Blessed Acre Farm and Rabbitry

can we shift this line just a bit, please?

2011-02-25T08:54:00.003-05:00

Just a little bit to the north, please? I don't mind rain - it'll melt down the huge, dirty snowbanks. But I really don't need more snow.

K? Thnxbai.

a knitting saga...

2011-02-05T20:27:00.001-05:00

It all started with this gorgeous sweater. I got it at the Salvation Army store for all of about $4. I mean... really! And, it's green!

Look at the workmanship! The wool on the inside was twisted after every stitch, so not only is it really, really warm, there are no loops for my fingers to get stuck in. And note that the neckband and the button bands are crocheted, not ribbed... makes them very snug and they keep their shape perfectly. Pity I can't crochet.

So during the volcanic eruptions in Iceland last year, I saw an image of an Icelander leading his pony to safety, and he had on this gorgeous sweater in shades of blue. I got a hankering to have a similar sweater. Alas, one cannot compel the perfect sweater to turn up in the thrift store on command... but wait! I was only a few weeks away from finishing my MA... I could MAKE one! I bought the wool, and got knitting. I finished the sweater at my cousin Geraldine's house in England, and when I got home, I entered it into the Fair. I won a 3rd place ribbon... the first place winner was not only a stunning Fisherman's pattern, but the knitter was also the alpaca raiser who'd shorn and spun her own yarn. She won fair and square. (I don't recall who won 2nd place. I was too boggled by the 1st place sweater!)

Behold the shades-of-blue sweater. I do love it!

While I was in England, I stopped into my favorite wool shop in the Shambles in York, formerly called "Sheepish" but under new management as "Ramshambles". Exercising superhuman restraint, I came home with only one skein of wool, with the intent to learn to make socks. When Karelia came to visit in August, she got me started.

Alas that I did not read the directions! I ribbed and ribbed on freaking tiny, toothpick-diameter double-pointed needles. Then I realized that I had two choices: I could either rip out several inches of that wretched ribbing (ugh!) or I could deal with the fact that I would have to rib that much again on the mate, when I made it. I couldn't deal with it, and I had some of the gorgeous, soft, cream wool left, so...

I raided my stash of Lopi up in the attic and started another Icelandic sweater. I looked through all the pattern books I have on hand, and didn't find a cardigan pattern I liked better, so I did the same pattern again. Alas, I ran out of the cream wool and had to buy more.

Once I'd finished it, I thought about starting the Fisherman's sweater I've been hoping to make... I've got the wool - rich, deep green - I know you're astonished beyond words - but honestly, cables terrify me. And I was tired. And it was cold. And the children were home for two snow days in a row. So... I could have dealt with the sock problem. Did I?

Heck no! I started a third Icelandic sweater. There was, after all, lots of the cream wool left over, y'know?

I can see already that this cream wool is going to end up like my Grandpa Chandler's mashed potatoes and gravy. He never could get them to come out even. He'd take more potatoes, then run out of gravy. He'd put on more gravy, then run out of potatoes. With any luck, I'll end up with Icelandics in every color of the rainbow before I give up!

Because I'm made of awesome... or at least, I'm filled with awesome - now!

2011-02-05T19:55:00.006-05:00

If you're hungry on a cold night in New England, here are some recommended procedures:

First, own a really cool, vintage, fully-restored, 1909 Glenwood K cookstove.
Ain't it purty?

Yes, I'm bragging. I'd apologize, but it'd be insincere.

Next, feed nice dry wood into the firebox until it's nice and hot. The oven was about 300* F at this point. Then take a dozen and a half fresh eggs from your hens. Separate the first dozen, and give the yolks to the dogs. Then crack the last 6 and put the whole egg into the pan. Add fresh raw milk, and whisk well. Toss in some salt, garlic, and onion. Rummage around in your fridge and find some gruyere and some manchego. Grate them finely, and mix the egg/milk/cheese goop up well. Then take a pound of fresh asparagus, chop it into 1" pieces, and mix the pieces into the goop. Put the pan into the cookstove's 300* oven and ignore it for an hour or so.

Voila! A really exquisite crustless quiche. It was obscenely good :)

Ice!

2011-02-05T19:54:00.001-05:00

So it's been snowing here in New England. I mean, that's not normally news, but the volume we have had, combined with the temperatures, well, we've made the national news. So here are some pix from before the latest storm. The rabbits' coats are SO thick and warm this year!

This is rime ice. This is what happens when fog (or steam) freezes. The steam in question is rising from the galvanized bucket I keep under the downspout, and in which there is presently a really fabulous heating element. It's not free hot water, but it's free water. Rime, interestingly, comes straight from the Old English hrim, meaning exactly what rime means now.

You'd never know that a sky that looks like that would be vomiting 8" of snow and ice within 24 hours! Notice especially my sparkling new stove pipe....

The icicles are a rarity here. I can't remember the last time we had icicles like these.

This is the corner where the kitchen roofline (right) meets the sun room roof (left) and the two-story part of the house (center). The poor gutters just can't keep up.

This is my bathroom window from the back yard. The icicles as of today are greater in number and size!

Although this side of the barn faces east, apparently the roof heated up enough for all the snow to come sliding off. Regrettably, some of the snow ended up in my nicely carved footpath, and that became a REAL problem when next I had to get the snowblower out there after the following storm. The blower did NOT want to go over that hump, and my back ached like anything the next day from having to wrestle with it. I did, finally, clear out not only the new snow, but also that mogul there.

This is the west side of the barn. That overhanging glacier has doubled in size, at least, with the last storm. Doesn't much matter, though, as the door on that side has been frozen to the ground for weeks. It'll be spring before I can get it open! Thank goodness the side door opens just fine, so I can feed and water the beasts.

And to think, just 11 years ago, I was in Penascola....

Enough! Basta! Genug!

2011-01-31T21:26:00.001-05:00

From wwlp.com (my local NBC affiliate):

Snowfall so far this season & records:

November: 0.2"
December: 6.7"
January: 40.5" - A new record!!
Total: 47.4"

Seasonal Average (Dec, Jan, Feb): 36.4"

Yearly average: 49.4"

Monthly record: 48.0" (March, 1956)

Seasonal record: 107.7" (1996)

and 12-24" forecast for Tuesday through Wednesday night.

*whimpers

2010 wrap-up; 2011 goals

2011-01-18T18:37:00.018-05:00

January: I turned 44. I had a party. It was Very Good. I attended Sharon Astyk's Apprentice Weekend at Gleanings Farm near Albany. She mentions this year's here: scienceblogs.com/casaubonsbook/2011/01/garden_design_class_february_-.php. It was also Very Good! We knitted by the wood stove. We cooked on the wood-burning cook stove. We milked goats. Alexa and I talked a bit about raising rabbits for protein. We did a bit on herbal remedies and how to prepare/preserve them. We ate and laughed a LOT. When I got home, I was Seriously Coveting a woodburning cookstove, and since I'd already had a wall removed between my kitchen and living room to accommodate a woodstove, I decided to upgrade my plan. I located a 1909 Glenwood K cookstove in Eastern Mass on Craigslist, and purchased same. (I did have a bit of a wait until Steve, the all-around Useful Handyman, could bring it back to WMass for me) I started my final semester (barring one summer class) of my MA. I had a Shakespeare class at the Renaissance Center (fabulous!) and a Literary Theory class at Smith College (also terrific, in different ways).

February: Amanda turned 10. How did that happen? The children spent February vacation with the Other Parent so they could go skiing and stuff. By the way, OP, here in Massachusetts we just say skiing. If you need to specify, you say "water skiing". Otherwise it's safely assumed to mean what you insist on calling "snow skiing".

