Fall update

It's getting colder here now, and I hadn't factored in the potential of days and days and days of rain at this time of year - not since we were practically dealing with a heat wave and drought for our first summer at the property.  We'd only mowed the grass twice in our first three months - it wasn't growing since it certainly wasn't getting any additional irrigation from us.  Now, the past weeks of rain have brought on new growth that I want to cut for adding to the orchard beds and to the compost pile, and the leaves are coming down, and the wood is being delivered, and I have things to do in the garden and orchard.....and we wind up running inside soaking wet when the rain finally gets too bad to work in.

The mushrooms started to spring up everywhere in mid-October, and though there are many new appearances each week, the main flush is starting to look a little worse for wear - in some instances being grazed or trampled by our deer.

The kits were getting some time out on the grass before it just got too rainy for us to leave them outside on the wet ground. They'll be 9 weeks this weekend, and the kits out of Spot and Anna are huge! Well, huge compared to some of the other kits we've been breeding. I'm trying to make up for the lack of play time with plenty of assorted greens brought to them - and apple slices too, from those apples too affected by scab to be easily processed. We've dehydrated 6 full dehydrator loads of apple slices for the winter months, which will work nicely with a bit of chicken scratch and some sunflower seeds for a burst of inner warmth for the bunnies on the coldest nights. The best apples have gone to the pantry for fresh eating, and slightly damaged apples are now being chopped, dipped in sugar/lemon water, and frozen in portions for small apple crisps throughout the winter. *Next year* we'll look at steaming some apple juice, or renting a cider press, or think about making more applesauce and apple butter.  For now, we have a supply of canned sauce from our apple trees back in Surrey.  Hopefully our care in the orchard will reward us in the years to come

After weeks of frustration, trying to lock in a delivery of firewood, we have about half of what I believe we will need for the cold season.  Luckily, our woodstove is in good shape, and the winters on the Island are not quite as harsh as elsewhere in BC.  The temperature hasn't ducked too low, so we've slowly been learning how to manage the heat output - our chimney sweep assured us that each stove has a personality and we'll be pros in no time. We scavenged some pallets to keep the wood off the ground, and started to stack the 2 cords we had dumped in the driveway....before the rain returned.

It's a work in progress.....

Of note, we finally had enough blue sky to do a full hive inspection.  We went into our secondary hive, which we artificially split from the main hive last spring, and sadly verified that there was only one small section of older brood, and no evidence of a queen. Their stores were all over the hive, and located largely towards the back side of the box. Much like we transplanted honey to them on our last month's inspection when they seemed to be struggling, we decided to try and help them replace their missing queen.  We found a frame in the strong hive that had evidence of eggs laid within the last 3 days, and transplanted it to the middle of their hive. Luckily, Adrian got a visual on our queen, so we could be sure we didn't move her with the brood.  If the girls don't manage to hatch a new queen within the next couple of weeks, they will not make it through the winter.  If she emerges, she may not be able to mate at this time of year. We figured it was worth a try.

Our original colony is settling in for the winter, and the queen has cut way back on laying brood.  There are no drones left in the hive, and they are set for honey and pollen, given their smaller numbers. I removed a couple of largely empty frames, to encourage them to tighten up their stores, and with the bottom board put on last week, we may not go back in to the hive again unless there is an emergency.

Fall is Coming

Now that things have settled down a bit, and we're definitely heading into fall with cooler nights and the apples ripening on the trees, we've been lucky to have some friends visiting while we prepare for a visit from our parents.  One of our wonderful houseguests installed a new fan in the living room to help the woodstove heat the house more efficiently, and we played boardgames until long past my bedtime. We fed them from the bounty of the property - greens, bush beans, carrots, and peach cobbler for dessert.

Our original, 40 inch fan, with a broken switch to turn the light on or off - the owners had simply removed the bulb, so there was no light in the room...

and our new, 52 inch, 5-blade fan with remote control.  Bring on the wood heating season!

