Wow... one year later...

It's been a year since I've updated the blog, so let me fill you in, in a nuttyshell, to what is going on our lives.

I survived with never-ending migraines for 6 months- I could do nothing when they hit, and they went from one per month, to one per week, to multiple, and they would incapacitate me for days to weeks each. I tried traditional medicine (turns out I am allergic to some migraine meds, in a bad way), tested for allergies, changed doctors with no new, creative thought, changed my diet, and finally got my eyes checked (my idea, not the doctor's). Turns out I needed glasses. I got glasses, and haven't had a migraine since (okay, until last night, but that's another story).

In early March of this year, the real estate broker I worked with off and on to look for a bit more land for us emailed. We had wanted about an acre, but right in town, and there is only one area with property like that, and is mostly out of our price range and the demand is so high that those places sell the first day they list. Well, he found one that wasn't on the market yet. We went and looked at it before it listed, made an offer, and found ourselves suddenly having to list our home because our offer was accepted. It's been a busy month! Our place is now under contract too, so the insanity is lessening.

Since last year, we did retro-fit all the rabbits with cages, which helped us problem-solve. Turns out rats moved in, and were eating the babies, so the cages give us (and the kits) a fighting chance. It also turns out my buck is past his prime, and is producing very small litters, and has a hard time performing. I'm demoting him to 'back-up buck' and retiring one doe who is a bad mother. My daughter has requested that we get a breeding pair of New Zealand reds, since we love our NZ black so much, and we'll also have some color variety for our pelts that way. It took forever, but I finally found a breeder two hours south of us who will have a pair for me in June, after we move.  We're holding off breeding our others until after we move, too, so it's simpler to relocate them all. I'm also keeping a baby from my NZ black as a breeding doe due to her size and friendly nature.

So now... our new place. We move in the first week of June. It's fantastic! It's just under an acre, and has amazing mature shade trees in the front and over the house and immediate back yard, but sun in the far back where the vegetable garden is... and yes, there is already one there, so I'm not having to start over from scratch! There are great shade trees where the rabbits and chickens will be, along with a fence around that area we'll use for them, so it's practically set up already. We'll have to do more predator-proofing there, since we're right by the Open Space parks and reservoir where there are more foxes, coyotes, and even bears, not to mention raccoons and hawks. I decided that I'm going to partially disassemble the rabbit condos and chicken run and coop, and move them over with help from movers. It's too much for us to move by ourselves. I'm sure it will not be the strangest request they've gotten. :)

The garden area is perfect for setting up a folding/accordion greenhouse over part of it, in the lee of the west winds. Because we're right by the creek and the water level is so high, it is cooler at the new place, so the greenhouse will help extend our growing season on both ends. More on the garden as I get to know it. ;) There's a nice spot for some raspberry transplants, strawberries, and heirloom berry bushes, and maybe some wild plums along the back fence.

My son has plans for the new place, too. He's almost 4, and has decided he wants to raise honey bees there. He also wants a slack line, swings, and a treehouse. Those will take time, and I want to leave the place as natural as possible, so we'll have to live and plan for a bit and negotiate to find a happy medium.

We're in a flood zone. We will have bugs. So I am planning some mediation: catnip plants, citronella grasses, and rosemary are all natural mosquito repellents that I can put in pretty decorative pots and bring inside for the winter. We'll also build a bat house for the far corner in the trees over our leech-field  Leech-field?  Yes. We'll be living off of two wells and maintaining our own septic system. We're not part of the city water or waste-treatment system. :) I love it. The current owners say the land there is named Lily. So we're going to plant some native lilies there when we move in.

So overall, this move will probably result in increasing our rabbitry from three does and one buck, to four does and two bucks, our six chickens can gain some Bantoms and grow to 8 or 9 now that we have more space (and I LOVE my girls!), we'll add the honeybees I've always wanted, since I have an interested kid who can grow into being our family beekeeper. That's the overall view of what might happen this year. We'll see what really happens! I'll write more soon.

Photo gallery update, March 2012

First, bathing baby bunnies. The soak is warm water with an antibiotic solution for topical treatment that was complimented by a daily shot in the scruff of the neck with a different antibiotic. The first kit has a lacerated back leg, the second kit has a cut front wrist. Both recovered.

Next I must show off our overall progress. A year ago, we were digging up rocks and frantically finding time to build like mad. Now we have this:

Two bunny condos, a chicken coop and run, and SIX raised garden beds. (Not in picture is the ugly hay shelter we built too) The garden beds are made from an old driveway- this we chipped away at last fall once the garden beds were done. I posted some early pics in October, I think. Just to review, I called a driveway company and asked them if I could have the next one they tore out, and they incredulously delivered the busted up cement and asked what I wanted it for.  I'll post some better shots of this. The bed you can see best here is only one layer tall since it's my butterfly and bee flowerbed, and doesn't need to be deep. The beds further back are three rows tall for all the veggies. I'm still accumulating fill dirt, but a lovely fellow with an organic nursery is trading me rabbit meat for dirt, and it's been great working with him. Check out Mikl at Harlequins Gardens.