March: March came in, wet and muddy as an ill-mannered dog. Gosh, I wish I could remember where I read that!
The children and I went to the Smith College Bulb Show again. It looked and smelled divine!

April: Managed not to lose my mind as I finished up final papers. I was very satisfied with them! The children were with me for April vacation, which was lovely, as the weather was turning nice. They got to come over to Smith with me for my classes, and a roommate of one of the young ladies in my class watched them while I was in class. They ran around on the grass, had snacks in the student union, and said it was good fun. I saw footage of the volcanoes in Iceland... there was a man wearing an Icelandic sweater (no, really? go figure) in shades of blue... and I got to thinking, I need one of those! Then I realized that I was about to graduate with my MA, and I could probably just make one. I bought wool.

May: Beginning of May was very warm, and we lost a black buck (rabbit) to heat on Beltane. It was quite sad. Later in the month we lost another rabbit to heat, a pregnant doe, who died in our arms as we tried to cool her. It was heart-breaking. The children and I talked it over, then offered her body to homeschooling friends for a biology lesson. I hoped that in doing so, some small benefit could come from the rabbit's death.
I finished the two classes and though I still owed three credits, went through Commencement. Mom and the children came, of course, as did my girlfriend Christina (with her children!), and her husband (who's faculty, and stood to give me a hug as I crossed the stage). Other faculty friends were onstage as well, which was lovely. My friend Alicia was graduating, too; her daughter Clara is Amy Charlotte's best friend. It was a lovely day! The following weekend I had a big party to celebrate. What a great time we had. The house and yard were full of people I like, there were children on the swingset, playing soccer, playing with the rabbits... I can't imagine a better party. I started knitting on the Icelandic sweater.

June: Adam turned 12, Amy Charlotte turned 7, school ended with a flurry of parties and birthday cupcakes. Adam "graduated" from 6th grade, earning awards in both math and art!
Steve started building the long-awaited barn, using locally sourced pine barn boards. I read in her LJ that Lady Karelia was going to be in the vicinity, so we arranged to meet up at the Forest Park Zoo in Springfield. We had a really fabulous day! In fact, it was so much fun that she and her son came back again the next day, here to the house. The children got on beautifully (her son is Adam's age) and a Good Time Was Had By All. A few days later I had a minor surgery on my neck to remove what turned out to be a bone spur. The incision has healed up nicely, so I don't have to deal with the Frankenstein look. The day after that, we made our annual pilgrimage to the Cape to visit with my brother, SIL, and four nieces. Again, we had a lovely time, though I couldn't swim due to the stitches.

July:
On the 1st, I finally did what I've been saying I was going to do for a year-plus, and chopped off my hair. And I do mean chopped. A friend described the cut as a crew cut, and though I wanted to argue, I couldn't.
See, my Great Plan was to get rid of all the colored stuff at once, because I didn't think I could endure watching it grow out, becoming brassier and brassier. So... off it came. I sent a 21" ponytail to Locks of Love and called myself satisfied. I took my last class, "Writing and the Teaching of Writing," through the Western Mass Writing Project. Billed as a K-16 class, it was filled with mostly middle- and high-school teachers who've been doing the job for years. I really enjoyed the class, and in a nice symmetry, one of the teachers of this my last class was a man who'd been a teacher in my high school from when I was 14. The first Tuesday in July, which was also the first day of the class, was 100.6*F, the hottest I can recall since moving back up here. It was horrible, and one of my best Cinnamon does died from the heat. She was in the shade, and had water to drink, but it was just too hot for her. We grieved. The cookstove made its way from Eastern Mass to Steve's place to the Good Time Stove Company www.goodtimestove.com/ in Ashfield, where it was fully rehabbed. It's GORGEOUS.

August: I took the children up to Niagara Falls, both New York and Ontario, for a weekend. What a fabulous trip. We had a great time. They were so excited to stand on the bridge over the Niagara River and scream, "I'm in the the US! Now I'm in Canada!" After this trip, they went to the Other Parent's for 2 weeks, and since they're not allowed to call me from there, I took the opportunity to nip out to the UK for a lovely vacation. It will definitely require its own post, though. While on said trip, I finished the Icelandic sweater. When I returned, I entered it into the Cummington Fair, a local agricultural fair, where the children like to show the rabbits. Actually, we entered quite a number of exhibits (rabbits, sweater, bread, brownies, art) and did quite respectably. My sweater won a 3rd place ribbon! The lady who won the 1st place ribbon TOTALLY deserved it - not only was her sweater much more complicated than mine (a Fisherman's pattern, which is scary stitchwork) but she had raised and sheared the alpaca and spun the wool herself. *sigh* My white bread took a 1st place ribbon; my brownies took at 2nd place ribbon. The rabbits cleaned up in their respective categories, since relatively few youth raise and/or show larger breeds. We were blessed again by the company of Lady Karelia and her son, who came to the fair with us!

September: Adam started middle school. Huh-what? He loves it, bless him. I'm so thankful that his experience in that building is so different than mine was! My girlfriend Donna came up on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. We worked on making order from chaos upstairs in the children's and guest rooms. On Sunday night I fell ill, and was the sickest I've been in years, if ever, for two solid weeks. Turned out to be a bacterium associated with food poisoning called Campylobacter, and I'm here to tell you it was NASTY. I lost 20 pounds in 3 weeks, and it was until Christmas before I felt better.

October: I continued to feel crappy. I couldn't even stand up to sing, lest I come over dizzy. Made Choral Society rehearsals a Lot Less Fun. Steve finished the barn, at long last, and we moved the hens into it. Despite feeling crappy, and having to ask him to shovel out the shed/henhouse, I did manage to powerwash the shed clean. Boy, did it need it. It was very satisfying.

November: Steve brought the cookstove and we put it in the kitchen on a dolly, pending finding someone to install a stovepipe up through the roof for me. I was Not Patient. I had to have a colonoscopy/endoscopy, which wasn't too horrible. I also had a referral to an orthopedist about the PITA I've had since a year ago Thanksgiving. Turns out NOT to be a muscle problem at all, but rather a disc problem causing sciatica. Urgh! All that PT time misdirected! I resumed PT with a new focus. We adopted two formerly-feral kittens from the local shelter to be our barn cats. I wanted to call them Dobby and Winky, but was overruled. The male (B/W tuxedo) is called Spot, and the female (tabby, I'm told) is called Bengal.

December: Had an MRI of my back, followed by an epidural shot of cortisone, which did not do as much as I'd hoped. Finally got a stovepipe installed a week and a half before Christmas! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this cookstove.
The warmth of a wood stove is just something entirely different from any central heat source. I am learning how to cook in and on it; on is not so hard, but my wood isn't as dry and seasoned as I'd like, so it's hard to get the fire hot enough to heat and maintain good heat in the oven. Christmas was fantastic this year! The children were home with me (hurray) and we had a lovely day. We cooked a roast in the oven, and it was delicious.

