Babies!

We have a new batch of young'uns at the homestead.  Our two daughter's business venture-rabbits.  These bunnies will be available for sale in a few weeks.  Aren't they adorable?

New Food Bill Moves Forward

Hear me Washington, we do not need this food safety bill and more government regulation!  This is a travesty that will not only hurt small farms in America, but basically disallow homesteaders from producing their own food, wheather they sell it or not.  From a consumer stand point, if you love to eat real food, grown naturally, without chemicals, non-injected, hormone free, anti biotic free, then you need to make your voices heard>  Get on the phone and protect your right to eat the food YOU choose to eat.  The government has no business telling you what you can, and cannot eat.  Not only that, the producers that have had problems, making people sick, ARE ALREADY INSPECTED.  How is more government going to solve this?

Homesteading On A Budget-Meat Rabbits

Wow, I promised to post about raising meat rabbits the day after my last post.  Next thing I know, its three days later, sorry.

Anything a homesteader that is interested in survival and prepareation can do cheaply is always a plus.  Most homesteaders I know are short on money.  Like me, they have to work a full time job because most of us don't start out on the farm.  Those that have are definately in the advantage.  But, the focus here is for the start up homesteaders and those that just want to prepare.

Raising meat rabbits is very easy and inexpensive.  The biggest expense is in the cages.  You can purchase ready made cages but they are cheaper to build yourself.  The only tools you really need are a tape measure, wire cutter and J-clip pliers.  Most guys keep most of the tools you need.

You can buy wire on line for the bottom.  You might get lucky and find it at the local hardware.  You need 1x1" hardware cloth.  For the tops and sides use 1x2" welded wire.  The holes need to be big enough to let the poop through.  Here is a good site to visit. I will get into the construction on another post.

Purchaseing your first rabbits is not going to break the bank.  You can find New Zealand Whites for $5 each.  Breed them and in a short time you have meat.

California's are another good meat breed.  There are others, but these two are the most popular.  Again, you can get started for very small investments.

Rabbit-The Other, Other White Meat

Some nice prospects for the freezer!  Good stuff.

Meat Rabbits-Rebirth

After a long hiatus, we have new baby bunnies!  Two of our does had seven pinkies, each.  Two died, leaving 12, so far.  We are waiting on another doe, due anytime. 

This has been along wait.  We lost track of our rabbitry awhile back, but, recently got back on track. 

The family loves the meat they provide and it is very good for you.  So, in about 8 weeks, we'll have some meat in the freezer and some to sell.  Good news.

Getting The Rabbitry Going Has Been A Long Wait

I spent a great saturday at home.  To start with I got up early and fixed the family breakfast consisting of farm fresh, Omega 3 eggs from our wonderful hens, with toast, of course.

After that I set in to work on the list of tasks I make for myself during my home time.  Fortunately, I only accomplished one of the things on the list.  Fortunately? you ask?  Yes, my major goal for the day was to complete some more rabbit cages.  This has been weighing heavily on me, lately.  We have gotten several calls, recently, for fresh rabbit.  Several people want them for their own meat and several want them for pet food.  We got an email the other day that asked for fresh rabbit to feed to a cat that has allergies.  Apparently the vet told her to try feeding rabbit as the cat is allergic to beef and chicken.  Of course, farm fresh with no additives and hormones and antibiotics is what she is looking for.

Another gentleman wants as many rabbits as he can get to put into organic pet food.  I guess there is a market for this sort of thing.  But, this is what has caused me distress.  We didn't have enough space to have an effective breeding program.  We have put a few into our own freezer, but that is all, really.  We have sold a few live rabbits for pets, but nothing as a profiable business venture.  We had always intended to expand and work on a system for breeding, but never really got around to it.

I constructed the cages very simply.  I used 1x2 inch wire, 2 foot tall, cut into 11 foot sections, laid flat.  Incidentally, this is where a long hallway with 12 inch ceramic tile comes in real handy.  Then I cut 2 pieces of the same for the roof.  I bent, or, folded the 11 foot at the 3 foot mark (the side), to make a 90 degree angle, then I bent it again at 2.5 feet (the end) at 90 degrees, then again at at 3 feet at a 90 degree angle (the other side) and one last time with the remaining 2.5 foot section (the other end) to make a box.  I simply J-clipped it together.

