The Nature Trail Rabbitry BLOG
Friday, June 30, 2006
New Sale Rabbit Notification List
I have decided to discontinue my waiting list for rabbits. I have been spending far too much time emailing individuals and waiting for responses in an attempt to be fair and offer rabbits to the people who have been waiting the longest. The result is I feel tied up in red tape!
So, sales will be first come, first served. You can get some advantage, however, by signing up for my Sale Rabbits Notification List. That way, you won't have to check daily to see if there are new rabbits for sale. You will be notified when new rabbits are posted. You can remove yourself from the list at any time.
I have exceed the number of names on my notification list that can be handled by regular email. I'm being labeled as "spam" due to the volume. So, beginning July 1, 2006, the notification list will be handled via a Yahoo! Group. The group has been set up like a newsletter rather than an interactive group, so all you will receive through the group are the occasional notices that I am posting new rabbits for sale.
If you signed up for the notification list prior to July 1, 2006, you need to sign up again. As of right now, there's only one member in the group and that's me! To sign up, simply go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_nature_trail_rabbitry/ and click the "join" button. I will approve your membership right away.
By the way, I will be posting new sale rabbits next week. I just need to get them photographed:
The Nature Trail Rabbitry
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design
¶ 4:34 PM 0 comments links to this post
So, sales will be first come, first served. You can get some advantage, however, by signing up for my Sale Rabbits Notification List. That way, you won't have to check daily to see if there are new rabbits for sale. You will be notified when new rabbits are posted. You can remove yourself from the list at any time.
I have exceed the number of names on my notification list that can be handled by regular email. I'm being labeled as "spam" due to the volume. So, beginning July 1, 2006, the notification list will be handled via a Yahoo! Group. The group has been set up like a newsletter rather than an interactive group, so all you will receive through the group are the occasional notices that I am posting new rabbits for sale.
If you signed up for the notification list prior to July 1, 2006, you need to sign up again. As of right now, there's only one member in the group and that's me! To sign up, simply go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_nature_trail_rabbitry/ and click the "join" button. I will approve your membership right away.
By the way, I will be posting new sale rabbits next week. I just need to get them photographed:
- The Nature Trail's Anson, Show Quality Buck, Tort, GC The Nature Trail's Ox x GC The Nature Trail's Hilary, 1 leg, DOB 12-24-2005, $110
- The Nature Trail's Navaro, Show Quality Buck, Tort, GC Camelot's Merlin x The Nature Trail's Spice (a Merlin daughter), 2 legs, DOB 10-13-2005, Proven, $110 (Note: Merlin & Spice both carry the REW gene)
- The Nature Trail's Ben, Show Quality Buck, Tort, GC The Nature Trail's Boris x The Nature Trail's Natasha (siblings), DOB 12-25-2005, $100 (Note: good chance of dilute)
- The Nature Trail's Antony, Show Quality Buck, Tort, GC LL Brendan x Mtn's Zenobia, 2 legs, DOB 7-3-2005, Registered, Proven, $115 (Note: produced sable point - on hold)
- The Nature Trail's Hobbs, Show Quality Buck, Tort, GC Camelot's Merlin x The Nature Trail's Piccolo, 12-09-2005, $100 (Note: 50% chance of REW gene)
- The Nature Trail's Mars, Show Quality Buck, Broken Tort, GC LL Brendan x Mtn's Zenobia, 3 legs, DOB 7-3-2005, Registered, Proven, $125 (Note: produced himis in his last litter - throws fuzzies)
- The Nature Trail's Triss, Brood Quality Doe, Tort, GC LL Brendan x Saynora's Katee, DOB 7-9-2005, Registered, Proven, $75 (on hold)
- The Nature Trail's Sadie, Brood Quality Doe, Broken Black, GC Camelot's Merlin x GC The Nature Trail's Roxie, DOB 1-29-2006, $60 (on hold)
- The Nature Trail's Coolwhip, Brood Quality Doe, Fuzzy Charlie Tort, GC Camelot's Merlin x Saynora's Katee, DOB 3-10-2006, $40
- The Nature Trail's Sylvie, Brood Quality Doe, Broken Tort, GC Camelot's Merlin x Saynora's Katee, DOB 3-10-2006, $40 (Note: likely fuzzy carrier)
I will be at the Shelby, NC, show on July 22, and in Fredericksburg, VA, on July 29.
Laurie StroupeThe Nature Trail Rabbitry
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design
¶ 4:34 PM 0 comments links to this post
Saturday, June 24, 2006
July 1 Rabbit Registering Event
Next Saturday, July 1, for the last time, Roger Bustle will be at my house to register rabbits. Hopefully by next quarter, I will have my own registrar's license. And Roger will be tied up judging shows!
Email me at laurie@thenaturetrail.com, if you would like to join us. Attendance is rabbit-optional. You can bring rabbits to register, bring rabbits to get peer review of, or just come to enjoy the company of other rabbit people. You can do all of the things you mean to do at a show, but can't because things are too hectic!
