Stockton Show Report

The Stockton show as held on the 19th of September.  We entered both youth shows, both open shows, and the angora specialty show.  I entered my two junior blue bucks and Phantom in the youth shows; Sage was entered in the open shows (she already has six legs), and all rabbits were entered in the angora specialty. 

Charlotte clerks for Judge Kevin as he compares Lydia's two junior fawn does.

In the first youth show, Phantom was considered to be superior and won BOB.  Fudge was DQ'd for being two ounces under weight.  The second youth show was judged by Kendal Bledsoe, who usually favors juniors, and BD312, one of the blue bucks, won BOB.  This same buck also won BOSB in the first show, and Fudge won BOSB in the second. 

Charlotte and Lydia watch Judge Kendal make his choice.

As for the angora specialty, we were up against adults who have been breeding rabbits for over thirty years.  Fudge wasn't weighed, so she didn't get DQ'd, but Phantom was weighed and was DQ'd for being eight ounces over weight.  Oops.  Yeah, I knew about that.  But I need her to earn some legs.  And she swears she will run away if I put her on a diet. 

Lydia watches Judge Allan make his decision in the angora specialty show.

UNR Field Day--September 26

 The girls and I are participating in UNR's annual Field Day.  We really have no idea what we are getting into, what is involved, what will be demonstrated.  We at least know that we are taking two rabbits, a spinning wheel, a couple drop spindles, and some fiber.  We hope it will be a great opportunity to educate the public about French angoras.  We think it will be a good fit, based on what we read in their ad for the event.  I copied and pasted most of the info down below, for the locals who would like to attend.  We hope it all goes well.  Wish us luck!

Also, attendees are supposed to pre-register.  More info at the address: 

http://www.cabnr.unr.edu/fieldday/

“Innovation for a sustainable Future,” is the theme for this year’s annual FIELD DAY. The event focuses on the technological advancements and efficiencies in agriculture, nutrition, natural resources and the environment. Field Day will be held on Saturday, Sept. 26^th, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on UNR’s Valley Road Field Lab & Greenhouse Complex.

 

The event is a collaboration between University of Nevada, Reno’s College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources, Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station, and University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. The public is encouraged to come learn more about the organization’s programs with a day filled with exhibitors, great food, and fun.

 

Field Day is fun for all ages. Celebrating all that the these units have to offer, visitors can experience everything from Master Gardener demonstrations, farmers market, research exhibits, 4-H activities, greenhouse tours, and much more

 

The event will be held at NAES’s Valley Road Field Laboratory, located at 910 Valley Road, Reno. Both admission and parking are free and the event is open to the public, but registration is required. .

Nevada State Fair

The Nevada State Fair was held July 30 through August 2 in Carson City.  (Yes, I clearly should have blogged about this a month ago.  Summer vacation and family visits and the start of school got in the way, I guess.)

I thought it would be a lot of fun and a good opportunity for the girls, so we all entered a few items.  The girls entered canned nectarines and peaches and jam, but that doesn't have a whole lot to do with raising angora rabbits.  So we'll just focus on the items that have at least a little something to do with bunnies.

Charlotte and her best in show knit bunny

Charlotte and little knit animal scene that also received best in show.

Charlotte and Lydia with their second and third place wins for their fiber.  First place for angora fiber went to the offspring of their rabbits.

 

Lydia's Rabbit Kit Cowl garnered first place.

Judging the handknit and handspun entries.

Lydia's knit bunny earned her a second place ribbon.

We all really enjoyed preparing our entries.  However, we just didn't have enough time!  So the girls have already started preparing for next year. We can hardly wait!

Mice... Kittens!

With having rabbits and other livestock come the unwelcome mice as well.

To rid yourself of these unwanted guests, the regular mice traps aren't going to work.  Sticky traps?  Not in a barn full of angoras!  Bunnies do sometimes escape, unfortunately.  Standard mouse traps could also hurt an escaped rabbit.  So the safest solution was actually suggested to us by one of our buyers.  Cats!  Cats will not only make sure that the mice get the message that they are not welcome, but cats are also another cute animal to add to our tiny farm.

So it was off to the Nevada Humane Society.  We were fortunate to be able to take home two adorable kittens.  They were free because they were "barn" cats (meaning they weren't friendly/cuddly enough to be "house" cats), and they are vaccinated and neutered and spayed, so it's a great deal for us. 

Their shelter names were Wombat and Apache.  We fixed that immediately. 

The tan tabby is Jake (named for Disney's The Cat from Outer Space) and the one that looks like a Russian blue is named Sasha.

