Rabbits and Vermicomposting

It’s been so long since I have blogged.  I have thought about it almost daily but have had so much going on.  We ended up having to move from the property we rented.  It went into foreclosure so we quickly found another lovely spot to land.  We are very happy here and are getting the “homesteading bug” back again!  Between packing to move, moving, unpacking and life’s daily twists and turns it’s been kind of hard to snap a picture and post about what we are doing!  We have been doing a ton though and I will be blogging about all of it soon!  From chicken coops to garden planning to goat yards!

I’m excited about a new project we are working on!  We have needed a rabbit hutch for some time now.  I dropped by Chris’ work earlier this week and he surprised me (really surprised me!) with the starts of a new rabbit home!  I am so excited and I am sure Peter Pan the rabbit and Eliza are going to LOVE it! 

 

They will each have a ladder that leads up to a “second story” that will have a nice window to look out.  Spoiled!  Right now we are waiting on our local hardware store to get their hardware cloth in so we can put that on, put on the roof and put the rabbits in!  Right now we have them sitting in there in their wire cages.  I can’t wait to get them out of those things!  They will each have a little over a foot more to romp around in. 

 

Chris was able to use all scrap wood that was going to go into the burn pile at work.  The only thing that cost us any money was the brackets/hinges and the hardware cloth.  This hutch will have cost us well under $50 to make! 

 

Rabbit poo is such a wonderful, valuable source of fertilizer for the garden.  We have used it on many plants that we thought weren’t going to make it.  It’s amazing how they just bounced back and grew so big and tall after!  Because of that I had a thought.  Why not compost UNDER the rabbit hutch?  What would be a good way to do that?  WORMS!  Worms are a wonderful, magical little creature who literally seem to poop out gold for us gardeners!  So why not vermicompost under the rabbit hutch?  Kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

If you don’t know about vermicomposting or have always wondered about it but don’t know how it works, check out THIS LINK to treehugger.com and read up on it.  I think you will be pleasantly surprised how easy it is and how much of a reward you get in return! 

 

I look forward to doing more updates on this project, so keep an eye out to see what happens next! 

Hot*Hot*Hot!

After wondering if summer was ever going to bless us with her presence, she has shown up.  And she is yelling loudly that she is here!  I am happy because this is finally making my garden grow.  I was starting to get a little bummed about planting so much food, and counting on it to feed us!

With the hot weather comes good things, but also bad.  Our animals need to stay cooled down.  Rabbits are especially susceptible to heat stroke.  So I have been concerned about Eliza most as she seems to be most affected by the heat.  Peter Pan the Rabbit (yes, that's his name) seems to do better, but we still watch him carefully.  

We have frozen gallon jugs that we put in their cages.  They like this because it's cold and they can lick the water off it.  

                                                                    Eliza cooling off

Fresh mint is also great for cooling them down.  We also have a circulating fan on them, Eliza would sit on it if she could.  Silly rabbit.  

                                                        Peter Pan the Rabbit enjoying his newly cleaned cage

I found this really great article on heat stroke-- prevention, signs and how to deal with it on ehow.com.  If you have rabbits, it's a great read!

Red Flags

• 1. Lethargy. If your rabbit doesn't want to move as much as usual, or can't be tempted to move by its usual motivators, continue to assess its health.

  2. Slow movements. If the rabbit doesn't move at its usual speed, but pads sleepily along, keep looking.

  3. Lack of appetite. One early sign of heat stroke is less-than-usual consumption of rabbit chow, or no eating at all.

  4. Panting. Is the rabbit working hard to breathe without exercising, or panting? He could be trying to cool himself down.

  5. Dehydration. Dry mouth, dull eyes and strong, concentrated urine are signs of this condition.

  6. Reddening of the ears. Check the concave, normally pink side of the bunny ears. If it's red, it's a sure sign that it's trying to cool itself.

  7. Excessive Salivation. If your rabbit has drool on his chin, he's salivating too much.

  8. Poor coordination. The movements will not be synchronized, leading to clumsiness.

  9. Confusion. The rabbit's behavior will not be logical or usual.

  10. Seizures. This will look like severe, violent shaking. It is a veterinary emergency.

  11. Unresponsiveness. The rabbit will not try to defend itself even from uncomfortable or painful stimuli. This is also a veterinary emergency.

Emergency Stabilization

• 1. Move the rabbit to a cooler away from the sun. The basement is a good choice.

  2. Mist the pink (red) sides of the ears with cool water.

  3. As an alternative, cool the ears with an ice cube that's been wrapped in a thin cloth.

  4. Bathe the rabbit in room temperature, not cold, water only up to the neck. Do not submerge it.

  5. Feed wet vegetables, if the bunny will eat, and supply cold water.

  6. Blow a fan near the rabbit, but not directly on it.

  7. Call your veterinarian immediately.

Prevention

• 1. Groom the rabbit regularly to remove loose fur.

