Gardening with Bunny Berries

Gardening March 18, 2018 Leave a comment

As I type it’s snowing outside, which may be the reason I’m thinking about gardening! We are in planting zone 6a in our little mountain town, so where some people are starting to put plants in the ground, we are still looking at sprouts – our last expected freeze is June 14!

 

Last year was the first year that we seriously attempted the garden and we counted on the bunny berries to make it happen! In previous years we have done planter gardening, or had success with small pieces of the puzzle, but last year we had actual raised beds and straw bales and all sorts of goodies. We are fortunate to have family members who are excellent gardeners, and their encouragement inspired us to boldness to try our own!

 

The natural soil in our area has a lot of cinder dust. We created our beds, filled them with rabbit manure, and topped it off with pine chips we had from a tree being taken down a few years ago. We used a drip line to run through the beds. We planted several varieties of tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, lemon balm, peppermint, salad greens, basil, strawberries, cucumbers, rosemary, asparagus, and bunching onions. We also planted marigolds, day lilies, and zinnia for splashes of color and the bug deterring properties!

In our back yard we planted five honeysuckle, two blueberries, and three raspberries. And then we got a monster of a puppy who ate every single one of the bushes as well as our entire drip system, wallowing in the damp beds with evident satisfaction. Our plan this year is to control the beast. But for last year the garden was a complete wash.

 

According to our gardening folks who know, our first year garden was a smashing success! Much, much of this can be attributed to the rabbit manure, and very little can be credited to the growers. However, our tomatoes were happy, happy, happy, they grew tall and produced fruit for weeks! We had salad all the way into February, although our cucumbers, peppers, and strawberries were not happy and didn’t produce anything. We will move them next year and try again.

 

We still don’t understand the science behind all of it, but we can affirmatively state that the bunny berries are the way to go for success. Apparently our soil is extremely happy, smells right, and is dying for the opportunity to produce more soon! We got the book, Crockett’s Victory Garden as a Christmas present and are devouring it to learn how to have even more success this summer.

This year we’re going to try again, and maybe even add another bed or two since we have the space. We’ve been emptying our rabbit droppings straight into the garden beds in preparation and I’m plotting to add bee-friendly varieties of plants.

How have your gardens been doing with the addition of bunny berries?

On our New Pricing…

Blanc de Hotot, Champagne d'Argent, Meat Rabbits, Pet Rabbits, Record Keeping, Satin Angora, Show Rabbits, silver fox March 18, 2018 Leave a comment

Can I just tell you my least favorite part of raising rabbits? Selling rabbits.

 

I know this may sound silly, but selling rabbits ranks right around cleaning out the waste pile for me in terms of favorite activities. Partially because there is no right or wrong rule with setting prices, and there is a lot of back and forth variety in what breeders do in specific areas. Add in flaky buyers who fall through at the last minute and, in general, it’s a challenge!

 

We’ve just upped our prices a tad – it’s the first time in three years we’ve done so. It’s always hard to consider raising prices, and I want you to know we are doing so intentionally, not because we suddenly want more bang for our sales.

 

Since we breed rare breeds almost entirely, we keep availability in mind. Yes, it’s extremely difficult to find some of these breeds – and truthfully we have paid a top dollar for most all of our foundation animals. However, we would love these rare breeds to gain in popularity, which means that if you price them too high you run some serious, great breeders out of the game with a high price.

 

We’ve also become pretty choosy with our keeper/sellers and in the past two years we’ve culled hard, which has improved the quality of our herd overall. When I think back to the rabbits we had several years ago, I’m proud of the progress we’ve made with the breeds, and there is a dedication to care and analytical breeding that has been proven in the test of time. Are we perfect, not at all! But do we have better judgement than we did when we were starting out? Absolutely. Are we producing higher quality animals? Yes, we are. People who buy a Mad Hatter Rabbit now receive the benefit of the education we’ve gained over the years – and there’s value to that.

 

I believe you’ll still find us on the “reasonable” spectrum of the prices for our breeds, as our goal is still to provide a quality rabbit at a decent price to encourage other folks to raise these heritage and rare breeds. We thank you for your patience and look forward to working with you!

So, Um… We have fuzzy bunnies now.

