Baby bunnies!

Well...my friend has talked me into raising mini rex rabbits.  It didn't take much to talk me into doing it so 2 rabbits and 4 wire cages later I was on my way.  Sharon has been raising animals for a very long time and I trust her in all my "new" animal matters that I add to the farm.   She told me that it was much easier to show and raise rabbits than boer goats so here I go.  At my first show in Conroe, TX my blue mini rex doe placed 1st in her class and my broken black mini rex buck placed 2nd and 3rd!  So naturally I had to purchase another mini rex buck!  This new buck is a black otter.  The terms blue, black, broken black, opal, otter and so on are color patterns.  With that when I say a broken black...no the rabbit isn't broken...it is a color.  I think it means that the white is "broken" by a color.  With that...meet Bonnie, a blue (gray color) mini rex doe

 

and now meet Ace, my broken black mini rex buck...

My daughter has decided to name the rabbits and even though I do not have a picture of the black otter his name is Clyde.

Put them together and 30 days later you get babies!  Bonnie had 7 total, 4 blacks and 3 broken blacks.  For those folks who do not know baby rabbits are born without hair.  The momma rabbit will pull hair hair out when she is ready to have the babies and covers them to keep them warm.

In about 10-14 days they will open their eyes.   This one started the "eye opening" segment at 11 days old.  Now about my friend stating they were easier than goats.  Just put them together and you get babies...well each day she is telling me something she forgot to add.  Like the eye opening.  She said to be sure and watch to make sure that they all open their eyes or I will have to help open them with some vaseline to keep eye infections from developing.  What??  I told her no that she was coming over to show me this weekend if that happens.  Luckily they all opened their eyes.





With all their eyes open they start coming out of the nest box!  So cute!  Sharon told me to be sure and take the box out and make sure that I put hay on the bottom of the cage.  Why I asked her.  Well their little feet might fall through the cage holes and the chickens might think it's something good to eat.  What???  So there is plenty of hay on the bottom of the cage. 

So in about 6 more weeks they will be ready to go to a new home.  That's where I think it will be the same for me as raising goats.  It was very hard for me to sell many baby goats because I got attached to each one with their different personalities.  Sharon forgot to mention how attached I think I will be to these little bunnies!

That's all for now...come back soon!

Jeff Foxworthy proud

Ok...I am sure most folks are familiar with Jeff Foxworthy and his "You might be a redneck if..." jokes. Well I guess my sweet OH was trying to supply some more lines for Mr. Foxworthy.

No doubt my OH is very handy to have around. He can "fix" almost anything and I am always amazed and very appreciative of the little projects he completes for me around the house, barn, and property...but...

Last week my daughter let him know that the handle on the toilet in her bathroom was broken and ask if he could please fix it. Well of course this was around 10:00 pm on a weeknight. So he gets ups from his chair and about 20 minutes later he calls our daughter to the bathroom to show her how to work the toilet. A few minutes later I hear my daughter start to laugh so loud and say "no way Dad!"

I get the bathroom to see this...

I started laughing too and he stated that at least it would work until the weekend. All I could think is "you might be a redneck if you use a yellow string for a toilet handle!"

Thank goodness it is the weekend and all has been restored!

That's all for now...come back soon.

Never a dull moment

Hi all...I know it has been awhile since I have posted and I hope this post finds all well in the blogging world. To bring you up-to-date (in a hurry) all is well here. It was kind of a lonely, but busy, Christmas this year because none of our children were home but they promise to be here next year. My son and oldest daughter are both serving in the U.S. Air Force and were unable to get leave to come home. My son has only been in the Air Force since last year and is stationed in Montana since July and did not have enough time in. My oldest daughter has been in the Air Force for 25 years and is currently stationed in Washington D.C. and did not put her request in on time. She was alittle upset about spending Christmas alone so our middle daughter ask if I would be upset if she flew up to be with her...well I told her I was upset but that her Dad and I would be fine and I did not want my oldest alone. I missed them but my hubby and I went out on actual dates Christmas weekend and spent time with my family on Christmas Eve and his family on Christmas Day so we were very busy!

The second thing that is going on is since I painted those few pieces of furniture I have become very interested in expanding my techniques! Must be the artist in me...I was going to get an art degree many years ago but got the MRS degree instead! So...I took some classes for decorative painting/faux finishes at a studio in Sugarland and I am hooked. With that, I have started another blog (to not fill this one up) for folks who might have an interest in this type of furniture. So if you get a chance, hop over to my other blog http://candccollectiblecreations.blogspot.com/ and give it a quick look if you have time. I hope you become a follower on that blog also.

Well...that's all for now.

Just a little rock

See it...

Hiding in the bottom of my purse...

It does not look special or different sitting among the other rocks...

Nor special among the leaves...

But it is very special to me. My OH and I have been married for 26 years and that little rock has been with me the entire time. My OH loves to collect rocks from various places and he picked this one up from a deer lease. This deer lease was one of his favorite places to be and is located outside of Vanderpool in the Texas Hill Country near Lost Maples State Park. He found this one, polished and shined it up, sealed it with something to keep it shiny and during our first year of marriage he gave this rock to me. He told me it was just a little rock but he wanted me to carry it with me and whenever I saw it to remember that he loves me and will always be there for me. So even though this is just a little rock to some folks, this little rock is special to me. And my dear OH continues to be my rock that I lean on and love very much. Thanks honey for being my rock.

