Buttons

Sat night around 9:30 the neighbor knocks on the door and asks if all our rabbits are accounted for b/c there is a big lop earred rabbit on his front lawn. (So right off the bat I know it's not ours). Andrew goes down and gets the rabbit. Poor thing was on the neighbor's porch looking in his storm window for someone to help him. We named him Roamin' and suspected that he had been dumped. He stayed with us for 4 days. Very friendly little guy. On Tuesday the same neighbor hands us a slip of paper with a phone number on it and says Roamin' is Button and his family is looking for him. Happy reunion for (cute as a) Button and his family last night. They live diagonally across from us. They are new to the neighborhood and since we are holed up in our back yard most of the time we only know the neighbors that are out and about while we are walking our dogs. Wife is Korean and was making Mongolian beef and rice. She sent us home with a big to go container of it. Best I have ever eaten. Glad too that the rabbit went home b/c we do not want any more rabbits. Taking them a sturdier cage this evening. One that we aren't using...

Fun with the Rabbits

Never a shortage of entertainment around here...Nolan put himself in the pen with the buns...

Yard and Garden

Andrew made me some flower boxes for the shed windows out of reclaimed wood (found floating in Lake Huron a couple summers ago). We've also got a pair of nesting cardinals. Overall the yard is stunning and as a gift to Andrew I had it officially certified as a National Wildlife Certified Habitat  An usual colored Luna moth showed up one evening and everything else is just amazing

Iris

Lilac Haven

 Prairie Garden (early spring)

Brood comb making in progress

Colombine 

Green Dragon

  

Virginia bluebells

Wild Indigo

Sunset

Side garden

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Heirloom poppies

Yellow bud

Rhododendron 

Red bud

Wild ginger

Ohio buckeye

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Luna moth

Lily of the Valley-original rootstock from my grandma.

Daisy's magnolia

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Satin Angoras

 Super excited that one of my does will having angora babies again soon.

Nolan and Blip

If you have been a reader of my blog for awhile then you will remember Pipsqueak, the wild cottontail rabbit that lived in our yard for 7 years. Our dog Daisy and "Pip" were buddies.  We lost Pip and Daisy within a month of each other.  Pip had two kits in her final litter and one of them, probably a female, stayed close by.  We named her Blip.  Blip and Nolan met last spring.  This past year I have been feeding Blip the same rabbit feed that my domestic rabbits get for dinner.  Blip goes under the door in the rabbitry and eats on a wooden platform. The other morning I caught her coming out under the door and Nolan saw her at the same time and gave chase. He wanted to play!

Work to Do

Prepping my next project-2 years worth of angora fiber to spin. Plan to coordinate colors and do separate batches mixed with this beautiful assortment of yak, camel down, alpaca, merino, shetland, tussock silk (that I purchased on Etsy), and baby Bichon from Nolan. The baby Bichon hair will be spun with the tussock silk because they are both stark white.

Nolan and his baby hair

Getting ready to spin

Merry Christmas

Julius

The Lancaster, OH annual fall rabbit show was held this past weekend.  I took Selene and Rocky; neither of them had a prime coat. Despite the fact that Selene has two of three legs needed for her CG the judges don't seem to like her much as her coat has a coarse texture and it is long and hairy looking. She took second in both shows. I'll probably keep showing her as long as I am able and  maybe we will get lucky and win another leg. This was Rocky's first show and he is a senior. I didn't have the opportunity to show him as a junior and he has had three haircuts since I got him since the weather has been so darn hot. The judges liked him a lot but he didn't have the length and condition of coat that the first place winner had so he also received seconds in both shows. While killing time at the show and perusing the rabbits in attendance a charming 3 month old Holland Lop baby captured my heart and he now resides at Lilac Haven. We have named him Julius, after polling our friends for suggestions and having mom remind me that Julius, which was one of the names suggested, was the name of her great grandfather. You might recall that we lost our Duke last month after almost 13 years.  I actually think Duke was a small mini lop or a cross and definitely not a Holland Lop but they are similar and I just loved the lop ears and couldn't resist.

Duke

It's been a rough month in our household.  We lost our mini lop Duke this past Saturday; Andrew found him almost 13 years ago at one of our local parks.  We don't know how old Duke really was and he was an adult rabbit when found.  He was the King of the rabbitry and in his younger days the entire yard.  He would nudge at the door to his cage and push the door open with his nose and hop to the ground.  Once he was out for a couple days. Andrew used to chase him with a fishing net in order to capture him and put him back into his pen.  In his older days I would lift him out of his pen and put him on the ground and he would do a couple slow laps around the yard and then come back and wait for me to put him back inside.  He and Daisy got along famously and they were a pair of comics when they were together.  The first year we had him we were out in the backyard and heard Daisy barking.  Duke was eating the tops off of my first year tulips and she was tattling on him.  I took the photo of me and Duke and Duke with his letter to his friends on Wednesday.  He was ailing and I didn't think he would be around much longer.  I was right. He was a special bunny will be greatly missed.

 2013

2008

A Living Legacy

Our resident cottontail Pipsqueak has been missing since August 25th and presumed dead.  She has been with us since we established Lilac Haven in 2007 and we believe she was born in 2006 or prior as we first saw her full grown and photographed her in April 2007.  On August 29th Andrew found a rabbit that had been run over by a car near our house; and pulverized beyond recognition except for that it had a tiny tail. Pip if you will recall lost her tail fur in some type of altercation in June and it was just beginning to grow back when she disappeared. We buried the found rabbit in our yard near our rabbit memorial garden just in case. We'll really never know.  The last baby that Pip bore stayed close to her in the later part of the summer. The baby, born sometime in June is now almost full grown and she has stayed around the house and yard since Pip disappeared, often coming into the rabbitry and going back and forth under the deck.  She's mostly been wary toward us although in the past week or so she seems to have warmed as we have offered her food and she has accepted it from a distance.  It's so sad to me to think that Pip's life was ended by being run over by a car. In my mind she deserved so much more for all the joy that she gave to us.  She sure was a magic rabbit.  We are pleased though by the presence of little Pip who has been named Pipette by our FB friends.  Here's are a few photos of her that I took this evening. Wonders never cease.  We've had a pretty crappy month animal wise and there is definitely a dark cloud of sorrow hanging over this house.  Tonight's encounter brightened things just a tiny bit.

 Mama Pip

 Mama in the rabbitry

Baby Pipette in June 2013

 Pipette this evening

 And little Pipette in the rabbitry

Pipette under the arborvitae munching on dinner