Now, to follow up from last year's summary: I started 2010 with 46 rabbits. While we were up over 100 a few times with litters this summer and fall, we presently have (runs to count) 86-ish. Yikes. I started with 42 hens, added some, subtracted some, and have just over 60 at present. The barn being finished, complete with ferocious (if under 5 pounds!) cats, next project will be to add a good fence so we can get our dairy goats and beef cow. The gardens did poorly again, though some of that was problems sowing at appropriate times due to graduate school, followed by horrendous heat, and then by being really, really sick during harvest time. I did manage to can some tomatoes, though. I built a new bed, 15x16', divided into three 5x16' sections. The rear-most bed is asparagus; the middle bed was potatoes (which did ok, since I didn't irrigate), and the bed next to the driveway was soup beans, which I never quite got out to harvest. The blueberry bushes did have fruit, but the birds got it. The peach tree and one of the apple trees in the front yard both had fruit which mysteriously vanished just as it was almost ripe. I blame the squirrels. I loathe squirrels. The bulbs I planted two summers ago were supplemented by more bulbs this spring from the Smith College Bulb Show, and the bed was really quite lovely. I also planted zinnias and marigolds, which joined the perennial coneflowers and black-eyed Susans and peonies. The overseeding of the front lawn turned out pretty well, even during August and September when it was so, so dry. I did experiment with tractoring rabbits; growth rate was slower, but acceptable. My intention is to pursue this program for the next few years, keeping back the largest doe from each litter and the largest buck from each group of litters in each breed, in the hope of selecting for good growth on a mixed grass-and-pellet diet. Feed prices won't be coming down, I don't think, so more sustainable is good. The dogs, who were old, lame, and deaf last year are older, still lame, and more deaf this year. Sheba is 14 1/2, Decker is 14, and Lily is a lovely 6 - still energetic but a bit less wild.

The goals I had for 2010:

I want to finish my Masters. DONE!
I'd like to get my wood stove installed and working. DONE!
I'd like to get rid of about 20% of the stuff in my house - yard sale, Craigslist, consignment, Salvation Army, etc. Still working on this one, now with a firm plan of action, complete with spreadsheet.
I want to keep singing. Yup, still singing.
I want to get all the moving parts of my body working properly again, and keep them that way. Yeah, this one is a bit problematic. The correct diagnosis on the back/PITA helps a lot with this. I did get the blown-up elbow working again, though.
I want to work out in the gym at least three times every week, and continue with Weight Watchers, such that I reach my goal weight (between 142-148). I'm not sure where I am presently, but it's slightly north of 170. Um, yeah. So my gym closed down abruptly, and I haven't bothered joining another one. I did lose those 20 pounds in 3 weeks in September, but they came back, drat them. WW got too expensive. So... I'll keep working on this one, ok?
I'd like to get five litters from each of my 15 does in 2010. The girls did great this year, despite heat problems. We'll keep on breeding for meat and breed preservation this year!
I'd like to get to more rabbit shows this year - not a huge goal, since we only showed in one fair last year. Nope, we only went to that same one this year, though Adam came home with a trophy from it!
I want to get the shed built, the fencing up, and add the goats and the beefer cow. 16x20' shed turned into 20x30' barn, and I'm glad - I would have cursed myself in 5 years if I'd stayed small. We ran out of autumn on the fencing, though, so that'll go in come spring when the ground isn't so hard ("Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone"). No goats before fences. Repeat after me, friends: No goats before fences!

And for 2011, some similar goals:
Follow the plan with spreadsheet and tame the beast that is a house with too much stuff in it.
Get moving parts working properly, and keep them that way. PT and home exercise are essential to this goal.
Manage weight. Yup, need to do that.
Continue to breed for show, meat, and breed preservation. Select for excellent growth on pasture.
Show the rabbits - it's good for the breeds, and it's good for sales of brood stock.
As mentioned above, put up fencing, get dairy goats and beef cow.
And some new ones:
Contact the local Adult Ed folks and set up to teach some classes - I'm thinking knitting, mending, cooking, menu-planning, gardening, sustainable living, food preservation (canning, both methods; freezing), life skills for children. Suggestions are welcome!
Pursue licensure to sell rabbit to the public. Nobody is quite sure whose purview this is - I've talked to town hall, state ag folks, and federal ag folks. Everyone thinks it's a great idea; nobody knows who's on first. *sigh* Well, it's not the first time I will have blazed a trail, right?
Get back on my bike/drive less. This is good for health, thrift, and the planet.

clean up, more snow, and stuff

2011-01-18T15:13:00.009-05:00

I have caught three more mice - one in the garage, one in the basement, and one in the barn. One of the children left the lid off of the metal garbage can in which the chickens' scratch feed is kept. The next morning, when I went out to care for the beasts, there was a wee mousie in there! Adam scooped up Spot and dropped him into the can. Spot is now a fully qualified mouser... well, he can catch and harass a mouse, anyway. I can't independently verify that he killed the thing, since 20 minutes later he was still playing with it. Good Spot! Those two cats have been quite expensive, so I'm very pleased to confirm that he, at least, can do the job for which he was hired.

Mom took the five of us to see Wizard of Oz on Saturday. It was a local community theater production, and it was FANTASTIC. The big brother of one of Amy Charlotte's friends was the Lion, and he did a terrific job.

Last Wednesday's snow topped out at 22".
Thursday morning, I cranked up the snowblower and over the course of several hours, cleared the driveway, the front walk, a path to the woodpile, a path to and past the composter and to the back gate, through the back gate, and all around the back yard. Wading through deep snow can be fun, but when you've got serious back problems, wading through deep snow while schlepping a 5-gallon bucket full of warm water is just A Bad Idea. Plus, the children just LOVE having a maze through the snow.

I invested in an outdoor water heating element, intended for a 5-gallon bucket, but which lives in my galvanized rain barrel below the downspout. Oh, how I love it! I ordered it from Amazon, and so help me, next year I'll have one for each rain barrel. Not having to carry a bucket through and out of the house? Huge!

It turned cold - really cold - we saw -10.7F a couple of mornings ago. I had window quilts installed a while back - I love them - and in case you wonder whether they work - behold what hides behind them! Yes, that's ice on the glass.

I have a rabbit who needed a name - a Californian doe. My naming convention for Californians is to use Old Norse names. Hugin and Munin were the ravens who rode on Thor's shoulder. (or was it Odin's? Drat, I forget) Skathi (Skaði) was the goddess of snow and skiing. So this lass needed a name. Well, she gave birth to a fine healthy litter of 6 during the big 22" snow storm, so I gave her the name of one of the three Fates (there's the fate of the past, of the present, and of the future, and I think this doe qualifies as the Fate of the Future here at Blessed Acre!) - Verdandi.

Now to get off of my keester and back upstairs to the clean-up.

Snow like we mean it

2011-01-12T13:00:00.000-05:00

20" as of noon. That's a true New England snowfall - and I haven't seen one for way too long. Who needs an elliptical trainer when there's that much snow to slog through to feed and water the animals?

Lily and Decker had a ball in the snow!

and the bunnies were all snugly insulated with a snowy blanket.

Excellent post on local food traditions by my friend Sharon

2011-01-11T08:13:00.000-05:00

Read! Think! Learn!

Mousies everywhere!

2011-01-11T08:05:00.001-05:00

5 mice in 24 hours. I knew there were mice around - I've seen the poo - they've been chewing open the bags of chicken feed - but FIVE in 24 hours? Two from the basement, where the traps were tripped again this morning but no mice in them, and three from the garage. Good thing there are cats in the barn now!

A buncha books that need new homes

2011-01-09T15:19:00.001-05:00

First come, first served. If you're local, come get 'em. If you're not, I'll need a mailing address.

Ludlum, Robert. Trevayne. Paperback
Cooper, Jill, and Tawra Kellam. Dig out of Debt. Oversize paperback
Duffy, Cathy. 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum. Paperback
Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. Hardcover
Taylor, Michael. Encyclopedia of Modern Military Aircraft. Oversize hardcover
The United States: A History of the Republic. Teacher's Edition. Textbook size hardcover
Lyon, Rowen, Hamerow: A History of the Western World. Hardcover
The Story of Christmas. Boxed set of three children's books
Bountiful Blessings for busy women - finding joy and inspiration during the holidays. Softcover
God's Little Instruction Book for Women. Small paperback
Tileston, Mary. Daily Strength for Daily Needs. Paperback
The Upper Room. Disciplines: A book of daily devotions 2009. Paperback
Cooper, Jill. Penny Pinchin' Mama: 500 ways I lived on $500 a month. Paperback
Cookbook - Spring Street Preschool family and friends cookbook - 2005-2006. Four copies. Spiral bound
Weil, Andrew. Healthy Child, Whole Child. Hardcover
Tyson, Eric. Mutual Funds for Dummies. Paperback
Tyson, Eric. Personal Finance for Dummies. Paperback

So this isn't strictly about the farm, but...

