Well, it’s been a very productive spring so far around our
little homestead. Let’s take a walk
around and check out the latest pet projects.
Isabel really wanted to do a 4-H project with bunnies
this year so we visited our local bunny farm and tried to pick out a suitable
candidate. Unfortunately the bunny lady
seemed to think she could unload more than one bunny on us since we looked so
gullible. She was right. We brought home these two
One is an Angora and the other is a New Zealand Rex. They are both adorable and like the bunny
lady said, “at least they can keep each other company.”
Isabel always thought it would be really neat to keep
rabbits in her room (though her parents were hesitant due to smells) and due to
the fact that the thermometer outside was hovering near zero we relented and
let her keep them inside. No one ever
mentioned to her, or us that rabbits are nocturnal… and apparently they really
like to party in the middle of the night because for several weeks Isabel got
little to no uninterrupted sleep. Now
she doesn’t think it’s so neat to have “inside” bunnies so shortly after the
weather warmed she and I constructed this outside hutch which they really seem
to enjoy.
Keeping the Noah strategy in mind as we did for the bunnies
(always get at least two of everything) and since we are leaving Sadie, our
border collie, at home during work hours we decided we needed to find her a
friend as well. As you may know, Border
Collies are working dogs and if they are not working for you, they will find
their own work to do – most of which is not agreeable to the owners. Sadie’s latest project when we’re gone is to
drag our laundry through the dog door and arrange it strategically around the
yard (and we have a BIG yard). Now, we
do still have Lassie, the Shetland Sheep Dog, but she just celebrated her 15th
birthday and has lost some of her eyesight and most of her hearing so her main
activity after getting up for the day is to lay in the middle of the floor and
sleep.
We thought that we had found a great companion for Sadie one
day as Lisa brought home a Border Collie from the vet clinic that someone had
dropped off as a stray. They had
unsuccessfully attempted to find the owner so she had no choice to bring it
home since they had no boarding facilities at the clinic (it’s a large animal
operation). The very next day a very
concerned rancher came in after hearing through the grapevine that they might
have his dog. Indeed it was his dog and
we were glad to reunite the two of them.
A few days later Lisa’s Andrew called saying he had a friend
who had a Border Collie and that his wife was “allergic” so they needed to get
rid of it and were we still looking?
Indeed we were and now we have “Pepper”
We think she’s part Border Collie, part German Sheppard, but
we’re not sure. She started life as a
rescue dog so we don’t have much history.
She’s a good one though and we’ll keep her. The cats still aren’t sure though and they’d
rather us take her back to wherever she came from. We recently taught her how to play fetch with
a ball and Frisbee. It took a while, but
after watching Sadie she finally caught on.
Now she has her ball with her everywhere she goes and she’s constantly
dropping it at your feet and throwing it into your lap! Be forewarned!
On the chicken front, since we relocated our last batch of
chickens before hitting the road last spring, we sat down this winter and
really researched the numbers and types of chickens we’d like to raise from
this year onward and shortly after placed our order for a batch of eight sexed
pullets (we pick them up April 16th). In the past we had stuck to single breeds but
found that mixing things up a bit might not be a bad idea since each differing
breed will have differing dispostions, habits and behaviors. In the past, when our Buffs went into molt,
they all went together and our egg supply dried up! By mixing breeds we’re hoping that maybe
they’ll go in shifts, according to their own internal breed schedule (?) We’ll
see. Makes sense to us, so we’ll try
it. I also like different color eggs, so
we picked partially based on egg color and production levels. And of course we ordered a couple of
Auracanas to really spread the egg color spectrum (Auracanas lay eggs of
varying colors from brown to blue to green, and all colors in between). We also decided to throw in a couple of Ruen
ducks this year for absolutely no reason at all! (Isabel’s idea). They should
be fun to watch…
So you may be wondering why our chicken hutch is occupied
with a flock of seven hens and two roosters?
Because, as Karma would have it, shortly after we placed our order for a
new batch, our neighbor called and begged us to “adopt” her flock that she and
her husband were now “too old” to care for.
We couldn’t tell her no… and I’m
working on plans to expand the hen house to accommodate what will soon be our
flock of two roosters, two ducks and 15 hens!
Oh, and one more thing. This is for the soon to arrive wiener pig.
It’s a “pallet sty” made from one of the few benefits Family
Dollar offered Diana during her brief stay – all the pallets you want to
take! The difference here is that,
unlike our other animals, this one will come as a single and transition after a
few short months into our freezer for good keeping!
With that, I think the farm is just about full! Now we’re off to the feed store – again.
