Almost coming of age

We are almost farmers! We have been busy building rabbit cages and they are now hanging in the barn ready and waiting for the occupants to arrive. I have a couple of extra jobs to do before we go and buy any stock. I have an idea to hang some hardware cloth under the cages to catch the manure. The urine will drop through to the floor which will have straw. The manure will stay on the hardware cloth until it is swept off the end into a worm box. The straw on the floor will be changed regularly and the soiled stuff will go on the compost heap.
I have also got to build a rabbit tractor that the young rabbits will be grown out in. I intend to use some of the pallets I have been given to make the frame and the shelter for the tractor. It will be heavier than most but I want it to be. That way any predators will have trouble getting under the cage.
We have an old storm shelter that was built in the cold war era. In fact I think it is as old as the house, which is over fifty years old. Apart from the obvious use of being a haven when the tornado warnings go off, it sits idle. I had the idea of using it for the majority of our food processing. The rabbits can be processed in there and when we eventually get broiler chickens, I intend to set up the plucker and such in there. I can take a water supply from the well-house which is just above the Hobbit House as we refer to it. The inside has to be repainted as the damp has got into it and the lime wash or whatever they used has begun to peel off badly. I will repaint it with latex paint which should help seal the stonework.
We intend to grow grain crops this year to offset some of the feed bill for the rabbits and eventually chickens. That will be my next major task, to prepare the ground for oats, red clover and sunflowers. We will be trying seed balls for some of this. They are a mixture of seeds, compost and clay, which is mixed together to form small balls which are hardened in the sun. You broadcast them and wait for it to rain. The rain dissolves the clay and hopefully the seed has been in contact with the compost and has germinated. They then send their roots down into the soils and away they go. This is all a ploy to get away with not tilling the ground. The vegetables patch it being switched over to no till as well. I will be trying to grow potatoes and the like under mulch, rather than dig into the ground.

Agrarian Nation: —1876—Patents onFruits & Plants

Agrarian Nation: —1876—Patents onFruits & Plants

I have recently found this blog and I spend quite a bit of time reading about how it was all done before the petroleum era. I think we should all start relearning these skills so it doesn't come a too much of a surprise when we run out of oil or it gets too expensive to buy. Apart from that, it is really interesting reading about the old days.

We are still here!

Well Dec 21st 2012 came and went and I still haven't seen a zombie, unless you count the kids when we get them up for school in the morning. So now we have to plan for the  coming year and hope that it isn't nearly as hot and dry as last year.
The main project this year will be the rabbits. We plan to get a buck and three does, either New Zealand Whites or Californians. They will hopefully be supplying us with enough meat to negate buying any from the store. I also intend to use the boat this year and provide us with some fish.
I have two cages already made for the breeding rabbits. I need to build a couple more and also a rabbit tractor to raise the young rabbits in once they are weaned. They should grow nicely on fresh pasture each day.
The adults will be mainly fed pellets, plus greens and hay, but I intend to start producing my own feed for them. I have looked at sprouting wheat and barley, also growing them to seed in the field. Another thing I want to grow is sunflowers. This is all experimental this year, but my intention is to be self reliant for all animal food eventually.
One of the other projects I have in mind is to build myself an extension to the barn for food processing. A friend of mine has been supplying me with pallets and I am going to use them to build the structure. As there won't be mains electricity to it, I will either run batteries charged by wind or pedal power.
I have been reading  a lot about the different ways you can use pedal power to run different types of appliances. There is even a design for a field winch, where you have the unit at one end of the field and it pulls a cultivator, plow, or anything else that could have been pulled by a draft animal. This idea really appeals to me as once it is made, it will cost nothing to run and you get some exercise in the process.
After all the hard work the family did getting in the hay last year, we have plans to make it easier and more efficient. The hand baler worked well enough,  but we spent a lot of labor moving the hay into windrows, then carting it to the barn, then baling it. We still had a stack outside of the barn which Tony has moved into the barn now. The plan is to rebuild the handbaler, but mount it on wheels so it can be towed behind the tractor. We will make the bales as we go and then move them to the barn. The raking will be done with a small dump rake that I am building from angle iron and old bicycle parts. The tines for the rake will be got from Orschleins, who sell them for a couple of bucks each.
The garden suffered from the drought and the infestation of locusts last year. This year we have dug a swale above the garden, expanded the garden plot to four times the area and will be experimenting with a no-till policy. We will use hay to mulch everything. We have plenty. I will also work harder on digging out the mud from the pond if it dries out like last year. The problem with that was getting the diggings up the hill to the garden. If we do get a pedal powered winch, then that will solve that problem.
All in all, it promises to be a more productive year in 2013.