2011-01-09T13:14:00.001-05:00

...I need order in my chaos. Here begins a saga of seeking such.

Do you ever have the feeling like there's so much that you want to do that you simply don't know where to start? And as a result, you do nothing? I've been there for a long, long time. I've formulated a plan that I hope will help me address this problem.

It starts with a spreadsheet in Excel. I divided my empire up into thirteen sections - Master Bedroom, Master Bath/Linen Closet/my closet, Boys' Room, Half Bathroom/Pantry closet, Girls' Room, Upstairs Bathroom/Guest Room, Kitchen, Office/Laundry/Hall Closet, Living/Dining/Sun Rooms, Basement, Garage, Attic, and Pasture/Barn. I made a worksheet for each location, and listed the tasks that I want to accomplish in each area. Each area gets a week, and the whole thing rotates four times a year. I fully expect that the first time through will be the most difficult (and painful), as there is a backlog going back years in some cases. I want to sort through all of it, and stop putting it off.

The Master Bedroom checklist (alphabetized, not in order of priority) reads thus, and there's room in the subsequent columns for the date each job is completed. I have found amazing things already - the missing cover for Amanda's microwave-able rice pack on the nightstand, a stack of photos dating back to when she was in preschool (she's in 5th grade now) and enough dust and grime to choke a dinosaur.
Clear off night stands
Dust bookshelves
Dust dresser
Go through dresser
Launder linens - spring
Put away books
Tidy cedar chests
Vacuum under bed
Vacuum window quilts
Vacuum window wells
Wash light fixture
Wash mattress pad
Wash picture glass
Wash windows

I have taken the opportunity to rearrange some of the furniture as well. I hope this will enhance the feeling of being freshened up. The dogs are rather freaking out, though.

In other news, there was 2" of snow yesterday morning, and an additional inch this morning. It's all nice and fluffy, which makes it easy to shovel. I did slip and go top over teakettle in the back yard yesterday, but landed on my elbow rather than my back or posterior. Thank goodness! I'll take an egg on my elbow over further damage to my back any day. I go tomorrow morning for another shot of cortisone, this one in a new and different location, in my continuing pursuit of healing and pain relief.

preliminary report on rabbit tractoring

2010-10-26T09:15:00.002-04:00

I'm experimenting with tractoring at present, and my rabbiting partner here has been tractoring her grow-out litters for two seasons now.

We have cages that are 4' long by 3' wide by 2' high. There's 2x4" wire on the bottom, and 1x2" wire everywhere else. We cover the cages with tarps to keep both sun and rain off of the animals. The tractors are moved at least every 24 hours and often more frequently. The rabbits have free access to pelleted food 24 hours a day (and of course, full-time access to water). Both of us cut our grass as needed with gas-powered mowers, but this summer was so dry that we haven't had to mow much at all. Neither of us uses any chemicals of any kind anywhere on our properties.

My colleague and I have Californians originally from the same barn, so we regard them as interchangeable as far as genetics. We both offer Blue Seal Bunny 16 pellets. We breed the same day, so we can butcher the same day.

What we have found is this: my average dress-out weight on butchering day is 3 1/2 pounds. Hers is 2 3/4 pounds. That makes her rabbits 80% the size of my rabbits.

What we have *not* experimented with has been keeping the largest doe from each litter at butchering day, and the largest buck from all of the litters, to keep as parents of the next generation. That's where I'm heading with my experiment.

I have had NO problems with any kind of GI upset with my rabbits. They are keeping my grass cut, and building up my soil - also part of my long-term plan for sustainability at my micro-farm.

This is my experience thus far. I plan to keep on with this experiment so as to reduce my cost in pellets (and lawn mower gas!), build up my soil, and ultimately be able to market sustainably raised, grass-fed local rabbit meat. Once I wade through the morass of red tape in the People's Republic of Massachusetts, that is, where there is NOBODY certified to butcher rabbit for sale for human consumption. I guess I'm going to be pioneering... again.

it's been ages...

2010-10-23T19:49:00.006-04:00

The rabbits are thriving at Blessed Acre! The new barn got its back wall and door out into the pasture today - but these photos are of the front and inside. More photos later!

One of my June 1st pullets started laying (I think...). And we bred 6 of our rabbits today - it's both a full moon and the cross-quarter day - Samhain - between the equinox and the solstice. I'm not sure what, if any, significance that has, but it sounded like it might be important.

We've added a new breed of rabbit here - Thrianta - they're gorgeous Irish Setter colored rabbits. Small - max of 6 pounds - but they're the same color as our Golden Retriever. I couldn't resist!

There are 79 rabbits on site at present, with 13 does bred, due between November 3rd and November 23rd. We've been privileged to set up breeders with some gorgeous American Blues and Cinnamons lately, and Californians over the summer. These are gorgeous rabbits... we're very fortunate. We have high hopes for our three Creme d'Argent does, all bred to our new buck, Custard.

Wednesday Club - week 3

2010-02-16T12:54:00.004-05:00

For week 3 of Wednesday club, I snuck some math in amid the soil and arts-n-crafts.

I started by asking the children to line up by grade, youngest to oldest. Then I paired them up, kindergartners with 6th graders, 1st graders with 5th graders, etc. so that the younger children would have help. Then I gave each child a calendar that I printed off online. (I used this site: http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/) Next, I had them circle our last frost date, May 20th. [now, officially, it's Memorial Day, but in the 8 years I've been gardening seriously here, we haven't had a frost past May 15th] Then I gave each young gardener a seed starting chart (http://www.yougrowgirl.com/grow/seedstart_chart.pdf). Then we chose three crops - cucumber, kale, and peppers, as it turned out, and worked out how to fill in the "indoor start date" and "set out date" blanks. I think they got it. I hope so!

Note: you can download an Excel file that does all the number-crunching for you here:
www.yougrowgirl.com/grow/seedstart_chart_v2.0.xls

We watered our seedlings - everything has germinated now! Some of the beans are definitely pole beans - there are vining tendrils waving about happily. Then we looked at the pussy willow cuttings I had brought in for them. You may recall that I brought a bunch in during Week 2, but we didn't get to talk about them. That turned out to be just fine, as they had burst forth with lovely soft catkins all over, while the ones I brought in for Week 3 were still dormant. It was a terrific visual of how forcing works! I let each child take home a branch to enjoy - and some of the teachers got some for their classrooms, too.

Finally, I borrowed an idea from my children's preschool days, and we made daffodils.

I ran out of green construction paper for the background, so I let the children choose yellow or green for the backgrounds. Then they could choose yellow, orange, or pink for the back of the flower. They cut out that part, and glued it to the background. Then they glued paper muffin cups to the flower to be the trumpet of the daffodil. You can't really see it, but the mini-paper has flowers on the outside of it... very pretty. I was sad to realize that I had only white muffin papers in the house - oops! Most of the children drew leaves and stems for their flowers, though the one who gave me this one did not. One of the first graders did an amazing pair of flowers, while one of the sixth graders took the catkins off of her pussy willow and used them to decorate her page. Most of the children enjoyed the craft - and the others I let work extra time on a word search puzzle I'd made for them using this site:
http://tools.atozteacherstuff.com/word-search-maker/wordsearch.php

Even the kindergartner was really good at searching for the words! I should have selected "forward words only" though - the backwards words were really tricky.

