Awhile back Clover had a little singleton that barely survived.  It took lots of extra feedings and dedication to keep the little guy alive.  He was born on Valentines day and therefore Kami named him Sugar.  He really never grew much.  Despite his many downfalls he had one thing going for him.  Incredible type.  That being said we were very excited for a repeat breeding.  After some failed attempts we finally have a beautiful litter of three, a black, a solid tort and a broken tort.  We are so excited to watch these little ones grow grow grow.
Along with that exciting news we finally got one little singleton out of Maeve.  She is almost a year and a half old and we feared we would have to give up on any offspring from our pretty girl.  Luckily one little one was able to survive and it's the fattest little tort.  
More exciting news.... we are expecting a Full AceHops litter.  This is our first time using our own buck.  We are also doing a little recessive line breeding so are anxious to see if we can pull something amazing out of the hat.  The doe we used did not produce well with Buddah.  She is out of Henry.  The buck we bred her to, has Henry in his pedigree.  We have retired our cute boy Henry awhile back, but we are hoping just adding this option into the breeding helps resolve what we didn't like about her cross to Buddah.  Of course there is always the chance it didn't help at all, but we're going to hope for the best outcome.  
  Our line breeding projects have taught us so much.  If there were one thing I ever really wanted to express to new breeders is the importance of this.  We are getting to the point where we know what traits each rabbit in our pedigree carry and can offer.  We don't have to test breed because we are locking in our traits with each litter.  We are starting to see some amazing consistencies which is really what you want to aim for.  I don't want to produce a litter just to have one and then realize none of them turn out.  I am really really enjoying the fact that our litters are producing some really nice shoulders  and better heads and typier bodies.  With this next few litters I see us being able to finally offer some show potential stock.  
Along with that, we have come to adopt a new way of thinking.  I have respected the many many breeders who only sell what they would use in their own program.  We are officially there.  It feels good to get over that hump of feeling nervous of selling a rabbit because you're worried if it's good enough, to being confident that you have bred generations of quality stock so that you can feel good about what you are selling to someone.  We can feel confident that what we sell will actually benefit someones herd.  
Our Little Buddah has been such a great herd buck for us.  I was really skeptical to use one buck to breed everything to for so long.  We do use Fibonacci for one other small line breeding project as well, but so far Buddah is really doing good things for us.  He stays consistently at 4 pounds yet his head and body keep looking more and more massive.  I LOVE this boy.  He is also a sweetheart so that makes it all the more enjoyable.  

We are continually working to improve our lines at all times.  Every time we evaluate our stock we look closely at every detail and strive to select stock that is going to help us improve.  It is a continual balancing act.  We completely understand each animal has certain parts that are more valuable for our herd.  Some does we keep specifically for their balanced body, even though they may lack bone, or head.  Some we keep because they are massive and can help us with bone and hind quarters and shoulders.  Some we keep to size down our stock.  And in the event we end up with someone special to show, then that is great.  But the important part here is we are working always to improve.  We are not keeping stock because it's fluffy or cute.  We aren't keeping it because of it's color.  We are only keeping it because we feel it can improve the Holland Lop Breed in our barn.  
That being said I took a side by side picture of Buddah and his son.  It is not an easy task to get two bucks to sit together I have learned.  I was able to get a shot that truly demonstrates my point.  When we purchased Buddah we had specific things we wanted to work on.  We had some narrow head issues going on and some mass issues.  Of course he wasn't the biggest boned buck on the block, but he was an improvement.  From one of his litters we kept a very large boned gal.  She was full in every which way.  From her we produced our cute little Rudy.  Naturally he isn't perfect, I would love to fix that crown, but if you look at them, you can clearly see that we have improved on shoulders and bone!  Look at the width between his legs, vs his sires.  And look at the bone in those front limbs.  Hooray for visual improvement!  
I wish I had the patience to take more side by sides of sires and offspring... perhaps I will attempt that next month.  It is fascinating to see the transformation from where we started.  I can't wait to look back in 5 years and see how much we have changed.
That being said... I will put my 2 cents in here.  It's not about making babies or making money.  That is beyond shallow and just plain stupid.  If you're going to pursue this hobby, at least work at doing something great with your herd.  Quit selling your babies off for profit.  Grow your stock and understand your lines and work to improve.  Yeah you won't get rich that way, but the benefits far outweigh the money you make from being a sleezy pet breeder.  You truly can't improve by selling off your litters.  And there is no such thing as a pick of the litter when it comes to juniors.  It takes time and patience and much of the time that pick of the litter you had your eye on becomes the ugly duck by the end of 6 months.  I've had my favorite ones go down the hill time and time again, where the ones in my cull pen ended up being my favorite.  In fact, our cute little Rudy was actually for sale on KSL because we didn't think he was going to work for us.  Glad we removed that ad quick and reconsidered.  It seemed like the very next week he blossomed from a long eared gangly Holland into something we really wanted to hang on to.  At this point I honestly feel that letting go of most of your stuff before 6 months can lead to some big mistakes.  By 4 months I feel comfortable with figuring out who can offer what to our herd and if we need it or not.  But if I have doubts on any, it's staying for at least a few more months.  

Okay, so I am a little delayed on posting an update.  Summer with 3 daughters can do that to you.  Especially when two of them are teenagers.  
So multiple things have happened in the last week.  
We finally made it to the rabbit show.  The girls entered in the specialty show which put them up against Open.  I haven't had the confidence to do this in the past but thought, what the heck.  Well Kamis little blue tort held her own.  She was showing against a beautiful black doe of Ty Gordons and took second place.  For us that was very flattering.  Scott Rodgriguez was the judge and was very impressed with her.  In her next show she took Best of Breed and went on to group and got an honorable mention.  And the last show, again under Scott, she got a BOSV.  Not too shabby for a 3 month old doe!  She has much growing to do and we are anxious to show her again this fall.  Funny how we didn't want dilute and she is our best doe yet.  Guess we'll be keeping some dilute after all.  
Out side of the show world, we have opened up a little in the Holland world.  We  have met a couple new breeders and are hoping to help them on their way to improving their herd.  It has been rewarding hearing nice things from people that have purchased from us.  We don't sell stock very often and when we do we make sure it is something that will benefit someone.  
We are at a lull in the barn with no babies!  Feels so strange.  Nothing to go check on, nothing expected.  In some ways it's sad and in other ways it's a relief as the heat kicks in.  We are however planning a couple breedings this next week.  Trying to wrap up our last round of our line breeding goals.  If we wait too long that will put us into next year, which it probably will anyhow.  
And last but not least, we have a power washer now!  Which means super clean cages.  Such a relief.  Our next step is designing the watering system for our rabbits.  Hoping to make this move within the next month so I will have to take pics and keep you posted on how it works.  This would mean... we could go on vacation.... for a week, with the neighbors only having to come feed rabbits and not spend all their time wrestling with water bottles.  
I planned on posting a pic of Moonshine... our little blue tort doe, that won.  She however has taken on an attitude and will have no such picture taken at this time.  Sigh.