He's a great guy -- one of the nicest around -- and he works at the nearby trash transfer station. In winter, he comes over with his snow plow and plows our (very disastrous and rutted) driveway. Often, he brings us strange food items, like cans of Shur-Fine beans or plastic Ziplocs labeled, "Pork Fat, Aug. '02." He brings us beef from the family cows, and bags of Atkins blueberry muffin mix. He brings old magazines people intended to throw away -- old plant catalogues, for instance. He brings us toys people don't want -- toys they bring to the dump -- to recycle for Ella and Silas. For instance, last fall he brought a fantastic little wooden rocking horse-- handmade, handpainted with pink roses.

Last February, Tommy showed up one afternoon, at a particularly vulnerable moment in our household (vulnerable because we had several kid friends visiting) and this time he brought: Three female rabbits.

Who could say no? Not us, that's for sure.

Six months later, we've got 25 rabbits. Most of them (cough cough) are scheduled to go under the knife here shortly (see related problem in Chickens: 93 and Counting). We had to build all these rabbit hutches... Avrum went to the local hardware store and Randy Sahd, the owner, was wondering why the heck we were building space for several dozen rabbits. Avrum said, "One day Tommy drops by with three rabbits... a week later, I guess we're in the rabbit business."

Here are some pictures of our rabbits: