I traded a few rabbits for a rooster on the weekend.

We were invited to a friends house to celebrate his 60th birthday.
While enjoying the most wonderful spread of goodies that was available, I chatted to a another couple that were there.

Among other things, we were talking about dogs, pond building, chickens, ducks, and then rabbits.
I told them my rabbit story and you can imagine my surprise when they said how they would love to have rabbits on their property.
I told them they could have some the next day!

When we got home I started rounding up some of the rabbits.
Winnie and Simon run free and I would never part with them.
Benjamin is a lovely lop eared boy that we agreed to take for a young girl who was going away traveling.
Smudge is one of Winnie's second batch of babies that is kinda cute. Can't part with Smudge.
One little one has a sore spot on its tummy (that I caused by pulling too hard on a clump of mud that was stuck on it) so it is in the house at the moment. Can't let that one go yet.
Keeper, is well, a keeper,
two of the blond babies have avoided capture...
Although I know I need to keep the rabbit population down it was still hard to let them go. I think it was 8 or 9 rabbits that I finally agreed that I could part with.

They have gone to a nice new home with a little house full of straw and a fenced run. They will be well taken care of there.

In exchange for the rabbits we came home with a young rooster.
He will keep our chickens happy and hopefully in the spring start to rebuild our flock!

Any one else get BLAH days. Silly question. We all get them I think.
I am having a Blah day.
I have a few health issues that raise their ugly heads once in a while.
chronic Fatigue with Fibromyalgia being one of them. (ME for readers in England)
I have been feeling well for a while so it is always hard to cope when it hits like an unexpected storm.
I don't even have the energy or desire to go to spinning today.

On a brighter note. I called a couple of pet stores about my rabbit population. Both stores said they will take some of the babies.
One store asked if I would bring them in today. So yesterday I was out catching the rabbits that were born out of the rabbit run. Not an easy task but food in the live trap worked pretty good.
I put them in the new hutch that I built.
Problem is I don't have the energy to get them to the store!
Hope I feel better tomorrow.

As for the rest of today I thing I will just give in to the way I am feeling.

I will listen to the CD that our cousins recorded, as I sit by the fire and read a book.

I have been blogger tagged.

4 jobs I have had.
wife, mother, housekeeper cook

4 movies I could watch over again.
shawshank redemption, ghost, Rob Roy almost any thing with Kevin Cosner in in

4 places I have lived
England, Nanaimo, Richmond Vancouver

4 TV programs I like to watch
coronation St. CSI, Star Trek House

4 places I have been on Vacation
England, Alaska, Texas, Niagara Falls

4 Websites I visit
Blogger, NWC Greyhound rescue, Fiber art, goats

4 foods I like
Pasta, Greek, vegies salad

4 places I would rather be
I like it right where I am

4 blogger I will tag.
???? The blogs I read have already been tagged!

I finally got one of the rabbit hutches completed.
My dad would be proud of me.
He was always a 'Jack of All Trades' kind of a guy and I think he would be pleased to know that I must have picked something up from him because if I do say so my self I think it turned out pretty good.
Only problem now is I need to separate the boy rabbits from the girl rabbits.
I think I will have to call our niece Lisa over to help me sex them.
snicker snicker hehe HaHa hehe HaHa

I understand the concept of prioritizing tasks, I am just not good at implementing it.
My 'To-do' list is so long with things that have to get done I sometimes (most of the time) don't know where to start... So I don't..!
today's list includes some of the following:

pooper scoop (we have 4 dogs)
clean out rabbit house. (they chewed thought the hose and flooded their pen)
finish new rabbit hutch. (so I can separate the boys from the girls)
start a second hutch. (one won't be enough)
general out side clean up.

Inside the house is of course on going.
Every room needs to be de-bombed.
LAUNDRY (all ready on)
floors (with 4 dogs its a daily must do)
kitchen. Dishes etc
bed sheets needs changing
Office is a disaster
etc, etc etc

So what do I do...I blog about it..

