Hello again,
I haven't been here because Goggle has made it way difficult and I could not even get into it.  Finally with the help  of my husbands persistence and diligence I am back here at  least for now; there is a lot that is different about the site any more and I will a have to get used to it.    If this works I will be back and it it gets all screwed up again I have not got the patience to tackle it. 
Barb 

It's been awhile

Since I was able to post on this blogsite.  I have been unable to access it and now we wonder if it is again working and if so then I will post more soon but for now this is just a test to see if it works.

Here are the rugs

Now it time to start a new one

This is my latest creation, also designed by me.  It is called BEARLY  and  shows a mom Grizzley  and her two cubs strolling through the woods.  It was taken from photos of bears in Yellowstone, with the little cub facing you was seen at Hebgen Lake.  I made this for my granddaughter's graduation present.

Here is WHILE REINDEER SLEEP designed by me after I saw internet photos of a moose hitched up to haul logs in the north woods.  I figured if they could haul logs they could haul Santa

This rug is called 3 U's. It was done before Free Ride was started. I hooked the sheep fleece from locks of wool from my sheep so it shows the three colors we were growing at that time. The border was hooked with handspun yarn, and the white flowers were hooked from angora handspun yarns made from our rabbits

This little hooked mat is a design of Pearl McGown, but I did not want to do it in the traditional fine hooking manner so I did it my way.  Most of the wool fabric was hand dyed by me, and the whipping around the edge was done with hand dyed handspun yarn from my sheep.

This rug is Howard's Floral.  It is from an Emma Lou Lais pattern; I did it because I wanted to try a primitive, and wanted to try using a number 8 cut.  This is the result.

This rug is FREE RIDE.  I took the photo of this elk in Yellowstone Park one year and I had to incorporate him into a rug.  The ravens and the magpie were natural companions of the elk so I used them in the compostion as well...

This shows my Tara rug done for my perky little scotty dog.    It hangs in my studio,  This was  the very first hooked rug I did, about 4-5 years ago now.  The border was hooked with yarn and the interior was hooked with wool fabric.  This rug appeared in Rug Hookers Magazine under beginners rugs.  

ADDING RUG HOOKING AND PUNCH NEEDLE DESIGNS

I am going to add some of my rug hooking designs that I have completed so far, and some of my punch needle ones that are either completed or in progress so that folks who are interested can go to my secondary blog listed on the right as the Dragons lair to select and purchase those designs or just look at them if they like.



The above punch needle shows the day time version of While Reindeer Sleep in progress, still in the frame I work them on.

 This is a watercolor of a night time version of While Reindeer sleep. See my hooked rugs to see it done up on hooking

 The Ryeland sheep punch needle shown here gives you one idea of how it can be worked up.

The Pumpkin patch design worked in punch needle and framed up.

German Angora trivia stuff

I am enjoying the development of my newest litter. They are the first litter that I've had that is totally raised by the mother and she is doing a great job. This is her second litter, but the first one was a hybrid litter, and there were 3 of them. I suppose that was a learning litter! But she had sufficient instinct to use the nest box, and raised them all without any losses, and is likely raising this litter without any losses. One of the trickiest times for baby rabbits, I've found, is when they start eating pellets, and gradually weaning from mother's milk. In about 2 weeks I will do my first evaluation on the litter and sex them. They are a product of brother sister breeding so inbred this one generation, which would not be my first choice but I wanted to emphais the mother's line instead of the father's line so I chose the brother over the father for a stud. I really need to get an outside bloodline but so far it is not working out. I've had another doe Abby, who is the result of a brother sister breeding and she has been an excellent rabbit...great mothering ability, fertility, and high producing wool and the daughters I've kept from her have been as well....plus she is so milky that she is my main foster mother.
The mother of the new litter is just 13 months old so I consider she is doing an excellent job. This is a far cry from all my previous purebred German does, who either did not do the job right, in the birthing, in the mothering, in the milkiness, or got sick themselves and died before they could reproduce. I will definetly keep a doe from this litter. Next time I will talk about angora fiber. ( I hope).

The latest in German Angora rabbits

Here is Little Joe at 3 months old already. His parents are Absarokee and Bitterrootret. He shows great promise of nice black silky soft wool. He is ready for his first haircut.
This sweet little baby is the same Little Joe but shown at 6 weeks old. He is my latest German Angora hybrid buck, and hs is a lovely black. He too is over 98% German Angora, and as you can see by his blue eye he carries the chinchilla gene as well as the black gene.

To the right is Snowcrest with a big black spot of tattoo ink in her ear at 6 weeks old. look how much she grew between 6 weeks and 3 months.

The photo to the left is Snowcrest at just a little over 3 months old and she has already had her first shearing to remove baby wool. It's normally discarded as it's so soft, but it can be handspun to make a delicate and soft yarn that made into knit garments that will get little use, such as a neck scarf. She is a purebred German Angora from Winter's Dream and Snowstorm.

This is Jack, at 3 months, he is over 98% German Angora and so is called a German Hybrid. It's amazing how fast they grow.

Here is Jack at only 6 weeks old. The number is his ear tattoo

This is a newborn shown at day 7

Here is a photo of the purebred German Angora litter of bunnies born this month and they are about 5 days old here. They are born nearly hairless at birth and you can see that they are already getting furred.

This is a pic of Winter Storms as he was as a youngster. I need to get some adult pictures. He is the sire of the upcoming baby littler that I am going to show.

This photo shows Snowstorm; she is the mother of SOW.

Angora photo updates

Here are some of the most recent photos I've taken of the Angora population here. The top photo shows Winter Dreams as he was at 5 months of age. He is my senior purebred buck here and he will be five years old next year.

The middle photo is Snows of Winter (SOW) as she was as a baby, and then as she is now as an adult. She is a shade over 1 year old and has had 11 babies. Amazing rabbit