Crystal Pond, and Treasures Found There

November 13, 2015February 14, 2016 | Allison

Somewhere on a farm, hidden away in its own little secret world of trees and brush, there is a pond whose shores are littered with millions of sparkling quartz crystals… Well, OK, Crystal Pond isn’t quite as romantic and fairy-tale-like as all that, but it is still one of my favorite places on our farm.

Don’t get confused by the name – the water in the pond isn’t crystal clear, but rather the land around the pond has pretty quartz crystals scattered on it. Sometimes there are a bunch of crystals, sometimes… not so much, especially when the pond is high. The bad thing is, the pond is kind of surrounded by a defense wall of thorns, prickly evergreens, and brush. Yeah, it’s just a tad hard to get to. But once you get inside, it’s nice and quiet and peaceful. There is always some treasure waiting to be found along the shores or in the scrubby woods beside the pond. Crystal Pond has several of my favorite things around it: water, moss, rocks, and mushrooms!

Here are, um… a LOT of photos.

Moss:

A beautiful quartz crystal!

This rock looks like it has a heart in it.

And… lots of mushrooms!

Aren’t these such cute little mushrooms? They look like they are made of playdough or something.

And some close-ups:

I also found a strange, lonely, frilly mushroom with no identity tag. Does anyone know what it is?

And some other things:

A pill bug going busily about his day (I edited this picture),

An interesting plant (I think maybe a Chinese lantern?),

Some bright red berries,

An ivy vine with berries,

And a beautiful pine tree.

And that’s it! Are you still awake? 😛 If so, what was one of your favorite pictures from this post?

Bye ’til later!

***Allison***

Meet Yoshi the Rabbit!

November 12, 2015February 14, 2016 | Allison

We have a new rabbit on the farm! He is from our friends, who gave him to us because they had two males that were not working well together. Yoshi is now my brother Logan’s bunny. Now kid in our family has a bunny! (And I have two.)

Yoshi is an adorable Holland Lop rabbit. Here’s his profile:

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Breed: Holland Lop

Color: Broken (spotted) brown and white

Name: Yoshi

Gender: Male

Age when we got him: 5 months

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Now for pictures – a LOT of pictures.☺

In this next picture, ↓ Yoshi is kind of slipping on the floor, but I think he looks ADORABLE that way!

Here are a couple of pictures of Yoshi in his little cozy house my brother made for him.

And one more of him drinking…

So there he is! Isn’t he so cute?! Yoshi is just a little bit bigger than Clementine, our other Holland Lop, and we will hopefully breed them soon.

***Allison***

P. S. We just discovered that Olaf may actually be… a girl! *Gasp!* Apparently, the man we bought Olaf from didn’t check very closely to make sure “he” was a boy when we bought “him.” Also, when we figure Olaf out, I will put up a page of bunny profiles on my blog.

Roly-Poly Stuffed Bear

November 9, 2015November 10, 2015 | Allison

I made this little guy for a gift for one of our friends. He was so cute I almost didn’t want to give him away! 🙂 I found this great tutorial with templates for making the round felt sphere part of him, and once you make the sphere you can customize it to be anything you want! Here’s the link to the tutorial on how to sew the pieces together (the actual tutorial part is towards the bottom of the post) tallystreasury.com And here’s the link to the template – it’s down near the bottom of the page under “Sewing Patterns” #14: tallystreasury.com/patterns/.

And now for a photoshoot!

This last picture shows him with a necklace I made that I also included in the gift. Doesn’t he look like he’s wearing earbuds or something?

Don’t you just want to squeeze him?!

***Allison***

The Hard Life of a Rabbit

November 4, 2015December 2, 2015 | Allison

We very much enjoy playing with our dear rabbits, but sometimes I think our rabbits don’t very much enjoy playing with us. Lily, Willow, Diamond, and Clementine will be sharing with you a few of the trials they have experienced lately. It is apparently very trying to be a pet bunny! Lily especially seems to have troubles.

Lily: Ahem. Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3. Are we ready? OK. So, one of the trials that we rabbits have been experiencing lately has been our humans bringing us inside their house. ~~When the humans dragged me~~ in When I politely, but reluctantly complied to being brought inside, it was horrible! For one thing, the ground must have been made of pure slipperiness. And for another thing, it is shameful how they laugh at us when we go sliding about on the floor as we try to walk. It makes us look highly undignified, to say the least. I even heard the word FOOLISH! Well excuse me, but that was partly the humans fault! Look at this picture if you want evidence. Do you think I wanted to be held that way? Well…. NO, I POSITIVELY DID NOT!

I demand justice! (Or at least a towel to hide under.)

Thankfully, when I just couldn’t stand the slipperiness any longer, I could always clamber up onto the humans’ backs or into their lap, which they seemed to like. It would be far beneath my dignity in normal circumstances, but…

There is a bright side: my human said I was a superb back massager! She and her two sister humans quite enjoyed my massages. (Really, all I did was walk around on their backs, but don’t tell them.)

Willow: Hello, lovely humans! This might surprise you because of the title and all, but I really am pretty content with my life right now. The humans are very loving to me. But there is one thing: I don’t like it when they brush me. I’m not sure they understand my fur. My skin is very sensitive, and I really don’t appreciate when they yank my fur with a brush just to get a few pieces of straw out! Here is a rather blurry picture of me hopping for a bonus picture because my human thinks it looks funny.