Oh woe is me...I saw another 3 baby rabbits this morning, I think that is 18 rabbits now.
The babies are having babies.
They are breeding like,...well ...Rabbits..
I have advertised them for free in stores and the paper. So far no takers.

Today I will be building another rabbit run. I will have to separate the boys from the girls.
I don't think I will ask niece Lisa over to help sex them for me though as it was her "BOY" bunny Winston who turned out to be Winnie, that started all these bunnies...
They sure are the cutest things though..

I was at spinning today so it must be Thursday!

I didn't take my wheel with me this time because I am working on some sheep wool that has already been carded but not sorted too well.
Lots of second cut bits in it and it is a pain in the arse picking them all out.
I'm sure in years to come when I am a more proficient at this new hobby, I will chuck stuff like this out. For now I need all the practice I can get so I will pick this fleece clean, re-card it and spin it into wonderful yarn!!

Checked on all the critters when I got home. One of the rabbits has chewed through the water hose and water was squirting into their pen. Poor loves were all sopping wet. (They have a big house that they could have gone into so it was their choice to stay outside and get wet)

We have 3 more rabbits..I think that is 15 now.

I brought one of the new little ones into the house yesterday for hubby to see.
Would you believe he said....
."Awe, isn't he cute, He is a keeper for sure" !!!!!!!




So here is a picture of KEEPER sat on Robs hat

A few of my critters

Molly and Saline
Winnie at the duck pond
Ben and Sam
Becky at the creek
3 dogs and a goat

I left the gate open at the top of our sundeck while I went out to get wood.

Becky, the goat, took full advantage of the situation and even more so when she noticed Kesha the dog had opened the sliding door to the dining room !!!

She made her way in and made it to the top of the stairs where there is a mirrored closet door.
It took me a moment to realize what the commotion was all about.
I came up stairs to find Becky posturing menacingly at her own reflection in the mirror!

My niece tells me there are 'Lurkers' out there who read blogs but don't leave a comment.
I think last week was 'De-lurking Week' When all the 'lurkers' were invited to leave a comment on all the blogs they read.
Okay all you lurkers...I am extending 'De-lurker Week' for another week on my blog.
hellooo...Any one there...???

Before going outside to cut wood I thought I would take time to check my emails.
My friend in England was online so we had a chat.
I was at the computer anyway, so played a fast game of Luxor. Lost again!

Decided to make a couple of phone calls.

Finally got outside. Before looking for the right size wood for the chop saw that I have set up, I noticed the pump was not working in one of the fish ponds.
While I was hosing the filter out I thought the rabbits water dish could be topped up.
Then I had a great idea for a fence around one area of the yard, so I checked that out.
Got enough wood cut to get the fire started. Put the TV on while I was bringing in the wood and lighting the fire and watched the end of the program that was on.
Went back for more wood but walked down to the creek with the dogs and goats first.
Finally had enough wood cut to last a couple of days. I brought it into the house and before loading it into the wood bin looked at the fire I had lit earlier, I had left the damper open and it had burnt out!!
The TV is still on, pump in the fish pond is working, rabbits have lots of water, the dogs goats and I have been to the creek, I have talked on the phone, chatted online, played a computer game, planned a fence and cut some wood.
It is now 3 30 in the afternoon, my house is a mess, my bed unmade nothing is out of the freezer for dinner but at least my blog is done and the fire is burning again....Sigh...

I play games on my computer.
Not in excess as Rob would have you believe.
Any time on a computer is time wasted as far as he is concerned.
My game of choice at the moment is called LUXOR. I don't know how many levels there are to this game but I am stuck on level 5-4. Very frustrating!

I hope the rain stops for a while. I plan to spend part of the day cutting wood. Just small stuff. enough to last until Rob can get to the big logs.
Nothing cozier than a home heated by a wood stove.

I didn't want to get out of bed this morning. Then I remembered today was Thursday.

I still didn't want to get out of bed but Thursday is the day I go to Spinning.
if anything can motivate me out of bed it is a barking dog who needs to pee and going to spinning.

