War On Wood Bees, New Rabbits, and More

You know how there seems to be this impending doom right before a huge event that your not sure how things are going to go? Yeah well, that is this week for us. Starting next Saturday we will be re-doing our roof. AGAIN…

We put on a shingled roof ourselves four years ago but due to the low pitch it is not holding up. The roof leaks in our unfinished sunroom during heavy rains…

This time instead of shingles we will be putting on a metal roof which I’m not going to lie I’m not super excited about. Unnecessary noises rattle my cage and my first introduction to living quarters with a metal roof was not a pleasant one. I had not yet found my enjoyment of vacations and I was going through some massive life changes so stress was at its high point. There were trees scratching on the cabin roof ALL THE TIME.

Battle Of The Wood Bee

Summer weather is gearing up quickly and bringing with it all of the creeping things with wings… I’m not a total girl I won’t go running when I see a bug but these dadgum wood bees let me tell ya, we are not friends. This year is particularly bad so we spent Friday night raging a war on those little boogers.

Lets just say airsoft guns do quite nicely.

They are chewing my cross support boards on the rabbit hutches so I took all of the rabbits out that would be in firing range and hung up tarps in from of the others so they wouldn’t get hit by any strays BBs.

Half the heard was hanging out in travel carriers in the back of the truck under the shade trees.

Our little rampage for the night was pretty successful. The trouble is you get a few then the other wood bees wise up and take off… Oh well. I will just have to keep chipping away at them.

Meet LL’s Maggie

This little broken black doe is going to be hanging out in the rabbitry for a little while. Fingers crossed her type continues to develop well. She is from one of our spring litters this year and is doing great so far.

After last year finding good quality, rabbits was not easy. I took a few gambles on buying rabbits from people I don’t normally buy from and in all three cases, the animals were disappointing. One of my does from last year is developing stray white hairs and passing it to her babies. White hairs are a no-no on rabbits that are solids especially.

It might seem a little snobby to care about the rabbit’s conformation but I have always tried my best to raise rabbits that measure up to the A.R.B.A. Standard of Perfection. I want to produce the best animals I can whether or not people intend to show them.

So my goal this summer is to weed out the rabbits with issues as I can find replacements.

Wrapping Up With Gratitude

While life can be full of things that seem to be issues on the surface they are really blessings in disguise. I am wrapping up this post with a list of gratitude not because I am naturally good at it. Quite the opposite. I am a recovering control freak. I want everything to go right and what they don’t I tend to only see the issues instead of being grateful for the things that did go right.

Favorite Finds This Week

These Birkenstock knockoffs are my FAVORITE. I bought them last year and I’m not going to lie wearing them to care for the animals makes them get gross quick. Thankfully they are cheap enough that I can just get a fresh pair every year.

I Am Grateful For:

• The growth of the rabbitry business regardless of a not-so-great year.
• The beauty in new births even if they don’t quite “measure up.”
• The house that we have to put a roof on and not going into debt to make it happen.
• A husband who is willing to try to do things even if he has to learn along the way.

What are three things you are grateful for?