Angora Cardigan for Becky

I am always on the lookout for knitting patterns that I think will work well with angora or an angora blend yarn.  And I also want those patterns to be pretty simple--most of my knitting is done as I sit next to the girls while they do their schoolwork.  I have to be able to check their work using my manual.  A complicated pattern just won't work for me in this situation.

So it was definitely a case of love at first sight when I saw the ad for the Kid Seta Cardigan in  a knitting magazine published two years earlier.


 

http://cascadeyarns.com/patternsFree/FW145_KidSetaCardigan.pdf

For some reason, when you go to the Cascade Yarns patterns page, this pattern doesn't appear.  But if you Google the name of the pattern, it pops up. 

I just knew it would be the perfect pattern for a lightweight angora-blend sweater.  Becky and Charlotte fell in love with the pattern, too.

I decided to use the fiber from Fudge's baby coat.  Her baby fiber was absolutely ideal for spinning--extremely little webbing (tiny, tiny tangles at the ends of the fibers), which is quite unusual for a baby coat.  I spun one ply of her chocolate angora fiber and one ply of alpaca I got from a friend.  Becky loved the natural colors of the fibers, so I didn't dye the yarn.  

The pattern called for about 1800 yards of yarn.  However, based on my previous experience, I figured I could get away with less.  I spun 1300 yards.  I thought I might need a little more, but because I wasn't dyeing the yarn, I wasn't too worried about it.

I entered one of the two skeins I spun at that time in the Nevada State Fair.  It got second place in the blended hand spun yarns class.  I was competing with much more experienced spinners, so I was pleased with that result.

I had to adjust the pattern somewhat.  I still wanted to use the size 6 needles called for, but that threw my gauge off for the number of rows by about 17%.  However, it was such a simple pattern to alter that it didn't matter much.  That drastically reduced the amount of yarn I needed, but I still had to spin another 50 yards at the end.

It looks better on a real person than on the table.

The result of using an angora-alpaca blend is a very lightweight sweater--just 7.25 ounces--that is quite warm and so very soft. 

Charlotte is modeling for me, so the sweater doesn't fit quite right.  Becky, it seems, is never home.

I have already started making the same sweater for Charlotte and me to share using Phantom's baby wool.  However, I am making a few changes to the pattern that I wanted to make the first time around, but didn't dare because I was concerned I lacked the experience to make more substantial changes to a pattern.  I want to seam as little as possible.  It's not that I dislike seaming itself.  I really don't have a problem with it.  But I do hugely dislike counting rows.  So if I make it in one piece from the bottom to the armholes, then I don't have to count the rows.  Sleeves will be knit in the round and sewn in.  They will also be about two inches shorter.   I will use a three needle bind off to join the shoulders.  And I am using size 4 needles this time, but I am still getting the same gauge as I did with size 6 needles.   Go figure.

Who Buys an "Unshowable" Rabbit and Why?

Let's face it.  Anyone who is going to pay $75 or more for a rabbit is going to want a very good rabbit.  But not everyone needs a "show quality" rabbit, despite what some would have you believe.  Here at Black Diamond, when we post information about our rabbits for sale, we try to include as much information as possible to help buyers in their decisions.  But somehow, some people just lack in reading comprehension, or refuse to read at all, and jump to irrational conclusions.   If a rabbit has a disqualification, it will not be sold with a pedigree and should not be bred for the show table.  Or it should not be bred with the intent of producing show quality rabbits.  Really, what you do with your rabbits is your business, and nobody else's.  The exception to this, as blogged on previously, is if  someone wants to obtain a certificate of development for introducing a new, showable color of rabbit.


We breed more than a few rabbits here, and in the process the girls have learned a lot about differentiating between showable and unshowable rabbits. About a third of the rabbits here are unshowable, usually because of color but sometimes also because of a poor body type.  But we can't house unshowable rabbits for the rest of their lives, and the girls aren't really ready to start checking out hasenpfeffer recipes.

Anyway, back to the groups of people who want a good rabbit without necessarily needing a (more expensive) show quality rabbit.

So what becomes of our unshowable rabbits?

Some, a very few, become pets.  However, most people who want merely a pet rabbit are not going to get an angora.

The majority of people who buy the unshowables are spinners who want the bunnies for their fiber.  Pretty self-explanatory.