We will set up our rabbits in the great room during the heat of the day, so they, and we, will be comfortable.
If you haven't toured my barn before, this coming Saturday would be a great time to do that. Or, if you are up for a repeat walk-through, I'm up for that, too!
For those who can stay the evening, we will put hot dogs on the grill and have a campfire with marshmallows roasting. Kids can bring their bathing suits for some fun in the water. Feel free to pitch a tent and stay the night. There is also room in the house for overnight guests.
I hope you'll come.
Laurie
¶ 9:41 AM 0 comments links to this post
Email me at laurie@thenaturetrail.com, if you would like to join us. Attendance is rabbit-optional. You can bring rabbits to register, bring rabbits to get peer review of, or just come to enjoy the company of other rabbit people. You can do all of the things you mean to do at a show, but can't because things are too hectic!
We will set up our rabbits in the great room during the heat of the day, so they, and we, will be comfortable.
If you haven't toured my barn before, this coming Saturday would be a great time to do that. Or, if you are up for a repeat walk-through, I'm up for that, too!
For those who can stay the evening, we will put hot dogs on the grill and have a campfire with marshmallows roasting. Kids can bring their bathing suits for some fun in the water. Feel free to pitch a tent and stay the night. There is also room in the house for overnight guests.
I hope you'll come.
Laurie
¶ 9:41 AM 0 comments links to this post
Monday, June 19, 2006
Charles Town, WV, Show
First and foremost, thank you, thank you to Linda Norris for putting my rabbits on the table for me. And thank you to all of the good Holland friends there who helped her with that chore. I really do appreciate it. You are all so wonderful to just jump in there and be so helpful.
Linda and I left my house mid-morning and arrived just after 4:30 p.m. The trip took longer than expected and we were feeling pretty rushed at the end. The building was simply too hot for our rabbits, so we set up outside - definitely a good choice.
I checked in and then touched base with Robert Frizzel to make sure I could work with him. I hadn't received his email response, so I was pleased to find out that he had written back that it would be fine to work with him.
I probably looked for DQs on 90% of the rabbits that crossed the table. I found an eye DQ, missed a toenail one, found several weight DQs and missed two slate undercoats. I'm particularly glad about the ones I missed because we tend to learn best from our mistakes. I also get my first set of testicles to descend. It worked nicely. It's really strange the things rabbit people can get excited about.
I still have to one with one more judge and then one registrar to finish up my registrar's license. I'm hoping to have it all done by the end of the summer.
Late in the show, a man came up to me at the table and said, "Pointer Hill would appreciate it if you would put up your order." I had totally forgotten about it. I'm sure they were quite concerned since I had ordered ten carriers and hadn't come by to get them!
So, I picked up 10 single hole carriers which I will have for sale in my barn. It's no huge money maker for me, but rather they will be there for the convenience of my rabbit customers. Most people who come to purchase pedigreed rabbits from me want to buy more than they came prepared for. So the single carriers may help them out. They are very nice and will be $15 each.
There were something like 120 Hollands at the show. I really don't know how any of my rabbits did in the first show, except that Padme was BOSG under Owen Yates. I'll have to wait for the show report to pose the results on my site. I have some comment cards from the second show, which was judged by Eric Stewart. Padme was BOSG again and I believe that Gypsy was second.
I was so disappointed that Gypsy didn't grand. She has four junior legs. But then I started thinking that I had pulled her off of 6-week old kits to go to the show. Instead of being sad she didn't grand, I should be relieved that she's still competitive after a litter. I can leave her open for a bit and she should grand before the end of summer, especially since there are several shows in early September to attend.
The show was over around midnight. It took us under about 1:00 to pack up. I had to track down some food before I could think! Then we drove 2 hours to our friend Dani Cole's house. Thanks, Dani, for the bed and breakfast puffs. They are so good!
After just three hours of sleep, I awoke to the sound of my puppy quietly whimpering. I had taken her to deliver to her new owner. She's such a sweet puppy. She laid across my neck and licked me occasionally on the chin while I dozed for another half hour or so.
Then it was time to get up, look at Dani's bunnies for awhile, and then hit the road. We made it to our meeting place about 10:00 a.m. and delivered the puppy and had breakfast at the busiest Cracker Barrel in the country. With the rabbits parked in a bit of shade with the motor and air conditioning running, we were able to stick out the long waiting time and finally finished breakfast - at NOON!
I was home just before 5:00 p.m. I had to show Linda my babies for Convention. We identified some stinky ones that are processor-bound, I'm sure. I just can't abide long ears on a Holland. But we also saw some we agreed looked promising. I certainly hope so.
She also said that the two pink-eyed broken sable points I thought I had are himis. They are my first. They have very poor point color. What I thought were faint sable point spots were probably just some light smut, which is now fading. One is a fuzzy - my best fuzzy coat yet - and the other is very promising at the moment. We'll see.
So it was a very crazy, very jampacked weekend. I only got to say "hello" to a number of people that I really wanted to visit with. I had hoped to see Bear again since Dani was delivering him to his new owner Lena, but that just was not possible. Most of the show, except for checking for DQs, is a blur. But I think that it was worth it.
Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design ¶ 9:11 AM 1 comments links to this post
Linda and I left my house mid-morning and arrived just after 4:30 p.m. The trip took longer than expected and we were feeling pretty rushed at the end. The building was simply too hot for our rabbits, so we set up outside - definitely a good choice.
I checked in and then touched base with Robert Frizzel to make sure I could work with him. I hadn't received his email response, so I was pleased to find out that he had written back that it would be fine to work with him.
I probably looked for DQs on 90% of the rabbits that crossed the table. I found an eye DQ, missed a toenail one, found several weight DQs and missed two slate undercoats. I'm particularly glad about the ones I missed because we tend to learn best from our mistakes. I also get my first set of testicles to descend. It worked nicely. It's really strange the things rabbit people can get excited about.
I still have to one with one more judge and then one registrar to finish up my registrar's license. I'm hoping to have it all done by the end of the summer.
Late in the show, a man came up to me at the table and said, "Pointer Hill would appreciate it if you would put up your order." I had totally forgotten about it. I'm sure they were quite concerned since I had ordered ten carriers and hadn't come by to get them!
So, I picked up 10 single hole carriers which I will have for sale in my barn. It's no huge money maker for me, but rather they will be there for the convenience of my rabbit customers. Most people who come to purchase pedigreed rabbits from me want to buy more than they came prepared for. So the single carriers may help them out. They are very nice and will be $15 each.
There were something like 120 Hollands at the show. I really don't know how any of my rabbits did in the first show, except that Padme was BOSG under Owen Yates. I'll have to wait for the show report to pose the results on my site. I have some comment cards from the second show, which was judged by Eric Stewart. Padme was BOSG again and I believe that Gypsy was second.
I was so disappointed that Gypsy didn't grand. She has four junior legs. But then I started thinking that I had pulled her off of 6-week old kits to go to the show. Instead of being sad she didn't grand, I should be relieved that she's still competitive after a litter. I can leave her open for a bit and she should grand before the end of summer, especially since there are several shows in early September to attend.
The show was over around midnight. It took us under about 1:00 to pack up. I had to track down some food before I could think! Then we drove 2 hours to our friend Dani Cole's house. Thanks, Dani, for the bed and breakfast puffs. They are so good!
After just three hours of sleep, I awoke to the sound of my puppy quietly whimpering. I had taken her to deliver to her new owner. She's such a sweet puppy. She laid across my neck and licked me occasionally on the chin while I dozed for another half hour or so.
Then it was time to get up, look at Dani's bunnies for awhile, and then hit the road. We made it to our meeting place about 10:00 a.m. and delivered the puppy and had breakfast at the busiest Cracker Barrel in the country. With the rabbits parked in a bit of shade with the motor and air conditioning running, we were able to stick out the long waiting time and finally finished breakfast - at NOON!
I was home just before 5:00 p.m. I had to show Linda my babies for Convention. We identified some stinky ones that are processor-bound, I'm sure. I just can't abide long ears on a Holland. But we also saw some we agreed looked promising. I certainly hope so.
She also said that the two pink-eyed broken sable points I thought I had are himis. They are my first. They have very poor point color. What I thought were faint sable point spots were probably just some light smut, which is now fading. One is a fuzzy - my best fuzzy coat yet - and the other is very promising at the moment. We'll see.
So it was a very crazy, very jampacked weekend. I only got to say "hello" to a number of people that I really wanted to visit with. I had hoped to see Bear again since Dani was delivering him to his new owner Lena, but that just was not possible. Most of the show, except for checking for DQs, is a blur. But I think that it was worth it.
Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design ¶ 9:11 AM 1 comments links to this post
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Checkmate Rabbitry Has A New Website
Beverly Whitener of Checkmate Rabbitry in Dalton, Georgia, has taken lots of wonderful pictures of her rabbits and farm for her new website. You will definitely enjoy a visit there. Stop by today!
Laurie ¶ 11:06 AM 1 comments links to this post
Laurie ¶ 11:06 AM 1 comments links to this post
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Netherland Dwarf Rendezvous
No, I'm not getting into Netherland Dwarfs. They are cute, I suppose, but no rabbit stirs my heart like a Holland Lop does! But, I do want to learn about them. So, I headed up to Cullowhee, NC, yesterday to spend the day with some Netherland friends.
First of all, we, (Anna and I) delivered one of our puppies to his new family. They had to meet us at 6:30 a.m. in Statesville, but it did save them about 3 1/2 hours of driving. It was so sad to see him go.
It was fun to make the trip which was once so familiar to me. You see, I went to college in Cullowhee, North Carolina, home of Western Carolina University. It's also where I met my husband. I reminisced about the time Andrew got pulled over on a particular stretch of highway - for going 59 in a 55 mph zone. I swear he used to wear a sign that said, "Pull me over. I'm easy to ticket." I remembered taking months to pay for Andrew's simple wedding band. Cafeteria food. The coldest winter of my life. Favorite professors. Old friends. It was definitely a trip down memory lane for me.
