Some Answers to Questions

Hiya Folks!  Despite my lack of posts lately, I've gotten a few great questions from local minifarmers.  Thanks for taking the time to write! 
The first question had to do with our rabbit, who lives in a tractor with attached hutch, roaming the yard eating delicious grass.  Except this summer there has been a serious lack of delicious grass.  And she has needed to be in constant shade to keep from overheating.  So, the poor dear sits under a tree, drinks loads of water, and gets weeds from the garden. 

I feed her almost anything (except lettuce cabbage) and if she doesn't eat it within a day or so, I remove it from her tractor.  She eats most of it, though, especially if it is fresh and green.  We also feed her fruit and vegetable scraps (I'd say we average 1/3 c of these per day) and a weekly 1/2 c of grain (either chicken or goat).  Plus she gets the occasional treat of alfalfa.  She is thin right now and we are trying to put some weight on her just so she's not skin and bones going into winter.  So if she starts to fatten up or if it ever rains again and we have grass, we may decrease the amount we feed her.

We are not well versed on raising rabbits, and we just have the one so we can keep a close eye on her and giver her the care she needs.  We have had some close calls from the heat, when I have had to spray her down with cool water from the hose, bring her out something frozen to sit on or just bring out some nice cool celery to help rehydrate her. 

Our plans for her are just to let her hang out and be a quick composter for our food scraps and weeds.  We've thought about breeding rabbits but just don't have the time or energy for it right now.  I would think that if you wanted to breed you would have to supplement the grass + food scraps diet with a much more consistent, higher volume of alfalfa.  Or if you buy it already, timothy hay would be ideal.  That is the bulk of what is in rabbit feed, after all.  We just happen to use alfalfa across the board since it is easier to transfer directly to the garden without fear of pesticides going with it.

Oh, and if anyone out there is curious, we love having a rabbit tractor in our front yard!  We make more neighborhood friends that way than any other.  They all want to stop by and bring her a carrot.  I get the feeling she doesn't mind too much!

What I've Learned This Summer

1.) Water is precious.  The taste of it, the smell of it, how it can perk a plant up in a matter of moments, the feel of it evaporating from your skin, the sound of car tires splashing through puddles, the sound of padded feet through moist grass.  I've known for a long time that water is crucial to life.  But it is not just a chemical necessity. It is an aesthetic pleasure, a joy, a wonder, a blessing.

2.) Practice doesn't always make perfect, but it does generally improve.  From painting, to chicken gutting, making cheese, or pruning trees: Going slow. Accepting when I am too tired or frustrated.  Trying my best each time so that the next time will be easier.  This is not my natural inclination but a learned adaptation.

3.) Bigger is not always better.  Baby eggplants are delicious.  Giant barred rock chickens take a very long time to fill out their giant frames.  Lots of energy in those big bones.  Two goats are better than three (right now).  And 4-330 gallon rain barrels are less than useful when it hasn't rained in months.

It has been a hard summer.  Our local farmers are having a meeting just to talk about strategies to get through the next season, it's been so hard.  But I am looking forward and preparing.  There are changes coming and, though I'm not in control of the where/how/when, I want to be ready!

Milk Mustache

When you have a lot of milk, the whey leftover from making cheese just builds up.  We mixed in breads when we were making breads.  I've made ricotta (not all that successfully) a couple of times.  But generally, by the time I'm done laboring over the cheese itself, the whey looks less than inspiring.  There are always hungry critters around here, though, and today the hens got this treat.

Saving Water...During the Drought and Beyond (1/2)

http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html

Texas is currently struggling through the worst drought in a long while.  We are seeing 100+ degree days as the norm, with no relief in sight.  From the Lower Colorado River Authority:

          

"The eight months from October 2010 through May 2011 have been the driest eight-month period on record for Texas since 1895. Rainfall in Austin was 38 percent of normal, and Wharton rainfall was 30 percent of normal.

Temperatures also have hit triple digits earlier than usual this year, with three 100+-degree days in Austin in May. The period from March through May in Austin was the hottest such period on record, punctuated by the hottest April Austin has experienced. The trend for hot, dry conditions is continuing in June."

But life goes on and there are some things we just can't avoid using water for---our dishes and laundry, bathing, the animals, and the garden.  But in all these areas Farmer Noah & I take seriously the need to conserve as much as possible.  I thought I'd share with you a bit of what we do to save water here in Austin, TX.

Cleaning: Dishes
As far as dishes go, we try to be minimal.  We reuse glasses a few times and I try to make most meals a 'one-skillet' kind of deal.  We never rinse our dishes, only scrape and then load them in the dishwasher.  That's right, we're talking about saving water and I just said dishwasher.  In fact, we actually just got a new one after much comparison and deliberation.  The new one uses a mere 4 gallons per load.  There's no way I could wash all our dishes in that amount of water.  And the energy usage is pretty low as well.

 For times when we can't use the dishwasher (ie, washing out our milk buckets), we keep a plastic tub in the smaller side of the sink.  All rinse/soap water winds up in there and then I dump it out on the plants.  Usually I fill this tub 2-3 times per day.  Since we use a soap with low phosphorus and low sodium ingredients, it is safe to pour onto plants.

Cleaning: Laundry
A few years ago, when we bought our first house, my dear mother-in-law bought us a super efficient washing machine and dryer.  I hardly ever use the dryer (100 degree days are faster), but I love the washing machine. It is a front loader and can hold lots of clothes.  I'm not sure exactly ho much water it uses but it is significantly lower than the top-loaders we were comparing it with.  As with dishes, another strategy for conserving water is to wear things more than once.  We have quite an intricate system of where to hang the clothing we've worn once, worn a few times, and are almost ready to wash.

