Bouncing Baby Bunnies

We have meat rabbits. Well, we have rabbits...of a breed that is conducive to eating. We have 3 Californian does. We had 2 New Zealand bucks till Wilma and Seamus killed them a few weeks ago. We had plans of giving the does away because they were not breeding and we were tired of unsuccessfully trying to breed them.

As a side note, we have a colony set up. So many people tell us that it is a waste of time and it is not the most efficient way of breeding rabbits. To them I say, I am not interested in efficiency. I am interested in HUMANELY raising rabbits. Rabbits need to be able to hop and stretch out fully. We kept a bunny in a cage for almost a year, then introduced her into the colony setting. The change in the rabbit was amazing. When we got the New Zealands and plopped them into the colony they did not even know how to hop...and they were 18 months old. 

Granted the mortality rate of our rabbits is high, due to the dogs (we are working on that) but the lives they have are natural bunny lives. They dig and forage and hop and stretch. So, before you tell me how much more EFFICIENT cages are, live for 18 months in a cage unable to stand up or take a full step. 

Anyway we decided that if we could not do the rabbits in a colony successfully, we will not do rabbits. Then Elliot brought me THIS:

This is a 3 week old baby bunny he rescued from Wilma and Seamus. Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do for it and it died. But this was the first I had seen of ANY babies.

I went outside and crept very quietly up to the pen, and we had babies!!! LOTS!! 2 large ones maybe 4 weeks old, and 4 small ones, about 3 weeks old. 

One of the "little" babies

One of the "big" babies

Yesterday, Thanksgiving, I delayed doing my chores. I regret that now...very much. When I did go outside to feed and water the livestock, I found that the final doe had had her kits. 

First time mother rabbits are not good mothers. Sometimes they eat their babies, sometimes they have them and walk away. And sometimes they have them out in the open on a very cold fall morning. That is what our rabbit did. By they time I went outside, I found 6 dead baby rabbits, only a few hours old. I imagine all but 1 (he was deformed) were born alive but did not live long. I was collecting the bodies and I followed them back to the "nest". It was very poorly made and out in the open. I was pulling bodies out when I felt something move. As I pulled them out I found 2 babies still alive. 

They were freezing. They felt as though I had pulled them out of the refrigerator. I ran them into the house, handed them to Lea and said, "Keep these warm!" She immediately put them under her shirt while I madly Googled how to take care of orphaned baby bunnies. 

We set up a little box for them and braved Wal-Mart to buy Pedialyte and puppy formula.

I am happy to say they bunnies survived the night. 

They only eat 2-3 times a day. I got up and 1 am and fed them. I will probably do that for a few more days, then they can eat 3 times a day. Their eyes should be open in a week, and they are fully weaned by 3 weeks. (They should have hair by this time next week)

If these rabbits survive, we will keep them...and not as food. We will add them to the breeding stock.

We have also decided on a happy medium as far as colony raising goes. A week or so before the rabbits give birth, we will put them in a large cage. They will kindle in there, and as soon as the babies are close to being weaned, we will allow mom and babies back into the colony. So colony raising with a nursery! 

They will still be bad mom's the first few times, but it seems as though this might be the most EFFICIENT way to raise in a colony.

Frittata and Parsley on Hand Washed Dishes

This is not at all what you are thinking. Well, maybe it is, but here goes! 

I was getting tired of sandwiches or pasta for lunches so I decided to think outside the lunch box. A perk of home schooling is that I do not have to prepare a meal 4 hours before they are going to eat it. So why not a hot lunch? Something we are never lacking is eggs, so I decided to make a Firttata. I happened to have sausage and potato. BAM! Lunch! 

Best part about it: EVERYONE LIKED IT!!!

It was as though a light shone down on it and the angels were singing!!!

There was no parsley involved in the recipe. 

This is Parsley:

She is about 11 weeks old. And of course, Elliot loves her. 

She is a wonderful kitty and lets everyone lug her around, even Quinn. As a side note, her name is Parsley because our other cat's name is Sage. Maybe some day we will get two more kitties named Rosemary and Thyme, but for now, I am at my limit.  

My dishwasher broke. There is no way to sugar coat it. It has been on its way out for a while, but this week not only did it stop draining, it began pouring water out of the bottom. 

We have committed to living a debt free life and have been working very hard to reduce our current debt as much as possible. We recently exhausted our savings with some unexpected travel and a stupid car repair (it was necessary but I am still bitter about it) so our choice was to put the new dishwasher on credit or hand wash the dishes. 

