Bitterroot's Journal - Rabbitosis, cookies up to my eyeballs, & Xmas!

[porkchop48]

Welcome Bitteroot.

Are you the one that said you might have met me at a frog show in Pittsburgh? Is soooo you have to help me remember which one you are

Adorable bunnies

 

[Bitterroot]

LOL Thanks!

I'm the one who insulted you by calling you the crazy frog lady. Used to live in WV, but got the heck outta there last year.

 

[porkchop48]

LOL Thanks!

I'm the one who insulted you by calling you the crazy frog lady. Used to live in WV, but got the heck outta there last year.

Ahhh yes I think I may remember. Seems alot of people call me that now

I was in WV until about a year ago as well. Moved to a tiny village in Ohio but loving every minute of it.

I hope the move goes well for you guys and hope the farming goes great too

 

[Bitterroot]

Thanks so much. So far, so good. I see it's going great for you, congrats! I think I remember it being quite a fight for you guys to get into that place, and you sure deserve it. Miss ya on fauna though. Hopefully I'll get too busy with farming to bother with that place much, either. The negativity poisons people.

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

I am very much looking forward to reading about you building up your up and comimg farm!!!!!
In no time you will have it running smooth and have all kinds of animals!!!
I raise rabbits myself, but they are Standard Rex, and so far are just for meat.
Also, I am getting turkey poulets this coming spring as well!!!
Icewine is soooooo good!!! I made a batch last spring and ended up with 30 big regular sized wine bottles!! Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining, it turned out AWESOME!!!
Have you made wine before?

 

[Bitterroot]

Alberta's not that far. Got any of that wonderful stuff left? I've never made wine before, but we're going to be getting started soon using kit stuff first to get the hang of the mechanics, then slowly working towards whole fruit to finished product. It'll give my vines time to mature, and give me time to get my skills up to par to be able to do it right. SO much to learn, and it feels like so little time. It's overwhelming to finally have all this, and I'm chomping at the bit to get things started. I'll be in heaven if I end up with 30 bottles!

I'd love to hear some more about your rabbits and upcoming turkeys. (Oh, and your homebrewing adventures too!) I'll have to go stalk your journal. I'd love to add some standard rex next year, once I get a bunny barn put up and have the room for those bigger cages.

 

[Bitterroot]

Went to pick up some more rabbits on Saturday. Went to pick up three, and came home with six. How the heck does that happen?!? I think at least some of it had to do with the conditions they were being kept in, and my heart took over as usual. *sigh* None of them had pedigrees, though she claims she has them and they're over at someone's house being entered into an Evans program for ease of use. Since August. Of course she waited until I was there and had driven three hours to tell me this, and didn't mind still charging me pedigreed rabbit prices. Had it not been a six hour round trip, I'd have walked away. Claims she'll mail them. I won't hold my breath. But anywho, they are at least safe now, and in clean surroundings. Place they came from was disgusting. Rabbits were outside in what looks like started as chain link dog runs. Hutches were put in, and tarps covered walls and roof. More rabbits were running on the ground everywhere. What made it horrible was the filth, the mud, and the assortment of animals running everywhere. I swear, there were at least a thousand animals at that place, and one person who obviously couldn't care for them all. Several were pretty sick looking. No worries, these newbies are in strict quarantine!

I picked up a siamese sable doe, a pair of torts, a pair of blues, and a REW doe. All mini rex. I adore the siamese doe, with her smutty dewlap. They're all really nervous, but I expect they'll calm down soon enough and get used to the activity around them.

Here's the siamese doe. Not the most flattering picture, because she's flighty.

Flurry's kits also turned three weeks old on Saturday. They lounge in the nestbox at night, but spend the day running around the cage with mom. So cute. I'm planning on taking the nestbox out completely once they turn 4 weeks, to give them some more space in there untill weaning.

So I went from 4 rabbits, to 10 rabbits in one day. Add in the babies, and we're at 16.

I bred two does on the 15th. Both were rarin' to go, and my young buck did a good job. I'll palpate in a few days. Hopefully they both took.

It's been a bit warmer the last few days. But still snowing up on the peaks of the range behind our house. There's only a couple months a year where these don't have snow on them. Who couldn't love this view?

