Success!

If success is measured by things not dying, then today has been a successful day. The temperature reached 99 degrees and no rabbits died! We lost a couple of rabbits last year to the heat when it was not even as hot as it was today, and that is one of the main reasons we went to "free range" rabbit raising. We made a few artificial rabbit dens out of large plastic tubs turned upside down. The rabbits, being rabbits, wanted to dig their own burrows which we mostly discouraged after we woke up one morning to find that they had dug themselves out of their enclosure. We almost had real free range rabbits there for a while. Since then we stop up their holes with bricks, except for one recently dug under the shed by an expecting mother that she raised her rabbits in. We haven't blocked that one and they go in there during the heat of the day to keep cool.

This is a map of the burrow the rabbits are building under our house as we speak. 

(These are actually rabbit burrows. J. Zool., Lond. (1985) 206, 253-262)

Other success is measured by me not losing my job. Not that I was about to, but I haven't, and that is a good thing.

Finally, we have enjoyed a little bit of fresh garden produce this year.

I wore this lettuce to church behind my ear. 

Alex is busy studying for a big test coming up. It is the USMLE (the "you smile"? I know - pretty weird name for a test). This is pretty much what he looks like all the time but without the hoodie. Because it is HOT in our house.

I am busy being sad that so many of my friends have moved or are going to be moving out of the ward soon. I love our mostly student congregation, but it breaks one of my heartstrings every time a family leaves me. All I have to say to all you is that you better move somewhere cool and have an extra bedroom (and bath please) so I can come visit you.

PS Apparently I have blog readers from Colombia, Russia, Nigeria and South Africa. If that is you, could you please send me a background check of yourselves since I don't think I know you and your address so I can come visit you? Also do you have an extra bed and bath? Thank you.

Also, Blogger has informed me that I haven't made any money off my blog yet, so anyone is welcome to mail me a check. I will use it to pay off my student loans. I promise. Thank you.

What is wrong with this picture?!?!

This magazine shows up every few weeks and every time I see this picture, I cringe. There is something seriously wrong with this picture. I'll give you a hint - I see too much of it on a daily basis.

Ok I will give you another hint.

FAT DOG ALERT!! This dog is obese! OBESE!!! If you own a dog that looks like this please stop killing your dog with kindness (treats) and buy it a gym membership, as fast as possible! And now you won't be shocked when you take your dog to the vet and they tell you it is fat. 

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In other news, last week was a week of firsts. It was the first time I sewed all the way through my finger with my sewing machine needle.

Happy Mother's Day

to my own wonderful mother and also to the many women in my life that have helped me be who I am. I am thinking of teachers, Young Women leaders, and women in my family and congregation that are wonderful examples of nurturing and motherhood.

I am also grateful for Mary, the mother of Jesus. I have never connected Mother's Day before with honoring her example and sacrifice, but I found this movie on the church website and it finally dawned on me that today is a perfect day to remember her.

A word or two about the bike

First of all, it is a nice bike and I am really grateful for it. The place I got it let me get it at wholesale price (actually, lower than that - it was on sale) because he had to meet an order minimum. Second, I am "earning" it based on the miles I put on it (saving gas, wear and tear on the car, etc). Here is my graph. Each time I go to work and back (20 miles), I fill in one square. When the whole thing is filled, my bike will be paid off. (The red squares represent what I got from selling my old bike.) Alex thinks this is silly, but it makes me feel better about getting it.

Third, I have noticed since getting my bike that Illinois is much windier than I ever imagined previously. Fourth, I noticed that even though wind is annoying when it is in your face, at least it keeps the gnats from getting caught in your teeth.That is all about my bike.

A word or two about something else: I have a dear friend getting married this Friday. For her wedding I made her some quilted place mats. I am not worried about her seeing pictures of it on the blog before I give them to her because a) she is way too busy right now to check my blog, b) she probably doesn't check my blog anyway, and c) only four people check my blog and two of them live with me.

One side has a little appliqued bird.

The other side has some cool fabric.

Six total. 

