It's Marty Bigfoot

And she's getting an ear rub. Check out those enormous bunny feet!

Who is a month old?

The bunders, of course. They are getting fluffy, and they eat like long-eared pigs. Little Martin, below, with cauliflower on her head, is getting the most beautiful colors in her coat.

And I tried to capture on (inferior) video the enormous munching sound they make when making cauliflower disappear.

Bunny pics

This weekend was kind of a bummer. Didn't get much done. The rabbits are still cute, though. I made a late-night visit with cauliflower and broccoli.

I did manage to hook up the overhead light in my studio. And made a chicken self-feeder (all kinds of plans at backyard chickens.com) from stuff laying around in the gym. It's basically a length of stovepipe that holds half a bag of feed, with an open elbow at the bottom for the birds to eat from. I do need to put some kind of lip on the opening so they stop dragging feed out onto the floor. Brats.

First February weekend

Those baby rabbits are deeply, profoundly cute. We sat with them for a while today, feeding them broccoli (mom came and snatched it away and ate it herself) and cabbage. They're just at the best age. Little Plum was practicing hopping over the bricks that separate the big box (just outside their nest box) from the room. She'd sit casually for a minute, then zip off, leap the bricks and land nonchalantly on the other side. Then turn around and bop over the bricks again, and loop the room, putting an extra kick in some of her hops. Then back over the bricks. The formerly black bunny, Martin, got into a tug-of-war over a piece of cabbage with the little white one (Rue).

The weather has turned snowy then cold (down to 16 tonight, and -3 forecast for Tuesday night). C. cut some stove wood from the pile outside and I hauled it inside and put the fan on to dry it out. I drove to Deer Park yesterday for five dozen eggs from Charlene (my egg connection), and today for four sacks of organic chicken feed from an Amish family farm.

Moved a little furniture around in Badeaux's old area (we've kept her separated from the little guys after she bit Jack and he lost his eye a couple of years ago). Not feeling like doing much. C. is making mushroom pizza again tonight. Mmmm.

Bunnies on the loose

C. went to feed the rabbits today, and found the little guys bopping around the room. They've left the nest box for adventure and solid food. Left, the little grey/fawn one (working name Plum) meets her dad. He was quite interested.

I think they're all girls

The little bunnies. I read you can tell when they are three to four weeks old, so I gave it a try. It's not easy with bifocals in a poorly lit room when they are so tiny, but that's my best guess.

Below, I'm quaking in my big snow boots as the scary mama rabbit checks me out. No, really. She is fierce.

Bottom, the little fawn girl thinks about hopping out of the nest box while Chrys fixes me with a laser eye.

Three-week-old bunnies!

And they are absolutely charming. We pulled the nest box out (after bribing mama Chrys with cashews) and the little guys came to the front of the box. Chrys gave us about two minutes with the babies before she got crabby and kicked us out.

January at the ranch

It's the middle of January, and the ground is bare except for icy spots in the shade (like the path from the north door to the barn and mailbox). Another warmish day – 35 degrees or so – and cold enough at night to put a skin of ice on the chicken water.

C. is plotting her seed purchases. We inventoried leftovers from last year – lots of tomatoes and squash, zero beans and greens. Unfortunately we can't buy more until payday at the end of the month. Hope our varieties aren't sold out.

The bunders keep growing fur and round bellies. The first guy is my favorite, with his fat head and belly, and ever-evolving coloring.

We read we're supposed to check them daily, and rub any full bellies to make them pee. I guess mom is supposed to do that, but we're the backup team. C. got peed on yesterday.

I ran power from an outlet in the locker room to the vacuum and beyond that to the wall. Cut three pipes out of the wall so I could use their channel for the cable. I do basic wiring but cuss the whole time. It's hard to get all that wire to fold back into the box when you're done. Either I am tragically weak, or there is a trick to it. I should go to YouTube and watch Big Tony for tips.

The two leghorn pullets are laying an egg every day now. Roz the Rhode Island red is a slacker.

Fritata for dinner. Mmm.

Long weekend in January

The bunnies are 11 days old and their eyes are nearly open. The black one is turning interesting colors – is he a chestnut agouti? A siamese sable? It's fun to watch and speculate.

I've got several projects started, and chip away at one or the other depending on the light and cold. Working on moving my Bullseye 10x10 sheets of fusible glass onto the funky metal shelf I found at a photographer's estate sale. The studio has stacks of glass all over, on top of tables, on the floor, still in boxes... it'll be great to have them all shelved by color and ready to use.

Can't find the damn plumber's epoxy putty to fix the leak in the roof drain pipe. Don't want to risk water damaging the electric box right under the drain so it'll stay dark in there until I find the dang putty or move the box – dumb place for it, anyway.

Spent some time organizing the disaster that is the tool zone in the gym. Not that you can tell.

