The Nature Trail Rabbitry BLOG
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Virginia Highlands Rabbit Club Show in Altavista, VA
So much happened this past weekend that it's hard to know where to begin. Perhaps I'll start at the end, just for something different.
Around 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, I arrived home in a downpour at 73 degrees. That really was irritating. How I wish that weather had arrived one day earlier. No, not a chance. Instead, we had to suffer through 104 degrees while setting up the show. It did finally cool down, though. It's just that all of the exhibitors had left by then!
Okay, I've had my whim of starting at the end. I'll back up to the beginning where a giant monster took a bite out of my tire. Well, that's what it looked like anyway.
After packing my rabbits, my show secretary stuff, fans, extra ice, extra raffle items, and gear to spend the night in the showroom, Anna and I set out for Altavista. When we hit the pavement, I heard a sickening flap, flap, flap, flap, flap as we drove along. We stopped at a neighbors and asked a gentleman near the road whether he saw anything wrong with my tires on his side. He graciously walked around my car and reported that he could see nothing.
It's a rock stuck in tread or a stick under the car, I told myself. It will fall out shortly. But further down the road I'd had enough. So I stopped again and inspected the tires myself. Yes, surely enough, there it was. The tooth of some giant, it looked like. Right in my tire.
I was close enough home to return. Luckily the giant's tooth was plugging any hole in the tube, so I didn't have a flat - yet.
Andrew took a look at it and took off for the yard. He came back holding deer antlers. Apparently when he drove the van around to the barn, he had run over the antlers. One piece went into the tire and came out the inside edge.
So I went back inside while Andrew and Daniel changed the tired, collecting items I had forgotten. I was fortunate that we had a full-sized spare, but very unfortunate that we had just bought those tires two weeks ago. It didn't last long, did it?
We arrived later than planned, of course, but plenty early to get set up. In a decision I later called my folly, I set up a kiddie pool inside the showroom so that folks could come dip their feet and cool off a bit. I also set up a sprinkler outside with water spraying about thigh high so that exhibitors could cool off there as well. Personally, I found they both felt heavenly in the oppressive heat.
By the time that was all done, it was time to begin taking entries. As it turned out, I never had more than one person waiting at a time to do their entries and no one reported any entry errors on my part. I'm so relieved that it worked out because I just used a spreadsheet to create the show records. And this was my first time to be the show secretary with pre-entries.
We had 43 Hollands with enough rabbits and exhibitors for legs in every class. I love that. Nothing is more disappointing than getting to the table with a rabbit you are excited about showing only to find there are only two exhibitors or just four rabbits.
In the first show, I took three of the solid classes: senior buck, junior buck, and junior doe. The senior buck was Lord, one of my favorite rabbits and best producers. He went on to get BOB and BRIS. His daughter Fabrizia, also a Hilary daughter, was BOS. Since I recently sold Hilary (just because she turned 2 1/2), it was a huge relief to see her daughter do well. My solid junior buck Sirius, son of MLK and Sadie (full siblings), was my first place sjb. Again, I just sold Sadie (because I'm going back to working with all grand champions again), so it was very nice to see that I have something of her left in the barn as well.
I took two broken classes: senior doe and junior buck. The senior doe was Hope. I had thought that I granded her at the last Taylorsville show, but her first leg was in error (I had gotten a leg for my solid junior doe as BOB and my broken junior doe as BOS which is impossible). So she really is granded now. Puddleby was my broken junior buck. He's a double Markie grandson and a triple Merlin great grandson.
Janice Jones took the solid senior doe class with Voodoo, I believe. She won the BOG in brokens with a broken junior doe. Pandora Allen was BOSG for brokens with her adorable broken senior buck. I love the face on that fellow.
In show B, I took two solid classes and one broken class. Lord was BOB again. And Fabrizia got her second leg. Hope also took her class.
Janice Jones was BOSG for solids with Voodoo. Pandora Allen took the solid junior buck class and won the BOG for brokens with her broken senior buck. She also took the broken junior buck class and won BOS with her broken junior doe.
I hope the show seemed to run smoothly from the exhibitor's point of view. From the club's point of view, it seemed very hectic. Because of the small numbers of entries, there was no breathing room. Decisions were constantly being made to keep the judges busy, fit in the junior contest, and get the show completed at a reasonable hour.
Once the last exhibitors left, we pulled the remaining rabbits over to the bay door. Finally, the air coming in from outdoors was cool. We called the police to let them know that two women and one child would be staying the night at the armory - with the bay door open. I know that the police came by at least three times during the night, maybe more. I really appreciated that.