The bunnies are on their fourth week, and are bothering their moms constantly. We will be separating them back to their own quarters this weekend, as the kits are quite content to eat pellets, grass, and greens.  Because we were unable to reunite our last pair of sisters due to territorial instinct, we tried to get these sisters back together earlier last weekend, after only 3 weeks of separation.  I mistakenly thought that they might enjoy some time without the kids.  After a few moments in the run together, on fresh grass, they began to fight and one had been gashed before we were able to lean over and separate them. Hydrogen peroxide and Polysporin have cleaned up the wound, but I am sad that they won't be keeping each other company through the boredom of winter.

We had an arborist come out to view the fruit trees on the property, and the review was largely positive, though we all agreed that the forest blocks out more light than is ideal.  We may eventually be thinning some of our surrounding evergreens.  As the trees go dormant this year, we will be doing some selective pruning and shaping, removing grass at the base of the trees to be replaced with cardboard, manure, and mulch, and then underplanting into those new beds with berries, flowers, and herbs to create a more diverse system, and to encourage pollinators and beneficial insects to visit our trees.

I've been walking the property, trying to assess vegetation, and where the light falls at this time of year so that I can plan ahead, but really, we have a lot of unknowns still affecting those decisions.  We need to get a cistern installed and a new well pump, which will affect where the future fencing goes, which will affect where any outbuildings and garden beds go, and the list goes on from there.  I very much want to get fencing in place, as there is evidence that people are trespassing and breaking into our sad, moldy trailer. We've put up No Trespassing signs, and left an inquiry at the District as to our responsibilities should someone hurt themselves or start a fire, but have not heard back.

The firewood is still on hold, as the dry weather has prevented access to the logs waiting to be hauled out of the woods.  I have leads on two wood providers, and am trying to be patient waiting for their confirmation of delivery.  We had a very interesting visit with our chimney sweep, who told us we had her 'second favorite' stove, (a good model with the perk of an integrated ash-catcher), and we learned some of the finer points of fire management.  Our chimney received a clean bill of health, and we'll have her back in the spring to assess how well we burned our wood during our first winter.

A weekend trip to a pancake breakfast/swap meet resulted in a potential connection for chickens next spring.  We still need to set up an enclosure and bang together a coop, but we have a line on Naked Neck Turkens to start a small flock in memory of our funny bird, Nugget.

A Quick Look

It's hard to believe it's almost Friday evening as I sit at the computer.  Work has been grinding by this week, and I've been under the weather for a lot of it.  Right now I'm full of Vitamin C, Sinutab, Ginger Gravol tablets, and my forehead is slathered with Tiger Balm.  Feelin' awesome.

We're heading to Vancouver Island tomorrow, for a 2-day romp 'round the Cowichan Valley, looking at properties that might fit the bill for our future.  In all likelihood, these properties won't wait for us to get our ducks in line, but the time spent learning about the area's communities, services, roads, possibilities and drawbacks will help us make some decisions.  Looking at real properties and asking questions about heating oil (?!?), woodstoves, water quality, recycling and garbage services and the like will help to focus our search and refine our list of needs and wants.  We'll be visiting the Farmer's Market in Duncan to see what the locals produce and sell - the list of vendors is impressive.  They have fudge.

I've been trying to make this happen for a while, so I'm going no matter what.  Pray for Adrian's sake that I get a restorative night's sleep.

Last weekend was a 3-day affair because of Remembrance Day, and while some people spent time with family or got in some extra rest and relaxation, Adrian took a vacation day from work, and we made things happen. We also kicked back and played a video game, and played with bunnies. Have I mentioned how lucky I am to have him as a partner?

 

We spent Friday completing most of this year's jam, with a little extra work on Saturday morning.  We now have about 95 half-pints of homemade preserves with only 3 failed seals (refrigerator jam!).  From left to right: Black Currant Jam and Strawberry Jam - both crops grown here in our yard, Cherry Jam, from BC cherries (I don't want to talk about our 3 trees in the back yard which provided not a single edible cherry this year), Huckleberry Jam from berries picked locally (if I say 'wildcrafted' I sound like a hipster), and Blueberry Jam, from the lovely bushes that came with the property (Adrian would like to dig them up and take them with us when we move....)

We got all of the jam made and canned, and left it to cool on the dining table (where it still sits, waiting to be labelled and boxed for the pantry - shhh!)