The 2 top sections were cut at 29 inces and laid on top and J-clipped to form the top, or, roof.  The bottom is 1 inch x 1.5 inch square woven wire (special order) at 3 foot.  I simply cut a piece at 2.5 feet to fit in the bottom.  I then J-clipped it, one inch recessed to allow for it being raised up.

Then I cut a door, big enough to fit a large rabbit, my head and hands in.  I used some scrap wire to make a door and fastened it on with J-clips.  Voila!  That's it.

I did make a wooden stand for them with some scrap lumber I have laying around.  But, now we have all the rabbits in their own cages, except for two, they are to be sold.

After all that, we bred three of our does with two of our bucks.  That always gets me to giggling.  Let's just say it goes very fast-like rabbits!  Now we have three does bred and should give birth in a month or so.

It feels good to have a plan with the rabbits now.  Our family loves the meat, ourselves, and look forward to having some in the freezer again.  Lord willing, we might sell a few, as well.

The best part of the whole thing was the fellowship it provided.  My two girls helped me construct them.  My oldest one (9) even squeezed the pliers on a bunch of J-clips.  I was impressed with the strength of her small hands!  The two of them both told me how they love saturdays because they can work with their daddy and just be with him.  I almost cried.  Folks, that is child training at it's best.

Afterward, we took out the metal detector and hit some spots on the property.  All we found was some junk, but, my lovely wife found some Usnea, a lichen that is a big antibiotic.  For the life of me, I could not understand why she was getting so excited over a dead oak branch lying on the ground.  Then she explained it to me.  She plans to tincture it and keep it for our medical needs.  We'll need it when the political stuff hits the fan.

To round out the day, we discovered the chicken pox on our oldest daughter.  She'll be staying home tomorrow.  Our youngest daughter (7) is freaked out with fear that she will catch them and die.  We try to reassure her, to no avail.  Truthfully, we are glad to see the chicken pox.  It is best to get them over with when they are young.  My wife and I both had them as children.

So, it was a good day.  One load has been taken from my shoulders and my children and I tied some strings of fellowship.  God is merciful and loving, isn't He?

Of Beef, Rabbits And Metal

Around here it seems as if we haven't seen the sun about 12 months.  It seems like it has been rainy/snowy and always cloudy.  The few times the sun did peek out, it lasted just a short while.  By golly, I miss it.  The sun just seems to brighten my day, both figuratively and physically.  There are times when it seems hard to stay positive when the sun is behind the clouds.  But, I have the Son within, and that will cure all ills.

I spent the day with my daughters.  My wife was finishing up the four days per year she works out of the house.  She arranges flowers for me at the store for valentine's day.  So th egirls and I spent the day together.  It is always a joy.  We decided to honor mommy and clean up the house a bit.  We were so proud of ourselves.  Mommy has been working hard making pretty bouquets, she needed the help here.

After that, the girls and I went out for a little metal detecting.  We scoped around the old farmhouse on the property and found a couple more plow blades.  These are from a pull behind implement, I think.  Not as old as the first one we found, but the kids get a kick out of finding stuff.  We all look forward to a "real" hunting trip.  Somwhere where there will be coins, I hope.

Then I moved the cattle to a new paddock, which is about 4 months overdue.  I think it was a mistake to move the bull, though.  He seems happy enough in the new paddock, but I can see the wisdom of placing a bull in a place and just leaving him there.  They are destructive and feisty.  He immediately tore into the trees and thrashed around.  I believe I will put him back where he was and leave him there, taking the cow to him.  I plan to plant a couple of tree trunks in the ground for him to butt and rub against.  That way, maybe, he'll leave the water tank upright and in the paddock.  He might be next year's beef.

I've been thinking a lot about getting the rabbitry going strong.  We have had several calls for rabbit meat and have none to provide.  This needs to be a priority.  On a bright note, we saved the buck from death.  He was looking weak and sickly, so we put some apple cider vinegar in his water.  It helped as he came around in a couple of days, eating and drinking like normal.  So take note of this if you have rabbits.

The cages are very simple to build and I am sure, when I have them done, I will wonder why I took so long to make them.  That, my friends, is the story of my life-procrastination.  Speaking of which, I have to read my bible now.  Tune in next time for more on raising berry's.

