Mentor isn't a meteor

So I finally had the meeting with my mentor. We discussed what I was going to talk about in my presentation. He also told me that he was very happy that I finally listened to him and researched something that he told me to research (rabbits taking over Australia). I really enjoy having a mentor now that the project is basically over. In the beginning, it was weird because he wasn't able to help me and didn't know much about rabbits. In my painting and drawing lessons I will be enjoy having a mentor that knows more about the topic he is helping me with.

The end is near

Everything is ending too fast for me and I haven't heard from my mentor in a while. Usually we let our meetings fall into place but I'm going to have call in the coming days because he is vital to my presentation. Working on the presentation I've realized that I have put a lot more effort into my project then I have recorded which is an awful mistake on my part because I will not get credit for it of course.

Help me!

I really need to meet with my mentor! Last week he told me that we'd meet on Thursday and he never showed up which is really strange because usually  I see him every week. The reason I need him is because I actually need to ask him for help with my presentation. He has been so great the whole project always there for me and not pushy at all ( which may not actually have been good) but now when need him he is missing. Come back Bowen, come back.

Australia

" Do a blog post on the rabbits that took over Australia " says Mr. Bowen every week. Well, I am doing a blog post on the rabbits that took over Australia everybody! See from my research I know that rabbits have of about 4-12 kits per litter and they can have up to 12 liters a year which is unlikely because the doe does need healing time but possible. So I figure that rabbits could take over a country in no time at all. The problem started when 24 wild European rabbits were released into Australia in 1788. Obviously, the hunters were no Robin Hood and couldn't shoot a bow for their life which means the rabbits all escaped and took over the country in a short amount of time. That is the lame part! The best The most historically significant part is that the rabbits spread west where the settlers did not live or want the rabbits. So they built a fence to keep the rabbits where they wanted them and to keep the Australian native species on the opposite side which separated the Aubergines from the Europeans in every-way possible. This is really cool it's like The Great Wall of China, or the Berlin Wall.

Yikes

I know my project is getting bad. I really can't do anything since the babies died a few weeks ago. When my goal was to watch them grow and find homes for them but now they are dead and i still have to do something but I don't know what to do. So I play with my rabbits and read things about rabbits about once or twice a week. I know that this is not enough but god give me a break! I feel like I'm standing in the middle of the road and a car is driving straight at me and by car I mean F or if I'm lucky D in this class :(

Question: Bunnies in Folklore

I choose to do a little research on the Moon Rabbit. The Moon Rabbit is also know as the Jade or Golden Rabbit, the Moon rabbit was sent to the moon as a present by Sakra. The story tells us that there was an old man begging for food on the day of the full moon.  When the old man begged for food four animals decided to help him by bringing him a food they could collect. The rabbit, who usually grazes on grass knew he had to bring something else to the old man. So he just threw himself inside a pot of boiling water! Then the old man reveled himself as Sakra and told the rabbit he was so impressed by his selflessness that he was going to send him to the moon so everyone can see him at night.

Research

I need to do more research for my project! So, I am going to come up with one question and have my sister come up with one question and I'm going to answer them in the next blog post I do. Also, my personal editor has gone on a trip to Madagascar. That means for the next two weeks their, I mean they're, I mean there will be a lot of grammatical errors.

Oops

I don't always post right as things happen so a lot of details get lost as I am typing, trying to remember things that happen days before.  This is one of my biggest struggles in the wise class so far. I moved my rabbit into my room and I hate it! When I'm trying to sleep he keeps on thumping his foot. THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP. This is all I hear and it's driving my crazy.

Training

Recently, I moved my male bunny into my house. I chose to move the boy bunny in rather than the girl bunny because he seems to be more tame than her. I'm planning on trying to tame him. He keeps peeing in the same corner of his cage, so I put newspaper and shredded paper down in that corner, and hopefully tonight I will see pee in that location. Spanking your rabbit doesn't help train them. They don't respond well to discipline. It makes them more afraid and they won't do what you tell them anymore. It's better to train them with benefits. I hope that I can train him well.

7

On my last blog post, I said that my rabbit gave birth to three dead bunnies. That number has gone up to seven. It's sad. Every time I've gone out to check on her there's been another one. It's really hard to go out there knowing that I'll be seeing death. Seeing it, and then picking it up and putting it out in a field. I've been thinking about what could have gone wrong. Apparently a lot of things. It's not uncommon for does to have trouble during their first pregnancy. It's just really sad and frustrating. Now I know there will be no bunnies by the time of my WISE presentation.

