Silver Fox Wins the Gold

I cannot say enough about how impressed I am with these silver fox rabbits!  Jean, the rabbit that was born in early July of 2012 and shown by the farmer girl at the fair, gave birth January 19th to 8 babies that all survived to this day!  For a first time mom of only 6 months old, that's phenomenal!  Then Java, one of our original breeding stock gave birth to a set of 10, however 2 of those passed away over time.

Meanwhile, after 3 births and NO surviving babies, we gave Cream back to the person we got her from.  She was able to get 8 surviving young from her.  I think the kids and the dog and the general state of chaos we call home was just too much for Cream.  Now its time to determine Sugar's fate as well.  She was bred unsuccessfully twice this season.  She was bred again just the past week.  If we encounter another failed breeding, we will get rid of our last Californian/New Zealand cross and raise strictly Silver Foxes.  They seem to handle the heat better, are better mothers, less skiddish, never bite, sometimes cuddle, and are just plain beautiful.  They get the gold in my book.

Playing Catch Up

Oh my, does the world spin fast this time of year!  For those of you NOT in Florida, you may be enjoying hot cocoa and toasty fires.  But WE are enjoying beautiful balmy days, cool breezes, and fun outdoor festivals!  And so there has been much goings on, much to tell, much to revisit.

First of all, I must take a moment to let you know that I did actually win Homemaker of the Year!  I also won the "Baker of the Year" award because that best-in-show apple pie was rated best of all of the adult baked goods!  My husband had to pick my jaw up off the floor for me.  Twice.  I also learned that I lead the competition by about 200 points.  But lest that make it sound as though I'm bragging, I got all those points because... well... as I've never tried to hide... I can tend to go a bit overboard sometimes.  Yeah, as far as anyone could remember, no one had ever submitted 42 items.  Whoops.  Let me just cover my face and slink out the back.

Husbandman ran electric to that fancy shmancy new shed.  And we decided it was plenty big enough to milk the critters INSIDE!  I know, crazy huh?  Almost like we're gettin' all hoity toity or summin'.  In all seriousness, we did realize that there was plenty of room.  And being out of the winter wind is certainly more pleasant.  And it can rain and we stay dry.  We likely won't continue this in the summer.  It could be beastly hot in there in July, but for now, we love it.

We also slaughtered Shaun the Sheep two weeks ago.  I say we.  Actually, Husbandman shot him clean and quick.  We both struggled like mad to get him hung then I promptly left with the kids to go and pretend to be a normal middle class suburbanite music teacher while he did the dirty work.  We left Shaun on ice for a couple days then wrapped up roasts and ground a good amount for sausage.  We've had the sausage and it's quite good. Husbandman painstakingly cleaned and prepared the intestines for stuffed sausage, but in the end they kept splitting.  We wrapped up the bulk of it in 1 pound packages and called it a very late night.  I'm relieved to be done with the sheep.  I want to get back to doing better goat-specific minerals, but sheep are subject to copper toxicity.  And Shaun was starting to mount the goats.  After Helen's miscarriage earlier this year, I was really eager to see that enterprise wrapped up.  We tried. It wasn't a good fit for us.  Time to move on.

We've had success and tragedy on the rabbit front as well.  Mocha had another set of beautiful babies on November 9.  Nine were born.  She began to consume one, but the other eight remained very well.  Then we had rain one night a week later. The next morning she was in the nest box and I didn't see need to bother her so just checked on the one I expected to kindle and left for the day.  We came home in late afternoon and went out to do chores.  The girl child ran to me frantic about Mocha's babies.  I found the nest box drenched, 3 babies dead and the others cold and unmoving.  I brought the live ones inside and warmed them on a heating pad and a hair dryer.  I filled the nest box with hay for warmth.  Mocha had pulled so much fur for them she looks pretty sad herself.  Hair was everywhere before it rained.  Then it all just became a thick smotheringly heavy mat.  Husbandman fixed the leak in the roof of the hutch and we hoped the rest could survive.  One more was dead the next morning, but the remaining four appear to be doing ok.  We also decided to get rid of Cream.  She had another litter of babies.  Eight this time.  She didn't pull any fur and they all died off one by one over the next few days.  She's never raised a single baby to weaning.  Hoping it's just that she found our set-up (be it the kids, the dog, the buck down the line) objectionable we gave her back to the person we got her from.  Maybe she can get her to mother well.  As a full grown, good strong rabbit, I'd hate to see her life wasted.