The first part of the rendezvous was a genetics lesson presented by Gary Smith. He did a good job of going over the five basic color genes and talking about adding the pattern gene to the Netherland Dwarf gene pool. I got the answer to a question I've had. I've never dealt with a BEWs and I wondered what happens when you breed REWs to BEWs. Lavender eyes, perhaps? Just kidding. No, the answer surprised me at first. You get Dutch marked rabbits. Blue eyed whites rely on the Vienna gene as do the Dutch.
After that, there was a single specialty show. Ray Brewer judged and was kind enough to let me work with him. I hope I didn't get in his way too much. I did learn a great deal about the Netherlands. That, of course, was the main purpose of the trip and it was definitely worth it.
Once Ray had chosen the five BOGs, then he stepped away and each person was allowed to judge them for him- or herself. I got distracted by the black senior buck (who turned out to be the BOSG and was not really supposed to be on the table), but placed the other four in the same order that Ray did. If you know me, you know I have a weakness for black rabbits. It was a good thing to learn about myself - I can't have a preference that is not in the Standard of Perfection. I also learned that my Holland bias is to ignore color and condition for the most part (having so few points in our breed), but I will have to make the mental adjustment for other breeds where color and fur are much more important.
We had a delicious pot luck lunch with Susan's baked spaghetti at the center. Then we watched a documentary video by Bruce Ford of the Netherland Dwarf Nationals. It was delightful to watch one of the judges who has such a beautiful, light touch with the Netherlands. It was almost as if she didn't touch them at all, just hovered around them.
There was a business meeting next. The most exciting part was the planning of the Triple Crown in Spartanburg, SC. It will be a joint project between the South Eastern Netherland Dwarf Club and Classy Country Hollanders. There will be some stellar judges there this year AND a double youth show is in the works. It will be January 27, so mark your calendars now to join us in Spartanburg, SC.
The meeting was immediately followed by some wheeling and dealing by those who did not have to leave. I stuck around to go over Hollands with Gary. He has a very young chin that is absolutely the most gorgeous rabbit I've ever seen. I told Gary I had some bad news. "This rabbit will either be the ugliest adult - or it will die!" It was just too good to believe. He laughed and said that it would probably die. That's the way it always seems to go. The one you have the most hopes and dreams for is the one that doesn't make it. I hope that one proves us wrong. He was something else.
Anna and I hit the road around 4:30 p.m. Anna had had a great time playing in the creek and running around Gary & Susan's gorgeous grounds (I can't say "yard," it was much more than that). She put a stuffed animal in her lap, slumped over it, and fell promptly asleep.
We stopped in Hickory, NC, to grab a "quick" bite with our dear friends Lisa & Fayth Young. A mere two hours later, we were on the road again. We had left home at 5:00 a.m. and pulled in the drive at 11:00 p.m. That's a pretty full day. But it was worth it.
Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design
¶ 11:04 AM 4 comments links to this post
First of all, we, (Anna and I) delivered one of our puppies to his new family. They had to meet us at 6:30 a.m. in Statesville, but it did save them about 3 1/2 hours of driving. It was so sad to see him go.
It was fun to make the trip which was once so familiar to me. You see, I went to college in Cullowhee, North Carolina, home of Western Carolina University. It's also where I met my husband. I reminisced about the time Andrew got pulled over on a particular stretch of highway - for going 59 in a 55 mph zone. I swear he used to wear a sign that said, "Pull me over. I'm easy to ticket." I remembered taking months to pay for Andrew's simple wedding band. Cafeteria food. The coldest winter of my life. Favorite professors. Old friends. It was definitely a trip down memory lane for me.
The first part of the rendezvous was a genetics lesson presented by Gary Smith. He did a good job of going over the five basic color genes and talking about adding the pattern gene to the Netherland Dwarf gene pool. I got the answer to a question I've had. I've never dealt with a BEWs and I wondered what happens when you breed REWs to BEWs. Lavender eyes, perhaps? Just kidding. No, the answer surprised me at first. You get Dutch marked rabbits. Blue eyed whites rely on the Vienna gene as do the Dutch.
After that, there was a single specialty show. Ray Brewer judged and was kind enough to let me work with him. I hope I didn't get in his way too much. I did learn a great deal about the Netherlands. That, of course, was the main purpose of the trip and it was definitely worth it.
Once Ray had chosen the five BOGs, then he stepped away and each person was allowed to judge them for him- or herself. I got distracted by the black senior buck (who turned out to be the BOSG and was not really supposed to be on the table), but placed the other four in the same order that Ray did. If you know me, you know I have a weakness for black rabbits. It was a good thing to learn about myself - I can't have a preference that is not in the Standard of Perfection. I also learned that my Holland bias is to ignore color and condition for the most part (having so few points in our breed), but I will have to make the mental adjustment for other breeds where color and fur are much more important.
