sorry ive been gone so long you guys.
life is kicking my tuckus...
quick update on general life.
squeak gave us babies 2 weeks later, 5 little ones and all have since gone to good new homes
ruthie, merry and pippin were bred to Frodo (mini Nubians) and we should be expecting F3 and F4 babies in early april.
im giving Eowyn and Demi (the nigi girls) until mid February, they were running with Bilbo our nig boy...but not sure if bred, its def possible and theyd have until feb 7th...haven't seen signs of heat, but ill watch...
if nothing by mid feb though thyell get bred before mr Bilbo goes out of rut (though nigis are typically year round breeders) and that will give me lae summer babes which...should see me thorugh milk for the year...we'll see though.
I finally had a successful litter of rabbits in the rabbitry, a French lop litter form a first timer, they are 2 weeks old and just opening eyeballs...
bred my other fench lop and 2 rex does due in about 2 weeks...fingers crossed, we had a rough late summer and nothing over fall with buns and this months feed had to come out of pocket...so they are oficlaly $40 in the red right now and well probably add another $60 to that before this litter is weaned (they've always payed for their own feed....
the good news is this litter of 4 should cover the auto water system and then the next few litters will HOPEFULLY pick up the slack...assuming I don't get the same issues I had with the last few litters and late stage weaning eenteritis. *sigh*
I did find a nice little Holland boy too, so hell be hopefully servicing my 3 Holland girls in time for easter babies...
don't usually plan for easter buns, BUT I need the babies for the money to cover the feed...I they don't support themselves, they don't get to stay.
also managed to fix the roof on the back elanto of the barn, new chicken coop is built and the chickens moved in, and life keeps moving.
we added 2 new additions this past Thursday...
having major rat issues in the barn, and the little barn kitty is probably not going to be willing to henlde them (cats typically arnt umb enough to take on a full sized rat) so I looked into other options, traps have ailed us and after an inisdent with second hand poisoning form rat bait were not risking that....
so...dogs...terriers infact...
but I don't like terriers outside of manchesters...
cant find/afford them
looked into min pins, nope too expensive...
so I was starting to think JRT...doesn't matter if were not best of frineds itll eventually be a barn dog...
then a frined contacted me, reminding me that she used Dachsunds in her stables and or earth and barn dog trails and tracking...and...she happen to have a litter if I might be interested.
I whent to pick up Briarpatch at Buckleberryfern Margarett (Gretta)
and came back with her and Briarpatch at Buckleberryfern Hildegarrd (Hildy) too!
8 week old black and tan Doxies from working direct import german lines...
itll be a while before they are big enough to live in the barn free hunting rats and right now they are in the kitchen, but the plan is to start them on caged mice, encourage game, and work up to free hunt.
id like to possibly do competitive barn and earth trials with them eventually, and dad wants to do tracking so these girls have a busy future ahead.
if they do well working we may add a male to the mi in the future and breed our own working lines of doxies.
the breed has taken more of an ornamental status in the usa, and id forgotten how tenacious and tough these guys are...
bred to hunt badgers in their own tunnels and dens...a rat should be nothing.
In other news however, life is kicking my butt, my health has not been great this past couple weeks and my mental state as been bad s a generality.
I thought removing the financial strain of living alone would help, but im depressed....borderline beynd depressed, my anxiety is through the roof and ive fallen into old bad habits (comfort eating) and gained 40lbs since moving here...Its my own fault, but its still frustrating, its a constant battle between my heart, body, left brain and right brain, and I just cant seem to get a grasp on things...working on it...but seem to be failing.
the weather doesn't help, shortend days always kick my mentally unstable backside...but im still kicking, still trying and that's what counts right.
so yeah, that's life so far.
