Catching up

Not sure when I was last here. Been a while. We had a house fire Spring 2016. Lost about everything. We had to sell all of the livestock. Save for Bob's pet rabbit Buddy and the escape artist rabbit Michael and my daughter's pet duck, Mae. It took us a bit to find a new place and relocate. We ended up relocating 700 + miles south of where we were living. From NorthEast Wisconsin to North Central Kentucky.
It has taken us a bit of time to get this place to farmable. This place had been left to go wild for at least 10 years. Everything is overgrown and wild. We have slowly been buying new livestock.
We currently have 4 sheep, the males will be eaten, the females will be bred once we get an unrelated male. The two goats we have are mother and son. The son is up for sale or he may just go to auction. We have a pair of American Guniea Hogs and a trio of Mangalitsa Hogs. Our chickens at are 5 California White pullets, 5 Black Sex link pullets, 6 Buff Orpingtons, 6 Cuckoo Marans. I have 25 Docking chicks scheduled to arrive in June.
Our Rabbits are 2 Blue Beveren does, 1 Mini Satin Buck, 1 New Zealand Red Buck, 1 Broken Black New Zealand Buck, 2 meat mutt does and a pair of mini rex.
Will be a while before we have all the livestock we need to get things back to profitable.

Sorry about your lost, it must have been horrible. Things are looking up though so I wish you the best!

It's nice to see you back, Fernie, but I'm so sorry to hear that you and Bob have had such devastating losses. Wishing you both all the best in your new home. I'm sure you'll soon get it licked into shape and productive.

I was smiling when I saw who started this thread, then...

So sorry for what happened, but glad to hear things are turning around. Best of thoughts to you and Bob.

It is a ton of work to get done. We lost everything. They found asbestos in the house after the fire and refused to allow us to try to recover anything that was in the house. Stuff that was in parts of the house the fire never touched they tossed. All three of my incubators, the brooder Bob built me, a bunch of critter supplies that were not covered by the insurance policy. All my cast iron cookware was tossed out. I am still not happy about that waste of good cast iron. It could have been saved.
Here we are starting over. We have to build more rabbit hutches. I need at least 2 trio buck hutches, 4 double hutches for the does and I few grow out hutches. We have the rabbits in cheap TSC cages while we are rebuilding what we lost. For the other critters we need to build a few things as well. Three new farrowing huts, 3 run ins for the goats and sheep, a run in for Bob's Donkey.
We spent today banding the sheep (no inbreeding gonna happen here). Castrated the piglets. The Mangalitsa pigs all got ear tagged. The AGH sow got an ear tag. Tomorrow we have to get the garden planted. Potatoes, Tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, watermelon, cucumbers, radishes, etc.... We have managed to get 4 apple trees, 2 blueberries, grapes and blackberries planted already this Spring.

I just missed you all and was hoping to be further along we the recovery. <br /><br /> __________ May 13th, 2017, 2:49 pm __________ <br /><br />

Marinea":1zqpuvyc said:

I was smiling when I saw who started this thread, then...

So sorry for what happened, but glad to hear things are turning around. Best of thoughts to you and Bob.

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We are a ton closer to you know. We relocated to Kentucky. So there is that plus.

A plus indeed!

I would be happy to send some seeds to you for next year. Our weather is probably similar now.

And we have some NZ kits and some chicks I would be happy to give you to get you further along. Please PM me if interested. I went through the same thing many years ago, and I know the hole it leaves. *hugs*

Marinea":1kclzm9m said:

A plus indeed!

I would be happy to send some seeds to you for next year. Our weather is probably similar now.

And we have some NZ kits and some chicks I would be happy to give you to get you further along. Please PM me if interested. I went through the same thing many years ago, and I know the hole it leaves. *hugs*

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Thank you. I will let Bob know. He should be around here someplace. He is never very far from me most days now.

We are getting things as we can. We still have Buddy the mini satin and Michael the Black NZ buck with the one white paw. We have a doe for each of them. I have chickens on order plus the ones we got for a dollar from Rural King.

It is stupid stuff that makes me mad. I spent an hour looking for a pan that I wanted to use to make dinner. Just to remember that it was tossed after the fire.

Blessings to you and your family!!!
I can't imagine a more Frightening and frustrating experience to go through!!!

Glad that your family made it out, so you could have the opportunity to rebuild.
Prayers for you and your family.
Patricia

SarniaTricia":e0hxrubm said:

Blessings to you and your family!!!
I can't imagine a more Frightening and frustrating experience to go through!!!

Glad that your family made it out, so you could have the opportunity to rebuild.
Prayers for you and your family.
Patricia

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We are glad also. We lucked out and were out picking up the dogs from boarding when the fire broke out.