Picture-fest!!!

Okay, as promised, pictures of all my babies that are not weaned yet.  I've weaned Xena's two babies- and seperated Trina's two kids.  Trina's boy with Xena's boy, and the two girls together. 

Though the dutch are the same as as Xena's two babies, Dutch I don't wean until almost 6 weeks, whereas the New Zealand's I wean between 4 and 5 weeks.

Out of the 5 Steels that Sasha had, these are the two that survived the rat attacks-both females. Born 12/21.

Out of the 7 that Kylie had, these are the 4 that survived the rats, one boy(second one in from the left) only has one front limb, but he's hopping around the cage and playing with his sisters so I didn't want to put him down yet.  He'll be kept for meat pen though.  Born 12/21.

These are Keisha's 6 babies, some blacks and some steels(you can see the fur ticking on the steels)  These guys were born 1/20.

These are the newest New Zealand Babies!!  Out of my solid black doe and the broken black buck.  It had been born 5 solid blacks, 5 broken blacks, but I've lost 2 solids and 1 broken already.  They were born 1/26.

Ebony, the black doe I picked up little over a month ago has these little darlings, blacks and steels I think coming here! Also born 1/26.

And for babies that will be ready by easter and for Juniors for Nationals/spring shows, Anna had 5 on the 27th.  Not the best markings in the world on some of them, but they should make good brood stock. 

I've got one dutch left, but she's still 3 weeks out and I should be breeding Ruby soon. 

Pictures not off the Camera yet

But I got words to write.
Well for one, I ordered my saddle- identical to Lisa's except for it's brown(only so it matches the girths I already have when I put it on Bahloo) and it came with the exact bit I've been looking for, for Heidi.  It matches the bit that Shannon had in her bridle that she used on Heidi-awesome! The stirrups I ordered(comes with 4.5 inch, I need 5 inch for my feet) came in as well, so saddle is together and out in the barn. Anyone need the saddle pad(too small for a 19 inch saddle), the 4.5 inch stirrups or a 44" girth? Hahaha.  I've got two girths on order, one is a lightly used 54" and the other is new 64 inch from Drafttack.com-let's see what fits.  I suggested to hold onto the 68" only if Heidi starts putting back on the weight she does over the summer, we'll need a bigger girth again, right now she enjoys romping with Bahloo in the feild. 

I've had 3 dutch litters born recently, Keisha has 6-blacks and steels, Ebony has 7 blues and Anna has 5 blue and blue steel- AWESOME- I got BLUES.  I'm planning on attending Dutch Nationals this year and apparently quite a few Dutch breeders had a hard time getting babies so there won't be much challenge in Juniors at Nationals-Good news for me.  It'll be a several day adventure in Penn. 
Bree had her New Zealand litter same day as Ebony had her kits, she had 10-5 solid black, 5 broken blacks- but lost two of the solid blacks from freezing- her nest wasn't quite big enough for all 10 to fit in- she had a big enough box though.  But keeping 8 after having 10 for a first time mom isn't bad at all and she is by far my smallest doe-not small by any means being around 11 pounds but Xena, Ruby, and Trixie all outsize her, and Juliet's not old enough to be bigger but almost equals her in size.  So baby bunny pictures soon to come.  Gotta get them all uploaded to the computer and then to Photobucket so I can get them  here. 

Well, very odd scenario

So I picked up Lisa's saddle and girth for Heidi yesterday.  Put it on for a fitting . . .

And huston we have a problem. First girth- too short, this girth- too long.  I had one hole on the right side, 2 holes on the left side and needed to take around 6 more inches out.  Gah!  why is girths soo hard? 
But I got on the saddle anyway, fits a lot more comfy on Heidi's back than it does on Lisa's stool.