Are these REALLY hard economic times, or are we making them hard for ourselves?

2010-02-16T12:39:00.002-05:00

http://www.livingonadime.com/newsletterblog/
Tuesday, February 16, 2010 blog entry, repeated here with permission.

These Hard Economic Times

I keep asking myself, "Has the world gone crazy?" What are people talking about when they say "these hard economic times?" I am so confused because I hear so many people say these are such hard economic times but, at the same time, what I see happening with my own eyes and hearing with my ears is a totally different story.

Let me give you some examples what I mean. Are these examples of hard economic times?

* Last year we spent more at Christmas and all year shopping than the year before.

* Americans spend 500 million dollars a year to have their teeth whitened -- not cleaned, just whitened to look nice.

* A single mom on welfare spends $350 on a cell phone-- not on the calls, just the cell phone.

* On a home shopping show they were selling American Girl dolls for $135. The woman selling it said "Kit is our most popular doll."

The other woman said "That is probably because Kit represents the Depression Era and girls nowadays relate so well to that because they have to sacrifice and give up so many things in these hard economic times." They sold out of the doll. This meant several thousand of these poor little girls who have had to give up so much received a $135 doll for Christmas. What was it they had to sacrifice? Maybe it was the $25 outfits that went with the doll. (I have never paid $25 for an outfit for myself let alone for a doll!!)

* A woman just lost one of her part time jobs. She was sobbing and crying because her family was going to have to sell their house, which they could no longer afford. For the past several years they have been making very good money but they have been spending it on everything including $150,000 for decorating their home, several trips a year for the whole family to travel across the country and to Canada for sports events their sons wanted to play in, buying a couple of new cars every year, eating out frequently and the so on.

Even after she lost her job they still took another cross country trip to go to a game. After coming totally unglued about the thought of having to sell the house she was asked if they might be able to save the house if they would cut back on their spending a little. Her reply was, "No way. I hate to scrimp and save and do without. I won't live like that." As my son in law loves to say "Allllrighty then..."

* My brother just met a man who restores hot rods for a living. When asked if things are getting harder for him the man laughed and said "No, I'm doing better than I ever have and I need to hire someone to help me." My brother is now working for that man. He is getting paid to sand people's car engines so they will look pretty and smooth. People have so much money they can pay bunches to have their engines sanded? Go figure. For those of you who restore cars, don't yell at me! My dad has restored Model A and Model T cars for years, so I know all about car restoring.

* Here's my favorite: A sales person selling a $1500 piece of jewelry said, "We know things are so rough in these hard economic times so we have put this on 5 easy payments for you." They sold out of it. Do you know how contradictory that is? If things are so hard, what in the world are people doing buying $1500 pieces of jewelry, even on 5 easy payments?!?!

I don't have anything against people buying jewelry, dolls, cell phones or restoring hot rods. What I do have a problem with is people moaning and groaning about how hard these times are and then taking off to go shopping or play a game of golf.

We get upset and angry about the government, big companies and their crazy spending but we need to stop pointing fingers and look at our own lives. Are they doing anything differently than the average American?

We may not have the opportunity to be foolish with millions or billions of dollars like them, but that doesn't matter. The point is that many of us are being just as foolish with what we have as they are. We are up to our eyeballs in debt just like they are and most of the time it's because we didn't think or care about how we were spending it. Then we want someone else to bail us out.

Yesterday, I heard a pastor, Bob Coy, talk about this same type of thing. He had some good points to make. He showed a web site called Global Rich List, where you can type in an income and it will tell you how rich you are compared to the rest of the world.

Here are some interesting stats from that site:

If you make $35,000 a year, you are in the top 4.62% richest people.

Here are some others:

$50,000 - Top 0.98%
$75,000 - Top 0.82%
$100,000 - Top 0.66%

It makes you stop and think. Are things really that bad? Two million children died last year because of lack of clean water and I sit here complaining because the price of gas is so high that I might not be able to take a vacation this year?

Yes, unemployment is up but look at it this way: 90% of the people in the US have jobs. Many of those who don't have jobs aren't even looking for work. I know a lot of people who are 20 or 30 something and living at home and not bothering to find a job.

We need to change the way we look at things and stop parroting what everyone else says about "these hard economic times."

I'm not so naive as to miss the fact that financially things are out of control and will eventually bottom out, but that doesn't mean things are so hard yet that people should be carrying on the way they are. Instead of moaning, we need to fix things, starting in our own lives.

The pastor I mentioned earlier said if we have a friend who is deep in debt who says "let's go to the mall", as a good friend, you need to say no. Suggest that your friend come over to your place for coffee and a visit, helping her and yourself not to spend more. Start looking at what you are doing and how you can fix it.

We need to face the facts. A big part of our "hard economic times" is summed up in this wonderfully appropriate saying:

We buy things we really don't need
with money we really don't have
to impress people we really don't know.

Memorize that saying and the next time you go to buy anything stop and think, "Do I really need that?" Do you need to buy your kids the most expensive shoes? Do you need to get the most expensive car or would a two or three thousand dollar car get you by? What about those manicures and pedicures? How much do you spend on all the kids activities or on throwing that big football party and having the whole gang over?

I knew a man who lost his job and his wife worked at a very low paying job. He said he didn't care if he didn't have a job. He was still going to play golf every weekend (and he did). They are in a big financial mess now, but not because of "these hard economic times".

When considering buying something, ask yourself, "Do I really need it?" Do you have the money to buy it? If you have to borrow money for it, you don't have the money to buy it. It's that simple. If you need it, work hard and save and then get it.

Many of us think that waiting to buy until you actually have the money is impossible, but once we stop buying everything on credit, we free up all that money we were using to pay credit card bills, interest and fees. That money is then available to buy things we need or want.

Why do you buy the things you do? Do you do it to impress others? This is pride. I don't have room to go into detail in this article, but God hates pride as much or more as drugs, alcohol abuse or sexual immorality and so many of us suffer from pride. If you don't think you have a pride problem, consider whether or not you might say one of these these statements: "I would never allow my family to wear clothes from a garage sale." or "There is no way I will do without .......(fill in the blank)".

The Bible cautions us to watch the words we say. Don't just spout empty meaningless words like "in these hard economic times" just because the world is using them and don't use words like that as an excuse to justify why you don't have your life and finances together.

Actions do speak louder than words. Are your actions matching your words?

-Jill

Thank you to "The Homesteader's Way"!

2010-02-12T19:42:00.002-05:00

I have been privileged to be able to join up with The Homesteader's Way site, which gathers together like-minded folks who are homesteaders or small farmers to promote the legal, handmade/homegrown products of our efforts. I invite everyone to stop by and browse! New links are being added daily. I encourage each of you to support small farmers; I firmly believe that the future of food production rests with small farms.

Wednesday Club

2010-01-28T20:49:00.000-05:00

I asked far and wide recently for ideas I could use for an after-school gardening club. Well, we've had two weeks of Wednesday Clubs now, and my little gardeners are doing GREAT!

I have 18 children in my Gardening Club, ranging from kindergartners to sixth graders. Some live in apartments, others in suburban homes. They're great kids, all of them!