Too Many Things To Do

I think it is official. I will have a few more days of pasture and then it is time for hay. I hate to think of it, really. On the up side of it, we have gotten into the second week of October before going to hay. We have experienced a month's improvement each year for the last three years, so I am pleased with that. Each year I seem to get a little further into the fall before feeding hay which indicates, I believe, that I am on the right path.

Now I am also happy that I have some firewood put up, enough for a couple of months. However, if the weather continues the current trend, we will be burning sooner than usual. In other words, I need lots more wood. Why is there never enough time?

I need fire wood.
I need to build more rabbit cages.
I need to build shelves for my wife.
I need to spend time with my kids.
I need fire wood.
I need to build fence.
I need to go to meetings at church.
I need fire wood.
I need to build a roof over the front porch.
I need to replace planks in our wooden sidewalk.
And the list goes on. Oh, did I mention that I need fire wood?

Sometimes I catch myself just staring off into space, dazed and confused, unable to decide what to start on next. Do you ever get that way, or am I the only one?

Count Your Blessings

With so many very dumb things coming out of the federal government these days, it is hard to stay positive. Sometimes you just want to throw up your arms and yell, what are you people thinking?

With battles being waged on so many fronts it is difficult to remain on top of them all. In times like this, I am reminded to count my blessings.

One of those blessings is the fact that we have been receiving much needed rain. This has allowed me back into my pasture rotation that I thought I would have to abandon during the dry summer months. As it turns out, I only had to back off from the rotation for the week we were on vacation. The grass has recovered enough that I can fore go the hay, for a time. That is good news. We have to buy all of our hay as the hay around us has been taken.

This gives me comfort. However, our fine government is forcing the NAIS through the back door, with little awareness, and that causes angst. More on that later, as I get full details.

On another positive note, we will be placing our order for the fall crop of broiler chickens soon. We have received enough orders to fill our chicken tractors and our own freezer. We have found that these birds really sell themselves. People just love real food, and it is a blessing to do a small part to provide some to them.

One thing we are working toward getting a handle on is our rabbit program. We have stuck to it as it is a holon enterprise and has the potential of providing another salary. We, quite frankly, have been terrible with the rabbits. We have struggled to have a plan and breeding program in place that would be labor effective. We are working on this but time has become a scarce commodity these days.

Once we get that going the way we want it, we can then concentrate on getting good at it. The side benefit is that our family loves the meat. So, even if we don't sell a whole bunch, we can put them into our own freezer.

If anyone has ideas of suggestions on rabbits, or anything else, let me know by leaving a comment. I love to hear from you. Thanks for stopping by.

Bye, Bye Brownie

This afternoon, we sent our bull, Brownie (Dexter) off to be a man.

A good friend (I can call you that, can't I Danyel?) came and took him away to his new love. His old love (our Dexter momma) was very forelorn. You should have seen her look at me, then look at the truck, as it was pulling away.

Then she would moo and look at the truck, then look at me. She repeated this several times. She is pathetic. I'm sure that Brownie (I didn't name him) will enjoy himself, dancing with the lady of the house. I must say that loading him went very well, much better than the last time we sent him off. Thanks Danyel and sis for bringing the trailer.

On another note, the sky darkened around 6:00 p.m. and we got a little rain. Enough to wet the ground. Of course, this had to come when I was in the middle of repairing our rabbit hutches. They had developed a huge hole. Thankfully, there were no escapees and all I got was very wet. (Too bad I didn't have my shampoo with me.) At least the rabbits are safe and secure, for now.

Waskawy Wabbit!

Today i set in to butcher some rabbits. I've not had a lot of experience with cleaning rabbits, or any animal, outside of chickens and deer and a smattering of Canada goose. But I looked at the pictures and thought it would be a breeze.

The first one, I grabbed the hind feet in one hand, the head in the other, and tried to snap the neck. Let me tell you, the neck doesn't snap that easily (that, or I am weak). I tried several times and my heart was beginning to weaken.

I quickly went to the stunning method with a quick smack on the back of the head. That worked better. I think that this will all go much smoother once I get the hang of it. I got scratched to pieces, and very frustrated by the end of the third one, after which, I quit.

