Backyard Ramblings: Future and Current Plans

Wow, so I'm not really the greatest at posting here, and I do apologize for that.  Anyways, for the longest time we (the Fiance and I) have been wanting to become more and more self sufficient when it comes to our food and well being.  With all of the terrible things being pumped and done to commercial foods, we want to try to do what we can to rely less and less on it.  This would involve growing and preserving our own plant foods, as well as raising our own meats.  Sadly, living in pretty crowded suburban area will limit our options of what we can do.

Each year since we bought the house, I've been maintaining an organic vegetable garden, and slowly building a separate area in the yard just for that.  Right now I have two 10x10 raised planter beds built, with one still in need of dirt.  In the other I've planted some tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, and snow peas. 

The plans for this year is to get my greenhouse and berry patch started.  The house came with some hoop type greenhouse structures, of which the previous owners were using to store random junk in.  It took a lot of work to clean them out and take them down, but now that a good deal of the yard is cleaned up, we can resurrect part of one to be used for my veggies.  The greenhouse will be great for growing seedlings during times when the outside weather would still be too cold for them to plant.  The berry patch will be it's own raised bed of raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and gooseberries.  With these I can make some jams and preserves, using the gooseberries as a natural source of pectin.

Plans have been going slowly with all of the rain we've been having lately, the plants are loving it so I don't mind too much.  Though with all this rain comes lack of mowing, and a yard that looks more like a meadow.

Love the yellow flowers

I've never been one of those grass purists, and actually love seeing other plants intermingled with the blades of grass.  There's just something beautiful with the broken up texture of various leaf shapes and added colors of low growing flowers.  The only fertilizer our yard gets is whatever the chickens leave behind.

With all this extra growth comes food for our new additions.  As I mentioned earlier, it wasn't just commercial edible plants that we wanted to rely less on.  With the way our town codes work, we were very limited when it comes to raising our own meat.  With a chicken limit of 6 with no roosters, and the only "big" livestock allowed are 2 goats (if I can get the permits), I had very limited options.  However, there is one animal that is not only very healthy to eat but also not considered livestock.  Enter the rabbit.

Sure these guys are cute, but their meat is also some of the most nutritious meat you can eat.  Lower in cholesterol, calories, and fat than other meats, as well as being higher in protein and more sanitary due to the way they are kept.  They are all white meat, and can be used as a substitute to chicken and pork.  Rabbits also provide other, non-edible benefits with poop that plants love and pelts to sell or make things with. 

After spending a great amount of time researching and learning as much as I can about meat rabbit production, it was time to take the plunge.  The biggest problem was finding available meat rabbits, as the breeders near me focused on pet and dwarf breeds.  An opportunity arose with a trip to Ohio for a dog show that I had planned to go to.  I managed to find a breeder who had (and was able to locate) available rabbits that I could take with me on the return trip home.  It really was an interesting 10 hour drive with 3 dogs and 4 rabbits.

The two meat breeds I had chosen are the New Zealand Red (NZR) and the Californian, both very popular breeds for meat production.  Rabbits of these breeds tend to have a good meat to bone ratio and grow to a good meat size fairly quickly.  They should reach an eatable weight of 4-5lbs at around 8weeks of age. 

 

With home built hutches mostly finished, I brought home a pair from each breed.  Their hutches are being kept under an old tarp covered canopy next to the chicken run.  This area will provide ample shade to help keep the rabbits cool during the warm summer months.  We used heavy duty wire fencing to help keep them protected, and we hope to expand the chicken run to encompass this rabbit area as another security layer. 

Basil

Basil, is my NZR male and only 4 months old.  He has the added bonus of a pedigree and comes from some very strong lines of big litters that grow fast.  His ear is tattooed to reflect that pedigree.  He is the friendliest out of the four of them, often coming to his hutch door when he sees me approaching.  He's also the first to escape due to me forgetting to lock the door, he was easy to catch as he didn't feel the need to actually run from us.

Paprika is Basil's counterpart, she is what they call a broken red as she is not a solid color.  She is somewhat skittish but doesn't mind taking food from me when given.  At 4 months old, she has a few more months before it would be safe to breed her.  I won't be pairing her with Basil until the heat of summer has passed.

Chives is a Californian male that is about a year old.  He really loves his grasses and will take any I toss in for him.  He has such a big rump, hopefully his kits will inherit his booty.

And finally Nutmeg, Chives' counterpart.  She also is a year old and ready to breed.  She doesn't care for being handled, but will tolerate it.  She prefers grasses and hay over the pellets, often grabbing a bite of hay before I can put it down while her there's still plenty of pellets left in her bowl.


Well that's enough rambling for now, hopefully I can keep up with updates of the random happenings.