Oooops!

I've got a pet rooster!
Literally.
He's one of the last batch of unexpected chicks, 13 in total, and despite me not having handled them much, he's sooo friendly. Just now, I was leaning against the fence watching the chickens, he jumps up on the fence, eyes my patterned shirt and then jumps onto my hands. Kind of settles down and lets me pet him , and even has a little kip!!!

How on earth I am going to send him over the rainbow bridge in a couple of months I have no idea.

I'm kind of hoping he will be a gentle, quiet rooster, and not be in competition with dad. Maybe he could then settle at the other end of the property with a girl or two of his own?
Not much hope though, so far our main rooster has passed on his very dominant character traits: all his boys had to be eaten sooner rather than later.

Wait and see I suppose.


And for the bunnies, I've done another three today, only four more to go.

Life ...

... can be way too much for me, my heart, my brain and my soul to cope with.

Right now I'm suffering from a major anxiety attack, and know that only a good night's rest and carrying on with the jobs will prevent another bout of depression. And I just don't feel I can do it. I'm not so sure about writing this down, in the public domain, but on the other hand I feel if I keep it bottled up my head will explode. The worst is, I don't even know why or what has brought it on, so can't even exorcise the demon by talking about it.

Anyway, had a couple of awesome weekends, trying out my homemade foods, mainly rabbit roasts, and this weekend I managed to get a few more post holes dug, which means during the week I'll be closing a bit more in.
And tomorrow two of our bunnies are going to a new home, and the rest will get prepared for the freezer. By the end of next week we should be down to six from 19, which should make the feed bill less, and the work as well.

And then just waiting for the ducks to mature: find hopefully new homes for them, either as breeding stock or in the freezer too.
And when that's all done, we should know whether either of the girls has had a successful meeting with the buck  (when they were still at home). By then the fence and the barn should be ready and life will quieten down.

Well, so the theory goes, let's wait for what kind of curve balls we get thrown in the mean time!

The Pretty!

Critters

 

 

   

   

 

Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth:

Out, damn'd spot! out, I say!—One; two: why, then

'tis time to do't.—Hell is murky.—Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and

afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our

pow'r to accompt?—Yet who would have thought the old man to

have had so much blood in him?

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 1, 26-40

I'm beginning to understand what she's talking about, even though my conscience hasn't walking me all night.

I've been working this week at getting the meat rabbits ready for consumption, and the whole experience, even though it's faster than with the chickens, is quite a different one.
Firstly, the rabbits struggle more, and if I don't have a VERY firm hold, they scratch quite badly. Secondly, the amount of force required is bigger and lastly, the amount they bleed is soo much more.
And as for my conscience, I must be turning into a true farming carnivore as their cuteness doesn't stop my hand, nor does it trouble me at any time. I assume having given them a good life before, I am at peace with what I'm doing now?!

And in the spirit of "waste not, want not" I am even trying my hand at making rabbits feet for good luck and keeping the furs. What for not sure yet, as I have to learn how to tan them first. And I've already got requests for pillows!

And in keeping in another spirit of documenting everything, here are some pics from the first bunny roast and first tomato harvest.

  

Why?

This blog?
I had been thinking a bit about why I put an adult content reminder up for this blog?! It's not like I'm publishing highly objectionable content, libelous remarks or highly offensive photographs.
BUT, this is not to communicate with others out in cyber land, I use Facebook and MSN for that.
This is my personal diary. To go back to in decades to come, hopefully, and ponder and wonder at the things I've said and done. And to be truly open  I have to be not censored. For good and for bad, happy and sad, cute and ugly, mainstream and contentious.

That's why!

Gluttony

The first bunny roast was a success.
I had spent all day cooking and baking: red cabbage with bacon and garlic, pears poached in spicy red wine, poaching liquid was made into a kind of custard/jelly afterwards, Spaetzle, and a white wine sponge cake for dessert.

The kids tried it all, Mr.10 ate his bunny leg, and the neighbours kept having seconds.
The bunny was tender and moist, tasting kind of like chicken, but not as dry, and the rest went well together too.
All in all, quite a success. Add to that children who disappeared quietly after dinner, a bottle of bubbles and a nice chat. Just as well it was a Saturday night, the kids didn't mind going to bed late!!!

I should have photographed it, as proof. But I'm sure they'll be plenty more dinners like this, so when I'm less flustered and can arrange it nicely I'll photograph it.

I should be doing the remaining six, but the goat fence and painting is needing to be done as well. Priorities: do I want more roasts in the freezer, the goats safely fenced in or the bedrooms finished asap?  I think painting it will be.

Haven't recorded the progress in the bedrooms at all, it will come as quite a shock for some people how it actually looks now! Stunning as far as I'm concerned.

Another first!

For the last week I had been psyching myself up to the task of killing and butchering our bunnies.
Cut off date, no pun intended, was going to be Tuesday, the children's first day back at school, and I would have the whole day to get it done and myself sorted. Remembering how the first chicken went down, I definitely didn't want the kids around.

Unfortunately we had a VERY bad start to the day, and with a few other things happening as well, I was feeling way to fragile to commit murder. Instead I got the house sorted and set the next day.

So, what happened today? After procrastinating for most of the morning, I realized I was struggling to make the decision who would be the number One! Considering that 7 would have to go, that seemed a silly reason to delay, and I got started: cleaned my work bench, sharpened utensils and went down. And it came down who was the first one to let me pick him up without a major struggle: I don't want to have a bucket load of adrenalin going through the body in the last moments.

Took him away from the enclosure, I have this idea that the other animals can sense death, and don't want to taint their "home" with it, and proceeded with the broomstick method. I won't go into details here, but I found a wonderful web site with very detailed, but not gory images, which showed EVERY step! Surprisingly it went very well, and I then skinned and gutted the rabbit.

All in all it took me just over an hour, and considering it was a first I'm quite pleased with that result.
Also, I'm hugely relieved that my mental barriers haven't been raised.
Now I'm researching recipes: I don't want to do anything too exotic, but at the same time I want to use ingredients that complement the meat. And will be tasty enough for the kids to try!
So, with the meat resting in the fridge for 24 hours and the skin freezing for further use I think I will rest on my laurels for today.