We had a delicious pot luck lunch with Susan's baked spaghetti at the center. Then we watched a documentary video by Bruce Ford of the Netherland Dwarf Nationals. It was delightful to watch one of the judges who has such a beautiful, light touch with the Netherlands. It was almost as if she didn't touch them at all, just hovered around them.
There was a business meeting next. The most exciting part was the planning of the Triple Crown in Spartanburg, SC. It will be a joint project between the South Eastern Netherland Dwarf Club and Classy Country Hollanders. There will be some stellar judges there this year AND a double youth show is in the works. It will be January 27, so mark your calendars now to join us in Spartanburg, SC.
The meeting was immediately followed by some wheeling and dealing by those who did not have to leave. I stuck around to go over Hollands with Gary. He has a very young chin that is absolutely the most gorgeous rabbit I've ever seen. I told Gary I had some bad news. "This rabbit will either be the ugliest adult - or it will die!" It was just too good to believe. He laughed and said that it would probably die. That's the way it always seems to go. The one you have the most hopes and dreams for is the one that doesn't make it. I hope that one proves us wrong. He was something else.
Anna and I hit the road around 4:30 p.m. Anna had had a great time playing in the creek and running around Gary & Susan's gorgeous grounds (I can't say "yard," it was much more than that). She put a stuffed animal in her lap, slumped over it, and fell promptly asleep.
We stopped in Hickory, NC, to grab a "quick" bite with our dear friends Lisa & Fayth Young. A mere two hours later, we were on the road again. We had left home at 5:00 a.m. and pulled in the drive at 11:00 p.m. That's a pretty full day. But it was worth it.
Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design
¶ 11:04 AM 4 comments links to this post
Monday, June 05, 2006
Full-To-The-Brim Weekend
Yes, I am just a little bit crazy. And this past weekend is testimony to the fact of it! I went to Snow Camp, NC, on Saturday for a single show, and then drove directly to Pennsylvania for a double on Sunday.
But it was worth it.
The first show was held on a huge farm under tremendous trees in the fresh air. Except for a three-minute rain, it was perfect weather. There were 47 Hollands in open, so, for a picnic show, it was a great turnout.
I was very pleased with my show results. I was able to grand The Nature Trail's Leo with a BOSG. Leo was the buck that placed third at Nationals. He's just about 8 months old, having turned senior a few days after Nationals. That makes him now part of my all-grand-champion-pedigree project. He's already got kits with GC The Nature Trail's Markie.
I also granded The Nature Trail's Panache, with a BOG. She has two BOS awards and now a BOG. Not a bad way to grand. Oh, and she also placed 6th at Nationals. But now she will be semi-retired to production. I hope she's pregnant by Thursday!
I misplaced my comment card, but I do believe that The Nature Trail's Anson, solid junior buck, got his first leg. He's out of Ox and Hilary, both grand champions. If he fulfills the promise he's showing now, he might be one that will become a second generation The Nature Trail's grand champion. I have my fingers crossed.
Congratulations to my dear friend Linda Norris who won the Best of Breed with her solid doe!
I left the show just a few minutes later than I had hoped. I would have loved to stay and visit for much longer. It was so good to see Janice Jones back at the rabbit shows. She braved the lack of a paved surface to attend with her leg in a cast and a wheel chair that couldn't be rolled on the ground.
I'm sure that everyone who attended must have had a grand time. The weather was wonderful, the youth awards were fun (and delicious). The attitude was light and merry. But I had to get on the road.
Apparently, there is no good way to get from Snow Camp, NC, to State College, PA. By way of comparison, I can get from my house to Atlanta, GA, in seven turns, including the one from my driveway. It took about 45 turns to make the trip to State College. And the directions I had did not anticipate a lot of the road construction along the way.
After making about 15 turns in Greensboro, I guess it was, I finally made it through to I-81 and cruised north for 160 miles or so. That's when the "Service Engine Soon" light came on. Drats. It had been on before and we had the car serviced. Replacing a valve (I think that's what it was) was supposed to have fixed this. Now I'm expecting my engine to fall out at any minute. But I trudge on anyway.
By the time we left I-81, Anna, my trusty travel partner, started coughing rather badly. She sounded quite wheezy to me. By the time we hit the really bad construction zone, it started getting dark. And it started raining. By now, Anna is running a fever and feeling a little panicky because she can't breath well.
The cones on the road seemed to indicate that all traffic must exit. We ended up in a little community in the middle of nowhere. Anna gets very nervous when I whip out the map. She's afraid we're lost and she's young enough to believe in her heart that it might be permanent. But we retraced our steps and I realized that the cones would have allowed me to drive on the shoulder for awhile and continue on through the construction zone a bit more.
But then suddenly, we were in a small town with no signs to the next part of the highway. So we stopped at a convenience store. Anna was so sick by then that the store manager gave her a Popsicle. We purchased some medication, too, to try to get her through. The kind woman was much better at sympathy than giving directions, however.
"Go up - I'm going to say six lights (there went my confidence) and turn right. Then after awhile you'll turn left. When there's a choice, fork left and then you'll go by [some name] market. Drive by the stadium and then you'll be close to the highway and there will probably be some signs."
