/fur nest, only to circle back and return to the warm bunch while nudging the fur back into the bunch as they go.

The count I took today tells me there are five black kits and one grey kit. They sure are fuzzy at such a young age.

Drops

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More Wheat Grass. . .

flat after flat after flat after. . .

Tunneling Bunnies

The bunny tunnel that leads onto the bunny loft in our studio is complete; well, functionally for now. The tunnel could use a fresh coat of paint and roofing material on top boards. They now have indoor and outdoor options!

Two girls and a bun

Little buns helping the girls clean their room. (a moment of fun with the camera)

Baa-baa Black Sheep's Wool

This was recently sheered from a local farmers sheep. He also has Alpaca fleece. If all goes well with the cleaning and the spinning, I'll try my hand spinning the Alpaca fleece too.

These sheep looked very happy. He had sheered this one back in the summer. I asked him if I could pet one and he just laughed and said, "They really aren't the petting sort of animal." I still don't know what that really means.

New Crop!

I sprinkled Red Leaf lettuce seeds in the small planter box and a lot of those starts are beginning to emerge. Hopefully I will be harvesting lettuce in a month or so. Fall is great time in Oregon for lettuce, although this previous summer was so mild that I was able to grow lettuce quite well.

Our little helper

Somehow in the stages of potty training, my toddler lost interest, until I added the bunny to the process. Now, every time we go set up the potty I have to go scoop up Little buns for the event. We use her to help us clean their room and play areas too. I get both girls involved easily! She just hops around and checks out the fun.

Wheatgrass

Wheatgrass is supposed to be a very healthy addition to the diet and I am finally becoming successful at growing it. The first several attempts I made, yielded very moldy flats. I just kept trying new locations, covered/uncovered, and new containers. Now, at least, the bunnies are enjoying it.
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New Herbs and Plants

This is our little comfrey plant! I planted it near the water barrel so it will get drenched in the rainy season. The Valerian plant is also in the same bed.

New Herbs and Plants

This year we added two new herbs to our yard. We added Raspberry shown in this picture, and Comfrey. The comfrey is supposed to be especially useful to make a tea fertilizer with the leaves. The bunnies will be able to munch on either plant.

Tomato Progress

I think we may actually a few tomato's despite all of the colder weather. The plants hit a growth spurt and we actually had stake them up. Did you know that you can freeze whole tomato's to later use for soups and chili?

Belly full of blueberries at Blueberry Hill

Local food is the way to go and the u-pick farms usually offer the best prices and the freshest produce you'll ever eat. The key for us is to pick enough to last the whole year!

Newest member of the family

This is Shirley (aka Honeybun). She is our third bunny but we haven't had great luck with the introduction of the other two yet. I am doing the research and finding that we may have to introduce them in a moving vehicle to scare them into bonding! First I am just giving them cage time around each other to adjust to the newness. Shirley is an angora and as I brush her fur I will likely save what comes off onto the brush for spinning into yarn. I am not a motivated harvester, however. I'm just not going to waste what I get.

My husband's handy work

Max has made 2 very beautiful (in my opinion) planter boxes. We currently have our tomatoes, cilantro, basil, and peppers in the large box. The small box will mostly contain lettuces for the fall.
All of the plants shown here were started by seed in our window box except the basil.

I have to say, though, this cool summer we are experiencing isn't exactly helping my tomato plants like it is my lettuce plants. The 60-70 degree coolness has extended the lettuce season, but it seems to slow the development of flowers and fruit on the tomato plants.

Mystery Greens Gone Wild!

Mystery greens original has grown about 3 feet tall and is now flowering and seeding on the top. We are experiencing a very mild summer (a lot of 60 degree weather) so the lettuces and greens should do very well.
This is another of the series of "let them go wild" to see if I can get year-to-year starts that need very little attention.

My Flowering Potato Plant

This is my best looking potato plant so far. I have about 10 different plants in various places in the yard. My hope is to leave a couple of them to "go wild" and not harvest right away.
I once had a tomato garden that literally did go wild and from year to year we would have wild tomato plants starting up on their own. Wild plants seem to make some of the healthiest ones and need very little pampering.

Baby Mystery Greens

The backyard, mysterious greens that me and my bugs have been munching on have multiplied! Now there are actually three separate plants. One is so close to the original plant that they look like one, while the third is further back. I also found more potato's in my wine barrel planter.

Winter Potato Yield

Who would of thought I would get a potato yield from a few chopped off sprouts of potato's I used in a soup. I had thrown the sprouts, mid-winter no less, in a few of the backyard pots just to see what possibly could happen. I was finding quite a few of these little potato's; none bigger than the biggest shown in this picture.

Seed Collecting update

More seed collecting from some organic green beans that were ready to be composted. Sometimes I don't cook up my veggies in a timely fashion and a few become compost. I couldn't resist the seeds on the inside.

Survival of the Mystery Greens

New Leaves are growing from the older plant! I am still not certain what kind of lettuce that I have growing in the wine barrel planter; but here is proof that lettuce can, indeed, survive all of Oregon's seasons, even with freezing temperatures. I already ate a few salads from this plant and then I forgot about it until recently. It appears something else was feeding on it also. I think I want to keep this lettuce plant going as long as possible as a test to see if it will eventually spread it's seed, somehow.

Homemade Marshmallows

All the holiday baking led me to making marshmallows without corn syrup. They are simply divine and easy to make. The only downfall is that they would never hold up to a campfire. They taste best coated in dark chocolate. I would still make smores with them.

I keep wondering why we pronounce them as "marshmellow", but spell them with an 'A".