Cold is no fun!

It's getting cold up here in the mountains. Not just a little cold, mind numbingly cold, at least to me. I'm used to Burlington, where it stays warmer longer and doesn't get quite as cold!

Because of the drop in temperatures at night, it's not a whole lot of fun to feed and water right now, even in the barn which protects us all from the wind!

Speaking of not fun- I'm not looking forward to cleaning trays this winter!

Today, we're heading out to get Tim a second water bucket, so I can help him haul in two buckets at once, which decreases the amount of times he'll have to go out. We're also going to look for a nice pair of gloves- and by nice I mean a cheap pair that I don't mind ruining with food dust and fur.

I may also load up on more mouse traps. The body count is up to 3 now, including the one we found INSIDE a sterilite container we use as catch-alls for the hanging cages. Great, that's why I don't use the live bucket traps, I don't want to have to personally put the mice down! We ended up sticking a mouse trap in there and he solved the problem for us in only a few minutes. Luckily we had just set it up the night before, so it was relatively clean in there still!

Happily, thanks to Malena, we've got our winter hay in. Thanks to the Shelby show, I now have a few empty cages in preparation for the new mini lops I'm having shipped in.

We have no winter proofing to do to the rabbitry- the roof is tight, the walls keep the wind out, and I don't put heaters out (we've discussed my worries about that before!).

We are going to look for some additional lighting we can put up. With the days getting shorter, we're going to have to rely on false light to trick the ladies in to thinking it's still breeding season. Not to mention, our normal feeding time is now pitch black outside, and I prefer not having shadowy corners were woodland creatures could lurk.

We have 2 heaping trash bags of leaves for the rabbits to snack on, though I have a feeling I'll be putting them out for the deer when the snow comes.

Yep, it appears Keep's Rabbitry is ready for winter. Which means I've overlooked something important and won't realize it until it snows. Ah well, I'll keeping thinking about it.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry