Chores

Addy contributes to our little farm every day. She helps feed the animals every morning. When we buy veggies once a week she the one that cuts them up and makes the bunny salad.

Benjamin is shedding so Addy has been helping to brush him out and collect his fiber.
I personally am looking forward to when she is old enough to clean rabbit cages but for right now she is the bunny babysitter while I do the cleaning.

Benjamin

Benjamin is our first official farm animal. He is a blue pearl French Angora buck. Benny is about a year old and came to use from another suburban farm in Denver. Benjamin is, well, a punk. I adore him but he is a pain in the butt. He was not handled much as a baby, apparently, because the breeder became allergic to her rabbits. Benny does not like to be touched when he is in his cage. DON'T touch him before he has had his morning veggies! I am not much of a morning person myself so I respect that. If Benny is in a bad mood he will challenge you and scratch at you. He has become more comfortable with me so he doesn't do it very often anymore but when he first came home with me I would put my kiln gloves on whenever I needed to put my hand in the cage. He would attack my hand but eventually figured out he wasn't bothering me so he gave up.
Once Benny is out of his cage he is calmer. I can put him on his grooming table and brush him out without any issues. I brush him out a couple of times a week so the knots don't get too bad but he will get a little impatient if I work on one spot longer then he feels is necessary. I just spin him back around on his lazy susan table and go back to work. Benjamin has a BEAUTIFUL coat. I think he is getting close to shed time.  This will be my first harvest and I am excited to see how much fabulous fiber I get. Hopefully he will be patient with me through the plucking process.

DIY: Lotion Bar

I have been wanting to make lotions bars for some time so I decided to make a few as Christmas gifts this year. I am pleased with how they turned out but I really want to make more soon and experiment with the scent. I melted together 3 oz of beeswax I bought from a local honey store, 3 oz of almond oil and 3 oz of coconut oil. I sprinkled in 4 drops of lemon oil for scent. The bars smell like honey and lemon which is surprisingly pleasant. I poured the concoction into 5 Altoid size tins. They cooled pretty quickly and we're ready for use in 20 minutes. Now I want to add an apiary to the farm for honey and wax. I'm guessing that is not going to happen though. 

Growl

Last night I learned that rabbits can growl. I was shocked. This sweet little boy growled and stomped his feet at me because I would not let him eat power cords for dinner. How dare I!  In the end I won the battle of wills with a few battle scars for my efforts. The cords are now tucked away safely behind a bunny gate. After 5 minutes of trying get past the gate tonight he gave up and moved on. Me: 1 bunny:  0.

All Grown Up

I guess you're all grown up if it is time to snip the " bunny berries." Little Angel was turning Addy's stuffed animals into his girlfriends so I decided to have him fixed before she noticed. It was hard enough explaining the surgery without her noticing his randy behavior. I took Angel to the CSU Vet Hospital for the procedure last week. All the student vets fawned over him during his exam and he ate. it. up. He had no problems being carried off by the gushing girls.

He looked so sweet when I left him and he came back looking like he was a cast member for The Hangover. The Vets accidentally scratched Angel's corneas during the procedure so I had to give him eye drops along with his pain meds twice a day. Oh yeah, I also had to put a cold compress on his "berries" twice a day. Luckily we have trained Angel to be cradled so we can cut his nails. He didn't fight me at all when I gave him his meds and applied the compress. He is such a little Angel. After a week of recooperation in his cage we let Angel out yesterday and he ran around the family room like his tail was on fire. I think he is feeling better. 

I did learn from the Vets that I have not been giving the boys enough hay. Apparently 90% of their diet is supposed to be hay and not pellets. Glad I learned that now. I was very impressed with CSU ( not just because they gave me a state employee discount). I will be taking the boys there for check-ups from now on.

The Little Farm

My daughter LOVES animals and dreams of living on a farm. Anytime we pass an open parcel of land she asks if that could be the home of our future farm. We will not be moving to a farm in the foreseeable future but I am more than willing to turn our little quarter acre lot in suburbia into a hobby farm because I once had the same dream my daughter has. We daydream about the type of animals we will have on the big farm. So far we have agreed to have horses, alpacas, rabbits and miniature cows but we will not be raising any pigs. It is fun to daydream and that is probably as far as the big farm dream will go unfortunately. The little farm dream on the other hand is slowly becoming a reality.We were so excited to get started we bought out first "farm" animal a few weeks ago. His name is Benny and he is our first angora rabbit. I will introduce him in another post.

 We have decided to raise angora rabbits for fiber and chickens for eggs. We will start a vegetable garden in the spring that will feed the animals and the family. I have never been a serious gardener and all my past attempts have not ended well. I am a chronic underwaterer ( that is probably not a word but I think you get the idea) and I am not a fan of bugs. That being said I would like my daughter to realize that food is not created at McDonalds and the supermarket. I want her to get a little dirty, be outside, and care for something other than her toys. I want us to eat from our garden, make our own bread and eat a simpler diet.  I am looking forward to sharing this hobby with her and learning along side her.