Building Bridges...Cages, I mean

When this little beauty comes home with me in a week, she (as well as her lover boy, Gnomeo) will need a cage to call home.  So being the good Rabbit Mama that I think I am, I purchased two 30x36 wire rabbit cages, stack kits that put the two cages atop each other so they take up less space, and the necessary food, water, hay feeders for each new home.  I decided two days ago that it was probably time to build the suckers, since the time to bring our babies home was drawing near.  Since I have my two girls with me 24/7, they were my official "helpers" in cage building.  Which means to those of you without kids reading this post, that it took FOREVER to do anything and my tools kept getting turned into princesses and the j-clips were dumped out all over the floor which I kept stepping on and the girls kept kneeling on, then crying.  So I stopped.  I tried to build A cage for about an hour and got nowhere, so I just stopped and we went in the kitchen and ate some Goldfish crackers. 
Last night, since my Husband was home to keep the girls busy, I tried again.  I felt so great!  Building my own cages with wire mesh (cut panels) and j-clips - I even had to buy j-clip pliers and felt that this surely was something people did not have unless they were farmers.  Seriously, why would you need j-clip pliers unless you were building cages or collapsing fences or some other farm type structure?  Anyway, I was on a roll and built one of the cages.  Great!  Then I opened up the stack kit box, which can be added to one of these cages right away or years after purchase (it said on the website).  What it did not say, however, is that if you are planning to use the stack kit, you should NOT put any j-clips on the first two crossbars of the four corners of the cage.  Guess where the cage directions tell you to put the clips?  Yup, I had about 12 j-clips in the wrong place. 
For those who don't know, a j-clip is a piece of hard metal that's about 3/4 inches long and about 1/2 inch wide that, from the side, is shaped like the letter j.  You place the metal j in the j-clip pliers and position the pliers over the two pieces of cage wire you are trying to connect, they squeeze the pliers making the j roll and curl over itself, turning into an o with a little overlap.  Nice, strong hold.  Good, sturdy cages.  But how does one get those lovely little metal o's off?  Well, they do make a tool to remove j-clips.  I could have ordered one and had it shipped to my house.  But then I would have bunnies with no cages.  And yes, before you ask, I did go to the local feed store to ask if they carried j-clip remover tools, to which the guy behind the counter asked "what's a j-clip?".  They didn't carry them.  So before I ordered the tool on-line, I decided to try and really give it a go with good old fashioned woman power.  I grabbed two big sturdy pliers, a junky old screwdriver that I was willing to give up to the cause and got to work.  It took me over an hour to remove all 12 clips and my forearms are KILLING me.  Prying, pinching, trying to hold the clip with pliers in my left hand while trying to pry open the overlap with the pliers in my right hand enough so I could get a better grip and rip the sucker open.  Ugh, it was quite the "learning experience".  But I did it.  There is now a perfectly constructed 30x36 inch rabbit cage, with legs, a waterer, a hay rack and a food dish all attached and ready for little Juliet up there.  There is a slide out plastic tray under the cage so I don't have to take her out to clean the cage and the door is just hard enough to open that the six year old can't get it open at all.  Perfect!  So now, all I have to do is build Gnomeo's matching abode and stack them.  I'll post a photo of them as soon as they are completed and stacked, awaiting occupancy. 
I hope you like your new digs, Juliet, because it was a labor of love...and I will not be doing it for you again!

Planning a rabbit road trip

In about a week, I will starting my journey. I will drive the 6 hours to my Mom's house. She volunteered to go with me on my rabbit retrieval road trip and I would love to have the company. I will spend the night there, then bright and early (well it will most certainly not be bright, since we'll likely leave before sunrise)she and I will hop in the official farm van to head off to Sonora. I think it will be about 4 hours from her house, so we will have lots of time to chat. I wish we lived closer to them, I miss seeing them. We will hopefully make it to Sonora well before noon, have a bite to eat and walk around a little before heading over to see Sarah and picking up Gnomeo and Juliet. I hope to get a quick look at her farm and see her coop and hive (so jealous of both!) before loading Mom and rabbits back in the car for the long drive home. Four hours back to Mom's, then another six back home. It will be a long two days, but I will be leaving my two girls overnight for the first time ever and as their primary caregiver, I'm a little worried about how they will handle 48 hours without me. But they are excited about bringing the rabbits home, so they are torn between wanting me to go get them and wanting me to just stay home. It will be a big trip for all of us. So I guess I should probably go build their cages.

Two new books in the mail!