My wife found a good recipe and we decided to try one for dinner. The meat was good, all white but not very tender. We thought that maybe it was from rigor mortise (sp?) or the age of the rabbit (they are approaching 6 months old). The food was fine, but could be more tender.

The troubling thing was that the rabbits didn't weigh very much for their age. They only came in at 2-3 pounds. There is not much profit there when they weigh so little.

This was our first experience with rabbit meat, I know it will improve. If anyone has any suggestions on what we could do different, please feel free to comment, I'd love to hear them.

Grassledge?

I know. You're thinking, "What in the world is grassledge?" Well, it is a new thing that I came up with all by myself. Probably not, but I like to think I did anyway.

The concept is simple, really. A couple of weeks ago, our old push mower died and I had to buy a new one. I got one with a (you guessed it) grass catcher on the back. But, that's not all, it is also a mulching mower which produces little, tiny bits of grass all collected neatly in the bag.

The logical question then was, what do I do with all those clippings? Sure you can compost them, in fact I do. It makes great compost for the garden or pasture. But I cut about half an acre or more with this thing. There is a lot of grass clippings, neatly mulched, of course.

The next logical step, then, was to feed the abundance to the cows. They love grass, who cares if they don't bite it off themselves. Of course, I wouldn't do it if this was the only reason, I have to cut the grass anyway, this is just a little bonus.

So, I feed it to them and they love it! It is like taking the kids to the candy store and letting them have whatever they want. Our momma Dexter gets the most of it and she acts like it is the best treat she has ever gotten.

If you've ever wondered what to do with all those grass clippings, compost them for the garden first, then feed the cows. I think I'll give a bit to the rabbits, also.

I have heard of a way to make hayledge using grass clippings and garbage bags. If any of you readers have heard of that and have the know how, let me know. I'd like to try it. Who knows, with the price of fuel these days, maybe I can use the clippings to make ethanol for the vehicles?

Thanks for reading our farm blog. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May His light shine upon you... God bless, until next time.........

Trying to think ahead.

With the summer slump in full swing, I decided it was time to change tactics on the grazing plan, just a bit. What I have done, in keeping with the principle of High Density Grazing, is remove the back wire. In other words, I am allowing the animals to back graze in hopes of slowing down the grazing in a concentrated area. Until now, I have back fenced a small area allowing the animals to graze down a given spot. With the growing slump, my hope is to allow them more choice by removing the back fence, thus keeping them from grazing the paddock down to nothing. Remember, the shorter the grass, the less drought resistant it is. So, what I am looking for is more residual. I am unsure of what the results will be as I am essentially, speeding up the rotation. This is until fall or when we again receive significant rain fall. I'll keep you posted as I observe what happens.

It is time to butcher some rabbits. I am looking forward to the meat, as is my wife, but the girls are a different story. I think our oldest may refuse to eat it, knowing that she raised them. I hope she gets over it. Food is getting expensive and we need all we can get in the freezer, no matter what it is. Does anyone that reads this raise rabbits? How do you get past the emotional attachment thing?

On a lighter note, I have a very neat website for you to see. It is www.easysite.com/answers Please feel free to check it out. It was put together and is operated by some young ladies in our church.

There are only a few days left to vote on the poll I am conducting. Please cast your vote at the right of this blog. Thanks in advance for your participation. Until next time...

Some bunny pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is momma. She is 100% NZW, we found out that our buck is of a mixed decent, as you can see from the kits.

This is our little Holstien.

This is one of two that look a bit like a Silver Fox.

This is a view of all of them from the first litter (we have a newer batch that we don't have pictures of yet), notice the Holstiens, Limousin and Black Angus. No black Baldies, this time around. (hee, hee!)

They are pretty cute. Can't wait to eat 'em!

Now, Holon a Second

In the latest issue of the Stockman GrassFarmer, Alan Nation had a very interesting article. I found it to be personal and humorous, with a good smattering of wisdom from a grass farmer who's been there. I recommend reading it, if you haven't already. There is one part of his article that I found to be especially interesting, a holonic business structure.

A holon is an income, or salary, that is generated from little to no input costs to create it and function.

A holonic business structure has a centerpiece enterprise that covers the majority of fixed cost and overheads and pays for the management of it.