The time had come to butcher some of our crossbred rabbits at just over 12 weeks old, so we spent time over the rest of the weekend processing, freezing, and cooking meat, chopping vegetables, and making Rabbit Pot Pie for the freezer.  Then, since while taking all of the berries out of the freezer to thaw, I managed to turn off the power bar and hence both of our chest freezers (doh!), we made a huge batch of what I'm calling Chicken and Sausage Cacciatore.  It was coincidentally well-timed, in that I was able to use the last of my tomatillo harvest while it was still at it's best. Delicious.
 

Tomatillos from saved seed - we've been growing these for several years now, and I used to say they are more dependable than tomatoes for production.  This year, they bloomed early and failed to set fruit, just like the tomatoes - but they soldiered on as the temperature dropped, and I got a decent harvest long after the tomato plants were cleared away.  No tomatillo salsa this year, but we did have small harvests through the season that went into our casseroles and soups.  They also dehydrate wonderfully.

Good news is that the freezers are now very organized and clear of ice - Bad news is that we lost some prepared food.  Good news is that some of that food had been in there a little too long anyway. How does it happen that you never actually remember what you have in a chest freezer (despite your best intentions), and who is supposed to be able to physically reach the bottom?

A couple of weeks ago on a Costco run, Adrian tried sauerkraut and declared it good.  I glared at him and reminded he had eschewed my home made sauerkraut previously, and decided it was time to give it another try.

 

This is about 4 pounds of cabbage, with 3 generous tablespoons of salt mixed in, pounded together to release 'juice,' and left to sit on the counter.  I like that the red cabbage makes for a pretty colour.  I wasn't about to make a huge batch until we had decided if we would work it into our routine, and local cabbage is generally available through a large part of the winter.

Sauerkraut can be left to mature for between 1 and 4 weeks. I have a large intact leaf weighed down at the top of the jar to keep everything submerged under the brine.  At 1 week, it tasted like salty, crunchy cabbage, so we left it to do its thing for a little longer. Time will tell.

Happy Birthday

This morning I was calmly greeted by Sweetie, our eldest doe, chomping on her morning alfalfa grass.  If I hadn't seen the fur topping on her nest move slightly, I wouldn't have known that she had delivered her kits in the night.  A -very- quick look tells me there are likely 7-8 little bunnies, all dark-skinned but for their pink bellies.  I am happy to see that Sweetie's litter size is 'back to her norm' after a small litter earlier in the year.  I offered her a happily-received piece of plum, and left her to continue her day with some extra grains, fresh comfrey, and grass.

Rose was also looking calm, though surrounded by bits of fur, which I believe she had just pulled to line her own nest.  No bunnies yet, but she allowed a quick round of skritches, and her tummy feels taught with promise.  She went back to lining her nest, and I quietly left the enclosure.

The other litters are five weeks old today, and we will soon remove the mothers to allow them to recover from a busy round of parenting.  Sakura seems largely unaffected, despite having 7 kits to care for, and I am very happy with her personality.  I do not feel that we will be keeping Chun Li, as she has remained anxious, aggressive, and unpredictable.  I was concerned that her aggression was sometimes turned towards her offspring, though I am thrilled with the size and the health of her small litter. I intend to keep back a well-natured girl for future breeding.  We allow our rabbits to fully develop to 7 months prior to breeding, so we wouldn't be breeding until March next year, and I'd like to cross some of our first crosses back with our Florida White males, but will need to do some breeding research over the winter.

 

Totally unrelated, this small bowl of cherry tomatoes was the biggest daily harvest of the year, and tasted wonderful with dinner.

Rabbit Learnin' And The Last Fall Planting

Yesterday I started to become a bit concerned about Notch, who seemed a bit congested on the weekend, and now whose eye seems to be very teary.... So I've done some research, wiped and irrigated his eye with water, and this afternoon will make a little compress and irrigation of saline and chamomile tea to soothe what I hope is a seasonal allergy or otherwise mildly irritated eye.  It could be an infected tear duct, and the irrigation and compress should improve the situation either way.

