Well...that was a job!

Yesterday out with Jim, the wind started to pick up, I worried about the bunnies.

Called Bob (next door neighbour) and asked him if the 'tent' was still standing.

He said, yup, everything looks good. I relaxed a bit.
got home...checked the tent...well...it wasn't all right.

So got all the rabbits out. Jim a total sweetie for helping me with this as he was still tired physically from Saturday's rescue.

Put them on the grass, covered them with a tarp.
When in town on Monday I had asked Princess Auto if I could return the tent and get a new one. They said "yup!" so did that today.

Lauren came over at 5ish with Bella. Bella is a doe that I bred last summer so she's a bit more than a year old. She's had an 'oops' litter. She needed to rehomed out of fairness to her... Her family is getting a new housemate and quarters are getting tighter something had to give and so Bella came to live here. I don't mind. I've regretted not being able to keep one from that litter and Bella is just a knock out.

Anyways, Lauren said she'd help us put up the new tent. Wow...did her helpfulness ever come in handy. :) Took us an hour to get it all set. Another hour to get most everyone back in and squared away...until we had to break for supper.

After supper I put the rest of the bunnies away. That was a challenge.

Decided to get the guinea pigs out of their wet housing...I have NO idea how they managed to get wet but they succeeded. So they are now in their summer housing pen.

Lost two mice to the rain last night. I didn't realize the tarp I covered them with lacked in the waterproofing department so they almost drowned. Two (one baby and one adult) got too wet and died. The rest I managed to rescue! The babies I brought in the house and used the hair dryer on them for a bit. And I managed to catch one of my mouse escapees tonight. YEAH!!! :)

Boy are my muscles sore.

This Most Recent Weekend

So, This weekend was a busy one.... and yet a bit slower than expected.

Friday night...our open house. Boy was it ever fun! Lots of people showed up. Conversation, laughter, a couple of small presents for Justin, bundles of coats and lines of shoes on the floor. The fact that the cat was unimpressed being locked in the office, and the dog got cold locked in the garage were small prices to pay for such a nice evening. And next year I get to do it again! Oh what fun! :) People seemed to enjoy the baking that I had done, the house was nice and clean (thanks Jim's mom for helping!), and it was just very nice. :)

Saturday afternoon we headed up to visit Mom and Dad overnight because Jim had a classical appointment to preach in their church. The biggest snowstorm to hit Canada this December thought it would take the opportunity to hit us HARD! When I walked Sassy in town for her morning walk I thought hmm....the weather is drivable, but I wouldn't want to go too far. When I arrived home I learned that there were many road closures due to poor driving conditions. So we stayed put. We had hoped to go home later in the afternoon, but the roads didn't reopen until 630 pm. and having a boy that didn't nap, not having things packed to go, made returning home in the dark an undesired option. So we stayed over another night.

It was nice staying over. We played a couple of games. Ate some good food (my mom is great cook). Jim got mom's email straightened out a bit. Justin had fun playing trucks. It was odd not getting out to church, but safer to stay home. Most church services were canceled as well. Boy did we ever get a lot of snow!

Justin had a good nights sleep, we left around 930 Monday morning. got home 1114. Parked on the road because boy oh boy did we ever get a lot of snow. Justin and I waited until Daddy got a path blown out for us. I got the boy into the house, got some food out for him to nibble on while Jim got the driveway cleaned out, and blew out some paths in the backyard for Sassy dog and me to the composter and shed. Then I cared for the critters...boy where they hungry! But they all survived the storm and cold. My baby bunnies have grown and are getting hair. :) And the wee mice are old enough now to start exploring their surroundings. So they will be ready to ship out in another couple of weeks. :)

Once that was all cared for Jim wanted to head to London as per usual for Mondays. We surprised mom. She willingly cared for Justin though since he was all happy to see Grandma. Jim and I finished our Christmas shopping. :) We did make it an early return though. I was beat, Jim was sore from shoveling, and I thought it best not to overextend our welcome at gramma's. Justin fell asleep on the way home, so he went to bed right away. I walked Sassy, did my finances and then did my exercises while relaxing with Jim downstairs.

Overall a good weekend.

December 5

Jim saw an Owl last night sitting on the window ledge outside the bathroom. Rather neat huh?

We have baby mice. I was shocked. Went out a bit more than a week ago, planning on killing the ladies as I was NOT going to bring them in the house for the winter. Anyways, they had babies! A whole whack of them. This morning I checked on them (as I do in the mornings to feed and water) and their eyes are opening. 10 days old they are now. :) Some very pretty ones in the mix too. not that is matters, ugly or pretty they bring in 75 cents each. But they are handling being outside just fine. So thinking I'll just keep the ladies and one male from the litter over the winter. In the spring I can get me a new male and keep babies from a litter or two and start all over again.

Bunnies are doing well over the winter too outside. They keep quite cozy. I'll breed them in February to hit the Easter crowd and that's good timing as they'll be able to go out on grass too in April so they won't get overcrowded.

What else...Sassy's old injury is bugging her again.

Jim had a couple of crazy busy week's but this week is a bit easier.
Justin got over one cold just to get another one. :( ah well..life of a toddler.
My foot is feeling a lot better, my back is stiff in the morning lately...not much I can do about that, just keep moving! :)

That's it!

News for this week

One of our girl mice had a litter of 8 babies. hard to tell which momma as they all seem to huddle around the babies and bothering mice with a new litter isn't always the wisest of things to do.

We have a new rabbit. Very tame. Justin says "bun-bun". So we might stick with that name. We got him from a lady in London who just didn't have time for him anymore.

It was funny. I went to the doc yesterday to find out why certain things in life were uncomfortable. Discovered I have a bladder infection --- and no, that's not the funny part. Anyways, a couple weekends ago, I had a lot of fun at the AAC Regionals and I had seen the doc there. So we spent as much time talking agility as we did actually discussing my health. I"m going to email her with some trainers as she has an active Border Collie she wants to train further. So that was a lot of fun just chatting. Anyways, you can read how that weekend went here.

Well, it's built :)

So our new form of income and dog food has now been housed a bit more properly and they are OUTSIDE! Yes! No more male mice smell in our house! YEAH!!!! :)

I built a pen! yes me! Jim helped a bit with some cutting and suggestions and drilled holes, but for the most part I built it my own self! :) It's not perfect, but that's okay.

Wooden box for our mice to live in, in the great outdoors. Protected all around with metal to prevent errant chewing and escaping. Three houses in one box. They may eventually chew their way between houses, but I'll cross that bridge when (and if) I get there.

The only thing I forgot to do was add handles, that I'm not to sure how to add. So for now moving it will be a bit of a challenge. Since it's only 3 feet long and 15 inches wide, it isn't too heavy to just lug about though.

Only one grouping of mice is not outside yet, but that is due to the litter they are currently rearing. They will go outside in about 4 weeks. :) Hopefully one of those wee ones will be a boy and we can use him as a breeder. Even if we sell the babies for $1 a piece they will help provision our dogs with food. More then they would provide themselves! YEAH! Wouldn't that be nice? :)

I'll be keeping the field mice for another couple of weeks yet to see if any of them get "with child" if they don't... then I'll kill them as I'll need the cage soon anyways to raise wee boyo's.

Just happened

We have six babies in our lives.

Just born in the last half hour.

Sugar had 6 babies. She's a slimmed down girlie now. :)

Hopefully they will all survive.