Starflower1234's Stuff

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Starflower1234
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Starflower1234's Stuff

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So, I've finally decided to make a post of my stuff. Eventually, I might post some of my drawings and stories, but right now I'm starting it as a sort of blog or posts about my accomplishments.

So, a few weeks ago, I finally got rabbits! I have three does (girls) and one buck (boy). My mom also got a free Flemish Giant rabbit, but he's not technically mine, even though I'm taking care of him and feeding him. My first doe is Chloe. She's a purebred Californian, and she has white fur with black paws, nose, tail, and ears and red eyes. She's about two months old. She's very skittish and doesn't really like me to pet her. Then I have Zoe, a purebred New Zealand White, who is completely white with red eyes. She is very curious, kind of hyper, and very friendly. I can pick her up and she doesn't run away. Then there's Star, my newest rabbit. I got her about two weeks ago from a different place than the rest of the rabbits. She came from a friend of ours who bred her for me before I got her. She is hopefully pregnant and will be having a litter of kits in about two weeks. She is a black tortoiseshell, which means a brown/orange color that turns into black as it gets close to her points (ears, nose, tail, paws), with a white spot on her nose and white paws. She's more calm, but she doesn't really let me pet her yet. Corus is the only buck that is actually mine, and he is a purebred Californian like Chloe and has the same coloring. He doesn't really like me to pet him either, but otherwise he's a very friendly rabbit. Fezzik is the Flemish Giant. He's an albino like Zoe, and he is about two or three times as big as the others and still isn't full grown. He could get up to 20 lbs! He has a very proud attitude, and he even looks proud when he sits up. He has this way of holding his head with his nose almost pointing in the air. It's hilarious. He's not really friendly and my mom thinks he's mad at her. You see, he was free to hop around wherever he wanted at his old home, and now he's in a cage, so my mom thinks he knows that she's the one who put him here. He was free, and my mom just couldn't resist getting a free rabbit, so she brought him home with us. He's a kind of grumpy rabbit.

My rabbits are raised on pasture, which means they're in a cage with wire on the bottom that is set on a field so they can eat the grass through the wire. They are also given some pellets as a supplement. I move them every morning to fresh grass. I'm raising the rabbits for meat rabbits, though the ones I own now are going to be used for breeding, not to eat. I'm also thinking about joining 4-H and showing my rabbits, as three of them are purebred. I also am excited to learn and be able to experiment with color genetics with my rabbits. That's one of the reasons I got Star, so I could have more variety of color. I can't wait for my first litter of rabbits! Star was bred to an Chestnut Agouti buck (a wild colored rabbit), so there are several possibilities for colors.

So, that's all about my rabbits. Now for exciting things that are coming up.

Tomorrow my Drama class is performing a play. I can't wait! It's called the Elves and the Shoemaker, and though it is a little corny and silly, I'm really excited about it. I play one of the elves, named Mortz, who is a bossy leader on the outside, but who is afraid of breaking or changing the rules, and doesn't like new things. We had our first dress rehearsal today and tomorrow is another dress rehearsal and then the performance!

Then on Tuesday I have a Choir performance for the same co-op that I take my Drama class at. I'm in Choir and Ensemble, and we're singing lots of awesome songs. We're singing some Latin songs, a Spanish song, a spiritual, and we're singing a collection of Irving Berlin songs like God Bless America, There's No Business Like Show Business, Putting on the Ritz, and others. Plus, I'm playing the piano in the prelude for the concert. I'm planning on playing Chariots of Fire.

So, that's it for now. I'll update tomorrow to say how the performance went. Thank you if you read this! :)
I made a promise, Mr. Frodo. A promise. "Don't you leave him Samwise Gamgee." And I don't mean to. I don't mean to. - Sam from The Fellowship of the Ring movie
I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you! - Sam from The Return of the King movie
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Jimmy Barclay
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Great post......can't wait to hear how it went.
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Jimmy Barclay: Faithful companion of Drama Queen, aka Renae.