After a short discussion Leigh came home with my BRAND NEW...

dish drying rack. Only $5 at the dollar store! 

Well, you know us, we like to do things the old fashioned way. 

There...

...just like the olden days.

On the up side it looks like the budget fairies will allow us to pay cash for a new dishwasher in December. I only have to "Little House on the Prairie" my dishes for a few more weeks! 

Well, That is What You Call a Goat Fornication

So the wind is out of control here. Our feed shed flipped over and while I was in the process of trying to pull it apart, the goat shed rips from the ground and flips over. In these winds I finish pulling apart the shed and go and try to flip over the 8x10 metal goat shed my myself. Julia in the mean time calls Heather and she comes over to help. By the time she gets here I have righted the goat shed, but the chicken shed is about to go. As we are madly trying to secure both sheds we look over and see 2 of the goats...well...fornicating. Yep. That is what this is a big ol' goat--well, you get the picture.

In the process of this whole ridiculousness, I am hit in the ribs with the shed door. 

I am just happy that my ribs did not break. 

Garden Pests

We do not use pesticides on our garden. We use natural pest control methods and only organic fertilizer. This year we have been lazy and have not used either. 

Our garden is kind of hit and miss. Our corn was a dismal failure, as were our bush beans. We got about 2 ounces of pole beans (Rattlesnake beans) and it is just enough to replant next year. Our peppers were okay, as were our melons. Our sunflowers were wonderful, and we got over 30 lbs of pickling cucumbers. We have some amazing volunteer Roma and Beefsteak tomatoes, they are just ripening slowly. Our major success story this year has been our cherry tomatoes. They did so well they choked out our chili peppers. These things grow like weeds. We have harvested over 7 lbs of tomatoes each no larger than a marble. And that does not count the ones that I catch the kids picking and snacking on. We still have tons of green ones that have yet to ripen. And they are so pretty!

I am pretty impressed with out harvest not only because we have never had such an abundant crop with so little work, but the horn worms have been out of control this year. There is ONE leaf left on this plant! 

We have done nothing to kill them but send Noah and Elliot out there to pick them off the plant and feed them to the chickens. 

Elliot spots them and Noah picks them off. Elliot is actually afraid of them. He says it is because they are gross and "throw up" on him. If doesn't phase Noah at all. They are a great team, but the worms do a lot of damage before they get big enough for the boys to take care of. 

One of the perks of not using any pest control but the "picking" method is whole ecosystems live in the plants. The kids have seem more bugs this year than any other year. 

These "Fuzzos" are a favorite among the kids. We had a tank of close to 20 of them for a few days. They just kept bringing them in! I finally told them they had to let them go because they would not turn into moths if they stayed inside. I don't know if that is true, but I was just tired of having to remind them to go get amaranth for them to eat. They eat A LOT! 

So may crickets. Big ones. 

Small ones. 

Whole families! (There are three in this picture. Can you see them all?) Also notice the half eaten tomatoes...dang worms...

There is also the mother of all grasshoppers: The Horse Lubber Grasshopper. 

I did not take this picture. Every time the kids catch one I try to get my camera, but it gets away before I can get a picture. Want a concept of how big they are? 

Again, I have no idea who this guy is...this is a Google image, but the kids have caught ones at least this big. The biggest one I saw in Noah's hand was roughly the size of a hot dog with grasshopper legs. I was really afraid of that one. 

Even better...they hiss...and fly. Essentially they are my mother's and sister's nightmares come to life. Elliot will manhandle these beasts, but don't get near him with a horn worm. 

Sure garden pests eat your food, but by letting them have a place in our garden we have uncovered the budding entomologists in our kids.  

New Farm Toys

Leigh has been wanting a riding lawn mower for close to a year. Last monsoon we had to cut the grass with a weed whacker. An acre of weed whacking is a long, crappy process. A friend of Leigh's is moving to New Mexico and she is trying to sell her house. She is selling a lot of her stuff and among her things is a nice riding mower with a tow behind cart. She needed it off her property to show the house so we brought it to our house. We love it so much we are going to buy it from her. 

Not only are we going to be able to mow the yard way faster than before, Leigh can give "train rides" to the kids. 

Notice Elliot's bull riding stance. 

There is so much hillbilly about this picture: shoeless, shirtless Noah in the back, the grass head sticking out of Elliot's teeth, the boots...they have real tree camo on them. But they are having so much fun! 

Liam love the rides...for others. He will not get in the cart, but squeals, laughs and runs along next to it. 

"Faster Dad! Faster!"