We expect to be seeing a successful end to our first stint as foster parents in the coming days.  Mixed emotions come up.  Relief.  Concern.  Worry that my weaknesses hurt him more than helped him.  Frustration that even with that petunia staring me in the face I can still be so short tempered.  Realization that responding in love to him isn't just about him and me, but its also my best opportunity to model for my children who Jesus is... and how miserably I've failed at that.  But there's Jesus with my petunia telling me to move on and do better tomorrow.  That I will get this unconditional love thing.  That I will learn patience and kindness.  That I will learn to see his hurt as greater than my anger.

That I will learn to let Him work through me and stop expecting it all to come out of my own decrepit self.

Thank you, Lord, for not giving up on me even when I'm ready to just plain give up.

Rabbit update

Once again, so much to report.  So the last I mentioned was that all of Cream's babies died and we acquired silver foxes.  I bred Maxwell (the silver fox buck) to Sugar and Cream.  Sugar had 8 babies born March 15.  7 survived. Cream  then had 13 babies on March 19.  Unfortunately, they widdled down to 4 in the week that followed.  These have all been slaughtered and eaten or waiting to be eaten by now.

At the end of May I took Mocha, Java and Maxwell to a rabbit show... where Maxwell took 1st, Mocha took 2nd and Java took 3rd.  It was helpful that only 1 other breeder had silver foxes and she had only brought juveniles who hadn't begun to silver yet.  Fur is a major portion of their points. 
We had decided already to risk breeding in the summer so when we returned home, we promptly bred Mocha with Maxwell.  We did this so the girl child would have a silver fox, a smaller silver fox, to show at the fair.  A small girl needs a small bunny.  So we set Mocha up with a pen in the porch with a fan that stayed on her 24-7.  We also knew we needed to breed quickly to catch Maxwell before he went sterile from the summer heat.  So we bred them and 5 weeks later had 6 bunnies.  We figured if none of them survived, we'd just buy a smaller breed bunny for her to show, but we were hopeful.  And they ALL survived!  Compare that with all our previous breeds and bunnies where every baby from the first kit died to silver foxes where she had 6 and all are still doing great!  Very pleased.  Next week we'll wean them and examine them, chosing the one for show, the ones for sale and the ones for eating. 

Just adding a quick picture of our rabbitry.  You can't see the pen all the way on the left much, but there's 5 holes for breeding stock.  When babies are weaned (or if there's too many to stay in the normal hole), they are moved to the large pen on the right.  Nothing fancy, but its on the shadiest, coolest area of the property and no predators have gotten in.  A snake lingered in a tree one morning and a racoon was lurking about another morning, but they have not returned.  Mostly due to Angel, I suspect.

Silver Foxes, cuddly ones

Meet Maxwell.  He's our new silver fox buck. He joined the 'stead at the end of January with 2 does we named Mocha and Java.  Silver fox is a rare breed of rabbit that is quite remarkable.  We decided to get a breeding trio after reading about them in Countryside Magazine.  Once a mainstay of meat rabbit breeders, they fell to the wayside in popularity when people decided all meat animals should be white.  When real-feeling synthetic furs hit the market, they took another nose-dive.  But they're being brought back now.  Good mothers.  Calm disposition.  Better flavor though slightly slower growing. Wonderful hides. Large litters.  All to say, if they are what people say they are, we like 'em.   We hopefully bred Cream and Sugar (our full-grown white does) with Maxwell this week so we'll see what they're like mixed with the Californians too.  :-)

Surprise! Babies!

Forgive me.  I never got a chance to even get a  picture.  December 19th, I walked out, checked on the rabbits and found 7 babies in Cream's pen. 

Surprise!

I didn't even know she was pregnant.  I tried to breed her with Brownie before he went to be the patriarch of another set of ladies.  She showed no interest.  He "attacked" from every angle but never got the good ole grunt and roll so I figured she just wasn't ready.

Fast forward 5 weeks and we have squirming babies on bare wire.  I quick flipped over the nest box and put them in.  I pulled some fur from Cream (who should have done that herself) who did not appreciate the help. 

The next morning 5 of them were dead.  A few minutes later I discovered Helen had miscarried.  Can we say "miserable day?"  The day after that the remaining 2 were dead.  This is not uncommon for new bunnies.  Its like it takes a tragedy for their maternal instincts to kick in.  So Cream will be visiting "Steve" (the bunny down the street) this weekend.  We'll give him a day or so to "reload" then take Sugar a-courtin' too.

Picking Up Speed

The title of this post is not referring to any new drug use, though I'm sure that would be momentarily helpful.  No, instead I'm seeing our fall whizzing toward us at break-neck speed and I'm scrambling to be ready when in slams into my hot summer pace.

Not that summer has been lazy.  Just still working on summer stuff, that's all.

Sometime in July and August (see, I told you I was behind), I finished picking the last of our grapes.  Got about 10 gallons this year.  I fired up the canner to make jelly, but instead of creating a sauna inside, Husbandman set me up reeeeaaaallll nice.  And you have to read the rest of the post in a true southern drawl to get the full effect.

