Well I managed to add a few pictures, however I don't love them and it was too cold to get the shots I wanted.  So for now it will have to do.  They are all in the uglies but I see potential in them all and think they are going to look incredible in a month or so.  
From our last juniors we had a little tort doe.  I wasn't too impressed with her but she was part of our line breeding and the only one left so I held onto her until we could think it over more.  Well a couple months have gone by and she is now a senior.  And wow!  What a senior she is.  I would like to see some bigger bone on her, but she has a lot going for her in other areas.  And Pancake just keeps getting prettier and prettier.  I am so glad we didn't let judging effect our decision to keep her.  Hoping to have a cute litter out of her soon!

 My morning routine here is a bit ocd.  I usually go out and feed and then take some rabbits out for play time in the yard.  Then I work with others on posing and general inspections.  If one is looking extra nice, out comes the camera!  Then of course I can't just take pictures of one rabbit.  
However, in the very cold temperatures I am unable to take many pictures and surely can't take them out for play time in the yard.  Our house is consumed with kids and presents and a tree so I can't bring them in. And I am a fanatic about lighting, I detest indoor flash.   It's really quite dreadful.  Yesterday for a brief moment I put my coat on and thought... well maybe I could do a few photos.... and I quickly changed my mind.  So perhaps I will be stuck in the garage for the next couple weeks. 
I am dying to take some nice ones of our juniors we have growing.  They are some of the nicest we have produced and I am so excited how they are turning out.  Rudy, our own buck produced two gorgeous blacks.  One buck and one doe.  I am thrilled that he is likely going to be a great herd buck for us. We also have a gorgeous buck out of Fibonacci that just keeps getting better and better.  He is also solid black.  We are hoping to get him to some shows this year.  And our gorgeous litter out of our TF doe is coming along nicely.  I am so in love with a little doe in this litter, I think she may be the best doe we have produced so far.  She should be very showy in a few months.  
On the bright side of the cold winter, we have a couple cute litters to occupy us inside.  Cream Puff had 9 sable point babies.  One did not survive, but even 8 is a huge huge litter.  I almost feel like one looks to be a siamese sable but not sure if that is even an option.  This is why I dislike the sables so much.  My mind likes to look at a rabbit and know what color it is.  I don't have it in me to sit them aside for weeks at a time and then figure it out.  Anyhow, they are all growing very nicely!  
Quinnes rabbit had a cute blue tort and black tort which she has already named Peppermint and Jingle bells.  Not my choice in names but since she puts a good amount of effort into the care of her rabbits I suppose she gets to name them whatever she pleases.
So until later here's a pic of the newbies to grow.  I plan on getting at least a few pics of our gorgeous Juniors up on the website sometime today or tomorrow.  

Well this last month has been exciting.  After the last show Kait has taken more interest in the rabbit projects.  Being that this was the entire reason we started out to begin with, we are very happy about this.  She officially likes the shows and no longer wants me involved or "hovering" around.  She was quite annoyed by all the moms lurking about their kids so much so that the kids can't even watch their own rabbits being judged.  
Along with this change, comes her desire to take charge of her rabbits and the breeding schedule.
At the same time Kami has forsaken hers.  She has no interest in pursing the rabbit world any longer.  Therefore Kait has taken over her share of the rabbits.  
Kait has gone through the herd and chosen to make some cuts.  It might make me cringe a little... because I have put a lot of time and effort into getting us here, but I also want her to take the lead.
That being said, we will be selling off our herd bucks! (seen on our Holland Seniors page.  Both Fibonacci and Buddha will be listed within the next month.  This will leave us with only Kaits homegrown buck for the time being.  GULP.
We also have a few junior bucks available.  We will be moving on a decent amount of our herd come spring so if there is something specific you are looking for, please let us know.  
We will for sure be listing our solid black senior doe and possibly our blue tort doe with 2 show legs.   We also have a couple of solid tort does available.

