Showing posts with label rabbits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rabbits. Show all posts

Monday, May 25, 2020

Is This My Once a Year Update?

Howdy!

I actually found myself googling, "Do people still read blogs?" before I sat down to write this. And whether they do still read blogs or not, I found myself compelled to add another post... even if only for my own "story keeping." 

Yes, we are still YouTubing as well, but here's a quick update as to all things TwelveAcres.

With the CRAZY stuff going on in the world today, I'm withdrawing deeper and deeper into our little farm. We are making growing our own food a bigger priority this year than ever before. The fragile food system that is crumbling before our very eyes, has jolted a lot of people out of their slumber. 
The fresh meat sections at our local supermarket. 



Because of that, we've upped our game. 





The garden is a little bigger this year, our incubators are constantly running, the rabbits are perpetually kindling... you get the idea. 
 Our "pig venture" is still proceeding. Darla, our York/Blue Butt cross is pregnant and should be due in July. Frank, the Hereford boar, is still as sweet as ever, and even teaching Darla how to love being scratched. They are growing ever bigger and we hope to be able to expand their pens yet again this year. And I'm learning all I can about hog pregnancies and birth!

Handy Husband has seen some employment difficulties this year, so another new venture of ours is making home décor and furnishings from reclaimed wood and pallets. We've opened up an Etsy shop for the smaller items; if you get a minute, we'd love to have you take a look at what we offer. 
One of our handcrafted "noodle boards," aka stovetop covers.  
Some new critters on the farm this year, are (FINALLY) turkeys! We've been talking about getting turkeys for years now, and we finally bit the bullet! We have 12, 4 day old poults: six Narragansett, and six Bourbon Red. We plan on raising a few of these for the freezer, and the rest will be kept as breeders to hopefully keep us in turkey for years to come. 


 I can't think of anything else new. We are still recovering from the housefire, believe it or not. The siding is about 90% done, and we have still have to paint. We also have two massive piles of debris to remove from the property, but without a truck it's not that easy. One day at a time! We'll get there eventually.

Thanks for stopping by the blog. I may update more frequently as the mood hits. Take care everyone and I'll see you back here next time! 

Sunday, September 3, 2017

A Quick, Summertime Update

Fall is just around the corner.
We're now in our second (or is it the third?) week of school.

Our garden is, once again, a failure this year. Without the proper setup for watering, and a gate to easily get into the garden, and having the older boys leave for so many weeks in the middle of the season.... it just doesn't stand a chance of survival against the elements (weeds, draught, goat attacks). 

Here's a quick update in pictures of some of our activities the last month or two....

My first attempt at rabbit jerky turned out very good!

We "watched" the solar eclipse last month. 

Camping and swimming every other weekend is our new summer tradition. 



This young'un learned how to write his name in "school"!

Priscilla had our first babies of the year. There were eleven, but I think either the heat made it too hard on her, or maybe she just couldn't feed that many... eight babies have survived and are thriving. 

School is NOT the kids' favorite part of the day. 


This little guy is growing up way too fast! He'll turn three in just a few weeks!

Fun Fact: Amish-made apple pie is so much better than any store-bought, and even better than my own homemade pie. I'm so excited to have an Amish store moving in just down the road from us!




Monday, August 14, 2017

New Butchering Station **WARNING: GRAPHIC**

 Handy Husband put his skills to use once again and made this nifty butchering stand. It'll make processing rabbits so much easier! We tried it out last weekend, along with processing a few quail. 






Wednesday, June 14, 2017

A Glimpse of Our Rabbit Colony

Check out this super short video showing you what life
is like in our rabbit colony.

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Bunny Farming

After selling most of the bunnies from our spring kindlings, we finally started building our new rabbit hutches.

We chose a nice, shady location on the west side of our chicken barn.

Having an idea in our heads, we got started, just building as we went with no clear plans.


We had lots of little helpers!

This was a perfect spot for the rabbits.
Protected from the scorching sun and crazy winds we have out here.

Some of our helpers liked to visit the nearby horses instead of working.

Installing the floor wire.

It's coming along great!

Our quality control team made sure it was kid-safe!

And here it is mostly complete, with some inhabitants. They seem to really like it, though I'm sure they miss all the space they had in the greenhouse. It was just far too hot for them in there.






Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Farm Update

Day to day life has definitely got me busy and just a bit too occupied for blogging. So here's a quick rundown of all the things we've got going on right now....

Above and below: Built new rabbit hutches. Love them!


Below: Ducklings are getting big! 

First cucumber!

Baby I loves the sweet and gentle Barred Rocks.

Refrigerator pickles! Yummm.

First time processing and eating our quail. It was very easy and pretty tasty too!

Love our homegrown v-6.

Lots of predator problems lately! We have to reset our traps constantly!

Cleared out the "spa room" all the way down to the bones.

Getting back into my old hobby of making miniature leather saddles.

More baby quail!

First haircut for this little one.

Mealworms are doing fantastic!

First eggs from the black copper marans are so dark and pretty!

Baby bunnies!

Pallet furniture. Love this table for the family room.