I'd prefer less aggressive treatment if it clears in a couple of days, but I may need to switch to Terramycin eye ointment if it doesn't improve. So, this afternoon, I will heat a cup of water, and add a chamomile tea bag and a tablespoon of sea salt, and head out to give the poor boy some relief once it has cooled somewhat. He seemed to appreciate the cool water. I'll do that again at bedtime, and keep to a twice-a-day schedule for the rest of the week.  He's not off of his food or water (though the apple slices and oat/barley treats are getting more attention than his alfalfa pellets or chard).

And now for gratuitous pics of some of his cute babies:

 

They're growing fast, and will be outside soon in one of our big cages, with plywood platforms to play on, lots of fresh air and maybe sunshine - this time of year can get a bit gloomy.

The salad bar is still providing plenty of greens for a huge salad every other night, and I think salads will go down as being the 'oh, good... more' food for Adrian this year. The pole beans are still holding out on us, along with most of our tomato plants.  If the predicted rain comes I may need to rig a cover for my kidney beans, which are almost dry enough to be pulled - it would be a huge disappointment for them to mold in contact with wet soil.

 



I went through the seed box and planted out a few last-minute crops in the bed vacated by the wheat crop.  I will be planting multiplier onions and shallots in the same space later, but didn't want to leave the soil barren until the end of September.  If the weather is with us, we may be harvesting: arugula, beets, kohlrabi, turnips, parsley, and red mustard. Time will tell!

Rabbit Reposting

I was keeping notes in an online journal back when we started keeping rabbits, and wanted to copy a couple of important entries here for future reference:

Our first attempt at breeding Sweetie, our well-mannered, dainty queen of the rabbitry did not go well, and she gave birth on the cage floor. We eventually lost all of them after trying to revive the surviving kits under a heat lamp....

The bunnies didn't make it

September 12, 2011, 14:04

We left the nesting box with mom for two days - all readings suggested interfering as little as possible (especially since we'd already had to handle them). Taking everyone outside into the shade of the apple tree, we found the babies had all died in their nesting box. I'm not sure if it was simply too confusing for Sweetie, or if she rejected them because we'd handled them and brought them back to her. I don't think that she knew what to do - though she was lactating the morning after giving birth. I buried the little bodies in the comfrey patch, sad that their lives had been so cruel. It's a bit of an odd feeling, since we were growing them for food, after all - but I had expected to provide them with sunshine and fresh greens and an outside run before ending their short lives as quickly as possible. There seemed to be a bit more balance to the process with that scenario in mind. I will try breeding the two girls at the same time next week, so that Darla can be used as a foster mother if she seems to be more capable. I knew this venture wasn't going to be simple or easy, and I have never taken lightly the fact that I am responsible for the lives of my animals. I'm also very glad that I'm not urgently needing to be sustaining myself from my own labour. This loss makes me even more aware of how fragile the food chain really is, and how much we take for granted the easy availability of food in our commercial 24/7 society.

If only we knew then that Darla would be an unfit mother herself, and wound up killing all but one of her third and last litter before we culled her.  We bred them both soon after...

Livestock update and feed costing

September 28, 2011, 17:06

The girls are both halfway through their (assumed) pregnancies, and aside from being occasionally skittish or growly, are happily eating their greens and snatching their apple slices, both seemingly content with the world. Sweetie is notably less aggressive than during her last pregnancy. Everyone is getting outside time on the weekends at least - as now it is almost too dark by the time we arrive home from work for me to rush and collect greens for their evening enjoyment. For now - until the frost hits - the rabbits have a selection of roughly five or six types of greens a day (dandelion, comfrey, mint, lemon or lime balm, strawberry leaves, plantain, kale, celery leaf and sorrel...), but the selection is dwindling with the waning daylight and colder temperatures. There will be more reliance on apples, pears, carrots, (the dehydrator is running most days with local fruit), whole-grain bread (they *love* oats), apple tree twigs and hay in the colder months, and hardier greens. Having just purchased a new fancy dehydrator (3-7 days shipping), I will try to dehydrate some of the greens we're currently feeding to store for occasional winter food interest. I like to think this gives them a nice change-up in their day, something entertaining to do with their time, and is helping cut down on the amount of pellets they're eating as well. We aren't sure if they're using the mineral licks, or if the humidity is affecting them, since several have broken apart and most of them seem 'wet.' The rabbits are never near them in my line-of-sight.

