I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I've posted anything! I've been super busy around here. I knew that as soon as we started homeschooling it would get even busier, but wow! I still don't think I would have it any other way. I had a friend tell me last night that I seem happiest when I'm working, and I'm pretty sure she's right!

About a week and a half ago, I read a CraigsList ad with six 10'x20' shelters for a great deal, so last weekend we went and disassembled them all. That was a huge undertaking!!! The people that we got them from had just sold of their herd of goats that they were using them for and it was a maze of pallet walls in them.

On Saturday, I got two of them set up, end to end, and yesterday I got all of the rabbits out of the shop. It sort of looks like Barnum and Bailey landed in my field. I had Chris cracking up, as I hummed circus tunes all weekend. I had it in my mind that the moving and arranging cages part would be easy peesy, but no such luck. I also turned one of my large banks of cages into a double cage for the fryers. I'm so glad to have them in their new homes!

On Friday, I took a trip to Medford and picked up 4,000 lbs. of rabbit feed for many of the breeders in the area. I felt so much better having another 1,000 lbs. in the shop before I got desperate and ran out!

Last Monday we had winds of 40mph and it took out part of my greenhouse. I still haven't gotten it put back together, but that should get done this week, if it stops raining again. The really stinky part is that I had finally gotten all of my seeds planted. They're safe, but still!

The chickens finally got let out of their coop. They seem to love their new found freedom, but only by about 10'. The only time they will venture any farther than that is to run straight to me when they see me with the feed scoop. I need to get the inside of that coop finished soon.

The goats are doing awesome! Latte has put on a lot of weight and you can't tell that she was ever malnourished. I'm starting to think that Pudding will never get it back but she seems happy and healthy none the less. The little bucks are wonderful, and I don't know at this point if I'm going to be able to eat them. I'm starting to think that I should sell them, just to recoup some of my costs. I thought about keeping one of them to breed Latte back to, but I've heard bad things about bucks and don't think I want to go there.

My next big step is to get the hog pen up and situated. I have most of the lumber to build their house and all the material to build the pen. It should go fairly smooth. Let's hope so, since I only have until the end of the month to get it done!

As soon as this rain lets up, I will take some pictures of how everything is shaping up. Until then, God Bless!

We Have Achieved Breathing Room!

Well, this weekend has made for some sore hands and a very sore back. That's ok! All of the major 'have to dos' got done. I am physically and mentally exhausted from all of it, but now I won't be scrambling and worrying all week about what needs to be done outside.

On Friday, my friend borrowed a bank of small cages from me and brought over 5 chickens that needed to be butchered. Doing this is such a slow process for us. I'm hoping that in the future, we get a little faster! We also butchered a rabbit and I had to cull my senior NZW buck. It was sad to see him go, but he was old and no longer doing his job.

Saturday, I turned one of those banks of small cages into something much better. I turned a bank of 6 into a bank of three. I thought this would be easier than building all new cages from scratch, but the further into the project that I got, the harder it became. If I could wear gloves, it wouldn't have been so bad, but wearing them drives me nuts! On the up side, I realized that the cages had all been built from wire that had been galvanized after welding. All of the stuff I buy is galvanized before. I can't afford the premium stuff.

Now, all of my rabbits have their very own cages. This was something that was a major source of stress to me. I knew I could get it done, but where to put them was another story. I have 10 rabbits in our shop, set up willy-nilly on make-shift stands over tarps. For now, this will do and Chris seems to be just fine with it. I am also selling a bred doe next week to make a little extra cage space and I have all of my litters sold, with the exception of 4 agouti New Zealands. They should do fine on Craigslist.

Yesterday, I got all of the hutches cleaned, cages got burned and scrubbed, lime got laid down, and the tarps got removed for the year. I also managed to get enough groceries packed in for a couple of weeks, buy all the makings for my goat feed, and mix it up.

Chris took Allis for a joy ride and sprayed the property along the side of the road. He also managed to get a large portion of the garden rototilled. Since we are expanding it, some of it was harder to till. He didn't get it finished, but he did get a huge chunk taken care of. He also did a massive amount of burning. Since the front of our property has been logged and we had someone out to pull stumps, there is a mess of wood laying around. Cleaning it all up hasn't been a top priority, but we have been packing stuff around another huge stump on the side of the house that we can't get out, however, it won't seem to catch fire either. I give him kudos for his efforts and appreciate the clean-up!

All of this gives me more time to just focus on the kids and clean house at a leisurely pace. I still need to go out and get all of my seeds started in the greenhouse, but I don't consider that a major challenge. That is something I enjoy and can take the kids to help.