  2. Keep the rabbit away from sunlight and out of hot areas.

  3. Provide fresh, clean water at all times.

  4. Run a fan in the area but not directly blowing on the rabbit.

  5. Supervise him in warm weather.

  6. Freeze water in an empty soda bottle and lay it in the cage. The bunny will cool itself next to it.

So glad to be back!

I have missed my blog so much!  I am so glad to be back!!  What a wild, crazy ride we have been on for the last  8+ months.  As you may remember, we decided to move in August of last year.  Gave notice, packed our things and put them in storage and were so excited because in 1 month we were going to be moving on to a sweet little ranch.  We spent the next 30 days plotting our garden, building our chicken coop in our minds and fixing up the house.  The 30 days came and went like a blink of an eye and we found ourselves without a place to live!  YIKES!  We looked around and found nothing that would fit our lifestyle in our price range.  We didn't want to move just anywhere, putting Maggie and ourselves through the stresses of moving just to get in somewhere we wouldn't be happy in.  Seemed like everyone wanted us to sign a year lease whenever we looked at a place.  We stumbled on to a little cabin that seemed reasonable with only a 6 month lease.  FANTASTIC, right?  WRONG.  I will just say we have never been so miserable in all our lives!  I want so badly to forget that place that I am not even going to get into it!  lol  All that to say, along with patience comes good things!

                                                           (Creek behind our house---click to make larger)

We found a lovely little place that is just perfect for our family.  Small house, big yard.  Exactly what we were looking for!  When we talk about what would be our ideal spot, this place pretty much hits the mark!

                                                          (The new chicken coop--click to make larger)


This is the old well house that we are converting into a chicken coop.  It looks a bit different now if you were to see it.  We scraped off a lot of the paint and it is now it is a nice shade of white primer.  The front door is actually on the other side of the coop.  Where the lighter wall is there is now a window and the darker side has a little door with ramp for the chickens to come out in.  We currently have 4 chickens in there now (Gingersnap, Strawberry Shortcake, Violet and Ms. Rosa), they seem to be very happy.  We need to make nesting boxes still, but they are only 11 weeks old so we still have some time.
We also have 4 more chicks in the brooder and more coming next weekend!

                                                                (New potato plant--click to make larger)

The garden area is fabulous!  When we started out there was about 450 sq ft of space, we have made it a bit larger since we have been here, it's about 800 sq ft now. Fortunately that's just the garden space and we have a TON more room for flowers, medicinal herb space, etc.  We have a ton of stuff planted and lots more that's almost ready to be put in the ground.  Our hope is to have more than enough so we can put it away for Autumn and Winter.  I can't wait to see how we do!!

                                                            (Greenhouse in progress--click to make larger)

Besides dogs, cats, rabbits and chickens we will be adding to the menagerie of animals.  We are ordering some ducks next week.  We aren't sure yet which breed.  We are thinking either Khaki Campbell, Cayuga, Runners or Golden 300's.  So if anyone reading this has ducks let me know what you have.  We are looking for a good layer, not too broody and a good forager.  I am leaning towards the Khaki or the Goldens.   decisions, decisions!
We are also excited to be planning on adding a Nigerian Dwarf Goat.  For those of you who know me well you know how long I have wanted one of these.  I can not wait.  It will still be awhile before we add her into the family, but it's gonna happen!  I'm pinching myself now!

                                                                                    (play structure--click to make larger)

Maggie has just been in heaven.  Between the creek on hot days and the play structure she has been beyond busy!  Usually she putters around with me in the garden, but she hasn't been in that garden space for more than 5 minutes!
I am so incredibly thankful to our friends, Jennifer and Jason for trusting us with their home and letting us call it our own.  We couldn't be happier being here!

More goodbyes and a hello!

Sad day at our house today.  We got rid of Mrs. Pteranodon, Aunt Bea, Gloria, Binky, Zoe and Joker.  It's always hard to say goodbye to pets, especially ones you really, really enjoy and love.  Because of the move we decided to lighten our load of animals and downsize.  Our new yard is great, but not nearly as big as what we have now.  So we had to be fair to the animals and let them go. 

I placed an ad on Freecycle about the chickens and got a response from a woman who was interested.  As we started talking I also mentioned the rabbits.  She wanted them all.  Of course I was happy about her wanting everyone, but was even happier to find out they are a homeschooling family, they like to grow their own foods, etc.  Sounds a lot like we are.  I knew they were the perfect ones to take the chickens and rabbits.

We still have our original 6 girls.  We kept the Giselle and Peter Rabbit.  I just couldn't totally get rid of rabbits! 