RIP

In the wild when animals give birth for the first time it isn't uncommon for there to be a few dead babies. Unfortunately, my doe gave birth to three dead babies today.

Whatchu doing, Nick?

My male bunny is always tipping over his water and food bowls. I don't get why. Last night, I poured him his water and he tipped it over right away! So I thought I was clever and put a bungie cord to either side of the bowl to keep it tight. That way it wouldn't move. It didn't work! The little f-er chewed it up! I really want to know what's going on in his head. Here's a pic of the chewed up cord.

Bunnies, bunnies everywhere!

I seem to see bunnies a lot more often than I did before. It's probably because they're on my mind more. Every time I see one on TV, I feel a connection to them. It's weird. Also, I see them in the yard and I sadly think about how much cuter they are than the ones I have. I want a wild rabbit, but that wouldn't make sense because it wouldn't be wild anymore. Ugh.

Annoying

It's getting really annoying going out to check my rabbits all the time, when she's NOT  pregnant!!! I can't tell if she's getting bigger at all, so I don't think she is. I'm planning on having them mate again soon. It's a bit discouraging, though. :(

Haiku Number Two

Hump, hump, like rabbits

Have kids, maybe five or six

Hump, hump, like rabbits

Haiku

Why aren't you pregnant?
I made you have sex two times.
You should be pregnant.

Good Vibes

Have you ever heard of the term "wear your heart on your sleeve" ? Well, that's exactly what rabbits do! They give signs on how they are feeling, actually my sister is the one who took note of this then I observed it and decided to do some research.

Mad Rabbit: Grunting, thumping, biting, and scratching 
Happy Rabbit: Running in circles, jumping and kicking their hind legs in the air, and just sitting in one place letting you pet them.

Scared Rabbit: They piss everywhere, their ears kinda flop over (if you have a lop bunny then duh the ears are always going to flop)

I'll add more when I notice more!

Baby Vid

http://youtu.be/FngsEak5Cb0

Watch this! It's not my rabbit by the way.

Diet? or STARVATION!

Some nights I when I get home late I forget to make sure my rabbits have enough food and water to get them through the night. This has only happened a couple of times and it's really not a big deal. Think of it the way I think of it. I fed them in the morning, gave them more food and refilled their water dishes at four. So in my opinion they have enough food to last them the night. They don't eat all their food at once either they nibble, they shit, they nibble. Life of a rabbit summed up in six words.

Pathetic Post

Post

Canni-bunny

Yesterday I went to take my pre-enrollment test at TC3. The test was kinda hard but I did pretty well. When I was there I had a lot of downtime between meetings and tests, so I was reading my book Rabbits for Dummies. I read some horrific things mother rabbits do. If she is stressed after birth or too much human contact occurs, it is possible that the mother rabbit will bite her babies' heads off. Well, okay, do what you gotta do but dammnnn ma please don't pull some Hannibal Lecter shit with me! I'm so afraid that she will because she has already started acting funny. Maybe it's just because she just found out she is going to be a teen mom... yeah that's it.

Interim Narrative Assignment

Kameron Eddy

WISE

Period 4 – Lord

4/9/13

Interim Narrative Assignment

Mentor Relationship:

            My mentor, Mr. Bowen, has been helpful by listening to me and not butting in too much, because he knows that it’s my project and that I’m going to do it the way I want to. We have had weekly meetings where we discuss progress and that has been going all right. However, Mr. Bowen wants me to do a post about Bugs Bunny, and keeps bothering me to do it. He says that Bugs Bunny encapsulates what Americans think of when they hear bunnies. This is something that I am completely disinterested in doing. I disagree that I should have to do it and I will not do it, although I will keep telling him that I will do it the next week. From this experience, I have learned that I don’t want to have to work with mentors because I really only do things my way anyways, so what’s the point of working with someone who gives me their opinions just for me to blow them off?

Research:

            My research has been through conversations I have had with other people who raise and breed rabbits. I have also read parts of the book Rabbits for Dummies. I have learned practically anything I’ll need to learn for my project through these two methods. The two people I bought my bunny parents from were a great help to my process as well. Hands-on experience and research are one in the same for me in this project. I learn more and more about rabbits the more I interact with them. I am satisfied with the variety of the research of my project. I have involved a broad perspective in my project.

