-Week 11 in Review-

I've been leaving plenty out in the weekly reviews, so let me try to get caught all the way up.



 
A couple weeks ago AJ and Cal discovered a wasp's nest in the wall of the public bathroom in the stable. AJ only got stung once under the eye.  We couldn't tell how many times or exactly where Cal got stung but her face swelled and she spent the rest of that day and most of the next visibly uncomfortable. 

AJ's face also swelled up. A lot. We spend that Sunday at home because I was feeling pretty horrible already and then AJ's sting almost swelled his eye shut.


We also went berry picking and made a nice haul. The previous time we picked in this spot AJ got stung twice. This time a friend who came to pick with us walked right under a huge wasp's nest and got stung three or four times on her shoulders. luckily AJ spotted the nest and told us to run before we got them swarming.  AJ had unknowingly walked under it before. Katie is taller than either of us, just enough that she bumped the branches and riled the nasty wasps. We spend the rest of the day twitching at anything that buzzed or flew.

 Most times we pick at this abandoned blueberry farm that's surrounded by blackberries. There used to be a lot more live bushes but the housing development that's on the hill behind the berries set up their drainage so it floods most of the blueberries for part of the year. There are still a lot of bushes but they don't always produce well and many have become waterlogged and died. I feel pretty blessed to have such a beautiful place to pick blueberries for free.

 Katie loaned me the first book in the Game of Thrones series, A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire and I am absolutely hooked! I have read a lot of fantasy so I can guess at a whole books plot line more times than not. I was pleasantly surprised that I couldn't guess the plot of this book. I am so excited for the next book, Ekkk!! 

I've pickled eggs, beets, dilly beans, canned salsa and froze peas, beans, greens and berries. I also made and froze chop, tried my hand at making soaked bread and found a lasagna recipe that defies expectations on the Smitten Kitchen. I'm going to freeze some but I still made enough that we will be happily eating it all week.

 










This weekend, the same day our landlords got back from their honeymoon they had to take in her uncles flock of chickens and pair of rabbits (They already had his pigeons.). Right now we are trying to get them all housed and figure out who we can butcher and or sell. I generally try not to get involved in their animals but right now our chickens are all being housed together and they are using one of our cages for the rabbits so this time I had to get involved.

The garden is absolutely overgrown so I've started feeding our rabbits a ton of weeds (mainly clover, grass and pigweed/ lambsquarters). They are drinking half as much water and my non-molting/ none breeding rabbits are eating just weeds and junky hay and looking perfectly healthy. I plan to breed again soon and they will go back on pellets then. I am a huge fan of feeding livestock with feed-stuffs grown on your property.  Someday my plan is to design rations for all our animals with the majority of the feedstuffs used grown by us.
Let's see, what else...
We have eggs for sale! $3.50 if you bring your own carton/ egg container and $4.00 if you take one of ours. We also have two breeding age rex bucks for sale for meat or breeding and another for sale just not for meat. If you are interested in buying rabbits for meat in the fall let me know asap, I plan to breed soon so there will be a litter available in November. We will butcher any animal you buy from us as a complementary service.

We got one kitten fixed, another adopted and tomorrow we are taking another kitten and mama to get fixed, we still have two available for adoption! Check out the Kitten Update post for more about all their cuteness.

We got a late start today but we finally got over to the Agee's house so AJ can help them fill a wind tower order. I love hanging out with their kids. They are such goofy, creative, sweet and fun youngsters. There is never a dull moment, empty glass or belly while we are here. The girls are making homemade gluten free pizza for dinner using Pamela's Gluten-free Bread Mix, I love their pizza so I am understandably excited for dinner.
That's all for now. I hope you have been enjoying my posts and as always, thank you all for the comments, likes, shares, pins, subscriptions, clicks and just for simply reading.

kindest regards,
Emily

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