Long Time, No Write

Things have been slightly nuts here. Scratch that. Things have been full-on cuckoo nuts here. The details aren't glamorous, just the usual holiday crunch on top of trying to open a business. When I'm not submitting reams of paperwork to the city/county/state for the store, I'm feverishly knitting dishcloths and leaning way too heavily on Amazon to wrap up my shopping.

Thus, I'm all manner of distracted and haven't had the time or mental oomph! to post anything. So here's an update from the Boggy Hollow crew, in a nutshell.

Bunnies - Marshmallow is *possibly* pregnant. We'll know definitively in another 20 days or so. We're moving her hutch into the basement, just in case, to keep her and the (maybe?) babies out of the weather.

Dogs - We've started up fostering again! We hosted a sweet little girl named Mariah for just 8 days this month before she moved on to her forever home. We were lined up to pick up a Pyr/Aussie pup to foster today, but he was adopted at the last minute. Fostering is work, but it's so rewarding.

'Riah and Rexy, snoozin'

Chickens - We've already lost a few this Winter to a trio of raccoons that were slowly picking off the less-wary gals (the ones who roost up outside regardless of how often we've wrestled them into the safety of the coop at night.) Rex managed to tree the thieves one night and Bill gave them a little something to think about with a few pellets to their butts. No one has gone missing since!

Goats - We still have 6, five girls and one stinky boy, though that number is about to grow soon. 

Greetings from the Boggy Hollow maternity ward!

Ol' Bluey, as wide as she is tall.

Buckley, the cantankerous, highly smelly, soon-to-be Papa of the lot

And that's about it. The giveaway is still forthcoming, though I'm rapidly reaching knitting fatigue, so the goodies contained therein may be slightly different that originally planned, but still good stuff for all that. In the mean time - have a wonderful Christmas/Solstice/Ugly Sweater season, and kindly chug a mug of something spicy and bourbon-laced for me. ;)

Critter Census - Spring 2013

For better or for worse, these numbers are likely to change due to either loss or gain - hopefully gain - within the next 12 weeks leading up to Summer.

Chickens - 14

Sir Rosco Peckins - Lavender Orpington roo
Leroy Brown - Splash Cochin roo
Leon - Black-laced Red Wyandotte roo
Lacy - Silver-laced Cochin hen
Coo-Coo - White/Wheaten Americauna hen
Amelia - Dark Americauna hen
Rose - Brown Americauna hen
Gracie - Golden-laced black Polish hen
Puffy - White Silkie hen (currently sitting on 9 eggs at last count)
Ewok - Brown Americauna hen
Miss Bitey Pants - Black "Policauna" hen
Jasmine - Black Policauna hen
Australorp hens who's names I don't remember (2 of them)

The coyote seems to have picked off a few look-alike hens without our notice, based upon our slowly but steadily shrinking flock. 

Guinea Fowl - 2

Spotty & Sylvia - Pearl Grey hens

Rabbits - 1

Prince Charming - Neutered mini-Rex male

Goats - 19 (Aye, chihuahua!)

Blue - 11 year old Agouti Grey, disbudded Nigerian Dwarf doe
Chardonnay - 5 year old Caramel brown, blue-eyed, gopher-eared, disbudded mini-Lamancha doe
  Chardy's twins - dark in color, doelings
Hop - 2 year old Fawn & White spotted, gopher-eared, mini-Lamancha doe
  Hop's male kid - White & Grey, ND "erect" eared, disbudded mini-Lamancha wether
Valentina - 2 year old Fawn colored, elf-eared, mini-Lamancha doe
  Valentina's twins - Fawn/buckskin colored, gopher-eared
Liberty - 1 year old Caramel brown, blue-eyed, gopher-eared, mini-Lamancha doe
  Liberty's kid - Black with white markings, disbudded
Hope - 1 year old Caramel brown, blue-eyed, gopher-eared, mini-Lamancha doe
  Hope's kid - Fawn colored, disbudded
Sidney - 4 year old, White with black markings, erect-eared, disbudded Alpine doe
  Sidney's kid - disbudded wether
Sophie - 3 year old, White with black markings, erect-eared, disbudded Alpine doe
  Sophie's kids - Black & White, gopher-eared, disbudded, mini-Lamancha/Alpine doeling
                         Black & White, erect-eared, disbudded, mini-Lamancha/Alpine wether
Buckley - 2 year old, Buckskin colored, gopher-eared, mini-Lamancha buck

I feel bad that I can't recall off the top of my head all of the pertinent details about all of the new babies, but between my memory issues and the landslide of babies born in the past two weeks, I'm just out of my depth at the moment. :\

Pigs - 3 (I'm not too committed to learning these guys' names, and so I venture a guess at who's who here.)