Then there are the homesteaders/sustainable living/prepper-types who want good stock without the concern for showing.  They can keep just what they want for spinning and eat the rest.  They don't have to be concerned about whether the color is just right, whether the rabbit is overweight, or whether the shoulders are too long.  They have it easy.  But they still need a rabbit with a good body.  You don't want a doe with pinched hindquarters and the potential problem of difficulties in kindling a litter.

The last group of people who buy unshowable rabbits is 4-H youth, especially the young ones.  (Well, in the case of the young ones, it's the parents doing the buying.)  Sometimes the mothers are spinners and want the fiber while their children have the experience of caring for and showing a rabbit.  In fact, if I were a parent of a young 4-H member, I would say that getting an unshowable/pet quality/DQ rabbit would be the only way to go. 

And why is this, you ask?

Number one, 4-H shows can get really long.  The shows generally begin around 8:00AM and you have to check in at that time.  You have to be there all day, because French angoras don't go to the table till late in the day.  But what if you are showing a DQ rabbit?  Well, then, at our 4-H shows in Nevada, DQs and crossbreeds are the first ones on the table.  And you get your awards right away.  Your younger child doesn't have to wait until the end of the day.  You can have a life outside of the 4-H show that day.  At the recent Placerville show, the pet class show was later in the day, but that may have been more a function of being absolutely overwhelmed with the number of entries they had (they were anticipating 600, and got 2,300).  However, the awards were still given right away.

Now it is important to remember that the rabbit has to have a true disqualification, or else it is considered cheating.  Ideally, you get a rabbit with a really nice body that is disqualified for color or weight or some kind of congenital birth defect.  This way you can get a less expensive rabbit and you get to go home early.  It is a really good way to go for younger kids.  In the DQ/pet class, the youth are judged on how well the rabbit is cared for rather than whether the rabbit conforms to the ARBA ideals.  It's how all young kids should begin, IMO.

At the Placerville show, Lydia entered Silver, who is DQ'd for being the wrong color.

She was absolutely thrilled with her first place win. 

Placerville Show Report

Well, the Motherlode Rabbit and Cavy Show--Summer in the Foothills Show is what they called it--was a bit of a zoo today.  I think the organizers said they had around 2300 rabbits.  That's a lot of rabbits.  And it was a very small building.  There wasn't enough room for everyone inside.  It was quite hot outside.  And there were probably more than a few fire code violations.  So the show organizers will have a few issues to address for future events. 

But overall the show went well for the girls.  Lydia and Charlotte each sold a junior doe.  So they'll be able to support their bunnies for a few months.  :)

We got to meet Emmie, a very nice lady who bought a breeding trio from the girls earlier this year.  She had kits from them on the table, plus she brought a couple of older rabbits for Charlotte to evaluate.

The judges just kinda want to make your head explode at times.  Well, maybe it wasn't that bad.  Then again, maybe it was.  Julie entered two of her REWs as "fillers" so that there would be enough for a leg.  The two fillers got best and best opposite.

More often than not, Charlotte and Lydia are the only youth showing French angoras.  They will usually have enough rabbits to fill two classes, but not three.  Today, they had only three bucks to take to the show, and we all felt there might not be any other youth showing, so they entered the bucks in the open shows.  There were a total of six junior bucks.  Charlotte entered her broken black buck with the intent of finding out whether he was too heavily colored to be considered show quality.  Not only was nothing said regarding the amount of color, but in a field of six junior bucks in open show A, he placed second.  Moreover, in open show B, he placed first!

In the youth shows, the girls entered only does--five juniors and three seniors.  Sage already had five legs, but they were all as a junior, so we were really hoping she'd get a leg today.  The judge, Uno Kivi, felt her coat was lacking, and he selected Charlotte's blue junior doe for best of breed.  However, in show B, judge Scott Rodriguez chose Sage.  So Sage can retire from showing now that she is a grand champion.  Scott also highly favored Lydia's junior doe Lady Amber, who had had a rather poor body type, or so we thought.  She will now be able to be sold as a show quality rabbit.

Anberly with her junior buck--BOSV, Charlotte with her senior doe--BOV, and judge Scott

Lydia entered her sable agouti, an unshowable color, in the pet class.  And winning first place there just made her day.  The judges complimented her on how well groomed Silver is. 

And as always, we learned something new about the rabbits.  Apparently, if the temperature rises about 80 degrees, bucks can become temporarily sterile for up to 90 days.  Younger bucks will recover more quickly than older bucks.  We haven't researched this yet ourselves.  Ninety days seems like a long time, so I'm not sure about that, but everything else seems like it is very plausible.  I'll have to do some research on that.

All in all, a very good day.