Replacing rabbit doe

The doe I'd brought home a couple weeks ago was quite determined to escape her pen. She found a weak point in the old cat pen and made it into a neighboring pen. I caught her, fixed up the hole, and put her back in. She found another spot she could break out of. Once again I happened upon her while she was still nearby, but this time she escaped from my net and ran out into the orchard. That's that, I thought. Five days later, she came back! But she had a bad respiratory infection and passed within 24 hours. At which point, I could handle her without unnecessary stress, and realized that she'd been a buck all along. The person who had sold the pair to me had made a mistake, and I hadn't thought to check when I picked them up, because sexing a grown rabbit is pretty easy.

On the bright side, when I posted to the local homesteading list that I was looking for a doe, someone offered me a two year old female who had already had healthy litters. She's a California/New Zealand cross (very common hybrid for meat rabbits).

Crossing my fingers that there are no more shenanigans!

Breed IDs on the 10 week old broilers

This batch of broilers contained 5 Black Australorps and 25 "all heavy" breeds, plus 1 free "rare chick." I could identify most of the breeds but needed a few IDed over on Backyard Chickens. Here's what we have:

Barred Rock

Blue Cochin

Buff Orpington

Light Brahma

Partridge Rock

Rhode Island Red

Silver Laced Wyandotte

Speckled Sussex

White Rock

Either the Blue Cochin or the Partridge Rock are the "free rare chick." I'm going to trial both of them as well as one of the Black Australorps as a replacement rooster. All of the roosters I trialed out from the previous batch ended up being jerks to the hens and were culled. The old feral rooster is still doing a good job but has a nasty foot injury. It will be good to have a second boy ready to take over if needed.

Rabbits!

I'd been wanting to get into raising meat rabbits for years. When I moved into my current location, I realized that the existing old animal pens could be easily converted into rabbit pens. Still, I kept putting off acquisition of rabbits until I had time to do more research (LOOOOOLL), and I worried about how they would do in the heat.

Last week, someone posted on a Bay Area homesteading list about old rabbit hutches and supplies they were giving away. Even though I wouldn't need the hutches while I'm living here, I decided to pick them up.

Last week, someone else posted about needing to sell a few rabbits, and were offering them for cheap. I decided to bite the bullet and got a male and female pair. It turned out that they were already second hand to the original owner, so I don't know their age or breed or whether they're fertile, but you know, they're rabbits so that's probably fine. On the downside, it's probable they're siblings, and they're a bit worse for wear. But they were cheap and I realized that I needed to just start, or I would never get around to it, and they needed a good home.

Two days after I brought them home, we have our first 100 degree days of 2018. So far they're weathering it better than I expected. They're set up in separate pens. They prefer to push the straw away to lie on the cool concrete floor. They have frozen water bottles to lick at or lie against. The doe has been drinking from a typical hanging rodent bottle but I realized that the buck hadn't figured it out and I gave him an extra bowl of water. They'll take treats from my hand. I'm giving them at least a week to acclimate before I try them together for breeding.

The buck has damaged ears from fights with other rabbits.

Look at that cat peeking in.

The doe has healthy ears but patchy fur from either overgrooming or fights.

Enjoying a strawberry on top of a frozen water bottle.

Bobble and Twist Hood

This was a super fun pattern! If I were to make it again, I would make the cabled brim out of a thinner yarn (it is super bulky on 6.5 mm needles). Even with the tight gauge, it comes out long and wide and overwhelms my small head. I'll definitely be wearing it, though. I might add a bobble onto the back and the sides of the brim, as pictured in the pattern.

Gauge ruler

The Black Squirrel has the best notions and such. Even if I don't buy yarn when I go in, I almost always get some little accessories. This one's a wooden gauge ruler, which makes it much easier to make sure to count how many stitches and rows you're creating per inch/cm. If you're creating more or less than the pattern calls for, your garment will end up larger or smaller than intended!

Snapdragons and hollyhocks

I like to plant snapdragons in memory of a previous dog, Cinnamon Snapdragon. These are looking beautiful.

Hollyhocks are among my favorite flowers. They're showy, come in many colors, and, like me, thrive in lots of sunshine. This is the "nigra" variety - such a dark reddish purple that they're almost black.

Broiler chicks update

They are about six weeks old now. They have progressed from the metal tub, to a small enclosed pen, and now to the larger pen surrounding it. They were quick to explore as soon as I propped the door open and are already working on consuming the weeds.

Six weeks to go!