Hi all! What have you been doing lately?

Mckatie · Jun 3, 2024

I'm busy working,working on my property, and working my booth at the farmer's market. Selling my jewelry, plants,art and rabbits. Studying, The lost book of herbs plus others, Spanish, gardening, working on genotype ,weekly art, designing quilts and playing with my bunnies to keep the kits friendly.

I have 3 litters all born May 4th. 2 new zealand litters, the other rex. Finally caught up with all of the paperwork.

I enrolled in 3 challenges. The hikers 365 (365 miles) K9 adventure challenge (65 miles) and blazin summer challenge (75 miles I believe). I chose to hike with my newest rescue, Poppy.

Scooter1A · Jun 3, 2024

freelady96 said:
I've got to fence in as well. Chickens fly over their fence even with a clipped wing and scratch up the veggies. Deer are adamant on defoliating our young fruit trees.
I'm going to try straw bale garden next year as my clay soil is so hard to amend and I dont have to bend so much.

I've done straw bale gardens and it was OK for some things but I went back to dirt. For your clay start piling on the manure compost thick this summer and by next spring you will have nice soil.

RABBITGIRLFORTHEWIN · Jun 3, 2024

My family is going camping on Friday. There are supposed to be hot springs! I auditioned to get into a youth orchestra(this would be my second year) and got into their academy orchestra (It goes Debut, Academy, and Conservatory)! This is what I was working for all year! Oh, I've been playing the violin for 5 ish years. I hope my garden is going to do well but, it's June and raining/poring (I guess that's what I get for living in Washington the rainest state in the USA!)

My rabbitry is doing well! I need to make room for more rabbits though (So if you're interested lol).
I guess lives doing well.

RabbitsOfTheCreek · Jun 3, 2024

Currently trying to sell a few animals to make space for another group of Litters
My strawberry plants have been making a lot but they're probably done soon (and I've seen a few bugs on them the past few days

)
Planted a bunch of flowers and other strawberry starters to try and grow
Might get a job later this month

freelady96 · Jun 4, 2024

Scooter1A said:
I've done straw bale gardens and it was OK for some things but I went back to dirt. For your clay start piling on the manure compost thick this summer and by next spring you will have nice soil.

I love soil too, but my lower back isnt great. I've got 3 hot compost piles going now, and cant seem to make enough. I make the chickens turn them, so I dont have to but rake them up in a heap again.
I'm also reading the Lost book of herbs and learning more about rabbits, other than a meat source. Had two small litters born may 2, and may 5th.

TomO · Jun 4, 2024

hotzcatz said:
Lovely crochet blanket, Nibbles! Love the colors and that it isn't 'granny square'.

Sorry to hear about your husband, MaggieJ. Losing a family member is hard. Hope your book goes well and that it is some sort of solace at this tough time.

Started the actual construction of the new house finally, although it's been in design and permitting for years already. Got a bit of code done for the website, but still need to update it further: Hillside Farm New Construction That's up to a week or two ago, almost ready for another concrete pour.

Nice construction page! Great images with well-written content. I especially enjoyed the detailed descriptions of the snap tie brackets.

TomO · Jun 4, 2024

Mckatie said:
I'm busy working,working on my property, and working my booth at the farmer's market. Selling my jewelry, plants,art and rabbits. Studying, The lost book of herbs plus others, Spanish, gardening, working on genotype ,weekly art, designing quilts and playing with my bunnies to keep the kits friendly.

I have 3 litters all born May 4th. 2 new zealand litters, the other rex. Finally caught up with all of the paperwork.

I enrolled in 3 challenges. The hikers 365 (365 miles) K9 adventure challenge (65 miles) and blazin summer challenge (75 miles I believe). I chose to hike with my newest rescue, Poppy.

Had to look that up. Sounds like a great time and adventure for both you and the puppy. I will see if I can fit that challenge into my summer. Thanks for the heads up!

eco2pia · Jun 4, 2024

I have been down sick for about 2 weeks. Just got a promotion, so extra busy at work. garden is about 50% in, bunnies to harvest, and more coming, plus this morning I saw my first ducklings! my attempt at straw bale gardening is a total fail though.

Mckatie · Jun 5, 2024

Drove to Kila MT, about 4-4.5 hours away yesterday. Dropped off 6 rabbits, made new friends, and Poppy and I got a couple hikes in for the challenge. Hiked again today . Tomorrow is mostly chores, working on my garden, driving to the next town over to pick up rabbit feed,hitting up their library, and doing more yard work. We are having a celebration dinner here tomorrow night, Mexican food and a birthday cake for a family member. Then I go back to work. Only 1 more possible litter this month and no others bred. I need to buy more wood and rebuild my rabbit yard fence.

Mckatie · Jun 5, 2024

eco2pia said:
I have been down sick for about 2 weeks. Just got a promotion, so extra busy at work. garden is about 50% in, bunnies to harvest, and more coming, plus this morning I saw my first ducklings! my attempt at straw bale gardening is a total fail though.
View attachment 41917

Hopefully you are feeling better! Congratulations on your promotion!!! Well done. Very cute ducklings! My garden is a bit off this year as well. I went back to dirt myself. A leson learned is never a fail.

Bekah-n-Tennessee · Jun 6, 2024

I'm so tired I can't see straight. Yesterday I worked my job all day, rabbit chores, cleaned out Momma's nest box (kits are 10 days today), made two weeks worth of raw dog food plus prepped organs for the next six weeks of food in freezer (I need a good grinder

), then built a stacked set of the Bass 30x36 cages (first time assembling cages and my hands are screaming), got three rabbits transferred over then nighttime chores. Went to bed after midnight and skipped dinner.