Who needs Disneyland? We have Mr. Toad's Wild Ride right here! 

This Little Piggy

Are you sick of all our farm-ly stuff yet? Well too bad! 

We got pigs!! 

We found a pig breeder in Tucson that pretty much always has piglets. He grew up in Iowa, and from our Army experience pretty much all Iowa has to offer is odd people and pigs. He vaccinates and castrates prior to selling. YAY! 

Our plan is to raise three pigs every six or so months. As done as I was with the last set at harvest time, I am so happy to have pigs back. Nothing goes to waste...nothing! We scrape our plates into the "pig bowl" after every meal and at the end of the day chuck the food into the pen. 

When I clean out my fridge and find those mushy kind of slimy veggies...into the pig pen. The other day I was milking Faye and she put her foot in the bucket. Don't dump it...feed it to the pigs! 

We are keeping one ourselves, raising one for the Laney's and raising the other for my parents. I brought them a pork shoulder when I visited in April and they were so impressed what what "real" pork tastes like they were happy to take the third. 

My mom has a soft spot in her heart for pigs. She wants very much to be a vegetarian because she feels bad for the animals. And she should. Animals raised in the American industrial food market are not treated humanely at all. Seeing her pork before it becomes pork is a small form of torture for her, but she knows we love the animals and treat them with respect. Yes their life is short, but it is far better than the pork she gets at the store. 

As a way of thanking her for taking steps to overcome her aversion to knowing her food before she eats it, we named the pigs after wine. (She is not a wino, she is a connoisseur!) :)

On the left is Zinfandel (Zin) and the right is Merlot. Zin is our only female and will be my parents pig. Merlot will go to the Laney's. 

This is Pino Noir. Pino for short. 

They sure are cute and funny right now. Whenever people ask me how I can slaughter (we call it harvest) such cute pigs, I tell them the truth. They are cute now. They are funny and play little piglet games, but in 6 months when they weigh close to 300 lbs each, eating 200 lbs of feed a week (that's over $80 a week!), and busting out of the pen trying to bite you, it becomes a lot easier. 

Harvest time should be the end of February. We should have bacon by March. Woo hoo!

Meet the Goats

I know I am behind on this but, hey! I'm proud I got this posted at all! 

About a week ago we purchased two Alpine goats in milk. A friend of Leigh's was downsizing his farm so it was nice to be able to buy these ladies from someone we knew and someone who was willing to answer a lot of our questions. We fly by the seat of our pants a lot of the time!

They came with the names but they just didn't fit with our naming schemes on the farm. We decided that they needed new names. They were soon dubbed Ernestine and Nedra Faye. 

Back Story: My grandmother was born and raised in a tiny town called Christiansburg, Virginia. We have several keepsakes from her life. Among them is a yearbook. Two of the girls who signed her yearbook were Ernestine Slusher and Nedra Faye Tucker. Upon hearing these names my mom knew she needed two little girl kitties names Ernestine and Nedra Faye. This was probably close to 15 years ago. Every cat she has gotten since then has been a boy. I never saw them as kitties, I saw them as goats. So I got two goats before she got two kitties, so I win! 

As a side note that will probably be of little interest to anyone but my mom and myself, I found Ernestine Slusher on the census: 1920, 1930, and 1940. She was the oldest of 4 children, her parents were Quinn and Elsie Slusher. In 1940 she was working as a dental assistant in a dental office in Christiansburg.

Anyway, we call then Ernie and Faye for short. 

Here is Ernie:

Faye had to push Bailey around a little bit just to prove she was bigger and bossier. 

Here she is rearing up for a head butt. 

Despite being bossy with the other goats, she is very sweet. 

Seamus needed to come in and supervise the goat meetings. 

If you look carefully in this picture you will see Elliot in a purple shirt. He was out there just chatting up the goats. I finally asked him if he wanted to get into the pen. 

Never was there more joy in a little boy's face! 

He did ask me why one (Faye) had "big milkers" and the other one had "little milkers". I tried to explain that animals are different just like people. Faye gives almost twice the milk Ernie gives, but Faye has kidded 3 times and Ernie has only once. That seemed satisfactory to him. He then wandered off and I heard him mutter, "I like big milkers." Well, there you go. 

Ernie says, "You sayin' there's something wrong with my milkers?"

We will be drying off the goats in a few weeks, even though we just got them. We will breed then in September and we don't want to have to milk over the holidays. 2 weeks after they kid we will start milking them again. 

By far goats are the most work we have ever had to put into livestock, but I love not having to buy milk anymore!!