Summer's Major Project

and Summer Babies! Woot!

In case you're wondering why the web page hasn't been updated as much as usual, this summer's major project has been to get one of the rental houses sold and then buy the next major fixer-upper. It's been tons of work, but at least it seems to be progressing. Well, at least the clean out and sell the rental house part, we haven't started on the fixing and upping yet.

Part of what's making it such a project is that we used to live in the house we're selling. When we bought the first house here in town about nine years ago, we just took the stuff we wanted at the time and left pretty much everything else there until we figured out what to do with it. Then a friend was living there for awhile and then decided to pay rent and become a renter and then nine years have gone past. Just *poof!* Nine years later! With our stuff still there! So, cleaning out the house has sort of been like a personal time capsule.

I've been looking for these scissors for nine years! I still remember hiding them in a closet at the new house, yet here thay are still at the old house! What's up with that? I couldn't have been remembering hiding them at the old house since it doesn't have any closets. Did I dream about hiding scissors and remember the dream? How strange. And, you'd think I'd have better things to dream about. BUT! Now they are found. There was also a set of Weiss scissors with them, so now there's lots of scissors. Woot!

Some things, such as the bunny hutches which used to be functional in the back yard when we left didn't get any attention for nine years so there's not much left of them. Not sure why the legs were broken off, it seems to have been done deliberately? Maybe it was going to be used for a different kind of critter. Oh well, there's better ones here now so the sad remains can stay there.

Since our stuff was still there when we rented it, the rent was really reduced and we figured it would be safer with someone there to watch things than if we just left it. However, there's a difference between a security guard and a curator. Add in the tropical climate which is pretty hard on things and a lot of the 'stuff' is now not really worth moving. Which is actually a good thing, since we've gathered more stuff since then and don't have all that much storage space.

I'll probably rescue this and refurbish it so I don't have to make another one. The hydraulic jack pushes a coconut - the kind which have just fallen off the tree and are still in the thick fiberous husk - up through a sharpened blade. The hairy kind found at grocery stores already have the heavy fiber taken off so they are much easier to crakc. This hydraulic coconut cracker cracks the coconuts much easier than using a machete or a stake in the ground - which is how folks who grow up cracking coconuts manage to do it, but I'm sure my fingers would end up damaged if I tried that. We didn't have any coconut trees at the house in town, but now there's a sprouted coconut to plant, so in five or six years, I'll need a coconut cracker again. Easier to fix this one than weld up a new one.

Not exactly sure what type of orchids these are, but they are certainly durable orchids. They were left in a plastic window box on the windward and sunny side of the old house. For nine years with zero care. And they are not only still there but seem pretty happy with themselves to boot! Not sure where to put them, definately somewhere outside and possibly somewhere near the bunnies. Maybe I'll toss some bunny manure on them and see if they get happier. Hmm, perhaps they can move to the new extreme fixer-upper? That could use some happy flowers. Well, the yellow orchids will find a new home pretty soon. It's always nice to have really durable orchids.

Even while busy moving things out of the rental and having to get things ready by a deadline, bunnies still need to get haircuts. There's twenty young adult to adult bunnies out there who need haircuts on a regular basis, so a few get done here and there even when things are busy.

This is Caesar, still a fuzzy bunny before his haircut. He doesn't have the same amount of ear 'furnishings' that an English angora should have, if he went to a bunny show, he'd be penalized on points for lack of fuzzy on his ears. But, he still makes wool for Hula Bunny yarn even if his ears aren't show worthy.

Depending on how long the coming in coat happens to be when the bunny's wool is getting harvested, if it's less than 3/8" long (about 10 cm) then the bunny gets clipped down to bare. If the growing in coat is a couple inches or more, then the bunny will usually get the wool harvested by gently pulling off the loose coat. It's faster to clip, but if that will result in short ends of the new coat being harvested, then it isn't the best way.

Caesar also got his nails trimmed and a dab of Ivermectin in his ears to keep away ear mites. I should weigh the harvest to see how much he produced, but there were several other bunnies who got groomed at the same time. Things have been a bit busy, so more bunnies groomed is better than weighed harvests. Sometimes I'll weigh the amount of wool harvested, the weight of the bunny, etc., but then I have to go update the database and things are too busy right now.

