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- #371
MtViking
Loving the herd life
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2019
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The kittens are all still hear and thriving. Momma is super skinny though so I’m up scaling her diet with more canned food and fresh meats, the kittens have all figured out the cat door in the garage and are free to roam. They’re learning the hunting trade from mom and are all little cute balls of crazy hahaha. Are plan was to get rid of most of them but all the kids including myself have claimed one as their own and now I’m afraid we will have more cats than we need. There is no shortage of rodents around the property though so they can all stay for now and I’ll see how things go. It won’t be very hard to find a home for a good working farm cat that’s also tame and loving. I’m a sucker for all the critters and my kids so all of them will be getting fixed as soon as they are old enough or I’ll end up being over run by cats. Rabbits are doing great I have two litters right (15 total) now and will probably breed again in about three weeks unless it’s too hot. We had two healthy litters of 8 but one got out the the nest box at about 10-12 days and got stepped on by the doe so we lost that one. Casualties as well as dispatching for processing is getting easier to deal with as I get more experience. The chickens are all getting big and are such a wonderful addition to the place. They are a constant point of entertainment and I love having them around. We have quit a few Roos around 5 or 6 For sure maybe a couple more but the youngest batch is still hard to tell for us beginners. We would like to keep a couple of them if everyone behaves but I’ll definitely have to either get rid of the extras to someone in need of a rooster or I will be learning how to process chickens. I’ve processed wild game birds so I’m sure I can figure it out without much difficulty. After all processing a rabbit is almost identical to processing big game so I’m thinking it will be a similar comparison with chickens vs a grouse or pheasant. I’m still contemplating what’s next for the homestead. I really like the idea of pigs but recently found out about miniature cattle breeds that might work good for my 5-6 acre pasture. That me be for a later addition though as the initial investment is a lot heftier than a few pigs or even goats or hair sheep. Anyways thought I’d update the journal since I haven’t been on much. Oh the garden has been almost decimated by grasshoppers! They are EVERYWHERE! I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen them this bad. The turnips got some sort of ground insect ruin them the grasshoppers destroyed the potatoe crop and all the lettuce and we had a great lettuce crop we where eating fresh salad daily and it was sufficient enough that we always had more. The grasshoppers ate it all in a few days. The kale is doing fine they won’t eat it and same with the Brussels sprouts. The squashes are ok for now but we lost the rest of it. The beans, turnips, potatoes, onions, all the different lettuces we had the beets all done for. We were able to feed the bug ridden veggies to the chickens so it wasn’t a complete waste. And the rabbits get fresh kale a couple days a week since I just can’t eat that much kale. So back to the drawing board for next years garden it’s always a learning process but a bit discouraging to say the least. I’m not sure what to do about all these grasshoppers maybe I need to buy some ducks to but I’m the garden. I think the chickens would do as much damage as the pests would lol, I got a new job and am working more hours than I used to so less time on the property but will be bringing more money in too so it’s a catch 22. I will be able to afford some more of my projects sooner but will have less time to work on them nature of the beat I guess. If I could just hit that lottery then I could work here full time hahaha.
JUST KIDDING!!! 2 of our 3 are "drop offs" and I don't have much nice to say about whoever "gifted" them to us.