The first week I didn't have enough hands-on activities for them. I bought a large bag of seed-starting mix, 3 large packages of plastic drinks cups at the Dollar Store, 2 packets of mixed lettuce seeds, and one packet of radish seeds. I had a bunch of bean seeds on hand already, of various varieties. I told them that we are going to have a lettuce and radish salad in 4 weeks, and that we'd try cut-and-come-again with the lettuce. We should be able to have a second salad at the end of the class. (7 weeks out) And, I promised to bring the bunnies in on the last day, so we can play with them. (and feed the bean seedlings to them)

I had each child take three cups, write (or have someone else write) their name on each cup, then fill the cup most of the way with seed-starting mix. Then we looked at the seed packets, to determine how to plant the seeds. We talked about how to read the packets - depth of planting, sun requirements, thinning, and time to harvest. We sowed the lettuce seeds first, then the radishes, then the beans. Oops. That only took about 45 minutes!

So - then I talked to them. First, we considered the benefits of growing our own food, how it can be picked fresh, how we can choose varieties based on flavor and not on durability in transport. They got the notion of food miles, of what a calorie *is*, and how many calories of energy is used up to transport a calorie of, say, strawberries, from California to here. (Massachusetts)

We talked about compost - the school has a food-composting program to capture food waste from breakfast and lunch. In a nice synergy, I am able to take home the 5 gallon buckets of food waste and feed it to my chickens, who turn it into meat, eggs, and fertilizer. We addressed the question of what we can compost, and what we should NOT compost, and why.

We talked about thinning seedlings. Why do we thin? How do we thin? (fingers, scissors) What can we do with the thinnings? (eat 'em, feed 'em to the rabbits, compost them, transplant them) We discussed fertilizer - chemical, organic, and compost/manure, and what NPK stands for. We considered the benefits of having animals in conjunction with a garden. (they help eat the excess, their manure fertilizes the soil)

Then week 1 was over, and I promised them more to do in week 2.

Week 2 was day before yesterday. I was much better prepared! First, we filled another set of cups with seed-starting mix, one per child, with names on the cups, and planted marigold seeds.

Then, we made compost cans for them to take home! An extra bonus was that all of the materials we used were second-use (as in, reduce, REUSE, recycle). I asked the cafeteria to save us some #10 cans. I got large construction paper on Freecycle. I brought in old gardening magazines and new seed catalogs. I brought in a large set of colored Sharpies. (and lectured them FIRMLY about how indelible Sharpie is) Each child got a piece of paper the right size to cover the #10 can, and decorated it. We used scissors and glue sticks. Once the paper was designed as the child wanted it, we glued it to the can. Then, we reclaimed some laminating plastic that was surplus in the school - wrong size for the school's current needs. We used that as contact paper to seal down the decorated papers.

Once they were all finished, and the considerable clean-up was completed, we watered last week's plantings (the lettuce and radishes had germinated; the beans had not).

Next week - forcing, seed-starting calendars, hardiness zone charts. Possibly also seeking seeds inside fruits - apples, cantaloupe, grapes, peppers, tomatoes. (any other ideas?) We're having fun so far!

I had brought in cuttings from my pussy willow, but we didn't have time to discuss "forcing". We'll get to that next week.

Monday, Monday... a rainy day

2010-01-25T22:48:00.000-05:00

Holy cow, I wonder how much snow we would have had if it had been cold enough for snow instead of rain? It poured BUCKETS here today. I think the pot I left outside to soak had about 3" in it. (alas, my rain gauge went missing last fall - must replace it....)

The children spent last night at their father's house, and that turned out to work well for me, since they ended up with a 2 hour delay this morning. I guess some of the other towns in the district must have had ice where we had rain, since at 7:30 this AM it was almost 50 degrees here!

I did get up to see the cookstove. It's a Glenwood K... and it's MINE! Now to get it here :) The lady and I agreed that we'd let her husband and Steve (my carpenter/handyman/worker of miraculous things) take care of the details. The firebox is kind of small, and this one loads from the top rather than the front, but judging by the size of the room it heated with no difficulty, it's going to be just fine here.

Meanwhile, Amber the rabbit doesn't look so good. She's still SO thin, and her belly looks awful. Mastitis is SO nasty. She's had a much penicillin as I can give her, at least for the moment, and while I can't be sure whether it's still infected, it's surely inflamed, though it might be scar tissue.

I thought I'd found the rogue rooster yesterday and dispatched him. Well, he had a rogue brother, apparently! This one was crowing this afternoon, between rain squalls. So... off with 'is head. He's in the freezer now, too. Still can't say that butchering (especially inside!) is my favorite thing, but if it needs to be done, it's best to do it humanely, quickly, and efficiently. *bleah*

First thing tomorrow - my first Literary Theory class at Smith. Here's hoping the buses are running on time, so I can find the classroom!

a busy weekend

2010-01-24T23:05:00.001-05:00

Saturday morning I went to the 4-H Rabbit Workshop at the Blackstone Valley Technical High School. There was a focus on commercial breeds this time. Nancy had asked me to bring a Creme d'Argent so that the kids could see what they look like. I also brought 4 Californian does and 3 Californian bucks for the "judging" class. Roger Cota taught that one - he's our District 7 ARBA director as well as a seasoned judge. It was really interesting to learn how to judge among similar rabbits. It was great to hang out with so many rabbit people! I saw my friend Lisa, and had a chance to talk to some of the youth about things like mastitis (yuck), does who eat their babies (also yuck), butchering (kind of yuck).

This morning I went to church, then drove out toward Albany to meet Rick K to trade a trio of 16 week old Californians (I chose which ones to give him with Roger's help - nice!) for seven 9 week old Cremes - 3 does and 4 bucks. They're full siblings to my buck, though....

When I got back, I did butchering of the rest of the Cals. The males were getting a bit too rowdy, and have been waking my neighbors up at night by thumping. Not ok!!! I also ended up butchering a chicken who was SUPPOSED to be a pullet, but had started crowing. Not only am I not zoned for roosters, but the same neighbors really deserve NOT to be awakened that way. Since it was 33 degrees and raining, I broomsticked on the back patio, then did everything else inside. I cooked the heads and feet so I can feed them to the dogs and/or chickens, saved the livers and kidneys for the dogs, and put the rest of the guts down the disposer. Nice quick cleanup.

We have a flash flood watch for tomorrow - though it's 33* out now, it's forecast to reach 52 tomorrow with heavy rain. I don't particularly want the snow to disappear! It's only a couple of inches, and when it goes, I'll end up with mud. LOTS of mud. Despite the forecast, I'm heading out early to check out a cookstove I found on Craigslist. I really, really want one! Being able to heat and cook with fuel from my own property has a lot to recommend it.

Year-end wrap up post

2009-12-31T13:21:00.000-05:00

It's been a very lively year here. Last January first I had six rabbits - four Cinnamons and two little mutts. Now I have... how many DO I have? 5 Cinnamons, 5 American Blues, 3 Thriantas, 3 adult Cremes d'Argent, plus two litters totalling 11 kits, 4 adult Californians and 12 juveniles in growout, the same two little mutts, and one mutt kit who should be opening its eyes here any time now. I also have some 42 laying hens - 28 in their first year of laying, 8 not yet laying, and 8 older birds. (these last two groups of 8 were given to me... yea!) I've lost a bunch of kits this winter... I won't breed after October 1st again. I lost one bantam hen to a hawk. But all in all, the farm has, well, become a farm! I have business cards with a custom-designed logo, this blog, lots of folks who come to us for fresh eggs, and I had a sign made for the front porch at the Big E, proudly proclaiming "Blessed Acre Farm and Rabbits".