We recently acqured a large 2-burner gas stove, mainly for this very pupose but also for any pesky hurricanes that take out our power for any length of time.  This burner easily held my water bath canner and my pot of grape jelly.  I also did watermelon rind jelly since everything was fired up and crankin'.  And I had a nice shadey spot to work while still keeping an eye on the rugrats in the pool or swing set.  Everyone was happy... until a wet bottom found its way onto my Countryside magazine while I was up stirring the brew.  Anyway, about half my grape jelly turned out just fine.  The other half and the watermelon stuff didn't set so at some point I'll reopen those jars and try again.  More pectin, more sugar, more cooking and stirring.  One day I'll learn how to get it right the first time around.

I registered farmer girl and "Thumper" for the county fair last week.  Now we get to figure out the proper positioning and handling of a rabbit, not to mention getting her tattooed. (The bunny, not the girl).  A friend suggested waltzing into our local tattoo parlor, "Bad Azz Tattoo" with our fur ball and suggested a nice barb wire tat around the bicep.  Tempting... but we're obligated to letters and numbers in the left ear.  Later today, we're moving Thumper and Dumplin (because farm boy 1 won't be left out) into the porch for easier access for practicing.  And I also get to make matching outfits for the girl and her bunny.  Not really sure how, or why I'm happy about that, or even what possessed me to think of entering her into that contest, but I did.  And ya know, the smile on her face will be worth it, I'm sure.  The girl, not the bunny.  Not sure the bunny will be too thrilled on the notion.

We slaughtered our first ducks on Saturday.  We're having a rough go.  We started with 10 around Easter.  One died we think from internal injuries suffered at the paw of Angel.  Another turned sick-looking a while later and died.  Another just a couple weeks ago started limping and went quite lame.  He was one we slaughtered and by Saturday he was down to nothing.  He must have been starving for a week and a half, unable to walk enough to eat and drink.  Another had a large cyst/tumor thing on its face.  We culled them both and one is due for the oven momentarily.  The other (the skinny one) will be made into soup on a fine autumn day.  And now, yet another is acting lame.   We now have 1 good male, 4 females and a lame male.  Good for breeding stock which is what we wanted, but I'm nervous whatever has happened already will end up happening to our last remaining drake.  Unless its male competition that's doing it.

Nina is unwittingly enjoying her last meal.  I called a friend on a whim to see if he was interested in swapping a sheep for some beef.  He is, but wants it in meat form, minus the hoof.  So, sweet Nina is leaving us.  I haven't broken it to the girl child yet, but I don't think it will be a huge issue.  She's more keen on Daisy now anyway because Daisy is smaller.  She's never taken slaughtering real hard.  My mom was over while we killed the ducks and she expected a traumatic reaction from her granddaughter.  To her surprise, farm girl very bluntly and calmly explained the whole process to her and ended with, "And that's yummy MEAT!"  Yes, she's our sweet little carnivore.

We have re-acquired Doby.  You may remember Helen's baby... who had a baby... and we sold to some friends to get them started in dairying?  Well, they've decided farm-livin' is not exactly the life for them.  At least not with a triple digit heat index that go on for months at a time.  So we have her back and we're happy.  She's so sweet.  The farm girl is learning to milk on her (she's the only one who doesn't protest).  We initially only wanted 3 total dairy goats, but we're going to run with it.  4 isn't too different.  Especially since we decided to only keep Zuma and Valentino for breeding sheep.

We put Dulci in with Copper a week or so ago since its about time for her heats to start.  And sure enough, she got him all riled up. (Don't forget that southern drawl).  She escaped on Saturday while we were gone.  We put her in with the rest of the ladies until we could fix the fence.  Sunday Husbandman could tell she was in heat and Copper was just beside himself.  So we put her back in despite the fact that the fence wasn't shored up.  Sunday night she was out again and we put her in with the ladies.  Monday morning Copper was out... and he had circumcized himself in his escapades.  We put them both together and immediately went to fence fixing... at 7:30am.  At this Husbandman remarked that "we watch more goat sex before breakfast than most people see in a lifetime."  And yes, bloody and injured though it be, Copper took his one and only job very seriously and did it thoroughly job right before our very eyes.  The kids were inside watching a dinosaur documentary just in case you were concerned for their innocense.  He's calmed significantly today, but I have not ventured close enough to get a full accounting of his injury.  The bleeding has stopped and he's acting normal so I'll probably just let him be.  I mean, I do know the injury was, um, flushed.