Meat Rabbits, Satin Angora December 4, 2017 Comments: 5

IMG_6678Just about 12 months ago we attended a show and happened to set up camp next to a very kind angora breeder who gently and patiently put up with our kid’s questions about angoras and requests to touch and love on angoras. Of course, because angoras are beautiful, they begged to take an angora home. We firmly, repeatedly said, “No.”

I have a grudge against rabbits that can’t clean their own poop up well. We raise meat rabbits. We don’t like high maintenance. NO ANGORA BUNNIES.

Fast forward several months and I learn that one of my favorite breeders ever raises Satin Angoras. We’re negotiating for a trade in bloodlines for some other breeds and she offers to set the kids up with Satin Angoras, “They’re meat bunnies wearing coats. You can do this!” she says. I hem and haw because the kids haven’t stopped bugging me about the fuzzy animals.

We work with the kids to set some goals for responsibility to show us that they’re ready to take on a high maintenance breed. Remarkably, the kids meet their goals. The trade of breeds takes place, our friend tells me she’s doing her best to give the kids a great start, and don’t worry, they’re meat animals – if they’re awful they can go to freezer camp.

In May we came home from West Coast Classic with a trio of Satin Angoras. I don’t want to admit it but I kind of like them – the personality is amazing on these animals. We go on a field trip to a fiber mill and also a fiber festival, realizing we can utilize the wool on these animals to do some cool crafts and learn a new skill.

IMG_0902We trade for more fuzzy bunnies through ARBA nationals.

We breed the fuzzy bunnies. The babies are adorable. We show a fuzzy bunny at a show and realize our original breeder friend took very good care of us in starter stock.

And now, it appears we are breeders of fuzzy bunnies. Also known as Satin Angoras. Lord help us.IMG_0924

Be Kind. Always.

Meat Rabbits November 8, 2017 Comments: 7

I clicked the “leave group” button today on Facebook.

This particular group, specific to a class of rabbits, has been a long-standing area of angst for me. There are some wonderful, educational posts that come through it, and then there are also a lot of inside jokes, inappropriate humor, and attacking behavior as well. Today those attacks crossed a line so… I left.

First things first – people need to understand about defamation, slander and libel.

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If you are negatively promoting a person and it affects their reputation or livelihood – you’re committing a crime.

When you publish photos of someone online and encourage others not to use their product (whether it be transportation, stock purchases, or judging services) guess what – you’ve committed LIBEL. It’s a crime and it’s something that can be prosecuted. Be wary and follow a simple rule:

Be Kind or Be Quiet

Be nice. Especially online.

I know, I know – it’s the same advice your grandma gave you: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” BUT just because it’s old-fashioned wisdom doesn’t mean it’s untrue! Seriously. Be nice or be quiet. We don’t need little gossip mongers in this hobby. We need people who are willing to be kind, promote their breeds, and pet their rabbits. Be one of those people – you’ll have more fun (whether you’re blonde or not! LOL!)!

Because I was pretty steamed this morning about the post in the facebook group which caused me to unfollow, I put a comment up on my regular, private facebook page referencing the poor behavior. That generated some commentary from my facebook friends where I learned from friends across the country that they won’t let their kids get involved in raising and showing rabbits because the ADULTS at the shows are argumentative, resentful, and expletive-spreading meanies. REALLY?!!

We love our rabbits shows for the very opposite reason! We meet people who are willing to take the time with our kids, educate us on best practices in their barns, and generally be awesome. We have found some amazing folks we love at rabbit shows and to learn that other areas of the country are acting awful makes my heart break.

THESE ARE RABBITS. This isn’t an Olympic arena. It’s a fuzzy bunny and we make lots of them. There is absolutely no call for people to get superior or condescending about rabbits. This is like the nerd hobby of livestock – we wander around barns covered in fur and wicked looking nail scratches. Who does this?! Quirky folks who are pretty awesome but probably weren’t the cool kids in high school.

Put it all in perspective… THESE ARE RABBITS. Stop being a jerk. Just be nice and have fun!

So here’s my plea: Make Kindness Normal. Go out of your way to encourage and build up others. Be the positive change in the hobby. Look for ways to be helpful. Keep your words respectful in all circumstances.

Kindness confetti.jpg

 

The End.