The gardens did incredibly poorly this year. It was just dreadful. I didn't can ANYTHING except for some strawberry jam. However, the rabbit hutches are overwintering in the main garden bed, so the soil there should have no excuses as far as fertility come spring. I kept 5 gallon buckets under the hutches before they were moved into the garden, and spread that over the other garden beds, around the new blueberry bushes, the apple and peach trees. I planted loads of bulbs last summer, after the foundation work was completed, so next spring should blossom beautifully. I've overseeded the front lawn with new grass seed and clover, and have thoughts of tractoring either rabbits in growout or chickens, or possibly both. I have approval to put up a shed on the edge of my yard, leading out into the woods down to the creek. I ran out of fall this year to get that put up, but it'll go up in the spring. Then I'll add a couple of goats and a beef cow to enjoy the undergrowth and the pasture on the other side of the creek. I have designs on more chickens next spring... Cuckoo Marans... more Araucanas... Rhode Island or New Hampshire Reds... I must be certain not to get carried (too far) away.

And, amid all this, I am now one semester away from completing my MA in English Literature! I hope to be teaching at one (or more) of the local community colleges in September. My children are growing and thriving. My Mom is in good health, and we see a lot of her, especially when I have late classes. We see my brother who lives locally fairly regularly, and we got to visit with my Chicago brother and his family last summer at Cape Cod. All three dogs are still with us here - Sheba is 13 1/2, Decker is 13, and Lily is 5. Sheba's back right leg doesn't work as well as she'd like; Decker is mostly deaf, and Lily is maybe finally settling into being an adult, rather than a puppy. She's a great defender, though - chases off that hawk pretty regularly.

My goals for 2010? I'm still formulating them. Indoors, I want to finish my Masters. I'd like to get my wood stove installed and working. I'd like to get rid of about 20% of the stuff in my house - yard sale, Craigslist, consignment, Salvation Army, etc. I want to keep singing. I want to get all the moving parts of my body working properly again, and keep them that way. I want to work out in the gym at least three times every week, and continue with Weight Watchers, such that I reach my goal weight (between 142-148). I'm not sure where I am presently, but it's slightly north of 170. I think that asking my body to carry around less excess weight will facilitate getting and keeping all the moving parts working properly, too. Outdoors, I'd like to get five litters from each of my 15 does in 2010. I'd like to get to more rabbit shows this year - not a huge goal, since we only showed in one fair last year. I want to get the shed built, the fencing up, and add the goats and the beefer cow. I'd like to get my winter garden cover constructed for next fall; I planted winter crops this year, which did... ok... despite the chickens, but they never got covered. And always and everywhere, I want to spend time with my children, helping them grow into the kind of people they can be proud to be. I want to shower them with love and affection. I want to protect them harm, in whatever ways I can. I want to share with them my beliefs and values, and encourage them to define and stand by their own.

Should be a nice, quiet, simple, easy year... right?

Exciting times at Blessed Acre Farm

2009-11-25T21:53:00.000-05:00

The chickens are laying and laying here. We get an average of 24 eggs each day. Thank you to everyone who has been helping us keep the fridge from overflowing!

The rabbits are doing great, too. Our American Blues arrived on November 14th, after a long, long trip. Our friend in Rochester, NY, picked them up in San Diego for us and drove them back to her place. I drove out to Rochester and brought them home. The young lady who sold them to us had bred the does before selling them - and to a different buck than the one she sold us. I've said it before - rabbit folks are just plain Nice People! The first litter should arrive on Friday (the 26th). Hurray!

We also had a Thrianta buck brought in for us from the Convention in San Diego. He's a gorgeous, gentle boy, very cuddly. Last Friday we brought home "the last rabbits we're buying for a LONG TIME!" - two Thrianta does. They are adorable - so fuzzy and sweet.

I hadn't planned on any winter litters this year. However (you knew there was a "however" coming!) with the Americans arriving bred, and with several of our young does hitting 6 months now (those spring babies!) we decided to go for it. My Cinnamon doe, Maple, kindled a week ago Tuesday, on the first night in over a week that was below freezing. It was a small litter, only three kits, and they just couldn't keep themselves warm. It was very sad. We gave her a couple of days of eating fresh mint to dry up her milk, then rebred her. We bred Whiskers the same day, so that there would be two does kindling - always useful in case we need to foster. We wanted to breed the Creme d'Argent does that day, too, but they weren't having ANY of it. They'd been in a hutch together, and I had previously had sisters who wouldn't breed after living together over the winter. We separated them, and finally today, after a week of "Uh UH!" they deigned to be bred. That means their litters should be Christmas babies! (or maybe Boxing Day) Again, it's well to have more than one litter born on a given day. If another doe had kindled when Maple did, we could have fostered them all in together.

I also learned today that my friend Rick at Windy Pines had his first Cinnamon litter from a doe he got from us. I feel like a proud grandmother or something. It's all good - the Cremes I bred today we got from him!

Happy, productive chickens - and lots of eggs

2009-10-27T22:53:00.000-04:00

My chickens have been producing like mad this week! I had 20 eggs today alone. Bottom line? I have six dozen eggs that need new homes. These are free-range eggs, local, sustainable, and just $3 a dozen. And, because of the variety of breeds here, the eggs are very pretty - yes, those *are* green eggs! Come, help my refrigerator before it explodes.

Four dozen eggs available!

2009-10-22T09:49:00.000-04:00

I have four dozen eggs available today, and I will be heading up to campus around noon. They're $3 a dozen.

Eggs for sale

2009-10-14T20:48:00.000-04:00

I have a dozen fresh eggs for sale - first come, first serve! We had our first dozen-egg day today, and hope that our girls will continue to provide us with like quantities of Hen Fruit on a regular basis. I put a light on a timer in the henhouse, and it seems to be working out well. I have it come on at 4 AM, since I read that it's harder on the birds to have the light at night, so that when it shuts off, it's abruptly pitch-black. It makes sense to me; I have no idea what the hens think, though.

I need help naming two rabbits!

2009-10-06T23:06:00.001-04:00

If you read down a couple of posts, you'll see that we kept a breeding pair of black Cinnamon/Californian crosses, just for grins. These poor rabbits still don't have names! I'm looking for help naming them. The suggestions we have thus far are Midnight and Shadow, Blackberry, and from me, the Harry Potter geek, Sirius and Andromeda (who were the two decent members of the Black family, for those of you not in the know, you poor things).

I'd like to have these beauties named by the weekend, so let me know if you have any suggestions!

Eggs for sale

2009-10-05T08:47:00.001-04:00

I finally have fresh, free-range eggs to offer! They're $3 per dozen, and I have two dozen available this morning. First come, first serve... I'm hoping they'll be in someone else's refrigerator here soon :)

The White Leghorns have been laying for about 2 1/2 weeks now. I saw a Black Sex Link in the nest this morning, and found an egg appropriate to being from her. However, I have a darker brown egg as well, which suggests that one of the other breeds has also started laying. Hurray!

Thorgerd comes through with 9!

2009-10-03T10:34:00.001-04:00

Thorgerd kindled either in the night or early this morning. There were ELEVEN kits, though two of them were stillborn. Although the photo doesn't really show much other than a nicely constructed nestbox, I thought I'd put it in for the sake of completeness.

In a few weeks, the cage will look like this (photo courtesy of Vigdis)

and a few weeks after that, it'll look like this (also courtesy of Vigdis). Well, that's not a great picture, but the weather is gloomy and the rabbits are squirmy. It'll have to do.

So - well done, Thorgerd! Oh - and when I checked Bergthora's kits this morning, I realized that my son had miscounted - there are nine in her box, too! Woo hoo!

Kindle: verb...

2009-10-02T08:33:00.000-04:00

trans. Of a female animal: To bring forth, give birth to (young).

[Appears in early ME. (along with the cognate

KINDLE v.²): app. a deriv. of cynd-, stem of ecynd, KIND n. Cf. G. kind child.]

As I suspected, the verb "to kindle" as it refers to a rabbit delivering young comes from the same root as the German "kind," meaning child.