Baykin(?) - 9 week old spotted gilt
Prosciutto(?) - 9 week old black gilt
Porkchop(?) - 9 week old black barrow

In addition to our livestock, we have the pets - dogs, Rex & Penny, curmudgeonly old box turtle, Bob, and our lone parakeet, Applesauce. That brings our grand total to 43 critters. HOLY CRAP.

Charlene

Meet our sweet new bunzo, Miss Charlene -

Her name was chosen by popular vote between my two daughters and my niece, after a spirited discussion in which the names "Fluffernut" and "Velvet" were also considered. I was right there the whole time, and I still have no idea how they arrived at Charlene. I guess this bunny girl should be glad that she fared better than our parakeet, Applesauce!

Charlene came to us through a fellow farm chick, who's dog didn't really co-habitate well with bunnies. Our lonely boy bunny, Prince Charming, was in need of a new gal-pal since sweet Cinderella passed away, so this little girl was a very welcome addition to the Boggy Hollow bunch.

Viva los bunzos!

The Last of the Stud Bunnies

Do you all remember the little guy here with Scarlet?



This was "Leap", the last of our litter born this past February, at about 4 or 6 weeks old.

His brothers and sisters all went to new homes in pairs, leaving Mr. Leapy the odd man out. Right up until he successfully knocked up his mother, Cinderella, Leap's gender and sexual prowess were in question. The surprise litter of babies were our "A-Ha! moment" (don't sue me, Oprah!), immediately after which we segregated Leap to a bachelor pad of his own, where he lived a tolerable but somewhat lonesome existence, estranged from his mother/aunt/baby mama.

Well, our young buck has finally moved on to greener pastures. We sold him this past week to our neighbors who are starting to raise meat rabbits, but who's buck wasn't getting the job done. Enter, Leap.

Leap's new Mommy called me today to say that "he's been taking care of business". So much so, that he's been given a new name befitting his take-no-prisoners brand of courtship.


Ladies and gentlemen - Charlie Sheen!

WINNING.

Cue the Banjos

Guess what the girls found today?



MORE BUNNIES!

Five (we think) teeny, little, incredibly inbred bunnies. Unless Prince Charming's neutering didn't take (how could it not? His huevos are gone), these are the children of Cinderella and Leap, her son that we'd thought was a daughter. Keeping in mind that Cinderella and Prince Charming are brother and sister, and that Leap is the product of their "union", with Leap then going on to father babies with his mother/aunt Cinderella, well... I guess that I shouldn't be surprised if the bunnies hop backwards or have horns or something. Good gravy!

So we're looking to re-home our sweet Mr. Leap, as we cannot afford another $120 rabbit vasectomy. He's extremely tame, since being handled practically from birth. He's also obviously not your average aggressive buck, as he masqueraded successfully as a girl all this time, and he's been the picture of sweetness with these new babies, bringing Cinny mouthsful of hay and his own hair to help her build her nest. Any takers? ;)

In another 6-8 weeks we'll also have the babies up for grabs. Their gender and coloration are still unknown, but if you're interested in a sweet little backwoods bunny with an "interesting" family history, give me a shout.

7/23/11 Update: The babies didn't make it. We're not sure what went wrong. :( We are still trying to re-home Leap, if anyone is interested.

Prince Charming hath lost his Charms

Our big boy bunny, Prince Charming went in for his neutering today. For the full story, see The Saga of the Boggy Hollow Bunnies on ye old Bog Blog.

Suffice it to say that PC was a trouper, and was briefly reunited with his wife & kids before retiring to his own separate kennel for the night. He will have to remain apart from the other rabbits for about a week so that his incision can heal undisturbed. Then he can go back to life with his family without risk of exponentially expanding his family once per month.

But enough with the dirty details, bring on the cute bunny pics!