And We Have SNOW!

Last night, we knew that we had a winter storm coming through, but we were just expecting nasty wet sleet. When we woke up this morning, the ground was covered with SNOW! We usually don't get much snow around here, but we have around 1.5-2 inches right now. It's really hard, though, and in high-traffic areas it has turned into ice. It's supposed to be even colder tonight, but we're not supposed to get more snow.

Hopefully it will melt off soon, because our next door neighbors have around 50 cashmere goats who are going to have their babies any time now. One had twins yesterday, but the neighbors didn't know it was out in the woods with its babies, and when we went to see them this morning, one of the babies had frozen to death. The other one was on the ground squealing, and I knew we needed to get it before it froze too, so I went over to grab it and wrap it up in a towel. When I picked up, its hair was frozen to the ground.

Our neighbors had told us that the mother goats can be very protective and that they can try to ram people who get close to their babies, so when the mother goat started coming towards us, I tried to put the baby down to see if she could take care of it, but it couldn't stand up. I grabbed it back up and we ran to the fence. My sister jumped over and I handed her the baby so I could jump over. I took it back and we ran to our neighbors' house and gave it to them.

We went with them and found the mother goat (who had gone back to the herd). We got her into a shed and gave her the baby, and when we left she was licking it, but later when we called the neighbors they said that it died too. We are all really sad about it. :(

Hopefully, the other goats won't have their babies until it is a little warmer.

Our Rabbits

In December, we got 6 baby Californian rabbits for a 4-H project. We showed them earlier this month. One of my sisters got a 3rd and a 5th, and the other's rabbits didn't place. I had one that placed 4th and one that didn't place.

We were basically renting the rabbits from the breeder. If we gave them back after the show, he would "sell" them to us for a cheaper price, so we did that with 5 of them and one we bought to keep. That ended up being my 4th place one since she was the only girl. We gave all of the other ones back to the breeder, but one of my sisters (the one whose rabbits placed) kept that one. I had named her Holly, but my sister changed her name to Heather.

Right before the show, someone at our church told us that they had a rabbit they didn't want any more because it was "mean". They said it was a female mini lop, which happened to be exactly the kind of rabbit which I had been wanting to get! So, I adopted her and named her Heidi. She actually isn't mean at all, she just doesn't like to be picked up. She loves to be petted, though, and she will hop in your lap if you sit down. She acts VERY dominate to the other rabbits, though - she doesn't hurt them, she just chases them around and mounts them sometimes. (The people we got her from were told by the vet that she was a girl, so she's just a very bossy one.)

Then, my other sister (the one whose rabbits didn't place) decided that she wanted a rabbit too, so she got one from a local pet store. I think it's an American fuzzy lop, but we'll have to see how big it gets. It only weighs about 1.5 ponds right now. Its name is Hannah.

We don't have them in cages (I hate it when rabbits are always locked up in tiny cages). Instead, we have them in a 12x12 shed right now (they are mostly litter box trained), but we're going to have to move them out soon because the shed is going to be our chicken house. We are going to move the rabbits to an enclosed covered porch that's about 6x10. It has a lockable dog door in it, so hopefully we can build a little run outside that they can play in when the weather is nice. I'm excited about moving them there because the porch is attached to the bedroom that I share with my 2 other sisters who have rabbits, so we won't have to walk out to the shed to take care of them any more!

Does anyone else have rabbits? If you have an outdoor run for them, how did you build it?

Chickens!

As some of you may know, we moved out to the country in November of 2010. We've been planning on getting laying breed chickens from eFowl for a while, but we had to wait until it was closer to spring for all of the kinds we wanted to be in stock.

When I checked a couple of days ago, they had everything we wanted except one kind, so we decided to go ahead replace those with a different kind and place our order.

We are getting 5 Ameraucana pullets, 5 Australorp pullets, 5 Brown Danish Leghorn pullets, and 5 Welsummer pullets. I did a ton of recearch to make sure that we picked out breeds that are good layers, lay a variety of colors, and have good temperaments. I've read that leghorns can be a little flighty, but our friends at Life In A Shoe said that their leghorns are their friendliest chickens! We followed their suggestion and ordered brown leghorns instead of the regular white leghorns so that they won't be as easy for hawks (which we have a lot of) to spot.

The Ameraucanas are also called "Easter Eggers", since they will lay blue, green, and sometimes even pink eggs! I've read that pure Ameraucanas will only lay bluish eggs, but that the hatchery variety are not usually pure.

The Brown Leghorns will lay white eggs, like the kind that are usually sold at grocery stores. They will probably be the most prolific layers.

Australorps lay large light brown eggs and are also very prolific layers. They are black in color and (if I remember right) grow to be the largest of the hens we ordered.

The Welsummers lay very dark brown eggs, which can be nearly black in high quality birds, but the eggs from hatchery birds aren't usually that dark.

Our chicks should get here somewhere around February 18, and they will be about 2 days old. We're busy getting everything ready for them right now! The chicken house is about 12'x12', but when they're little they have to stay in a much smaller area so they don't wander away from the heat and food and get "lost". (Apparently they aren't too bright at this point.) As they get bigger, we can let them have the run of the whole house and the yard! We are really excited about them!

Stay tuned for more updates about our chickens - I'll be sure to let you know when they get here!

Neat Horse Game

I just wanted to tell y'all about a really neat horse game that I recently found. It's called Hunt and Junp, Inc. What I think is so neat about it is that horse genetics are actually worked into the game so that you can breed horses for certain colors! How cool is that?

Anyways, I just signed up a few days ago, and the best part is that it is totally free!! You can make money, breed & sell horses, and show them, all without having to buy an upgrade for your account!

So if you think it sounds really neat, here's the link:


HuntAndJump.com: Free Horse Genetics Game

Try it out! You won't be sorry!

Crafty Creations: The Carnival

Today's featured item will help bring home an orphan from Africa. Lora Lynn and her family are selling Hope Suds to help fund their adoption. Go take a look!

Now, let's review the rules of the carnival:

• You can't link to one of your own products. This carnival is about sharing cute things that others make!
• Please don't enter your link in the same Mr. Linky more than once.
• You can link to more than one product in the same post if you want to.
• In your post, you must link to the blog/website of the person whose product you are talking about.
• Please copy and paste this HTML code in your post:

<a href="http://www.maddiesfavorites.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/Myfriendconnie/CraftCreationsbuttonresized.jpg" /></a>

It's the URL for my button, so that other people can click on over and join the fun!

Again, please do not link to your own product!

OK, now that you know the ropes, link up to your own posts about someone else's Carfty Creation!

Important:

There will NOT be a Crafty Creations carnival this Saturday because we will be out of town.

In the mean time, take a look at my new blog, The Rabbit Registry! It's a collection of links to help people find out more about certain breeds of rabbits.

HAPPY 15th BIRTHDAY TO MY SWEET GIRL!!!

(NOT)

(but her Mama)