We Don’t Keep a Sales Waiting List

Meat Rabbits, Pet Rabbits, Record Keeping, Show Rabbits October 3, 2017 Comments: 2
wait List

We no longer keep a waiting list for sales, despite many requests.

Over the years we have been contacted by many people regarding purchasing rabbits, which is always such an honor! When we have rabbits available for sale, we are happy to hash out the details of the purchase, transport, etc. But other times we don’t have exactly what the buyer is looking for and so aren’t able to help immediately. Almost invariably the buyer will ask to be put on the waiting list for their specific rabbit.

 

And I, in a dose of pure Scrooge-like meanness, tell them, “No.”

 

Why on Earth would we say no to a waiting list? Don’t we want to sell our rabbits?! Well, in a nutshell, yes. It does seem counter-intuitive that we wouldn’t keep a waiting list. But let me take you on a walk down memory lane…

 

In the early days of Mad Hatter Rabbits, when every cage was shiny and the food crocks still had the stink of the factory on them, we kept a waiting list. It was a lovely excel spreadsheet with the contact information of every person who contacted us, the date of communications, the exact request they had for their rabbits. It was a thing of beauty and organizational structure and it gave great joy to it’s maker, ME.

 

But then, the dark shadows of reality began to intrude. I would contact people on the waiting list to tell them their rabbit was available and they’d tell me they’d changed their minds. Or purchased a rabbit from another breeder. Or moved to Zimbabwe and developed a rash from looking at rabbit pictures… there were any number of reasons they were backing out of the purchase.

 

My excel spreadsheet became a mausoleum of unrealized dreams. It was a sad, sad thing. I grieved.

 

After about two years regularly getting burned by flakey rabbit folks, we made an executive decision. What stock is available will be posted on our rabbitry facebook page, and if people contact us directly and we can help them, we will. First come, first served at that particular moment. If the buyer is consistent in pursuing us, we can pretty much guarantee we’ll get a rabbit to them as quickly as possible, but the responsibility now lands on the buyer, rather than us as the seller, to follow through on the effort of a stock purchase.

 

I still miss that excel spreadsheet, but it was time to build a bridge and get over it.

 

Do you maintain a waiting list?

Cleaning out the Webs

Health September 13, 2017 Leave a comment

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Orb spiders. They’re nasty and also harmless. And huge. They make HUGE Cobwebs. Lots of ’em. We have become a breeding ground for these suckers and while they totally freak me out, I also know they’re beneficial in our attack against the flies and gnats that enjoy our rabbitry, so we have to make some sort of peace – up until a point.

 

Given only a small amount of time, these spiders can very effectively cover every inch of space around the rabbitry with webs and that, friends, is both scary and gross, definitely the stuff of heebie-jeebies. Yesterday was the day we said, “Enough is enough!” and went to battle.

 

Our weapon of choice for these silky, sticky, nearly invisible barriers?

 

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Fire. Lots and lots of continuous flame. (Contained and as safe as possible, of course.)

 

Really and truly, a butane torch (or “flamethrower,” for the more adventurous rabbit breeders), a steady and swift sweep, and the hair, cobwebs and gunk disappear in a flash, leaving behind cleaner and relatively sterilized cages. It’s a pretty nifty deal!

 

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Fire. Cobwebs. Disappearing in a flash and only slightly freaking out the rabbit in the photo. We never get near the rabbits but they find this whole business highly suspicious.

 

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This hair, food, cobweb mess goes up in flames. It’s quite satisfying.

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Just in case you don’t believe me at how quick it is? Here’s a video of the space in between our hutches, which has been left undisturbed to the point of insanity. Spiders own the place. It’s like the wild west of spider adventures. And now? Poof! It’s gone!

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Happy flame throwing!

Checklist for Starting a Rabbit Project

Meat Rabbits, Pet Rabbits, Record Keeping, Show Rabbits September 9, 2017 Leave a comment
Screen Shot 2017-09-09 at 9.50.42 AM

What do you need to start a 4H rabbit project?

We have just finished the county fair around here and are proud to announce that one of the kid’s mini satins was awarded Reserve in Show and our oldest was given the Champion rabbit showmanship award for her division. Good times!