Spring means rabbits

So, spring is well under way here in Illinois. The weather in March was amazingly warm (hot) and I was able to get my garden started about a month earlier than last year. We have radishes, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, peas, and chard all going strong in our little garden, and little apples, pears, peaches, plums, and apricots growing on our fruit trees. Katie even made two strawberry rhubarb crisps earlier this week using the rhubarb from our garden . Nevertheless, the best crop of the year so far has been our rabbits. We had a litter of 8 back in January (the last four of those were put in our freezer on Thursday). We had a litter of four about 6 weeks ago that have another month or so to go before they join their older sisters. About two weeks ago we were blessed with another litter of 3-6.  To add to this, it appears that one of our does is again pregnant. This is evidenced by the 3 foot long burrow that she built under our shed, and the fact that when provided with straw she compulsively began stuffing it into said burrow (watch the video). We are very pleased by the success of our 'free-range' rabbit experiment. If anyone has some good rabbit recipes, feel free to send them our way!

Daddy bunny (pretty sure...they all look the same) with three of the four (approximately) six-week-old adolescents, all nibbling on a piece of honeysuckle vine.

One of our ~2-week-olds. They're pretty cute when they first start venturing out of the burrow.

The burrow that now exists under the concrete floor of our shed. I swear she dug this overnight. Any guess how long it will take before they start showing up in our neighbor's yard?

Juno (or is that Jadwiga?) collecting straw for her nest under the shed.

Later the same afternoon. If you hadn't see the burrow, you'd never know it was there. Sneaky little rabbits!

These are our chickens. They still lay blue and tan eggs (not from the same chickens). We have a lot of eggs right now. Do you want some?

Little Pears

Lots of little peaches.

Apricots

Plums. (Does anyone know how to keep the squirrels from stealing all my fruit?)

Heirloom oxheart tomatoes seedlings started from seeds given to me by Kathy in my lab. 

Hoping it warms up this week so I can put these in the ground...

We spent Easter weekend at my brother and his wife's place in St. Louis. They just had their fourth child, Cypress, and my parents, two sisters, one brother-in-law, and two of my other nieces were all in town for his baby blessing on Easter Sunday. It was a great weekend.

A bunny of a different type visited while we were there...

This is their dog Boomhauer. He's awesome.

Before church. Aren't families great?

In other news, Katie got a new road bike. Are you jealous?

LaPierre Audacio 400L

This bike is possibly worth more than my car...of course, that's not really saying much.

Flats, pits, and vomits

This morning it looked like a great day to ride my bike for the first time this year. I had to do treatments at the animal clinic and *finally* it wasn't too cold or windy to do the 20 mile (round trip) bike ride and I would have plenty of time to make it to church at noon. The trip out was beautiful and invigorating, but then not 20 yards from the clinic headed home I realized somehow my rear tire was completely flat. Alex was between church meetings and came and picked me up but that put me 40 minutes behind schedule. At home I rushed around like crazy trying to get ready and finally there I stood, nearly ready to go with my toothbrush in my mouth when all of a sudden the dogs put up a terrible ruckus in the front room barking at whatever was outside. Barking is not unusual at our house but they were carrying on so mercilessly I knew that they must see something beyond the typical neighborhood child they usually bark at. Sure enough, standing just outside the window staring back at them was a full grown, fully loaded (un-neutered) male pit bull. No collar. Unsure of what to do, I went outside and introduced myself to the dog. He was not unfriendly, but I couldn't convince him to stay still long enough for me to figure out what to do with him and off he headed towards the neighbor's house. Figuring I could at least call animal control before leaving, I had the phone book in my hand when I turned and noticed the morning's second large chunky pool of Lola vomit on the throw rug. My toothbrush was still in my mouth. Did I mention that I hate being late and that was stressing me out? So I did what any responsible adult would do: I threw the phone book on the floor out of frustration, left the vomit where it was and headed to church. I left my toothbrush at home. Poor Lola slunk off and hid in her bed all morning. I think I have made up with her by now. So that is the story of this morning's temper tantrum.

In happier news, a paper I worked on as a third year veterinary student came out in print recently. This past week I received the journal and reprints. I don't know that my career is headed in an academic direction, but it feels good to have something I worked so hard on come to fruition. 

I made that figure! Are you proud, Scott?

The front of the journal.

Happy 100th post! and what I've been up to

Hi. Katie here. I have been doing a lot of traveling lately while Ruben has been taking his cat naps.

I visited some beautiful mountain landscapes in Tahiti, South Africa, and Alaska

And a beach in the Maldives. There was a goat there 

All from the comfort of my fridge

Its what I like to call a "stay-cation" and it is really cheap and a good way to use up old calendars.

I have also been sewing curtains. This morning I got to play with power tools to put up the curtain rods. I am not sure the rods are completely level. But here they are: (colorful print in the bedroom and the other floral print in the office)

The view from our back window. I love the ornamental grasses in our backyard!

Wishing you all a warm last few winter weeks!