"If you have a problem... you must whip it!"

This year was the year of the sheep according to the Chinese Zodiac and for sure it was. However, it was also the year of the rabbit for us.

If you've been following my blog, you'll already know we have rabbits, are colony raising and have not raised colony or caged rabbits previously.  All our adventures have been trial and error since July 2014. In the first colony, Bunny Land-Stump Town, we had ZERO... you read that right, ZERO predator problems. Currently, we still have not lost a bun to predators in that pen even though its only protection is fencing. However, the buns were over grazing thier pen and needed another paddock or a bigger pen. We built another, larger colony in the mini orchard and used one bay of the woodshed as their "barn". 

Immediately, we had predator problems. Cat, raccoon, owl and weasel, you name it, they were picking off our kits daily. The first thing that went up was the hot wire around the fence. That stopped the 4 leg critters in thier tracks and we haven't had a problem with them since. 

Next was to put up fish netting to deter the owls. They were perching out back in the forested area of Bunny Garden and picking off little kits. The netting worked back there but that just forced the owls to hunt out front. We couldn't/wouldn't/didn't want to net the fruit tree area. 

I learned that flashing Christmas lights would deter birds of prey. The flashing lights interfere with their depth perception and they won't even try to hunt near them. I don't know if that's true or false but I was willing to give it a try. So far, its working. However, spring brings the owls in droves and I will need to expand my flashy lighting set up. I'm waiting for post holiday light sales in hopes to grab up a solar light set. My neighbors are going to think I've gone bonkers.

One added chore of having netting is it gets crapped up with debris. 

Occasionally in the fall I have to spend a few minutes cleaning off the netting. It gives me the opportunity for extra fence checking at the same time. This activity alerted me to some minor digging from the outside of the fence and indicates I may have to add hot wire to the base of the fence too. 

The shortage of greenery to snack on forces the buns to do a little yoga to get available leaves. Jessica Rabbit is picking off the few blackberry leaves within reach.

Eddie Rabbit snacks on some ferns.

Jessica and Eddie relax in natures netting, the skeletal remains of blackberry stalks. 

I confess there were times this year I wanted to give up. With each fix a new predator issue would arise and the loss of kits continued. The mass amount of time I put into Bunny Garden changed my attitude. I've spent too much time, energy and injury to throw in the towel. Besides, I always hear me friends voice echoing in my head, "Kathy, why would quit? Just fix the problem!"

Beautiful Chaos!

It's a bounty! Yup, a pumpkin in August!

Phases of a garden! Out with the garlic and first set of spinach and arugula... and whatever else.

This way and that way, it's all how you view it! Now you see flowers and cabbage and broccoli! (fine, if you're a garden nerd you saw it in the other photo)

Garden bits... strawberries, horseradish, onion gone to seed, rhubarb, squash, berries and if you're good... you can see asparagus. 

Grapes!

Squash as far as the eye can see...

... in both directions. Oh, and my willows!

HIPS!! My favorite rose for hips, it's not a beauty if you're looking for pizzazz but, it's a gem for rose hip tea!

Green house maters!!

Sunflowers.

Calendula.
It's all in how you look at it.

Thank you for stopping by... ya'll come back now ya hear!

Willie... We Thought She Was A Boy... and Dead... Once!

 Today we honor and remember Willie. Willie was with us four years and nine months. Today we laid her to rest and tell her story. 

This is Mr. Black (we're very creative with names), he is a French Black Copper Marans chicken. This particular breed is rare in the U.S. and their eggs are the darkest, chocolate brown. It is also said that their eggs are the favorite eggs of James Bond. Fancy, huh?! Well, My dear sweet cousin brought me Mr. Black and his mate Petals.

 This is Petals. Mr. Black and Petals are Willies parents. The arrangement was to foster these two and give my dear sweet cousin a batch of their off-spring. As we did. I confess that I didn't know what special bird we had when she brought them to us and we simply followed instructions. After having them in our flock we learned more about them and realized we wanted some more!

After collecting 14 eggs from Mr. Black and Petals, we incubated them for 21 days. Only 3 hatched and of those 3, only Willie lived. This is Willie. We named her after the volley ball from the movie Castaway. Not realizing he was a she.

Since Willie was an only child we let her live in the house. Why you ask? Well, you can't put a baby chick in with the other hens or they will peck it to death establishing dominance. 

Willie soon became our very dear pet.

Even the cat liked Willie.

I remember when we put Willie out to live with the flock, she was very confused and looked at us like we'd made a mistake... she lived in the house with US... not these pterodactyl looking things! She soon learned she was the favorite hen and out ranked Mrs. B. (another legend to be discussed later). 

Willie lived most of her life as the flock queen even when Mr. Black died and we replaced him with El Guapo and then Gustov.

She did, however, have a very adventurous brush with death at only a year old. One day Farm Boy was outside building on "yet another outbuilding" and noticed it was quiet. The chickens are NEVER quiet and if they are... something is amiss. He looked around and saw a hawk looming over Willie, who was legs up near the hen house. With a quiver full of tools on his belt he grabbed the tape measure and flung it across the yard at the hawk. Ya, he hit it and bonked it on its head. Hoping the hawk would right itself and fly away.... it didn't... it righted itself and hissed at Farm Boy, guarding it's meal.

Farm Boy didn't know what to do! He didn't want to harm the hawk, as we allow nature to live around us and honor that they exist in harmony with our farm animals. So, he approached the hawk and tried to scoot it away with his boot... really, he didn't kick it, he just wanted it to leave Willie alone. It was persistent and the only option to save Willie was to cancel the hawk.

Farm Boy gave the hawk time to leave by going to the shop and retrieving the hammer... don't ask. When he returned the hawk was still there. Fearing no there options... well, the hawk moved on to the other side with some assistance from the hammer.