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Starflower1234
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Okay, so the play went really well! There were only a few mistakes, and they were covered up so that my mom said that you couldn't even tell they were mistakes. At one point the main character falls down in a comic faint, and he has a fake mustache. When he fainted at the performance, his mustache fell off, so one of the other characters said "Oh, you shaved!" and covered it up really well! It was a great play, and really funny. For costume I had to wear a bright red sweat suit/pajamas and for makeup they colored my bangs blue and all the elves had bright red cheeks with sparkles. :lol: It was awesome. :)
I made a promise, Mr. Frodo. A promise. "Don't you leave him Samwise Gamgee." And I don't mean to. I don't mean to. - Sam from The Fellowship of the Ring movie
I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you! - Sam from The Return of the King movie
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godisawesomeness99
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That does sound awesome, starflower. I love Drama!!
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Starflower1234
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Thanks guys! Yeah, godisawesomeness, I love it too. I really wish I could take it again next year, but I won't be able to. Hopefully once I can drive I can start auditioning for parts in local plays.

So, for an update on my rabbits. Star is pregnant! I palpated (felt) her Sunday and I'm 95% sure she's pregnant! She's due in about two weeks, and I can't wait. Hopefully her kits survive. First time mother rabbits tend to have trouble. But hopefully everything will work out. :)
I made a promise, Mr. Frodo. A promise. "Don't you leave him Samwise Gamgee." And I don't mean to. I don't mean to. - Sam from The Fellowship of the Ring movie
I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you! - Sam from The Return of the King movie
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Floral Filly
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Wow Star. You have too much rabbit stuff! Here, since you said I could:
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Fezzik the Flemmish Giant.
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Corus the Californian.
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Chloe the Californian, & Zoe the New Zealand.
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And last but not least, Star the... I dunno. :P Thanks so much Star!
P.S. I took all of these pics!
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Love God, and Love Horses. ~My motto
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Starflower1234
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Well, I know it's been a long time since I updated this. I'm sorry. Anyway...
Star was actually *not* pregnant. Either I felt her wrong or the kits died, I have no idea. She acted like she was pregnant, digging holes in her cage and digging a little nest in her nest box, but she wasn't. Turns out she just likes to dig for fun. But because I thought she was pregnant, I gave her extra food. Well, since she really wasn't pregnant, she became overweight. You can't breed an overweight rabbit (it can cause problems with kindling [giving birth] and they just don't breed as well) so I have to wait until she's back to normal weight to breed her again. Well, because she is overweight, she now has GI Stasis. It's where something causes the gastrointestinal tract of a rabbit to stop working, either because of stress, a disease, or because the rabbit is overweight. When the digestive system stops, the rabbit is left feeling full and uncomfortable, and sometimes full of gas. Also, because the stomach uses up all the water in the food or something, the food can become a giant ball that doesn't get passed, which can cause the rabbit pain. So the rabbit quits eating, which means it can die of starvation or other things caused by not eating. They also quit pooping. So because I am low on money right now, I'm trying to treat it at home. I've tried 'playing' (more like annoying) her with food to get her to bite it and end up eating it, but she just bites the grass or hay in half and drops it, or she moves it out of the way. I tried giving her herbs, but she ignored them. She isn't drinking from her water bottle, so I gave her some water in a dish. She likes drinking from that, but she purposefully turns it over and dumps the water out. I finally tried to massage her belly, hoping to get some of the gas out and stimulating her digestive system to start working again. Well, she doesn't really like me to touch her, and so I had to grab her and hold her down while I did it. I did it for a couple minutes, and she was fine, but then she ran off. I tried to grab her again and she thumped her back feet at me, which means she's annoyed with me. But, I think some of what I did may have worked, because I saw her eat a little bit of grass on her own. And she doesn't seem to be in pain, she just isn't eating or pooping. Hopefully she'll live, but let's just say that right now I wouldn't miss her as much as I would any of the other rabbits. Not to be mean or anything, but this rabbit is getting on my nerves. I bought her so that I could have some bunnies sooner, as my other two does aren't going to be ready to breed for a month or two, but by the time she's actually ready to breed and has her litter of kits (if she even is pregnant the second time she's bred), my other rabbits will be ready to breed. *Sigh*
Well, anyway, my other rabbits are growing up very nicely. They're friendly, though the Californians are a little skittish, and they're getting so big! I'm also thinking of showing the buck, Corus, as to me he looks like he fits the standard for the Californian pretty well. Of course, I could be completely wrong, but it's worth a shot.
Thank you for reading! I'll try to update this more often.
Update:
Well, looks like Star is going to recover! She is now eating without me having to harass her. Hopefully she recovers quickly.
I made a promise, Mr. Frodo. A promise. "Don't you leave him Samwise Gamgee." And I don't mean to. I don't mean to. - Sam from The Fellowship of the Ring movie
I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you! - Sam from The Return of the King movie
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Of course, I know, cause I'm your sis but, THAT'S GREAT! I'll try to get more pics of them now.
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Starflower1234
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It's been a long time since I updated this. Anyway, here's a brief summary of what's happened with my rabbits:
Star is currently taking care of her second litter of seven bunnies, every one of which is jet black and one has a little white on both of its front paws. I've discovered that baby bunnies are the cutest things there are. :) I kept one of the does from her first litter and named her Midnight. Chloe gave birth to five kits, but she didn't have them in the nestbox and she didn't pull fur to keep them warm. I tried warming them and putting cotton balls and dryer lint in the nestbox, but they all died. Overall, my rabbits are now doing good, I just need to start getting more litters of bunnies.