I couldn't bend to put the other stirrup on my foot, because the girth was loose.
Then we attempted to walk around and she got spooky-very cold northern wind was not helping me shivering and her getting spooky and the loose girth make things VERY nerve wracking-my face shows that one!  I don't know why all of a sudden she's so spooky and wanting to go-go-go, but I'm going to give Jason's buddy a call and see if he can put another 30 days professional training on her and see what we got after that.  Or grab one of the Amish boys to get some work put into her- could work out a trade on that one hopefully(I should have plenty of rabbit meat in short enough order with 5 does total) 

Then we moved onto the water bucket/heater/cage repair.

Step one: since the bucket was mostly empty anyway, rinse it out(it was scrubbed a week ago, just had some mud in it) and put it up on 7 cynder blocks, and refill.  It comes up heigh enough for Heidi to scratch her chest on so Bahloo would have a lot of work to do to put her foot in it now!

Step two: the heater cage.  Bahloo mangled the other one so badly I had to replace this one so that I won't have to worry about melting a hole in the bucket(Geeh, guess what happens when you put a big hoof in a water bucket?)

You can see the new cage on the above picture. 

But she did manage to clip the heater.  Hopefully it still does work

Though the white hair only excludes Phoenix from putting his feet in the water tub, Heidi's not physically atheltic enough to bend like this and I've watched Bahloo do it.  Oh well- I knew she put her feet in water buckets.  With it up, she shouldn't be able to get her hooves up enough to get them in the tub.  Now to wait for another cold spell to check and make sure the heater still works.  While I don't like the idea of that frigid weather, I would like to know if it still works. 

Weather no help!

Well Originally I was going to see how much of her training she remembered but that didn't end up working too well as it kept raining off and on.  And when I put Cathryn's treeless saddle on her with my smaller english girth(46") it was too BIG.  Need a 38 or so to use the treeless with Heidi. 

We just walked up the road, checking out traffic and ground respect to stay at my shoulder.

We are still working on that.  We did quite a few circles, backing up and other mini side lessons to keep her attention on me.

There we go!  Her head at my shoulder, that's where it was supposed to be.  Of coarse if there hadn't been the breastplate on the saddle it would have been on her belly instead of her back.

I pulled her head around and was showing mom something when she snapped the picture.   I used my rope halter cause everything is muddy and her halter-black and white- was too clean to get dirty that quickly.  I don't want to try to get it white again. 

Onto the bunnies side of my world:

I traded Tina, one of my red New Zealand does for Rosie3, whom I called Ruby and I'm going to try breeding her to Stryder(Tina's brother) and keeping a buck out of the litter to replace Stryder and all the red's father Aragorn to farther the pedigree out. 

Here's Ruby:

And I picked up a Holland Lop doe that I had sold to a lady, she couldn't keep her any longer so I brought Adele home with me.  She looks soo much like her daddy and super friendly just like her daddy.

And for Aunt Lisa's amusements, here's some comparison pictures of Xena's babies o a Nestle Purelife water bottle(16.9 Oz)  The babies were born 12/29.  They got HUGE fast!!

The whiter baby is a buck, the darker one is a doe:

Heidi settling in and Fence repaired from Bahloo

 Heidi came for the winter so she wasn't so lonely. 

 After the initial hour of chasing, nipping and kicking, she stayed up near the barn, and Pheonix and Bahloo went back to munch Hay. 

 Sorry, the camera wouldn't get any closer.

Heidi watched us for a little while, we were setting up to fix the fence.

Bahloo and Heidi are much better buddies now, and Heidi makes Bahloo look dainty. 

You can see the bracer bar and the nice tight shiney Barb wire strand to keep Bahloo off the fence.

Afternoon Nap time.

As the sun went down they were all munching hay together.  Day or two and Heidi will be completely blended into the 'herd'. 

Horsie update

The temporary fix for Phoenix's blanket seems to still be holding strong, so as soon as it warms up enough to drop him back to his lighter blanket I'll get it fixed properly and a little bit better with black elastic. 

Lookie!! Another Appy in the feild!  Oh wait, that's the wondeful snow we got today.  Shame, Bahloo looks pretty cool as a lightly frosted Appy.