SuburbanFarmChic Journal - update and rant 5/5

[SuburbanFarmChic]

Baby rabbits are hippity hopping around the cage now. It's our first sunny day in eh forever so I spent about 45 min just sitting with the goats which was nice. Dishes and laundry can wait, goat cuddle time can't.

Got the rabbit cages part way cleaned out. Need to find my outside scrubby brush thing so I can get the inside corners that are poopy. Especially mama rabbit's cage. She decided that the ONLY acceptable place for a nest was right in front of the door. Eh, ok. I decided not to argue with her since she was doing such a good job otherwise and I could feed and water from outside the cage. Now that they are hopping around, it's time to pull everybody out and do a scrub down.

We've been really happy with property insurance stuff so far. We've had to do two claims this year and both times they were fast and totally fair. I am going to talk to the DoT about putting up a guard rail there though because this is the second time someone has hit that part of the fence. If they ever hit the tree it won't be pretty.

 

[SuburbanFarmChic]

The baby buns are SO cute. Ugh, how am I ever going to eat them. At least chickens have a certain lizardy "I'd eat you if I were the bigger one". Rabbits would be like big Totoro things. Been researching how to do the deed though as the two older boys need to go to free up cage space. I do not need three related bucks.

I have a rather interesting hog pelt in the freezer and I'm going to be adding the rabbits to it, along with a deer or two and the goats we butcher. Next summer we're tanning. Don't have time right now. I want to tan a couple rabbit hides to make instant nest pieces for just in case type things. Also my dad and I use to tan foxes, raccoon and such that had been hit or trapped. I'd like to get back to that. <glares at self for considering more projects>


The other pregnant mama is still pregnant. And I think my mini nubian is as well. Time will tell with her though. She's also been pigging out on hay a lot lately. Zero udder action so we're looking at Nov/Dec if she is.

I have off work on Sunday and part of Saturday which means we can 1) fix the fence and 2) work on rabbit hutch, shed thing. I want to do a shed thingie with hooks to hang 2 stacks of cages with a washable plastic poop slider thing in the middle that leads down to a trough for composting transportation. I'm all about lazy. I'm going to have it gently face West from our garage and I have some old shutters that may become closing doors on the front. Or just a tarp curtain thing. We shall see. Cleanable cages is my goal for the weekend!


Bun pictures. The honey colored one is the other doe. The solid white is soon to be freezered.

The white is from Mama 1's last litter. I think he's about 4-6 months old. He's super sweet but both he and his brother are related to the buck I have.

 

[daisychick]

Oh the cuteness of the little white one with the dark eyes is......well too cute!

 

[77Herford]

That little fawn is so sweet. Must I get bunnies now, the wife would never let me eat them.

 

[SuburbanFarmChic]

It is going to be hard to eat them. I'm crossing my fingers that they get uncute super fast. (I think the only result I'm going to get out of that is cramped fingers though)

 

[aggieterpkatie]

 

[Ms. Research]

They are really sweet. And no they will not get un-cute. Maybe get someone else to do the deed?

 

[SuburbanFarmChic]

These new goats need names. Except the black one. Her name is goatburger unless I find a field goat home for her. She is just SO freakin skittish. They came with names like Blackie and Brownie. Uh, no. Going to get pictures of each of them when we are redoing the fence tomorrow.

Two of the little white ones are mirror images of each other. If they were boys it would be Dexter and Sinister. (right and left) There are 3 white ones so I was also thinking about Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos but I'd rather save those for fiber animals. Staying away from Thelma and Louise. Not great names for me right now L. Plus for now I still have a Thelma.


Pictures will help. I'm willing to give the brown white pair a theme name, or the white trio. Or if there is a nice trio w/ evil overlord I'd consider keeping the black one. The brown one seems to do her own thing and can have her own name. And she is just oh so slightly spotted.

 

[SuburbanFarmChic]

Busy weekend so far.

Yesterday:

Hauled 8 old built in bookcases yesterday that I scored off of Craigslist for free.

Drove the posts for the fence repair and got the top rail up.

Worked at the shop for about 3 hours.

Then went over to a friend's house for dinner and a visit.

Today:

Some house cleaning. Blegh. Finished fixing the chain link. It's not pretty but it works. By looping a rope through the top of the chain link part we were able to gradually stretch it back into place. This means that we used ZERO purchased material to fix the fence. It was all extra pieces from the front yard fence. We may have to pick up another bag of fence twist ties but that's not the end of the world. So. cha ching... pocket THAT part of the insurance money.

The electric needs to be completely redone but it needed that anyway honestly. We are heading back to TSC later to pick up a new spool of fencing and some insulators and probably a couple step in posts. Now it's time for lunch

 

[SuburbanFarmChic]

Trying to cut the bookcases in half and I'm having issues with the stupid saw batteries not charging. Grrr.

Posted my buck for sale. He needs to go so I can pick up the nigerian guy.

I'm excited about the meat rabbit project. October is super freakin busy for me so I'm hoping that come time to wean the babies I've had time to process the two pending boys so I have some cage space. I'm looking at the Rabbit Wringer thingie for processing although I may just use the broomstick method for these two. They are pretty gentle.

Went ahead and rebred the brown doe. I don't know what happened but we hit close to 40 days and no kits. She was receptive last night and not this morning.