Freedom To Hop

By Lynn, on January 30th, 2011%

It’s a beautiful, beautiful, sunny, spring-like day here today!  I would love to “be out in it,” but we are all at home today, and mostly inside, due to the fact that the carpenter and I have both finally succumbed to a cold.  We did walk outside together this morning with our coffee cups and look at the bunnies.  I told the carpenter that I was planning at some point to run small-gauge wire around the inside of the garden fence so that the bunnies could get out and run.  He said there was no need.  “They can’t get out of there,” he said.

So we secured the gate closed and made sure there were no cracks around the gate big enough to allow escape, and we let them out.

Gingersnap rests in the sun.  As a result of letting the bunnies out to run, the carpenter noticed that Gingersnap is slightly deformed in his hind legs.  I think they can’t be called splayed, because they don’t really frog-leg out.   They are more turned in.  He can hop pretty fast, but he’s not as agile as the other bunnies.  We love him anyway and he is still our baby.  ;)

Rodruguez rests in the cool dirt.  Oh my goodness, you should have seen his excited scratching and digging in the dirt.  You can still see bits of debris in the fur around his face and paws.  He’s loving this freedom to hop around and carry on like a “wild” bunny.

Peter has probably done the most running of all!  He has been to all four corners of the garden, running and hopping and chasing his brothers. 

Peter ran down from the wheel barrow, stopped to look at me, and took off again.  Hippity hoppity.

Look at Peter go!

Michaela has been out to talk to her bunnies and watch them and admire their beautiful fur, shining in the sun.   These nine bunnies make up, in large part, her something to love, a thing Miss Charlotte Mason recommended for children.   It has been a very good routine for Michaela to have to take care of these rabbits every day!

I am off to drink more hot tea, and maybe some decaf coffee.  I know I shouldn’t, but I’m just craving coffee a lot these days.   I slept 10 hours last night but you wouldn’t know it to look at me.  I look in the mirror and say, “You need more rest!”  Nothing like a cold to cancel out beauty sleep!

Enjoy this day!

7 comments   Bunnies, Pets    

Life On The Farm

By Lynn, on December 8th, 2010%

Life is what you make it, right?  Of course!  So I live on a farm. 

In my mind.

I thought you might like to meet some of our farm animals this morning.

First of all, Boomerang, who got his name because of how much he jumped around as a baby bun-bun.  He’s still very jumpy.  Do you see his green food bowl?  When you put his food in it, he likes to grab the bowl with his teeth, flip the food out onto his “floor” and then run against the bowl, ramming it into this little ditch between the open part of his cage and the closed part of his cage.  I guess he does not like the color green.  We love Boomerang.  Boomerang currently has four children still living at home on the farm:  Peter, Rodriguez, Gingersnap, and Toby Keith.

Now meet Midnight, Boomerang’s sister.  Midnight and Boomerang were the first baby bun-buns born at Sage-Bunny Cottage.  Midnight has been a mother one time, giving birth to five beautiful babies.  They were sold to the pet store, where we learned that our baby bun-buns were much bigger than most they see come in at 5 weeks.  Must have been all the greens and chickweed from around the farm.  Boomerang has a record of escaping and visiting the neighbor’s garden.

Let’s pass through the front garden on our way to talk to the other bunnies, okay?  I love the snow.  Well, sometimes.  Not sure I could handle it all the time.  My hat is off to you all who brave big snows all winter long. 

Now let’s meet Basil, the patriarch of the bunnies at Sage-Bunny Cottage.  He is father to Midnight and Boomerang, his two very prolific offspring.  Basil is perhaps my favorite.  He currently has “the fence” around his cage so that he can get out of his cage and play on the ground.  He has never tried to escape and he will allow you to pick him up if you do it just right.

Of course you remember Coco, the matriarch of the family.  She’s the mother to Midnight and Boomerang.  And guess what?  She’s the mother and the grandmother to Gingersnap, Toby Keith, Peter, and Rodriguez.  It was not intended to happen that way, and bun-buns don’t really have any family rules like we do, if you know what I mean. 

Uh, moving on now.

This is Rodriguez, a sweet little male bunny with a beautiful color to his fur.  Michaela and a friend named the little boy bunnies.  Rodriguez will scratch, fiercely, but if you can ever get him picked up and into your arms, he will snuggle up and be content.

Ah, another of my favorites!  This is Peter.  I just love the color!  He’s a beautiful reddish color with a gray-brown patch around his nose and eyes.  He’s not easily held but he is friendly and will come to the door and visit.  He’s beautiful!

Oh, here’s sweet little Gingersnap, who we think looks a bit like a horse in this picture.  But we don’t have any horses on the farm, so rest assured that this is a rabbit.  Gingersnap is not so easily picked up either.  :)

Our amazingly brave and intimidating guard dog on the farm:  Fatso Beagle Annie Bananie, who loves, just LOVES, to visit with the bun-buns.  Who says beagles and rabbits can’t be friends?

