Catching up Can be Hard to Do!

   Hi everyone, and first let me say thanks for being patient as I made it through the last couple weeks. My family had been sick, then I began struggling with feeling under the weather. Next came the piano recital, trying to tie up ends for school for the year (we home school) and finalizing all the things that need to be done before I can start the potty training of my littlest ones around here next week.
   So as you can imagine, trying to find time to sit down and blog when I can barely find time to finish my coffee in the morning was mostly a challenge that got the better of me this time.
However, a few things got moved off my plate, and now it is just catching up on household stuff and pressing forward into the summer.
   Lots of things have happened for the good around here in the last couple of days.
   We are blessed to have met a new friend, another homeschooling family in the area with six boys (cant imagine how that must be since I have three girls) and those amazing kids raise rabbits both for 4H and for fun. For a long time we have been trying to raise meat rabbits, for many different reasons, and to have finally found someone local, with the ability to walk us through steps needed when we ask, is an awesome thing. I can not wait until next Spring when the two does, who we are now calling Mamie (sweeeeeeet natured bunny) and Dipsy (the not so sweet and rather empty-headed bunny), are able to be bred and kindle litters for us to process. This is somewhat familiar territory for me since as a kid we had rabbits, but still, it is a great project for the whole family.

    If you are wondering why anyone would choose to raise rabbits and process them for meat, let me take you back to WW2 when the government actually ENCOURAGED families to raise them. Two does and a buck can keep a family of five in fresh, locally grown meat at the rate of one meal of rabbit a week, or more. I grew up eating rabbit, and it is leaner than chicken, but a very similar taste and texture. It is perfect for crockpot dishes, pot pies, etc, anything where it will be cooked slowly over a long time with some liquid. It can also be canned and used as a substitute for chicken in many recipes.
   A New Zealand doe, which is what we have, can have an average of 8 kits per litter. They are relatively inexpensive to feed once weaned at 5-6 weeks, and you can actually feed them for relatively free using that great crop of lawn that most Americans have. There are many instructions, videos, etc, out there, that show you the basics, and for the yield, rabbits are one of the best cheap meats out there. Just like any animal, though, you have to go into it knowing that certain bunnies can be the "pets" and others are just plain Dinner #1 and Dinner #2. :)
   Also, rabbits are very quiet, sweet-disposition animals that can live out their entire lives in a rather small space, happily...which is not what the requirements are for chickens.
   The other VERY BEST thing about raising rabbits is that their output is seriously gold for the garden, and can go straight from the pile of bunny berries into feeding your plants in the garden.
   So that was the first good development around here. We are waiting for a larger buck from a NZ/ Flemish Giant litter that they are going to have available later this summer to round out our trio of rabbits for breeding. :)
   Second was that this morning I was finally able to get some plants into the ground, filling out 2 1/2 of my 5 raised beds over at the big garden. All of my plants were grown from seeds, either heirloom or ones I saved from last year's plants. I cant tell you how amazing and healthy some of those plants look---or how they make me REALLY hungry for the gardening season coming up. I still have lots of room left in the raised beds, and since we tilled up and covered a large garden here at the new house, I am realizing it has been about 3 years (pre-Twin-era) since we have had this much space to put up as much produce as we have this year. That is an exciting realization because a couple things come to mind:

1. We can really ramp up the producing and canning of things that we have not had the time or space to put up in the last couple of years. If you have never had to go from eating home made spaghetti sauce back to the stuff you purchase in the stores, you will have no idea what I am referring to. Once you grow it, make it, and preserve it...then run out of it....it is really hard to head back to the store and pay through the nose for a seriously inferior product.
2. it gives me more room to experiment growing a few things I just dabbled in a couple years ago, such as eggplant, kolhrabi (the Handy Hubby's favorite), expanding my herb garden, berries and more heirloom beans.
3. I did not really blog a couple years ago, and this will absolutely give me an opportunity to show you from a first hand standpoint how I keep things rolling around here. Now you can just pray that I can get my camera to download onto the computer. First it was the silly phone, and now the camera program is not working properly. While I have been blessed to see some amazing photos and share them with you, it would be really nice to be able to show you everything from around here in detail.
4. I have SO MANY new recipes that we have made in small batches that I would really like to start filling shelves with in groups of 12 or more, that having that extra growing space will enable me to combine both the first and second reasons I just listed. And Let's add in number three--because believe me, I will be showing you some great stuff step by step this coming year! :)

   So anyhow, lots of excitement around here with those two additions. Add that to the excitement of piano lessons in full being over until next fall, school drawing to an end in another two weeks, getting odd things done around this place that we could not complete since we moved in during the cold month of October, a bathroom complete with laundry area being finished upstairs in my new house sometime this month, etc etc etc...this old house is practically jumping for joy.

   In finishing up the gardening series, I wanted you to know I am simply going to post tomorrow on what I have done to keep my garden larger each year, and how to grow things as cheaply and prolifically as possible. I will write all that down and post it for you tomorrow as I already have it framed out and just need to plug in a few spots with pics and such. Then from here on out for a month or so, I am going to be taking a break from writing another series as I plan on just keeping you up on what is happening here and showing you what I am doing. For example, the other day I got a killer deal on jars and lids, and put up a bunch of stuff, but didnt want to interrupt the gardening series to talk about that. I would kinda like to be free to roll as the feeling moves. :) I also understand most of the rest of the country has had their gardens in for a while, and I dont want to talk about gardening when everyone else is already ahead of me and has to bookmark it for next year. We will see how the Spring goes.
   Well I am looking into the sleepy face of a just-awakened toddler who is hoping Mommy will get up and give her a snack, so I have to sign off for now. See you all tomorrow. :)

Many Blessings to you and yours,

Heather