This morning was super exciting for me, as I got two new books delivered to my doorstep that I just can't wait to read. One is called The Nervous New Owner's Guide to Angora Rabbits by Suzie Sugrue and is the ONLY book on Angoras offered by Amazon. I thought I should give it a try to see if it was helpful so I could recommend it to people who buy my future little bunny babies. The second is one, not on rabbits, but general homesteading in the "suburbs" although I know very few suburbs around here where people can have goats, but whatever. it's called Little House in the Suburbs by Deanna Caswell and Daisy Siskin. I'm excited for a few of these chapters and we'll see if it's recommendation worthy. I'll review both of these books here when I finish them...which reminds me that I was going to review the other book I read on rabbit raising. Look back a tomorrow for a review of the Storey Guide to Raising Rabbits.

Our sweet new Juliet

Meet the new improved Juliet!  Yipee!  Isn't she just the sweetest?  I hope she and Gnomeo will be very happy together.

Ps. This photo was again courtesy of Sarah Cuthill at Fruhlingskabine Micro Farm.

Now that's one Hunky Buck

Here's Gnomeo!  We're just about 2 weeks away from bringing this hunk home and we can't wait.  Isn't he a handsome fellow?

Photo courtesy of Sarah Cuthill at Fruhlingskabine Micro Farm

Prepping for rabbits

There isn't that much time left before I get to drive up to Sonora to pick up Gnomeo and Juliet (still unsure which rabbit she will be, but soon to find out I hope). I have the cages, waterers, food crocks, hay feeders and grooming tools at the ready. I have two pet taxis ready to pop in the van for my rabbit road trip. I have a cage stacking kit on it's way and two more rabbit books are also zooming to my door, these two specific to Angora breeds. As soon as the stacking kits arrive, I'll build the cage stacks. Then right before I go to get the bunnies, I'll head into the feed store for my bag of pellets and Timothy hay. The only problem I have run into is that the feed store sells feed containers for 40lb bags of feed, but they sell 50 lb bags of pellets. What is that about? What am I supposed to do with the other 10 lbs of pellets? Hmmm. I think I'll have to head in to the pet store to see if they have any storage options. But for now, I think I'm on track to having everything ready for these babies when they get home. My dad has also volunteered to help me set up a letterhead and business cards based on my farm stamp design, so I will be able to put some business cards on the bulletin board at the feed and pet stores and also have some stationary avaiable for written correspondence if I put my rabbitry on the ARBA breeders list. So things are moving along and this farm dream of mine is slowly moving toward being a reality.

Official Farm Stamp

So the other day I carved a rubber tile into this farm stamp.  I need a new stamp pad, but you get the idea.  This will be the stamp I use to put my farm name on everything from equipment belonging to the farm to items sold by the farm.  It measures about 3x5, so I am going to try to make a smaller stamp as well.  But for now, this is it.  It's all kind of wonky, but I like it.  I think it's funny how when I see homemade things made by other people, I always think they are great!  The way they are just a little off so you can tell someone did it by hand - I love it.  But when I do things I always think they look a little too wonky.  Like it was the art project of a five year old, not a grown woman.  But I actually think this one came out pretty good, if I do say so myself.  So if you ever purchase anything from me, expect to see this stamp on your package!

An Award for Cold Hands Farm!

Wow!  My little blog here was nominated for a blogger award, how cool is that?  I would like to thank my friend Sarah over at Fruhlingskabine Micro Farm for nominating me!  I know I just started this Farm adventure, but I plan to give it a good go!

Now the rules....
Thank the person who gave you this award and  include a link to their blog. Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly.  Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award.  So in no particular order, here are some blogs that I LOVE to read!

1. Sarah at Fruhlingskabine Micro Farm
2. Jenna at Cold Antler Farm
3. Meg at Whatever
4. Nikki at WhiMSy love
5. Heather at Heather Ann
6. Alee at Farmgirl Alee and Farmerette Nora
7. Jeremy and Heather at McCool's Dusty Acres
8. Amanda at Itchin' Stitchin'
9. The Daughton Family at Firecracker Farm

....okay I can only come up with 9 that I read regularly...I'm always on the hunt for new blogs though, and with this new Farm, I'll be scouting out other Farm blogs like never before! Now I'm supposed to give you seven things about myself...hmmm

1. I love to bake pies...but really only apple.
2. I love to knit, but I have no patience...so often leave a blanket half finished FOREVER!
3. I love calamari, like seriously, LOVE IT.
4. I can read a 400 page book in less than a day.  I've done it a few times actually.
5. I really love sappy Christian old west movies.  I know that's very specific, it is what it is.
6. I have a special love affair with Honey Mustard Sauce.
7. I secretly wish I could make a living as one of those guides at a pioneer era recreation homestead, that dresses up and teaches school kids how to card wool or churn butter.

So now I'm off to let all the people I nominated know that, well, I nominated them.  So thanks again Sarah!