The rabbitry is almost done, better half has been working hard every day wiring, insulating, paneling, linoleum floor, light and fan fixtures installed and I've been helping in the evenings after I finish work/dinner. We have just a few more insulation pieces to go on ceiling, install the AC unit being delivered Monday and two more cage towers to build and then I think we're done with that. Oh frick, just remembered I have to rehab a used two story outside hutch I bought a while back...currently three hole on top, grow out cage on bottom. The structure itself is solid but I need to rip out all the wire and build new cages and I'm redoing as both large cages for grow outs, no individual holes but may divide each large one into two to separate sexes.

Then to the chicken coop part and run...I'm praying it won't be as labor intensive because I'm beat.

TKT · Jun 7, 2024

WHOA! That is an absolute ton of work! It sounds like it will provide an excellent payoff for many years to come!

eco2pia · Jun 7, 2024

Mckatie said:
Hopefully you are feeling better! Congratulations on your promotion!!! Well done. Very cute ducklings! My garden is a bit off this year as well. I went back to dirt myself. A leson learned is never a fail.

Yeah I did not have high hopes, but figured I would give it a shot as it was better than the nothing which I would have had time to do otherwise. I will use the bales as mulch, which I am still at the point of constantly needing! The soil in the perennial planted front garden is finally looking like soil instead of rocky substrate, lol. Two years' of wood chips and a years' worth of combined chicken and rabbit manure have paid off there. Another year and I will have eden in the backyard too!

Mckatie · Jun 7, 2024

eco2pia said:
Yeah I did not have high hopes, but figured I would give it a shot as it was better than the nothing which I would have had time to do otherwise. I will use the bales as mulch, which I am still at the point of constantly needing! The soil in the perennial planted front garden is finally looking like soil instead of rocky substrate, lol. Two years' of wood chips and a years' worth of combined chicken and rabbit manure have paid off there. Another year and I will have eden in the backyard too!

Sounds like a beautiful garden in the future . Every year I add more gardens. This year I feel I'm way behind. We had a lot of wonky weather. 2 weeks ago it was so cold and dumped a few feet of snow on us. Now reaching for the 70's.

5dognightfarm · Nov 16, 2024

I'm prepping for winter - my goal is to be attached to screens as little as possible. Stocking up on some good books, have started on crocheting a blanket project...husband has Huntington's Disease and he's been in decline so also prepping for a long winter with him. I feel like a squirrel putting things up for the cold ahead!

Scooter1A · Nov 16, 2024

I bought a fake tree for Christmas this year and looking forward to celebrating the holiday. No babies and only 2 rabbits I got it easy! Dropped 4 oak trees this summer so plenty of wood, lots of canned rabbit to eat. One hen stopped laying and 2 should start laying in December. Enjoy the season friends. The future is going to be AMAZING!

Mckatie · Nov 16, 2024

Scooter1A said:
I bought a fake tree for Christmas this year and looking forward to celebrating the holiday. No babies and only 2 rabbits I got it easy! Dropped 4 oak trees this summer so plenty of wood, lots of canned rabbit to eat. One hen stopped laying and 2 should start laying in December. Enjoy the season friends. The future is going

The future is going to be amazing!

I'm looking forward to downsizing myself. Maybe to 15 . Or perhaps just a bit more streamlined. This past year has been a big learning experience. Not too bad fortunately.. canned rabbit... maybe I will check into that in the Spring. I was thinking of just freezing all the meat.

Enjoy your holiday season!

maisaksson · Nov 17, 2024

I've been cooking up the rabbits in the freezer to make way for Fall culls. Trying out recipes for dinner and freeze drying the leftovers. Love that freeze dryer!

hotzcatz · Nov 18, 2024

TomO said:
Nice construction page! Great images with well-written content. I especially enjoyed the detailed descriptions of the snap tie brackets.

I thought those snap ties were interesting, but our framer who had previously wanted to buy the concrete forms for his next job has decided that he doesn't want to do another poured concrete foundation. At least, not one with the same snap tie set up. I'll rattle his cage tomorrow and see if there's any specific reason why he doesn't like them since he was the one who chose them in the first place. But, I suppose it doesn't matter, the foundation here is done and the concrete forms were sold to someone else the same day they were listed on FB marketplace/Craig's List. It's an island, folks snap stuff up when it becomes available or have to figure out how to get it from the mainland.

I did just get the first two weeks of November's construction up online now: https://hillsidefarmhawaii.com/pages/construction/nov1.html

The webpage got restructured so the previous links that were mentioned may not work anymore. I get too happy with too many pictures so I had to add in more pages. I'd thought I'd do it by basic construction stages like "foundation" or "framing" but now it's every two weeks so now there's multiple pages for each stage. We work really slow around here and have been at the framing stage for months. Not that we worry about snow, but rainy season is gonna start soon!

hotzcatz · Nov 18, 2024

maisaksson said:
I've been cooking up the rabbits in the freezer to make way for Fall culls. Trying out recipes for dinner and freeze drying the leftovers. Love that freeze dryer!

Yup, it's a great time to get the rabbits out of the freezer! Had the best rabbit stew today although we don't have any way to do any freeze drying. Is that a thing that people can do in their kitchens now?

Hi all! What have you been doing lately?

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