[special note: killing birds of prey is illegal, unless your livestock is in danger]

Farm Boy yelled in distress at the house, there were some bad words but the message was, "Git out here!" I came out to find Farm Boy with a hawk in one hand and a hammer in the other... not knowing what had just taken place.

So... what would you think seeing your husband holding a hawk and a hammer? Seriously, I was thinking, "Damn, I really did marry a STUD!" Any man skilled enough to thwack a hawk out of the air with a hammer is like... SUPERMAN!

He told me the whole story and... well, he really is Super Man in a different way.

Both of us thought Willie was a goner, Farm Boy reached out for her and all of a sudden, in a burst of flurry, she righted herself and squawked off in a huff. WILLIE!!! She was alive and well and her faking dead worked.

Willie has a daughter raised by Ninja Chicken.... so Willamina is a bit nuts-a-burgers but, still a French Black Copper Marans.

R.I.P. Willie, you had a great life!

Bunny Land II and Stump World

I'm such a blogging slacker these days. That Facebook page is sucking up all my blogging mojo. However, some posts just need a blog setting to represent properly.

Bunny Land! Remember that place? It started last July, 2014 with a tape measure... and some other tools... eh he he! Not having any experience with bunny herding of any kind we dove in head first with colony style.

 Original Bunny Land was 1500 square feet and started with 2 bunnies. I knew it was an experiment and we just needed to start somewhere and adapt as needed. 

Bunny Land was amazing and our two bunnies were in bunny heaven. They had green forage to thier hearts content and amazing stumps to play in and around. 

Even fall brought new forage with the maples dropping thier leaves. 

 Then came winter and the bringing of fodder grown in the house. Still, there was no problem with that schedule, the days were short and there was much sleeping in and few rabbits to feed.

But, came the first of the burrows and very little to browse for the new comers. The hopes were to hold out for the warm nights and maybe the grass would keep up.

Hello babies! Wow there are so many of you and you grow so fast!

Hmm? The grass is trying to grow now that its spring and the nights are warmer but, there are sooooo many bunnies!

What's this, a 4th litter of bunnies and it's only May?

I think it's time to adapt! This poor paddock can keep 3 to 4 rabbits comfortable but more than that and it can't keep up.

Over crowding and not having enough browse for all to share inspires escapees!! Cause, well, the grass is greener on the other side. Once they figured it out it was all over. 

After much work bunny proofing the orchard, it was time to move the buns to a bigger paddock. Thus continues the experiment of how many bunnies can be sustained in what size paddock when trying to keep up with litters and processing.

The buns exploring thier new abundance of browse. So far the amount of feed I provide is reduced to 1/4 of what I was feeding before.

Fat happy bunnies resting in the cool soil.

The new paddock is 10,000 square feet. Stay tuned for the results of this adaptation to colony style buns.

P.S. of course Jessica Rabbit proceeded to dig a burrow under one of the fruit trees within the first 24 hours. Sigh.

Finding Eden

I had a dream awhile back that I'd found the manual for "life" (like 25 years ago when it would have been useful). It indeed was the instructions for this crazy thing called "life" and I was so excited... excited that I'd finally have written instructions on how to get it right! Wouldn't you know the darn thing was in a foreign language I couldn't read. DOH!

I may as well have been a goat trying to use a screw gun! Since I didn't succeed in actually finding the instruction manual, I've been working on life the way everyone else is... one day at a time. 

The day usually starts with coffee and these days a fire. I'm certain this ritual was in the instruction manual and if it wasn't it should be. 

I used to complain about how much work there was to do and how far from "done" we were. I'd fret that our Eden was so far away. A friend stopped by last year and patiently listened to my complaints about how it feels like we are never "there" and he simply replied, "I think you are there!" For some reason those words were exactly what I needed to hear. 

We are "there"! No, not everything is done, it won't ever be done, that's not what its all about. 

It's not about finding Eden, it's about being Eden. It's not a place so to speak but a journey. A journey of a place that thrives, a place that is beautiful, a place that is healthy and harmonious, a place that is sustainable, a sanctuary. 

Having a helper makes the journey so much more fun, even if the chore is still confusing. And sometimes we find ourselves re-doing things to be more efficient or functional or simply because it was a good idea but unnecessary (like giant ladybug watering system). That's ok!

I spend a lot of time consulting the world wide web and local peers for help and ideas... you know, just in case they've already invented the wheel. Turns out THEY HAVE! However, our idea of Eden looks slightly different through our eyes, so of course we adapt. One of the more important adaptations for us is allowing a day off.

Yesterday was my day off. Around here when you have a day off you get to do whatever you want. No fixing emergencies, no list of things to do, no time limit or any expectations what-so-ever. So, I started with as much coffee as I wanted and then decided I'd card some more of Stella's wool from last fall... with my helper of course!

Then I decided to make some herbal vitamins for the human farm animals. We make our own as its much cheaper, we can supply herbal vitamins for all the breathing critters (including us) for $40 a month. 

I decided to take a random walk through the woods with my friends. How can this not be Eden... cute goats, pretty woods, nice day...?

Since it was my day off there's no pressure and I had my wits about me and grabbed the basket and clippers to collect some nice treats for my other friends, the bunnies. 

Be careful when you are setting up for a photo shoot... Banjo will take advantage! 

These particular cuties love native growing plants waking up from winter. So far, colony life is a success and the buns are loving it. 

 
We're making some changes to Goat World, adding a new paddock, and my favorite thing to do is stare at the progress. Yes, you simply stand there and look at it... not doing a darn thing but day dreaming.

Staring at progress is very invigorating and inspiring. I love seeing change and growth and anticipating the next chapter of Eden.

At the end of the day, it's good to be there.