Vision:

            So far the project has gone basically exactly how I planned on it going. I got my rabbits when I wanted to. I had them mate when I wanted to. Everything is on schedule. The only minute detail that I’m unsure of is if she’s actually pregnant right now (I’ll find out in a week or two though) and who I’ll give the bunnies to when they’re born.

Evaluation:

Hands-on experience: 4. I have been working with my rabbits everyday. More than 75% of my work has been hands-on at this point.

Research: 2. I haven’t looked up many answers to the questions I originally had, but I’m doing all the research that I need to know at each step. I have also gotten it from viable sources.

Journal: 3. My journal started out rough, but I’ve been posting more and more since my project has hopped off. ;)

Weekly mentor meetings: 4. The first week Mr. Bowen and I didn’t meet when we had originally planned, but we rescheduled and all was fine. Since then, we haven’t planned a single one of our meetings, but we know since he’s a substitute, he’ll be in every week. We have met every week and discussed relevant things to my project.

Time commitment: 4. At first I didn’t think I was completing my 8 hours, but then I thought about everything that I was doing: WISE class, mentor meetings, handling the bunnies, getting supplies, and the hours added up. I have been completing my 8 hours well.

Let's get it on

I'm not sure if this is exactly what I should show or if this is way too much

Safe Sex

Yesterday I bred my rabbits. Well, I didn't physically force them to breed I just made the opportunity available by letting them be in the same cage. When they first met each other they walked around in circles for a few seconds before finally cutting to the chase. I mean, hey, we all know sex is a part of nature but for Christ's sake at the very least ask for the person's name! Speaking of names, my sister and her friend named the rabbits Bubbles (female rabbit) and Bunster (male rabbit). After watching the LOVEMAKING I wondered if I could have possibly allowed my rabbits to transfer an STD. Well, after some extensive google searching (clicking the first link) I learned that rabbits can carry Syphilis. Gross. Can you imagine picking up your fluffy, floppy, surprisingly boring rabbit to find oozing sores under its fur that sadly look like a swarm of moths have devoured what's left of it. Anyways, the gestation period is 30 days so I will be posting more about how I am going to take care of the baby rabbits and what I plan to do next.

The Trip

Yesterday we drove about an hour to Erin New York where we got our new rabbit. After a few mishaps with directions, we arrived at a cute, remote log cabin. When we knocked on the door, the rabbit owners greeted us with a handshake and then their dogs greeted us, with plenty of slobbery kisses. They took us to their barn where they kept all the rabbits. When I first saw all the rabbits, I was so shocked by how beautiful they were. And they were maintained very well. They showed us Nick, a beautiful big bunny boy. He seemed a lot bigger than the bunny I have now, and I came to find out that the first bunny is a mini lop, not a Holland Lop. Hopefully this won't interfere with the breeding process. They showed us how to check the bunnies for health problems and then Nick was mine.

                                                                        Where are we?

                                                      Zelda made the car ride fast for him

                                                                        Kidnapped

                                                                     The cage setup

                                                   

 

                                   

Love

This song ----> http://youtu.be/qs9IxZ9w4LU is exactly how I feel about my rabbit. See, my rabbit is only going to be mine until it gives birth and is done raising its children. Then, I am giving it back to the original owner. But until then I am responsible for the most adorable thing on the planet. This rabbit represents the future success of my project and I can see in its eyes the cute little babies it will have. I am so excited to start breeding my rabbit and posting about my successes.

First Day Pictures

The bunny

                                                                    The bunny's momma

                                                                   First place bunnies

                                                                        I'm so much cuter

                                                                   The bunny's home

                                                                      Eat-cha food

Family

My family hasn't been a huge help (besides my sister) even though they know what they're doing and they know that I know jack-shi.... Well today I got them to get up off their bottoms and help me. My Grandma helped me move the cage and my sister helped me secure the window even more than it already is, because something got in the coop and ate some of my Rabbit food! Then my mom drove me to Newfield to get the rabbit and it was so nice to have all this help! Now that I have one of the rabbits I think I am going to pay my sister to feed them when she gets home from school because I tend to not make it home until eight or nine at night, which I think is too long to have my rabbit go without food. I'm also afraid someone will call the SPCA on me which is the CPS of animal services.