Chris told me that I am not allowed to make plans for next weekend. He thinks that it is time that we stop and relax for a bit. I was freaked out by this at first. I at least want one day to work, but he told me that it was time for a break. After much more thought and really feeling beaten up by all of my projects, I agree. It's been months since we took an entire weekend to enjoy life. This means 2 solid days of fishing. The girls will be in 7th Heaven, and I must admit, I will be too.

God Bless!

Design Fun

I have gotten a little better with Google SketchUp. It's a free program that you can use to create scaled models of just about anything. Here is the initial idea of what I'll be building. I haven't gotten all of the roof beams added into it. I just wanted to do it to show Chris exactly what I was thinking. I thought I would post it on here too, so that if you're designing something, you could see just how well this program works!

Pole Barn

So, after several suggestions from friends, I think we are going to go with a pole barn to house the rabbits. This is something that we talked about doing, but had decided to wait, since I was going to hold off on the rabbitry expansion. Now, we are debating on where and how we are going to do it.

Chris wants to build a decent size barn in the field in front of the house. Something that we could use for larger livestock too. I am all over this idea, but it wouldn't even begin construction until the garden is in the ground. With the weather we've been having, the garden seems to be a distant possibility.

I, on the other hand, would like to build a small, 8' x 24' pole building out next to my existing rabbitry. This is something I could do rather quickly, house about 30 cages, have it close to what I'm already doing and be able to tear it down for the materials when the actual building in front of the house begins (if I choose to do so). I am happy with where my rabbitry is right now. I was dead against it in the beginning, but it has turned into the ideal location. Besides, I have a lot of work into that area, and what a feeling it is to go out there and see something that you did with your own hands, actually working out.

Yesterday, we got the chicks moved into their shed. No, the shed isn't finished yet, but we put the tub we were using for a brooder in there on its side so that if it were to rain, they could find shelter. That is one less thing to worry about now. I do still need to take the chicks out of my bathtub and get them into the shop. They will out grow the rubbermaid they are in pretty fast, and I hate the smell of chickens!

I also managed to take a huge chunk out of the housework. That was probably one of the biggest reliefs to me. I still have some more to do, but most of that is my bedroom. It starts to look like a bomb went off in there. That is where everything that doesn't have a home, or the toys that get taken away go. It also houses my office (a desk, book shelf, 3 filing cabinets, etc). It definitely gives me more ideas regarding that pole barn!

God bless!

One By One, It Will Get Done!

I have been really lazy about posting, but my life has been one crazy amusement park ride lately. The kind that spins you around and makes you throw up! That's ok. I've decided to take it all in stride, and have promised myself (and my very understanding hubby) that I won't take on any more projects, until the ones I am in the middle of are complete.

Right now, I'm in the middle of a huge chicken and rabbit catastrophe waiting to happen. I have gotten my meat birds into the chicken tractor. The problem is, I can't move the tractor by myself, so in front of my house it sits. Meat birds are filthy creatures. I also have 18 chicks in my shop (Chris' side) that have decided that the brooder is too small and that they prefer wandering around to look at the shiny stuff. I bought the used shed off of Craigslist, but the weather has been so rotten and windy that getting it up has been an impossibility. We got most of it up on Sunday, but the roof won't align right, so only half of that is up. I'm going to tarp it today and move the birds. This way I can get the 10 that I hatched over the weekend out of my bathroom and into the brooder in the shop. Still following?

The rabbits that I bought, with the understanding that I would buy her shed too, have had some major consequences. The woman has decided for one reason or another (that's still unclear) that she doesn't want to sell me the shed. She also decided that the five other does that I was supposed to bring home (paid for) were too much for her to deal with and wants to refund my money. She told me she will send me the pedigrees for the nine I have already gotten home. I hope this actually happens! Normally, I wouldn't worry too much about all of this, except that I only would have gotten three does from her if she hadn't offered me the shed. So, on my side of the shop, I have nine rabbits (two that I caved for and bought at a show on Saturday...I know, I know). Now, I have to figure out how to get a shed built and extra cages put together at a very reasonable price.
My friend Tammy has me pinned down on Friday with butchering. She has eight roosters that must go and will split the meat with me, in exchange for the use of my 'butcher station' and a helping hand. I figure that's an awesome deal and maybe I can get her to help me butcher two rabbits that I need to go.

I've been holding off on the pig pen. The weaners won't be here until the end of next month at the earliest, so I don't have to be in a huge rush with that. I wanted to have it done by the end of March, just so it was out of the way, but I'm slacking a bit.

