Acadiana: Welcome to the Herd

Kelfla's Acadiana has been off to a good start. She has been doing very well at the shows for such a youngster. Last weekend she earned 3 legs, one for RIS. 

 I'm excited to see how she continues to grow and quite happy with her as an improvement to my herd. Of course, there's little things to pick here and there (as always), but overall...she's been developing into a nice doe.

Acadiana is named in honor of the French region of my home state, Louisiana. You can always find good food and good company there. 

  Laissez les bon temps rouler!

A Stitch & Pitch...Combining Two of My Favorite Pastimes

This past Sunday, our Green Sheep Fiber Guild from Wools & Tools had a Stitch & Pitch at a Round Rock Express Baseball game. Both hubby and I love baseball so this made it a great activity for us. Oh yes, we took the kids too.

 We made our own bright green shirts with iron on decals and all sat together. We were definitely easy to spot. It was Kid's Day at the ball field so there were lots of activities. At the end of the game, the kids were allowed to run the bases. I couldn't believe they didn't want to run them. They said it was too hot. Ugh, kids these days! Probably for the first time ever, I wished I was under 12.

Regardless, we had a blast!...and I got to do two of my favorite things: watch baseball and knit. If only I could keep score and knit, that would have been heaven. 


We've planned another Stitch & Pitch for June. I can't wait.

My Fun (but busy) Weekend

I had a jam-packed weekend! I loved it though.
 
I brought my two junior English Angora does to show at the LoneStar Rabbit & Cavy 2014 Convention Fundraiser show. They both did very well and got great comments. My blue doe, Acadiana, did exceptionally well. I'm really happy about her development. She finished her GC this weekend (including a RIS)...not bad for a 4 month old baby. She really does look older though.  All the judges have very  nice comments.  I also got to see my new friends Peggy and Monica again...such nice ladies and great company! 

Show Results

Friday Show (Judge Loyd Morgan)

English Angora BOB - Kelly Flading (Yay, Acadiana!)

English Angora BOS - Peggy T.

Satin Angora BOB - Kiki C. 

RIS English Angora (Judge Don Mersiovsky)

Saturday Show A (Judge Reanelle Harris)

  English Angora BOB - Kelly Flading (Acadiana)

  English Angora BOB - Sasha M.

Satin Angora BOB - Kiki C.

Satin Angora BOS - Dana F.

Saturday Show B (Judge Cheryl Blackman)

English Angora BOB - Kelly Flading (Acadiana)

English Angora BOS - Sasha M.

Satin Angora BOB - Dana F.

Satin Angora BOS - Dana F. 

       
Also, during Saturday's show, I got up early groomed my girls and drove 2.5 hours to south of San Antonio. I picked up a beautiful new baby buck and dropped off one of my rabbits to go to his new home in west Texas. His new family is awesome! (added bonus) They picked him up at the Yellow Rose Fiber Festival in Seguin...and gave me some lovely silk fiber to play around with since I didn't have time to actually go into the Fiber Festival building. I would have never came out and missed my afternoon show. I hear that bunny is settling in nicely. He is such a sweet boy. I hope he makes them as happy as he made me. 








 

KW Cages Rabbitech System Review

I've had my Rabbitech system for about 7 months now. I thought it was time to post a little review about my system.

As far as looks go, it is big, shiny, white and medical lab looking (a bit out of place in my old garage), but I love my Rabbitech system. It is very professional looking and sure beats dumping drop pans. There is still work involved maintenance wise though(contrary to popular belief lol)...just different work. Instead of running around dumping pans, I stand and wipe down things. I pull down and replace panels. I spray waste down a trough. I dump the manure/urine collector and hose it down. It's not too bad, but some areas are a bit tricky to get into. I often scrape my knuckles on wire, but I have rabbits. Everyone does that.

I have not had a problem with clogging hay as I saw on some reviews of these types of systems, but hay does slow down the spraying down of troughs. Overall, I think it is very well designed. The back panels and side trays do a very good job of keeping urine inside the system and not on the walls/floors. I can easily scrub cages (floor tops and bottoms) when the back panels are removed. The finish is very durable. I have had no issues with rust or chipping. There was definitely thought put into it.
If I were to make improvements, I'd suggest the following:

• a quicker/easier way to take off back panels for cleaning (arthritis-y hands). Otherwise, I love, love, love the back panels...such a simple, but functional feature. 
• slightly more space between cage front bottom edge and trough top edge. I could get cleaning tools in there easier without scraping hands.
• The PVC spray-down troughs are great, but finding tools to clean it at first was a challenge since you must use nonabrasive tools.  After several other tries, I now use a stoneware pan scraper from Pampered Chef...probably not what PC originally intended. This helps keep the trough smooth so pellets roll down the trough as intended. An automatic rinse system for the trough would probably be helpful (less chance for urine to dry), but I haven't tried this yet. I worry about damp wool on my Angoras. I do
• a better set of instructions for non-laboratory maintenance department professionals. Instructions were sketchy. In their defense, though...the system is probably sold to a smaller percentage of regular folks with rabbitries. We did eventually get everything together without calling customer service...and I admit that I may be challenged in this area.

 

This is not a design issue, but something to be aware of. We purchased the manure separator bin (an accessory). We attached our garden hose as designed, but the lay of our land meant flow was so slow to render it useless. I have to hand-carry and dump liquid waste...blah. The manure separator seems like a wonderful thing when the system is higher than the surrounding ground though.  

Also, I put my one-sided system together as the directions indicated. Once it was all balanced and silicone-ed in place, I realized I had to move my system out from the wall about 18 inches to get behind and clean it. In talking to others, someone much smarter than me told me they turned their troughs where the manure slid to the front of the cage instead of the back. This doesn't look as pretty in my opinion, but it does save space in a smaller rabbitry. I'm probably just jealous that I didn't think of it myself.