Sad Day on the Farm

My Pastor-Hubby & I had the privilege of attending a church leaders' conference in San Jose, CA yesterday. We listened to some fantastic speakers: Francis Chan, Jon Tyson, & Rick Warren. It was wonderfully encouraging and inspiring.

During the first session of the conference, I received a text from my children at home. Joshua's mommy rabbit was found dead and mutilated on the front driveway.

Somehow, her cage door had been left opened. The rabbit cages are suspended high above the ground, but she managed to jump down to the ground and got out during the night.

We had begun, this past week, weaning her babies out of her cage. We have three of her five babies sold already, so those were the first we moved out to a cage of their own. She had two babies left with her.

When the kids went to her cage yesterday morning, it was completely empty.

Stephanie, our babysitter, spotted one white baby on the ground hiding in a corner. They snatched that little girl up and put her in the new cage with her other brothers and sisters.

The tri-colored baby was never found. We suspect a coyote.

My text message read that there were many tears at home. Joshua, my oldest boy and owner of the rabbits, dug a hole and buried his momma rabbit. Stephanie led them in a small "funeral."

This is part of farm life.

On a lighter note, here's some other happenings on the farm these days.

Our three little pigs, Bacon, Ham, and Pork Chop, are not so little anymore. They're four months old, requiring 12 pounds of food a day.

Our hens are completely free-ranged all day long now. Our puppy is now trained to leave them alone, and she's doing fantastic. Unfortunately, this means we are finding some eggs on the lawn. Anybody know how to solve this?

This lone rooster is kept very busy all day - and he's developed a bit of an attitude.

My oldest boy, Josh, is teaching my fourth child, Noah, to drive the tractor.

My Pastor-Hubby likes to put in 30 minutes to an hour each day working on the farm. He works that in around his church schedule.

This is Hannah's Holland Lop doe who will be ready for breeding in spring.

Noah enjoys playing with these baby bunnies. These are the babies purchased for him, Luke, and Hannah. These are not Joshua's babies born in December.

Noah's baby rabbit

Luke's baby dwarf rabbit.

Our lab-mix puppy is so grown up. She's the best dog we ever had. She desires to please and obey. She is going through a little bit of the terrible-twos right now, at eight months old. She loves playing in the seasonal pond we have on the property (which is what she had done before I took these pictures of her.) Isn't she pretty? Any guesses on what she's mixed with?