And since I may not get blogging again for another month, let me comment on the state of our bee hives.  We suspect that both of our hives swarmed and that we checked one hive at just the wrong time and caused the new queen to fly off in fear.  So we put a frame of eggs (we think) and larvae from the other hive into the queenless hive.  And next week is the moment of truth.  Hopefully they're doing their thing.
I've got radishes, squash, and mustard greens ready to go in the ground.  The jelly melon is finally producing... like mad.  Picked our first one today just to determine how to know when its ripe.  We've got a busy week lined up with not a stitch of gardening in it so next week will have to border on insanity. 

Especially since the kiddie pool bit it this weekend.  That marks the official end of summer.

Cute Power

If we could power our house on Cute...

...then this would be our carbon footprint.

The Rabbit operation expands

The drama a 3-lb rabbit can produce is astounding.

 As previously posted, Mona had babies which fell out of pen #1 because she had them outside of nestbox #2.  We got them back into nestbox #2 which stayed inside pen #1.  Eventually 2 of the 5 died but not by foul play, or at least not what we can tell. 

Then all 3 babies were soon climbing out of nestbox #2.  We happened to be right there to witness it... and watch them climb/fall right out of pen #1.  One poor bunny fell right into the poop collection pan that also held rainwater.  Husbandman heard the splash, fished it out and cleaned it up.

 To fix that problem, we moved Mona and all 3 babies to Brownies pen (pen #2)... obviously moving Brownie to pen#1.  The kids liked that better so they could see the babies better.  Here they are watching our version of Saturday morning cartoons.  Even in their pajamas (in their defense it WAS still quite early).  But Farmer Boy  1 was found parked there much of the day.  Afterall, if he went through the trouble to haul his own little Mickey Mouse Lazyboy to the scene, you know he intends to spend some time there.

 Unfortunately, when we got home from church the next day, the little tan bunny was missing.  We went on a hunt and Farmer Girl was the one who figured out to check Angel's hidey holes.  Yep, little tan bunny was laying there dead.  It either fell through the chickenwire floor of pen #2 or Angel pulled it through.  Just so happened that the day before Husbandman and a friend finished building our new 3-hole rabbit hutch.  We moved it into position and moved Mona and the 2 remaining babies into one of the holes.

So here they are in pen #3.  So cute and cuddley.  We named the brown one Thumper, but have no name for the black one yet.  One will be for Farmer Girl to show at the fair this year and the fate of the other is undecided.

But since we had 3 empty holes, we went hunting for meat rabbits.  I found nothing worthwhile on Craig's List and was bemoaning such to my friends at the hardware store.  They responded with, "Why not call Ms. ___?  She sells meat rabbits and her sign with her phone number is posted on the wall by the feed."  Sure enough, Ms. Rabbit herself lives about a mile away.  I went over and was highly impressed with her level of knowledge and all she can do on a typical city lot.  She gave me a great tutorial about rabbit health and sold me 2 New Zealand/Californian cross does.  They were born on May 25 and will be ready to breed when the weather cools.  We'll keep looking for a buck from a different gene pool with good breeding genetics.

This is Thumper looking so cute. Picture was taken this morning.  They are each a good handful-sized. 

Mona likes to snuggle with her little ones too.  I can see why.

Kits, Chicks and Heat! Oh My!

 We've had some interesting adventures this week.  Thursday morning, I noticed Mona had pulled some fur and was looking crazed.  That evening Husbandman went to check on her and agreed, lots of fur, crazed look, but no babies.  Moments later Farm girl runs in screaming that there are baby bunnies on the ground.  Sure enough, 1 was outside and squirming around in the dirt.  Angel helped to find the others that had fallen out toward the back of the pen.  Mona had decided that even this nest box was not suitable evidently.  And delivering them outside the box meant they all fell out of the pen.  I called a friend and she said not to put them back in right away.  So we created a little home for them... in our bathroom.

This set-up is a 5 quart ice cream container (curtousy of my step-dad who's an ice cream junky... I totally dig the buckets).  The 5 babies are under the pile of fur that Mona had pulled out.  We set up our heat lamp that we use for chicks.  Over the top I laid an extremely well-used (but clean) cloth diaper that would block out some light, but have enough holes in it to allow some air circulation.  Later that same friend sent me a webpage giving me better details on how to care for baby rabbits... like keep the house between 68 and 72 degrees and IF its cooler than that add some heat.  Needless to say the light got shut off immediately.  Our house is kept at 80 and since outside night time temps may not even dip down to 72, I figured that would be just fine for them.

