Adam and Heather's Wedding Day In Venice

Adam and Heather's wedding was Saturday, June 26, after several days of preparation. It was at the Hotel Cipriani, in the garden with a view of Venice across the water. The day was perfect. Flowers were everywhere in white and blue.

The arch shows where the couple stood to exchange their vows.

Adam and Heather take a minute after the ceremony to talk to Jody the photographer (a family friend whose husband used to babysit Adam!).

Adam and Heather with the bridesmaids (including Kendall standing behind Adam).

Food is a main event at an Italian wedding. We had a 6 course dinner that lasted for hours! The wedding cake was spectacular and delicious!

Proud parents, Carol and Jim.

Carol G. And Family Went To Italy

Carol G. and her entire family went to Italy last year to scout location for the pending wedding of Adam and Heather; they all went back to Venice for the wedding in June this year. It's very kind of the family to share with us photos of the trip and the wedding in Italy and then Adam and Heather's honeymoon in Greece. We start with Part I.

Murano glass is famous and we watched a master craftsman blow glass. The chandaleir is a classic handblown glass item that is typical of Venice (and very expensive!).

The cathedral in San Marco square is the site of Saint Mark's tomb, which gave the rulers of Venice great political power in the past.

Venice is just a beautiful this year as we remembered. The canals and boats are gorgeous in Venice and water taxis are the second mode of transportation after walking.

Venice is a series of very small archipelago islands connected by bridges. There are nearly 500 bridges in Venice.

Adam arranged for a tour for the wedding guests; he and Heather were so busy before the wedding that it was hard to get a photo of them together but here they are with family and friends listening to the tour guide.

Deb B's Big Wins In Minnesota

On June 12th & 13th, Deb B's English Angora colored senior doe, 7 Pine's Josephine took BIS in show A and B on Saturday, then BIS in show C & RIS in show D on Sunday. Becky & Jody's Cali won RIS in shows A, B and C then BIS in show D.

Josephine was only 6-1/4 months old when she won the 3 BIS and 1 RIS.

Deb's granddaughter Katelyn doesn't groom yet, but she likes to hug the bunnies and if you give her a handful of wool, she loves to play with it. She pulls it through her fingers like she is checking the texture; she is going to be a fiber person for sure. When Deb and daughter Alicia are at the shows, there are enough "babysitters" around that keep Katelyn entertained. The "babysitter" pictured with her is Mark Fronning, one of the MN judges.

Deb also included one of the two "Farm Boys" at the show. They thought it was funny that they both happened to wear the same goofy t-shirt, so Deb decided to take their picture.

Chris O's Fiber "Toys"

Chris O. of MA has a lot of fiber related tools; here are some pictures and descriptions that she shared with us:

Chris O's Majacraft Suzie Pro; she owns a lot of accessories for this wheel.

Chris O's Louet s10 (the "olde hippie") spinning wheel; her hubby Lloyd specially built a spinning chair, shown in the background, for Chris.

Chris O's Hansen miniSpinner in cherry with WooLee Winder; this is a fairly new electric spinner, very compact and very nice.

The fiber in the bump is a Cormo fleece from This'n'That Farm (Donna Herrick) in Vermont. Sheep's name is Pia. Chris O bought her fleeces four or five years running, starting with baby fleece. Very, very soft.

The bobbins show (a) two Majacraft bobbins filled with Pia, spun longdraw, (b) one Hansen WW bobbin filled with Pia and (c) one Louet WW bobbin filled with a dyed Corriedale batt from DyakCraft in Vermont.

If you are a knitter and like to collect knitting patterns, this is a great toy: The Sony Pocket e-reader has a pdf file of a knitting pattern that can be downloaded via a free program called Calibre, available online. No paper copies needed. You can have hundreds of patterns on this thing and carry it everywhere.

Bunzilla And Delilah Took The Breed

In the Brian Hartzell Memorial Show B in Piqua, OH, Maureen's two winners from show A won again under judge Kevin B. In Maureen's arms is BOB winner tort senior buck Big Times Bunzilla, on the table with judge Kevin B is BOSB winner white junior doe Big Times Delilah.

Judge Kevin B examines Big Times Bunzilla.

Judge Kevin B. checks on the body of Big Times Delilah.

Stacy E. Judges English Angora in Ohio

On Saturday in Piqua, OH, double shows were held in memory of Brian Hartzell. The Hartzells live in Piqua and Brian grew up there. In show A, English Angora was judged by judge Stacy E. In this picture, she is blowing into the wool to examine the texture and density.

Stacy checks on the body and wool. The rabbit in the picture is Big Time Bunzilla who later won the Best of Breed out of 25 English Angora shown.

When Stacy judges, her mom records her comments.
Exhibitors love this arrangement.

A Week Long Cleaning Ritual

Using a blow-torch to flame away the wool and spider webs on the cage.

The next step is to use a power washer to wash away the residual wool and poops.

All the trays and stacks of cages are waiting to be power-washed.

Betty says,

"There is a 5-week break from shows, it's a good time to do my annual big cleaning.

I clean my rabbits' trays every two days and do regular maintenance. Once a year, I take everything out of my barns and do a major cleaning. It's not a cleaning 'day', it's a cleaning 'week'! It takes an entire week to do detailed cleaning.

Hubby helps a lot in this major cleaning event; I can do the preparation, taking out the rabbits, pulling out the stacks of cages, using brush and a small hand-held blow torch to scrub the cages, bleaching all the water bottles and feeders, ... When it comes to using the powerful big blow-torch and power washer, it'd take hubby to do the job. Two to three days out of the week-long cleaning, hubby is the 'power ranger'.

We have been doing this major cleaning for five days now, the worst is over. I got one to two more days of miscellaneous things to clean and to tidy up; til next summer."