Diamond: I, like Lily, have recently experienced the trial of being brought inside. Don’t ask me why they do it – it’s certainly not because we like it – but humans rarely ask us our opinions. I do not need to repeat all of the trials that Lily has so well outlined for you above, but here is a picture, just for proof. Just a picture of me relaxing, as you see. It is really the wisest thing to do when in a house to just lay down and not even try to move – if you try to move it will only make the humans screech louder.

Clementine: Helo. My nam is Clementine. I hav had a tryal. The hyoomens put me in a hat and set me on the conter. It was not fun. And they laft at me and skweeled to.

*Translation:* Hello. My name is Clementine. I have had a trial. The humans put me in a hat and set me on the counter. It was not fun. And they laughed at me and squealed too.

And now you know how hard it is to be a pet rabbit. Or at least one of our pet rabbits. 🙂 I hope you enjoyed reading! Which “testimonial” was your favorite?

***Allison***

P. S. I just did another mystery picture post (see previous post). I will hopefully reveal the answers on Saturday!

Make a Zoo Terrarium

November 1, 2015December 30, 2015 | Allison

My little sister Carmen, and I had fun making a little zoo terrarium with some of the bajillions of plastic animals we have piled up. We first put a fresh layer of soil down in a glass aquarium and divided the space into six pens of various sizes by scraping a line in the dirt. Then we made fences by gluing three toothpicks evenly spaced onto a pair of small wooden craft sticks, like so. I was too lazy to get up to take another picture, so I just sat at the computer and made a diagram instead. 🙂

I transplanted a few succulents in the pens. Then came the fun part – furnishing the pens!

Rabbit, hamster, and mouse pen: Hutch: sides from cardboard, roof from wooden craft sticks. Food and water bowls: metal bottle caps, water for water bowl, cardboard bits for food bowl. Straw: Uh… something like really thin raffia.

Turtles’ pen: half of a plastic Easter egg for the pond, a rock inside the pond for an island, water in the pond, and a little ‘moss puff” on the side.

Dog pen: Doghouse from cardboard, bowls from plastic bottle caps. Food: tiny squares of cardboard.

Safari pen: Um, pretty much a succulent with a couple of smooth rocks.

Farm pen: Cardboard barn, straw from raffia. (By the way, this is definitely NOT what our farm looks like. :P)

Woodland pen: Moss puffs, quartz rocks, and clay toadstools made by yours truly.

Here are some shots of the whole thing.

And thus ends the tour of our little zoo. Hope you enjoyed!

***Allison**

Creation Series: Day 6

October 23, 2015October 24, 2015 | Allison

Oh yeah – day 6! Humans come into the picture, not to mention a lot of fun and furry (well, sometimes not so furry) animals.

²⁴And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. ²⁵And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

²⁷So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

[I left out a few verses because the passage was pretty long. If you want to see it all, click here.]

³¹And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

What is your favorite of God’s creations? (Not including humans.☺)

***Allison***

Creation Series: Day 5

October 22, 2015October 19, 2015 | Allison

²⁰And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” ²¹So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²²And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

I think my favorite creation on this day is birds. There is so much variety and beauty in them. See you tomorrow for a very exciting part of creation!

***Allison***

Crayfish Cleaning

October 12, 2015June 5, 2016 | Allison

Ladies and gents, I present my new video! Enjoy! (This crayfish is named “Duncan,” by the way. ☺)

Isn’t it weird how he cleans his eyes? It looks painful!

***Allison***

An Interview with the Rabbits about the Newcomer

October 7, 2015December 2, 2015 | Allison

My sister Megan got a new rabbit! (Because Mango died 😦 ) Her name is Clementine, and she is an adorable lop rabbit! Here’s her profile:
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Breed: Holland Lop

Color: Light brown with darker brown on her ears and nose

Name: Clementine

Gender: Doe (female)

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First I’ll show you some pictures of Clementine, and then I’ll have the rabbits’ interviews.

Below is Clementine in the bunny-hat. So cute! (See my bunny fashion post.)

Ahem. Now for the interviews. First up, hmmm, let’s go oldest to youngest.

So Diamond, what do you think about this new rabbit?

Humph. She is invading my territory. I try to put her in back in her place by nipping her, but the humans just shut me up in this cage as a punishment – just for defending my territory! Humph.

Okaaayyy… let’s move on to Lily.

Well, to be quite honest with you, she seems a little strange to me. I mean, her ears can’t even stand up! And what’s good about a rabbit whose ears don’t stand up? But I suppose she’s alright. She is an awfully nice snuggler.

Great! Now for Olaf. “Olaf! OLAF! OOLLAAAFF!”

*Gasp,* *Heave,* *Grunt.* Yes? You called?

Umm, yes. I wanted to ask you your opinion of Clementine?

Well… she’s nice, I guess.. um… I haven’t really seen her much, but, uh, yeah she OK. So… can I go now?

Yep, sure, go ahead. *Plunk.*

“Willow!”

Yes! Here I am – with Clementine!

“Oh… nothing. I wondered what your thoughts were on Clementine, but I can see you’re in the middle of playing with her.”

Oh, yes. She’s my best friend. I’m glad I finally have a playmate! Come on Clementine….

So there you have the bunnies’ opinions on the subject. Clementine seems to be enjoying her stay here, as you can see from her diary post on my sister Megan’s blog.

Bye for now!

***Allison***