Mr. Nation also says that holons also are self managing dependencies. They cannot exist without the centerpiece, yet, they do not take away from either.

A holon can be a service or something that reduces the cost of the centerpiece and does not have to be sold to someone off the farm. An example of this is on-farm biodeisel production or firewood for personal use.

To know wheather or not your farm is a holarchy, you can ask yourself if you have to buy in feed or not. Or do you have to buy in anything? The answer is that if the feed is free, then it is a holon.

An example of a holon, here on Cedar Cove Farm, would be the manure that the rabbits produce. Not only can we and do we, use the manure for our personal garden without having to buy it in, but we can and will, sell it for an added salary. We feed the rabbits to raise, sell and butcher, for our own freezer and to sell off the farm, but the manure itself, is the holon. It costs us nothing extra to produce, and we can use it or sell it.

Another example from our farm is our latest enterprise, worms. We purchased a "worm factory" and about 1000 worms, the worms are for our garden needs. Outside the initial cost they cost us nothing to raise. We will have the holon of compost and tea for the garden and the possibility of selling worms to bait shops and fishermen.

Thanks to the low cost or no cost of holons, the margins are generally much larger than the centerpiece enterprise. They show a very high return for labor and human creativity. This is where "thinking outside the box" pays for itself. This is part of the reason that grass farming is so profitable because grass farmers are already thinking outside the box, and let their livestock do the work. In the words of Darrel Emmick, "Cows have legs, let them use them."

The point of the holon discussion in Mr. Nations article was the holons are an excellent way for families to include and encourage children to participate in the family farm. Holons can give them an enterprise of their own in which they can earn and learn the value of money. (Did you hear that, homeschoolers?) Given this, children may, then, be less likely to leave the family farm and participate in it long after your gone. They might come to enjoy the farm lifestyle and the return it gives them, along with the satisfaction of working hard for their families and the Lord.

Mr. Nation also suggests the holons might also be a way for the elderly to support themselves when they can no longer perform the rigorous duties of a full farm.

My wife and I talked about it, asking ourselves if we have holons. Of course, we found we do, as I have mentioned. With a little entrepreneur thinking and development, perhaps they can be developed into a good cash flow for the kids. Who knows? But, we are excited with this new knowledge and will be looking for other holons to add to the bottom line.

We don't want to add any more enterprises, at this time. We want to get, not just good, but exceptional, at what we are doing now. Capitalizing on any holons is just a bonus that really adds to the excitement of our farm.

So, have you considered any holons on your farm or ranch?

I have gotten the spring bug now. It is official. I am ready for it. As we make our plans for the first batch if chickens (broilers), I am talking to more and more people that are interested in non-modified food. I really think, and am happy, that people are beginning to see that giant agribusiness is not all it's cracked up to be.

We have modified, a bit, the way the birds are killed. In the past, we scalded them prior to picking the feathers without changing the water but a couple of times. We received rave reviews, nonetheless. The last batch of last year, we changed the water every five birds. This enhanced our already clean operation and made it cleaner. The result was even better reviews. We are also looking at some kind of mechanical picker as we have done it by hand thus far. We don't mind the work, mind you. It is truly a labor of love. But we have decided to expand the quantities this year and are looking to streamline a bit, make things go a little faster.

There is a design, or invention of a picker, I have seen that involves using pieces of a bungee cord, a 4" PVC cap, a bolt and nuts and a cordless drill. We simply cannot afford to buy a multi bird picker nor do I seem to ever have the time to build one.

We also had a predator problem last season that I hope to take care of this time around. I have built the chicken tractors out of PVC pipe and they work very well. The problem is that the raccoons pull the birds out from the tractor through the wire at the bottom. I plan to add a wood frame at the base of the tractor this year. It will add some weight, but that is OK. Truth be told, I have never been impressed with chicken wire. It is very flimsy and breaks easily. On our coops, I used 1" welded wire, or, hardware cloth. These are much more durable, but also much more expensive. I didn't use them in the first place to save money. Now I think of how much we lost in dead chickens, I should have used the welded wire and been done with it. Now I may have the added expense of changing it all out. We'll see how it goes this season.

