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.
It's still out there and getting fiercer! Be vigilant and continue to be safe!
Wear your mask!
Wash your hands!
yeah, I know, it sucks, but do it anyway
September 14th, 2020
Wear your mask!
Wash your hands!
yeah, I know, it sucks, but do it anyway
Bunny Abundance!
hopefully enough bunnies for everyone!
New mum bun, Daisy
she's being an excellent mum
Before Caesar flew off to Oahu, he had been a busy boy. He has been an excellent herd buck, but we only need so many offspring from one particular buck. So, he moved off to Oahu to be a busy boy over there. Before he left, though, he met up with Daisy and Black Rose so these are the last direct descendents from Caesar we will have here at Hillside Farm.
Daisy is a lovely doe, nice soft wool, good furnishings, and a bit shy but friendly. Frequently, a doe will be more reserved than a buck, it may be a boy bunny thing. Bucks are usually the more friendly of the genders.
She built a nice nest in the nest box with the grasses we gave her. Then she pulled wool to make a softer lining for her nest. Then she had seven babies in the nestbox like a good momma bun should. That was three days ago and they're all still there and fat and fed. She has, however, decided to start peeing on top of her nest box, I'm not sure what that's all about, but as long as she feeds them, I suppose she can pee on the top of the box. Better than in the nest. Bunnies are always doing strange things.
Baby Bunnies!
Daisy & Caesar's September 2020 litter
These seven babies are doing well. The big picture is from this morning when they are three days old. The other smaller pictures are from new born and Day One.
The pink ones will be Ruby Eyed Whites when they're adults. The white bunnies provide fiber for the 'Coconut Dream' color of Hula Bunny yarn so whites are good. The black bunny will be blac, although he or she will have the ability to engender white offspring if paired with a mate who is either white or has the same recessives for white. The same with the - I think it's gonna be a tortoiseshell - baby. It's looking like the not-pink not-black baby is gonna be a tortoiseshell although I don't know what kind of tort yet. The options are a 'black tort' which is usually just called a 'tort'. There's also a possibility of a 'chocolate tortoiseshell' or a 'blue tortoiseshell'. The color of the tortoiseshell can be told by the color of the bunny's nose and ears, the rest of the bunny's body will be a tawny blond color. But the little one is still a touch young for us to be certain of what the adult color will be. In a couple more days, it should be more obvious.
We haven't a clue as to genders, yet, either. When they are about four weeks old, we can take a guess at it, but they still can change their genders. About eight weeks old, then it's much easier to tell.
The new (well, for the past few years 'new') dropped nests have done really well which is why the new nesting hutch has the dropped nest style floor plates. There had only been one nest box built though since Petunia had her litter in the new nesting hutch, but she had already built a nest in an old fashioned flat bottomed nest box before she was moved into the nest hutch so that was moved into the nesting hutch and put over the dropped floor area. Which meant we hadn't gotten around to building the proper sort of 'nest box' for a dropped floor plate. A usual nest box has a solid floor, but the 'nest boxes' for the dropped nest floor plates are open bottomed and just cover the nest area.
This one has a much larger surface on the top so there's more lounging room for the doe. Black Rose is the first one to test out the larger roof design and she seems to approve of it. It is placed over the area of the floor that has a depression built into it. That gives the doe a more natural nesting site with a slightly rounded bottom. The babies stay in a heap better when it's not a flat bottomed nest. Also, with the slots on the sides, if the babies should happen to get out of the nest, they'll be able to roll back in. The wire bottom of the nest also allows baby bunny pee to fall through so the nest area stays drier when the babies are about ten days old and still in the nest but too old for the momma to clean up after them. The doe does line it with grasses and wool so even though it's wire, the babies aren't actually on the wire.
Black Rose was a day late with her litter. She made a nest out of the grasses four days earlier like usual. Then she was pulling wool and lining the nest the evening of the day she was due. That was late last night.
This morning, there were ELEVEN new babies in the new nest box. I didn't get them all in the picture since I wasn't prepared for so many. I'd been feeding the sheep and had the feed can with sheep food handy, so the babies were taken out of the nest to be checked and they were momentarily stashed in the can of sheep's feed so they'd be safe. The picture doesn't have them all in it, but I'll get better pictures in a day or two when they've had a bit of time to settle in.
They all look of a similar size, no runts so that's a good thing. They all seem healthy, another good thing. There's five black ones, three pink ones (which will be albino as adults) and three other colored ones, possibly/probably tortoiseshells. Their colors will become more obvious in a few more days. Genders, of course, are still unknown, but that will be more apparent in a few more weeks.
