Last weekend my youngest daughter and I worked on getting the barn ready for winter. What a job that was! We ripped down a few walls to make a bigger area instead of several rooms, so we could haul the rabbits and their cages in there for the winter. We're down to just two rabbits right now....a male and a female. In the spring I s'spect they'll have some babies so we'll be back in the rabbit business again. Yippee!! (a little sarcasm there) Ü Now their cages are protected from the snow and the rabbits won't have to deal with our cold, winter winds. I'm not really a rabbit person, but my girls wanted them, and I sorta fell in love with this one.....
This is Black Jack. Jack for short. Ü He's a very gentle rabbit, and weird! *lol* He was a house rabbit with his previous owners. I didn't even know there WAS such a thing! ha! They kept him loose in the house, and whenever he needed to go to the potty, he'd go in a box! Just like a cat! Have you ever heard of such a thing?! I haven't! And he hops on his front paws! When he hops, the back feet kick up high in the air and out to the sides. Now honestly, how could I get rid of a talented rabbit like that??! So, he's a keeper! I would have been content just to keep Jack, but my daughter insisted that Jack needed a girlfriend. So we kept Delilah. She's a brown and white rabbit, with floppy ears. They sit side by side in their cages in the barn now. Maybe by spring they'll be well acquainted enough to decide to get together and start a family. Who knows. (I really don't think male rabbits are picky as to who their girlfriends are, tho) hehe
The chicken pen wasn't so bad to clean out. Pretty soon I'll be adding shavings to the floor in here for winter, and I'm sure by spring I'll be cussing up a storm when I have to clean it out then! We're down to 15 chickens now...from our original 20. Took me awhile to figure out something's been stealing one for supper every now and then at nite when I didn't shut the chickens inside for the nite, but after hearing a chicken being carried off by something (we think a coyote or a wolf, since the dog didn't want to mess with it, and whatever it was, it wasn't afraid of me!) during the nite one nite and having to go out there with my dog, I've been pretty good at shutting the little chicken door after the chickens go in the barn at nite! *lol* Turns out there are 7 hens and 8 roosters. I'm only keeping the hens and one rooster. My neighbors are taking the rest and butchering them for their freezer. I didn't feel like doing that messy job this year, so I opted to give them away. Ü
Now that the animals are all taken care of for the winter, it's time to get busy with the rest of the yard....gathering up the hoses and putting those away, making sure to drain them so they don't freeze and crack over winter, getting my pond emptied out and draining the pump and putting that in the shed, and of course gathering up all my yard and garden decorations. I know I could leave those out thru the winter, but they last so much longer and look so much better if they're put away every year and taken out again in the spring. But....that's a job that'll have to wait until my next weekend off.....whenever that is! hehe
No comments:
Post a Comment