New Bunnies

The day I was finishing the hutches for Tarzan and Jane, our Californian rabbits, we got an unexpected offer from a sweet friend. They had recently raised a litter of rabbits and it was time for them to find a new home. Well, guess who's home there are now a part of? Yes, we've adopted 4 of the cutest white dwarf rabbits I've ever seen. :)

All of them are identical in color and all, making it hard to tell them apart. So, here are a couple of pictures of a few of them. I'll post more later.




They are so cuddly and soft! We can tell a difference already with their personalities between them. To see them sitting up on their hind legs looking around is adorable. I'll try to get some really good pictures to show.

Now it's back to rabbit hutch building once again. :) I wouldn't want anything but something really nice for them to live in and stay healthy.

With these new bunnies, our manure/vermicomposting endeavors should be well underway. We're up to about 6 pounds in red wigglers this month and hopefully by February, nearly double that. It should handle the waste processing and have plenty of finished worm castings for spring planting. I'm SO excited!

My Newly Built Rabbit Hutches

I've been working feverishly over the past 3 days constructing new hutches for my rabbits. The ones we have now were bought from someone local. They've worked ok, but lacking a roof and easier access to the rabbits has been challenging. The access doors are on top and I have had to stand on something to reach down into the cage. It's easier said than done!

After much research on the web for a viable design, I settled on one I found on the Penn State Extension website. It had the most details on measurements and such and gave great options I liked.

Here's the link: Rabbit Hutch Plans

(It's in pdf format) I do wish they'd included a materials list with this, but with a little time and concentration, I made it. :)

I modified the center section of the hutches because I was a bit confused by the plans design and I'm not skilled in working with metal. The concept is great if you can build the feeder. We already had some feeders and I really wanted them located in an area that they would stay dry. Hopefully I can add some treat/hay feeders in this section too. I'm imagining a wooden box covered in metal flashing. The need to gnaw for rabbits is a huge deal, so I think the flashing would be easier to work with than outright metal construction.






Here is where I modified the center section. Trying to keep the food dry is an issue, so this will be a huge help.

Happy bunnies. :)

Gardening with Kids

If you dream about teaching gardening to groups of children this is a wonderful program. Junior Master Gardener is an international youth gardening program of the University Extension network.

From their website:

JMG Mission: To grow good kids by igniting a passion for learning, success and service through a unique gardening education.


Service Learning: Students use what they have learned to be of service to others. Examples of service projects initiated by JMG groups include: growing produce for donation to food banks, community beautification projects, and class businesses generating funds for local charities.

Student Recognition: Youths completing requirements in a given chapter or for the overall program earn certification awarded by National JMG Program Office and JMG state program partners.

National Network: Twenty eight Universities nationally implement the program at the state level. Texas A&M University serves as the headquarters for the National JMG Program Office.

Program Partnerships

* The Texas AgriLife Extension Service, The Texas A&M University System
* AmeriCorps Hildago Group
* National Wildlife Federation
* Learn & Serve America
* Schools to Careers
* Master Gardener Associations
* Children's Better Health Institute

I have been working with a group at a local elementary school as an after school program for 5th graders. The kids are great. We've planted veggies, flowers and studied seed anatomy. They have also assembled a plant chair that was raffled off as a fund raiser for the Red Cross which went to help with those devastated by Hurricane Ike.

What amazes me about the program is that it is well-rounded, incorporating math science, reading and health. After having grown many of the different fruits and vegetables, they are willing to try them because they had grown them.

I truly believe that our generation has lost many of the basic skills to provide for themselves. This is vital for survival in all types of economic change the future may bring. Eating healthier, frugally and providing a tool to use to help others is priceless.



I would encourage anyone who works with youth groups or wants to see this in their school to check this program out.

Raising Rabbits

"Tarzan" is a Californian buck. This is one of the larger breeds of rabbits weighing between 8-10 lbs. He has such a wonderful personality. Every morning he runs in circles excited to see us coming towards him. He pushes his treat bowl around with his nose making a huge racket in eager anticipation of whatever we have for him that day.




"Jane" is a Californian doe. She definitely is a sweetie, but more timid and docile than Tarzan. We've been trying to work with her more to relax her, but I think it may take more time. It's really better when rabbits are handled when small, just like kittens and puppies.

Something that we didn't know about does, especially larger breed ones, is that they develop a "dewlap" under their chin. We were SO worried at first when we saw this pouch-like growth growing larger as she crossed over into maturity. I was thinking the worst, but thankfully after some research, we realized the growth was actually normal and was used for pulling extra fur from when making a nest for her litter of kittens. How amazing! Now I will never think of people with double chins the same. :)

Our rabbit raising endeavors started with the thought of possible meat production, but well, that's not happenin' here.. cute animals are just too hard to think about eating. We'll stick to other things for now, say vegetables. Times will really have to get tough to get to the point of eating rabbits. We can't even staing burying a few young chickens that died. We mourned for days over them. Imagine if it were one of our precious bunnies. We're weaklings I tell you!

The second benefit we considered for raising rabbits was rabbit poo for our garden. In case you are unaware, rabbit droppings are one of the highest quality of all manure. It has 2.5 percent nitrogen ratio without the weed seeds that can come from horse or cow manure. It also doesn't have to be composted for as long of a time as other manures. (Chicken manure takes up to a year) I've read that in as little as 8 weeks before you can use it on the garden.