And so I fed them goat milk via dropper that first night and hoped for the best.  In the morning, they were all still alive and wiggling.  I fed them goat milk again (rabbits only nurse once per day and if fed by hand, should only get it twice at most).  My friend came by with a homeopathic concoction to help calm Mona.  I put that into her water a waited a few hours.  Then I put 2 babies back in, wrapping them well in some fur.  By feeding time that evening, there was still wiggling under all that fur so I knew at least 1 had survived and I put the remaining 3 back in.  As of yesterday, there was some wiggling, not much, but enough to know at least 1 is still alive.  We really can't find out anything more certain with out potentially causing more harm by freaking Mona out so we'll just wait and see.

Yesterday morning, while preparing breakfast, we noticed chicks scurring loose about the front yard.  We ran out and collected them and discovered a hole where something had dug under the pen.  4 chicks disappeared with only a few feathers left behind.  This is our first predator loss since getting Angel.  But we pulled an enormous tick from Angel on Friday AND she always sleeps in the back yard.  I think the reason we only lost 4 and not all 20 was because of Angel, but I think a lot must have gone on before it woke her up.  Either because of distance, the fact that the chicks are still very quiet or she was feeling lethargic due to that tick that had been feeding off her for quite some time.  At any rate, we moved the chicks to the back yard (where I was gradually working them toward anyway) where she could better protect. 

The garden is doing miserably.  By now okra and beans should be pumping.  I have nothing but amaranth, watermelons and cherry tomatoes feeding us.  I tried new varieties of okra and beans: eagle's pass for okra and Chinese red noodle bean.  With both they get just so big, produce maybe 1 fruit and then curl up and die.  Since ripping out my cucurbits (except watermelon), I've had room to add my standbys (Burmese okra, rattlesnake beans and red-seeded asparagus beans) so I'm hopeful to still get a decent harvest.  But I'm also concerned killer compost has found its way to Florida.  Monsanto has been selling this herbacide for hay fields.  Only it doesn't break down after the animal eats it.  Instead, it gets pooped out, composted and tossed in the garden where it continues to kill everything.  Since learning the problem, have they taken this junk off the market?  Goodness no!  They wouldn't make any MONEY if they did that!!!  Given that some beds are fine and others are not, I think it could be other issues.  But, for example, my eggplant should also be big a producing by now... I've had to reseed 4 times!  They either wouldn't germinate, stunt out before transplanting or stunt and die shortly after transplanting.  I just got all new seed, got my first good germination and transplanted healthy looking plants.  Hoping for something good.

The heat has been rough this past week.  I transplanted some new collard green starts (from my own seed!) and they just couldn't handle the heat.  I watered every 2 hours the first day and they still just laid down flat.  All but 2 transplants are now dead 3 days later.  I've got an idea for shade frames for transplanting in the summer heat... just add building them to the to-do list. 

Another interesting event earlier this week was Zuma came down with laryngitis.  She spent most of her 5 years in a concrete pen being fed from a hay rack and drinking from a pig waterer.  Her previous owners warned us that she probably wouldn't drink for a while since her only option was to drink from a bucket.  And we also discovered she didn't know how to graze.  I'd tether her out and she'd do precious little eating and absolutely no drinking.  One day this week, I did the same... only it had been very hot and a bit smokey the days prior.  That night and strange noise was coming from the barn.  Husbandman told me about it and said he thought it was Zuma.  Angel was going nuts.  I ran in and found her looking just fine... just sounding like a pubescent boy whispering.  We grabbed a bucket of grain which she ate happily.  I did research about sheep laryngitis and the results were miserable... like immenant death!  But she was eating fine, standing fine so I figured she just pulled on her tether a bit too hard, got dehydrated by refusing to drink from that bucket all day, and the smoke further irritated it.  I left her in the pasture for a couple days and she was back to her normal loud, deep demands at first light from the house.

Uh...Whoops

So, let's rehash some history.  We've been collecting other people's cast off pet bunnies.  That's how we came by both Mona and Brownie.  Both were "girl bunnies".  We bred Mona to the "boy bunny" down the street.  It didn't end well, but it did varify that Mona is still in bunny bearing years and not older than... well, our oldest son.

Last week we decided to give Brownie her round with the buck.  We took her over.  Brownie's previous owners were over so, yes, we made quite a spectacle of it all.  Except, it really wasn't going well.  Brownie wouldn't hold still for Steve (the confirmed "boy bunny") and they even swapped places a few times.  We sat there scratching our heads for a bit then when biting started taking place we quickly removed Brownie and headed home.  The astro-physics major who lives next door suggested comparing the 2 bunnies' nether regions.  Yes, at least 2 head smacks were heard all over the street. 

Uh... Brownie looks just like Steve.  We took him/her home and put Mona with him/her.  The gender was immediately varified.  Brownie wasted no time and did a grunt and roll that could rival the biggest polygamists. 