This weekend we drove out to the Feed store in Abbotsford, and dropped two hundred dollars on animal feed. We grabbed two bales of Timothy hay ($26.00), now hanging from the ceiling in the carport (sorry rodents!), as well as:
- 3 20kg bags of "16% Rabbit Pellets" ($13.99 each)
- 1 bag of "25% Horse Creep Feed" ($18.99) to help with rabbit pregnancy and lactation, and as a fattening boost for kits once they're eating solid food. Currently introducing a small handfull daily to the girls' diet in preparation for their kindling.
- 1 40lb bag of "Step 2 Sweet Feed" ($15.49) for both rabbits and chickens - grains and molasses mix to help the animals generate internal heat in the colder weather
- 1 20kg "18% Free Range Crumble" ($11.99) to be mixed with
- 1 20kg "16% Organic Layer Mash" ($18.99) for the chickens, along with
- 1 20kg "Hen Scratch" ($11.79) to occupy the birds once we have them confined for the day in the hoophouse on a deep straw litter.
- finally, 1 40lb sack of Black Oil Sunflower Seeds ($24.97) as a treat for everyone
That was the litter where Darla gave birth to Spot, our sweet-tempered scratch-loving little buddy who is having some ear mite problems right now. He was the pick of the litters when we had our important first cull and became 'fully' experienced meat-rabbit raisers

The deed is done

January 11, 2012, 12:48

Eleven bunnies went to freezer camp this past weekend. We decided to keep back one friendly boy, now named 'Spot' by Adrian, who thinks it's an ironic moniker for an albino.... All went relatively well, and each bunny was dispatched as quickly as possible out of sight, smell and earshot of everyone else. Processing was repetitive and caused muscle issues, but the whole experience was rather affirming and fascinating. We are lucky people and are looking forward to new births this weekend with freshly scrubbed cages and fidgety mothers (Sweetie seems to have forgotten what the nesting box is about, and has eaten or trampled multiple loads of straw through the cage bottom).

It's difficult to put a price on the 'lappin' we've produced. The final tally of our eleven culled rabbits was: 37 pounds live weight, 21 pounds of carcass weight. We saved livers, and decided we weren't really thrilled with the taste, never having been fond of liver in the first place - but the livers, hearts and kidneys should be saved and fed to the chickens as a very good 'free' source of healthy protein. Those and other 'parts' could be saved for dog treats and food. Extra rabbit manure could be bagged and sold, worms could be raised in beds beneath rabbit cages for fishing, chicken feed, or for vermicomposting, or chickens can forage underneath the cages to clean up spilled food and aerate manure and bedding for garden mulch use and add a secondary use for space allocated to rabbit raising.

Keeping in mind that we were feeding 3 breeding adults from date-of-purchase and raising a secondary breeding male, 15 rabbits -to date- have eaten (roughly) $95.00 - worth of pellets, (bad stop-gap purchase of a small $25 bulk bag at a pet store took that over the top)
$10 sweet feed, oats and manna, (partial bags shared with the chickens)
$50 worth of alfalfa hay
$10 of carrot 'seconds'
$10 of local apples (dehydrated for rabbit treats)
Greens, herbs and branches from the garden and kitchen scraps

My head is spinning a bit here.....That's roughly $22 a month since this venture started in May; three months from birth to butcher for the two litters means all 15 rabbits ate $66.00 in those three growing months, at $4.40 averaged feed cost per rabbit. Our meat cost does not include the initial set-up and supplies ($1080.00 for breeding stock, cages and supplies that should last for ten years or more) or our labour, though much of it was enjoyable time petting and watching bunnies, and the dirty parts at least were exercise out in the sunshine, benefitting the garden (no need to buy manure this Spring at $50.00 on average application and from questionable sources). So, 21 pounds of rabbit meat averaged $2.30 a pound. Local grocery stores have Extra Lean 'Canadian' ground beef ("fluff style"?!? - granted, no bones) advertised on special for $3.49/lb, and chicken breast at $4.99/lb this week comparatively (again no bones). Whole Rabbit at local grocery stores runs $7.00/lb - but at that cost, we would never have consumed it on a regular basis.