Someday I'd really like to have a greywater harvesting system set up with our washing machine.  That would mean the used water would flow from the machine onto a designated place either in our landscaping or through a system of natural filtration.

If I'm not mistaken, this is the grey water filtration system over at the Rhizome Collective.

With both washing machines and dishwashers, always run a full load!

Bathing:
Unfortunately, my best piece of advice for bathing may not be all that practical. That is, I'm an advocate of not bathing most of the time.  I am active and outside every single day, but I choose to do a little sponge bath type of thing and re-apply deodorant rather than hopping in the shower every time I'm sweaty or dirty.  I still shower, just not the 3 or 4 times a day that would be necessary to keep me "clean."  Another favorite option is to jump in the pool.  Here in Austin, that would be Barton Springs Pool, a huge public swimming hole built around a freshwater spring.

Additional suggestions are bathing every other day, bathing with a buddy (!), or taking shorter showers.  These are all pretty easy and self explanatory.   Farmer Noah, who has to work inside around normal-smelling people most of the time falls into this category of bather.

Additionally, we keep a 10 gallon bucket in the shower.  That way while the water is warming up or while you bathe the bucket can catch extra water that can then be dumped on trees, shrubs or even vegetables provided you use the appropriate kinds of soaps.

I'll hit on the other subjects: watering the animals, outdoor water use, and rainwater catchment next time.

Shena Baby for Sale

We are letting go of our beloved little Shena baby.  We realized there's no point in keeping her here....we can't breed or milk 3 does.  Someday we will, but not this next year.  

She's got lovely long legs, though she is still a small doeling for 4 months old.

She's a great mover and likes to go places on her leash.

She's got her dad's blue eyes, except way lighter.  When she was born they almost looked lavender.

Shena will be a very dairy girl, she's got good bloodlines for it on both sides.  She is dual registered with papers.  She will probably always be a little small, but I don't see that being a problem.  She is worth way more than we are asking for her, but our disbudding didn't not go well this year---due to equipment problems---so she's got a horn and a small scur.  Doesn't look like either one will be a problem but it does detract from her looks slightly.

This is a very sweet little goat.  Please let us know if you or someone you know is interested.

Asking Price $250.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Long time, no write.  Sorry about that.  Like all homestead/garden bloggers I've been busy busy.  Here's a run down of what's going on 'round these parts:

Goat Dairy
-So much milk!
-We are probably going to sell beautiful, sweet Shena because we can't imagine milking 3 does next yer.
-Made butter for the first time.  Was trying to make whipped cream but went too long.  Butter is bright white and delicious!

Chickens
-Harvested 3 broilers....these are the giant Barred Rocks we are experimenting with.  They are big birds, but they are so tall that as 4 month olds (which they are about to be) they haven't got much width yet.  No rush!  The 3 we did harvest were some good eatin' on the grill!
-We bought 7 chicks from the feed store that were supposed to be red  broilers.  Turns out 2 our brahmas.  They are fabulous and we love them.   They jump up out of the stall wanting to be held.  We hope they are girls.
-If both Brahmas are girls, that will give us a grand total of 7 laying hens this fall.  2 of those are our old reds who are laying about 5 eggs a week together.  So 5 new hens laying...oh let's be modest and say an egg every other day each...=18 plus 5 from the reds=23 eggs.  Per. Week.  Holy Moly, who wants eggs?

Image from: Backyardchickens.com

Dogs
-We took the dogs on vacation with us to Port A.  Puck never wanted to leave....the waves, the seagulls, the splashing.  His idea of heaven.  That's why he's my dog.  Zooey, while enjoying the ocean, tried to eat each wave that 'attacked' her feet.  So she drank a couple gallons of salt water.  After our first bout of sea sickness back at the room, we started carrying Pepto in our pockets....for the dog.   That is why she is Noahs's dog.
-Things dogs are good for: scaring away squirrels, warning of opossums, scaring away the meter reader, alerting us to animals sniffing at the chickens in the tractor, herding chickens/goats/children.
-Things dogs are not good for: catching mice.  We have a little white and gray mouse that likes to eat holes in our feed cans.  It is adorable but mice carry disease and their droppings make our milking area very unsanitary.

http://chadao.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/texas-mouse.jpg

Cats
-Things cats are good for:  hunting mice.
-We are thinking of getting a barn cat.

http://pawsitivekarmarescue.com/?page_id=15

-Garden
-It's never going to rain again.  Please don't ask me about my garden.

Garden Path Progress

So I've made a bit of progress on the garden paths in the last couple of weeks:

Edging bricks removed, this is what the side of one of my beds looked like.

 Weed Eated & Raked.

Landscaping Fabric ala Peaceful Valley Organics.

Both sides of the same bed.  I want to extend this bed further out toward the street
so it doesn't have a 'front' border yet.

The back border of all the beds, running parallel to the house.

The front border of my favorite bed which helped me
determine the length I would like all the beds to eventually be.
That way I can leave a bit of space for a fence or walking in front of the beds.

I want to mulch around my fruit trees as well.  Here is my baby fig
surrounded by landscaping fabric into which I cut an X.

My favorite bed with a larger perspective.

 I've also added mulch around my favorite bed (the one I like the size of best).  It looks really nice and I think the fruit trees planted around the border really appreciate it.  I will try to get photos of that step soon.  The war on bermuda grass has begun!