So now we have Mona pregnant again.  And Brownie, for a buck, is literally half the size he should be for good meat rabbit breeding stock.  So we will still need to acquire new stock when we finally get this rabbit operation moving.  But I think Brownie will stick around.  He's actually much nicer than Mona.  I'd rather have the kids play with him instead so if we can only keep 1 cute little fluff-ball, it will be him. 

Breaking the change-of-gender news to the farm girl wasn't easy.  She looked heart-broken.  Then she went outside and said that Brownie still had really long eyelashes so that means he's still a girl.  Sorry, sweetie, Brownie's just a very pretty boy bunny.  She's gotten used to the idea now.  She actually tells people that he "used to be a girl bunny."  We haven't tried to correct her.  That's a can of worms better left unopened by the 5 yr old brain.

Mona's PPD

Post-partum depression can be ferocious.

So bad that you eat your children.  Well, if you're a rabbit at least. 

On May 5th, one day remained of Mona's "window of opportunity" for birthing her kits.  She had done no nesting, pulled out no hair and had nothing of any note for teats.  I told the girl child that Mona was probably just too old to have babies in her tummy.

And then, Friday, May 6th, there were 5 little balls of skin wiggling around.  The nest box I created for her had a feed bag on the bottom, a piece of lattice over that (to prevent her from shredding and eating the feed bag) and hay on top of that.  She ate most of the hay before she birthed.  The babies nestled in the holes of the lattice.  3 babies in one hole, and 2 more in their own holes, but spread out away from the rest.  I didn't like the looks of it, but I knew if I went in there poking around, they'd all be done for.  Through out the day that day, she kept moving those babies, but they were never covered unless covered by another baby.  By Saturday morning 1 baby was missing, 3 were in 1 hole (with the bottom baby dead) and 1 more in its own hole.  By Saturday evening, the rest were dead or missing.

So, lessons learned... no lattice.  If she shreds the paper, oh well.  Secondly, use actual bedding and not hay so she's less inclined to eat it.  Thirdly, be prepared for cooler temps.  Nights were a bit chilly and there was a chance of rain.  I covered the top and sides of her pen with a tarp to keep the drafts out, but I could tell she didn't like it.  It scared her to have something different going on, even as "different" as a tarp.

From here... well, we don't know.  We'd heard the first round of babies can be hard.  We need to breed Brownie quickly because she's over 2 years old.  But we've also heard not to breed them in hot weather because its too hard on the does.  But we've also heard to just give Mona a rest and try again in a month.  The jury's still out on which route we'll take.  The bunny stud who lives down the street certainly doesn't mind offering his services as much as we may need.

Flash Farming

Husbandman and I may not be known to let grass grow under our feet, but we do usually do things rather methodically, calculated, planned, over-planned and almost always over-researched.

But this year seems to be different.  Without meaning to, it seems as though we're blitzkrieging on new enterprises.

So Mona spontaneously got bred.  And we spontaneously brought home Brownie, another rabbit for breeding, when some friends offered her to us.  This leaves us with 2 filled rabbit hutches, neither with a nest box, neither with enough room for the mother and her 6-week old weened young and no suitable pen for said young.  With Mona due in just over a week, I have ordered three 20"x26"x6" wash basins for nest boxes (because I don't have time to build something).  It gives us about 7 weeks to build a pen large enough for the weened young.  We intended to breed Brownie pretty soon, but that may be put on hold for a bit now. (whew!)

Then Doby kidded last night.  I wasn't expecting her to kid until May or June, but a couple days ago I realized her time was immanent.  I was quite nervous for her as she's just over a year old and still rather small.  That she was bred to a dwarf goat eased my mind only slightly.  But my worries were for naught.  She birthed about midnight last night without a peep.  I knew what happened only by Angel making some odd confusing noises and figured she was baffled by the "miraculous" appearance of a new charge.  She stood vigilantly by them the entire night though.  So now, in the midst of everything else, I'm milking a new goat 4 times a day.  She's not great on the stand yet.  More nervous than interested in food.  To narrow through the hips to make udder access easy.  Just all around, not that fun right now.  I'm also not sure how long we'll be without milk in the next year as the 3 present milkers dry off and we appropriately space their lactations now that the buck's "services" can be planned and prevented.

A couple days ago, the people we bought our bee hives from came by to give us a tutorial and check on the hives.  Turns out they've gone gangbusters in there and are already busting out of the original boxes.  We need to add a box to each hive pronto... meaning we need to build them first!  So tomorrow morning, Husbandman will ferociously build, tomorrow afternoon I will ferociously paint and Saturday we will quietly and calmly install.

A few days ago friends asked if we wanted some new chicks.  We did the math and decided,yes we could use some fresh layers to see us through the lean time this winter when daylight and molting could bring us to less than a half dozen a week.  So now we need to figure out which pen will be our brooder and then hold our growing birds... which means no pen is available to even buy some time with the young bunnies.

