Road Trip! New Baby Bunnies! Woot!
Road Trip! We don't usually wander too far from home, but we were invited to go visit one of our favorite rabbit wranglers who now lives about seventy miles away, so why not? They're thinking of building a small pavilion and drafting up blueprints is our 'real' job, other than keeping the bunnies, so it's even an 'official' road trip for work.
It was a beauty day and we stopped at the scenic overlook above Hilo Bay. On the right side of the picture in the background you can see a big white column of smoke from the Fissure 8 lava flow. On the left side of the picture in the background, you can see the big column of smoke and steam rising from where the lava is entering the ocean.
As we drove down the highway towards Pahoa, there would be intermittant views of the distant columns of steam and smoke rising from the Fissure 8 lava flow. This is just as we were coming up towards the relatively new Longs Drug store in Pahoa. We turned off the highway right after this picture was taken.
So we've seen the smoke from the overlook above Hilo Bay, then driven towards Pahoa with the views of smoke and steam rising above the horizon in the distance. We went down miles of one lane road through a huge mango grove along the beach road. It's been freshly paved since it's the last access road to the Kaphoho area, although we're not following it that far. The last half mile is a gravel road. It's like we're going off to the back of the back beyond.
And then it's like we've arrived at a five star resort! There's acres of immaculately groomed and landscaped grounds. More types of colorful ti plants than there's probably names for. Koi ponds with water lilies, the scent of jasmine and gardenia, the sounds of a quiet temple bell and bamboo rustling in the breeze. It's an amazing serene place, a veritable Shangri-la off in a gorgeous tropical setting.
Then, at night, it's like a visit from a cthulhu lava daemon. Possibly one of Pele's pets. (Does Pele have pets?) As the evening creeps in, instead of the usual sunset sky that fades to black, it's a sunset sky that intensifies to a brighter and brighter glow.
At night, one realizes how close the river of lava is to the house. The whole night sky is orange with the glow of the lava reflecting off the night time sky. There is a veritable river of lava causing that glow and it's about a half mile away. However, it's also down wind. From their house during the day, you can't see it. You can't smell it. You can't hear it. It's at night when it becomes evident exactly what is just a little bit away.
There have been idiots trying to hike to the lava river. Our rabbit wrangler and his friend said their neighbors found a small tour bus full of people hiking through their yard (at 3 am!!!) trying to 'go view the lava'. ARRGH! If it's tourist season, why can't we feed them to a volcano goddess?
The lava glow would be brighter sometimes, although there was always a pretty bright glow. When there were more clouds, it would be reflect enough that you could almost read by it.
So far they are doing okay and from the looks of the topography, they are likely to remain okay, although we still worry. Once the lava flow slows and stops, they do have a stone cold gorgeous BnB which is a brilliant place to stay should you like to visit on your next Hawaii trip. Send me an email and I'll give you their BnB details, I've not asked for permission to post it here yet. However, wait until the lava settles down a bit, they're not accepting visitors until things settle down a little.
So that was about two weeks ago. Since then we've been busy about the place here, organizing bunnies, playing with the the restored sewing machine, finally having the garden do a little bit of growing and getting in a lot of swimming at the local swimming pool since it's a lot closer (although not as fun) as the one we visited the week before. Kinda usual summer time stuff. It's been beauty weather, nice sunny days, rain at night. The bunnies have been happy.
Suzie made a big fluffy nest, she filled the dropped nest area with lots of wool. The dropped nest area is about three or four inches deep, she's got it filled to the floor level with wool she pulled from herself.
Suzie has a really dense coat. She pulled loads of wool for her nest and didn't hardly make a dent in her coat. Some does will look half scalped after they pull wool, but Suzie still has lots left.
Finally! New baby bunnies! And in a proper sized litter, too! There's seven of them in there. At least, I've counted at least seven, I think. Two of them were off to the side, but they were still warm and wiggly and went back into the nest and are fine.
Hillside Suzie, is a pure English angora doe. She's a "REW" which is "Ruby Eyed White" also known as an albino. In order to show that color, it requires two recessive genes - one from each parent. So both of Suzie's parents had a recessive gene for albino to give her when she was born.
Zorro is a black, which is a dominant color and only needs one dominant gene to show up. He could have a recessive gene for albino hiding in there behind the black that we see. One of his siblings was white so we know his mum (who is also black) has the recessive for albino so it's possible he'd have it, too. HOWEVER, there are seven babies and none of them are albino, so almost certain that Zorro does NOT have the recessive for albino. Ratz! We really need more white fiber around here for the 'Coconut Dream' color of Hula Bunny yarn. At least all the offspring will have the recessive for albino, so maybe one of their kits will be REW. But, that won't be for months and months yet.
So far Suzie seems to be doing a good job of being mum. She's made a lovely nest and they seemed to be fed when I checked them earlier today. Mom bunnies don't feed their babies like dogs do, to where they lay down and let them nurse for quite a long time. With baby bunnies, the mum bunny will be in the nest for just a few minutes to let them nurse and then she stays away from the nest to keep predators from finding it.
Since Zorro is a half Satin angora, half German angora 'hybrid', the babies are one half English angora and one quarter Satin and one quarter German. This is our first litter of 'hybrid' angoras, it will be interesting to see what they look like as they get older. Zorro doesn't have the fluffy ears and face of an English angora and he's bigger than the usual English angora, although not by much. Hopefully they will survive, they are still very young and delicate. Hopefully they won't mind the 4th of July fireworks coming up soon, either!