Baby Steps

We adopted Opie from the Columbia Humane Society, became official today. 

It has been months since I have posted. I have let the fear put me farther from my dreams than I
wanted to have happen. Then life happened now PTSD is trying to control my life and I am trying to control it instead.  A lot has been happening in just a short few months, while my tiny house dream still sits in an unorganized pile in the backyard through the leaves falling and the snow cover other things have been happening. Just before Christmas we got a breeding pair of American Chinchilla Rabbits. Shortly later I found three free bucks to dis-batch. We adopted a dog, found two more bucks to add to our rabbitry this time Giant Flemish, Mr. Man quit his job, our American Chinchilla had their first litter, seeds got ordered for our garden and I had a break down.
Homesteading is my end goal my tiny house is what I plan on living in to help get up there. I am lucky enough to live with some amazing friends on just under an acre where not only am I building my tiny house but also educating myself on skills that will be needed once I have land in my hands to develop my own permaculture homestead that will give me self-sustainability. The first of many skills we have chosen to develop is a meat rabbitry. I researched information for weeks as to what is easier chickens or rabbits. Introduced the idea to our roommates of us raising rabbits for the meat. That is where the problem was found. One roommate has fuzzy animal syndrome, the other just doesn't like to eat rabbit. I brought the idea up time and time again met with the same answers. We went out and got a breeding pair of American Chinchilla Rabbits for $40 and they are just the sweetest things. With an agreement in place that we name our foodstock food names and pets get well pet names they were named Sundae and Zinc. Our rabbitry began in secret, we were still being met with obstruction by the roommates. The bathroom of our 26' trailer that was being used as my walk-in closet instantly became our rabbitry it was that was for a month. completely a secret. We didn't want our rabbits to have such a shut in life but we were trying to get the roommates to change their minds about just having them around. Then I found three free blue rabbits on craigslist for free. Perfect we could use them to practice on and see if the roommates would freak out if we all of a sudden had rabbit meat showing up.  Mr. Man was away on business when the new rabbits showed up this meant the disbatching was put on hold for a few days and for almost a week my tiny bathroom was home to five rabbits! The roommates were out for the day when we chose to process the three. My yahoos were home to help. We first watched a video on youtube as to of what process was to be expected while they watched us do it to our three. They were given the options to watch or play. They both chose to watch the first one be wacked. Kanga was good seeing that and decided he had seen enough and went off to play. The Monster stuck around and watched the whole process on all three rabbits. Each time one life was taken he cried and cried and cried. He was so sad that their life was gone but understood why we were doing it. He is such a sensitive and caring child. It was a really sweet experience to share with him.

Three meat rabbits we picked up for free. They made for some yummy meals!

A few weeks went by and we shared some meat with our roommate with the fuzzy animal syndrome and she loved it. We were not being as nearly secretive about our secret rabbitry and then moved them outside. Mr. Man built them a set of larger cages on a hutch from reclaimed wood that we had lying around. Just in time too! The morning after they were done being built we found that Sundae had indeed mated with Zinc while we were doing the processing of the other three meat rabbits! There were eight cute wiggly little rabbits. Day two we went and checked on them and found a runt. We did our best to help the little guy have a fighting chance and supplemented it for two days until it lost the battle yesterday. The other kits are doing amazing and its been fun watching them grow so quickly doubling in size everyday it seems. Sundae did an amazing job at building a nest. We were not sure if she really was pregnant so there was no nest box in the cage. She pulled quite a bit of hair and piled up straw. We plan on selling a few, eating a few, and giving one away. I feel that we got some where from the goodness of other people and I need to give back to that goodness and help others get ahead as well.

Sundae and and her nest. We have since added a box for protection and she has lost one kit.