Painting furniture

It was such a beautiful weekend this past weekend and with the weather being not in the triple digits I got some furniture painted. There are a few ladies at the antique store that have been selling shabby chic furniture so I decided to give it try. Actually I have been collecting "practice" pieces for awhile and my OH wants his garage back. The final push was the fact that I got a new booth in Galveston and needed a locking cabinet to display small items. I didn't want new furniture (plus did not want to pay high prices) so my first piece was a old buffet top that had seen better days many, many days ago. I wanted 3 doors to open and to be able to lock. Of course the piece I had found had 1 door that opened and the two others were stationary. Enter my wonderful husband who can do wonders with woodworking. He cut the doors so I could have 3 doors and added locks. Then it was my turn. I have been wanting to paint furniture for awhile and was afraid to start, afraid to mess things up, just afraid to try something. But I needed the hutch so with brush in hand I dove right in. I didn't think to get a before picture but here is what we came up with.

We had to add glass to the centers of the shelves and all in all I am pretty pleased with the results. There wasn't a bottom so my OH also built a simple bookcase that I painted white and stained the top a golden oak. I wanted alittle more for the bookcase so I added blocks and put cutouts stained on the top. I think displays well in my Galveston booth.

Well...since I got over being afraid (my OH says he doesn't know why I always doubt myself) I can't seem to keep my paintbrush dry! Over the weekend I also completed a sweet little octagon table. Of course I didn't take any before pictures of this project either but hey...I was busy painting! Anyway, for both pieces I used primer first, then painted a light grey color latex paint. I then used a sander to add the distressed used appearance. After that I used a blue wash followed by a brown wash. Here is the top of the table after the brown wash.

The door of the table has great details which really show up after painting.

Of course before painting I removed all the hardware and while I had the items off the furniture, I spray painted a dark brown and highlighted with a copper metallic paint. The contrast is so pretty.

After everything was dry, I put a water based poly coat on the table since this piece would probably be used and I wanted to protect the paint.

Not too shabby if I so say myself...wait...I mean pretty shabby blue table!

Ok...now I am working on a twin bed that yes I remembered to take a before picture! I plan on shabby chic white for this piece. I really like painting old furniture and changing old, damaged, needing work pieces into new useable pieces.

By the way...I am having trouble posting comments on some of the blogs I follow...is anyone else having that problem and can anyone tell me how to correct that problem?

That's all for today...come back soon.

Life Does Get In The Way

Hi all! I know I have been bad and have not been keeping up with this blog and I apologize and I am going to try to do better. But as it is said - life gets in the way - of things we enjoy. For a quick update...3 months ago I was so very, very, very tired all the time. It seemed that I could be driving and would almost fall asleep, mid-day naps that would last for hours was starting to be the "norm" for me. I had gone to the doctor for a check-up and mentioned this to the doctor and she ordered tests because this was not the way I wanted to continue my life. Sooo...the diagnosis came back that I am a diabetic. So for the last 3 months I have been trying to get a handle on this new way of life that has hit me. I have been put on a low dosage of medication, ordered by the doctor to lose about 25 lbs and exercise and if I do well and get this under control and I can get off the medication. So me being me...I started an exercise program, have gone to a free nutrition class and when that didn't seem to help with my trying to change eating habits, requested and have attended an nutritional class that was great! I am happy to say that I have more energy than I have had in years! No more naps, getting things done, creating new meals and am finally able to accept that this is going to have to be my way a of life. I have to go to the doctor in 2 weeks to check the ACL levels to see if I am headed to being off meds. So that's why I haven't posted to this blog or have been able to read others.

To be honest...I was very depressed and felt like a failure because I had become diabetic and didn't want to do anything. But, my oldest daughter sent some books that explained this disease...and it seems that I have had many of the pre-existing conditions. She also encouraged my by saying that I have the ability to manage this and not admit defeat. I had gestational diabetes with all 3 kids, have be pre-diabetic for years and when I mentioned to my mom that I was diabetic...she said oh me too! You would think that she would have told me years ago but our relationship is rather...shall I say...different. The last factor is that stress can push you over and the last 2 years of my job was unbearable and I think with all the pre-existing conditions I have, that's what pushed me over the edge. So I decided that I love the outdoors, horses, painting, riding, my eyesight and toes so much that this diabetic thing was not going to control my life...I was going to manage it. So there you have it.

Now on another note I want you all to see my Cyrus now. I posted about him on my first blog and want you to see him now. He has now become my trail horse and we are once again looking for my husband a good trail companion. Cyrus is just alittle much for a beginner. On the trails if he gets nervous he will start a little dance and chomping on the bit which will lead to his little meltdown. If you ignore this and sit down a little further in the saddle he settles down but will get wound up real fast and pop off the ground about 5 inches which is alittle scary to say the least. I think he did this to get the rider off and probably did this in the past and I really feel a rider who is not confident will get shaken up a bit. Not good for the rider or horse. I love riding him on the trails and decided to keep him. What's another horse right?

Here he is the day we picked him up in February 2010

And this was taken in July 2010 before a ride. I think he has gotten so much better looking with the exercise of being ridden and proper feed has given him.

Well that's way for now...come back soon!

I'm Back in Business!

Yippee!!! My new computer is here! I have been out of commission for the last few weeks when my old, very old, computer bit the dust. I can now post blogs (hopefully), post comments to your blogs (hopefully) without feeling the need to toss the laptop under my horses feet as they are running! I have to get my blogs and thoughts in order and will start back with my blog...but for now I am going to catch up on my fellow bloggers!