Last Weekend in April, 2021

As is always the case; man, what a weekend!

I'm starting this post pretty early on Sunday evening. I might nap before work, and it'll be cool to fall asleep working on a post.

This weekend was amazing, as usual. I got a lot done that I wasn't anticipating, and very little that I was anticipating. That's okay though, it just means that reality adjusted my priorities a tad.

I don't exactly remember what order things got done in, but judging by things, they all got done. Saturday's big event was clearing out the privets from the south edge of the house. They rubbed on our shingles too much, and it was hard to mow. Also, they blocked the sun from getting to my corn patch, so they had to be trimmed. I still haven't talked with my neighbor yet about ripping them all out and replacing them with blackberries. That'll come as soon as I see them next though. Would be a good thing to start planning.

Cleared privets by the house

Scary caterpillar eating my plum tree

Friday and Saturday we fed the rabbits exclusively with comfrey. So far it looks like we could manage about a week and a half of solid comfrey feeding, but I did start more comfrey crowns on the bottom swale like I said I might. A fortnight of solid feeding would be awesome. I harvested four plants to feed them all on Saturday, and took eighteen crowns and big cuttings from those four plants. That's gonna look awesome growing along the swales, towering over the grasses and weeds.

Four comfrey plants for crowns

Other Mombun looks about as pregnant as a rabbit can get, signaling to me that it was time for her buns to move out. We set them up in another cage attached to the bigger growouts. Currently, we're at 3r bunnies in various stages of development. A bunny is a technical term for a rabbit that's not sexually mature yet.

Nine new growouts

Nine new growouts huddled for Sunday breakfast

After that, Saturday was pretty leisurely. I decided to make a new spoon using the carving knife I got for Christmas. It needed a little sharpening, and didn't hold an edge like I'd like, but it definitely made it easier to make a functional spoon. This one is made out of privet wood. From the same trunk, I harvested a particularly good piece of wood for a tomahawk handle. It's drying right now and I'm excited to use it soon.

I made a new spoon

Sunday before church was milk day. I woke up around 5AM, fed the animals, and placed some buy and sell orders to obtain more ARRR coins as it plummeted like Bitcoin after the 2017 run-up. @senstless, I hope you're doing well there friend. Here's to $50 by Christmas! Around 730, I left for the dairy. They filled out buckets and I was on my way home a few minutes before 8, the official start time for bucket filling. During filling, we talked about rain, grass, and the ten new heifers on pasture. The demand for quality local dairy products is booming it seems, as they say ten heifers is about a 30% increase in their herd. Man, that's encouraging. As California and Colorado are pushing for asinine agricultural restrictions, it's good to know my local food economy is alive and well.

@goldenoakfarm, my block chain advisor on all things animal related triggered my Spidey senses the other day when she said whey is good for pigs. See, I'm one of those people that's easily manipulated by the presence of cheese, and whey is part of making cheese. I had already resolved to make more cheese this year, but the fact that I can feed a healthy byproduct of that premium quality food to my animals just serves to strengthen that resolve. Knowing that I'll likely be headed to the dairy again next week, I picked up two gallons for my family with the intent of setting out one gallon to ferment. I'm going to try it in my fermentation jar this time, I wonder what will happen.

As part of the big cheese experiment, I poured my milk without stirring it up first, intent on increasing the richness of the drinking milk. I should read a book on cheesemaking.

Also, I asked my local garden folks if they know of a local source for animal derived rennet. Rennet, if I recall correctly, is the acid of the fourth stomach of a nursing dairy calf. A natural product of dairy production is calves. They're often raised for veal or kept a while as a meat cow, just not of an ideal beef breed. If harvested for veal, the rennet is a valuable asset in making cheese, as it is used to ferment the already fermented milk a second time, producing various types of hard cheeses. It's a thing I'd like to experiment with this year if I can get the chance.

Brown Swiss heifers on pasture

I know I said the dairy trip was before church, but we ended up not going to church. The shame. Melissa and I decided together to no longer let our Saturday activities interfere with church on Sunday mornings. Some things matter.

Neglecting formal Sunday worship, I opted for a day of intensive stewardship. The property needed some support, and I knew exactly the man for the job.

The first order of business was to cut hay. I am increasingly impressed, both with our mower's efficiency and at the ease of mowing when I keep the grass mowed. It's kinda like it's easier to cut five inch grass than ten inch grass. I'm so glad these animals have given me a legitimate reason to tend our pastures.

Hay drying in the pasture

@goldenoakfarm advised me to dry the hay in the sun before storage because my clippings were composting almost immediately. Those pesky natural processes just won't leave me alone, now I have all this compost in my rabbitry. I should mix it with the animal compost that's produced in my rabbitry, shouldn't I? So as I gathered a full bag, I'd dump it in a row. After ten or so bags from the whole yard, I raked them into a wide low row in a good sunny spot after it's dry, it'll be feed. I might even store it in feed bags. Speaking of feed bags, what can I do with all these things? So many animals! So much feed! So much byproduct!

After hay, I made poles from the giant pile of pruned privets. I found out that pigs like to eat beets and peas, again from @goldenoakfarm. I wonder if they'll eat privet leaves... But beets and peas. I had a man scout that was coming for his milk pick me up some beet seeds at the feed store on the way over. The wheels were turning.

Piggie plot 2.0

In the pig plot, the north hugel that I haven't used in forever, I planted squash before on one leg. I did the same on another leg now, and planted the peas to go up the new poles on top of the two legs. The compost pile from one of the recent mowings, I spread between the two, and generously seeded with beets.

I'm pretty proud of the piggie plot, with the food being grown nearby where it'll be consumed. With the addition of beets, there'll be greens produced here too for the rabbits. I'm actually pretty tickled with the whole thing.

Well, it's 930 am now, and I'm super tired. Thanks for reading my weekend adventures. I'm off to shower and go to bed!

Love from Texas

Nate 💚