Bunny Number One

For 15 dollars I got my first rabbit today! This rabbit is so cute and is a Holland Lop, which is exactly what I wanted.  When I went to the Rabbitry I saw so many rabbits. The lady who sold the little girl to me, Gale, had at least 40 of them. She showed me all the Does (female rabbits) she had and then started to tell me about what I needed and how to do everything with breeding. The really cool part about it is  I had already known everything -- not because I am all knowing -- but because I have been reading books about rabbits. This next part is going to be kinda gross, but no one reads my blog so I won't make too many people gag. When I finally picked out the one I wanted the woman picked up the rabbit and spread her fur where her vagina was and showed me it. The vagina was really wet and pink/red which meant the doe was in heat. For those of you reading this who don't know what it means to be in heat, it means that you're ready to get it on ;)

Ya'Snow?

Around two, our school announced that all after school activities are canceled. For most kids this means they get to take a nice night off from sports, theater, and various academically centered clubs/activities IHS has to offer. For me, this means absolutely nothing; it means instead of just sitting on my ass, I will sit on my ass and pray that tomorrow is a snow-day. But tonight was different, tonight was the night I was supposed get my rabbits and finally start my project but the roads are bad and I can't make it to Newfield to get them. THANK YOU SNOW I HATE YOU!

The Hideout

The Past

 1.   Nicole’s journal entries are all good in length, done regularly, and labeled with a date, but the legibility is far from readable. Overall, her journal was regular, informing, and I never felt out of the loop with her project.

2.  Her entries are all very boring and the same. It has no visuals, very little evidence of research, however I did get a feel of the things she struggles with and she did talk about her mentor meetings.

3.     There are a lot of reflections in this project that give me good insight on the things she struggled with and the things she was having a good time with.

4.     What I enjoyed the most about Nicole’s project was the sense of familiarity I had with her life because of her entries. I perfectly envisioned her going home, walking the dogs, telling the dogs to sit, going to Petsmart, and crashing her car.

5.     Two suggestions I would have for Nicole would be to write more neatly because her train of thought flows nicely onto a sheet of paper once you can finally make out what she wrote, and to show spontaneity and exciting things better, using describing words.

I would give Nicole’s narrative and journal a 4. She deserved a 4 because overall, you could tell that she had done a significant amount of work. For example, she cited that she helped another woman with her dog needs. Which is something she didn’t need to do and really shows how she reached into the community. She did a lot but she did the same thing over and over again. Walk dog, tell the dog to sit, take dog to Petsmart. Even though it was repetitive I can tell she learned a lot and really was able to balance her time better than she thought she could and better than I am currently. Reading this really makes me strive to keep a better blog so people in the future don’t read mine and gag because of how bored they are.

Hideouts

See, rabbits have been domesticated since the 19th century but they are still wild at heart and fear practically everything. So I'm going to make a cardboard hideout for my rabbits. This will allow them to hide when I first meet them so they think they are safe and will allow them to come to me when they are comfortable. This will hopefully make it so I don't scare the sour crotch piss out of them. I'll post pictures when I am done.

Food

I bought my rabbit feed today because tomorrow I am getting one of my rabbits! When I was making my decision on which brand of rabbit food to get I read online forums and checked the websites of many brands. Checking the websites wasn't really helpful because, of course, every website is going to say their brand is the best. So what I did was look up a few forums and they told me that many feeds make your rabbit fatter than it needs to be. Southern State and Purina are the brands I cut it down to, but when reading the forum I learned that they are both packed with proteins and are loved by many breeders; however, Purina has some sort of chemical in that makes the rabbits urine smell less like sour crotch. So I went with Southern State because it's not chemically altered.

Pen Idea

Rabbits eat about 4-8 ounces a day depending on breed, weight, and age. They are Herbivores so meat is not in their diet. When spring comes I plan on doing two things to save money on food. I will build a 5x5 ft cage with no bottom that I can place outside and let them graze on grass. When one area is mowed down I can pick the cage up and move it. The other thing I will do is take over my grandfather's garden and grow lettuce and carrots. This way I will only have to buy food in the winter.

Coop Poop

I am going to keep my rabbits in pens inside a chicken coop, so no foxes or coyotes can get them. When I first thought of this, I thought that it wouldn't be too hard. I mean the only thing I really had to do was clean the coop...but have you ever tried scraping years of chicken shit off wood? Well it's extremely hard. It ended up taking me and my sister an hour and a half to scrape the gunk up. After that, she dusted the ceiling while I went and got hay off the floor of our hay barn to put on the floor of the coop so when the momma rabbit gives birth she has a room to raise her babies.

                   ^ew so much poop

Mentor or Meteor?

