( our hearts and best hopes go to everyone impacted by the Covid-19 virus.
Just because we're doing non-Covid things, doesn't mean we have forgotten the folks suffering from the virus. We also really, really appreciate all those folks out there keeping things going and keeping everyone as healthy as possible )
May 25th, 2020
Construction, Gardens and Baby Bunnies
busy, busy, busy!
Progress has been made although sometimes we have to look back in the pictures to see how much has been done.
The Newest Raised Bed Garden
corn, watermelon & beans
This is the newest raised bed garden - our 'apocalypse' garden that was built since we started this 'stay at home' because of the virus - and it seems to be doing quite well. This garden was planted on April 6th so this is about six weeks of growth. And the only fertilizer we use is bunny manure.
The corn is starting to make tassels, although none of them are tasselated yet. There are little beans hiding in there and more are blooming. The watermelon is making flowers but so far they are all male flowers so no fruit yet. Not sure how watermelons are going to work when the vines climb up fences. What's with that? The watermelon vines seem to have little grasping tendrils on them like bean vines do. Well, if it becomes a problem we will deal with watermelons hanging on fences when it happens.
But, anyway, the new raised bed garden is growing well and I'm thinking of starting the next one sometime soon. It's on the project list, just not up at the top yet.
"Greasy Grits" string beans
These are growing in the other raised bed garden. With the new terraced one which is where the corn is growing, we now have three raised bed gardens here. This is the second one which was built and it's pretty much a kitchen salad garden. These pole beans are a variety called 'Greasy Grits' and they are an heirloom variety. Very tasty and prolific! However, they are also very much 'string' beans. There's two strings to remove before they're cooked as green beans, but the flavor is worth it. I'm letting the ones in the picture mature for soup beans. Guess that would make them 'shelly' beans? It will be interesting to see what sort of soup can be made with them.
Apples & Pineapples growing by the bunny hutchs
lots of 'bunny berries'!
And people tell me apples won't grow in Hawaii! Although, I must admit pineapples are a lot easier to grow around here than regular apples, but! with the right variety, regular apples can be grown, too. Hawaii requires a specific variety of apples bred for 'low chilling' requirements. Most apples don't like our warm winters.
So far I'm not sure if the apples are growing on the grafted branches or on the rootstock. We will see what they taste like. Hopefully, they will eventually get ripe and be tasty.
The pineapple is from a top that was twisted off a pineapple we bought at the grocery. Twist off the top, peel off a few leaves to show the root nubs and then push it into the ground. When this pineapple is ripe, it will twist off the stalk and then there's another pineapple starting below that one. We will twist the top off the pineapple we pick and plant that for another pineapple.
Current Jobsite at the little Fixer Upper
much easier with a finished floor
Final Design for Lanai Railing
simpler is better sometimes
Various Railing Colors, too
sometimes it takes several tries to figure things out
Just the bare 'X' in each railing section seemed a little bare, so there were a variety of options to spice it up a little. Just a little, not too much! Since there's loads of wood scraps around a construction site it's easy enough to make little puzzle pieces to see which would look best.
The original railings were all white, but big white 'X's detracted from the horizonal 'racing stripe' theme from the two belly bands going around the whole house, so the 'X's were painted brown. The little diamond shapes were left white, though.
White to Brown
less 'busy' with brown 'X's?
A lot of decisions are made in the middle of the project. We will do one thing and then take a step back and look at it and decide to revise it. Picking final paint colors seems to be one of those sorts of things.
This is a fifties house, so I'm trying to keep it fifties. Geometric shapes and emphasis the horozontal lines.
Starting the Lanai Roof
beams and rafters being worked on
Start at the bottom and work up. Since we're starting on the roofing now, does that mean we're getting closer to being done?
The railings and roof seem to be going quicker than the foundaton and floor, not sure why. BUT! We've just started on them, so it can still take 'forever' before we finish. Guess we will find out how it goes.
The roof slope has been flattened out. Less eaves in the view, we hope. There's still enough slope for the rain to run off and this being Hawaii and all, we don't worry about snow loads.
Fuzzy Bunny
Petunia getting a haircut
Can't forget bunny haircuts! There's always some bunny around here who wants to be less fuzzy. This is Petunia 'before' and 'after' her haircut. She's one of the hybrid angoras so she's not pure English angora. She has less 'furnishings' on her face and her wool isn't quite as soft as Daisy, who is a full English angora. Petunia still has nice wool, it's just not as nice as a full English.
VERY Fuzzy Bunny
Hillside Daisy, a pure English doe
This is Hillside Daisy, she's a pure English angora and you can see how much more 'furnishings' she has around her face than the hybrid Petunia. Daisy isn't even particularly fuzzy, sometimes it's even hard to see the nose of an English angora when they're in full coat.
Hillside Buttercup
a tortoiseshell doe
This is Hillside Buttercup, she is also a pure English angora however she doesn't have a lot of 'furnishings' around her face at all. I'll have to track back her pedigree to see if there's something genetic about it. I also don't know the genetics of the extra fuzzy faces of the English angoras. I'm thinking it is most likely a double recessive to get them?
Hillside Whitman
A chocolate agouti buck and Buttercup's new friend
Buttercup is off visiting with Whitman, he's probably making up poetry for her? Hopefully he will also be a little more romantic than mere poetry, we're hoping for some offspring with his face. Doesn't he have sweet face? He's a son of Sydney and has Syd's sweet temperament, too.
This is Hadrian, he's a chocolate buck and pure English angora. He's a bit shy and reserved, usually bucks are a bit more outgoing, but each bunny is different. He will hopefully be the sire of some litters sometime soon. His ears could be in a tighter "V", but he has good coat density and texture as well as some pretty good conformation.
Hillside Lotus
grass mustache!
This is Lotus' first litter and she's being an excellent mum. Yesterday when some grasses were put into her nest, she was almost frantically gathering them up and putting them into her nest. She pretty much packed it with grasses and some 'nest' wool. When a bunny gets it's coat harvested, there's usually some parts of it too short to be spun into yarn so those are saved for times like these when a doe is building a nest. Last night she was busy with nest building.
Lotus and Caesar's litter
just hours old
This morning there were four babies in the nest. Yay Lotus! This morning they were Pink, Pinker, Black and Wrinkly. I thought it was two albinos, one black and one not likely to survive tortoiseshell since it was smaller and very wrinkly. However, that was this morning.
Same litter same day
just hours older
It's kinda amazing what just a few hours can do sometimes. The little wrinkly one which I didn't think was going to make it is now fat and shiny. They've also all changed colors, well, except for the black one. What I had thought was going to be albinos are now tortoiseshells. At least, I think that's what they're gonna be. What I had thought was a little wrinkly tort is now a fat plump chocolate.
Hopefully they will thrive, we will see if they are all still there tomorrow.
Now it's magically a day later and another picture!
Same litter next day
again, just hours older
These little ones just keep changing colors. What I had thought was a tort now seems to be either a lilac or a blue? The other tort is still a tort, at least for now. The chocolate is still chocolate, at least for now. The black will probably continue to be black.
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