A Hunting Wabbit We Will Go

Actually no hunting needed on our part, unless you call opening a rabbit hutch hunting.  This Sunday was the first time in all my many years I actually ate rabbit.  Yes, this former total city girl ate the rabbit she has watched and helped raise.  And it WAS delicious! 

Served up fried and baked.  The fried was a bit on the tough side, but tasty.  My favorite was the baked.  Baked for about 3 hours it was fall off the bone good.

I did not participate in the processing of the rabbits, and I likely should have except the Moose and I were busy with other projects;

Moving pigs around, and building dividing walls to keep them in other areas so we can actually use our garden space for gardening.  No pictures yet, just too busy.

We're starting to get ripened blue berries from our 25+ plants.  Not a lot yet, but the bushes are covered in berries.  There's also a few small mulberries in this bowl.  There is nothing like fresh from the garden berries.

Supervisor and Repurposed Pallets as a Hog Enclosure

 

Well, here's one of our supervisors.  This is the first time since we got them that she was actually showing herself in daytime.  I think her hunger over took her fear of being seen.  Of course I obliged and gave her a can of cat food.  They love the wet, and will only tolerate the dry if they are that hungry.  But since she showed up when I was around, she got wet food.  Ate the whole thing herself.

We brought in three feral cats to The Compound to help us with the rat population.  We have no way of knowing if they are actually doing their job.  We have such a huge problem with rats and it's a constant battle.  Neighbors say the same thing, so it's not just me.  We've cut back on the amount of feeders, removed some hiding places, but they still seem to find a way to be bothersome.  By how hunger this little girl was, I'm not sure she's got hunting rats figured out yet.  Oh, and another feral male cat has joined the squadron.  Thank goodness our three girls are fixed, so no worries on that end.  They've all filled out and look healthier since their arrival.

 

 

Here's another pallet repurpose project.  We've made another hog pen, using the pallets that are 14' long.  Free is good!  It covers two sides, along with the container as a wall on one side, and metal fencing along the back.  We used metal fencing on the back as it's the low lying area and will get water during the summer rain.  It's also where their wallow is. It's roughly 30' x 42'.  It's holding 5 hogs.

 

 

To say the females that now have access to this area are happy, is an understatement.  They just love it!  I don't know how they tolerate all the blackberry vines, but they do.  They run right through them, and have burrowed themselves some sleeping quarters right in the middle.  There are a few trees in this area to help provide shade during the summer heat.  The guys set them up with an automatic waterer, and we'll be building them a feeder in the next week or so.

 

I didn't take any pictures of my blueberry bushes, but we're going to have a great harvest as long as the birds don't invade and eat them all!  I'm hoping they'll ripen in time for Easter so we can make a cobbler or pie with them for the entire Compound Crew.

 

Summer heat has arrived here in central FL.  We were in the 90's this weekend and it felt like it.  It's going to take some time to build up to tolerating the heat, especially since we just got used to the cooler temperatures.

 

 

 



Yes, We are Still Around

It's been some time again since my last post.  We are still here, and still too busy to think straight.  This past weekend was one of the first in the last few we actually spent working at The Compound.

I cleaned up after the chickens, turkeys and rabbits.  We have a broody Turkey hen, sitting on around 12-15 eggs from what I could see.  Hopefully they are fertilized, because I've never seen a Tom cover a hen.  They show off enough, but I'm not sure they've made their move yet.  Only time will tell.

We set up a water system for the rabbits.  I hope to show what we did in another post, when I actually have taken the appropriate pictures. 

We set up a 250 gallon water tank near the 25 blueberry plants and planter boxes to make watering easier than hauling 5 gallon buckets across the property.

We also set up a new hog enclosure.  It's almost finished, just a few minor things still need to be done;  auto water/nipple, and a feeder.  We have two sows that will be delivering late April/early May.  They're our two favorite females and we hope they deliver healthy piglets with good temperaments like their momma's.

That's the short version of what we did this weekend.  Next weekend, we're off to help R&B fix up a rental property.