Tag: rabbits

#66 – Pies, C-PTSD, and Learning How To Move Forward

It’s been a complicated week. I had plans to start blogging every day, to clean my house in one day not over several to prepare for hosting Thanksgiving. I also thought my pie crust would roll out with ease. Nothing went to plan.

It started with the couch breaking. One evening we noticed the leg fell off the mid-support but instead of buying a new one (Have you seen the price of couches lately? Yikes. Dubious quality to boot.) we opted to fix it. Improve it really. That was a bump in the road, the couch is stronger, and we have storage, but then we hit a pothole.

It’s like our rescue rabbit Mia unbonded to us. She became irritable and aggressive and would thrash around her room. She bites at us, growls at us, and won’t let us do normal things like sweep out her area. This whole situation is discouraging because how will we be able to properly care for her if she won’t let us? I never experienced this with my previous rabbit, Midnight, or with my family dog, Sully.

I was thrown into a murky mental pool. I have some deep memories from childhood of my dad that terrify me when loud outbursts happen. How could this happen? This rabbit I was so excited to adopt and give a loving home, was suddenly a source of triggering panic.

Cleaning ground to a halt. Kyle’s woodworking is uncertain. Walking through the office and living room tense, uncertain, scary, as the furball held us in her grip of territorial fury. She began to destroy the floor filling me with despair.

Every little part of preparing for the holiday felt treacherous as the C-PTSD clouded me from the reality of the tasks in front of me to the mountains of my mind. The craggy, inhospitable rock that has been too high to climb. I didn’t expect this random experience to cause such pain and confusion in my mind.

But the clock kept moving forward and things still needed to be done. This holiday we looked toward with joy could not become a thing we wanted to run from. It was our first holiday here.

Living as a human can be so tough. We are all broken and have hidden scars that can be reopened in the blink of an eye. What has been the most challenging part of this week has been where I find my pauses to take a breath. Finding opportunities in the chaos to recenter instead of giving up.

Making those pies was one of those moments of joy in the center of the storm. Cutting the Crisco into the flour is rhythmic. Feeling the sand become dough, stimming. Rolling out the crust and having it fall apart, is tragic! Finding the inspiration to make the difficult crust mold into the pie tin anyway, is a victory!

Seeing the smiles the pumpkin and apple pie brought to my family filled me with warmth. Yesterday, was a wonderful day. Yes because the food was delicious, but more so for the reminder that what makes the day special is being next to my loved ones and reflecting on the year and what blessings we received despite the chaos of life.

I hope you know that you are loved, dear reader and that you remember not to give up!

#65 – Mario Party Jamboree, Bunny Adoption Prep, and Potatoes

My new favorite way to cook potatoes is by opening a jar of our pressure-canned potatoes and being far ahead in the potato cooking process! I didn’t grow up canning, as I’ve mentioned before in previous posts, so I didn’t know the joy of not having to peel and boil potatoes because you did it beforehand. This was our second time pressure canning potatoes, we did this back in 2023 and put up a year’s worth of potatoes in an evening, not bad a trade-off for several hours of work.

Hot Po-tah-toe, Hot Po-tah-toe

This time we processed 30 lbs and dedicated an entire day to peeling, parboiling, packing, and pressure canning – it was a ton of work but was rewarding. The kitchen in the house made it a lot easier to work in, which is funny because there isn’t that much counter space in our current kitchen. We’ve had to get creative like adding two tables along the wall with the fridge, because the room was pretty empty when we purchased it, and it is a galley style like the kitchen in the previous house we were renting, and yet it felt luxurious which is great!

The addition of our grill to cook meals on while the stove top was in use sterilizing jars and pressure canning was a game changer! No ordering takeout needed or feeling stressed by the clean-up in a hangry state. I think that was the best part! I also liked how we batched the potatoes into two groups of 15 lbs. This provided a rhythm to the process. We processed the 15 lbs of potatoes and then ate lunch while they were in the pressure canner, and then repeated the steps after lunch, then we made pizza in the evening while the last batch was processing.

It gave us 21 jars, I believe, of potatoes that will be a great asset to our pantry. I’m grateful we were able to do this without any mishaps. Each time we do a food preservation project I feel less like a fish out of water. It’s starting to become a tradition in my life, instead of an alien practice that scares me.

Let’s Jamboree, Buddy!

Mario Party Jamboree came on October 17, it’s the third installment of the game for the Nintendo Switch, although there are many more versions of this game from previous systems that I would love to play if I had a chance. This one caught our eye for the innovative boards, the vast amount of playable characters, and the new twist of the Jamboree Buddy. A character that appears on the board and will be your ally for a stretch of turns.

We’ve played four of the seven boards so far – Mega Wiggler’s Tree Party, Rainbow Galleria, Goomba Lagoon, and Roll’em Raceway – the most innovative of the four, in my opinion. Roll’em Raceway combines features of Mario Kart – a track and racecar, with the board game style of Mario Party. It’s fun and irritating because the track gives you a guaranteed stop at Boo.

Goomba Lagoon is a favorite of ours for the introduction of high tide and low tide, which changes the paths on the board. There are also ziplines and a volcano that can shoot coin-collecting or coin-stealing opportunities onto the board. I like the pirate vibes of this board!

Rainbow Galleria feels like we’re finally let loose in the Coconut Mall racetrack from Mario Kart, but instead of racing, there are multiple levels of stores in this mall with escalators and elevators to move between the levels. It puts the focus on shopping which is unique, there is also a stamp rally attached to the board. I like these features and despite its difficulty rating of 4/5 stars, I think it was one of the most approachable of the new boards.

