just delivered another little rex into the arms of her 4H'er momma, and picked up something wholey naughty while there...meat stomboli for the win, omg its to die for...its NOT low carb...but it is gluten free (this place offers gluten free dough for an extra 50cents) and its DELICIOUS!!!
nomming late lunch then gonna go do more work up in the rabbitry...those 2 carports are up...I moved 1 bank of cages yesterday got the rex bank and the boy bank to move too
definatly going to make my life a lot easier...
im also going to put in 2 ground pens for growouts (4x4) essentially mini colonies for the kits, im hoping thatll take some pressure off when it comes to figuring out which babies go where lol.
after the goats go to bed I also need to put at least a couple posts in tonight...figure if I do a few tonight, a few in the morning before I let them out ect...ill have them all in by the end of the weekend and it wont be quite as much of a struggle its just overwhelming when you think of what nees ding all at once so I think if I can break it up into more doable pieces...
should be working on the rabbtiry...or the goat fence...or something....im super bored...
but its RAINING...ALOT...cant complain we haven't had good rain in a while and ill make sinking those fence posts much easier...
but...
what do I do to fill in the afternoon?
mabe ill make an "i want" list off ikea hackers lol
well spent a few hours today working on the rabbtiry and I think im there in terms of what ive currently got going on.
I dismantled moved and comepltly rebuilt the rex bank, which actually worked out better than expected *YAY*
and moved the 3 meaty does to their new spot too so yay there! so im now pretty much arranged how I want it...
next job is tarps, going to be securing tarps along the back front and sides...
and I need to build a couple of growout pens in the back of the right side...
dad also wants to run a line of gutter in the few inches between the 2 carports and pipe down to a rain barrel on one end.
theres about 3ft gap between the end of the canopy and the fenceline so im thinking of building that up and in the spring sprinkling it with sunflower seeds, as they grow they will provide shade during the summer and I can harvest the seeds, theres going to be blueberry bushes planted on the outside of the fence for additional screening too...
today I worked on dismantling and building the rex doe bank of cages which is what you see behind the green tarp closest to the front of the image...I also managed to get the meat doe cages moved into their new spot so other than a whole lot of tidying up to do up there and finishing touches...im very pleased! yay craigslist.
yeah they block a lot of wind and theres a mass of very dense tangled wild rose along the back (to the left) that block much of the back...itll still get tarped but its enough to even add some thermal mass in the winter.
im also going to toss a lot of straw under the cages as soon as I can find some bales, let the poop and stuff build up over the winter to see if that helps add some thermal mass from the coposting...
and im looking into the possibility of rigging some kind of heated gravity water system using galvanized pipe and chicken nipples and livestock tank deicers and plumbing thermoregulated heat tape...
water in the rabbitry over the winter is my biggest concern at the moment, I realy don't want to have to haul frozen/unfrozen bottles up and down the hill 3-4 times a day in the snow...im lazy that way lol.
gonna spend some time up there this morning need to tidy up now, haul out the trash, dump and clean some of the poop trays
I also need to work on the posts for the goat fencing too so those are "on the list" for todays plans...
sis and bro re at school today mum and dad are having a few days away so its just me and my thoughts today...should DEFINATLY keep busy...
and more work done
tidied up the rabbitry a little, so that's no ready for some finishing touches, got the 2 walk through gates in for the goat pen, and got most of the t-posts in for the fence that will separate the buck pen from the doe pen...
got to take the chainsaw to a bush that's in the way of the fenceline...and may need to ink a few more t-posts on the hill when we get to the actual fence part, but the welded fence will be more a backup to the 4 strand electric that will be going in on the buck side...ill probably put in a couple strands on the doe side too to prevent pushing/rubbing.
id run just electric but im not entirely sure it would be enough to keep the bucks in when in rut so I think welded wire with electric strands better...especially with the snow we can get here...im already thinking im going to need to walk the fenceline with a flamethrower every morning lol.
in reality im planning on adding cut off switches for the 2 lower lines or when the snow starts to come, least I can shut down the 2 lines most likely to get buried and not have to worry so much about the whole fence grounding out...
once this project is done the next big fencing project is the front yard...
a yote took one of our ducks the other day (our drake...:/) so were currently being extra cautious...never seen thatcoyote around before, then about 4 mornings ago saw him in the back field...then the next morning by the pond...mum was late with the ducks (she puts them to bed) the night before last and they were already in the pen with the drake nowhere to be found...dad found a few feathers own by the pond so we figure he must have seen an easy meal...:/
either way that means trees are getting cut back and im putting in a couple strands of electric...the pasture infrot of the pond is going to be our mini orchard anyway and well need something to keep out the deer so this may just be the push needed to get that done...
the other big outside project is the barn, the leanto needs finishing and it needs a maor clean out before we can bring in a load of hay, weve got the stuff to do it and dads taken this week off so im going to push to try and get that done. got to get the loff cleaned up...ive not even been up there yet..infact I may do that in a little while lol.
anywho...feels good to have some cooler weather so I can get thigns done
so true pinkfox, doesn't the cooler weather feel great and the world can be so much more productive. bunny palace looks great. i hope they appreciate the effort you are putting out for them. so sorry about your drake, 'yoties are horrible around here and once they find an easy meal they remember it well. God bless my LGD, she does a good job of keeping varmints at bay around here so far. good luck with the buck pen. i have a big old lamancha buck that has no respect for anything when he is in rut. I've tried electric, cattle panels, 2x4 welded wire horse panels, separating the yards by about 25 ft and he just climbed over both fences, he'll climb over a hot wire, holler and keep going. he's a big pia. i keep threatening him but he pays me no never mind