It is over 100 degrees, the humidity is low and a nice breeze is out of the South so it only feels like 99. I was not going to let this cool front pass by without doing some work. (That's funny right there)
With the major, need to get it done mini fence, project out of the way the door was open to get some other little things done that were needing attention.
I spent the morning hanging and rigging up the gutter for
the mini barn's rain water system and even tho it is not as pretty as I would like it to be, it was all free, plus it is behind the barn so nobody can see it. The wife sprayed some water on the roof to see if it would even drain and guess what, it does and it has no leaks.I scavenged some hose and fittings from the old house so I can run the water through the barn but have yet to finish that. At least now when it rains, I have a place for it to go.
I hope to get the main house system done this week or maybe the next.
The girls got a good start on the fall garden bed today. This is where I am going to try my hand at multi-planting several kinds of salad fixings. This bed yielded nothing this summer so we had to improve the soil for some better luck, maybe. We put down a light layer of rabbit manure, then a layer of shredded paper and lastly a topping of good rich garden soil. For what I have read, the rabbit manure is not to hot for the plants to go directly on them as long as it's light and in moderation. I feed it directly to the worms and they love it, I hope the plants do too.While the wife and I were in town this morning
, we stopped off at a little store to pick up a few things and noticed a pile of pallets around back. When we asked the manager about them she told us to help ourselves to as many as we wanted so I called the oldest girl to bring her pickup by and we loaded her up.We used them for instant shade for the goats and no it's not pretty but it will work until I can make a more permanent structure. The mini barn faces West and in the evenings
the sun is below the awning and beats down on the goats so for right now, instant pallet shade is the answer.I want to give a Thanks and a Howdy to Small Farm Girl, the newest member of the Modern Day Redneck family.
Welcome and if you have not done so already, check out the official Modern Day Redneck website. Just click on the link at the top of the page. If you need anything just email me. Thanks again for joining.
Hey! Like your new blog look!
ReplyDeleteSFG is a sweet, fun filled lady. I love her sense of humor!
We're looking into rigging up some new gutter on our house roofline to help make catchig rain water easier. Right now it's sort of a guessing game as to how hard it's raining and where to put the trough to run it into the rain barrels. We're also looking into putting some on the barn too, not so much to catch it but to keep it from running back into the stalls, making a muddy mess.
Looks good and it will help you through your dry periods too, although we typically run out between rains.
Blessings for your week,
Kelle
Thanks for the complement Kelle.
ReplyDeleteI figure this, if you run out of water between rains then get larger barrels :). The main reason I need to catch as much as I can is if the well goes out and the cost is anywhere from 2k to 5k to fix it then the well will have to just stay out for a while. I do not want to carry water in buckets just to water the animals, the gardens or to shower. That is why I got those two 1500 gallon tanks.
For a gutter system it does not have to be anyhting fancy. On the big barn I plan to use some old 4" PVC pipe cut in half and wired up along the roofline, Same concept right.
If your going to take the time to put them on your barn, then you ought to go ahead and put it in somthing, then you can use it for the horses.
Tanks for the comment and you have a blessed one yourself.
I just love your blog. You guys are such an inspiration to those of us who want to live the simple life.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if you guys might know anything about rabbits? I live in a trailer park and although I'm not really suppose to have "farm" animals I thought I might be able to get away with putting some rabbit pens on my deck and raising some rabbits for meat to supplement my grocery bill and for the manure for my garden. I want chickens, but I know I can't get away with having them:) My specific question is how much room does a rabbit need to have a good life? I don't want to squish them together:)
What do you think?
Thank you woodsprite and we love having you with us on our simple life adventure. I wish I could say it was a choice but this is real life for us.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the rabbits go, Californians are one of the best to raise for meat and pets.
There are many ways to disguise a rabbit hutch so having them on your front or back porch should not be a problem unless you do not keep the manure at a manageable level. So you want to use a manure collection bin. It needs to have small holes in the bottom so the urine can run out because that is what causes most of the smell.
To finally answer your question, To have a happy care free rabbit that is not to crowed, it should have about 1 square foot for every pound of rabbit. So if you had a 3 pound rabbit then it really needs 3 square feet of living space. That is about a 1 3/4' X 1 3/4' pen just for one rabbit. Then if you breed them you have to have a buck pen, then a birthing pen, then a baby pen and then finally a grow out colony pen. So saying all that, if you had 3 breeder does, 1 buck and a couple of litters of babies you would need about 25 square feet in pen space, but that is in a perfect world. Two 3 pound rabbits would be just fine in 3 square feet and never know any difference. My Flemish Giants are 15 pounds a piece and I house each one in a 9 square foot pen. Meat rabbits do not need that much room to run around anyway.
Thanks for the question and keep reading, things are just now getting good.
Thanks for the info. I'll let you know what I decide to do:)
ReplyDeleteRedneck,
ReplyDeleteWe're blessed with LOTS of water, our ground water is only 6ft down, thanks to being on a river. So rainwater is used for inside plants, soapmaking, and watering new seedlings( the plants just thrive with rain water verses well water :o)
We most likely will put some sort of catch tank at the barn( up on stilts/ stand). This tank will also be figured into catching excess water when we put in out windmill pump in the back pasture. Of course that is only in the planning stages, maybe we'll get it together enough in a few years time and get it up and operational.
The hail a few weeks back set us back a bit, damaged our garage roof, so had to purchase metal for reroofing it next week, man is metal getting expensive :o(
Blessings,
Kelle
Kelle,
ReplyDeleteI hate that the hail did so much damage to your stuff. It never fails, just when you think you are getting ahead something always comes along to set you back a step. I think I even wrote a blog post on "One step forward and two steps back".
I would love to be where rain was abundant. You are right about the rain water being better than well water. I do not know if it the minerals or what but I think that is why my garden did not do so good this year.
Thanks for your comments, have a great day.