As the year comes to a close it brings out this over analyitical monster in me.  I look at all of our rabbits and wonder... did we even make progress?  Are we where we planned on being?  Did we reach our goals?  And then I kind of take a deep breath and remind myself, that it is also a time to start making NEW goals! 
The entire last year has gone mostly to line breeding.  It was a great learning experience because we saw immediate changes in the second generation.  Being that we breed so few times a year, we are just barely making it to our third generation.  It was in this line breeding that we were able to get a real feel for what our animals could produce.  We have now narrowed it down to about 4 does we love and plan on using in the next phase of our program.  
We have used our own home grown buck and produced 2 gorgeous offspring.  They have much growing to do and we are awaiting his second litter to see if he is as nice as we are hoping.  We have come to learn... that a rabbit that looks amazing, does not always produce that way.  
In the mean time, we have a couple other bucks from our slowest growing line.  We are slowly waiting for them to mature into what we hope will be some very balanced nice short bucks.
By years end we are possibly going to let go of our main herd bucks and bring in some new stock.  This is such a scary step.  
We have also decided to hang onto our dilute line for a bit and see where it takes us.  We never really got attached to the sables like others have but the blues are trying hard to tempt us.  Of course it follows suit for everything we secretly hope for.  When we want broken  black, they are the peanuts, and our first blue kit was of course also a peanut.  We will attempt that again sometime this spring.  
Another fun thing we are attempting, is to draw out the REW gene.  Buddha carries it and one of our upcoming litters could possibly have produced it.  Learning pedigrees and the art of drawing out beneficial traits has been fascinating and taught us so much.  
In the process of learning we kind of hit a brick wall with Rudy.  We thought he was smoke pearl as a kit, due to his typical grizzled coat.  By the time he finished his junior molt, we started to get confused.  He began to look more like a really light blue tort.  Then he molted again, and again, and again.  In and out of those phases he would look like a blue point, or a light blue tort.  We finally gave in and took him to a show for input.  Nate Burbidge instantly said he was a smoke pearl, held him up on the table and proclaimed his love of the color.  We felt at ease to know at last.  But then another experienced smoke pearl breeder, said he was most certainly a blue point.  Then another long time breeder said he was smoke pearl.  Then the last judge said he couldn't even tell what he was but for sure wasn't a smoke pearl, more like a blue tort or something similar.  So we left still not knowing for certain.  Now all we can do is test breed, however if we test breed to a tort carrying sable, there is the chance of producing blue points which we really don't want to do.  

I can recall our first rabbit show and how unprepared and nervous we felt.  Our animals didn't place well but that didnt' matter as we were just getting used to everything.  One judge even suggested petting out our nice doe.  Had we listened to him, we wouldn't have the stock we have today.  She went on to produce my favorite doe in our barn, who has consistently produced amazing show quality stock.  
Judges aren't there to tell you what to do with your animals, they are merely comparing them with what is on the table and making comments.  All too often I see breeders mention to take the animals to the show and let the judge critique them.  That is nice advice, but I feel you also have to know what you like in that animal despite what the judge has to say.  
For instance in our herd, I like the big beefy does.  I love the mass when they pose up nice.  At our last show my favorite doe was placed very low.  They didn't care for her at all.  I was unphased because I saw her value in our herd.  She lost to another doe in our herd who took BOB.  That doe is far more refined and from my experience may not produce quite as well.   So now that several months have gone by I have pondered over letting go of the doe that placed so low.  So I took her out to evaluate and I am instantly reminded of why I love her so much!  Getting your hands on her makes all the difference.  She is a solid tank at just under 4 pounds.  I love the width of her shoulder and hq and feel she will be a huge asset to our goal.  

Boy it's been awhile since I have posted anything about our herd.  Sometimes I get the impression the general populatiion only cares about cute fluffy babies.  And since that is the last thing I care about, I rarely have little fluff balls to post.  Yes they are adorable and I enjoy them so much, however at our rabbitry we are very very committed to growing ours sometimes into their senior months before making any decisions.  During that time there are so many times I think, yep your going to go and then a week or so later I get the same rabbit out only to realize it has potential. Besides that, being a Holland Lop Breeder in Utah is almost sickening if you look on KSL.  Thanks to all the people who don't care about the breed, there are oodles and oodles of 6 week old babies on ksl.  It truly makes me cringe.  I wish there were penalties for these people who promote breeding and selling babies for money.  Ugh.
On that note, we have had only 2 litters in the past 5 months.  One included 3 bucks out of my favorite doe, Clover.  They other was a single doe.  Needless to say, they are all looking really nice.  The doe was a line breeding project so has replaced her dam.  I really didn't want to hang on to all 3 bucks, but it looks like I may have to.  The little broken seemed so scrawny as a kit I kind of wrote him off from the get go, and now he is my favorite one.  They are from our slow growing line so it's taking them awhile to mature through their uglies.  The solid tort and the broken tort have almost finished up their molt and I am in love with both of them.  The black buck is still working on his molt but looks really nice and has huge bone.