Usually, I keep better track of dates and when a doe is due. I knew Olivia was due sometime soon, I thought it was yesterday, July 21. However, she hadn't built much of a nest. When I gave her more nesting materials, she just hid in the corner behind her nest box and ate the grasses. Hmpf! That's not really enthusiastic nest building behavior. So, I figured she wasn't going to kindle and the summer's heat had made Caesar temporarily sterile. That happens to bucks when the temperature gets over 85°F. It's been reaching 90°F lately, which is really hot for here usually it rarely gets much above 88°F.

I did check again in the evening when the bunnies were getting their feed, still no babies. I've never had a doe kindle at night before, so that was just another indication that she wasn't gonna.

Hey! Went out to feed bunnies this morning and there was a nest and six baby bunnies! Yay, Olivia!

After coming back in and entering the newborns into the bunny database, then I noticed that they were actually due TOMORROW, not yesterday. Ooops! So Olivia had them a day early and I'd been all wrong to think she wasn't going to have them at all. That's what I get for not checking the database for exact dates.

The sire of the litter is Caesar. This is the same pairing who had DaffyDill, Daisy & Buttercup. I'm hoping for a REW buck with the same extra fuzz that Daffydill has. Not quite sure how Caesar, who has very little ear 'furnishings' can sire an extra fuzzy baby such as DaffyDill, but that happened once before, let's see if it happens again.

Of course, it's still a bit early to tell if the babies are going to be extra fuzzy or not. At the moment, it's a bit difficult to even tell what color they are going to be. Usually a REW (Ruby Eyed White) will be a bright pink color at birth, these babies seem almost not pink enough to be REWs. Perhaps they are mostly chocolate torts? There may be one solid chocolate, the rest seem really light to be either a REW or a black tort. Well, hopefully they will survive and hopefully we will figure out what colors they will be.

Caesar is a black tortoiseshell and Olivia is a chocolate. Their genetic color codes are:
Caesar = aa Bb Cc D_ ee
Olivia = aa bb Cc D_ Ee

With Caesar having a dominant "B" for Black, one would expect half the litter to be black based. But, I don't see any black in the litter at all? Do you see any gray ones which would become black as adults? There's one who may be chocolate, but I don't see any of the gray which would become black later.

A few should be REW since both parents have the recessive "c" and it takes a "cc" to get REW. Which means both parents have to put in the recessive "c" instead of the dominant "C". If it is a "Cc" then the baby won't be a REW but will have the ability to have REW offspring.

We dunno if either parent can produce offspring with a dilute color such as blue or lilac, but the whole litter is very pale, so perhaps there will be a dilute color in there when they get old enough to show their colors? If one does show up, then we will be able to fill in a recessive 'd' on both parent's color chart. Which would mean we would then know both complete charts. That doesn't happen as often as one would hope!

And with both parents having at least one recessive 'e' for tortoiseshell and Caesar having a double recessive 'ee' and able to only give the recessive 'e', half the litter should be some sort of tortoiseshell. I think one baby may be chocolate, if it is, it will still be able to have tortoiseshell offspring because it will have the recessive for torts. Well, if they survive, we should know more in a couple of days.

The percentages of each gene showing up starts over again for each baby, so it's not based on the whole litter. If there's a parent with an "Bb" and a parent with an "bb" it's a fifty percent chance for each baby that they will get the dominant 'B' for Black and be a black based color. Usually, it averages out that the kits in the litter will be the same ratio as one would expect from the genetic color code, but not always.

It's the same with genders. One would logically expect half the kits to be female and half male, but we've had litters of all females and litters of all males before. These are just statistical odds, not a guarantee. The genetic color codes do give us the possibilities, though. If we want more of a certain color of fiber, it's good to be able to have a pair of bunnies meet up who may give us the desired color of fiber. I just wish I knew more about the genetic codes for fiber length, softness, crimp, etc.

We lost Olivia & Caesar's last litter to an incursion of rats. This time the nest has been lined with cardboard and rat baits have been put out. I may bring the babies in at night and keep them safe since rats are mostly out at night. Mom buns don't stay with their little ones, they just go into the nest a couple times a day to feed.