Luckily someone had mentioned that the men's room had showers. That felt like heaven after all of that heat. Heidi and I chatted until about 3:15 a.m. and then we dozed off. It was an off and on night, but I think I got about five hours of frequently interrupted sleep before it was time to get up and pack up all of that stuff.
Now about my folly. I had started a siphon on the kiddie pool after the show. But it had stopped. I was too tired to think about restarting it, saying I would do it in the morning. Well, I did, but we got packed up before the pool was 1/4 drained. So, the Bryants, Sarah Shumate, Anna, and I scooped and dumped water for about 20 minutes to get it drained enough that we could pull it to the bay door and finish the job. I promised Charles I would keep my folly down to a minimum in the future!
I promised Anna breakfast for helping with the pool. As the job dragged out, I told her I owed her two breakfasts. Later, I added a third.
After we left the armory, we headed for Hardees where Anna ordered a bacon biscuit, biscuits and gravy, and blueberry biscuits. She got her three breakfasts!
Then we started home. At noon, we tuned into a Prairie Home Companion, our favorite radio show. Before we knew it, we were home. I was totally exhausted, but took the time to put up my bunnies before falling into bed. A brief two hours later, my sister called for our movie/dinner date. Maybe I can sleep late next week!
Laurie ¶ 11:05 AM 0 comments links to this post
Around 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, I arrived home in a downpour at 73 degrees. That really was irritating. How I wish that weather had arrived one day earlier. No, not a chance. Instead, we had to suffer through 104 degrees while setting up the show. It did finally cool down, though. It's just that all of the exhibitors had left by then!
Okay, I've had my whim of starting at the end. I'll back up to the beginning where a giant monster took a bite out of my tire. Well, that's what it looked like anyway.
After packing my rabbits, my show secretary stuff, fans, extra ice, extra raffle items, and gear to spend the night in the showroom, Anna and I set out for Altavista. When we hit the pavement, I heard a sickening flap, flap, flap, flap, flap as we drove along. We stopped at a neighbors and asked a gentleman near the road whether he saw anything wrong with my tires on his side. He graciously walked around my car and reported that he could see nothing.
It's a rock stuck in tread or a stick under the car, I told myself. It will fall out shortly. But further down the road I'd had enough. So I stopped again and inspected the tires myself. Yes, surely enough, there it was. The tooth of some giant, it looked like. Right in my tire.
I was close enough home to return. Luckily the giant's tooth was plugging any hole in the tube, so I didn't have a flat - yet.
Andrew took a look at it and took off for the yard. He came back holding deer antlers. Apparently when he drove the van around to the barn, he had run over the antlers. One piece went into the tire and came out the inside edge.
So I went back inside while Andrew and Daniel changed the tired, collecting items I had forgotten. I was fortunate that we had a full-sized spare, but very unfortunate that we had just bought those tires two weeks ago. It didn't last long, did it?
We arrived later than planned, of course, but plenty early to get set up. In a decision I later called my folly, I set up a kiddie pool inside the showroom so that folks could come dip their feet and cool off a bit. I also set up a sprinkler outside with water spraying about thigh high so that exhibitors could cool off there as well. Personally, I found they both felt heavenly in the oppressive heat.
By the time that was all done, it was time to begin taking entries. As it turned out, I never had more than one person waiting at a time to do their entries and no one reported any entry errors on my part. I'm so relieved that it worked out because I just used a spreadsheet to create the show records. And this was my first time to be the show secretary with pre-entries.
We had 43 Hollands with enough rabbits and exhibitors for legs in every class. I love that. Nothing is more disappointing than getting to the table with a rabbit you are excited about showing only to find there are only two exhibitors or just four rabbits.
In the first show, I took three of the solid classes: senior buck, junior buck, and junior doe. The senior buck was Lord, one of my favorite rabbits and best producers. He went on to get BOB and BRIS. His daughter Fabrizia, also a Hilary daughter, was BOS. Since I recently sold Hilary (just because she turned 2 1/2), it was a huge relief to see her daughter do well. My solid junior buck Sirius, son of MLK and Sadie (full siblings), was my first place sjb. Again, I just sold Sadie (because I'm going back to working with all grand champions again), so it was very nice to see that I have something of her left in the barn as well.
I took two broken classes: senior doe and junior buck. The senior doe was Hope. I had thought that I granded her at the last Taylorsville show, but her first leg was in error (I had gotten a leg for my solid junior doe as BOB and my broken junior doe as BOS which is impossible). So she really is granded now. Puddleby was my broken junior buck. He's a double Markie grandson and a triple Merlin great grandson.