Going to take some getting used to the systems in the house, as this is our first time on well water, propane, etc. We had the propane tank filled about six weeks ago when we bought the place, and just had them come out a few days ago to top it off before the winter rates kick in. It was $400. YIKES. $400, for six weeks worth of heating and cooking? I love gas stoves/ovens, but guess who's going to be putting in an electric one soon?! Our other option, and we haven't really looked into it yet, is to either put in a bigger propane tank to take advantage of the lower summer rates and only fill once a year or so, or put in a second tank.

Finally getting around to sketching up some plans for what I want to do around here. Took a google earth aerial shot of the place, and did a line drawing over it to give me the layout, then printed that out and drew in all the additions. Everything just fits, and I will even have an extra space for more fruit and nut trees that I had originally thought.

We were out in the hot tub last night, and it was SO nice. Never thought I'd like those, until I have one. It so peaceful, sitting there in that warm water and looking at all the stars in the sky. Here's a picture of our first snow a few weeks back. Looks inviting, no?

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

Your new bunny is sooo beautiful!!! Cute babies too! Good luck with all your new rabbits, I am sure they will turn out fine!
I have been thinking about getting a hot-tub for sooooo long, and now that I have seen your picture, I definatly want one!!!!
I am jealous!!! Would be the perfect place to sit and enjoy a nice glass of icewine!!!!!

 

[Southern by choice]

Going to take some getting used to the systems in the house, as this is our first time on well water, propane, etc. We had the propane tank filled about six weeks ago when we bought the place, and just had them come out a few days ago to top it off before the winter rates kick in. It was $400. YIKES. $400, for six weeks worth of heating and cooking? I love gas stoves/ovens, but guess who's going to be putting in an electric one soon?! Our other option, and we haven't really looked into it yet, is to either put in a bigger propane tank to take advantage of the lower summer rates and only fill once a year or so, or put in a second tank.

When we first moved to our current property, old farmhouse and all that goes with it, we had the same problem. It was a very cold winter in NC down in the teens! That is very cold for here and it was awful. We have 1000 gal tank and at the time propane was at $3.40 and kept going up, we were spending $600 a month easy, it was killin' us. Now we have a woodstove and heat mostly with that, the "heat only kicks on at 6 am for a short period of time, til we start up the stove again. The woodstove has been wonderful, sometimes it can be a pain but it beats spending a small fortune every month! You might also check with your fuel co. we did go on a customer program where we spent $90 to sign up and all our fuel for 1 year was $1.90 gal. We filled the tank and still haven't gone through it all in 2 years now.

LOVE the scenery!

What is icewine?

 

[Bitterroot]

Your new bunny is sooo beautiful!!! Cute babies too! Good luck with all your new rabbits, I am sure they will turn out fine!
I have been thinking about getting a hot-tub for sooooo long, and now that I have seen your picture, I definatly want one!!!!
I am jealous!!! Would be the perfect place to sit and enjoy a nice glass of icewine!!!!!

Thank you! I have to say, of all the things they left behind for us, this one is my favorite. Much better than the freezer with the gallon of blood in the bottom of it, or the riding mower that's slowly rotting into the ground. LOL

I busted out my last bottle of sparkling icewine from Inniskillin not long ago. It's such a bummer that Montana is so uppity about having liquor shipped in. I have to find a source for my fix!

Southern - I appreciate the info on the program. I'll have to call and see if they offer anything like that. When we filled in September, it was $1.40 a gallon. Now it's $2.15 and set to go MUCH higher. In a place where temps can get pretty low, and even with great insulation, that extra few cents per gallon I'm betting has sunk more than one family. We're seriously considering a pellet stove insert for the gas fireplace. We'll never use the thing because I'm betting it's a gas hog, and I know several folks that heat a whole home pretty cheaply on a pellet stove. Might be a better investment than the generator we were thinking of putting in!

Icewine is this magical stuff that started in Germany. It's made by letting the grapes freeze solid on the vine, and harvesting by hand at night then crushing while they're still frozen. From there it's made like any other wine. The freeze process concentrates the sugars and makes for a delicious, perfect amount of sweetness wine. Aside from Moscato, it's the only kind of wine I really like.