I got as much detail from her as I could wrestle and set off again, in the dark, in the rain, with bad instructions, with a sick child, and a warning light on in my car after nine hours on the road and having shown at a single show that morning, which started out with a two-hour drive of its own.
Magically, I found the turns and saw the stadium. I'm thinking that I'm home free when I realize there's a game on and there's a man standing in front of me with a flash light signaling for me to turn right. But I have to go straight! It's my only chance to see the signs and find the highway again. I don't know the way to the right. So I just sit there, trying to figure out how to get some help. He signals me again. More slowly and more exaggerated. I'm trying not to panic. Now my gasoline gauge is getting low and he's waving me into a neighborhood side street.
But now he is shaking his head "yes" and waving more emphatically as if to say, "Yes, lady, I do mean you. Turn right." So I turn.
I am not sure what happened next except that I realized in the nick of time that the next major intersection only gave stop signs to three of the four approaching roads in a strange tangent of an intersection. I definitely cheated death then. So I wandered for another several minutes before "The Highway" came into sight. A few minute later, we were on a beautiful highway that seemed to say, "Now what was all of that fuss about?"
And then we hit construction again and we were back into two lanes, cones, bumps, and no shoulder for the rest of the trip.
We got into State College after 10:30 that night. I found West College AVenue and followed it out until the business district petered out and we appeared to be leaving town. So I turned around and pulled into a Waffle Shop parking lot to call for directions. The first information I got sounded as if I needed to drive back toward town, which I did. But I pulled over again to be sure. Nope, it was toward town. Then, no, that's not right either. So I headed back out of town again. As it ended up, the motel was within a 1/2 " of being entirely off of the map of State College that I had. After the dead zone we had turned around in, there was another more remote business district. So we finally arrived, in the dark, in the rain, with a sick child, and the engine light on at our motel at 11:15 pm.
And then we got up at 6:00 a.m. Anna was burning with a fever.
So, we got up and I medicated her. I gave her the option of just going home, but she said she wanted to try to make it. So we trotted off to the show.
Luckily, by mid-morning her fever broke and she started feeling somewhat better.
There was a nice group of Holland breeders at the show. I first saw Henry Sabetti, followed by Krys Kolivras, Cass Kinnear, Salena Haas, Mike Calhoun, Jenna Buchenauer, Shari & Sam Albrecht, and several others.
Our first judge was Everett Hopper. I was very pleased since I feel that Everett has strong Holland skills and I rarely ever get to show under him. The second judge was Robert Frizzell, which I was thrilled about. I haven't had him in a long time, except at the PA Convention, and it was too hectic there to hear any comments.
However, the folks in that region had had him something like six times this year, so they asked for a change of judge. I was personally very disappointed, but I so understand the frustration of having the same judges over and over and over again. At least they are lucky to have some strong Holland judges over and over.
So we had Pam Nock for the second judge, still a good choice for Hollands.
I did a bit better under Everett than Pam. I showed in six classes (no broken senior bucks or broken junior does for me this time). The Nature Trail's Quincy, solid junior buck out of two Merlin offspring, Q and Spice, took his class of eleven rabbits. MILK, a black buck out of Merlin and Roxie, came in second and was pronounced "a very correct Holland."
[I have big hopes for that guy because his parents and grandparents are all grand champions. If he grands, he could take me down to the third generation! That would be a great asset for my all-grand-champion pedigree project.]
Then in the solid junior doe class, The Nature Trail's Padme, Picante, and Quinn took first, second, and third, respectively, in a class of ten. Padme and Picante are half-sister through their father Rio. Quinn is Quincy's sister.
You may remember awhile back when May had a litter of six that contained three fuzzy charlies. The fourth rabbit was a broken that died. The fifth rabbit from the litter was a false dwarf buck. And the sixth was Padme. I've been very excited about her. She made the whole litter worth it.
The Nature Trail's Panache took the broken senior doe class, but there were only four, so she didn't get another leg.
The Nature Trail's Myrddin, that little broken buck I took to Nationals at just 3 months who got the "NICE" on his comment card, took his class of seven.
I was very excited when Myrrdin was picked BOG and Padme was chosen BOSG. Myrrdin couldn't beat Mike Calhoun's solid senior buck who took the BOB (congratulations Mike), but Padme was chosen BOS!
Under Pam Nock, placements really changed a lot, for the most part. Three of my young senior bucks placed in the top five in a class of 18 (only two had under Everett). I'm very pleased with that because of their ages. They are still so young.
She just wasn't impressed with my junior bucks at all. She did pick Padme for her class. That was the one consistent placement, I think, between the two judges.
She placed Sakata as first, noting her body. Sakata was my second place rabbit at Nationals. If I can get that body with a wider crown, I will really have something.
This time, I was assured the BOS because Padme and Sakata were both chosen as BOSGs. Padme once again took the BOS. Congratulations to Jenna and Shaggy for the Best of Breed.
