Introducing Helmer

Last week we processed over 18 gallon of tomatoes. I picked, washed, cut, boiled, strained, and cooked them down. Then after work, Chris seasoned them into pizza sauce, and measured it into ziplocs.

One day's tomato haul

We froze these along with all the other pizza sauce we’d been making for the previous couple of months. One of our longstanding traditions is making homemade pizza every weekend. We now have 52 bags+ of pizza sauce, which should get us through the year :).

How many people have a chest freezer full of pizza sauce? 

At that point I happily pulled up all the tomato plants.

Now I can think of things other than tomatoes and I wish to introduce you to the newest members of the Farmer household . . .

Backstory: For at least a decade, ever since I first saw hilariously fluffy angora rabbits at the Sheep Fest in Bethel, Missouri, I’ve been wanting to get an angora bunny of my own.

Stock image of an Angora bunny

I love to knit. I love yarn. I love all the different colors, textures, and fibers of yarn. I am interested in the idea of making my own yarn. And yarn can be made from angora bunny fur. You just comb or pull out the loose fur, wash it, and spin it into yarn (to see the process, check out this cool post by @kulacottontailfarm https://www.instagram.com/p/C9wptbZR9OP

Our new livestock (photo by Heidi Haynes)

So when a friend shared that they had a litter of half-angora bunnies, and asked if we were interested, I said ABSOLUTELY!

So now we have 3 adorable bunnies. They aren’t as fluffy as full-blooded Angora rabbits, but they are still velvety soft and super cute. Moses decided we each needed to name one. So Chris named the white one “Smalls” after a hero in S. D. Smith’s Green Ember series (read it if you haven’t yet)! Moses named the black bunny “Helmer,” also after a Green Ember character. I named the white one with brown accents “Bun-Chuck Norris.” We call him Norris for short.

Helmer in her hutch

Today I’m introducing you to Helmer. Moses named her before we learned she was a doe. She’s very pretty with brownish-gray fur mixed with black on her chest and back. She is the roundest and fluffiest of our three bunnies. She has the potential to be very cuddly, but she ignores us and pretends her brothers don’t exist.

In the spirit of Beatrix Potter, I’m making an anthropomorphic portrait of each of our rabbits. Here’s Helmer as a fashionable teen whose favorite past times are rearranging her bedroom (Helmer likes to move things around in her hutch), taking selfies, and shopping at the local carrot market (She loves carrots!).

Stay tuned for introductions of the bucks!