Touches of fall

The year is going by really fast. I have bred my does so I will have kits available for the Kid n Ewe. Whether or not they took is another question. The extreme heat makes the bucks sterile for short periods. The weather finally moderated, but whether it was in time I won't know for 30 days.

The large wasp nests in the rabbit hutch have disappeared overnight. I originally had 2 large yellow jackets and 2 red wasp nests. I myself removed one of the yellow jacket nests as I needed to get into the hay area and put in a fresh hay bale. They were just below I store the hay on and I just knew our peace treaty would be broken if I started to bring in the new hay so close to them.

I treated them with an organic spray of mint oils. It took 3 days to get them fully off the nest, but I planned for that. The spray didn't really seem to kill the individuals, but it did drive them away from the nest. They reclustered on a nearby tree and on the 5th day began building a new nest from scratch on the inside roof. I could deal with that since it was far enough away from my work area.

Yesterday all the nests were gone, most of the wasp were gone and the hay was undisturbed. It had to have been raccoons to do such a clean sweep of all the nests. What surprised me the most was that they didn't knock my hay over. Raccoons are annoying and do damage most of the time, but in this case they did do me a favor without much damage to my equipment, for once.

Break in the Weather

Well this has been a different week as far as weather. Monday it went to 107 F, a record and on Wednesday the high was 81 F. It was amazing!

On Wednesday morning while checking the rabbits I realized the fans weren't working. I checked everything to see if anything was chewed on, knocked out of a socket etc...I just couldn't find anything wrong with them. While I was staring really hard at the fans willing them to work it hit me that they have a thermostat and that the temperatures had fallen below the threshold that I had set them for to turn off.

I felt rather silly then and relieved they were fine. The fans have been running day and night for months as temperatures were not going below 85 F at night. It really makes for some uncomfortable times at those temperatures. But FINALLY we are going back into the 70's at night.

Newest Family Memeber

Here is our newest family member. This lovely young lady was adopted from the North Texas Humane Society. She was found wondering the streets of Fort Worth.
The guess at her age is 2 years old and a Saluki mix. She was in sad shape, but a little time in foster care, and now with us she is looking bright and healthy.

For those wondering about if she has a spinnable coat? No. I deliberately concentrated my search for a new pet with a smooth, flat coat. I do so much for others in my company that I felt I wanted to fore go that for a personal pet.

Her temper is calm and laid back and she is training very quickly. She is fitting perfectly.

Weather note: we now have had 100+ for high temperatures 12 days in a row.

Harvest of Summer

Now is the time of summer doldrums. We are 100+ everyday now for the next 7 days. With the rabbits it just a matter of monitoring them several times a day, fans on 24 hours a day to keep them cool. They are doing well so I am glad of that.

With that kind of heat it really is hard to be motivated to do anything, but there is still lots to do for work and find in the woods.

In the woods we have been harvesting Mustang Grapes and Wild Chickasaw Plums. I have been preserving them as jelly and syrup.
In the yard I harvested my 1st homegrown apple, Mollies Delicious. It tasted wonderful, crisp, sweet, with a hint of honey. I planted the trees 3 & 4 years ago. This is their 1st year to produce so I have great expectations for next year.

Finally Some Rain

Well happy dance for me. We have had rain over the last 2 weeks in a good amount, but not too much too fast. It was about time too. It has been 2.5 months with nothing.

Now the humidity and mosquitoes are high and fierce. We are usually on the arid/dry side on the humidity levels.

The rabbits are coping well. Taking off their coats early was the best thing I could have done. The nights stay in the upper 70's into the 80's so the fans are going 24 hours. The air movement has been enough to keep them comfortable.

I will be teaching a class at the Winter Fiber Retreat in February 2011. It is called "hand carders vs combs". I haven't formalized the content yet, but it should be fun and informative.