Northern California Angora Guild

Growing the Winter Melon

We planted lots of cucumbers and other veggies. There is one "cucumber" plant that looked slightly different from the others. Could it be a Winter Melon plant? Last time we were successful in growing one from the seeds was 40 plus years ago. Could we be so lucky to get one seed sprouted this year?

Here is a photo taken in 1979 with our white kitten Pom Pom sitting on the last Winter melon. It was before I had rabbits, it's like more than a lifetime ago.

This sure does not look like a cucumber. It's round, it's fuzzy.

Definitely not the regular cucumber.

Bees like the nectar.

Sure helps the pollination.

Now it looks a bit like the Winter Melon, but still ???

Congratulations to the Dwarf Papillon Team

Congratulations to the Dwarf Papillon passing the 3rd showing and accepted in the the ARBA Standard of Perfection. Team members are judges Maddie Pratt, Randy Shumaker and Louis Potter. They started their first showing in Massachusetts convention in 2018:

https://ncag.blogspot.com/2018/11/dwarf-papillon-passes-first-showing-at.html

In 2019 Reno convention, they passed their 2nd showing. Both times they were given the "Exemplary Pass" status. If it were a domestic breed or variety, two "Exemplary Pass" would have eliminated the 3rd showing as the situation of broken Satin Angora, but Dwarf Papillon is considered a foreign imported breed thus required the 3rd showing. It did not make any dent, the three excellent judges/breeders passed the showing via zoom with flying color.

Congregations to Maddie, Randy and Louis.

What is it? It's a Winter Melon

We are quite familiar with the plant in this photo, it's the Night Blooming Cereus that we have featured many times on this blog when the flowers bloom. In this photo there isn't any pretty blooming flower but there is this big thing next to it, what is it?

It's the fall season, it's almost Halloween, most homes are displaying pumpkins. We are displaying this big thing that is as big as a pumpkin but not a pumpkin.

How big is it? This big thing is as big as Aabel but a lot heavier than Aabel. Aabel weighs less than 6 pounds while this thing weighs 26 pounds.

Get an idea how big it is, comparing to two persimmons.

This is what it looks like when cut into half. It is a Winter Melon. Yes, Winter Melon, not Watermelon. Google it, you may find it interesting. We'll share the photos of the growing from a itsy bitsy little thing to this big thing in a future post.

Casey Rebuilds, Part 3

Casey put together the new cage kits from Randall's and settle her rabbits into the barn. There are still lots of work to be done such as insulation and painting. However, Casey is relieved that the rabbits finally can live in a regular cage after living in the carriers for almost 2 months. Though the carriers are pretty good sized but they are much lower than the regular cages, it's not as comfy as the regular cages.

The porch is to be used for loading, unloading and storage of equipment.

Another barn is being added to the porch. It'll have space for additional cages if needed and also served as a separation of breeder barn and show barn.

Each barn has a swamp cooler. Casey intends to pain the barn blue to match her house.

Casey rebuilds, Part 2

Casey lost all the cages to the fire along with the barn. She ordered new ones from Randall's and they are finally ready. The cages came in kits, Casey put them together one by one.

The barn is smaller than what Casey wanted but in order to expedite the building process, this is the maximum size allowed by the local ordinance. The covered patio is intended for the convenience of grooming and loading/unloading rabbits and supplies, it is a separate structure.

This is a better view of the little barn with the covered patio. What's that additional patio for? Guess what? Another barn. It's always good to have two separate barns if one shows. One for the breeding stock that will stay home and another for those rabbits that are going to shows being exposed to other rabbits. Obviously there are still lots of work to be done, when we get more photos from the progress, we'll post them.

Casey Rebuilds, Part 1

In August Northern California had several big fires. Vacaville was one of the towns that experienced terrifying fire for weeks. Casey's home in Vacaville was in the fire zone. We read about her temporary normal after evacuation on:

https://ncag.blogspot.com/2020/08/caseys-temporary-normal.html

When the evacuation order was lifted, she went home to see that her yard and several out buildings were burned down, including her rabbit barn. Luckily her house stood.

With strength, resiliency, and help for friends and relatives, Casey started the rebuilding process.

Casey says, here it is, not done yet, but it's taking shape.

The BobCat helps to clean up the yard that had dead trees and bushes, burned fences, and debris from the horrendous fire.

The barn is taking shape, the carriers are moved from her family room to the barn. Still waiting for the cages at the time this photo was taken. More progress to come.