February 10th, 2021
Rose & DaffyDill's Baybee Buhnees!
they're getting to the absurdly cute stage now
Rose & DaffyDill's babies are about four weeks old now. The picture on the left is a current picture, the picture on the right is one from when they were two weeks old and just beginning to start to nibble on things.
Four weeks old is, IMHO, the beginning of the 'absurdly cute' stage of English angora baby bunnies. Not that they aren't absurdly cute as adults, but they go through a really cute stage around this age. In another week or two they will go from absurdly cute to ungawdly cute. The little white one is especially cute, although that may be because it's easier to see. When the morning sun reaches their hutch, the little white one just glows. It's still an 'it' since it's a bit early to determine gender.
Rose is starting to wean them and she will jump up to the top of the nest box where they can't easily reach her. They're also starting to nibble on grasses and pellets so they get things to eat without relying entirely on mum. At this point, if something dire were to happen to mum bun, they'd probably survive. Baby bunnies are extremely delicate but all six of Rose's babies seem to have survived. Yay!
New Nest Site
The "In the Nestbox" page
has been updated as of February 1st, 2021.
There's these six baby bunnies from Rose & DaffyDill as well as three other possible upcoming litters.
Since there's three new possible litters and there's already Rose & DaffyDill's babies here, we needed more bunny space. Which, when you have bunnies, always seems to be the case. When the then "new" nest hutch was made last year, this other sort of 'put together' nest hutch had been taken out of commission and Ricky Rooster has been roosting there at night. He's now been booted out and the hutch frame has been reroofed (some old tin roofing is always a useful thing to have around) and the door frames and floor plates that had been made last year were finally used. It's always handy to have spare hutch parts laying about, too.
Since the existing hutch frame had been given to us by our favorite electrician, Miles, the standard hutch floor plates didn't quite fit. However, if they were turned sideways, then they'd fit if a couple of small filler parts were added. The floor plates extended about nine inches past the front, so an additional piece needed to be added to the side.
Rather an odd shape, however, was needed in order to make it work. However, with AutoCAD, it's pretty easy to draw up and then measure exactly what's needed. A few quick measurements of the hutch frame that needed modification, then two new side plates were drawn up. A screen shot of AutoCAD taken with a cell phone then allows the drawing to be carried around without the need for paper. It's amazing how pervasive new technology can be!
A couple scraps of old plywood were laying around. Those were recut to the proper shape, then screwed to the side of the old hutch frame and then the two floor plates fit and the new door plates fit, too. At the moment, it's configured as one big nest site. I may either reconfigure it into two smaller ones or relocate Rose & her babies over here so they have more room to hop around. At the moment, though, Veronica is here and has been for the past several days since the hutch was finished. She's due tomorrow, so I'll probably leave her there for the birth and first few days. Then she can swap spaces with Rose & her babies.
Also part of the reason why we are short on nesting spaces is that some other bunny space had been comandeered by Henny Penny. She had help from Black Hen, one of Henny Penny's daughters by Ricky Rooster - as we can tell by the green tinted eggs in the nest.
The mongoose get the hen's eggs if they don't have a secure spot to lay eggs and the door to this bunny hutch had been left open one afternoon when it didn't have an occupant. Henny Penny decided that a bunny nest box is a great place to put eggs, so we've just left the door to the bunny space open for her and let her lay eggs there. Now one of her daughter hens is laying eggs there as well, so this may become a permanent egg space.
Ricky Rooster doesn't seem too upset from being booted out of his usual sleeping spot. He's also been fenced out of the garden along with the hens. That is still something that needs to be done for the other raised bed gardens, but there's always projects on the 'to do' list.
It being winter time and all, there's snow up on Mauna Kea. Which, considering the translation of the Hawaiian name of "Mauna Kea" means "White Mountain", it makes sense there'd be snow on it occasionally. Which also means it's now cold at night because the cold from the snow on Mauna Kea rolls down hill at night when the Trade Winds slow or stop. However, 'cold' in Hawaii means anything less than 60°F. It got down to below 54°F the other night and since we have no heater in the house, it was friggin' cold! Fortunately, we now have one small area heater so one room can be heated so we won't freeze to death. Winter will last for at least a few more weeks, most likely so we're really glad to have the heater. We've been wearing socks, too. That's helpful winter wear.
We do have actual 'seasons' around here, they're just different than what they call 'seasons' on the continents. Other than it being 'freezing' cold here during winter, winter time is also rainy season. It's been wet for about a week now and the sheep are getting mossy. This is Flower, slightly damp and she's been slightly damp for a few days now. Their wool does keep them warm even when wet, so she's not cold, just wet.
She doesn't really have blue eyes, that's just the color they reflect when a camera flash is used to take their picture. They look kinda nice with blue eyes, though, don'tcha think?One of the upcoming projects is to build them an actual official sheep shed. We haven't been able to build it before since there had been too much tall grass in their 'pasture' with no place to put their sheep shed. But, they've been busy eating the tall grasses and we should be able to find a spot for a small shelter for them.
This is the sheep pasture after six months of sheep eating grass. The tall grass used to be up almost touching the fence. We'd cut a small path through it in order to put in the fence, the rest of it was the really tall grasses. The sheeples don't really have that big of a mouth but they've been very consistent and persistant about eating grasses and they're starting to make a very visible change. In another six months, their sheep pasture may actually be pasture like. After the new driveway is put in, I'll figure out how to fence off more grassy areas for them to maintain. Forget mowing grass, get the sheeples to eat it! They're happy to eat the grass.
Continuing Projects
We're starting to continue some of the old projects which we had been working on last year. As part of the Little Rental project, we're removing the old small carport which had been half fallen in down near the front property line. It's kinda a pity to remove it since now that the codes have changed, we will never be able to build another carport right up at the property line, but it's too far from the little house as well as much too far downhill from the back door. I really get tired of hauling things up hills, driving them up there in a car is way easier.
The old carport was built in the mid-1950's sometime. It's just tin roofing, nothing fancy. It is right where the new driveway is going to go, though, so it has to be removed. There will be an excavator here soon so clearing away the old carport is the first item on the 'to do' list.
As part of the driveway project, but also as protection from further roof damage, a large Royal palm was taken down. It was a lovely tree, absolutely enormous, BUT! It kept dropping leaves on the work shop roof and damaging it. Since we will be working up there and once the driveway is in, parking cars up there, we don't want leaves to fall on us or them so the tree had to come down.
I should measure across the trunk there, it's probably two feet or maybe more. Wonder if it's any good as lumber? Coconut is sometimes made into bowls and such, I don't think I've ever seen anything made of Royal palm, though.
But, behind the stump, you can see some previously fallen leaves. They're huge and heavy and damage things when they fall. So, soon, the excavator can remove the stump and this will become drivway area.
After the driveway is in, hopefully by the end of this month, then we will revisit the renovation of the Little Rental. It will be between renters at that time so we will be able to put in the eating ledge between the kitchen and living room area. I think it will be furnished for the next renters, perhaps we will get some folks working from home who want to escape winter on the mainland? Guess we will find out in a month or so.
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