Frankly spehttp://wordpress.com/#!/my-stats/aking..... seems summer is finally here - or is this the rainforest?

Well, after about a month of rain, it seems we are down to about every other day showers.  I was about to ask builder to make an ARK for us, but now it doesn't look as though we'll need it - not yet anyway. I have posted here before about food, and how important it is to a goat.  This --

makes a goat unhappy.

This - (look closely, you can see the wagon right between the studio and the hot tub) makes a goat VERY happy.

Many thanks to Robbie Killion and his awesome crew who made hay for us again this year and delivered it so we wouldn't starve to death.  I am sure you were all concerned that I was getting enough to eat.  Anyway, we appreciate his efforts in getting us hay in between the rain.  I hear the rest of the stash will arrive tonight if the weather is nice.

In the meantime, there has been a lot going on here lately.  Wench finally got off her butt and did a couple of craft shows and farmers markets.  The reception has been warm and the products well received, so it's onward and upward in the fiber business.

In keeping with the no-nonsense journalistic reporting you've come to expect from me, I must tell you that we had a natural disaster occur in the rabbitry.  None of the Angoras were affected, just the chins, but we ended up losing three very valuable brood does, one adolescent buck and several baby rabbits.  Study, vet consultation and necropsy revealed we had a cocci problem, so that has now been corrected and we are back in action. Everyone is feeling just fine, and all of the rabbits have received a new vaccination called BunnyVac which will protect them from pasturella.  They also are getting Ivomectin every three months as a preventative treatment and Corrid in their water twice a year.  We never had a protocol for the rabbits insofar as deworming goes because we never had a problem.  This has been a wake-up call and we are grateful to be on track, and will remember the sacrifice made by Harmony, Pepper, Anne Hibbins and RocketMan on the next bunny memorial day.   Wench is hoping to get a microscope soon so she can get up close and personal with all of our poop and know how to deal with whatever might ail us.

Speaking of aliments, little Gracie developed pneumonia last week.  She had a high temperature and we were all very worried, but thanks once again to the folks at Twin Oaks Vet Hospital, she's right as rain and feeling frisky again.  They are so wonderful there.  And they all think we are cute.  Which we are.  But I'm the cutest, right?

Anyway, back to the news.  So, you know how the builder loves to build, right?  and You know how much fun he's been having making lumber with his new toy the sawmill, right?  Well, this is a recipe for fun, and so..... it's a lumber yard around here:

These are the piles of lumber he's been making all spring, and he plans to put them all together to make a two story addition to the barn, right here:

This will be a two story "porch" which will be open-air and will house brood does for our rabbit operation.  We should be able to add another 50 to 75 does.  YOWZA.  Wench will have a full time job just shoveling the poop.

anyway, builder hopes to be "in" by winter.  He's an ambitious guy.  but we knew that.  I hear that when the rabbits move upstairs, new goat quarters will be made in the main area of the barn, downstairs where the does are now.  Never a dull moment around here.  It is closer to the hay chute, so it's ok with me.

Now that I've brought you up-to-date on the do-ins around here, I suppose you want some pictures of the babies, huh?

here you go -

Welcome to our newest French Angora buck -

He has already made a litter with CT Layla (one blue, one tort and one white); and has moved Nimbus to his harem this week, so we'll see what happens there..

Speaking of baby rabbits, may I introduce

ok, so that's about all the news.  We are looking forward to seeing Deb Willis this week, she'll be coming for a visit on Wednesday.  We saw Aunt Pat and Cousin Andrea for about a minute a couple of weeks ago, and Cousin Andrea made the observation that wench was certainly her father's daughter.  Truer words were never spoken.  She misses her dad.  Goats don't miss their dads.  We sometimes don't even know our dads - but that makes it easy on father's day - don't have to get a card.  hahahahah

Anywho - thanks for reading Frankly speaking!