Aster & Daisy's kits are four weeks old now. They've finally got fur and don't look so naked. They are pretty much weaned and eating big bunny food, but they're still with mum bun, Daisy.
Doesn't it look like the little one is being grateful before her meal? Usually they just push in and chow down instead of giving thanks first. Although, I suspect in this instance it's the flash on the camera making the eyes closed and the general 'giving thanks' pose is because of the height of the food dish. But it is a cute picture however we interpret it.
They do like to sneak through the small gap in the inner hutch wall and go visit their Auntie Buttercup. She doesn't seem to mind sharing her food dish with them so we haven't bothered to close the gap in the wall. Pretty soon, though, they will be too big to fit through the gap. They had to wiggle, skcootch and ootch to get through it today.
I think their genders may be one of each, but it's still pretty early to tell for certain.
Christine's Olivia & Hillside Violet
Hillside Gayle
These are the last haircuts of 2019, although Gayle got more of a grooming than a haircut. She has a wonderful really silky texture to her wool and it's softer than everybunny else's. She does seem to have a sprinkling of white hairs through her black coat, though. Not quite sure what all that is about, it doesn't seem to be what might be called 'steel' since it seems entire white hairs and not just hair tips. Is this a fault if she were a show bunny? The little white hairs blend in with the yarn and don't seem to be a problem as far as yarn goes. She has the best coat texture of anybunny in the herd, so she should have a litter or three to continue the coat texture, but what about those white hairs?
Well, anyway, we did all the bunny haircuts and have their wool ready to become Hula Bunny yarn. Since we have it spun by a woolen mill, it's all boxed up and ready to send to the mill. I've been spinning some Merino sheep's wool lately, but that generally doesn't get sold at the shop along with the Hula Bunny yarn since it takes so long for me to spin that I'd have to ask too much money for the yarn.
If any yarn at the shop is handspun instead of millspun, then it's labeled 'Hillside Farm' yarn instead of 'Hula Bunny' yarn. Although, I'm not sure if folks actually pay that much attention to yarn labels? Mostly they just pick up a skein of Hula Bunny yarn, touch it to their face and then hug it and take it home with them. Not quite sure why, but this has happened often enough to become almost a ritual. Blessings to the bunnies, perhaps?
Big bunny hutch plans
There should be a way to set up files to be downloaded from the website, although that's more than I'm gonna go find out at the moment. A local bunny person asked me about a big bunny hutch (I think it's her Christmas present) so a set of plans for a fairly large hutch was drawn up. It's basically two of the type of big hutches we have here facing each other with a roof over the top. If she builds it, I'll hopefully get some pictures of the finished hutch.
Should anyone want plans for a bunny hutch that can be segmented into six separate spaces or two large spaces, with a roof and a bit of storage space as well, let me know. I have them as a .PDF file. This hutch has open sides and enough room in the middle for them to park their riding mower or put a table for bunny maintenance and such. I think it was about an eight foot by ten foot covered space with bunny hutches on either side.
Next time the bunny hutches here get relocated, perhaps something similar will be done. The hutches here are double layer, but that requires more maintenance so the next set of big hutches may just be one layer of bunny hutches with storage above as well as some sort of hay feeder above, too, perhaps. No immediate plans to move bunny hutches, though, so they will probably stay the way they are for the next year? Depends on if we build a new house in back but we have to finish the extreme fixer upper first.
Ignored Orchid Happiness
Part of this year's projects had been to clear out a house we moved out of about eight or nine years ago. We'd left a plastic window box on the windward side of the house with some little orchids in it. What had been a few little orchids turned into a big box of happy blooming orchids. The box had been a dark green, now it's faded to some sort of light blue but the orchids seemed to have thrived on neglect.
There's an orchid society in Hilo which has monthly meetings about the care and keeping of orchids. I have a couple friends who belong to it and they're always fussing about with their plants. That generally seems a certain death knell for any orchids around here, but just stuck out in the yard and ignored, they seem quite happy.
The ignored orchid was taken off the windy side of the old house and stuck on a table out in the yard next to the bunny hutches. I did throw some bunny berries on it, maybe it likes bunny manure? It's made more flowers than it had before. The plant growing behind the orchid is some type of fuzzy false oregano. It's not even growing in dirt, just rain and a few leaves that fall on the table top. This sort of unencouraged growth is sometimes a problem and one of the reasons why I want two sheep for the backyard. We need all the help we can get to keep green growies under control around here, especially after spreading bunny berries around.
This is probably the last blog post of 2019. Several of the website pages have been updated, although those were the "In The Nest Box" and "Available" pages which get changed periodically. I still need to transfer the old data from the bunnies' previous website over to here and I've been planning on making a page about dyeing things with indigo since it's a roadside weed around here, but as you can tell, so far that hasn't happened.
Ha'oli Makahiki Hou 2020!
Wishing you a Happy New Year 2020!
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