Eleven is a huge litter, hopefully Black Rose will be able to feed them all. I'll make up some bunny milk and do some supplemental feeding to lessen the feed load on her. She will also have constant food and water and she will get higher energy food like black oil sunflower seeds. I may go get some calf manna for her when the babies are several weeks old. The highest demand on the momma bun is when the babies are about three weeks old. At that time, they're bigger and eat more and are not eating solid foods yet. So, I'll feed and support her as much as possible so she can take care of the little ones.
I need to update the "Available Bunnies" page as well as the "In the Nestbox" page. With this many baby bunnies, there should be enough for everyone, although there's a waiting list so many of them already have new homes once they're big enough. But, I think there's still a few more than are being asked for, so if you want a bunny of your own - send us an email. Click on the 'Mail To' link below.
Mail to: Hillside Farm Hawaii
Hillside DaffyDill
Son of Ceasar & now taking over his sire's duties
Hillside DaffyDill is now old enough to become a herd sire. Which is why Caesar was able to move to Oahu. Daffy is a direct son of Caesar although he has much more face 'furnishings' than his sire. DaffyDill also has more face furnishings than his full sibling, Buttercup. I don't know the genetics of face furnishings, if anyone knows, let me know! Daffy & Caesar are both black tortoiseshells, though, so DaffyDill will be a very similar replacement herd sire.
We do need another herd sire, although since we already have DaffyDill, we don't need another son of Caesar so most likely none of the new borns will be kept as a herd sire. Unless, of course, they're exceptional and better than Daffy. We usually keep about six bucks as herd sires, but as unrelated as possible to keep the herd from becoming inbred.
The male bunnies are usually $50 and the females are usually $75. They have a four generation pedigree and most of them are pure English angora. They are all pure angora, although some of them have a touch of Satin and/or German angora several generations back in their pedigrees.
If you're interested in setting up a breeding herd, ask about unrelated pairs. Due to the difficulty of getting good bloodstock in from the mainland, it will be great when we have more folks in Hawaii raising angora bunnies. If there's several herds, then we can occasionally swap bucks back and forth to keep down the levels of inbreeding and have healthier bunnies.
Flying away bunnies
the last of the long flight times to Maui
Great news in the bunny world! Mokulele Airlines will now accept bunnies as cargo from island to island. This means bunnies can fly direct to Maui from Hawaii island. Yay! No more having to fly to Oahu, get bunny sat for six or seven hours and then pay for another flight from Oahu to Maui! We should now be able to get bunnies to Molokai and Lanai now, as well! Woot! It will still be a long involved process to get bunnies to Kauai, though.
This is a huge improvement in the World of Bunnies in Hawaii! Yay, Mokulele!
The Beginning of the Sheep Pasture
I hope they're really hungry
This is the beginning of the sheep pasture, August 2020. It's just under a quarter acre of really tall grass. They're starting to make dents around the edges but there's still a long way to go before it looks anything like a 'real' sheep pasture.
A Month of Grass Eating
This is about a month later, they've nibbled some around the edges, but it's gonna take awhile before that back yard looks anything like a proper sheep pasture.
A Perfect Spot for New Garden!
Doesn't that look like a perfect spot for a new raised bed garden/ terrace? Since there's sheep on the other side of the fence, I was able to cut down the tall grasses and toss them over the fence to let the sheep eat them. Yay, sheep! Cypress and Flower are not getting skinny any time soon. That also may be why they didn't clear as much in their own pasture this past month. But I suppose they can only eat so much.
Leila of Sunbonnet Farm, the shepardess who sold us the two sheep, came by to visit last week. The sheep were really happy to see her, there was tail wagging and lots of tongue sticking out and nibbling motions as well as a bit of sheep dancing. Who knew sheep do all these things when excited? She said the sheepies were doing well so that's reassuring.
She has a new little Hillside Farm doe bunny to go with the buck she got from us a month or so ago, but I've not heard what the new name for the bunny will be yet. Hillside Farm Hawaii bunnies' names start out with 'Hillside', then their new people can add the rest of the name before we fill in their pedigree.
Ready to harvest!
Banana Abundance!
bananas, smoothies, banana bread and some for the neighbors, too
Banana 'trees' aren't really trees at all, I'm not sure what class of plant they're in but something like gingers and heliconia. Perhaps like cattails on the mainland? There's a fiberous stem and they multiply by 'keiki' which sprout up at the base when one stalk or 'tree' produces fruit. The tree/stem will die off after fruiting so the usual harvesting method is to cut it down so the fruit can be easily reached. The cut down trunk is usually chopped up and left around the base of the newly sprouting bananas to mulch and feed them. As far as I know, it is impossible to over feed a banana tree.
This particular variety is known as a 'Chinese dwarf' and they have large bunches of tasty bananas on a fairly short tree. This is actually a fairly small stalk of Chinese dwarf bananas, there's another Chinese dwarf banana tree giving fruit at our rental house that has about four feet of banana hands on it. Our renter over there doesn't seem to harvest 'yard food' so I'll keep an eye on it and go harvest it when it's ripe. Unless we have a different renter by then who appreciates food falling from the sky.
