Proud Grandma Dolores

Dolores is a very proud grandma. She is showing off her new grandson Colton who is only a few weeks old. Grand daughter Colby is as cute as a button.

Dolores has all the reasons to be smiling.

Blowing In The Wind

Our Oregon member Ann reports,

"Here are a couple of pictures from my house today. I live in the Columbia River Gorge national scenic area, a swath that the mighty river has cut through the giant Cascade Mountain Range which includes Mt. Adams at 12,000 feet, Mt. St. Helens at 11,000 ft, Mt. Ranier at 14,000 feet and Mt. Hood at 11,000 feet. When it is cool and cloudy in Portland (85 miles to the west) and sunny and warm here we get a very strong westerly wind through the Gorge.

Oregon is well known for being one of the original "green" states, before it was trendy we recycled and have lots of people living "off the grid". I don't live without electricity but we could live without an electric blower on days like today. Here are a couple of pics of my satin angoras on the grooming table without the blower going - I think on the big gusts I can see skin! As you can see in the pictures, the blower hose is hanging off the table."

Yes, we definitely can see the skin, it's nice and clean! This chestnut agouti really has beautiful ring color. Can't wait to hear from Ann about the show results.

Caley and Jessica's Best In Show

From Ottawa Canada, Caley reports that she and her sister Jessica won open all breed Best In Show with Bbeary's Sposabella on September 22.

Sposabella's littermate sister Fantasia has won an all breed Best In Show only a few weeks ago; now is Sposabella's turn. Their mother is Chu's Cupid-Take-Aim; Caley and Jessica have been successful in showing the babies that they bred.

Congratulations to Caley and Jessica.

Eric's New Angora Goats

Eric and Michael have added a herd of Angora goats to their Higher Ground Farm. In August, their took a trip from PA to OH to get these beautiful creatures.

They have already had some of their goats shorn and have some mohair spun up. It seems that these two gentlemen just don't have enough to do!

We are looking forward to seeing their beautiful Mini Rex in the convention in a couple of weeks.

Mid Autumn Festival and Moon Cake

In the last two years, the story of Churn O and the Jade Rabbit was posted on our blog on the day of Harvest Moon Festival:

http://ncag.blogspot.com/2006/10/harvest-moon-festival.html
http://ncag.blogspot.com/2005/09/jade-rabbit.html

Harvest Moon Festival is also known as the Mid Autumn Festival; it is the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar. This year, Mid Autumn Festival falls on September 25, 2007.

The traditional treat for the Harvest Moon Festival is "Moon Cake". It is a very sweet very fatty pastry. These traditional moon cakes are wrapped and sold in tin cans. Photos three and four show the moon cakes in the boxes available for sale in Asian supermarkets in California. Photo two shows the unwrapped moon cake with a cut slice. The inside of the moon cake consists of sweet bean paste and a hard boil egg yolk to simulate a full moon in the dark sky.

In Asia, the traditional moon cakes are no longer popular. Alice in Taiwan sent in the first picture showing cute little pastries in the shapes of animals. It is a new trend to substitute more healthy sweets for the traditional high sugar high fat moon cakes.

Silver Master

Betty says,

"The Internet and my beautiful English Angora have given me so many experiences that I'd never expect. Last year, Emilia and I were invited to do a game show. This year, best selling author Jayne Castle selected Melania to play the role of dustbunny Araminta, one of the important characters in her Ghost Hunter series. See http://ncag.blogspot.com/2007/09/melanias-acting-role.html

I am happy to report that Jayne has invited me to be a guest blogger on her blog. See http://www.runningwithquills.com/2007/09/jayne-introduces-real-araminta-ive-had.html today. This is a great opportunity to expose rabbits to those who are not familiar with our wonderful world of rabbits.

I am currently reading Jayne's "Silver Master"; I have a lot of fun. It's a perfect book for a rabbit breeder. Where do we find a story that has major characters each owns a bunny as a companion? A little secret, these dust bunnies each have six paws. Does that sound like our six-legged double Grand Champion rabbits?"

Allen Soon To Be A Judge

In the Big Valley Show on Sept. 15, Allen worked for his last of the 8-show requirement to be a judge. Needless to say, he passed with flying colors. Next time when he appears on our blog again, he will be Judge Allen. It's a big accomplishment for someone who is so young.

In the top photo, he is taking a lesson from Judge Mike, the chair of the ARBA Standard Committee. In the second photo, Allen is given the chance to go over all the Best of Breed rabbits that are competing for the Best In Show honor.