Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Oct. menu

Mon. - Well Breakfast was a fail. My son had to make his own.   Cereal
            Lunch - I honestly don't remember what I made for lunch
            Dinner - roasted chicken, asparaus, homemade mac'n'cheese
Tues. - Breakfast - Berry Crumb cake
            Lunch - a frozen pizza (I'm working on a recipe)
            Dinner - ham and bean soup, corn bread, fried green tomato's
Wend. - Breakfast - cheesy rice
             Lunch - PB and J
             Dinner - chicken/bacon/ranch flat bread pizzas
Thur. - Breakfast - Bagels with cream cheese
            Lunch - Leftovers
            Dinner - Breakfast casserole

Fri. - Breakfast - Cinnamon/Sugar toast
         Lunch -Spaghetti with meat balls
         Dinner - Chicken soup in bread bowls

I've already bought most of the things I'll need for this week. Soccer is pretty much over for the season, so, hopefully this week will be pretty easy. Maybe I can get caught up on my crafting. . . . .

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Farm Update

Sorry I have not posted in a while. My sweetie is in and I never seem to get things done when he's here.

Anyway I thought I would give a quick update.

Lucy and Ethel, our Red Angus cows, went to meet their destiny yesterday. On a side note: cattle prods don't work as well as you think they should. We had to walk them slowly into the trailer without using the cattle prod. We now have 2 Black Angus calves to raise, BamBam and Pebbles.

The bunnies were re-bred on Sat. Oct. 9th. I will be putting them back in with the bucks on Sat. the 16th. If the buck tries again the doe is probably not pregnant, if he doesn't want anything to do with her then she's probably pregnant. This is not even 95% accurate, but its the best I've got without involving a vet.

The chickens are finally starting to lay eggs. We think we have 21 hens and 2-3 roosters. We're getting 15 eggs per day, consistently.

The kittens are losing weight. We've lost one. I'm hoping to get them to the vet next week. In the meantime I gave them a dose of garlic. They didn't like it but it worked when the turkeys were sick so it can't hurt. I'd also like to de-worm them. And as far as the momma cats go, we're going to start getting them fixed in pairs. That way there wont be too many cats in the house at once.

Oh, and the 2 ewe's we will be breeding this fall have been moved in with the ram. The weathers has been moved in with the remaining permanent ewe and the 2 meat sheep. Moving them was way too exciting. I'm not sure I could have done it by myself. The weathers threw himself to the ground and wouldn't budge. I literally had to pick him up while the other person pulled. We'd make it a few steps then he would throw himself down again. Trouble kicked and jumped the whole way. We had to tug Lizzy a little but she didn't cause too much of a fuss. Of course we moved her last, she's a year or so older then the other's and she's been through this once before.

Halloween; I have some really cool decor that I've done myself. I will be posting pics and hopefully a tutorial soon.

Homeschool; since I chickened out on actually Homeschooling, I thought we could do a little something every day. HA!! That hasn't worked out so far. This week is letter M and the country is still Tunisia as we have not finished our lapbook. But there is still time this week and the kids have Friday off from public school so we'll just have to see what we can do.

Well thats all for the moment. Now to go and feed those hungry critters before they mutiny!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Bunny (re)breeding - The plan

Well my first breeding was an Epic Fail.They're rabbits you would think they would breed like, well rabbits, but no!! Out of 4 does, not 1 gave birth. I bred them on the 21st of Aug. They should have kindled (given birth) on Sept. 21st or Sept. 22. According to 'Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits' and I quote: "Rarely will the litter arrive after the 31st day, but don't give up hope until after the 34th. After that, mate her again." Its been 46 days, its time to give up the ghost. 'Sigh'


By the way I highly recommend this book. I've read it several times and still use it as a reference.


Ok so here's the plan. It's the same as the old one, we're just going to try it again. I have 7 rabbits at the moment.

2 English Angora does
2 Flemish Giants does
2 Giant Angora bucks
1 Standard Rex doe

Anybody else see the problem? I can not breed a larger buck with a smaller doe. The kits could be too big for the doe and potentially cause problems during delivery. Anyway I have a friend (who's name will not be mentioned) And she's been nice enough to offer stud services, the idea being to split the kits. She has:

2 Rex bucks
2 English Angora bucks

Ok, that takes care of 2 out of 3 smaller does. The 3rd will not be bred until she's a year old.

That leaves 2 Flemish Giants and 2 Giant Angoras. I have a smaller and larger one of each. My plan is to breed the smaller Giant Angora to the larger Flemish Giant, hopefully to increase the size of the kits. The larger Giant Angora will be bred to the smaller Flemish Giant. Their actually about the same size. If anything she might be a little bigger then he is, so the delivery should not have any problems due to size.

Kits (babies) - Somebody asked me today what I'm planning on doing with them. Well, 2 litters will be divided between me and my friend. I will look over the one's that I get. I may keep 1 or 2 English Angora, I will probably sell whats left. The Rex will probably be sold as pets. They will be pure blooded but will not have papers. I'm not sure if they can be used for 4H or not. The Giant Angora / Flemish Giant cross' will be interesting. Some should have long hair, some will have short hair. The short hairs will probably be butchered and put into the freezer. The long hairs (depending on how many there are) some may be sold as fiber animals, some I hope to keep for future breeding. The longer term general plan of the rabbits at least paying for themselves and perhaps making a little money between selling kits and wool.




As always if you have any questions or comments feel free to post. They will be appreciated!    >^.^<