what to tip the mailman

Red Wagon

Ella has started to raise herself to a standing position holding onto things and is very into climbing into spaces, such as her sled, the dog bed, and now that we have introduced her to the outdoors, the red wagon with the broken wheel I picked up from the recycling center.  It is so fun to watch her concentration and pride once she's mastered the task.  

Eyes Wide Open

Our first rabbit baby has opened his (I think it's a snuggly laid back baby boy) eyes!  And it's just a matter of days for the others I'm sure.  In the meantime I've been reading up on rabbit raising and have learned that rabbits should stay with their mom for at least eight weeks.  Also, they really should be neutered to extend their lifespan and reduce aggression.  

We've decided to give this one the temporary name "Pedro" as he looks like a miniature donkey to me.

Merlin and Pedro meet for the first time.

Relative sizes..

Rab-babies

The rabbit babies are growing quickly -- still all curled up in Mama Rabbit's fur ball nest all day long, eyes shut tight.  But much more alert nonetheless, jumping out of my cupped hands when I try to photograph them.  Now that they have grown some fur, the two dark babies are actually sable colored, not black.  My favorite is the white speckled one that is nearly twice as big as the two other light ones.  I haven't sexed them yet, though, so who knows what's what.  They all look a lot like their lop dad.

Mama Rabbit is ravenous.  She eats through a week's ration of food in a matter of days, chows through all the dandelion I can come up with, and is making short shift of the salt and mineral wheels.  Hey, breastfeeding takes it out of you.  I hear you sister!

The Fox Returns

This morning I was loading the stroller into the car when I noticed movement down the driveway from me.  A red furry deer, no a cat, no the FOX!  The long bushy tail gave it away, as it walked rather unhurriedly, off into the thicket.  Oh boy.  

At least I have fair warning this time around.  All chickens and guineas are locked up in their pens to weather out the rains.  No sense having them get soaked and crowd around the tractor for cover.  And so the season begins.  Will I be able to keep the fox away from our flock?  Thankfully, my friend Sarita helped me motivate and train the dog -- finally! what has it been? 2 years??! --  on the electric fence.  So now I have Merlin at least patrolling our territory.   As soon as the rains stop, Jamie and I have plans to look for the fox den.

photo taken from: http://swamericana.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/the-fox-the-hare-and-the-chef/

Ella's Party

We got sooo lucky with Sunday's weather.  Ella's party was wonderful and the turnout was great!  I cannot believe our luck that we have so many wonderful friends in our lives -- both old and new!

Singing Happy Birthday to lil' Miss Ella.

Organic carrot cake cupcakes

Reading her new book with her aunt Antje

Some balloons escape into the blue sky..

Sandbox

My family was visiting from Maine this weekend for Ella's Birthday party on Sunday and to make a Sandbox with beams leftover from some construction projects.  I know.  We are lucky. My stepdad, who builds sunrooms, restores boats, and installs full bathrooms and kitchens in his spare time, created a perfect play-scape for Ella and her friends.  Jamie helped of course and did a lot of the lifting of the 35 sandbags they used to fill the thing.  I can't wait for some playdates, sitting around the sandbox with my toes digging in the sand, just watching the kiddos!

 

Another Nest

Not far from the chick babies and the baby rabbits there's another nest in the Guinea coop -- filled with, I kidd you not, 40 plus++ eggs and under heavy guard by not just one but two! Guinea mothers.   Guineas are colonial nesters, as in, several hens contribute eggs to a common nest.  However, why these ladies have both gone broody and squished themselves onto this nest I don't know.  But it seems to work for them.  I do worry that the sheer quantity of eggs will make hatching dangerous -- a bit like being born into quicksand.  We will have to watch closely once we near the 28 day hatching day mark.  

I love the looks on their faces daring me to get any closer.  They fluff out their feathers and make a low hissing sound too.  

Rabbits are not Chickens.

Since discovering the litter of baby bunnies, Ella and I have been over to the pen dozens of times, and not just to deliver clover leaves, carrot sticks and wilted lettuce to the new mom.  I worried that since delivering her babies, the Mama bunny has not gone anywhere near the nest.  Was she rejecting her young?  I kept poking into the fur nest and pulling out a baby or two to inspect.  Yes, still warm, and each time a bit more alert and jumpy (eyes still closed though).  But was I just making it worse by handling her babies?  

Thank goodness for the internet. A quick search and I find just what I need at http://www.rabbit.org/care/newborn.html:

"Although rabbits build nests, they are not chickens and, after initial preparation, will not sit on their nests. They also do not stay on or by the nests after the babies are born. This would attract the attention of predators. The babies burrow to the bottom of the nest where they remain hidden until Mama Rabbit wakes them up at mealtime ... Most often the first nursing will occur the night after the kindling. The rabbit's rich milk sustains the babies for 24 hours at a time. The preferred mealtime is between midnight and 5:00 a.m.  ... [It is fine to] handle the babies ... Domestic rabbits are not that concerned over human smells."

Reading this makes me smile. Indeed, rabbits are not chickens.  How true.  And how strange that I should draw such comfort from these animals, as I ponder motherhood.  

A Case of Mistaken Identity

Speaking of Mother's Day, this morning as I checked in on the Silkie and her chicks and briefly glanced into the cage of Oreo, our mini Rex rabbit, I found myself staring, uncomprehendingly, at splotches of blood and what looked like a few rubbery sausages.  Then I spotted a whole ball of white fluffy rabbit fur matted into a makeshift nest.  

Oreo?  We have been operating for two years on the assumption that he is a, well, a "he."    He and our Mini Lop Rabbit each have their own cages because we were told, unfixed, they would fight each other to the death, being two males and all.  And yes, as a matter of fact, Jamie did place the two rabbits together into a lawn enclosure accidentally, but that was only briefly, and he had reported that they were going at it rather aggressively, and we had had a good laugh at this.  

I lifted the roof of the cage and steeled myself for the worst.  Picking up a placenta and one, then two dead rabbit babies.  But the ones in the nest, perhaps five in all, were moving still.  Eyes shut and hairless, they looked forelorn, and hopelessly unprepared for life. But Oreo, who had moved off his offspring to take in a snack of dandelion and clovers, turns out to be not only a female, but a competent mother no less.  Fussing over the little ones, and carefully covering them up with his fluffed fur.  Now, who would like a rabbit?

Mother Rabbit in her youth

Dad -- as a young lad.

Mother's Day

As Ella is about to turn one (My baby is turning one!!!), I am feeling a bit nostalgic over my first couple of months as a new mother. How quickly it all goes indeed.   Now we have a toddler on our hands, and while we have the nursing and sleeping down (well sort of..), Ella now has so many more needs, it seems.  I am grateful that Ella has a dad who is so absolutely smitten with her.  And even still, my heart aches for her.  She deserves all the love in the world and more: such a perfect, sweet, patient, funny, and enthusiastic little girl!