Posts Tagged ‘family farm’

As we shared yesterday we have recently expanded our farm!  Chickens and Rabbits, Oh, my!  Like I said we were going to wait on meat rabbits until we had a barn, but as I was searching Craigslist for chickens, I ran across a rabbit listing that was too good to pass up.  It included a New Zealand buck, New Zealand doe, 3 Flemish Does, and 17 of their babies (who were a week away from butchering).  Also, 3 hutches, all their feeders, and nesting boxes, heat lamps, and whatever feed they had left, and at a price we couldn’t refuse!

The people we bought these from had raised the bunnies and then couldn’t kill them.  Their loss was our gain. Here is our current line up…

“Buckey”

“Little Momma”

“Big Momma”  Who has since had us a litter.

“Big Momma 2″

This is a picture of the 8 weekers who currently reside in my freezer.

We sold 3 rabbits to a friend for meat breeding purposes. and butchered the rest.  The kids even helped skin them.  We saved the skins so we could learn how to tan hides, when it gets a little warmer, of course!  We are looking forward to many more litters, an many more yummy meals, and hopefully a great learning experience for the kids.

The fruits of our labour!

Our little farm has grown recently, an I’m not talking about our newest addition Stella.  I’m speaking of an addition of the furry and feathery sort!  We have always wanted chickens and eventually planned on adding meat rabbits and other animals once we got in a permanent location and got a barn built.  Well, the barn isn’t built yet, but we found a deal we couldn’t refuse on Craigslist.

Above: Speck and the girls in their first night home.  Below: is a picture of a few of the hens.

We researched chicken breeds and chose Silver Laced Wyandotte’s and luckily found a breeder pretty close.  We had to wait 2 weeks for pickup, due to weather. It seemed  like an eternity, but we had plenty to do!  We had our cool coop delivered and we built our fence, gathered all supplied and feed we needed, and then waited!  We highly recommend Dragonfly Farms!  We picked up our 7 ladies and we chose a very curious looking “Speck” for our rooster.  He is 1/2 Wyandotte and 1/2 Ameruchana.  He is a sweetheart!  We let the kids choose which was their favorite and he was it!  He actually lets them pet him and eat grain out of their hands.  I think they were excited at the prospect of green eggs as well.  You see, since Speck has the “blue egg” gene, any chicks he fathers will lay green colored eggs.  This spring we are planning on incubating some eggs and see what we come up with.  Next year, we might just invite you over for green eggs and ham! Ha Ha!

Here is “Specks” baby book…

He is the blue egg in the middle…

His awkward teen years…

More about rabbits…TOMORROW!

5:00 am – Woke up, Laid in bed and prayed, Got up made some toast and Grape jelly, Read my Bible.

6:00 am – Went out side, mowed acre yard, kids came out in pajamas and played till I was finished, came in cooked breakfast, got the littles dressed, Started a load of clothes.

7:45 am – Carried the littles to Nana’s, ran by Sonic, Dropped Grady off at Poppa’s tractor, Picked up Don and carried him to tractor, picked up the roller, Paused to take a few pictures, followed him to the field.

11:oo am – Got on the tractor and rolled 20 acres, moved it to the next field.

12:00 noon – Hopped in the truck with Don and Lee, dropped his truck off to be worked on, got gas, got Lunch at Jerry’s, went to shop to get the combine ready, met insurance adjuster, helped Don get ton-truck and Combine to the field.

2:00 pm – Picked up Poppa and Grady and carried them to get Poppa’s truck, Checked on Don, Mowed 5 acre houseplace and shop, locked up shop and rode combine with Don and Lee.

5:00 pm – Went by the house and picked up Bibles, went to Blytheville to get kids and print off Vacation Bible School Program.

6:20 pm – McDonalds Drive thru (Sometimes you just have too!) and to the field to pick up Lee, Grady and the Farmer then to church.

7:00 pm – Church

8:20 pm – Dropped the Farmer back off in the field and carried all the kids home to get cleaned up and pajamas on.

9:15 pm – Led Bible time, prayed with the kids, tucked them in bed.

9:45 pm – Daddy Home!  Showers and Bed…then begin again!

As I said in an earlier post, it has been pretty rainy here in the bootheel.  I was always taught, when life gives you lemons…you make lemonade!  Rolling rice is one of those things you do when its wet, the sloppier the better.  Grady went with daddy today and played in the mud.  When Grady got in, I asked him how he liked it.  Man of few words said “fun.”

One day, very soon, he will realise someone has to clean up all that mud!  Until then, his daddy will be the coolest!