If we're eating our own meat for $2.30 a pound, and locally available, comparable meat averages $4.25 a pound - *on sale - currently* we save $1.95 per pound on our grocery bill when we choose to eat meat. 

Spuds, Cukes, and a Chick

Adrian harvested half of our potato harvest last night, while I ground up 8 pounds of cucumbers so that I could can dill relish.  I actually thought I would have enough cucumbers to make some dill slices on the side, but our harvest fridge (our second fridge in the basement, that holds bulk onions, potatoes, blueberries, eggs, milk, zucchini, etc. etc.) had seen fit to freeze some of the cucumbers at the back of the bowl.  I turned the temperature dial up this morning! I wound up actually substituting a bit of zucchini to round out the recipe.

The zucchini, cucumbers, onions and garlic I used in the recipe were all out of the garden (I used the onions that had sent up flower stalks, and damaged bulbs of garlic, since they won't hold in storage).  Fingers crossed that this relish tastes good, since I've had a few let-downs in that department over the past years with new recipes. Some *very* vinegary beet slices are still sitting in the pantry because I assume I'll find a way to use them, and can't bear to think of all those hours of work wasted. 

Since the kitchen was already a bit of a mess, and the food processor dirty, we also made salsa, tabbouleh and zucchini muffins - and then rewarded ourselves with a dinner of local corn after the pints of relish were processed on the stove outside.  You know the garden is in full swing when you're eating dinner by nine!

Celine and her little chick are doing well.  There were no more chicks hatched out, so I removed the remaining eggs on Sunday, to let Celine focus on mothering. I gave them a leftover cob of corn for their private breakfast, and watched Celine peck pieces off the cob and drop them for the chick to eat.  There was a little pasting on the chick's butt, so I quickly scooped it up - to the annoyance of Celine, and pulled off the dried poop - to the annoyance of the chick.

Supplies were purchased to expand the rabbitry with outdoor cages, and that will be our evening project this week.  Spot's ears are still giving him slight issues, so I have been swabbing them with oil to lubricate and to suffocate any mites that are in the ear canal, and leaving him outside during the day to get more sunshine and wind exposure.  The look he gave me this morning was somewhat reproachful. Chun Li and Sakura are both beginning to nest, which is a good sign that we will have kits in seven days. I'm very interested to see what our cross-breeding results are, and the moms seem to have become less agitated over the past few days.

Tippin, Trimmin And Milkin'

Yesterday, a group of like-minded people got together to learn some essentials for keeping goats and sheep, to mate a few rabbits, and to 'pick' plums. Our host, Jen, gave lots of good pointers and patiently watched as we all tried our best to accomplish new tasks.

Starting in the sheep pen, everyone got a chance to tip, trim, and vaccinate a sheep - to the accompaniment of laughter and expulsions of air as the beasts squirmed out of our grasps.

 

These sheep were a little distrusting of us from the get-go.  I'm sure they knew something was up when they realize how many people were standing in their pen watching them.

 

 

Separating sheep from their herd-mates and moving them into position is a special skill - they're very stubborn, and surprisingly agile. One of the lambs made a break for the door and left the pen while about three feet in the air.

 

Number One.

After all of the sheep had received their shots, and sat for their mani/pedis, we moved on to the goat pen.

 

This was a slightly different setup, using the milking stand to effectively immobilize and distract the goats while we trimmed hooves and vaccinated. Well, as much as you can distract a goat, especially when it runs out of food..... Since we were a bunch of beginners, some of the animals lost patience with us over time.  Having them stand while we worked meant that there were balance issues as well - and I found that the front legs were much easier than the back because of the positioning....

Probably the most anticipated lesson of the day was learning to milk Elizabeth - mother to two little babes on the farm.  We all gave it a whirl, then watched somewhat abashed while Jen showed us how to milk quickly with two hands in a continuous action. There may be some room for improvement!

 

The babies were adorable.