This year I'm still taking choir, but I didn't have time for ensemble and drama. Our Christmas concert went pretty well, I almost had a kind of solo but because we never finished practicing the song I didn't get to do it. This Christmas I got to accompany my piano teacher's violin students (including my mom and two sisters) at a Christmas concert. My teacher told me that she's gotten several compliments on the piano accompaniment. :) And I'm now playing piano for some of the music at our church, while my mom and Dad'sCamoGirl play violin and God's Wolf sings. I'm enjoying my classes of Basic Composition, Biology, and Art. And our family farm has grown significantly. We now have goats, cows, chickens, ducks, rabbits, cats, and two dogs. And I'm finally getting to take horse riding lessons! Me and God's Wolf take turns every week getting an hour lesson. There's a horse farm just down the road from us that my mom and dad stopped at one day and talked to the owners. They found out that they teach dressage, which is kind of like dancing on a horse, in a way, and so a large part of our Christmas presents were horse riding lessons. It's fun, but definitely harder than I expected. We just finished our balancing work on a lunge line and I just started riding solo this past week. Riding can make you very sore, especially your legs. To develop good balance and leg strength, we have to stand up in the stirrups while walking and trotting. It's kind of hard at first, and even harder when you have to control the horse while doing it! It's a dream come true. :)

Well, there's my update. I hope you enjoy. Hopefully I'll keep this updated, and maybe post some artwork or writing in the future. Thanks for reading. :)
I made a promise, Mr. Frodo. A promise. "Don't you leave him Samwise Gamgee." And I don't mean to. I don't mean to. - Sam from The Fellowship of the Ring movie
I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you! - Sam from The Return of the King movie
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Ameraka
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Those are cute bunnies! That's cool you're learning dressage. I ride, but I've never done dressage, though I like to watch it. :)
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That was lovely, Starflower. And I actually happen to be writing a backstory about one of the characters in a book of mine involving learning to ride horses, so that last post was quite helpful. Really though, you must expound on, "kind of dancing on a horse." O.o
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Starflower1234
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Okay. I couldn't find the right words to explain it at first, but here's a (hopefully) better explanation. Dressage is an equestrian sport that involves learning many patterns that you do in different combinations in different tests to move up through the levels, from the beginning levels (that I can't remember the exact name of) all the way up to Grand Prix. You have to memorize the different patterns and perform them correctly to I guess pass the test. I'm not sure how the whole test thing works exactly. Some of the simple patterns are different size circles and walking diagonally. One of the more difficult ones is where the horse almost walks in place, I don't know the name for it. I just started, so I don't know a lot about it. It takes a lot of discipline to do dressage, and you and the horse really have to work hard. I haven't really started learning actual dressage yet, I'm still working on balancing and being able to control the horse at all of the different gaits. So, that's my more detailed explanation of dressage. I hope it's more clear than "kind of dancing on a horse." :) I'm probably not very good at explaining it.
I made a promise, Mr. Frodo. A promise. "Don't you leave him Samwise Gamgee." And I don't mean to. I don't mean to. - Sam from The Fellowship of the Ring movie
I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you! - Sam from The Return of the King movie
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Ameraka
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Have you heard of cowboy dressage? I ride Western so that's the version I'd probably do (if I did it)

Here is a video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPAUb7bgd-g
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Floral Filly
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BTW I do dressage too, and am at the same level as Star. ;) Lovely explanation, even though you looked at wiki. Yes, as it may seem weird I do sing. Don't you laugh! But anyway, Star's life I already know so I don't know why I bother looking at this. :p
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Love God, and Love Horses. ~My motto
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