It was a long day that deserved a cold beer. I checked in the frig and I found 1 pony Corona among the many craft beers. Pulled it out, added my lime and sat in the rocker on the back porch. It was one of those moments when you decide to take a stand - I prefer a cold Corona to a craft beer! No more pretense - just give me a Corona and be done with it!
Next topic - Life and Death on the Farm. So little Camille tells me that one of the girl rabbits died and dad fed it to the hogs - just part of the process of death around here. We had found 2 baby ducks and 3 baby chicks that had been picked on by the larger chickens and we rescued them. Rachel put glue on the heads of the baby ducks because their brains were showing. We took care of those baby animals and nursed them to health. Some animal went into the shack where we keep the baby ducks and chickens. It pulled out the 2 baby ducks and left the 3 chickens! And that was that.
Elijah found a baby chicken roaming around the yard alone and brought it back into the chicken yard to place with one of the mother hens. As he stood there, another hen came up and plucked the head off of the baby chick - he came back sobbing. Two of the rabbits died of heat - they got fed to the hogs also. I was putting grass under the rabbit cages and noticed that some rabbit fur was on the ground. Now this is what a mother rabbit uses to build her nest. I looked up and there was a baby rabbit laying on the bottom of the cage. We had miscalculated when the litter would be born and did not have a birthing box in her cage. I ran for help and was told just to put a birthing box in and put the new rabbit in the box - which I did. Zac came over and told me to put some cut grass in the box since sthe mother had no more fur to fill the box. I thought the mother was putting the grass in the box, but she was eating. The baby is still alive, but is just laying on the wood. Will it live or not!
I killed and cleaned my first rabbit. Did you know that rabbits can smell death? So when Zac brought in another rabbit, it screamed because it knew. I have to say that the rabbit looking at me while I break it's neck is disconcerning! I helped Zac kill some ducks and chickens and I kept yelling that they were still alive! - but they weren't.
In other news...the tomatoes have gone crazy. I was away for 3 weeks and the garden looked good - just had to do some weeding. We have had lots of births - another litter of hogs, several litters of baby bunnys, we got 200 free baby roosters (that should be intersting later).
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| New litter of rabbits |
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| Elijah holding a new baby rabbit |
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| New litter of baby hoglets |
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| First crop of potatoes |
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| Lots of visits from cousins |
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| My first sunflower garden |
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| baby rabbits growing up |
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| Eva playing with baby hoglets |
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| 200 free baby roosters |
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| The end is near! |
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| Thank goodness - a friend that helps out. |
Oh Yes, we built a zip line! And we have a paddle boat! We have had lots of visitors this summer and there was lots to see and do. Now the first signs of fall are showing and time to think about a fall garden.
As my son says - It is all good!!