 

We finished off the chores by gathering plums from a very overgrown tree absolutely laden with fruit.  The easiest way to get at that fruit, was to cut down some of the branches out of reach - the tree will either receive a severe pruning in the near future, or be removed to make way for an expanding vegetable garden.

Just before I left, Jen helped me collect several potentially fertile eggs from her flock's nesting boxes.  Celine is broody again, and if she has the perseverance to sit for another 20 days or so, we might have some chicks hatching in our backyard the first weekend of August.

Gypsy and Notch (Jen's Champagne bucks) were mated to Chun Li and Sakura, so we should also be seeing some cross-bred kits in 30-32 days.

A very busy, educational, and enjoyable day. Thanks Jen!

Spring Update

The weather is still being a bit unpredictable, so the mason bees will be on hold until next week, but the honey bees have been taking advantage of the rain-free days and the fruit tree blossoms, and are building comb and raising brood. A quick check yesterday showed more brood and a lot of capped cells that should be increasing the colony soon. Hopefully the rain that is on the way won't knock too many blossoms off of the trees, so there will still be time for more pollination to occur.

This is one of our two dwarf Ranier cherry trees, which didn't provide any cherries last year....in fact we picked ONE cherry off our Bing tree *sigh.*

We've been busy ourselves, whittling away at the piles of mulch and topsoil we had delivered and dumped on our driveway. The beds are shaping up and being planted, and I have been weeding, transplanting, mulching and seeding to limit the invasion of quack grass and other garden annoyances in the perimeter beds. The tomato seedlings need to be thinned, and the cucumbers, squash and a few other seeds needing indoor attention are sitting ready to go into newly-prepared flats. I will be using some of the outside space to start cole and herb crops, which will be moved to more permanent positions once we need the current space for beans, corn, and other, slightly later
crops.

 

Mulch in front, soil in back with a cover for possible rain.....who am I kidding? We live in the Pacific Northwest!

 



Some of that soil, topping off newly prepared beds.

The garlic, shallots and Jerusalem artichoke are looking lovely, and we've enjoyed a few spears of asparagus - though we never get 'enough.' (Above you see the early start of Jerusalem artichoke in the far bed, and two beds of garlic - 180 cloves this year, planted last October and mulched with rabbit manure and soiled straw from the chickens.)

Seeding today: turnip, beet, radish, kohlrabi, fennel, kale, swiss chard, spinach, collards, and some herbs and flowers to fill in the empty spots: bread seed poppy, thyme, dill, bronze fennel, marigold, nasturtium and calendula. Hopefully the next few days of patchy rain will get those seeds settled and I'll be growing something we *want* to see, rather than pulling weeds.

The bunnies are growing, and have now learned how to get in and out of their nesting boxes so they can annoy their mothers even more. We're letting them have some greens, but only in limited quantities - they're just about the right size to reach the alfalfa pellets in the feeder, and are nibbling on smaller pieces of hay and dry orchard grass for now. Too many greens can lead to digestion 'issues,' but we've found that the greens are welcome, and it's just adorable to watch blades of rye grass disappear into a munching bunny mouth. Their mothers eat the majority of what's offered, as quickly as they can.

The chickens are enjoying the warmer weather - they used to huddle under the picnic table in the cold rain, despite having a hay-filled, dry hoop house they could have enjoyed. Celine has gone broody, and I've been taking her outside every morning to the grass, and providing some scratch, before she returns to her spot in the nesting box. I wish I had some fertile eggs to give her!

Celine, Nugget, and Pilgrim, eating breakfast amongst the cherry blossom petals.

New Additions

This is Sweetie:

She's been busy preparing her nest over the past few days. This morning, disturbing only the fur on top of the straw, 31 days after she was bred to Peter, we greeted some new arrivals:

We'll check back in the next few days, to make sure none of the kits is in trouble - we've lost several newborns in our rabbit-keeping experience due to mothers birthing on the cage floor (they cannot move their kits into the nest and they die of exposure), or unfortunately eating their young (a fear response). We also had a mother that killed older kits for no reason that we could fathom - but I did save a runt by grabbing the mother for one-on-one time over several days to make sure the little thing had a chance to eat without competition.

Ten days from now, they'll be furred out with eyes open.