The final board we have played so far is Mega Wiggler’s Tree Party which feels like the perfect land for the Great British Bakeoff Tent to be! It’s a cutesy cottage-core board with mega wiggler, shy guy tea parties, goombas making pancakes, and more! I like the “normal” format of this board. It’s a classic, like Woody Woods.

My favorite new characters are Spike, Toadette, Toad, and the Goomba. My opinion of the Jamboree Buddy feature is mixed, and I think it depends on which option of ally spawns. They all have unique skills and the competition to earn their allyship is also different from character to character.

For me, it depends on how the individual game is going. If it is a game that is dragging on, I dread the notification that a player has reached the Jamboree Buddy. So far Wario and Donkey Kong have been the allies that I enjoy, Bowser Jr. and Mario have been the least interesting to me. Yoshi’s competition was dang difficult! I was not expecting his to be my least favorite to participate in. I love Yoshi. He’s my ult bias of the Mario franchise.

Operation Bun Bun Binkies

We applied to adopt a rabbit from our local rabbit rescue, the largest dedicated rabbit rescue in the North East. This amazing no-kill shelter is a gem for their work to save rabbits from abuse and neglect, to give them the place to heal and be ready for adoption, and their work in the community to show what makes rabbits such an amazing animal, won us over when we visited a few weeks ago. The rescue is named E.A.R.S. or Erie Area Rabbit Society (and Rescue).

We have been busy preparing for this next step, researching veterinarians, proper rabbit diet, and proper habitat guidelines to make our house a safe and welcoming environment for our new furry friend. It’s been a roller coaster for me as I don’t like change, but I know that we are ready for this step and want to give a deserving bunny a home. I’m hoping to share more about this process and E.A.R.S. as we continue to move forward.

Did you know that rabbits are the 3rd most popular pet after dogs and cats in the United States? They are also abandoned at an alarming rate, usually in the wild, and quickly die. This is because they are not wild animals, and have been bred to be pets not to survive in the wild. It’s estimated that 4 out of 5 rabbits bought at Easter are abandoned.

They are also bought as “starter” pets that are dumped when people lose interest. They are bred as a way to make a quick buck and are kept in inhumane conditions, it’s a growing problem that needs to be addressed in my home country. Not to mention the issue of animal testing, which uses rabbits as experiments for cosmetic development. Rabbits can’t speak for themselves and we need to speak for them. It’s something that God has really put on my heart. They are incredibly gentle, loving, social, and intelligent animals that we are misunderstanding. I’d like to be a part of changing that.

Kindness in the Culture: Cottontail Cottage

The algorithm brought something truly life-changing to me, shocking right? Not because it was a product or a service or an ideology, but because it reminded me that goodness, gentleness, and kindness make the world a better place. That is what makes Cottontail Cottage so special.

Prey animals. They are animals that get forgotten by us humans, sometimes they are seen as nuisance animals to us. They dig up our yard or garden, like chipmunks, squirrels, and rabbits. They are animals that our pets discover, like baby rabbit nests, skunks, and birds, that dogs and cats interact with. They are animals that we come into collision with our cars like deer, rabbits, skunks, and opossums. We forget that we are in their space and that our urban sprawl is eating into their native homes.

The decorative plants, concrete, mowing, roads, and traffic, have changed their home forever. And yes, I understand that this is what humans do, I think sometimes we forget how to live in harmony with creation, and to take accountability for how our dominion of the land, affects its original inhabitants. (Something that America has a whole lot of failings with for both disrupting nature, but also historic nations and their societies. That is a topic for another day, that I culturally do not have the appropriate experience to speak about. But it is something I recognize.)

Learning about a small wildlife rescue, located in New York state that is volunteer-run and donation funded, was one of the most amazing things I’ve learned about. Briggette Dix and her team are dedicated to treating and rehabilitating orphaned and injured neonate Eastern Cottontail rabbits. They prioritize care that puts the Eastern Cottontail first, by not treating the rabbits in a way that disrupts their wildlife nature but allows them to heal, grow strong, and be released back into the wild.

They help Eastern Cottontails, chipmunks, squirrels, deer, skunks, birds, opossums, and even bats. They bring awareness to treating wildlife with respect and dignity and encourage healthier boundaries between our world and them. For example, encouraging pet owners to be aware of wildlife in their yard to prevent dogs and cats from stumbling upon baby rabbit nests. They treat bites, car accident carnage when animals are struck by cars, and rescue animals from dangerous situations such as birds stuck on glue traps, rabbits caught in window wells, etc.

Briggette and her team are a shining light in contrast to the darkness of our society and their generous work is something of great importance to our world. In my region, we are seeing wild animals and humans coming into closer and closer contact. Coyotes walking down city roads at night, or curling up beside cars for a night’s sleep, bears wandering into yards and Walmart parking lots, animals like rabbits, deer, skunks, opossums, raccoons, and more being at greater and greater risk of habitat loss because of out of control development.

Wooded areas and meadows are being sold off to create townhouse neighborhoods as people move out of decaying cities instead of working to fix what is broken. They are taking what little habitat we have left for these natural animals and it is not good for anyone. We all need our places to exist. We need a healthy ecosystem, which includes flora and fauna on all levels of the food chain so that nature can do its thing and we can continue to enjoy our wild places.

It’s in all of our best interests to do better and be kinder to our prey animals and their world. Encouraging kindness in the culture, I believe goes beyond just being nice to our fellow humans, it means being kind to our nature and our animals as well. They were here first and deserve our respect. That’s what the work of Cottontail Cottage is teaching me as both a soul wanting to bring change and as a supporter of their cause.

As a believer, I think it is what God is calling us to do, to care for what He made and respect it. Helping orphaned rabbits is agape love in action. How can you bring kindness into your culture?

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