Remember When: McKenzie Won Group at the ARBA Convention in 2013

My official photo with Chu's McKenzie's Group win in 2013 ARBA convention.

McKenzie around 5 months old.

McKenzie is a lilac tort but the sun makes her looking like a chocolate tort.

The natural light gives a good respresentation of her slightly pinkish lilac tort feature.

She has a very impressive show record: 30 legs, 27 BOB, 18 open Best In Show, 3 open Reserve In Show.

 

Kimekomi Snakes

2025 is the Year of Snake.   Carolyn uses her skill to make a pair of Kimekomi Snakes to celebrate the Year of the Snake.

The Kimekomi Snake is paired with the Kimekomi Sheep.   We need a Kimekomi Horse.  Why?
2025 is the Year of the Snake while 2027 is the Year of the Sheep, we are missing 2026 that is the Year of the Horse.  Stay tuned, Carolyn is busy working on all 12 Zodiacs.  
What are the 12 Chinese Zodiacs? In the order of appearing, the 12 Zodiacs are:
Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. 

 

Four Torts and Four ARBA Convention Winners

In 2011, we posted a photo of 4 tort babies from 3 different litters.   They are slightly different in age but they are good represenations of the four torts, from left to right: Tort (black tort), blue tort, chocolate tort and lilac tort.  For the color genetic information, please go to the original post:

Northern California Angora Guild: What Kind Of Tort Is It?

What do the different torts look like when grown? How did the different torts do in shows?  We have not explored this subject.   Here are 4 of my ARBA convention winners from the past, guess what, all 4 torts had won the convention BOB and even convention Group and convention Best In Show!

This is Chu's Sweet Sixteen, the 1992 ARBA convention Best In Show.  She was the first ever wool breed rabbit to have won a convention Best In Show.   During the old days, it was customery for the meat breeds to win the top, it was a huge accomplishment to break the glass ceiling.
She is a Tort (a "regular" tort, or a black tort).   I have several other torts, both buck and doe, won the convention Group and BOB.

This is Chu's Crystal Cream, a blue tort.  Crystal Cream was the BOSV winner in the 1987 ARBA convention when she was a junior; three years later at 3-1/2 years old she won the BOB at the 1990 ARBA convention. 

This is Chu's Sevenah, a chocolate tort.   She was the 2007 ARBA convention BOB.   Though she did not advance due to the bad luck of a draw,  she was one of my all time favorite rabbits.   

 

This is Chu's McKenzie, she is a lilac tort.  She was the 2013 ARBA convention BOB winner and advanced to winning the Group.   My 1994 ARBA convention winner Chu's Cynthia was also a lilac tort.  

 

Pretty Yellow Roses

Spring and summer are great for plants and flowers.

The yellow roses are blooming, what a beauty.

The yellow roses are adding beauty to our garden.

Sharing the beautiful roses with our friends.

 

Knitting a Companion Kitty

A few weeks ago, I knitted a kitty:

Northern California Angora Guild: Knitting a Kitty

The one kitty was kinda lonely, so I started another kitty knitting project.

The green kitty joins the pink kitty as each other's companions.

I meant to make a pair of brothers but they kinda like a boy and a girl.  
Either way, now they are no longer lonely.

 

Annual Barn Cleaning 2025, Day Two

Barn power washed on the first day to give it enough time to dry out.  It looks good the next morning.

No spider webs!  

Washed barn from the other side.   The big square thing is the swamp cooler, alternatively called the evaporative cooler.  It's a lifesaver for the rabbits during the summer.

Feeders washed and drying in the sun.

Trays are also washed and being dried.

Flaming and power washing done, waiting to dry.

Some more cleaned cages.

A power washer is one of the important tools to do a major cleaning.

It's late at night, rabbits are back to their clean condos.  Food in the clean feeders, water bottle filled, trays smell clean, no spider web.... life is good.

There are a few extra large condos on the other side of the barn mainly for the does.   After all the cleaning, a new set of curtins are installed. 

I do daily and weekly cleanings, but no matter how meticulous I try to be, there are things just cannot be thoroughly cleaned without taking all the rabbits out.   Once a year, my wonderful hubby Albert takes several days off from his golfing routines to help me clean.      

2025 big barn cleaning was done on the second day.   Each day was long and hard, both of us work at a break back pace, it's so good to have it done.     The following day would be used to clean all the carriers that were used as temporary accommodations in the garage.    The there is a smaller barn needs to be cleaned.  Comparing to the big barn, the cleaning of the small barn will be a piece of cake. 

 

Annual Barn Cleaning 2025, Day One

No, these are not the rabbits' regular accomodations.    They have far bigger condos in the barn.

Why are the rabbits stays next to the van in the garage?  It's the big cleaning day!

Even with non-molting English Angoras, there are still some wool on the cages, and the spinders love the wires too.

Condos look OK from far but there are debris to be cleaned.

Half of the condos are out of the barn but still there are another 5 stacks to be moved out of the barn.

These are some of the condos need to be flamed and power washed.

power-washing going on.

These are the trays to be washed too.

It does look like much, but this is many hours of heavy labor work.  Rabbits will have to stay in the garage overnight to get back to their homes.