We left the show at about 4:15 p.m. in the rain. The trip home wasn't nearly as eventful once we drove past the bad weather. We did see a huge rainbow behind us as we moved out of the rain.
Anna was feeling better and I had started ignoring the warning light on the car. I had a couple of very rare cups of coffee (my first cups this year, I'm pretty sure). I probably thought about rabbits for 6 of the 8 + hours home. The only somewhat exciting thing that happened was that my gasoline warning light came on just as I left I-77. I passed several closed gas stations and one open one - but there were people in the parking lot setting fires (I do NOT know what that was about), so I figured I'd pass. I'm sure I made it home at 12:30 a.m. on fumes and prayers.
So, I had a great time visiting with friends in District 9, north and south, a little too much excitement, granded three rabbits (numbers 17, 18, and 19 for this fiscal year), earned a herdsman point and two quality points, and picked up three junior legs as well. Not bad for one 42-hour period.
Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design
¶ 10:36 AM 2 comments links to this post
But it was worth it.
The first show was held on a huge farm under tremendous trees in the fresh air. Except for a three-minute rain, it was perfect weather. There were 47 Hollands in open, so, for a picnic show, it was a great turnout.
I was very pleased with my show results. I was able to grand The Nature Trail's Leo with a BOSG. Leo was the buck that placed third at Nationals. He's just about 8 months old, having turned senior a few days after Nationals. That makes him now part of my all-grand-champion-pedigree project. He's already got kits with GC The Nature Trail's Markie.
I also granded The Nature Trail's Panache, with a BOG. She has two BOS awards and now a BOG. Not a bad way to grand. Oh, and she also placed 6th at Nationals. But now she will be semi-retired to production. I hope she's pregnant by Thursday!
I misplaced my comment card, but I do believe that The Nature Trail's Anson, solid junior buck, got his first leg. He's out of Ox and Hilary, both grand champions. If he fulfills the promise he's showing now, he might be one that will become a second generation The Nature Trail's grand champion. I have my fingers crossed.
Congratulations to my dear friend Linda Norris who won the Best of Breed with her solid doe!
I left the show just a few minutes later than I had hoped. I would have loved to stay and visit for much longer. It was so good to see Janice Jones back at the rabbit shows. She braved the lack of a paved surface to attend with her leg in a cast and a wheel chair that couldn't be rolled on the ground.
I'm sure that everyone who attended must have had a grand time. The weather was wonderful, the youth awards were fun (and delicious). The attitude was light and merry. But I had to get on the road.
Apparently, there is no good way to get from Snow Camp, NC, to State College, PA. By way of comparison, I can get from my house to Atlanta, GA, in seven turns, including the one from my driveway. It took about 45 turns to make the trip to State College. And the directions I had did not anticipate a lot of the road construction along the way.
After making about 15 turns in Greensboro, I guess it was, I finally made it through to I-81 and cruised north for 160 miles or so. That's when the "Service Engine Soon" light came on. Drats. It had been on before and we had the car serviced. Replacing a valve (I think that's what it was) was supposed to have fixed this. Now I'm expecting my engine to fall out at any minute. But I trudge on anyway.
By the time we left I-81, Anna, my trusty travel partner, started coughing rather badly. She sounded quite wheezy to me. By the time we hit the really bad construction zone, it started getting dark. And it started raining. By now, Anna is running a fever and feeling a little panicky because she can't breath well.
The cones on the road seemed to indicate that all traffic must exit. We ended up in a little community in the middle of nowhere. Anna gets very nervous when I whip out the map. She's afraid we're lost and she's young enough to believe in her heart that it might be permanent. But we retraced our steps and I realized that the cones would have allowed me to drive on the shoulder for awhile and continue on through the construction zone a bit more.
But then suddenly, we were in a small town with no signs to the next part of the highway. So we stopped at a convenience store. Anna was so sick by then that the store manager gave her a Popsicle. We purchased some medication, too, to try to get her through. The kind woman was much better at sympathy than giving directions, however.
"Go up - I'm going to say six lights (there went my confidence) and turn right. Then after awhile you'll turn left. When there's a choice, fork left and then you'll go by [some name] market. Drive by the stadium and then you'll be close to the highway and there will probably be some signs."
I got as much detail from her as I could wrestle and set off again, in the dark, in the rain, with bad instructions, with a sick child, and a warning light on in my car after nine hours on the road and having shown at a single show that morning, which started out with a two-hour drive of its own.
Magically, I found the turns and saw the stadium. I'm thinking that I'm home free when I realize there's a game on and there's a man standing in front of me with a flash light signaling for me to turn right. But I have to go straight! It's my only chance to see the signs and find the highway again. I don't know the way to the right. So I just sit there, trying to figure out how to get some help. He signals me again. More slowly and more exaggerated. I'm trying not to panic. Now my gasoline gauge is getting low and he's waving me into a neighborhood side street.
But now he is shaking his head "yes" and waving more emphatically as if to say, "Yes, lady, I do mean you. Turn right." So I turn.