In WISE you have to have a mentor. Mine is a humble man, who is married to a teacher I had last semester. He, like all older men, tries to force coffee on you but that's really whatever. Today at our meeting he asked me if I built the cage and I told him I hadn't yet. Suddenly he put his hands on his face and chuckled. He told me to post about why I didn't build it so that's what I am doing. I didn't build the rabbit cage because my family knows how flaky I am and knows if I went near a power saw that my wise project would take a turn for the worst. I would spend the next 15 weeks learning how to use my prosthetic limb. So while the manly men of the Eddy family were off cutting down trees (buying planks at Lowes) I was looking at how punette squares work and deciding which color rabbits I should get for the best mix of color. Sorry Mentor, I am too much of a diva (duntz) to make stuff from wood but I promise I will try and build something else down the line. Like a Lego rabbit pen?

Too WEAK Plan

I followed my two week plan perfectly. The funny part about it is when I was making it, I knew I was lying to all of you. Planning? Time management? Ain't nobody got time for that! I do things my way, and on my time, and they usually never get done. That's going to change. It has to change. I want my rabbits already and I need to do a good job on this project in order to graduate. Even though I didn't follow my two week plan perfectly, I got two cages and the location of where I am going to put the rabbits picked out. I know of two people I can get rabbits from. So now it just depends on who will sell them to me at the lowest price.

Motivation in yo eyes

I have been following my plan which has been working out for me. I have yet to start the pen but I will be doing that tomorrow. I kinda jumped around with my plan and got some of the stuff I wanted to complete done earlier than I thought. I called rabbitries and made contact with people who want to help me and some who may not exist because they have yet to return an email or call. One man who only lives 25 minutes away has Mini Lops and is willing to sell them to me. For those of you who were wondering what the cat was doing staring into your soul, I'll explain. This is a picture of a cat I took on the street a few months back and this cat just gave me the look of GET YOUR WORK DONE. This cat is motivation.

Go-Go's - Vacation (HQ)

So my project is cleared and I am almost out of my class to start my independent project. My teacher wants us to write a two week plan to help set us off on the right foot. So:

February 11th: Get over the fact that it's a Monday and call some local rabbitries to talk about breeding rabbits and ask if they have any Mini Lops or Holland Lops available.

February 12th: Google map the rabbitries to see who is closest to me and start sifting through the voicemails and emails I will hopefully have received.

February 13th: Blog about what I have heard from the rabbitries and say if I have someone willing to sell me bunnies.

February 14th: Talk to my grandfather about which wood I should use for the rabbits' pens and get those materials. Also, I will try to acquire some food.

February 15th: Start building the rabbits' pens with Soren and my grandfather.

February 16th thru February 18th: I will upload some pictures of the pen that I've started and the food that I've bought. I will be in Washington DC for these dates so I won't be able to get much done. I will keep in correspondence with the rabbitries.



February 19th: I will have determined from whom I will get the rabbits.

February 20th thru February 25th: Continue working on the pens and decide when I will pick up the rabbits. I will hopefully have them by the end of the month.

So it begins...

I'm in a class called WISE which is an English class offered at my school. In WISE you do half a semester of what you think a normal English class would do (read books you're not interested in), and then during the second semester you do an independent project. So over the next sixteen weeks I am going to start a small-scale rabbitry. A rabbitry is an enclosure where rabbits are kept, and often bred. There are 47 recognized breeds of rabbits based on hair length, size, origin, and how their ears flop or stand.  I'm planning on purchasing either Holland Lops, or Mini Lops, breeding them and then eventually giving them away to local families or continuing to raise them.

                       This project interests me because my whole family has farmed for a long time. I've lived on a farm for more than half of my life yet I personally have never raised a farm animal, and I am curious to learn the process. Initially I was going to raise a pig but they're clumsy, and nowhere near as cuddly as rabbits! Well, that's all true but it's not the real reason. My grandfather, a very "gentle" man, has been one of the only active positive male influences on my life. He has raised many animals such as cows, chickens, turkeys, pheasants, and PIGS! You see, I am not afraid of raising a pig like my English teacher seems to think I am; I just have been around my grandfather and pigs my whole life and I want to try something new to me and my family. When I was young I helped my grandfather around the farm. He always made farming seem like a very enjoyable and rewarding job. This project would be a good fit for me. I will explore and broaden my agricultural roots, learn to care for another being, and improve my time management and other skills.