Then today, I popped on Craig's list (hoping to see a rabbit hutch for sale to save us the time and energy to build one) and found muscovy ducklings for sale locally.  I've never seen muscovy ducklings for sale!  Hatcheries require a huge order and a pretty penny each.  I asked the people selling if this was something they would likely keep on hand.  No such luck.  They're only available a couple times a year from hatcheries and they grabbed these on a whim.  So, this means we're probably going to be bringing home muscovies again rather soon.  We'll brood them in the dog crate until their ready for the old turkey pen outside in the pasture.  And one of those rabbit nest boxes I ordered will probably wind up a duck bath.

And those same friends that gave us Brownie, and asked if we wanted to order chicks with them also asked if we wanted a really nice Suffolk ewe.  Apparently this ewe has been shown at the county fair and has had 2 sets of twins in her 4 years of life.  Her present owners just want a good home for her.  So, we're now considering bringing on a new ewe that would have more likelihood of twinning and slaughtering both Nina and Daisy (knife to the heart twice!!!) this fall.  We don't want to overwinter 3 breeding ewes.  Should we take this ewe, we'd keep her and Esperanza for breeding (and of course Valentino too).

So guess what we're doing this weekend.

Mona's Night Out

Yesterday afternoon, some neighbors stopped by to chat, see Daisy, etc.  Farmer Girl took them to see Mona, even though they have met Mona many times before.  Farmer Girl's quite proud of her little fluffy charge.  These neighbors have a buck rabbit themselves.  Husbandman started talking with them and the next thing I know, Mona and her pen are being toted by the red Radio Flyer off to meet her new beau, Steve, with all the kids in tow as well.  I was busy taking down laundry so merely asked where she was going as the whole gang (7 people and a bunny) trotted across 3 front lawns.

Apparently Steve did not even wait for privacy.  In less than 3 minutes the deed was done.  Husbandman did not think it could have possibly gone that fast so we left Mona with Steve until after dinner.  Then again, all 3 kids went with him to bring her home.  The littlest farmer boy this time riding in the wagon with Mona's pen and the other 2 kids holding on to the sides.  It was quite a sight.  So now "Backyard in Your Barnyard" has been added to my bedside reading stack, a stack no less than a foot high.  I need to figure out how to properly feed this pregnant bunny as she mostly just gets scraps from the kitchen and garden.  Lately when we've given her pelleted food, she eats some and scratches the rest right out of the bowl and it falls through the pen. 

May 2nd starts the window of time she could birth.  It will be a new experience for me to be involved in the labor and delivery of something I can't stick my whole arm inside.  Not that I help in many deliveries anymore, I guess 2 in the last 5 years.  Certainly beats the stats on the conventional dairy farm where about 1 in 3 births needed assisting.  I digress... merely saying I don't think my pinkie finger will be able to assist so Mona, its all you, sweetie. 

Nina and Mona

 Button the ewe went into labor Sunday afternoon.  I noticed her very bagged up and a bit puffy when I fed them about 4:00.  I figured by morning we'd have a lamb.  Less than an hour later Husbandman was out collecting buckets and saw "something hanging out".  Button being as skiddish as she is, he didn't want to get too close.  We whipped out the binoculars and spied on her from a distance.  She was laying down and pushing.  And pushing.  And pushing.  It was a rounded nub sticking out, not gangly legs so I got concerned.  With Bella, there's a lingering fear that in my nervousness, I caused the ultimate death of both Bella and her baby.  Bella was also skiddish.  Both Bella and Button were purchased from a big farm where they got almost no human interaction.  When Bella's baby wasn't coming, and I tried to pull it, it was clear she was much too small for the size lamb inside her... but was she tightened up because of fear and stress?  So, that mulling in my brain, I wouldn't even get close to look.  I snuck around to the side of the house and spied.  I waited.  I wrung my hands.  And next thing I knew she was licking it off.  We continued to give her good distance until after we saw the lamb nurse well.  Then I grabbed it, put iodine on the umbilical cord, determined the gender (a ewe) and let the kids pet her some.  Farmer girl called her grandma and insisted she come see the baby NOW.  Thankfully Grandma lives a quarter mile away and was happy to oblige.  Other friends came to see her too.  She was just officially named "Nina" this morning.  Farmer Girl is our main namer now and I think she did well chosing this one.

So what does this birth mean?  Well, unfortunately for Button, it means her days are numbered.  Button, being so skiddish, is much too hard to manage.  I can't graze her as I do the other sheep because if she gets loose, there's no catching her.  Nina will be our replacement breeding ewe and Button... she'll be sausage before the summer is out.