New bunny pics

The bunnies aren't changing much from day to day, but their eyes should be opening soon and then they'll be bouncing around like magic beans. Below, at eight days. Bottom, nine days.

In other news, Badeaux isn't doing well. She perked up when the vet first gave her steroids and antibiotics, but it only lasted a couple of days. She still loves dinner and ice cream.

One week old

Chrys is very watchful, but seems OK with C. handling the babies (we bribed her with cashews). Aren't they something?

The fawn one has a very full tummy, and is getting a belly rub in the middle photo.

Earlier today C. found the blackish fellow with his neck all tangled in a tight felted twist of angora fiber. She freed him and he seems fine. The white one is a little skinny, so we'll need to watch him.

Bunny trouble

We found two little guys cold and apparently dead in the new rabbit room this morning. They're in a drawer in the bathroom now, on a heating pad and covered with a cashmere sweater. No signs of life yet. They're probably dead, but we have to try.

We just moved everybody yesterday, when the melting snow and a roof leak made Lake Elk in the middle of the kindergarden room where the rabbits live. They're in Dracula's Bathroom (my sprout laboratory) now, a smaller, dry space that we can easily heat. Chrystal was upset by the move, and must have been taking the little ones to a new nest she'd started in the wall. She'd ripped a particle-board patch off a hole in the wall and pulled out the insulation. She's resourceful.

Shit happens, and we screw up. That's pretty much what I've learned over the years. Below, the surviving four. We'll be checking them every hour or so until Chrys seems to settle in.

I'm staying away from the rabbits for a while – Chrys growled at me when I went into check on the babies. She likes C. better.

I hung the central vacuum unit up in the old girl's locker room. Next, will extend the power from a nearby outlet. Then drilling and piping and drilling and piping. It's a big, involved job (at least when done by the slow-mo amateur carpenter). I've decided to run the lines through the attic rather than the unpleasant crawl space.

Went up on the roof to see the cause of all the leaking in the rabbit room. The rest of the roof is bare, thanks to the warm temperatures this weekend, but the area over the bun room is on the north and in the shade of the taller gym roof. It's covered with a couple of inches of ice and some wet snow. I cleared what I could – weird to be shoveling the roof – and half-exposed a fragile-looking area of old patches. I think the ice blocked the runoff from the upper area, and left the patched place puddled. I'll need to do some repairs when the rest of the area thaws and clears. Below, the January garden and the old hoop shelter for the big animals.

We'll need to bury the two little white bunnies (who did not come back to life).

A wood day

Em and Richard came up, and we took advantage of a chinook wind melting the snow away to hit the usual spot and get some firewood. Em ran the saw, C. and I hauled and loaded six-foot lengths, and Richard carried whole trees out of the woods.

The saw crapped out on us, though, and C. (our chainsaw mechanic) said it was going to take some serious time to get it running. So we tied the long logs to the roof of the car and took our two nearly full loads home. Besides, the warm winds had gone cold and dismal.

And the bunnies turned four days old. Em and I dragged them briefly from their warm nest to get some better photos.

 

The guineas took to the roof and buckWHEATed furiously into the wind. I don't know why.

Bunnies three days old

I forgot a flashlight, so I'm shooting into the dark nest box and hoping for the best. They are lively, making little "yeep" sounds and lunging around the nest. Chrys came over to see what I was doing with her babies.

The three white ones are really shiny and white from one angle, and pinky-naked from another.

Day two

They've started making noise when I poke at the nest  – a sort of hiccuping – and they make squirmy lunges that heave the fuzzy nest cover. The photos were taken just a few seconds apart, but you can see they've launched themselves into different positions. And their faces are becoming more rabbity and less piggy. (Except for the black one who has a fat head.) I think there are three whites, one black with a white chin, a chocolate one, and one grey with orange highlights. Wonder what colors they'll be tomorrow?

Mama is looking relaxed

More relaxed than I've ever seen her, in fact. She's nibbling Smokey's hay while he looks out from his box. C. can't remember what she was told his color is called. I vote chocolate tort, though you'd expect whipped cream or a maraschino cherry on top. (I guess we could make him a hat.) The whole angora color thing is complex, with subtle shadings making all the difference. From my limited research online, they seem to range from red-eyed whites like Chrystal to jet black (even inside their ears), as well as all shades and combinations of grey and peach and orange, Siamese-cat-like dark points, and even spotted, like regular rabbits. Some breeders even have the the color genes mapped out on their websites.

The little guys are two days old, and we'll go play with them soon and see what color their fur is today.

Above, Savvy looking pretty, even without the badger stripes on her face.

No, wait! It's six!

We went in and rooted the little guys out to admire them and discovered an extra one, for a total of a big half dozen. They are about 27 hours old now, and you can see their fur colors a little more. That one in front might be a solid blue (rabbit talk for grey) or blue shaded to apricot (there's a rabbit-talk name for that, too, but I don't know it). Anyway, they are lovely, and look at that strong little bunny foot there.