Janice Jones took the solid senior doe class with Voodoo, I believe. She won the BOG in brokens with a broken junior doe. Pandora Allen was BOSG for brokens with her adorable broken senior buck. I love the face on that fellow.
In show B, I took two solid classes and one broken class. Lord was BOB again. And Fabrizia got her second leg. Hope also took her class.
Janice Jones was BOSG for solids with Voodoo. Pandora Allen took the solid junior buck class and won the BOG for brokens with her broken senior buck. She also took the broken junior buck class and won BOS with her broken junior doe.
I hope the show seemed to run smoothly from the exhibitor's point of view. From the club's point of view, it seemed very hectic. Because of the small numbers of entries, there was no breathing room. Decisions were constantly being made to keep the judges busy, fit in the junior contest, and get the show completed at a reasonable hour.
Once the last exhibitors left, we pulled the remaining rabbits over to the bay door. Finally, the air coming in from outdoors was cool. We called the police to let them know that two women and one child would be staying the night at the armory - with the bay door open. I know that the police came by at least three times during the night, maybe more. I really appreciated that.
Luckily someone had mentioned that the men's room had showers. That felt like heaven after all of that heat. Heidi and I chatted until about 3:15 a.m. and then we dozed off. It was an off and on night, but I think I got about five hours of frequently interrupted sleep before it was time to get up and pack up all of that stuff.
Now about my folly. I had started a siphon on the kiddie pool after the show. But it had stopped. I was too tired to think about restarting it, saying I would do it in the morning. Well, I did, but we got packed up before the pool was 1/4 drained. So, the Bryants, Sarah Shumate, Anna, and I scooped and dumped water for about 20 minutes to get it drained enough that we could pull it to the bay door and finish the job. I promised Charles I would keep my folly down to a minimum in the future!
I promised Anna breakfast for helping with the pool. As the job dragged out, I told her I owed her two breakfasts. Later, I added a third.
After we left the armory, we headed for Hardees where Anna ordered a bacon biscuit, biscuits and gravy, and blueberry biscuits. She got her three breakfasts!
Then we started home. At noon, we tuned into a Prairie Home Companion, our favorite radio show. Before we knew it, we were home. I was totally exhausted, but took the time to put up my bunnies before falling into bed. A brief two hours later, my sister called for our movie/dinner date. Maybe I can sleep late next week!
Laurie ¶ 11:05 AM 0 comments links to this post
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Virginia Highlands Show - August 25
After a rough start with losing our building, we are definitely going ahead with our first solo show. You may recall that we had the third show of a triple this spring. Now it's time to take off the training wheels! It's scary and very exciting at the same time.
Here are the particulars:
What: Double Open, Double Youth
When: Saturday, August 25, 2007
Time: 6:30 p.m. for youth, 7:00 p.m. for open
Where: Altavista Armory, Avondale Drive, Altavista, VA
Judges: Rusty Westhoff, Josh Humphries, and Bill Rice
ARBA sanctioned. We are working on other sanctions.
In my area, there are no open Holland breeders who are working on sweepstakes points this year (that I know of). If you show Hollands and want to come but ARE working on sweepstakes, let me know ASAP so that we can sanction our breed. With the ARBA sanction, you will still earn legs and can grand rabbits. There will still be awards for Hollands either way.
Email me at laurie@thenaturetrail.com for a show catalog. They will be ready very soon.
Hope you are having a great summer. The kids go back to school very soon, so keep an eye out for my daily BLOG!
Laurie ¶ 1:23 PM 0 comments links to this post
Here are the particulars:
What: Double Open, Double Youth
When: Saturday, August 25, 2007
Time: 6:30 p.m. for youth, 7:00 p.m. for open
Where: Altavista Armory, Avondale Drive, Altavista, VA
Judges: Rusty Westhoff, Josh Humphries, and Bill Rice
ARBA sanctioned. We are working on other sanctions.
In my area, there are no open Holland breeders who are working on sweepstakes points this year (that I know of). If you show Hollands and want to come but ARE working on sweepstakes, let me know ASAP so that we can sanction our breed. With the ARBA sanction, you will still earn legs and can grand rabbits. There will still be awards for Hollands either way.
Email me at laurie@thenaturetrail.com for a show catalog. They will be ready very soon.
Hope you are having a great summer. The kids go back to school very soon, so keep an eye out for my daily BLOG!
Laurie ¶ 1:23 PM 0 comments links to this post
