My neighbour sent me this beautiful photo yesterday so I popped by this morning to have a progress update and to see Baby Bunny for myself.

The fact that BB is still alive is totally because of my neighbour and her family.  They are all doing their absolute best for this little one.  No one could do more.

(apologies for my photos – they are rubbish).

Although Baby Bunny has lost a little of its original weight, it is alert, moving around much more, the fur is growing and its eyes are almost open – so all signs of progress.  But feeding can be a bit of a performance.  Intake is being upped now to get some weight on but if you feed too much, they can die. If you feed too little, they can die….. and the list goes on.

Hand-reared baby rabbits have a 10% chance of survival and that is not great odds really.

So more thoughts and prayers for Baby Bun please.

So incredibly tiny and such a little sweetie too.  Oh my heart.

A few years’ back – it was 2017 (October) to be precise, OH and a friend built a smokehouse from our unused, I promise, privy (outside loo) because we wanted to smoke some fish, etc.

The whole thing was a lot of effort to create smoke and, yes, it worked but we all said NEVER EVER AGAIN! Trying to keep a fire alight proved nearly impossible – it had to be checked every 30 minutes for 3 days!  The giant fish kept dropping from the ceiling and had to be rehung and we smelled of smoke all the time.  When the process had finished, I didn’t want to eat any of it because it was all a bit too involved – like when you make lasagne from scratch and just want a bowl of cereal for supper!

So, obviously, like the pain of child-birth, those bad memories have faded (until I dragged up the old blog to remind myself about our pain) and this morning I got my food ready to smoke.  The chicken had been brined over-night.

And it was all so easy.

You put special smokery wood-chips in a tray, light a nightlight candle and when the chips start to smolder, you blow it out, shut the door and come back later.

Obviously, the help turned up.

And offered to dispose of the empty packages.

This time the smoker was in a very convenient little shed attached to the house, so I popped in and out all morning to see if everything was still working.  It was.  Fine.

A couple of hours later, everything had been smoked beautifully with minimum effort from me, which is the best part.  I tried a bit of the cheese – incredible.  The sossages are for tonight and I am also roasting the chicken so we can have it cold tomorrow.

I am looking around for food to smoke……

After breakfast (and yes, the ponies all went back into their field by themselves – woohoo), I made myself a long list of things I really must get done and drove into town for two hospital appointments and various bits and pieces.

I collected my beautifully printed out (thank you Camera Centre) point of sale banner for my sheep field and then, armed with glue, I went and put it all together. I think it looks nice and I am pleased with the results.  Who wouldn’t want to buy a sheep from Bert?  He has such an honest face.  Apparently the business cards are popular too.

This will stand out in the “lovely things” of the shop part.

It was quiet in town, but folk were enjoying the breather before the cruise ships arrive. Two were in last weekend and it will now only become increasingly busy.  I think in May there is almost one massive ship visiting every day.

Still, that’s good for the local economy and keeps Shetland on the map – or at least somewhere in a box in the Moray Firth.

And then I went and did something very wicked. I went and bought myself a cold-smoker (no, not a motorbike) as I love cold-smoked fish, chicken and cheese.  And apparently I can smoke sossages so I am going to have a shot at that too.

My lunch view was good (fish and chips watching the Bressay Sound) and then off to Tesco’s to buy things to smoke and all the necessaries.  I had a nice day out and about by myself just doing lots of stuff.  RIght, off to look up brine recipes and set it all up ready to start…… exciting times.

This morning everyone worked out how to get out of the field, which was very encouraging.  Storm was almost first out too.  Yay, go Storm!  Yes, please go.

The old ladies stayed behind to eat their bucket of food.

Once they had finished, and I’d swilled out Vitamin’s mouth for debris and put her back, then cleaned Fivla’s eyes and told her she was special, I clambered up the hill to tell everyone to go back down to the field again.

So they cantered downhill, all enthusiastically, and missed the gate totally.

I followed them down (not cantering) and told them they were a bunch of idiots. Silver lead the charge and off they went again.

I was hopeful…..

And bingo!  They did it.

Albie and Waffle brought up the rear and still my hope remained…..

Nearly there…..

Almost in (and I am holding my breath now)…..

But no. Waffle went in and Albie did a massive swerve and ran back.

Oh, Albie.  *** sigh ***.  Why, just why?

So I caught him and led him back through the gate.

And he cantered off to join Fivla.  Let’s see what tomorrow brings.  Let’s hope it’s Albie’s turn to have the one brain cell they are all currently sharing.

A certain small dog knows there are baby rabbits out there and, yesterday, Pepper spent a few hours, unbeknowngst to us, digging up a rabbit’s nest.

Not good.  She brought a baby rabbit home in her mouth and dropped it so, as it was still moving and looked relative unharmed, I picked it up and popped it back in what-I-thought was it’s nest.

But I was not sure if it was The Nest because there are so many rabbit holes about….. and what if it wasn’t and what if it’s mother didn’t know where it was and it just stayed there and died and it would be all my (Pepper’s) fault?

So I phoned my wonderful rabbit-rescuing neighbour and asked her if she could help.  She said she would so I went back to the nest, now with a small cardboard box, took all the fur and hay around the baby rabbit and took it to my neighbour.

Things are not hopeful because baby-rabbit is very young (a few days old at most) and these things never go well but we have to try.

And my neighbour does have previous.  Meet Bugsy, who I rescued last year from Pepper’s hunt in the muck-heap.

Bugsy was a few weeks older when I handed him over to my neighbour asking her if there was anything she could do to help, but here he is as a very happy house rabbit who is totally wonderful and much loved by the whole family, including the dog and cats.

So thoughts and prayers for wee bun.  We can only hope (Day 2 – eating plus a pee and poo but it is early days).