News of all kinds, and introducing Serena.

Today is a day of news! Good news the first! Twilight has given birth to 5 big, healthy kits. She had 9 total, but 3 were under developed, and one was born dead it seems. Fortunately the rest of them are thriving, and for a single shot breeding rather than one morning and one night the way we usually do, that's not bad at all. 

Umbra moves on to a new home

Today was Umbra's last morning with us as he moves on to a new home, and in trade we are getting an unrelated American Blue male who is blue. We will miss his gigantic kits and experienced male production, but having an unrelated male that we know to be of quality will strengthen our lines. I brought him down to drop off at Michelle Chandler's Blessed Acre Farm this morning, and will be picking up his replacement from her soon.

A small crop of fingerling potatoes as fall establishes itself.

Fall is really and fully here. We haven't had a killing frost yet, but my hands get cold in the time it takes to feed and water the rabbits. Fortunately for the litters that will be born soon the projected weather has lows in the high 40s low 50s for the next 10 days instead of the low to mid 30s that we've been seeing the past few days. If we can get 2 weeks of 50ish degree nights I won't be as concerned about infant mortality as I will be when it's below freezing.

New friends, moved kits, and escape artists.

It really struck home in a new way just how much the season has changed already. Never mind the frost warnings, well, mind them but the thing that struck me is how much less light we already have. The same time we're out every morning, and just before we leave there still isn't full sun anywhere on our garden, there's barely full sun on the side of the house. Logically I know exactly what time the sun rises and sets, but seeing the light difference really stands out to me due to my lighting design background.

Short catch up post after hail.

Life is complex and busy, and I'm terribly sorry that I missed posting yesterday. I try not to let life catch up to the point that I miss posting here but to really manage that I need to get a bit ahead on everything which I just haven't been able to do lately. I'm actually starting to look forward to winter in that I might have some extra free time. It's probably not the truth but I'm hoping!

No post today

Yesterday was crazy, today's been crazy. I'll try to get a post up tomorrow. My apologies for the lateness of this notice going up and lack of post today!

Some very New England weather

Since Thursday the weather has been strange and all over the place in a very New England fashion, and promises to continue doing so in the near future with near freezing temperatures night before last and tomorrow promising to be a near 100 degree day. At least we're not seeing a 65 degree difference in a single day again.

Frost on the 5th?

Today is a little bit of a scramble for us, not because of what has been happening, but more because of what we are going to have to be doing today when we get home from work. First we have a drop off for our foster rats from Mainely Rats Rescue  at a new home near by which always makes us very happy. The other part of our evening is trying to prepare for a sudden and very early first frost that is predicted as possible for tonight!

The goats of Blessed Acre Farm.

We have renewed our desire to have goats on our property in a few ways over the past week, and one of them was simply visiting Michelle Chandler's goats with their kids. I thought the one Above was good to start with because it looks almost like a classical painting, and I'm a nerd.