I am not sure what happened next except that I realized in the nick of time that the next major intersection only gave stop signs to three of the four approaching roads in a strange tangent of an intersection. I definitely cheated death then. So I wandered for another several minutes before "The Highway" came into sight. A few minute later, we were on a beautiful highway that seemed to say, "Now what was all of that fuss about?"
And then we hit construction again and we were back into two lanes, cones, bumps, and no shoulder for the rest of the trip.
We got into State College after 10:30 that night. I found West College AVenue and followed it out until the business district petered out and we appeared to be leaving town. So I turned around and pulled into a Waffle Shop parking lot to call for directions. The first information I got sounded as if I needed to drive back toward town, which I did. But I pulled over again to be sure. Nope, it was toward town. Then, no, that's not right either. So I headed back out of town again. As it ended up, the motel was within a 1/2 " of being entirely off of the map of State College that I had. After the dead zone we had turned around in, there was another more remote business district. So we finally arrived, in the dark, in the rain, with a sick child, and the engine light on at our motel at 11:15 pm.
And then we got up at 6:00 a.m. Anna was burning with a fever.
So, we got up and I medicated her. I gave her the option of just going home, but she said she wanted to try to make it. So we trotted off to the show.
Luckily, by mid-morning her fever broke and she started feeling somewhat better.
There was a nice group of Holland breeders at the show. I first saw Henry Sabetti, followed by Krys Kolivras, Cass Kinnear, Salena Haas, Mike Calhoun, Jenna Buchenauer, Shari & Sam Albrecht, and several others.
Our first judge was Everett Hopper. I was very pleased since I feel that Everett has strong Holland skills and I rarely ever get to show under him. The second judge was Robert Frizzell, which I was thrilled about. I haven't had him in a long time, except at the PA Convention, and it was too hectic there to hear any comments.
However, the folks in that region had had him something like six times this year, so they asked for a change of judge. I was personally very disappointed, but I so understand the frustration of having the same judges over and over and over again. At least they are lucky to have some strong Holland judges over and over.
So we had Pam Nock for the second judge, still a good choice for Hollands.
I did a bit better under Everett than Pam. I showed in six classes (no broken senior bucks or broken junior does for me this time). The Nature Trail's Quincy, solid junior buck out of two Merlin offspring, Q and Spice, took his class of eleven rabbits. MILK, a black buck out of Merlin and Roxie, came in second and was pronounced "a very correct Holland."
[I have big hopes for that guy because his parents and grandparents are all grand champions. If he grands, he could take me down to the third generation! That would be a great asset for my all-grand-champion pedigree project.]
Then in the solid junior doe class, The Nature Trail's Padme, Picante, and Quinn took first, second, and third, respectively, in a class of ten. Padme and Picante are half-sister through their father Rio. Quinn is Quincy's sister.
You may remember awhile back when May had a litter of six that contained three fuzzy charlies. The fourth rabbit was a broken that died. The fifth rabbit from the litter was a false dwarf buck. And the sixth was Padme. I've been very excited about her. She made the whole litter worth it.
The Nature Trail's Panache took the broken senior doe class, but there were only four, so she didn't get another leg.
The Nature Trail's Myrddin, that little broken buck I took to Nationals at just 3 months who got the "NICE" on his comment card, took his class of seven.
I was very excited when Myrrdin was picked BOG and Padme was chosen BOSG. Myrrdin couldn't beat Mike Calhoun's solid senior buck who took the BOB (congratulations Mike), but Padme was chosen BOS!
Under Pam Nock, placements really changed a lot, for the most part. Three of my young senior bucks placed in the top five in a class of 18 (only two had under Everett). I'm very pleased with that because of their ages. They are still so young.
She just wasn't impressed with my junior bucks at all. She did pick Padme for her class. That was the one consistent placement, I think, between the two judges.
She placed Sakata as first, noting her body. Sakata was my second place rabbit at Nationals. If I can get that body with a wider crown, I will really have something.
This time, I was assured the BOS because Padme and Sakata were both chosen as BOSGs. Padme once again took the BOS. Congratulations to Jenna and Shaggy for the Best of Breed.
We left the show at about 4:15 p.m. in the rain. The trip home wasn't nearly as eventful once we drove past the bad weather. We did see a huge rainbow behind us as we moved out of the rain.
Anna was feeling better and I had started ignoring the warning light on the car. I had a couple of very rare cups of coffee (my first cups this year, I'm pretty sure). I probably thought about rabbits for 6 of the 8 + hours home. The only somewhat exciting thing that happened was that my gasoline warning light came on just as I left I-77. I passed several closed gas stations and one open one - but there were people in the parking lot setting fires (I do NOT know what that was about), so I figured I'd pass. I'm sure I made it home at 12:30 a.m. on fumes and prayers.
So, I had a great time visiting with friends in District 9, north and south, a little too much excitement, granded three rabbits (numbers 17, 18, and 19 for this fiscal year), earned a herdsman point and two quality points, and picked up three junior legs as well. Not bad for one 42-hour period.
Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design
¶ 10:36 AM 2 comments links to this post