On the rabbit side of things, we should have our other two does bred and should have kits at the end of the month. We will be breeding the mother of the existing kits again soon. We have decided to try a "rabbit day" at the local feed store to promote their rabbit pellets, cages, food dishes, etc. and sell our babies for Easter. We will then look at butchering the next ones.

New for this year, we will be getting into vermacompost. This is exciting for us. What can be so exciting about worms? Well, we can get rid of a lot of scraps that the chickens(layers) don't eat and we will always have worms for the garden. We will also be trying to sell to local bait shops for a small, added income. This is ideal here as we live in between two major fishing lakes, Bull Shoals and Norfork.

As for the garden, it didn't fair as well as we had hoped since I posted pics a while back. All the snow and ice were hard on the plastic hoop house and caused it to collapse. Couple that with extreme low temps in February and it couldn't make it. Although, we now have fresh lettuce, cabbage and broccoli growing again. Myself and a friend peeked under the hoops and were quite pleased with how warm it was under there. I don't have a thermometer in it, but I know it was considerably warmer than the outside temp, which was around 40. I am pleased with the results of the hoop house, but displeased with the durability of it. Like I said, it was too weak to hold up under the weight of snow and ice.

We plan to add a bunch more raised beds this year and expand. Our goal is to provide as much as we can for our now expanded family and, maybe, have some to sell at the farmers market. I am interested in selling meat rabbits at the market, along with eggs and chickens, as well. We will also be offering buckets of rabbit manure for sale to those that use it on their gardens.

Wow. Now that I have written this, I realize what a big year we have ahead of us. I'll probably be lucky to get half of it done.

Keep checking for more on "Quality Pasture" by Alan Nation, I'll be writing more in the coming week. Until next time...

I May Be In Trouble.

I think the cat's out of the bag. Somebody snuck in when I wasn't looking and told them. My kids have been infected with this knowledge and now it has spread to my wife. I may be in trouble. Woe is me!

This evening, as I was coming in from the woods with a fresh load of firewood, I noticed my wife standing and staring at the rabbit cages. I thought, perhaps, she had put another doe in with the buck and was watching them do their thing. Nope. At my inquiry, she looked at me with one of those cheesy grins and told me she now thinks that baby bunnies are the cutest little things she has ever seen.

Not you too! Personally, my mouth is watering for the taste of fresh rabbit. I was looking forward to it. Now the masses are against me and I may not have the opportunity to try one, other than at the farm conference from the rabbit guy.

My oldest daughter says she wants to just sell them at Easter to other unsuspecting daddies. You know, the daddy's that have those kids with the big blue eyes that well up when you talk of home grown food. The ones with the kids that just make you melt.

"Don't name them", I said. "If you don't name them, then you don't have a personal connection with them." I didn't take into account that they'd be so durn cute. Now I have learned that you can not name something all you want. If they're cute, all bets are off. I may be on the loosing end of this thing. Daddy would be the bad guy, and it's worse if your wife thinks so too.

I do have to admit, they are pretty cute.

Birth Announcement!

We are happy to report that the very first baby bunnies have been born on Cedar Cove Farm! We are very excited (especially the girls) because we had a bit of trouble getting them bred in the first place. We finally decided the does weren't spending enough time in with the buck and left them for several hours, checking on them frequently to avoid nasty fights. We tried to breed two of our three does. When it came time to put the nest boxes in, we didn't think they got bred, once again, because they shoued no interest in the boxes. We left them in expecting only to remove them when the typical 34 day period expired. To our surprise the first doe had her kits, five in all, but she didn't use the box and kindled them all in the cage. Consequently they all froze. That was a lesson learned. We will need to be more watchful with her. Then the other doe suddenly started pulling hair to line her nest yesterday afternoon. The problem was that she was building her nest outside the box! AAARGH! My wife called me at work and I suggested that she put the stuff in the box and maybe the doe will get the hint. My wife went ahead and put another nest box in next to the first, leaving nowhere else to build her nest except in the box. (Good thinking.) Finally last night she kindled. This is exciting because, like I said, we had so much trouble. I can't wait to try some rabbit recipies! (In about 8 weeks, anyway.) Now to get the other two going!

When the kits come out of the box in a few weeks, I'll post some pictures. Right now they're bald, blind and not very attractive.