Rabbit hindquarter. Wednesday, June 8, 2021.
That's a good looking cut of meat, innit? Probably a solid pound of lean muscle meat with very little bone in it. We harvested nine rabbits to the freezer last week. Two small litters with good looking bunnies. If I'd remembered their parents, I would have kept a few as candidates for the breeding holdovers, but my record keeping isn't up to speed. I'll probably wait to pick the keepers til we get to the last two litters that were just born. Paired with the pork run to Oklahoma on the weekend, our freezer is half full. I took census, and we have 39 more rabbits to harvest by the end of the summer. Good time to be building the rabbit garden project. I finished my rabbit book last week, a few hours before the Thursday morning trip to Oklahoma. I'm going to read it again and take notes and make an actual plan.
Over a hundred pounds of rabbit poop. Friday, June 11, 2021.
I showed off my poop harvest in our local garden chat, and our newest member there offered a half gallon of fresh kraut for the tub. Sold! I'll have as much poop again in a few weeks, and the kraut will last me longer than that. It was an easy choice. We made the trade at our big inter-community meetup on Saturday afternoon.
Rolling home from Oklahoma. Friday, June 10, 2021.
I stayed the night Thursday night and did a labor trade for a deep discount on some forest raised pork from my friend in Oklahoma that we bought Buddy and Scooter from. It was a heck of an adventure.
Fodder harvest from six mulberry trees and six comfrey plants. Sunday, June 13, 2021.
Sunday afternoon after church the greenery was begging to be turned into rabbit food, so I kindly obliged. It didn't take me half an hour of leisurely garden walking to harvest probably 30 pounds (fresh) of greenery. It'll set out in a sunny place to dry before we start incorporating it into the feed. I'm thinking about a drying line set up under our carport where I can dry small bundles of plants. I'll post pics if it happens.
Back to my reading now. No time to lose.
Filling freezers and pantries is such a satisfying thing...
I'm going to need more freezers 😍
150# of meat will probably fill this one. I'm gonna have like three times that much when we harvest Buddy and Scooter.
Meat is really where it's at for homesteading. It's easier than a garden I think, and the nutritive value of good meat is higher than plants.
But one needs a balanced diet to be healthy, as pigs and chickens will teach you....they need both.
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