Our most recent litters of kits are 16 days old – time is flying by! Siobhán’s 4 kits are healthy and very well fed, and Oonagh’s 7 also look great.
Siobhán’s kits all have her chinchilla coloring; Oonagh has some agouti and some steel coloration in her litter. Since their eyes have opened, the little ones have been getting out of their nest boxes and seem to like sleeping in the food dish. We were able to get some cute shots, but they’ll outgrow that dish in no time. Continue reading “Still Life: A Bowl Of Rabbits”
Our two first-time moms, Siobhán and Oonagh, kindled 9 days ago. Each had 7 kits, and they all appeared healthy. Over the next few days, that changed. 3 of Siobhán’s kits died.
We strive to use as much of the natural bounty on the farm as possible. So far, we’ve made water kefir with the mulberries and blackberries that grew untended. We’ve also been keeping an eye on several black walnut trees that will drop nuts in the fall, with the idea that we’d like to have our pigs (yet to be acquired) take advantage of those.
It gladdens the heart and makes the stomach happy to have a delicious, hearty breakfast made from local ingredients. One breakfast we had this week was comprised of our own chicken eggs, Bluegrass Beef breakfast sausage, Daily Bread asiago cheese and garlic bread, and Happy Jack Pumpkin and Produce potatoes fried in lard we rendered from local pork fat. Sublime!
When you look at the photo of the potato, what do you see? A freak of nature or something unique and, in its own right, cool?
Saturday was “kindling day” for Siobhán, our American Chinchilla doe, and Oonagh, our Silver Fox/New Zealand doe. This is a first pregnancy for both girls, so it’s never safe to assume that everything will go smoothly.