By the time I got out of bed and fed all the critters it was later than usual for me to leave.
Along with my spinning wheel, I grabbed a cup of coffee and a piece of toast to eat on the way. When I got out to my car the darn thing wouldn't start. Battery problems.
I said a few bad word over it and managed to get it going.

I didn't like the drive in the heavy rain and fog. It takes 45 mins from my house to spinning and not even half way there I was wondering if I should have just stayed in bed this morning and not bothered to go.

Once I was there I was so happy that I hadn't given in to my warm bed.
There are usually 20 or more spinners who turn up each week and they are the most wonderful bunch of people.
There is always lots of laughter among the group. Show and tell is great fun because some of the group, if they have nothing to show will tell a joke or funny story. Always a good laugh.

I sat with Shirley.
She has a herd of 17 alpaca and she invited me back to her house after spinning.
I was complaining to myself about driving in the rain this morning and I was grumpy but at Shirley's I was happy to walk through a muddy field in the same rain to pet and hand feed the alpaca.
One of them came up behind me and was nuzzling at my hair and neck. What a lovely animal they are and like most animals they have an amazing quality to bring peace to a troubled soul.

Its good to have the goats off the sun deck.

I have let them out of their pen and they are free to roam the 'people' yard again.
They still want to be on the sun deck though and it is comical to see them run to the bottom of the stairs when they see me letting the dogs off the deck.

When I put the dogs out last night I had to laugh, A chicken has taken us residence on the deck railing.
Guess it looks like a good roosting spot.

Once a poop deck always a poop deck I guess!

For fear of what my barricade might look like, Rob put a proper railing up to stop the goats coming on to the deck.

While we were working on it I locked the goats in their yard.
They looked so hard done by!

The rain has turned their area into a mud bath so I leave the gate open for them so that they can roam the 'People' area at the back of our house.(we are on 2 1/2 acres)
They have become very comfortable with their new freedom and I don't think they are impressed at being restricted to a smaller fenced area again.

In the spring we will be enlarging their enclosure to accommodate the two new goats we will be getting, wonder if it will be large enough for a couple of alpaca...

I cleaned the poop deck today.
I am not talking in nautical terms. I am talking literally.

Saline, one of our goats, has been coming up onto the sun deck for a while now.
One goat on the deck is tolerable, Two goats on the deck is not.

Becky, one of our other goats, for reasons known only to her, has decided she like to follow our Greyhound, Sam.
For a while he knew all he had to do was hide behind me, or run up onto the deck to get away from her.
I think the light came on for her and she realized goat can climb stairs.
I now have two goats on the deck.

Saline will just lie at the top of the stairs and spend the day surveying her world below.
Becky likes to walks all over the deck, pooping.

The deck looks like a giant rabbit live there, (goat poop look like rabbit poop)

Not sure how I will keep then off the deck, as goats are very good jumpers and climbers but the goal for today is to build a goat proof barricade to the deck !!!

I delivered eggs to my friend Roy today.
He told me he reads my blog.
I thought it was nice that he did. This is a thank you to Roy and all the others that take time to read it.

I have just finished spinning some mohair. Mohair, for those of you that may not know comes from the angora goat.
In the spring I am adding two more goats to my list of critters.
I will be getting 2 little angora kids from Alberta. I figured if I am going to continue with spinning I may just as well have my own supply of fiber to spin.

I have goats.
I think they are pygmy goats.
Rob bought the first two for me for my birthday.
They were advertised in the Buy-Sale-Trade. The lady that had them for sale wanted to down size her herd.
We picked the two that we liked the best. A grey called Saline and a brown and white called Dolly.
Not wanting to offend our friend with the same name we tactfully changed the goats name to Molly.

The lady that we got them from has stayed in touch and we have become friends.
About a year after we got Molly and Saline she phoned to asked if we were interested in taking another one.

It was an older goat that was new to her but it wasn't getting alone with the other goats. They were being quite mean to her.

Rob told me No Way did we need another goat.
I suggested we could just go 'look' at her.
He said no.

Well guess who came home the next day with a goat sat in the passenger seat of his van.!
Welcome Becky, a shy little girl with a lop-sided face. Another critter that just seems to belong here.