Can't Sleep

I can't sleep.  I am still getting over the last bits of sickness and had a long nap this afternoon and now I am awake at 1 AM.  I need sleep so I will have energy to process the turkeys tomorrow (today - whatever).  I need to get all five of them done because the temperature is going to take a severe drop after tomorrow.  I also need to get more chicken feed and a scalpel and such from the store before I start on the turkeys.

I have an idea to cut a hole in the bottom of a five gallon bucket to make a killing "cone" for the turkeys.  I need to buy a scalpel to make clean cuts since I don't have any more left and paring knives just aren't to my liking.

My other problem is going to be defeathering the birds.  The bucket I used for the chickens probably isn't big enough.  I have a galvanized tub I could use but heating the water becomes tricky.  I could start a bonfire in the pit outside but I am not sure I can tend that while getting the butchering done.  I may just need to make several batches of hot water on the stove and bring them out to the tub.

In other news I gave the chickens some cayenne pepper in their feed.  I hope that will convince them to start laying.

I am also going to get some hay for the goats soon.  I think 20 bales should last the winter since that seemed to work last year.

I feel terribly behind in my winter prep because of the week of rain, being sick, and sadly - basic laziness.

On top of all this, I have cookies and rolls to bake before Wednesday.

sick

I was sick through the week of halloween.  We had to cancel our halloween party.  The bunnies have moved on from their nest under the house.  My voice is nearly gone.  Will write more when feeling better.

Ms. Bunn

Ms. Bunn, the name Rob has given the female rabbit I had bought to breed and got only one litter from before our goat let her loose on the world, had another litter of kits.  She has been living under the front porch for more than a month so I am not sure if she bred with a wild rabbit or in the last hoorahs of his life, Big Poppa got her pregnant during on of his freedom flings (thanks again to Camo).

There are five babies that we have been able to see. They are just small puffballs, taking their first explorations out side of the porch nest.  There are two cinnamon colored, like their mom, two white and black ones (which makes me think of Big Pappa), but there is also a darker colored one, a solid brown.  So maybe she did breed with a wild rabbit and the white and black is just the other colors in her gene pool.  I am not sure.

But I will say I am proud of Ms. Bunn.  She is a scrapper and she is making a life for herself under our front porch.  I wouldn't mind getting a few of her babies a little tamer, but they are quick and know to hide.  Which I am glad they are like that right now; it will keep them safer.

Maybe I should go read Watership down again.

A Bookcase

I was asked by a friend's daughter to come to her school for Grandparent/Special friend day.  M (what I will call the daughter), is in second grade and her grandparents live several states away.  It would be the third time I would go to M's school for the Special friend day.

I was now old hat at the whole affair.  Go to the cafeteria, do a work page with M, have some milk and cookies, and go to the book fair.  At which I buy her a book.  This time was only slightly different in that M's mom was with me in case some other child needed a special friend.  So she got more than one book.

M took us back to her classroom after the book fair and proceeded showing me around the 200 square foot room (guessing the size here).  Her desk, the chore assignments, the lockers, the chalkboard, and the bookcase.

The bookcase that M and her class would hide behind as her "safe place".

I was nearly physically ill.

A bookcase.

In case of an intruder.  A violent intruder that we see on the news too many times.  M, her classmates, and her teacher were going to hide behind the bookcase in front of the lockers.

I kept it together though, because the last thing you want to do is come apart in a second grade classroom on Special friend day.

And there is nothing I can do about it.

So I buy her a book, for her bookcase.

Welcome Fall

The weather has turned.  The recent storms brought in a cold wind that has drawn a blanket of leaves across the ground.  The golden fade of the leaves still on the trees speaks to the cold and the deadly advance of winter.  As deadly as the predators that took the last two hens from the original flock.  I found the barred hen near the driveway, and the black hen was taken into the woods.  I will keep a closer eye on the rest of my chickens from now on.  Predators never go away, they just change coats.  Even the cold of winter may claim some livestock.  The persimmon seed I opened showed a spoon, heavy snows in the future.

It is crunch time for winter.  I had the chain for the electric chainsaw sharpened as that is my only reliable cutter at the moment.  I rebuilt the goats' movable shelter in time to keep them dry from the rains.  My next project is their winter quarters behind the garage.

I also need to get the nest boxes on the egg wagon.  I hope the hens will start laying soon.

In good news, a turkey is laying eggs.  I was very tickled to see those giant speckled eggs in the ivy garden.

Free doors

Also managed to catch the last rabbit that had gotten away.  His freezer camp appointment will be Tuesday, because Wednesday is trash day.  I could compost the offal in the woods but I don't want to attract predators, especially after losing my first flock of chickens.

Rob has started selling apple bread to the people at his work.  It is surprising how much business he is getting every week.  I think it started three weeks ago, and this week he needs to deliver 35 loaves.  I have been cutting up a lot of apples.

Out of the rabbit buisiness

The baby rabbits had their cage broken into Sunday and we didn't discover it until we got home.  We only found two out of the three.  Today was their last day and the dogs had cornered the last bunny that had gotten loose under the deck but before I could get into position he took off.  So we were still down to two younger ones.  Miss Bun is still living under the front deck, basically wild now.  I can't seem to find a way to catch her, and I have pretty much given up on the thought.

So today was freezer camp day for the last two young bunnies and Mr. Bun.

You never appreciate how exhausting it is to do that sort of work until you do it.  It isn't pleasant, and it is a little sad, but at the same time it is something I needed to do, much like other distasteful chores.

The rabbit business never really took off, no one was really looking for the meat and I didn't try very hard.  They're easy to raise and not hard to clean, in comparison with defeathering birds, but without an easy market it isn't worth the time.

It will make it a little easier in the winter since I won't have the rabbits to worry about.  I am now down to laying hens, the turkeys and the two goats.  The turkeys will go to freezer camp in November.  If Miss and Camo don't produce kids then they will be sold.  If Miss gets pregnant and produces then Camo will be sold and we will go from there.

I need to start concentrating on clearing more land but even with the work my dad put into the chainsaws that don't run that great.  But you do what you can with what you have.

The Summer is over.  Winter is coming.