Prize Winners in Home Art Competition

In the San Joaquin Fair, there are quite a few very nice looking high quality craft creations entered. Here are photos of some of these beautiful creations.

Snake Around The Collar

Rita is a top breeder of Satin and Silver Martin rabbits. Her Satin was one of the four finalists for the Best In Show at the 2003 ARBA convention in Wichita; both her Satin and Silver Marten regularly won Best In Show in the all breed shows.

Rita works as show secretary in the majority of shows in this area; and she is also the small animal manager at the San Joaquin fair. Her granddaughter Jessica and grandson Brad both stayed at the fair as helpers; their bright green T-shirts identified them as volunteers at the fair. During a break, Brad and Jessica went to the reptile building to be "snaked" around the collar.

Livestock at the San Jaoquin Fair

It's a hot day, the cow enjoys a little running water from the facuet.

If this place looks familiar, it's because it is the "Beef Barn" that some of the rabbit shows were held.

It's hot, get the sweater off me!

An afternoon nap works for me.

Ditto, it's important to get the beauty nap.

Baling Twine Doormat

For most of us who have rabbits and other animals, buying hay is a regular activity. Hay bale use baling twine that become trash after it's cut to let loose the hay. Our newsletter editor Kathy S. is very creative and very green; she likes to reuse material that would normally be discarded. Here is her creation, a doormat made from the baling twine.

Kathy says,

"Here's a little bit more about the doormat. After seeing a doormat woven out of baling twine in Make magazine, I knit one. While physically tough going, I found this knitting completely compelling. I've written about the doormat in the Guild's Summer '08newsletter, but here are the basics.I used big, polymer needles (Susan Bates #13). Needles of other material and smaller needles reportedly bend or break. I cast on as many stitches as the ten and one-half inch long needles would hold. Jamming on this many stitches made for challenging knitting as twine is slippery. Circular needles would make this project much easier. (Another option is to knit narrower bands and knit them together, though that might make for a floppier doormat, albeit one that is easier to knit.) Garter stitch creates a bumpy surface, well suited for removing debris from footwear.To tie on a new piece, a simple overhand knot works best. I pulled the knots to the doormat's underside, but you may prefer otherwise.Color placement on this doormat is random; whenever I got a new piece of twine I tied it on and knit. Just think what someone with good color sense could accomplish!Finished size: 20 by 30 inches.I'm still pretty excited about the doormat, and greet visitors with "Look what I made". I then have to convince them to wipe their shoes on this handcrafted finery."

A Happy Ending: A Dog and A Corvette

Here is a picture of John's '69 corvette. It is a top flight winner which means it has been restored to it's original state. I guess you could say the dog chose well!

The lucky but homely looking dog is now safe and sound at Maureen's lap.

Little girl likes to be a lapdog.

A warm bed sure beats surviving in the wild.

Maureen in OH says,

"Tonight John and I went out with some friends on a Corvette 'cruise' which is basically a really long car ride through country roads. When we started out we came upon a mangy looking little dog in the middle of a country road and a bunch of us stopped to try and catch it. Honestly, it looked like something wild. Unfortunately we were not successful but at least it had left the road and ran into a field.

Two hours later we came back the same way and wouldn't you know it, but that same little dog was STILL in the road. A new group of people were attempting to catch it including us. After a half an hour of trying I was able to use John's belt to lasso the skinny little thing. I think it was ready to be caught.

Attached are pictures of the pitiful looking little thing. I think it is a yorkie poodle mix or something like that. Very dirty and matted. After the initial shock of being caught she warmed up quite nicely and seems to like both John and I. Fortunately John is bigger dog lover than a corvette lover as we put the stinky little thing in his recently redone '69 corvette!"

UK Angora breeders Les and Tess

During the trip to UK, Candy spent a day with our friends from the TOULAARP Yahoo list, Les & Tess.

Candy says,

"They live in a suburb of London in part of a large Victorian house just crammed with everything wooly and fibery. I could have spent hours looking at all the spinning wheels and things they have spun, dyed, knitted, etc. But it was beautiful weather, and most of our time was spent in their back garden (yard) under shade trees, just visiting and having a relaxing day.

Les and Tess are wonderful people, and would fit in perfectly here in our Angora community. They don't show, but they make full use of the wool. Their cages (pens/hutches), like most in England, have solid sides and bottoms, and bedding is shavings, newspaper, and straw. I know, we wouldn't think of such a thing here, but, as I also saw in Norway a few years ago, it works very well for them. One convenience they had that I really liked, was that they had French doors leading from their bedroom right into the rabbitry! How convenient for checking for new litters during the night.

Most of Tess' Angoras were clipped down, but I was happy to see that hers looked a lot more like mine than the ones I had seen at the show. You could tell, these Angoras had some wool on them, and decent furnishings."

Rabbit News from Hawaii

Beautiful sunset in Hawaii

Judge Josh with Zeia and her junior English Angora.

Judge Jim and Zeia and her junior English Angora.

Zeia brushing her black English Angora.

Judges Jim and Josh with happy owners of BIS Holland Lop and RIS Champagne d'Argent.

Josh with Sandy whose Rex won Best of Breed.

Judges Josh and Jim are everywhere; recently they were in Hawaii judging a show.

There are English Angora in Hawaii, Josh wants to pass this info to NCAG. Thanks to his photos, now we see them. Also he shares with us photo of the Best In Show winner Diana M. with her Holland Lop and the Reserve In Show winner Sandy T. with her Champagne d'Argent.