 

 

Of course, being around all of those awesome 4H kids and their different projects, plus learning more about the livestock auction and its ins an outs has encouraged our kids to start working toward starting a goat (!) project! Eek! Our first step has been to start the research and as we’ve tried to gather information about goats, I’ve realized that other people might feel the same about how to start a rabbit project, so a post on how to get into rabbits might be helpful to you all!

 

So, here are a few things you might want to consider if you’re beginning a rabbit project:

 

  1. Finances. One thing I really appreciate about the 4H member record is that it forces the child to lay out a budget for their project. Things you should consider as you’re starting a rabbit project are: Stock, Food, Housing, and Tools.
  2. Purpose. What type of project do you want to purse? A market/meat project? Doe and litter? Showmanship? Each of these categories might require a different set up so begin with the end in mind for your success.

Here are our thoughts and best practices regarding these items:

Stock: The initial investment of stock is a big deal and many parents don’t have a clue as to where to begin to help their children! Consider the purpose of the project – if you want to do a meat pen, take a look at the breeds of commercial typed rabbits and then ask your fair what breeds of rabbit have been recognized for excellence in your area previously. If you want a doe and litter, look to a breed known for their mothering abilities. If you want a showmanship rabbit, look for breeds with a reputation for being easy to handle. Make sure that you have a copy of the American Rabbit Breeder’s Association Standard of Perfection, which is the book with the identifying characteristics of each breed. This $20 investment will save you hundreds if you allow it to teach what you’re looking for in choosing your animals and how to steer clear of disqualifications.

After identifying your purpose, start looking for places to acquire the animal(s). My recommendation is to start with the ARBA website breeder listing. This is broken down by breed and location. Ask for recommendations from those breeders. Take a look at the ARBA National Convention results. Check out the breed webpage for their top breeders. Look in the Domestic Rabbit to see which breeders have rabbits being given Grand Champion status. These are ways to figure out how you can get good advice and counsel from those who are serious about rabbit raising. (Also realize that those folks who have 30+ years of rabbit raising experience probably don’t have a webpage or Facebook farm page, so go to a rabbit show and ask people who to sit with to learn more – you’ll be shocked at how many people who truly love rabbits are truly looking to pass their knowledge on!)

Food: Each region of the country has different food offerings, so ask around. Your local feed store will be able to tell you what their best selling feed is, and if you do an internet search for food recommendations you’ll get many results. Recognize that people have really passionate about their food and many breeders blame their feed for all of their problems!

Regardless of whether you choose pellets or natural, or one brand over another, just know that your rabbit is going to have to eat! Every feed has pros and cons. Just feed your rabbit. (As an aside – seriously. Feed your rabbit. At our fair I wanted to cry over how many rabbits showed that they hadn’t been fed regularly or enough. FEED YOUR RABBIT EVERY DAY. Period.)

Feed costs will vary over the year based on what breed of rabbit you have and how much the pellets cost (a meat rabbit will eat approximately 200 lbs of pellets in a year if they’re being feed 8 oz./day). You’ll get a better price on a larger bag of feed, but make sure you’re not feeding your rabbit old feed about 3 weeks old is the longest you’ll want to keep feed for your rabbit. Fresh feed = healthy rabbits.

Housing: We follow the guidelines from ARBA and a book, Storey’s Guide to Raising Rabbits by Bob Bennet in our housing choices. We have chosen to purchase our cages from KW Cages and Klubertanz and find both cages to be of excellent quality. Putting your rabbit in a cage with rusted wire or uneven angles will hurt their feet and make their life harder. Food and water can depend on the preference of your rabbit as well as your area. For years we’ve used stainless steel crock water dishes in the winter when it’s freezing and water bottles for the summer time – but there’s not a right or a wrong to this.

Consider what you will do with your rabbit waste. Are your cages going to have pans for the droppings? If so, budget for bedding to cut down on the odors and ammonia from the urine that can hurt your rabbit’s nose. Are your droppings going to go to the ground? If so, do you have access to a shovel and wheelbarrow? Do you have a compost pile? Do you have a garden where you can put the bunny berries?

Are you raising a doe and litter project? If so you’ll need a nestbox. You can use a variety of items for your nestbox – we’ve found we prefer this style ourselves because we can clean them reliably, they are able to withstand consistent use, and they’re secure for the kits.