One thing we did do this week that was TOTALLY NOT in the plan was getting a new puppy!  I have wanted a Yorkie for a good 6 years now.  But having spent a lot of money on our English Bulldogs I said I would never spend a lot of money on a dog again.  Not that they aren't worth it, but because, well.....I would rather get a shelter dog!  Anyway......I happened to check out Freecycle (yes, I LOVE Freecycle!) and an ad was placed just minutes before.  A lady had 4 Yorkie puppies-purebred.  For Free.  I called Chris IMMEDIATELY, knowing in my heart he would be sensible and say no.  Well, he said yes.  So we are now the proud owners of a little puppy dog named Triton.  This guy is little and full of ATTITUDE!   If you looked up Little Dog Syndrome in the dictionary you would see a picture of Triton!

Here is a picture of my new sweetie-it's almost impossible to get a picture of him.  He doesn't slow down long enough to get a good face pic!

And of course you can tell that even though he is suppose to be MY dog, somebody else has taken him over.  In fact, between Maggie and Chris, I am wondering where I fall into this who ownership thing!  LOL

We have 9 more days until we move.  I haven't done a whole lot to prepare so my posting may be hit and miss for a little bit!  I have lots to do.  I am finally getting in the frame of mind though, so it will be a breeze from here on out!  I am so looking forward to our new home!

New Additions!

Just when I said "no more animals!" we got the phone call.  And I just couldn't say no.  One of Maggie's 4H leaders has a daughter who shows rabbits.  She was diagnosed recently with leukemia and is undergoing treatment.  She will be in treatment for the next 2 years and can't take the chance of getting scratched by her rabbits, so she has to get rid of all her bunnies.  When we got to their house there was about 11 rabbits.  We took 4.  We took 1 American Fuzzy (lower right corner) and 3 Holland Lops. 

We are totally enjoying everyone of them.    So much for no more animals, huh? 

Testing, Testing, Is this thing on?

Oh my goodness! It has been so long since I have been here. I don't really have an excuse. So off my lazy butt I go and here I am!

We had been blessed this week with some wonderful Spring weather! Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and Winter seems to be coming back. It was sure nice and motivating though while we had a taste of the weather to come!

Chris build a new compost box. So excited to get that started. It's in a nice sunny spot, close to our garden and away from any windows by the house! I have missed composting. We haven't done it since we moved up here. Looking forward to seeing what we get out of it.

We planned out our garden. I think we are going to try out Square Foot and Vertical gardening. We definitely have the space for a large garden, but this looks so interesting. And, the way I see it, we can have even MORE than if we planted in our current boxes!
We got a great book at the library called All New Square Foot Gardening. We haven't been able to keep our noses out of it. Definitely a book we are going to buy for our shelves!
It looks like our garden will include:

Eggplant
Bell Peppers (red, green, orange)
Tomatoes
Yellow Squash
Zucchini
Green Beans
Cucumber
Corn
Broccoli
Lettuce
Swiss Chard
Radish
Carrot
Beets
Spinach
Jalapenos
Parsley
Chives
Mint
Cilantro
Basil
Oregano
Sage

I'm pretty convinced we are missing a few things, so I will be adding to the list I'm sure! LOL I am so excited. Our winter garden did pretty well, so I'm hoping that our next go-round will provide us with nearly all, if not all of our veggies for Spring/Summer.

The girls are getting big. They have started figuring out their "pecking order". Cocobelle is the definite leader with Dora coming in a close second. I can see where this may be a problem. LOL Ellen, the biggest chicken of the group is the very last in line. I think she prefers it that way. She isn't very brave at all and has the loudest squawk when you pick her up. Cocobelle has found her voice. She sits up on the perches and clucks and talks away. I could just sit and watch them for hours. They really are a fun bunch.
Here are a couple pictures from earlier this week:

Cocobelle enjoying a meal worm treat:

Ellen DeHENeres:


And, Mary Virginia. This must be where the expression "chicken legs" comes from:


It's amazing how quickly they are growing. Soon we will have eggs!

Since the last time I wrote we got a new family member. A new Dutch bunny (5 mo old) named Peter. He is absolutely adorable and so, so sweet. And a contributor to the compost pile as well!
Maggie really wants to do rabbits in 4-H so Peter is a good starter bunny!

Speaking of Maggie, she is doing great with school. She is really into reading, spelling, writing right now. So we have been focused on that. I'm really proud how she has been catching on. Tonight Chris was cooking dinner and I could hear her in the kitchen practicing her spelling to her dad. I love being able to sit back and hear it. Sometimes it's really hard for me to believe she is 5 years old. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. She is such a treasure and so fun to have. I am truly blessed.

I am going to leave you with a couple of pictures from earlier in the week when the weather was so beautiful!






See ya soon!

-Bobbi