And now I watch our other ewe thinking she's going to be due soon too.  As of this morning, Dulcinea looks the closest to birth.  Which I'm just as happy about. I'm desperate for real milk again.

 And since I'm at it, here's the bunny Farmer Girl is raising.  A friend gave us this rabbit, complete with its pen about a month ago.  We'll get meat rabbits in the summer, but this is a pet rabbit for the girl to practice on.  Since she'll be the main care-taker of the rabbits, we figured this was a good way for her to grow into her job.  She does a very good job.  She needs some reminding at times, but she's only 4.  She named this bunny Mona and Mona is certainly a sweetie.  She will not be eaten.  She's merely  a cute puff-ball, all fur and no meat.

Write the Vision

And the LORD answered me and said: "Write the vision and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run that readeth it.  Habakkuk 2:2

And so I write out our plans for our little homestead.

For 2011 (with approximate completion time):  will strike through when completed.

1) Fence in the pasture common area (February)
2) Install inhabited beehives (March)
3) Plant several blackberry bushes and one more grape vine (April)
4)  Install new shaded herb bed (April)
5) Build fly/maggot traps for chicken feed (May) Husbandman drew the line at farming flies.
6) The Bachelor Pad- a separate fenced area to house our goat buck (May)
7) Build pens and fill them with meat rabbits for breeding (June)
8)Add removable plywood walls on the barn (as opposed to the present billboard tarp walls)- (December)
9) Install hay storage area over pump house (whenever) Decided that wasn't such a good idea... they'd maul us at each feeding.
For years beyond:

1) Add another partition to the pasture, one each year of 2012 and 2013, including separating and burning felled branches in each paddock.
2) Develop a grain patch to grow some of our own goat or chicken grain. (2014?)
3) Install a geothermal AC/heater (2012?) Removed from to-do list.  Not cost effective.
4) Clear to southern property line (2012)
5) Install a southern "fence" and plant blackberries and grapes along it. (2013) May be rethought with plans for a tree house.
6) Add muscovy ducks and/or turkeys (2012)
7) Clear area for garden expansion, expanding about 10-15' each year beginning in 2013.

Goings On

1) A big event is on the horizon!  Sunday, October 10th there will be an alternative energy expo as the Marine Discovery Center in New Smyrna Beach.  But its not limited to alternative energy only but anything that will help us on the path toward a more sustainable existence.  And another cool aspect is that the businesses represented are all LOCAL!  If you have or know of a business you'd like to see there, let me know and I can connect you with the organizers.  Anything from bat boxes to builders to landscapers.  Very low vendor fee.  Great opportunities for everyone! 

See you at the Marine Discovery Center, 162 N. Causeway, New Smyrna Beach from 11am to 3pm.

2) Bringing back home, last Sunday, late afternoon, we were all outside.  The family was playing on the swingset, sheep were grazing nearby, turkeys running in the pasture... and the dog went on red alert.  A casual attempt to try to figure out what she was jumpy about sent us into a panic.  I (with my less than perfect vision) thought it was a BIG black wild pig running up our neighbors driveway.  We went running with the kids to the house, Husbandman grabbed the sheep, I herded up the turkeys and wondered if I should grab Dobie, our small, not quite yearling goat.  I called everyone on the street with kids, guts or amo.  Husbandman went out to check over the area with a, um, .22.  He didn't see anything then but the more we got talking about what we saw, its shape, the way it moved and its sheer size, we determined it was more likely a bear, its brown face tricking my near-sighted eyes into looking like tusks.

I started researching and the more I learned the more it must have been a bear.  To sum it up, black bears don't attack people, even little people, unless provoked.  They will eat chickens, turkeys and even small goats and sheep and come back night after night.  The dog may be enough of a deterent that it could pass by and not even come on the property.  But just to be safe, we've decided to hold off another year on starting honey bees just to make sure this cub kicked from the nest isn't making its home near us.  The smell of honey is strong and luring.  We could easily protect the hives  but not everything else that a hungry bear would find delectable!

3) So instead of honey we're thinking of rabbits.  What started out as a conversation of getting the little farm girl her own animal/s to care for, show at the county fair, pet and play with, ended up being a full-fledged rabbit operation.  The more we read, the more we wondered why we're raising chickens.  Now I'm not ready to give up on poultry all together.  We'll always raise egg-layers, but it would be nice if we could, between the turkeys and the rabbits, replace the meat bird operation.  Turkeys and rabbits are all things we plan to breed here where chickens... just not going to do a rooster again.  More thinking and planning to do.  We won't be doing anything until well after Husbandman's exam next month.  And the new barn needs to be finished first.  And we're thinking of creating a "bachelor pad" or breeding pen mostly because Copper has been jumping on Helen since the moment that baby came out.  A farmer's work is never done.