Tools: Livestock require tools for handling and rabbits are no exception. You’ll want to have access to a tattoo tool, whether a pen or clamp. (We use a KBTatts tattooer and love it. We also have a rabbit wrap that is extremely helpful when tattooing.) For grooming you’ll need to have nail clippers and possibly Kevlar sleeves to protect your arms from scratches. An apron or a pair of overalls can protect your midsection from scratches and your clothes from rabbit toenail snags and rips. If you have a wooled breed of rabbit you need a grooming comb.

When you take your rabbit to a show or fair, you need to have a safe way for them to travel. We use these 3 compartment, 3 lid travel carriers and we love them because they have individual openings for each hole.

Our tool box is very low on the medicines for your rabbit because we have chosen to simply do our best to breed healthy rabbits. We don’t use antibiotics. However, we do have some olive oil for the occasional time a rabbit gets ear mites and Diamataceous Earth to sprinkle over the droppings and in the fur of our rabbits. We keep a bottle of lavendar/tea tree essential oil and tin of Bag Balm around for our own scratches! (We also put bag balm on the rabbits ear after tattooing.)

 

I’ve tried to put together a pretty exhaustive list here, but I’d love to hear in the comments if you’d recommend anything additional. Starting a rabbit project is easy – rabbits are quiet, pretty clean, a lower monetary investment, and pretty cheap to keep. We’d recommend them!

Now… who can help us with the goats?! Ha!

Stuck Kits

Health April 19, 2017 Leave a comment

This past fall we lost our minds for a little bit and came home with some dwarf rabbits, both Dwarf Hotot and champagne Netherland Dwarfs. Obviously, this is really big departure for us because we are used to BIG rabbits and these… even full grown they are so tiny!

 

We’ve been enjoying them, however, and have bred them for some successful litters. However, this week our ND was due and we had our first run in with a stuck kit. A little back story, this doe has given birth without issue before, but this litter was two days overdue. We’ve since learned that there is a theory that you want to breed a dwarf with stuck kit issues multiple times so that she had a larger litter which theoretically also equals smaller kits.

 

This is our daughter’s rabbit and she’s been watching her like a hawk for the babies to arrive. The doe nested as usual and did a great job of preparation but the kits just didn’t arrive. Then we went out and my husband observed her convulsing and pulled her out for a closer examination.

 

Stuck kits occur when the baby is took large to be easily delivered through the birth canal. This is especially common within the dwarf rabbit breeds because of the shape of their skulls.

 

Here is a clip of the video we took of the contractions. Since we have never had a stuck kit, it was extremely informative to us to even know what we were seeing.

 

 

Once we turned her over we were able to observe the feet of the kit emerging from the birth canal and we realized what was happening.

 

It seems the best practice if you’re going to assist with a stuck kit is to wait for a contraction and gently tug with the contraction toward the stomach of the rabbit.

 

In the end, the doe delivered three dead babies (very, very large!) and over the next 24 hours she delivered the placentas, etc. She’s doing fine and recovering well. We have given her raspberry and dandelion leaves and rest. Experienced breeders have encouraged us to give her a few days and then breed her again.

 

Extended Labor in Rabbits

Meat Rabbits, Record Keeping April 10, 2017 Comments: 6

We blew it. Except we didn’t know we were blowing it.

 

Here’s the story – we put the nestbox in with our doe. We waited. She pulled fur and had one baby. All evidence pointed to the fact that this was a singleton litter and our temperatures are still below freezing many nights, so we fostered the little loner in with another litter to better its odds of survival, then removed the nestbox from mama.

 

And walked out the next morning to six more babies on the wire of mama’s cage, frozen solid.

 

What the….?!

 

All of our rabbit husbandry experience has taught us that rabbits give birth within a span of about 15 minutes. But in this case, I can say absolutely without question, that there was at least a 36 hour break between that first little bunny being born and the other six!

 

I don’t know how often this is, and without having personally experienced it we would have pooh-poohed the possibility of rabbits giving birth at different spaces. However, it does make me wonder about the few times we have counted babies, then a week later discovered our count was wrong and there is another baby in the box. Did the mama have another while we weren’t looking?

 

The only explanation I can figure for this behavior is if both of the uterine horns were impregnated. Since we occasionally leave our rabbits in with the bucks overnight (in the winter they typically don’t want to breed immediately so we’ve found making them roommates for a time works better) perhaps the doe was impregnated in different uterine horns, hours apart, and that caused a different delivery schedule?

 

Who knows, but I was shocked enough I felt it was worth noting on the blog that it can happen.

 

And we’re so bummed about the babies who didn’t make it because we blew it.

Memorization Tools for ARBA Registrar Exam

Show Rabbits March 22, 2017 Comments: 2

 For those of you who know us, we are big believers in ARBA’s registration system and do our best to register all of our rabbits. Being able to find stock that’s registered is a great help to newer breeders who may not know the ins and outs of a breed!

 

For those of you unfamiliar with this, here’s a description of registration from the ARBA website:

“The American Rabbit Breeders Association has a unique and exacting registration system. Unlike other animal registration systems, each rabbit or cavy must be examined by a licensed registrar, certified free from heritable defects and found to meet specific breed requirements as outlined in the ARBA Standard of Perfection.

The ARBA does not issue registrations of litters or register individual rabbits based on the registration or pedigree of its sire or dam. Each rabbit or cavy must be at least six (6) months of age before it can be inspected by a licensed ARBA Registrar. Because of its exacting requirements, the ARBA Rabbit/Cavy Registration system is arguably the single best livestock or pet stock registration system in the world.”

Because we believe in the system, I’ve had the idea of attempting to become a registrar in the back of my mind for quite some time. But the application process is not a walk in the park:

“In order to receive an ARBA Registrar’s license, each individual must be a continuous member of the ARBA for at least three (3) years, as well as have secured the written endorsement of 20 ARBA members in good standing prior to submitting an application to the ARBA office. Upon being approved to apply for an ARBA Registrar’s License, the applicant has two (2) years in which to pass a written and oral examination delivered by an official examining judge appointed by the ARBA and must work under three (3) judges at three (3) shows, assist one (1) registrar with registering animals, and secure the endorsement of the registrar and at least two (2) of the judges under whom he or she has worked.”

Big sigh. Time to set the goals high, right?!

 

At Arizona State Convention last month I was able to obtain the necessary signatures of support from other members (THANK YOU FRIENDS!) and since then have been trying to prepare myself to take the exam.

 

There’s a lot to learn and memorize. Like, a lot. It’s a little bit like trying to take a sip from a firehose.

 

Now, our kids are involved in programs that require a TON of memorization, so after becoming overwhelmed with all of the information in the Standard of Perfection to study, I decided to pretend I was going back to elementary school and use my kids memorization techniques, applied to rabbits.

 

First, I purchased and started working through the ARBA Registrar Study Guide:

 

Next, I channeled my homeschool vibe and made a lapbook of the pertinent facts. This is expandable, so if more items come up, I can just add another flap using colors, shapes, and placement as a tactile Memory Palace, or Method of Loci (yes, a Memory Palace is a thing):

 

Then, I took yet another step down the rabbit hole of super-kooky and… created songs and chants. (Yes, You May Laugh At Me Now.) (I’m laughing at myself. But kinda proud all at the same time.)

 

Now, before you click on any of these links I think it’s really, really important to note that I am in no way a professional musician, singer, or anything else that would cause people to admire my warbling. BUT, if a method is quirky and kind of strange, that in itself is part of the memory technique! I’ve found myself singing these songs in my head before I go to bed, which is a sign that something is working correctly in the memory banks!

 

So feel free laugh at me for these songs, but be gentle with your comments because ain’t nobody got time for nastiness ’round here.

 

Ear Length Disqualifications

Types of Fur

5 Body Types

4 Class Breeds

6 Class Breeds

 

If these are helpful to you, please use them! It’s general information that might be good for children studying for 4H exams, Registrar or Judge hopefuls, or people who just really like to embrace their best quirky self and know random facts about rabbits! Perhaps this will be a Jeopardy quiz show winning answer at some point in time! (And if you win $1,000,000, please be sure to send a chunk of it back to me as an expression of gratitude!)

 

I’m not exactly certain when I’ll take the test. Hopefully sometime in the next month. I’d rather be prepared than fail, so I’ll have to take the rest of our crazy life and schedule into account and right now, finishing up our school year with projects galore, may not be the best time to focus on studying.

 

The more time to memorize the better, right?!

 

If you’ve taken the exam, I’d love to hear your tips for success in preparation!