So, in the middle of all of this, I am homeschooling the girls. They are doing really well and are enjoying it. I love it too, but it would be much better if we could do it in a clean house! Getting the house clean has become an insurmountable project, as well. Chris is out of town for a couple of nights, so I am going to work on that tonight and tomorrow night. When my house doesn't feel clean, it really puts my mind in a funk. When it's clean, I feel like I can take on the world.

Well, in any case, if anyone has any feasible ideas on how to build a rabbit barn that can hold about 24 cages, and have the ability to be expanded upon for next to nothing, let me know! That's a pretty tall order, I know, but just sayin'...

Take Care and God Bless!

More on Rabbits

Since all I have done is live, eat, and breathe rabbits this weekend, it seems fitting to do one more post on them. I went yesterday to pick some of them up. In preparation for this many more rabbits, I decided to 'make my job easier'. I cut the tops of all my water bottles so that I could just fill them with a hose without pulling the whole thing down. I didn't know that the drinker valves needed the pressure to keep from leaking. Oh, dear! The water was pouring out of them as fast as I could pour it in. Luckily, we scrounged up enough used water bottles to get through the night. This is only a temporary fix, since the bottles are pretty small. This may just put me a little closer to an automatic waterer. See...one door closes and another opens.

Here are some pics of what I bought. This nowhere comes close to all of it, but it is a good start. I also have 5 more does with litters to bring home. Until the new rabbit shed gets here, I am at full capacity. In fact, quarters are very cramped right now!

The backside of the shed I built.

The front of the shed. I built the cages as well. I should have built the 'poop-shoots' with more of a slope, but live and learn. We used some of the corrugated pvc to put a roof between the two. It does make it nicer in the rain. I just took the tarps down yesterday. We had the entire thing enclosed to make a big shed and hung a shop light in the center.

This is Esme.

Esme's litter.

This is my new Flemmish Giant doe. She is pedigreed and will be bred once she is settled in a bit more.

My new NZR buck.

My NZR doe. Please excuse the mess in the background. This side of the shop has turned into mine, but I have so much stuff in there that I can't get it cleaned out.

God Bless!!!

Rabbit Role Call

So, this morning when I was out feeding the rabbits I decided to take a count. I lost an entire litter of New Zealands a little over a week ago from my best doe. I also picked up some newly weaned does last weekend and planning on getting a few more when I can build something to hold more cages. I need to catch my tracking program up to date and when I realized the rediculousness (is that a word?) of my numbers, I thought I would post. I have 41 rabbits, if you count the kits.

2 NZW does for breeding
3 Cal. does for breeding
1 NZW buck - I need to find a replacement (since I can't do brother/sister inbreeding)
1 Cal. buck
3 Jr. NZW does being raised for breeding stock
8 jr. bucks (holding one for a friend, need to butcher the others)
23 kits still in the nestboxes

My goal is to breed my Californians until all of my NZW's are old enough to breed. Then I will phase them out. Everybody wants the NZW's. In fact, I have a waiting list for my does.

Chris has been so wonderful about it all. I don't know if I mentioned it, but my original plan was 2 does and a buck for personal consumption. Anyone that knows me though, knows that I have an all-or-nothing/go big or go home philosophy. That could be why he didn't want goats??? Could be why I want to move to a farm with at least a quarter section of land!!!

God Bless!

Today, my friend Tammy came down and we butchered four mean roosters and five rabbits. A couple of weeks ago, we butchered three chickens and my two-year-old was fine hanging out with us. We were a bit worried that our older kids would freak out, especially when it came to the rabbits, but they thought it was the coolest thing ever. I think that being honest with them from the beginning and letting them know that all of our animals (except the cat, of course) are strictly for meat was the key.


I have to say that after we were finished, there was a deep satisfaction knowing that what was butchered were animals that were bred and raised here on our property, all of their pens, cages and hutches were built by me, and that they are all free of medication and hormones.

I think it may have been a bit awkward for Chris though. At one point, Tammy and I were starving and asked if he would make us a sandwich so that we could keep going before the storm hit. When he came out he mentioned that our roles seemed a bit too reversed for comfort. I felt a little bad about that. In my defense though, when I decided to take on more rabbits than what was needed for our family, I promised I would do all of the butchering and manage all of their care.

Here are a few pictures of my rabbitry that were taken over the summer. Since these were taken, I’ve built another hutch in the same design but much larger. I built all of the new cages myself, as well and have replaced the floors in all of the cages in the photos. There is something to be said for doing it yourself.

My kids were amazed watching me build the new monstrosity. That was probably the best part. It taught them that you can do anything if you put your mind to it, that men aren’t the only ones that can build things, and that if you want something done…then do it. Don’t wait around for someone else to do it for you.
 
God bless!