Bergthora obliged us by kindling 8 wee babies this morning! When I looked in on her at 7:15, she had pulled a bit of fur as lining for her nestbox. When my eldest and I went out to feed and water all the rabbits at 8, she was actively kindling. He got to watch! What an exciting way to start the day! By 8:10 she was finished and cleaning up the placentas. I confess to a twinge of envy at such efficiency in parturition.

California Dreamin'

2009-10-01T22:23:00.000-04:00

My computer is back home now and behaving itself nicely. It must be time to update again! I've chosen the Californians for today, since both Thorgerd and Bergthora are due with litters tomorrow. Bergthora was making a nice hay-stache earlier this evening - and this is her first litter. What a good rabbit! Note: neither of them is pictured, because they were heavily pregnant the day I was taking the pictures and didn't want to harass them.

Bergthora is 29 weeks old, born March 15th. She's not pedigreed, but is a pure-bred Californian.

Thorgerd is about a year and a half, also a pure-bred Californian from Rick Kudlacik's barn. She has an 8 week old litter born August 6th, who are now available for purchase. I weighed her on September 1st when I bred her - 8 pounds 5 ounces while nursing 6 four-week-old kits! Here they are now:

A bit of background on the names: when we got the Californians, we had only had Cinnamons up to that point - only brown rabbits. The children were so excited by white bunnies that they started with icy/snowy names for them. I had just finished a semester of Old Norse language study, and was then taking Scandinavian Sagas, so I made the leap to Icelandic names.

So - meet the rest of the family!

This is our buck. His name is Sigurd, the Dragon Slayer. He's a fine gentleman, very sweet with the ladies, and is a robust 9 pounds, 8 ounces. He's originally from Rick Kudlacik's barn.

This is Thorgerd's sister, Vigdis. She's a LOVELY girl who consistently bears large litters and weans them all. She's given me a litter of 8, followed 2 months later by the litter of 7 shown below. I weighed her on September 20th, while she was nursing 7 kits, who were 18 days old - and she was 8 pounds 12 ounces.

Vigdis and her September 2nd litter - 7 gorgeous babies!

This is what you get when you cross a Californian doe with a Cinnamon buck - some Californian marked, and some solid black.

Oddly, if you cross a Cinnamon doe with a Californian buck, you get these - Cinnamon marked and solid black. We kept a buck from the white and black litter, and a doe from the brown and black litter... and we'll breed them in the spring, just to see what happens!

technical difficulties!

2009-09-26T21:51:00.000-04:00

I was hoping to do a post introducing my Californian rabbits by now - but my computer is experiencing the dreaded "technical difficulties" and is in the shop, probably until Wednesday. And, of course, all of my photos are on its hard drive (though I'm having a CD burner installed so I can back up said photos!) so I can't do diddly from this rental laptop... except my homework. Oh, that.

And now, the Cremes d'Argent

2009-09-21T19:46:00.000-04:00

These gorgeous creatures are Creme d'Argent rabbits. They are the 12th rarest breed of rabbit in the US, according to the American Livestock Breed Conservancy. I have a trio of Cremes, all from Rick Kudlacik in New York near Albany.

Goldenrod is the buck. He's the youngest, 15 weeks old, and weighs 4 pounds, 13 ounces.

The does are littermates, and are 18 weeks old.

Honey is a bit smaller - 6 pounds 5 ounces -

than Amber, who is 6 pounds 7 ounces.

I will be breeding both does to Goldenrod in the spring. Aren't they pretty?

Meet the Cinnamons

2009-09-20T20:49:00.000-04:00

I thought, since these will be image-heavy, that I'd introduce the rabbits by breed. That way, I can send folks to a specific link to meet each breed later on. So - I'll start where I started a year ago, in June 2008.
This is Peanut Butter, our Cinnamon buck. He is a big, beautiful boy from Nancy Searle's barn. I weighed him today - 4780 grams, or 10 pounds, 8.6 ounces. He's very gentle and affectionate!

This lovely doe is Mocha, also from Nancy Searle's barn. She has had four litters for me, starting in September 2008, of 5, 6, 9, and 7 kits. She's much more shy than Peanut Butter, and an excellent Mama. She weighs 9 pounds, 6 ounces at present, even while nursing 7 kits!

This curious and spunky girl is Acorn, from Peanut Butter and Mocha's first litter. She's the very first rabbit from "my" barn! She's a big girl - 4975 grams, or 10 pounds, 15.5 ounces - and she's nursing 8 kits, who are only 8 days old. She has had three litters for me this year - all with 8 kits! She's a lovely rabbit, a bit grumpy when pregnant, nicely protective of her kits for their first few days, and gentle and affectionate the rest of the time.

And finally, this lovely lass is Maple. She is from Acorn's first litter. I bred Acorn to one of Nancy Searle's bucks, PJ1, who is an award-winning buck at last year's Nationals. Maple herself won Best Cinnamon in Show at the Cummington Fair this past August. She was born April 22nd, so she is 22 weeks old, and she already weighs 8 pounds, 4 ounces. I won't breed her this year - Cinnamons are pretty sensitive to day length, and she's still a month away from the "magic" 6-month figure. In the spring, I will ask Nancy if any of her bucks want a playmate - or I could breed her back to her grandfather, Peanut Butter. You might notice that her coat is much more of one color than the other Cinnamons' - that's normal. Her distinctive markings will emerge as she matures.

I can haz eggs!

2009-09-20T20:26:00.000-04:00

I found my first two eggs on Friday morning, tucked into a basement window well behind my potato bed. I was so excited! Today, Sunday, I found three more. These were in the coop, hiding under one of the benches. Yippee! Aren't they teeny?

Welcome to Blessed Acre Farm and Rabbitry!

2009-09-15T23:34:00.000-04:00

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessed Acre Farm and Rabbitry has been a dream of mine for years. I had thought I'd move to a farm, but instead I've decided to make my current home (on 1.3 acres, partly wooded) into my dream farm.

Presently my four children, three retrievers and I enjoy several large garden beds, the company of our flock of 26 pullets (who will start laying soon - check back often for information on fresh free-range eggs) and our rabbit herd.

As of today's date, we have 62 rabbits on the property. We raise pedigreed Cinnamons, Cremes d'Argent, and Californians, for show, meat, and pets. We also have two "mutt" dwarf rabbits, who are pets, and a very sweet French Angora-looking buck we took in when he needed a new home.

We have available the following rabbits:

*a litter of 8 Californian/Cinnamon crosses, all with Californian markings, born July 1st
*a litter of 5 Californian/Cinnamon crosses, 3 with Californian markings, 2 all black, born July 2nd
*a litter of 6 Cinnamon/Californian crosses, 4 Cinnamon colored, 2 all black, born July 11th

Coming available soon:

*a litter of 6 purebred, pedigreed Californians born August 6th (available October 1st)
*a litter of 7 purebred Cinnamons born September 2nd (available October 28th)
*a litter of 7 purebred, pedigreed Californians born September 2nd (available October 28th)
*a litter of 8 purebred, pedigreed Cinnamons born September 12th (available November 7th)

Upcoming anticipated litters: two purebred Californian does are due October 2nd. One doe is pedigreed, the other is not.

Future events:
We will be breeding our Cremes d'Argent in the spring, around the beginning of March. This gorgeous breed is the 12th rarest in the United States according to the list from the ARBA convention in 2006 (will be updated in October 2009), and is on a "watch" status with the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.
We are looking forward to acquiring a quartet of American Blues in early November, and will be breeding them in early spring as well! This stunning, heritage breed is THE RAREST in the United States as of the 2006 list. American Blues are on a "critical" status with the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. We estimate that there are only about 400 adult American Blues in the United States and Canada.

Come by again soon! I will put up pictures this weekend.