Lastly, we raise red wigglers. These are the composting worms that are so popular now in vermicomposting. The worms are actually manure worms naturally, although they do an excellent job breaking down so many other things into wonderfully rich worm castings for the garden. We plan on building worm bins under the rabbit hutches soon to further process the manure down quicker for the plants. Hopefully within the next few weeks I can include our progress.

Rabbits just make good sense for us to keep. They really eat very inexpensively, use up veggie scraps, and with that produce LOTS of manure that smells very little.

Now I'll have to show pictures of how Tarzan likes to walk on a leash in our backyard eating grass. :) Good times...

Chicken Update!

The older chickens are now 19 weeks and the younger at 13 weeks. It's been an adventure getting through their life stages. From raising them in a box with a light on them to keep them warm, to wing clipping and now egg laying within the next few weeks for the older chookas.

When we we started all of this we had no idea how busy our lives would be, so building the coop and the chicken run/yard was a little (or should I say A LOT) overwhelming. We managed to add what was needed at the time and vowed to make updates later when the temperatures dropped to a more tolerable temperature for such a project. (You can look at earlier posts to see the change)

Well the time has finally arrived!

In steps the task of explaining my long drawn out plans to dh. I'm such a big picture thinker that my poor husband hangs his head when I have yet another element to add to the already huge plan. When I try to explain the "big picture", he often asks me, "Doesn't your brain ever take a rest?" I respond by telling him another long story about how all of this will come together and make our lives a little easier in the long run. Poor guy, he has to go to work to get some quiet time. :)

Here's part one of the animal enclosure - the chicken yard!





We were blessed to mostly use reclaimed wood for the bottom half of the walls. This saved a ton and "the plan" is to landscape in front of the wall and allow vines to grow over the top. This should help provide some shade through the scorching summers here.

Look at the bottom picture where the screened door is. We have found a wonderful addition to watering the chickens - a dripper. It's just like the ones used for rabbits. We have used one inside our house for the parakeets for a long time and I thought, "Hmm, if the parakeets can use it, why not the chickens?" Well, the chickens took to it like ducks to water, lol. Whew, and I must say it's SO much easier!

Here's a picture of one chickie using the dripper:



We need to add another one. With eleven chickens using this we go through two bottles per day. The great thing is that the water is CLEAN when they drink it. If you know anything about chickens or any other bird, their water can get absolutely disgusting within minutes.

Time For Planning

As we enter into a new season of planting, looking at our long term goals and the many obstacles we face living in this area, we must consider the following:

1. Growing more of our own food organically.
2. The extremes we have here from drought to flood conditions.
3. Water conservation and getting water to the areas needed.
4. Smart planning to reduce maintainence as we grow older.
5. Soil amendment challenges as we live on good textured soil but has low organic matter due to it being a former cotton field.
6. Sustainability is a must so as not to rob the soils and resources of others land to feed ours.
7. Our small budget. :)

The design element is critical for us. Although we know there is always going to be a level of trial and error added to the mix. I've always learned more by what didn't work, than what did. Who doesn't? At least I hope so. :)

One of the main things we want to consider now is fruit production. We have allocated one side of the yard for the bulk of our fruit. We have already planted blueberry and blackberry bushes close to the house in hopes that our rainwater harvesting will easily work here. In times of drought, we can exercise the option of greywater reuse. I'll give more information about that later.

With the economy struggling, we are doing what we can to help in the days to come. Expanding our garden is already in the mix. We've decided to add a traditional veggie garden for larger crops this next spring. Ideally I prefer biointensive raised beds for their overall efficiency, but now due to budget and time, we are grabbing everything we can to build our garden.

Here is the new expanse tilled so far:



We have to add quite a bit of organic matter to this to make it productive. Mulched leaves, compost, and lots of manure! (come on rabbits! lol) This should make it ready for spring planting.

We will be working on a drip irrigation system to keep this watered. It can get pretty windy and dry throughout the year, so we want to make sure we make the most of the water we need for this area. Any type of overhead watering evaporates quickly and encourages disease and mildew. Drip irrigation should do the trick for us.

Plans for starting plants indoors is the next step. More to come later. :)

State Fair Highlights

If you can't tell by the picture, this is a butterfly. It is definitely better to see this in person. I think this would be fun to try in my own garden, especially in the butterfly garden. Now all I need to learn how to do is build the frame!





No trip to the State Fair is complete without a visit to see the butter sculpture. It brings back so many memories of my childhood in 4-H. This year's theme throughout the fair was Egyptian, thus the Egyptian butter sculpture. King Tut's exhibition is now on tour in Dallas and has definitely added excitement to the area.

The visit to the Texas State Fair was wonderful. It was our very first time and we were definitely impressed. The grounds were beautifully landscaped. (of course that is where I noticed,lol) The animal petting zoo was the best we've seen anywhere. Foods were up to the standard we expected including all the things fried that you normally can't even imagine how they've done it.

Some of the food hits were fried oreos, cheesecake, snickers, twinkies, moon pies and banana split Chicken fried bacon was the new item added to the fair this year. It has been a big discussion on the local news. :) If it can possibly be fried, it was there, lol.

Gardening At The White House

I thought this was interesting and amusing. Enjoy.