I was hoping I would find a source for me to start my rabbit production here in CT. I'm finding it to be difficult to do so.

Alexa, I'm about ready to fall out of my chair laughing at your question. Be forewarned, get ready for a long story. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a number of barnyard birds, geese, turkeys, ducks and chickens at the moment, but have also had pigeons, pheasants, doves, quail and top that off with a number of bird feeders to draw in the wild birds, alot of which are actually getting very tame, had a hummer sit on my finger the other day, wish I had the camera. And anyone who knows me also knows that I adore my birds, they are all pets with names and such. What you don't know is that when I moved into this place over 20 years ago, I was bird phobic and swore I would never have a bird here other the the wild ones I couldn't do anything about. Want to talk weird, give me snakes, spiders, bats, insects, I have absolutly no fear of those, just not birds back then. The reason I was bird phobic is because when I was about 6 years old, my dad thought it would be funny to get a movie of me chasing a guinea hen, never figuring I would catch it. Well I did catch it and it in turn tore into me and actually chased me after I threw it down. In short, guinea hens are the only bird I refuse to have, lol. Oh yea, the way I got over my phobia was because my mother had to open her big mouth and say we needed geese for the pond, and despite how much I protested, a little day old gosling was forced on me. Not only is it kind of hard to be afraid of a few ounces of fluff, but anyone who has ever raised a gosling knows the meaning of total devotion, they have the sweetest eyes and look at you like you are the greatest thing that ever happen. That little few ounces of fluff is now 22 years old, around 15 pounds, still considers me her mommy, and still has the sweetest eyes. Thanks to good old Koose Goose, birds are now a welcome and totally enjoyable part of my gardens. Now to answer your question about guineas, I do know people who have them so do a little about them, but I won't claim to be a expert, and the people who have them love them, think they are great. The problem with guineas is how they like to roam and that roaming may include your neighbors yards, there are a few feral populations in my area that started from birds that decided they like the surrounding fields better than their owners yards, this of course is not always the case, as I said, I know people who have them roaming around and they do stay in their own yards, sometimes even my birds sometimes take a walk through the neighbors yards, I fortunally have tollerant neighbors that love my birds and don't mind the occational trespassing. So you have to decide if you don't mind them wondering through your gardens, maybe stepping on plants or scratching up labels, or if you are prepared to make them a totally enclosed area. I don't know if you are asking as far as them in your gardens or as pets in an enclosed area, but I will tell you as someone who does have birds roaming the gardens, they can and do cause damage. I have a few now unknowns because the chickens scratched away the tags while I was recoving from an infected foot and couldn't get out to replace the tags, the ducks big feet squash the smaller hostas, the geese take nibbles on the leaves and took out a whole row of sweet corn, but personally, I tollerate it because I love my birds as much as I love my hostas, but that is me, to me, they complete the picture. That is not everyone, it is up to you to decide, your gardens, your work, your world, live it in the way that makes you happy (I only say that to defend my birds, lmao).

Gee Punk...can I adopt your family?? lol I love that Rooster buffet...again, boy they have great taste 'thru you' !! I agree it's decorated beautifully. Something about the country homey look of Roosters that I always liked. I laughed over your DGD giving you a 'look'...I can understand..they're not your usual 'Bride & Groom' looking couple..hehehe - However, you did get them for a steal! I can see you adding some Halloween to them...even Thanksgiving..hey they're the perfect couple for Holiday 'Dress Up' occasions! Loved what you shared. jane

Aunt Jen, Hope you come back here and see this reply to you! This might get a little long, but since every woman is different, I feel like you need to know MY circumstances. I always swore I would never take hormones! I was just going to tough it out. I am 47 and "think" I have been in perimenopause for almost 10 years. I was having super heavy bleeding and it had gotten to the point where I couldn't leave the house for a couple of days, and then it was 3 weeks on and one week off! ugh! My gyn had offered in the past for me to take birth control pills to help with the bleeding. Well I also had a tubal ligation 20 years ago and it just didn't settle right with me to take birth control pills. So I just kept "dealing" with it. Then last year it got bad enough that I was going to have a hysterectomy. I was all prepared, and my mother n law was diagnosed wtih Brain Cancer. My DH was the only caretaker living close by, so I knew I couldn't put him through caring for him dying mom and me trying to recuperate from a hysterectomy and still go to work everyday. So, my gyn and I decided I should try an endometrial ablation. It has been a miracle! I have not had one period in a year's time! woohoo! So I do still have my ovaries. Around Christmas last year, I started having strong heart palpitations in the middle of the night when I would get up to go potty. I couldn't believe that walking like 10 steps to and from the bathroom would cause such a thing, and I was convinced I was fixing to have a heart attack or something major! I went to a cardiologist, and convinced him to do a stres test on me, also a chemical one, and everything showed up fine. My blood pressure was up a little, so he put me on a beta blocker, but it's a low dosage. Then later in the spring, I started feeling sort of dizzy, light headed, like I might pass out...even had that feeling driving to church one morning...that really scared me! I just felt very strange and very wierd. And then at the same time, the hot flashes at night started...it felt like 20 times a night I was pushing the covers down, and then 5 minutes later pulling them back up because I was freezing. Not easy to sleep with all that going on!!! So, it got to the point, I was not getting much sleep, and then during the day, the wierd head feeling( i was convinced I had a brain tumor) was keeping me from functioning. I found myself waiting for my hubby to get home from work, and then asking him to drive me to Walmart or to the grocery store, etc...becaue I was too scared to go by myself, for fear of passing out somewhere. It was awful! Then, I had a breakthrough thanks to ThatHOmesite! There is a menopause message board on here, and I started reading threads there and OMG! There were threads about, wierd head feeling, palpitations, feeling like you are going to pass out...and most of these women were right around my age!!!! I couldn't believe it! So, I printed all those things out, and took them to my gyn at my annual checkup in June. I talked to her about it, and she knew I had never wanted to take hormones, and she was also concerned about be taking them so that they didn't start to build up the lining of my uterus that she had ablated. So she recommended I go to our compounding pharmacy and get a saliva testing kit...it was $170 out of my pocket, but I was so desperate, it was worth every penny! So I spit in a tube, and mailed it off to Oregon. A couple of weeks later, the results came back in and my hormones were WAY out of whack AND my adrenals were exhausted. So to answer your question...=), I am on a progeserone/estrogen cream that I use twice daily right now. This cream is made just for me according to my results. There is also a long questionnaire that you fill out about all your symptoms. I am also on DHEA and adrenal forte, to get my adrenals working the way they should again. I started all this about 6 weeks ago, and the difference it has made in my life has been life changing! I would say I am at least 50% better already, maybe even 75% and I feel so much stronger during the day, I have actually been able to start exercising. Couldn't even do that before! The hot flashes at night have all but gone away...there might be a couple sometime, but they are very mild and I seem to fall back asleep easier than I was. I still wake up during the night now, for what reason I don't know. I am going to try cutting out all caffeine, even though I don't consume much of it anyway. But it came down to quality vs. quantity of life for me, and I wound up choosing quality. I have seen my 91 year old mother, be miserable, with not much quality of life, and I just decided I would rather enjoy my life now, instead of just trying to go for quantity of years and be miserable later. I am still trying to take care of myself, in fact, I feel like doing that now where as before the hormones, I really didn't care! So I hope this somewhat helps you. Sorry it took so long to explain, just wanted you to know my own situation. You have to decide what's best for you!