Well if you've been in the rabbit world for very long at all you have probably heard about the use of Apple Cider Vinegar for your rabbits.  Many put it in the water.  I have tried this and my rabbits refuse to drink the water.  I have tried several different times until I finally concluded this just won't work for me.  
However, I decided to use it as a preventative and general cleanse in our barn.  I figured what could it hurt.  So once a month I mix water and vinegar into a spray bottle.  And also another into a dish.  I spray coats down lightly and massage it in.  I have heard that ACV is a deterrent for those nasty mites.  Being that I let my rabbits play in the yard, where lots of mite carrying birds play, I figured this was worth a try.  I also wipe down the genital area which is also an opportunity for a general health check up for your rabbit.  I'm not saying this is a for sure thing, but I must say I have gone a couple years with no vent.  
I have read several posts where people advise it could hurt the rabbits skin.  I would never put straight vinegar on our rabbits, I dilute it , 2 parts water to 1 part vinegar.  I also only use Braggs Organic Raw vinegar.  I feel the ones that are heavily processed kind of lose their value.  
I also treat our herd twice yearly with Ivermectin as a preventative for mites and worms.  We have been fortunate enough not to have any side effects with our routine.
I felt perhaps I would share, in the event anyone is struggling with any of the above issues.  ACV is also a great cleaner to wipe down cages.  

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We have been lucky this year to have a mild summer with many cool nights and rain.  Makes it much more enjoyable for me and the buns.  Less flies too!  
With no shows in sight for months I don't have much going on.  Shows inspire us to evaluate the rabbits one by one and groom and get excited about them.  However when they are so far away it becomes less exciting each month.  Especially with Hollands who may look phenomenal now, but by November, not so much.  
We didn't do much breeding at all over the summer, just worked on our 2 does we really wanted a litter out of.  On the bright side, all four kits look amazing.  I really feel this will be our first round being able to offer up something of show quality.  So for those of you interested in a buck later this fall you may want to let me know now.  We are growing 3 out and as lovely as they are, we do not have a need for 3 bucks, so will likely part with 1 or 2 of them.  We also have a brood doe that is just turned senior that we have decided to let go.  We are still on the fence about Sugar.  He is a solid tort buck.  He is on the small side, but he is very very typey.  He would be excellent for someone who needs him with the bigger gals.  He is built so nice we have really hesitated to let him go, however where we are still working on our line breeding project we don't have a need for him anywhere in our near future.  I'll be working on photos for listings soon.

We have been enjoying our summer too much to post very often, however I thought today would be a good day to catch up.  I woke up early, to be ready for perfect lighting.  I carried out all my favorite rabbits for photos.  Do you think even one rabbit would cooperate?  NO.  
Our beautiful show doe Moonshine... was a brat and refused to pose even though she has the perfect body... she was not  having any photo time.  So I thought, Rudy our blue point is so sweet, I'll take some of him, he too was not having it.  So why I decided to even attempt juniors was beyond me, but at least they can get away with just being cute if they don't pose.  And... cute they are!  
Clover has 3 bucks a growing and so far so good.  I really really love the solid tort and solid black.  Somehow... I just never can fall in love with the brokens.  And of course that is the one that poses up better.  Maeve has a gorgeous little doe that we just love.  She doesn't even look real due to her cuteness.  When she hops and holds still, she looks like a little stuffed animal.  

Hopefully these babies get to make it to the show tables this fall!
We also picked up two new does over the summer!  Pretty excited to incorporate a few new lines in.  We are feeling pretty good about our HQ and shoulders but really wanted to work on crown definition... so we're anxious to see if this will do the trick.