Should you be looking for a rental house in Honokaa, Hawaii which has a lot of food falling out of the sky, send me an email about that, too! Flat yard, fast internet, lovely neighborhood. We lived there before we bought the current house we're in, but this house wasn't nice enough to rent so we had to rent out the nice house and live here to fix it up before it could become a rental. Not sure if we're gonna ever rent it, probably not until we build a new house in the sheep pasture to live in. But, gotta finish the fixer-upper first and we don't work fast.
Preparing for Avocado Abundance!
gotta clear away the grass, weeds and old refrigerators so we can find the avos
In preparation for the upcoming and just beginning avocado season, a lot of the area under the big avocado tree by the workshop was cleared out. This is sorta a 'before' picture, I was gonna take an 'after' picture, but it got dark and I as tired by then. At some point, this whole area was carpeted. I keep finding old carpet buried in the grass and weeds. Probably about six or seven years ago? There's been a lot of leaf litter which has fallen and made soil over the carpet, although I keep finding bits and pieces of it sticking up through the soil.
I would guess that the previous owners worked at the hotels. When the big resort hotels change their decor, then all the old furnishings are either sold or given away. This whole area under the avocado tree is carpeted, the driveway is carpeted, the back area behind the workshop is carpeted and the area along the road in front of the house is also carpeted. All in a gray carpet, at least it wasn't pink with cabbage roses on it. There's also small mini-fridges all over the place. Well, the remains of small fridges. I counted about thirty five of them at one time. We've been hauling them away in twos and fours. Eventually, they will all be elsewhere. Hmm, maybe I can line them up and use them as planters?
The big satellite dish in the front of the picture is hopefully going to be a trellis over an outdoor deck. But, that's pretty low on the 'to do' list, so no time soon. I would like to find a 'Zephirine Drouhin' climbing pink thornless rose for it, though. If anyone on the island has one of those roses and would like to share a cutting, again, let me know!
That's one of the problems with this 'Time of Covid', the coconut wireless doesn't fuction as well so it's harder to get word around for various things.
Fixer-upper lanai replacement as of September, 2020
Railings for the replaced lanai
The fixing of the extreme fixer-upper is still in the process of being fixed and upped. We're really slow since we always get distracted by things. Guess it's been about a year or more now that we've been working on it.
The replacement for the front lanai has progressed and it's getting close to being 'done'. It's really lovely not stepping down almost a foot out the front door so now the front lanai feels like an extension of the living room. We've been using the steps without a railing for awhile, but it's safter to have a railing so building those are the current project.
In the picture of the stair railing, the cross braces in the middle are just tied in and not nailed yet. Also, not sure if you notice, but they're two different colors of brown. I'd painted one board to use when buildng the new bunny nesting hutch but didn't use it so now it's part of a lanai railing. I'll get them all painted the same shade of brown possibly later today.
Pretty much finished back bedroom
The little fixer-upper is only a two bedroom, which is a good thing as slow as we work. This is the back bedroom and it's all done except for screens on the two windows, a shelf and rod in the closet and a bedroom door would be nice, too. Other than that, it's pretty much 'done'.
When we started, it was violently blue with a big gaping hole in the wall between it and the bathroom. As well as some odd light fixtures and decals stuck all over the wall and graffiti on the floor. Much better now, I think, although I suppose the previous folks may have preferred the blue? Hopefully not the hole, though.
Getting new Hula Bunny yarn ready for the shop
We've discovered an improvement to the yarn skeiner. Hula Bunny yarn comes back from the mill on cones that weigh about one pound each. So, we have to make it into skeins so folks won't have to buy a pound of yarn at a time. A 'yarn skeiner' was built that lets us make eight skeins at once. Much faster than one by one. Originally we were tying the end of yarn from each cone onto the skeiner bar, but that took a lot of tying. Now there's a little bit of velcro hooks on one of the skeiner bars so the end of the yarn can just be pressed onto it and no need for all that tying! Yay! There's enough time involved in getting Hula Bunny yarn to folks that every little bit of time saving is a good thing. Each skein still has to be tied and twisted, though. Perhaps the next bit of yarn equipment will be something that twists the hank of yarn up into a tidy skein.
No tailfeathers doesn't make a rooster quiet
Ricky Rooster, as well as the rest of the chickens, are molting their feathers and growing out new ones. I guess it's a getting ready for winter thing. At the moment, Ricky only has two tailfeathers and he's a pitiful sight. There's also feathers laying around just about everywhere. Maybe that means winter is going to be here soon?
For us, 'winter' is rainy season so making a sheep shelter will become higher on the 'to do' list. At the moment, they have shady trees for their summer shelter, but they'll probably appreciate a dry space for winter time.
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