On our farm, it’s a rule that everyone get along, including little nose kisses on greeting one another, and no howling! 

As far as the bunnies go when it comes to our homeschool, it’s nice to have something to love, as Charlotte Mason would say, and also to have a regular chore in which you must do your job because a life is depending on you.  I think that’s a good life lesson.  Don’t you?

I’m sorry that I don’t have current pictures of Toby Keith and our inside cat, Oreo.  I will try to do that soon.

Today’s a busy day.  Work this morning.  Violin lesson this afternoon.  Then all the regular things of the day.

Enjoy this day.

5 comments   Bunnies, Gardening, Pets    

Grass, Please.

By Lynn, on October 7th, 2010%

Three little males, varied shades of brown, searching intently with their large dark eyes for anything green.

I love feeding them greens.  Something to love.  Charlotte Mason would approve.

Leave a comment   Charlotte Mason    

Something To Love

By admin, on May 26th, 2010%

Charlotte Mason says that every day children need to have something to do, something to love. For my Michaela, there are bunnies; Annie, THE beagle; and, Oreo our sweet kitty who was hit by a car and now lives inside — a bit less than her old self, but just as sweet as ever.

One of the daily chores around here is to gather greens for the bunnies. They do get some pellets too and we always make sure they have fresh water, but I have loved the results of having Michaela search for their greens.

Bunnies cannot eat just anything, and domesticated rabbits have lost some of their ability to know what to eat and what not to eat. I have found that Michaela’s knowledge of what she is picking has greatly increased because of the responsibility of feeding it to these baby bunnies!  The names of plaintain, dandelion, chickweed, clover, etc., used to go right into one ear and out the other, but with something to love, the names are sticking. 

Last night I was looking through old photographs and postcards that I’ve collected through the years.  I dearly love this little picture.  A sweet baby, haltingly reaching out to pet a bunny.  I figure there’s someone behind the camera saying, “pet the bunny.”  Makes me smile every time.  There’s trust in this picture.  I’m trusting you that this bunny’s not going to bite my fingers off. 

I think Charlotte Mason might have smiled at this picture too.

7 comments   Bunnies, Charlotte Mason    

The Wild Kingdom

By admin, on December 12th, 2009%

Dear Readers,

I thought you might want an animal update, and if you don’t, well, would you like a cup of tea?

First of all, the bun buns.  Inquiring minds want to know, does Coco have two ears or just one.  I know the picture in my sidebar is misleading.  Coco asked me to put that picture of her up there so that people would feel sorry for her and ask questions.  She is just an attenion hog, I tell you. 

Actually Coco has two very fine, very large ears. She is just fond of laying one of them straight back. She especially did this when she was little. I don’t know, maybe she’s just camera shy. As you can see, her babies, Midnight and Boomerang, are getting quite big!  It has been very cold lately, down into the 20s at night.  The bunnies have been given extra bedding and we have to check their water frequently to thaw it.

Enter kitty kitty, or Elijah as some of the neighborhood kids call him.  Her.   Him.  Uh, I am just not sure about this cat.  Actually, it is a tom cat, but he is so sweet, I sometimes say she.  He loves to come around when we feed the bunnies.  He actually jumped into the cage with the bunnies one morning when we had the door open and no one panicked.  The bun buns seemed fine with it.  I guess they know a docile cat when they see one.

Now, how about that Oreo?  Doesn’t she look great?  She’s staying totally inside right now, but we carried her out to get a picture in some natural light, without the flash.  Her head is healing well and her eye looks fantastic.  There is even some light fuzz growing over her eyelid.

Here is an inside picture of Oreo looking like she looks most of the time right now.  Her tongue sticks out most of the time, but she yawned really big the other day (actually huge) and I saw the wire runing across the inside of her mandible and under her tongue, so I’m thinking she may keep her tongue in her mouth again once the wire is out in a few more weeks.

Princess of the Universe and Oreo both with their tongues out.  I don’t know.  It’s kind of cute on Oreo, don’t you think?  She just needs to quit drooling on my furniture.  Actually I think copies of these pictures need to go to Dr. Mac for his bulletin board, don’t you?

And last but not least, and I cannot emphasize that part about not least, enough, is Annie Banannie.  She is spoiled rotten.  She is the essence of spoiled rotten.  She is the epitome of T totally spoiled rotten beagle.  And I have no one to blame but myself.  I wonder if there is a support group for people like me?

Happy Saturday Evening

11 comments   Pets    

Oreo News Flash

By admin, on December 6th, 2009%

Caught curled up in front of the warm heater with Michaela..

napping.

Oreo is remarkably better every day.  It is amazing to me. 

For her writing assignment Friday, Michaela wrote a letter thanking Dr. Mac.

6 comments   Pets   ,